DISQUS

Technology Liberation Front: Saturday Night Geekery

  • satoria · 2 years ago
    For the word numbers it seems that one need only come up with a way to calculate the number of characters used up until the 51'st billionth. The pattern is a predictable one, so you needn't use brute force.
  • Tim Lee · 2 years ago
    New record, after letting it run longer and randomizing the next nodes:

    THE WATERMELON MAN ON FIRE ON THE MOUNTAIN MEN CRY BULLETS OVER BROADWAY DANNY ROSE RED DAWN OF THE DEAD MAN WALKING AND TALKING ABOUT SEX AND THE OTHER MAN TROUBLE IN PARADISE ROAD GAMES PEOPLE PLAY NEW YORK NEW YORK COP LAND OF THE DEAD GIRL IN THE CADILLAC MAN OF THE HOUSE PARTY 3 NINJAS KNUCKLE UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL BEST MEN DONT LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN AND EARTH GIRLS ARE EASY COME EASY GO NOW YOU SEE HIM NOW YOU DONT TELL MOM THE BABYSITTERS DEAD BANG BANG YOURE DEAD HEAT AND DUST TO GLORY ROAD HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN AND THE MONSTER FROM HELL NIGHT AND DAY OF THE DEAD OF NIGHT MOTHER JUGS AND SPEED 2 CRUISE CONTROL ROOM AT THE TOP GUN CRAZY AS HELL UP IN HARLEM RIVER DRIVE ME CRAZY PEOPLE I KNOW WHERE IM GOING HOME ALONE 3 NINJAS KICK BACK TO SCHOOL OF ROCK N ROLL HIGH SCHOOL HIGH CRIMES OF PASSION IN THE DESERT BLUE SKY HIGH SPIRITS OF THE DEAD END OF DAYS OF HEAVEN CAN WAIT UNTIL DARK CITY BY THE SEA OF LOVE HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME MYSELF I WAS A MALE WAR BRIDE OF THE MONSTER IN A BOX OF MOON LIGHT OF DAY OF THE WOMAN IN RED RIVER OF NO RETURN TO ME WITHOUT YOU LIGHT UP MY LIFE SO FAR FROM HOME THE ADVENTURES OF YELLOW DOG RUN SILENT RUN DEEP BLUE CAR 54 WHERE ARE YOU CANT TAKE IT WITH YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE IN THE LIFE OR SOMETHING LIKE IT HAPPENED AT THE WORLDS FAIR GAME OF DEATH BECOMES HER MAJESTY MRS BROWN SUGAR TOWN AND COUNTRY LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE WILL TALK OF ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES OF DEATH 4 LITTLE GIRLS WILL BE GIRLS JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN AND FANCY FREE WILLY 2 THE ADVENTURE HOME ALONE IN THE DARK BLUE WORLD TRADE CENTER STAGE FRIGHT NIGHT FALLS ON MANHATTAN MURDER MYSTERY MEN WITH GUNS OF THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS IN TROUBLE EVERY DAY FOR NIGHT AND THE CITY OF JOY RIDE WITH THE DEVIL RIDES OUT COLD FEVER PITCH BLACK HAWK DOWN WITH LOVE AND DEATH WISH V THE FACE OF DEATH WISH UPON A STAR WARS EPISODE V THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK TO THE BEACH PARTY MONSTER HOUSE OF DRACULA DEAD AND LOVING IT TAKES TWO MEN WENT TO WAR OF THE WORLDS FASTEST INDIAN SUMMER LOVERS AND OTHER STRANGERS WHEN WE MEET JOE BLACK AND WHITE HUNTER BLACK HEART CONDITION RED EYE FOR AN EYE FOR AN EYE OF GOD TOLD ME TO DIE FOR THE BOYS IN THE BAND OF THE HAND THAT ROCKS THE CRADLE WILL ROCK STAR TREK THE MOTION PICTURE BRIDE OF THE WIND AND THE LION KING OF THE JUNGLE 2 JUNGLE BOOK OF LOVE WALKED IN GODS HANDS ON A HARD BODY DOUBLE TAKE THIS JOB AND SHOVE IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT WITH THE KING AND I WANT TO LIVE FOREVER YOUNG SHERLOCK HOLMES FACES DEATH SHIP OF FOOLS RUSH IN OLD CALIFORNIA SPLIT SECOND BEST OF THE BEST OF EVERYTHING RELATIVE FEAR X THE MAN WITH THE X RAY EYES OF AN ANGEL BABY SECRET OF THE LOST LEGEND OF THE LOST BOYS LIFE WITH FATHER OF THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN OF THE YEAR OF THE HORSE IN THE GRAY FLANNEL SUIT" (561 words)


  • Jim Ganon · 2 years ago
    Since the same name can be used more than once, how about the trivial solution:

    Run Lola Run Lola Run Lola Run Lola Run Lola Run Lola Run Lola Run Lola Run Lola Run Lola Run Lola Run Lola Run Lola Run Lola Run Lola Run Lola Run Lola Run Lola Run Lola Run Lola Run Lola Run Lola Run Lola Run...

    :)
    Jim
  • eee_eff · 2 years ago
    Tim:

    I think that you are right about this problem being related to the traveling salesman problem--in fact I think this problem maps directly on to the traveling salesman problem, meaning it requires brute force approach...

    EF
  • Tom · 2 years ago
    It shouldn't be too hard to brute-force the word numbers problem. You'd just have to segment your sorting algorithm so that it shuttles data to and from your disk smartly. In practice you could probably just allocate a ton of memory and count on your OS to make a swap disk half-cleverly.

    Better still, just shove everything into MySQL and then ask it to sort it. Hey, it might work! Of course, I doubt that's the sort of approach ITA is looking for.

    I suspect that the Right Way to tackle the problem is to break the spelled-out numbers into the word-tokens that will comprise them (e.g. "eight", "forty", "million", etc). Those'll be easy to alphabetize -- you'll know what the first column of a properly-sorted list would look like.

    If you can develop an algorithm that can fully explore the space underneath a given token (not simple, but not mind-bendingly difficult I don't think), then proceed through that space while counting letters (and ignoring order) you can eliminate chunks of the problem's space, token by token. Narrow it down to the left-most token that contains the 51 billionth letter -- the order of the elements belonging to the tokens before it doesn't matter, thanks to the commutative property. This lets you simply keep a count of total letters instead of keeping each word in memory. Once you hit the target letter, you'll know the left-most token in whose neighborhood the answer resides. You can repeat the process with the next-to-left-most token; then do it with the next-to-next-to-left-most token; etc. Eventually you'll have a set of possible answers that's small enough to sort easily.

    In practice this would be pretty tedious to code (and I'd hate to risk missing a token while defining the first step), so I can't say I'm champing at the bit to try implementing it. I bet there's a more elegant solution.
  • Brooke · 2 years ago
    If you read it out loud and pretend you're William Shatner, it sounds like some very angsty beat poetry.
  • Jane · 2 years ago
  • Hero · 1 year ago
  • Hero · 1 year ago
  • Benjamin Meyer · 7 months ago
    Rather then words try to find the longest number of movies titles (sling blade runner being a length of 2). I don't know what the longest number of words is, but for movies you can find a chain that is over 320 in length.