Posts by northernviper4

Chloe Cooper10 said:Go ahead and keep making your little jokes...🙂

I would wager most of you wouldn't even know how to organize data into the columns of a sales tax return and file it with the IRS correctly...☕

They likely don't even understand what a chart of accounts is, let alone how to construct a balance sheet or properly book an outgoing invoice. 👍 It is all very easy to laugh, but it takes a certain level of actual proficiency to explain these concepts to a layman... 🙂

bluebadger112 said:👋 Lu 😍 northernviper4, I will get back to you once I manage to uncover something new... 🙂

Here is a solution to the problem regarding those jealous husbands during the eleven river crossings (though, admittedly, I am just eyeballing this, so I cannot be entirely certain if it is the most efficient route 😳). Let S represent the starting bank, C the destination, W representing the wives, M the husbands, () indicates the boat, the arrow denotes the direction of travel, and the integer k preceding each line indicates the state after the k-th crossing. In white:

0. S: W1, W2, W3, M1, M2, M3. C: .

1. S: W3, M1, M2, M3. (W1, W2)-> C: W1, W2.

2. S: W2, W3, M1, M2, M3.

3. S: M1, M2, M3. (W2, W3)-> C: W1, W2, W3.

4. S: W1, M1, M2, M3.

5. S: W1, M1. (M2, M3)-> C: W2, W3, M2, M3.

6. S: W1, W2, M1, M2.

7. S: W1, W2. (M1, M2) -> C: W3, M1, M2, M3.

8. S: W1, W2, W3.

...


There remain three quite obvious crossings left to complete 🙂...

Question: why does a carrot last longer if it isn't washed after being picked and still has soil clinging to it? 🍿

👍
So, the point is that a wife cannot travel alone or be left alone with another husband—I had originally assumed the rule was simply that she couldn't be left with two of them 🤣
.
My mother-in-law is a chef, and she maintains that it is because carrots need to stay dry to prevent rot or spoilage 🍿
. Actually, one can wash them, provided they are dried as thoroughly as possible before being placed in the refrigerator. That way, they will last
.

Drew Ross2 said:If you have any ☕ grievances regarding the title, please direct those protests to my inbox via PM... 🐔 rather than cluttering this thread...

😍

Anthony Nguyen81 said:Well, I don't see how they could possibly make the crossing either... 🤣

The code for romance, indeed... 🤣

But there ought to be some method to this madness 😬

You can't just ferry them all over two by two; someone actually has to pilot the boat...

At the start, you probably send one pair over, but then the question remains as to who returns... The husband, presumably...

Then you bring two more women across...

And suddenly all the women are on the other side...

So you take one back, while bringing the husbands of those two over...

And now we hit the impasse, because eventually, someone has to return...

You bring one pair back, then try to move the second...

But that leads straight into a deadlock... 🤣

One really should spend a bit more time surfing the web; surely there is a solution out there somewhere... 😬

What are the exact rules regarding the crossings and the permitted moves?
I have previously mapped out the state space for the cannibals and missionaries, and even for the wolf, the goat, and the cabbage. I could certainly do the same for this... 😁

Donna Doyle2 said:I tried to run through the logic in my head, and honestly, I was just shuffling them back and forth... basically moving the same people around in circles. 🙄 Well, at least they got some exercise on the river, I suppose; there’s a certain level of romance in that, isn't there? 😁

I am fully behind this concept! I had no idea you all were diving into such fascinating topics here. Sadly, I’ve had to push my own coursework to the side due to other commitments, but I intend to follow this thread with great interest, and perhaps I might drop in an occasional foolish question from time to time... because, after all, how else does one actually learn?

👍 I am quite pleased you shared that quote! 😁

bluebadger112 said:I suspect we might actually find an answer on Stack Overflow before we even get there, simply because this question feels naturally inevitable, and surely someone, somewhere, has already pondered it... Long ago on these boards, there was a user named Melkor who specialized in theoretical computer science, I believe, and he could have answered this for us with his eyes closed...

