Nutrition. Nutrition. Nutrition.

(tapeworm depressed beyond tablets, Sun 6 Jul 2008, 11:57, archived)

hahaha woo
TJ : anyone in want any baby african land snails?? i live in portsmouth gaz me if your interested
( Rev. Jesse. http://afictitiouslife.blogspot.com/, Sun 6 Jul 2008, 11:59, archived)

ummm how did you come by these snails?
and how is kiddie?
(k3b/-\b Merriment and what-not., Sun 6 Jul 2008, 12:01, archived)

my adults laid eggs
now i have lots of babies :D

darcie's okay - got to go to the hospital in august for more tests :(
( Rev. Jesse. http://afictitiouslife.blogspot.com/, Sun 6 Jul 2008, 12:03, archived)

you have snails for pets?
snails aren't mathematically interesting as hermaphrodites. Shells are though...
(k3b/-\b Merriment and what-not., Sun 6 Jul 2008, 12:06, archived)

If I make you divide something by 0, will you explode?

( ClanSoul has been to see The Mighty Boosh live, Sun 6 Jul 2008, 12:13, archived)

if you devide 0 by 2 you get
a "("
( Sir T. Skellington is wondering why he decided to learn the flute, Sun 6 Jul 2008, 12:14, archived)

hahahah
and if you divide 0 by -2 you get ) which is equal to -(
(k3b/-\b Merriment and what-not., Sun 6 Jul 2008, 12:18, archived)

hmmm
does that all mean that if i divide 0 by :-2 I get :-( ?
( I am teh zhmei and I'm an eevl terrist thretnin merka, Sun 6 Jul 2008, 13:34, archived)

you can't make me it's undefined. And that is a perfect universal truth!*
www.xkcd.com/263/

_{*until it is defined somehow}
(k3b/-\b Merriment and what-not., Sun 6 Jul 2008, 12:17, archived)

I don't get how it's undefined,
are people not smart enough to figure out what it is?
( ClanSoul has been to see The Mighty Boosh live, Sun 6 Jul 2008, 12:20, archived)

well it doesn't actually make sense, so it can't have a definition
consider the expression 1/x
it's all good for all x real. Except x identically zero at which point it is infinite. just think about x becoming smaller and smaller 1.x becomes larger and larger and finally unboundedly large.

ed: the division by zero can be admitted on the extended real line:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defined_and_undefined
(k3b/-\b Merriment and what-not., Sun 6 Jul 2008, 12:28, archived)

The tendency of computers to barf on division by zero is intensely irritating when programming
I wish they'd just pretend the answer is the largest possible number that fits in the data type, and not throw an error. Data types that hold NaN and infinity aren't much help either, since they ruin all further calculations.

It's also irritating when I'm trying to translate some equation into C and it's 1) written the wrong way round so that it doesn't help with finding the answer, like it's in Haskell or something, and 2) has all the multiplication signs missing so I can't read it properly. Basically mathematicians ruin everything.
(_Felix är det verkligt så?, Sun 6 Jul 2008, 12:35, archived)

Is there no alternative?
Or will that involve working out what the largest possible number is, then using that instead of 0?
( ClanSoul has been to see The Mighty Boosh live, Sun 6 Jul 2008, 12:38, archived)

Pretty much.
You have to keep saying "Wait! Is that input zero? In that case don't try the calculation, you'll only get upset. Here, I'll do it for you, the answer is such-and-such."
(_Felix är det verkligt så?, Sun 6 Jul 2008, 12:41, archived)

Bah.
That sounds thrilling.
( ClanSoul has been to see The Mighty Boosh live, Sun 6 Jul 2008, 12:43, archived)

bloody programmers :P
C is a pain in the arse at the best of times but can't you actually redefine the NaN to be the maximum?

I dunno this is getting out of my area...
(k3b/-\b Merriment and what-not., Sun 6 Jul 2008, 12:46, archived)

I think that causes portability problems
in that you can't rely on being able to do it with different chips, operating systems, libraries or whatever.

I might be wrong, though, maybe in the modern age we should in fact be doing exactly this and all the examples I see that catch divide by zero errors are just being anal.
(_Felix är det verkligt så?, Sun 6 Jul 2008, 12:56, archived)

there's no harm in writing your own library that does a manual test
kind of:
int funkydiv (int a, int b) {
if(b == 0) return MAX; else return a/b;
}

so long as you make sure it's distinguished from the built-in int type. also, i don't know what c's like for overloading operators, but it'd be a piece of piss to overload the division operator in c++
( spacefish if you can't be quietly erudite, be noisily crass, Sun 6 Jul 2008, 13:22, archived)

Fair point.

