Counting - discussion thread

[GuyBarry]

I dunno. I'll still be amazed if we make it to 1000 (though I'm getting more optimistic!).

[RobbieM]

Maybe after 1,000 I'll start commeting on the last four digits of STD codes...

[GuyBarry]

Maybe after 1,000 I'll start commeting on the last four digits of STD codes...

You'll have to wait until at least 1200 then!

[GuyBarry]

Wow. I never knew that about 741.

I wouldn't take it too seriously. The so-called "solfeggio frequencies" are apparently 396 Hz, 417 Hz, 528 Hz, 639 Hz, 741 Hz and 852 Hz. The numbers just seem to be based on patterns of digits - there's no actual mathematical relationship between them, and they certainly don't form any sort of musical scale. It's also extremely unlikely that the "ancients" who supposedly developed the scale were measuring frequencies in hertz (a term invented in 1930!).

This video does a reasonable job of debunking the myth. I'm sure someone somewhere is making a lot of money out of it though...

[RobbieM]

[...and, as it happens, the last three digits of the code for Shepton Mallet, the area in which I grew up.]

Ah, I guess you may have done an 'STD' entry if you'd've landed on 749?

[GuyBarry]

Actually I had something else lined up for 749, but your post jogged my memory.

[GuyBarry]

This has now been the second-longest gap in the history of the counting game. The longest was 5 days 2 hours 0 minutes, between 614 (18 Aug 15:51) and 615 (23 Aug 17:51). Until now the second longest was 2 days 21 hours 19 minutes, between 627 (24 Aug 14:22) and 628 (27 Aug 11:41). The only other gap longer than two days was 2 days 1 hour 15 minutes, between 655 (31 Aug 19:20) and 656 (2 Sep 20:35).

It has taken approximately 46 days to complete the last 230 entries, from 541 (4 Aug) to 770 (19 Sep) - an average of five entries a day. If we continue at the same rate, that means we'll be hitting 1000 in another 46 days, around the 7th of November.

Meanwhile, I eagerly await fact number 771...

[tubeguru]

Are you actually keeping stats on this shit?

[GuyBarry]

No, but there was quite a long pause so I thought I'd put some together.

[tubeguru]

Spoiler.

[GuyBarry]

What is rule 3?

Well you drew the rules up, I'd expect you to know. Rule 3 is the one forbidding two consecutive posts by the same player (as you could have worked out). Personally I think three days is an excessively long gap between posts. Could it be amended to "no player may make two consecutive game posts within 48 hours" or something similar?

Since you haven't deleted post 771, I assume it still stands and the next player can now post 772. Or should they ignore it and post 771 again?

[RobbieM]

This has now been the second-longest gap in the history of the counting game. The longest was 5 days 2 hours 0 minutes, between 614 (18 Aug 15:51) and 615 (23 Aug 17:51). Until now the second longest was 2 days 21 hours 19 minutes, between 627 (24 Aug 14:22) and 628 (27 Aug 11:41). The only other gap longer than two days was 2 days 1 hour 15 minutes, between 655 (31 Aug 19:20) and 656 (2 Sep 20:35).

It has taken approximately 46 days to complete the last 230 entries, from 541 (4 Aug) to 770 (19 Sep) - an average of five entries a day.

Wow. I never knew that!

[GuyBarry]

808 looks the same if you turn it upside down.

...or a "strobogrammatic number" as I've now learned to call them. But not only that, it looks the same if you reflect it in a horizontal or vertical axis. I don't know what the technical term for these is but there are fewer of them. (In fact, if you write your 1's with a hook, it's one of only two such three-digit numbers.)

[GuyBarry]

Scrxisi has apparently deleted his account and all his posts. I don't think he made many contributions to the counting game but I know there were one or two - on a quick glance it looks as though 572 is missing. Would anyone like to redo it?

EDIT: I googled for "572" and got this. Not quite what I was expecting

(Warning: slightly naughty picture!)

[GuyBarry]

Another pause in the counting game, so I thought that I'd point out that there are only seven posts to go until we reach another milestone. At 862[*] we'll have equalled the length of the original counting thread, which was locked after 431 posts. (Of course the rules were slightly different then and not every post was a counting post.)

At the current rate I reckon we'll reach the magic thousand around the middle of next month, so keep going everyone!

[*]Or should that be 863? Closer examination shows that although the current thread was meant to start from 432, the first counting post was actually 433. Does that mean there's never been an "official" post 432?