The common thread among all such problems is that each possesses its own (asymptotically) optimal solution. One could perhaps refine this further—distinguishing between those where such a solution is actually constructible, versus those where we can prove that while an optimal solution exists, constructing it is mathematically impossible... There is also the fascinating possibility of encountering a problem where it cannot be determined whether an optimal solution even exists, and proving that fact itself... Other problems simply lack such a solution altogether. Classification...

On a separate note, perhaps a dedicated extreme geek debate thread should be opened; it doesn't feel quite right to post here when our guidelines are limited to 🙂 The issue is, I doubt the moderator would bother opening a new topic or moving interesting posts from this 😳 ☕

Well, I also think the question is a bit of a non-issue... 😁
It makes sense that they share the trait of having an optimal solution. I was wondering if there was something else they held in common, perhaps regarding the underlying assumptions, the constraints, or the specific parameters of the problem itself...
I have a few colleagues I could ask.

You can certainly open a thread, and it wouldn't be particularly difficult to move the posts over if needed...
It would certainly be better if there were a specific forum for these kinds of discussions, though I do believe one of our community standards should be to explain the basics politely to anyone asking, without any condescension. I have never felt any shame in asking a trivial question myself... 😁

Anthony Nguyen81 said:Going back to basics? 😬

That would certainly be a bloody mess to untangle... 🤣

I decided to take a quick look at just how much I have forgotten lately; do you all recall that old riddle involving the boat, the Wolf, the goat, and the cabbage? 😬

Well, consider this follow-up... 😬



A laboratory assignment: The Jealous Husbands Problem

Write a program that utilizes a breadth-first search to find the optimal

solution to the jealous husbands problem.

The scenario is defined as follows: three husbands and their wives need to

cross from one side of a river to the other using a single boat. At no

point in time can any wife be left in the presence of

another husband unless her own husband is also present. The boat can

carry a maximum of two people and cannot travel empty.

An optimal solution is defined as the one requiring the fewest possible steps. The program should

output the solution as a sequence of operators and states leading to the target

state.

Yes, indeed, you still have the Tower of Hanoi, the cannibals and missionaries, and so on... 😬

Anthony Nguyen81 said:Well, a colleague of mine actually went in for an interview with some major federal agency, and they ended up dumping this 😁
on him...
It is a rather intriguing problem, really... finding a way to transition from one word to another by changing only a single letter at a time, while ensuring every step remains within a predefined dictionary.

A decision tree incorporating probabilities seems to be the only viable path if you want to 😬

He managed to cobble something together, though his initial attempt failed to provide results in anything resembling real-time... 😬

Honestly, that decision tree thing has nothing to do with the core issue... I only brought it up because it was an example of a task I encountered during a job interview myself... 🙂
What he’s actually looking at is state-space searching, and there are quite a few different algorithms available for that specific purpose.

Anthony Nguyen81 said:chic fight? 🍿

I have always had a certain fondness for mathematics and computer science, though I must admit it has been quite some time since I last found myself deeply immersed in analyzing algorithmic complexity...

What kind of work were you doing with 2D pathfinders?

https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/count-...ht-nxm-matrix/

Certain tech firms in the States actually utilize this sort of thing as a standard job assessment... 🍿

The optimization of navigating from point A to point B... 😁

These are quintessential problems, really; I frequently walk my first-year university students through them using various different algorithms... 😁

During my very first job interview, I recall being presented with a problem that I eventually resolved using a decision tree based on probabilities to calculate the net present value of several different options. It was almost exactly like the exercises we used to run through in class... so, I suppose I don't mind seeing these types of questions pop up during interviews... 😁

bluebadger112 said:2) 😁 It would be more precise if we utilized the notation that was adopted... Right here...Does every algorithmic "problem" that possesses an $O(f)$ solution also inherently require at least an $\Omega(f)$ solution... essentially implying that the complexity class is tightly bound by $f$ according to Knuth’s $\Omega$ notation? For instance, we know sorting $n$ objects yields such a result where $f(n) = n \log n$, and calculating the sum of the first $n$ natural numbers settles at $f(n) = 1$... or perhaps I am oversimplifying the nature of the lower bound...

