Talk:Approximate counting algorithm

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Coin tossing

Is it really necessary to toss the coin N times for a counter with value N on every event just to see if they're all heads? Couldn't we stop as soon as a tail is observed? -- Ralph Corderoy (talk) 08:28, 6 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Actually you don't need multiple tosses at all. Simply generate a random number and take it modulo 2^V, where V is the current value. If the modulo is 0, then increment the counter. --CAFxX (talk) 15:14, 4 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Recent developments

Developments like the HyperLogLog algorithm (see highscalability.com) should perhaps be included. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Herojoker (talk • contribs) 22:42, 26 August 2012 (UTC) http://blog.notdot.net/2012/09/Dam-Cool-Algorithms-Cardinality-Estimation <= This is a great description of the algorithm[reply]