New Pi Computation Record Using a Desktop PC

hint3 writes "Fabrice Bellard has calculated Pi to about 2.7 trillion decimal digits, besting the previous record by over 120 billion digits. While the improvement may seem small, it is an outstanding achievement because only a single desktop PC, costing less than $3,000, was used — instead of a multi-million dollar supercomputer as in the previous records."

Thats nice and all...

[fliptw]

But will it help us in getting flying cars?

Finally!

[pEBDr]

Now I can finally get somewhat reasonable precision when calculating the radius of stuff!

Re:Thats nice and all...

[LostCluster]

Only if you avoid the square routes.

He needs some help...

[LostCluster]

1 TB data files... somebody needs to help him with the compression! Oh, wait a minute.

Re:One thing to say

[Anonymous Coward]

HE USED TRICKS!!!!1111Burn the witch...eehh communist...eeeh climate researcher...eeeeh....PI guy.

I'm not impressed - Superman was faster than a

[anti-NAT]

speeding bullet, and was able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. Fabrice needs to lift his game.

Re:Did he find a message?

[Dahamma]

Exactly! And hence the discovery of our blessed lady of the grilled cheese sandwich...

Too bad...

[hallux.sinister]

Only another four hundred billion decimal places, and they would have found the last one!

~Hal

Re:Wow...

[Anonymous Coward]

Plain html is a wonderful thing.

yes, but why not do it in javascript? generating those digits on the fly is much more efficient from a slashdotting perspective.

Re:Finally!

[asc99c]

You'd also need something to prop up the other end of the new extended screen to display the number - Venus should be in about the right place when it gets a bit closer!

Re:One thing to say

[Le Marteau]

> It hides an answer to some questions for sure.

Could be. I'm not sure the answer will be in base 10, though.

Maybe, in base 36, beginning at the trillionth digit, pi is:

"URTEHSUXXORUNEED2GETALIFESRSLYKTHXBYE"

That would be amazing.

Re:Finally!

[Anonymous Coward]

I still use the "old math", where you "measure" the radius. Now you kids calculate the radius with pi?

BTW, get off my lawn ...

Re:One thing to say

[dtmos]

Of course, the first step in your plan is to calculate the digits in the first place...

I'm building an atomic bomb.

[tjstork]

It allows the unwashed masses (of which I am one) a chance to do things that were once only the realm of researchers in academia or the corporate world

I agree, that's why I have great hopes for my atomic bomb.

Re:Did he find a message?

[ettlz]

Well given (I think, though may be wrong on this) that pretty much any finite sequence of digits will show up in the decimal expansion of pi at some point, there should be a raster image of a circle in 1s and 0s buried in it somewhere. Along with a greyscale raster of Goatse.