Puzzle challenge 2008

My team did a lot better this year. You can see the puzzles and solutions here, if you're interested.


This post's featured quote (interchange):

- Now I know how a dynamic programming algorithm feels.
- And how is that?
- Confused.

NP-complete person

Earlier today I updated my facebook status to be "Lila is a complete person. NP-complete."

Just now, I had the following conversation with Y.:

Y: You are an NP-complete person?
L: Yes. I haven't figured out a solution, but I also haven't figured out how to do anything nondeterministically yet...
Y: So it takes... time... ?
L: Well, it's an open problem.
Y: Of course, right, it's just a conjecture.


This post's theme quote is from Robert Heinlein['s character Lazarus Long]:

Anyone who cannot cope with mathematics is not fully human. At best he is a tolerable subhuman who has learned to wear shoes, bathe, and not make messes in the house.