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hhm

4,732 karma · joined August 14, 2007

Computer programmer dev (at) moraldo.com.ar
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hhm··on Why can't we divide by zero?
I never really accepted Cantor's idea. First off if you have a sequence ...1 and ...0 at infinity they are the same number so saying you flip the last bit does not demonstrate that the above number is not in your set.

It doesn't work like that. You want to show that you can't enumerate all reals, so what do you do? You start enumerating all reals. Then you build a new number, whose Nth bit is different from the Nth bit of the Nth real number. You can do that because you have enumerated them, and we have never talked about an infinite N so we are never flipping the last bit of the last number nor anything similar. We are only flipping the Nth bit of the Nth number. Number 819439243? We flip the 819439243th bit. That's all we do.

What do you do then? Well, you compare that new number you created, with the first number, the second number, and so on. And you see that this number is different to all the other numbers.

What does it mean? That it doesn't matter what your enumeration scheme is, there is at least one number that will always be out of your enumeration scheme, and so your enumeration scheme will fail (so this is an absurd also, as we were supposing that this specific enumeration scheme -that could be any enum scheme- was complete). So you don't have as many integers as reals, so QED.

Secondly, if you take the Integer set and say N = the sum of all numbers > 0 you have counted, then you will never reach N as you go to infinity.

As you see, it doens't matter, as in this proof you never need to do the sum of all numbers.

hhm··on Why can't we divide by zero?
Isn't it something like this?

0=a-a, for all a

(where a-a is actually, a+(-a))

so: mul(b,0)=mul(b,(a-a))=mul(b,a)-mul(b,a)=z-z=0

hhm··on Why can't we divide by zero?
Oh, I thought he was saying something like you could have real numbers with division by zero as far as you didn't want to have a special class of numbers, the integer numbers. So I was very curious about that, as I studied fields and all that a long while ago and that sounded like a rare concept.
hhm··on Why can't we divide by zero?
How does this relate to the original comment? What I want to know is how you can divide by 0, so that then you can't define integers.
hhm··on Why can't we divide by zero?
Infinity is a much studied concept in mathematics; the problem is not that we don't know what infinity is but that we know it's not part of the set of integer numbers, real numbers, etc. But there are many ways to work with infinities, and even to include it in the number sets (for example, in the case of hyper-reals).
hhm··on Ask YC: How bad is the economy?
Thank you!
hhm··on Ask YC: How bad is the economy?
What is he doing now?
hhm··on Ask YC: What do you think of my new search engine?
I liked it, I think it has very impressive functionality; I think you won't have a problem selling it to some company. The search market is huge and doesn't end at Google.
hhm··on How Seth Godin became a speaker, writer, and blogger in demand
Thanks for giving a more human side of the story. I think Godin is a very good self promoter, but I also think he's someone like Tom Peters: an out of the box marketer. He has different ideas, he can support them, but also he chooses a more shallow way of explaining them, probably to get them faster to the general public. I don't buy Kiyosaki for example, but Peters and Godin: they have interesting, original and honest ideas. I can't say if they are sooo great, but I think they might be useful sometimes.

Anyway, Godin's blog isn't very interesting, but the books are better, at least the ones I read.

hhm··on Google Moderator launches
Ah, thanks. Anyway with meta-poll system I was meaning something similar to that (a poll on polls, but I see it's rather a ranking on questions).
hhm··on Google Moderator launches
It's like... a meta-poll system?
hhm··on A matrix of potential buzzwords
But it lacks colors and classification of already known words, etc.
hhm··on Where did MIT go?
That's right! It used to be in another color. Quite strange but not very important I guess; probably only an error.
hhm··on Danah Boyd: Joining Microsoft Research in January
Very nice post, it's a pity more people didn't upvote it; I like the interesting comments this kind of articles tend to produce.
hhm··on So I started to twitter, who should I follow?
I just follow my friends and a few people more. Maybe you can invite your startup friends to join Twitter too?
hhm··on Danah Boyd: Joining Microsoft Research in January
Related to this news: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=311371

The one writing is Danah Boyd. Thanks a lot for posting it here bootload!

hhm··on Company in Oz replaces lightbulbs with CFLs for free - makes money selling carbon credit
This is brilliant. One of the best ecologic business ideas I've seen in a while.
hhm··on Tired of thieves, Portland woman lets the world watch her Obama sign
Because of the title I thought it was and obvious flag (what does it have to do with HN??!). After reading the article I think I was wrong. It's not very hackey, but at least it's tech news, and of a very extravagant kind.
hhm··on Fighting for the Right to Clone
This is a really great link, it should make directly into the front page.
hhm··on Freelancers: Two Methods for Making Sales the Easy Way
I completely agree. Also, the best work comes from word of mouth most of the times.
hhm··on Most Alien-Looking Place on Earth
More like Digg material.
hhm··on Golden Rules for Making Money by P. T. Barnum (1880)
I had time to read it again now because of your posting, so thank you!
hhm··on Golden Rules for Making Money by P. T. Barnum (1880)
I published the same link a while ago: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=88544

Anyway it's a great link so I guess it doesn't matter much.

hhm··on I liked Microsoft better when they were assholes
However, I think the basic article premise (stated in the title), is something interesting and that nobody is saying. MS was cooler, even when it was cruel and dark. Now it's not even the dark lord, it's like a new IBM, and that's not going to attract a lot of attention.
hhm··on On Teleworking
I worked on my own and teleworked all my life, and when I finally found what the office chatter was, I really found it disturbing. I couldn't miss it a little. But when I'm not at an office I do miss having many clever people around me, only that I don't miss them talking about random stuff, only about interesting technical stuff.
hhm··on Sergey Brin's blog (?)
Or they simply claimed it somehow: being that Google owns Blogspot it shouldn't be very difficult to do that.
hhm··on The Fibonacci Spiral and the Nautilus
I don't think the wave is related to 3d movement in the case of light... it's not that the photon is going up and down all the time.

I think this explaination is right:

"In electromagnetic wave, it is the electric and magnetic field vector (or amplitude) that is oscillating." (not the position)

from here: http://www.physicsforums.com/archive/index.php/t-186751.html

hhm··on The Fibonacci Spiral and the Nautilus
Oh, that's really interesting... I didn't know that (I know very little about physics, I'm more of the mathematician kind).
hhm··on Lehman going bankrupt. Bank of America buying Merrill Lynch
Wow, that's a courageous thought.
hhm··on Bed sharing 'drains men's brains'
You are right, sorry for taking it too seriously.
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