Well, it appears we have finally arrived at the green frontier... 🙂
The persistent tension between mathematical terminology and computer science nomenclature continues to be a subject that warrants a much more rigorous examination than most modern academics seem willing to provide... It is a divide that feels increasingly wide, almost cavernous, as we drift further into an era where the two disciplines are forced into a marriage of convenience, yet they speak entirely different languages... One finds themselves navigating a landscape where a term used by a pure mathematician might carry a completely different weight—or perhaps no weight at all—when uttered within the halls of a software engineering firm or a high-frequency trading desk in Chicago... There is this fundamental friction, this constant tug-of-war between the abstract elegance of a proof and the gritty, practical necessity of implementation... A mathematician seeks the absolute truth of a structure, while the programmer is often just trying to ensure the system doesn't crash when the input hits a certain threshold... It leads to these peculiar moments of confusion during an extreme geek debate, where one party is discussing the intrinsic properties of a set, and the other is merely concerned with how many bytes that set will occupy in memory... It’s quite frankly exhausting to witness such a lack of linguistic synchronization... One would hope that as the fields converge, we might see some semblance of a unified lexicon, but I fear we are merely layering complexity upon complexity without ever truly reconciling the underlying concepts... 😁
That is certainly an intriguing question, one that I have quite honestly never encountered before... It makes one wonder, though, what exactly serves as the common thread among all those issues that typically plague such a solution? 🤔 Perhaps there might be some academic papers out there regarding this matter... I wonder if you have direct access to the various scientific databases and scholarly repositories used by major research institutions...

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bluebadger112 said:Well, I don't know... if someone doesn't want to read, they can just squint... ☕ Unless Wolf shows us he's actually handsome, or things change quickly and our little Geek Squad posts start becoming interesting to the masses. Fine, it's his bar, we'll just follow his lead... ☕

You’re saying there’s a problem where an optimal algorithm simply doesn't exist, or perhaps it can't be proven to exist, or maybe it just can't be constructed at all... That really caught my attention today. Do you have any literature you could recommend so I might look into it further?

Vuče 👋

Are we discussing: 1) algorithms for optimization problems, 2) regarding optimal solutions for specific problems, 3) optimality itself—meaning the performance of algorithms when applied to certain tasks—or 4) all of the above combined?

Existing algorithms for optimization problems will exhibit various levels of performance depending entirely on the nature of the problem at hand. The sheer scale of Big Data has reached a point where classical optimization algorithms become practically useless unless they are heavily modified and adapted for parallel or distributed computing environments, and currently, the cutting edge has moved toward optimizations supported by quantum computing.

As far as actual optimal solutions are concerned—if a problem is defined and a sequence of appropriate algorithms is selected, the resulting solutions often aren't different enough to matter in a practical application. In the real world, true optimality is almost never achieved. Take optimal manufacturing, for instance...
When we discuss algorithmic performance regarding a specific problem, specifically concerning time complexity and computational resource requirements, it frequently turns out that one algorithm is more efficient for one particular problem, while a completely different algorithm excels at another.
The most trivial examples are state-space search algorithms—finding the optimal path. An algorithm's efficiency depends most heavily on the parameters set for the problem itself, which means that often, the simplest algorithms are actually more efficient... such as Breadth-First Search with uniform cost compared to its more complex, improved version, the A* search.

In short, among existing algorithms, there is always one that is currently considered optimal or most efficient for a specific problem, yet the possibility that a better one exists is certain; it is merely a question of economic feasibility and whether such minute improvements are truly necessary. Furthermore, as storage and processing technologies evolve, the potential for improving algorithmic performance continues to expand...

Regarding literature, tell me specifically what interests you and I might find something... You can also send me a private message if you'd prefer I didn't post here.
Of everything discussed, the most tragic part is how no one seems to see the opportunity to learn something new or even ask a question when they absolutely don't understand something. It makes one wonder if people actually care about upgrading their knowledge at all. But then again, those are the same people who feel mathematics and its related fields are irrelevant because they think, "Oh, well, if no one ever asks me about this, it isn't used anywhere"... failing to realize they are actually daily victims of such algorithms... 😬

bluebadger112 said:🤣 That wasn't really aimed at you... 😁 Yep, QS is actually an algorithm where the asymptotic complexity is technically worse than the optimal version, yet in practical applications, it often outperforms them. If my memory serves me correctly, its worst-case complexity is O(n^2), which is significantly worse... though the expected complexity remains n*ln(n).

