[seqfan] Re: Breaking news on partition numbers.

[Joerg Arndt]

* Charles Greathouse <charles.greathouse at case.edu> [Jan 25. 2011 20:04]:
> [...]

<words I mark for future citation>
> I believe in Neil's old rule of thumb here: a sequence should take at
> least an hour to create, between research, referencing, calculating,
> and writing.*  If you can't be bothered to spend that much time, the
> sequence might not be interesting enough for inclusion (but rather as
> a comment to an existing sequence, perhaps).
</words I mark for future citation>


One thing I'd like to add:

  ... drum-roll ...

  *** tah-dah! ***

<more words to mark, oh, what a day>
Anti-information is bad. It reduces the usefulness of the OEIS.
</more words to mark, oh, what a day>


Anti-information techniques that make my blood boil, just from the top
of my head (no order, some redundant redundancy):

- random mix of number theoretic functions
- unranking, mixed unranking of _different_ things
- unranking and plain mixed (argh!)
- unranking mixed with ranking, same with different things for extra shock value
- seq of indices "where seq. S has values <random function>"
- sum of a (linear) sequence with a triangle or rectangle, hey, all three types at once
- linear transform with a triangle/rectangle
- fractions of utterly disconnected seqs
- single integer, followed by sequence S, no info but the bare terms in it, few of them
- twice sequence S, thrice S, etc., only few terms for neat uselessness
- first differences of the most contrived ever seqs
- second diffs as well, ...we are in the mood
- playing with primes, semi-primes, composites
- mixing stuff of the last item
- ... adding unranking for complete brain explosion's sake
- ad hoc terminology (extra points for a few syntax failures)
- last item, _nowhere_ bloody explained
- "you must read my mind" approach: "like", "similar", "almost", "related to"
- giving <=10 terms of a seq where 1000 terms can be computed in < 1 sec
- garbage seq with link to super nuclear garbage web document, MS Word for extra credit
- Calling it "Generalized X" for X in Fibonacci/Catalan/Pascal/you-name-it
- crossreffing A000079 because one longish formula involves ... powers of 2
- crossreffing a constant sequence for a constant in some formula
- long bleeding monologues you know this is fun to read and then I found 5 dollars (see A010716).
- last item, and saying "quantum", "fractal" and the like but not defining your sequence.
- calling the not-so-atrociously-restricted version of <your-ad-hoc-term>
  the "generalized <your-ad-hoc-term>"  (I. Must. Kill. Arrrrr...)


The following searches will give you some illustrative examples,
obviously together with plenty of fine seqs (the vast majority,
just to be clear).  One line is one search term:

A000079
Mertens
Lyman
"matrix Markov"
"generalized Fibonacci"
fractal
keyword:easy keyword:more
keyword:uned


> [...]


cheers,  jj

Is there a chainsaw over internet protocol?