I would have liked to post this in mathematical symbols, but I haven’t figured out if they even exist on my Mac. Please bear with me as I put these two problems in words.
Starting with n=2 at what point will summing 1/n be greater than 2?
Starting with n=1 at what point will summing 1/2n be greater than 2?
Hint on the second: see http://magree.blogspot.com/2013/08/unlimited-has-its-limits.html and the links in that entry.
Showing posts with label limitless. Show all posts
Showing posts with label limitless. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
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.
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.
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