tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38067964.post9174527002449194954..comments2024-01-11T10:25:57.007+00:00Comments on Labour of Gove: Hasta La Vista: Great Man Hits Trillion-to-One JackpotChris Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15679067503215414300noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38067964.post-12964509991576993382009-10-30T09:18:58.422+00:002009-10-30T09:18:58.422+00:00Repeated from your comments Mark:
You asked here ...Repeated from your comments Mark:<br /><br /><i>You asked <a href="http://chrispaul-labouroflove.blogspot.com/2009/10/hasta-la-vista-great-man-hits-trillion.html" rel="nofollow">here</a> how I got to a trillion to one? Well it is as Dr Jansons says a matter of frequency of initial letters in words within the working vocabulary of the Swearminator. Words starting in all the letters apart from U and K are reasonably numerous, though in a couple of misives whose initial letters I quote in my post I got 4 As, 4 Os, 2 Is, 2 Ys and an E in the vowels. And an assortment of consonants including 4 Cs and 1 F. <br /><br />With not even the slightest instance of any sensible hidden words. Oh, ha, yo, id, oid (which may appeal to Dr Jansons), ac, ba and ad being your lot as far as I can see.<br /><br />A factor of just 5 is I suspect a rather low one to allow for frequency of *initial* letters within the Swearminator's vocabulary. So the good doctor may be wrong strictly speaking re order of magnitude.<br /><br />I'd also stick another potential weighting factor in the mix; that is that long words may be more likely to appear at the start of lines than short ones.<br /><br />And an observation also. The swearminators other letters in the public domain - there are loads, he/the post holder is prolific - show a significant resistance to "widows and orphans" - i.e. the odd single words that often arise when paras are allowed to break as they naturally do on a particular measure.<br /><br />In other words someone on the staff is either casting off carefully and tweaking point size to avoid, or redrafting to avoid these - I often do the latter myself on my blog for my preferred browser. A little anal actually. I publish a post, look at it, go back and try to get rid of widows and orphans. Comes from being an ex sub and typographer.<br /><br />That active process militates against FU moments.</i>Chris Paulhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15679067503215414300noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38067964.post-72813361365554117332009-10-29T16:06:22.625+00:002009-10-29T16:06:22.625+00:00I calculate it to be 200 billion to one. How do yo...<a href="http://markreckons.blogspot.com/2009/10/is-arnold-schwarzeneger-fan-of.html" rel="nofollow">I calculate it to be 200 billion to one</a>. How do you get to a trillion?Mark Thompsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00744387583593537268noreply@blogger.com