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Joined 3 years ago
Cake day: July 5th, 2023
  • It is believed that pi is “absolutely normal” in the strict mathematical definition: that in any base numbering system, any finite sequence of digits appears as frequently as any other sequence of that length. If that’s true, then yes, a particular binary string, including one that corresponds to a particular digital file (like a particular mp4 file), can be found in pi.

    That said, it hasn’t actually been proven that pi is normal. If it’s not normal, then the number can be infinitely non-repeating and still never hit that particular sequence of digits.

  • When I’m bored, I get price quotes from Lyft and Uber to the airport. I’ll click around and look at the different tiers of service. Then I choose not to actually request a fare, and close the app.

    I fly enough to where both apps probably have me as a regular airport customer, but that I’m price sensitive enough where I just won’t use their service sometimes.

    I do the same with Doordash and other food apps, where I just put together potential orders to get a sense of how much something would cost if I ordered it, and then just never order it, letting that cart expire. I’m hoping this poisons their data or adds something to the price sensitivity metrics.

    I also look at airfares, hotel prices, etc., a lot. It’s not for the purpose of manipulating their algorithms, as I just like to get a sense for how prices move over time. But if there’s a side effect that these variable pricing algorithms take into account people who window shop and walk away, maybe I’m helping push prices down.

    If they’re gonna create a panopticon, we should fuck with their data.