(_Felix är det verkligt så?, Sun 6 Jul 2008, 13:27, archived)

i write infrastructure for dsp engineers sometimes
they can be fussy about their maths
( spacefish if you can't be quietly erudite, be noisily crass, Sun 6 Jul 2008, 13:38, archived)

the word "pretend" is your answer, i think
if you want a reliably correct result you're going to have to write code that actually handles div 0, rather than an approximation, and that kind of depends on the processor telling you that it's happened
( spacefish if you can't be quietly erudite, be noisily crass, Sun 6 Jul 2008, 13:02, archived)

So you're basically saying that there is an infinate numebr of zeros in any one number, of any size?
Because that makes perfect sense.
( ClanSoul has been to see The Mighty Boosh live, Sun 6 Jul 2008, 12:36, archived)

yes and it does make sense....
but because it's late and I'm still hungover it's not the reason it's undefined:

In this, the graph is 1/x and lt means limit. As the you get very small from the positive side, you tend to infinity but as you get very small from the negative side you tend to negative infinity. so you end up in a pickle, sorry for the shoddy explaination the first time...
(k3b/-\b Merriment and what-not., Sun 6 Jul 2008, 12:44, archived)

I like your handwriting

( ClanSoul has been to see The Mighty Boosh live, Sun 6 Jul 2008, 12:47, archived)

that's odd
no one else does...
(k3b/-\b Merriment and what-not., Sun 6 Jul 2008, 12:51, archived)

Mine's awful :P
I'm trying to write a letter and I have to concentrate really hard to make it legible.
Letter writing usually takes me all day.
( ClanSoul has been to see The Mighty Boosh live, Sun 6 Jul 2008, 12:52, archived)

type it?

(k3b/-\b Merriment and what-not., Sun 6 Jul 2008, 12:54, archived)

But it's a personal letter to my pen pal!

( ClanSoul has been to see The Mighty Boosh live, Sun 6 Jul 2008, 12:56, archived)

Oh, I see.
Would it help if I specified whether I was dividing by positive or negative zero?
(_Felix är det verkligt så?, Sun 6 Jul 2008, 12:49, archived)

that's the problem
+0 = -0
(k3b/-\b Merriment and what-not., Sun 6 Jul 2008, 12:51, archived)

Well let's say it doesn't.
(That would make -0 into 11111110 as a signed byte, I'm not sure whether that already means something or not, I think perhaps it's up for grabs.)
(_Felix är det verkligt så?, Sun 6 Jul 2008, 12:52, archived)

Shit man, you're deep...

( ClanSoul has been to see The Mighty Boosh live, Sun 6 Jul 2008, 12:53, archived)

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

(k3b/-\b Merriment and what-not., Sun 6 Jul 2008, 12:54, archived)

African Land Snails you say?
This place gets weirder by the day ;)

Right, it's pouring with rain, i'm off to Whipsnade to wander around in the mud
( Jahled He's just a grunt, Sun 6 Jul 2008, 12:07, archived)

tis sunny here
neeeerrrr!
( Sir T. Skellington is wondering why he decided to learn the flute, Sun 6 Jul 2008, 12:10, archived)

tis dark here
neeeerrrr!
(k3b/-\b Merriment and what-not., Sun 6 Jul 2008, 12:11, archived)

you work in a zoo dont you
would they want them??
( Rev. Jesse. http://afictitiouslife.blogspot.com/, Sun 6 Jul 2008, 12:15, archived)

writing to Zoos
such as Chester, London and Whipsnade would be a good idea. I gave my reticulated Python to Chester zoo when he got too big to take to the pub.

or try here.

www.giveusahome.co.uk/
( Pasanonic was born in vault 101, Sun 6 Jul 2008, 12:50, archived)

sounds like a splendid plan

( god save the queen and Rachael Stevens are now friends, sort of, Sun 6 Jul 2008, 12:17, archived)

would you send them via
snail mail?
( Sir T. Skellington is wondering why he decided to learn the flute, Sun 6 Jul 2008, 12:18, archived)

hehehhe
:)
( Rev. Jesse. http://afictitiouslife.blogspot.com/, Sun 6 Jul 2008, 12:20, archived)

are they oven ready
or do i have to faff around purging them?
( god save the queen and Rachael Stevens are now friends, sort of, Sun 6 Jul 2008, 12:18, archived)

haha
:)
( Rev. Jesse. http://afictitiouslife.blogspot.com/, Sun 6 Jul 2008, 12:19, archived)

run chavs run!
woo
( Dances with Rabbits the cake is a lie? but i want it!, Sun 6 Jul 2008, 11:59, archived)

RUN PIKEYS RUN!

( Sir T. Skellington is wondering why he decided to learn the flute, Sun 6 Jul 2008, 12:00, archived)

DIE UK BOGANS!

(k3b/-\b Merriment and what-not., Sun 6 Jul 2008, 12:01, archived)

You may be onto something here
Excellent
( Jahled He's just a grunt, Sun 6 Jul 2008, 12:05, archived)

he is a shit shot

( Neon Blue can I put "cunt" in here?, Sun 6 Jul 2008, 12:13, archived)

I knew we'd find an ideal solution,
eat the anti social! But won't all that puss make it curdle? :P
( WiL Created for the BBC and chosen by Dave, Sun 6 Jul 2008, 12:15, archived)

soylent green is my kinda people

(Stonkwood having a hard time giving up masturbation, Sun 6 Jul 2008, 12:18, archived)

nice one.

( god save the queen and Rachael Stevens are now friends, sort of, Sun 6 Jul 2008, 12:19, archived)

:D

( prodigy69 designer needing a job..hire me!, Sun 6 Jul 2008, 12:38, archived)

YES

( mediocre lens flare ambassador, Sun 6 Jul 2008, 12:49, archived)