Update: Minor brainfart there. The point of the post still holds, but you'll need to multiply all the numbers by 2**( 640 * 480 ): 

142427923839648881629184805134324652164093716404030097299710376120451
134154787190076398812090414510556300740006550934739747222066752231099
294344002591005120626800863471535551485395485528316242619445670424359
449935350841325881969413228910724065033772133523230370773849709948530
89450777507879083442634420291861180736024127002634265953304576

[download]

Assuming 24-bit color, there are 640 * 480 * 2**24 possible bit maps. That's 5.15e12.

To put that number in perspective, if you could generate 1/second, it would take you 163,319 years.

Now let's say you secured the services of 163,319 computers for 1 year and generated them all. It would require ~5 million million million million GB of storage to hold. So, let's say that the disks/tapes were available.

Now to find that perfect picture that you are going to take of your great Aunt 5 years from now, all you've got to do is wade through all the mostly black and mostly white and mostly blue and mostly grey, and all those where you chopped off her head.

If you can reject 1 per second that's gonna take you...

Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.
Lingua non convalesco, consenesco et abolesco. -- Rule 1 has a caveat! -- Who broke the cabal?
"Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".
The "good enough" maybe good enough for the now, and perfection maybe unobtainable, but that should not preclude us from striving for perfection, when time, circumstance or desire allow.

In reply to Re^5: Very Large Hex Combinations by BrowserUk
in thread Very Large Hex Combinations by danambroseUK

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