[seqfan] Re: Primes embedded

Marc LeBrun mlb at well.com
Thu May 6 17:40:26 CEST 2010


> a(n) > a(n-1) and a(n) is the smallest available composite
> embedding the smallest not yet embedded prime:
>  
> S=12,30,35,57,110,130,170,190,230,290,310,370,410,430,447,453,...
> p= 2 3   5  7 11  13  17  19  23  29  31  37  41  43   47  53 ...
>  
> Could please someone compute a hundred terms or so, rephrase
> my definition in good English, coauthor and submit (if of
> interest)?

Seqfans, please, can we show a little more common sense and restraint?

Forgive me if I've not yet drunk enough coffee this morning to attain a
sufficiently indulgent frame of mind, and I don't mean to pick on anyone
personally, but these kinds of submissions are alarmingly on the increase.

I feel compelled to suggest they seem to be the epitome of "uninteresting".

I've always supported a highly permissive filter for OEIS submissions. But
merely playing with strings of decimal digits is decidedly NOT interesting.

Nor does alluding to the "primes" contribute any interest whatsoever, since
it might equally as well have been Fibonacci numbers, powers of 69, Seqfan's
IP addresses, or any other arbitrarily chosen digit-pattern match.

The OEIS is intended to be an encyclopedia of INTEGER sequences, not an
encyclopedia of peculiar [1] TEXT fragments subject to geeky gematria [2].

Spewing these kinds of sequences really feels like a very unkind imposition
on everyone's time and attention (especially Neil's (especially now)).  This
is exacerbated by requesting others do the work of composition, description
and submission.

Worst of all, such sequences permanently dilute, if not pollute, the value
of the OEIS, making it harder for users to get meaningful results from
queries, and harder for programs to compute truly interesting relationships.

It's like flooding the Louvre with zillions of sketchy kindergarten finger
paintings.  There's enough room so that submissions need not be anything
near masterpieces, but surely better impulse control could be exercised?

Respectfully yours,
  --MLB

========
Notes:

[1] Consider: interpreting the elements of OEIS sequences straightforwardly
as integers is lucid.  But precisely specifying them as text reveals such an
alternative definition would be ludicrous.  Those truly interested in the
"Online Encyclopedia of <Finite Non-empty Strings Comprised of Either Just
the Single Character 'Zero', or a Single Non-zero Digit Character Followed
by Any Number of Digit Characters, Including None> Sequences" are of course
free to create and maintain "the OE<FNSCEJSCZSNDCFANDCIN>S".  But this isn't
the charter of the OEIS.

[2] "Gematria... a system of assigning numerical value to a word or phrase,
in the belief that words or phrases with identical numerical values bear
some relation to each other, or bear some relation to the number itself..."
  --Wikipedia






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