Two snowflakes alike is possible...

…but how probable is it that any one person will see two snowflakes alike.

A snowflake consists of a finite number of molecules in a finite number of fractal hexagons.  A finite number times a finite number is still a finite number.  Maybe somebody has worked out just how large this number is.  Writing this at our cabin with a seemingly infinitely slow interconnection, I don't want to check it.

If we assume that there are a finite number of snowflakes, the next question is what is the probability that they will fall where one individual will see them together.  Or have photographed a large number and found two alike.

My guess is that if a person sees a snowflake today in Minnesota, maybe somebody in the Andes saw an identical snowflake over a hundred years ago.

In advertising parlance, the possibilities are endless:)

The endless use of "infinite"

How often have you seen claims of "infinite storage" or "endless possibilities" or "limitless growth"?

All of these are impossible!  "Boxee TV, New Media Player, Combines Live TV, Unlimited DVR and Apps in Latest Shot At Cable", Huffington Post, Jason Gilbert, 2012-10-17 states that "Boxee provides an infinite amount of online storage space for your recordings…"

One, how can a finite human being accumulate an infinite amount of anything?  Two, if Boxee's customers ever fill up the very large space that it provides, where are they going to put more storage space?  In space?  I would say that a finite company can only do a finite amount of work.

Now maybe the storage space would be infinite if Boxee continues to operate for millennia and eons and is able to put online storage farther and farther out in space.  But the retrieval times would get longer and longer to the point that a retrieval request would not be filled in the user's lifetime.

Maybe a more accurate description of Boxee's capabilities would be that it can store billions of shows for millions of users.