Slashdot Mirror
Deep Algorithms?
Stridar writes "A paper presented in a recent article quotes Donald Knuth as saying the computer science has 500 deep algorithms. He mentions that Euclid's algorithm is one of the most important, and he seems to agree with the idea that CS will be mature when it has 1000 deep algorithms. What I would like to ask Slashdot is the following. What are the most important algorithms in CS? What is your favorite algorithm? And finally, what are the outstanding problems for which algorithms would be immediately placed in the "Top 1000" category." We had an older story where two scientists picked their top ten algorithms.
Does the Bubble Sort algorithm count as important?
Al Qaeda has ninjas!
the failed first post algorithm
Of course,
Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
Anything you can do, I can do meta.
My favorite Al-Gore-ithm was when he invented the Internet.
begin
while alarm ringing
cover head with blankets
mprecate the onerous noisemaker softly
consider turning the damn thing off
if feeling remarkably hyperactive
then
lethargically slither out of blankets
sinuously stretch out arm
sigh
bang it to kingdom come
else
go back to sleep sweet sleep
endif
if hear name being called
then
see who it is
if kid brother/sister
then
ready
aim
fire
watch baneful clock execute a parabolic trajectory
in approximate direction of youngster
if target intercepted
then
ignore howls for Amnesty International
else
swear a thousand maledictions
endif
else if father
then
get out of bed hyper-quickly
if feeling watched
then
turn alarm off gently
else
kick alarm off gently
endif
else if mother
then
scan her for arms, especially those prohibited by
Geneva Convention
if result is affirmative
then
begin negotiations
else
pretend not to have seen her
increase snoring intensity
endif
endif
if feel something cold and wet being sloshed onto
blankets
then
yell blue murder
get out
endif
endwhile
end
Dinoj Surendran @ 1995 - no rights reserved
Well, one world-famous mathematician was once quoted as haughtily saying that "Computer Science is just a trivial subset of Discrete Mathematics"...
The "Content Scrambling System" it seems pretty Damn important to the MPAA and Congress. They even passed a law (DMCA) to support it..
1) Patent the obvious
2) Sue
3) PROFIT!!
I just live the bubble sort.
It is also the best algorithm to use to
sort a list....
...
... when there a few items in the list.
Just saying it like it are.
I like bubble sort.
cpeterso
This cartoon is about Knuth
If tits were wings it'd be flying around.
Personally, I find it interesting that this algorithm was developed by the same guy who wrote Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. A guy I teach with showed it to me a couple months ago, and I'm planning on using it in class soon to teach some programming concepts.
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. -- Gandhi
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. -- Gandhi
Gotta be inventing the Internet! How could you top that?
Just run it under Windows and it terminates eventually just fine! Therefore it's an algorithm!
:-) )
(I hated to lose the ability to mod, but I couldn't resist!
Since I'm not formally trained as a computer scientist (I'm merely an information technology major, sorry), I can't offer much in the way of "deep" algorithms to this list.
However, I can poke fun...
My personal favorite algorithm is:
(Ducks)
MacOS, Windows, BeOS, GNOME, KDE: they're all just Xerox copies
The following must be *the* most important algorithm known.
(let ((y 0))
(define knowitall
(lambda (x)
(begin
(if (= x 0) (write-char #\.))
(write x)
(knowitall (+ 1 x)))))
(knowitall y))
Why? This algorithm generates (a decimal representation of) Champernowne's Constant, which is a / the (only known?) string that contains within it every possible substring of arbitrary length drawn from the same alphabet of characters. Warning: this algorithm is probably illegal, because it contains within it / will eventually generate DeCSS, the complete source code to every version of Microsoft Windows ever, the complete collection of all Mariah Carey's songs in MP3 format, the complete set of all the documents that Anderson shredded on behalf of Enron, the exact GPS coordinates of Osama Bin Laden at every moment for the rest of his life, George Bush's complete DNA sequence, etc. Enjoy!
Don't forget about the outOfHotWaterException. If not caught properly, it results in a blue screen of freezing.
Maybe, if you'd read what prof. Knuth said, you'd know he mentioned the 1000 algorithm as a START. About the number of algorithms the CS should have to START to be recognized as a relevant science.
If programs would be read like poetry, most programmers would be Vogons.
You know there's some guy still in the shower...
OK, so it's 1987, and I'm 8 years old. My family has just gotten our first computer, an IBM PS/2 Model 30 -- one of the systems with BASIC in ROM. I''ve taken up writing in BASIC, and do so in most of my free time. Which, as an eight-year-old, is a considerably amount of time. I'd taught myself all about Boolean logic, loops, etc., etc.
This is the part that I don't remember, probably because it's been obliterated by my family repeating the story so often. I've been in the shower for something like half an hour when my mother starts knocking on the door, wanting to know if I'm OK. I insist that I'm fine. This process is repeated for a while until they finally force me to get out, no doubt prune-like by this time. My mother asks me what in the world I've been doing in the shower for so long.
I point to the directions on the back of the bottle and say, simply, "Wash. Rinse. Repeat."
-Waldo Jaquith
Where x is the number of people in the elevator and y is the number of people who know for sure who farted.
CowboyNeal could be exp(-ix) which would then make him purely imaginary...
1-click shopping
-wjc.
"I figure you're here 'cause you need some whacko who's willing to stick his finger in the fan. So who are we helping?