• ayyy@sh.itjust.works
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    14 days ago

    I just feel bad for the IT guy that has to desperately make a computer system that hasn’t been funded since the invention of computers handle this bullshit math and giant numbers.

    • viking@infosec.pub
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      14 days ago

      It’s a simple function, you don’t really need a whole lot of computing power to keep on track. Worst case you can simply remove the factorial and store the zeros in a separate array and tack them on in the output.

      • ayyy@sh.itjust.works
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        14 days ago

        It depends on how they are representing the numbers. If they are stored as an “integer” they will overflow and wrap around after about 2 trillion. I’m not saying computers can’t handle larger numbers, I’m saying that in my extensive experience there’s always some part of older systems that generate some long-forgotten but essential report that never thought about handling huge numbers and breaks in unexpected ways.