Actually, no, bluebadger112, why don't you just start a new thread? An extreme geek debate, or maybe even your own dedicated corner... we could hang out there once in a while so we aren't exhausting everyone else with these empty, trivial discussions...☕

bluebadger112 said:Yes, that is an undeniable truth, though one could always select a value for c so infinitesimally small that a computer simply cannot handle it... essentially, it would perceive it as nothing more than zero. You could fill the entire universe with the fastest parallel processors, massive amounts of memory, and whatever else you can conjure, yet still choose a c so minuscule that it renders everything moot. 😁

What I find truly compelling, specifically regarding optimal algorithms, is this... suppose you have a meaningful problem with a non-empty class of algorithms designed to solve it. In such a case, there trivially exists an algorithm within that class possessing the best complexity, which is to say, it is asymptotically the fastest possible. For instance, in the problem of sorting n pieces of data, the best complexity for the class of all solving algorithms is known to be O(n*log(n)); several algorithms of this complexity have been constructed, and it has been mathematically proven that nothing "faster" can exist.

However, there are algorithmically solvable problems where the actual constructibility of an optimal algorithm is questionable at best, and quite likely theoretically impossible—even though we know without a shadow of a doubt that such an algorithm does exist! For certain problems, we don't even know what the best complexity of an optimal algorithm might be, which is a different kind of frustration entirely.

When dealing with problems where the optimal complexity is already known to us, the remaining task becomes reducing that constant factor involved in the O-notation, and people actually spend quite a bit of time using various clever tricks to do just that and then publish their findings.
It is also quite fascinating that there are problems solved by sub-optimal algorithms which, in practical applications, have turned out to be faster on average than the supposedly "optimal" algorithms for that specific problem. The aforementioned sorting problem is one such example.

The central question will always remain: Can we do better?

The sorting problem is rather intriguing... once, purely out of boredom, I found myself programming various algorithms and sketching out how they function just to help clarify things for my students. Within the realm of OOP, there isn't really much need for that, as I believe the sort class in C# utilizes Quick sort... or perhaps it doesn't, I am not entirely certain.
Here is a clever visualization of how various sorting algorithms operate: 😁
https://www.toptal.com/developers/sorting-algorithms

Programming is actually secondary to me; I view it as a supplementary skill, something I possess in case I need to upgrade or modify something... since my primary work involves various data processing algorithms, well...
There is always room for improvement, naturally, but the real question is merely when a marginal shift becomes interesting enough to justify the effort... 😁

Well, there isn't any, which is why "soft" methods and approximate solutions exist, as they are often more than sufficient.

I found myself spiraling down that exact same line of thought... and now, frankly, I can't even bring myself to look at those items without feeling a sense of pure revulsion. They are just utterly repulsive 😁

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Nylons, pantyhose 😁

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Chloe Cooper10 said:Kanye West 😁

just... the fisherman Kanye West

+1 😬

A little gremlin or just a plain old imp... lol

Well, I suppose 🙂 rapidtrucker78

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I picked up a Stanley Cup and honestly, I’m loving it... I can't really speak for what other brands are putting out though.

Pros: It feels significantly more hygienic than using pads or tampons, since the blood stays contained within the cup and you don't have to deal with any unpleasant odors... plus, it doesn't chafe the way a pad does. 😬
Regarding the financial sector—it’s an investment that pays for itself in about four months, give or take. After a year, you'll find you've saved a decent amount of cash...
And, I will say, my cramps aren't nearly as bad.

Cons: You do have to shell out a few bucks for a new small kettle, just so you can boil the cup between cycles...

Maybe someone from Law has some insight to add here... 🍿

@bluebadger112/">@@bluebadger112 — it both amuses and saddens me that these perfectly normal topics are still treated like some kind of taboo by men...
Drop the link to that article; I'm genuinely curious to see who wrote that ridiculous piece and how they managed it. 🍿

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Perhaps we could pivot this discussion toward the topic of menstrual products...🍿

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