My place to post silly pictures and rants, even though I’m no longer a PhD-student.
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
computer illiterates
This is what you get in your email-inbox if ... like I have to. Please give attention to the actual content of the email, one line at the top, and 11 generations of redundant fullquotes below.
The interesting parameter here is the proportion of the mail consisting of '>'s. If you assume that each mail consists of l lines with c characters each, then you get c*l characters per mail. For n mails, you will have c*l*n text characters.
Each new mail iteration gives a new '>' to each line of all previous mails, forming a triangular series. The total amount of '>'s is then (n-1)*n*l.
We can then deduce the critical number of email iterations required that the text characters are outnumbered by the '>'s.
n_crit = c + 1 (that's a one, not an l)
irrespective of how many lines you write per mail. For a typical line length of maybe 40 characters, including empty lines this means that you can happily send another 28 replies before things get serious.
> The interesting parameter here is the > proportion of the mail consisting of >'>'s. If you assume that each mail > consists of l lines with c characters > each, then you get c*l characters per > mail. For n mails, you will have c*l*n > text characters.
> Each new mail iteration gives a new '>' > to each line of all previous mails, > forming a triangular series. The total > amount of '>'s is then (n-1)*n*l.
> We can then deduce the critical number > of email iterations required that the > text characters are outnumbered by the > '>'s.
> n_crit = c + 1 (that's a one, not an l)
> irrespective of how many lines you write > per mail. For a typical line length of > maybe 40 characters, including empty > lines this means that you can happily > send another 28 replies before things > get serious.
>> The interesting parameter here is the >> proportion of the mail consisting of >>'>'s. If you assume that each mail >> consists of l lines with c characters >> each, then you get c*l characters per >> mail. For n mails, you will have c*l*n >> text characters.
>> Each new mail iteration gives a new '>' >> to each line of all previous mails, >> forming a triangular series. The total >> amount of '>'s is then (n-1)*n*l.
>> We can then deduce the critical number >> of email iterations required that the >> text characters are outnumbered by the >> '>'s.
>> n_crit = c + 1 (that's a one, not an l)
>> irrespective of how many lines you write >> per mail. For a typical line length of >> maybe 40 characters, including empty >> lines this means that you can happily >> send another 28 replies before things >> get serious.
5 comments:
The interesting parameter here is the proportion of the mail consisting of '>'s. If you assume that each mail consists of l lines with c characters each, then you get c*l characters per mail. For n mails, you will have c*l*n text characters.
Each new mail iteration gives a new '>' to each line of all previous mails, forming a triangular series. The total amount of '>'s is then (n-1)*n*l.
We can then deduce the critical number of email iterations required that the text characters are outnumbered by the '>'s.
n_crit = c + 1 (that's a one, not an l)
irrespective of how many lines you write per mail. For a typical line length of maybe 40 characters, including empty lines this means that you can happily send another 28 replies before things get serious.
Bugger, I screwed up by a factor of 2. As it is a triangle there are only half as many '>'s as I calculated, so the result should be n_crit = 2c + 1.
Yes, there's a long way to go until total insanity...
> The interesting parameter here is the
> proportion of the mail consisting of
>'>'s. If you assume that each mail
> consists of l lines with c characters
> each, then you get c*l characters per
> mail. For n mails, you will have c*l*n
> text characters.
> Each new mail iteration gives a new '>'
> to each line of all previous mails,
> forming a triangular series. The total
> amount of '>'s is then (n-1)*n*l.
> We can then deduce the critical number
> of email iterations required that the
> text characters are outnumbered by the
> '>'s.
> n_crit = c + 1 (that's a one, not an l)
> irrespective of how many lines you write
> per mail. For a typical line length of
> maybe 40 characters, including empty
> lines this means that you can happily
> send another 28 replies before things
> get serious.
Does that apply to Blog Comments as well?
Yes
perreira wrote:
>> The interesting parameter here is the
>> proportion of the mail consisting of
>>'>'s. If you assume that each mail
>> consists of l lines with c characters
>> each, then you get c*l characters per
>> mail. For n mails, you will have c*l*n
>> text characters.
>> Each new mail iteration gives a new '>'
>> to each line of all previous mails,
>> forming a triangular series. The total
>> amount of '>'s is then (n-1)*n*l.
>> We can then deduce the critical number
>> of email iterations required that the
>> text characters are outnumbered by the
>> '>'s.
>> n_crit = c + 1 (that's a one, not an l)
>> irrespective of how many lines you write
>> per mail. For a typical line length of
>> maybe 40 characters, including empty
>> lines this means that you can happily
>> send another 28 replies before things
>> get serious.
>Does that apply to Blog Comments as well?
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