From: Darren Reynolds (extro@blue.demon.co.uk)
Date: Sat Aug 16 1997 - 14:41:26 MDT
At 19:01 14/08/97 +0200, Anders Sandberg helped us out with our mathematics:
>In the long run, when t->infinity, W1 goes to kN/(lp^2) and W2 to
>2kN/lp; for p<1/2 (which is the likely scenario, nobody uses
>devices which fails more often than not) system 1 is more valuable
>than system 2. Error correction is apparently worth its price.
I know zip about math, and this raises more questions than I can clearly
elucidate.
Implicit in your stuff is the suggestion that as the probability of failure
grows, the importance of a backup gets less ... odd! ("for p<1/2 system 1
is more valuable" implies that for p>1/2, system 2 may be more valuable!)
Did I misunderstand you?
Thanks enormously for the help with the math and the subsequent addendum!
Darren
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