Pete's Log: algoriffic

Entry #847, (Coding, Hacking, & CS stuff)
(posted when I was 22 years old.)

first off, big props to perk for doing a sanity check on my math for me... yay perk!

so here's fun things to always keep in mind when doing algorithms problems... 1: can you optimize the algorithm for the average case without penalizing the worst case? 2: can you use a binary search or an inverse binary search?

binary searching is cool. never forget that, and never take that for granted.

inverse binary searching (if that's not the correct term, it is now) is also cool. I need to remember to think of it more often. I need to start approaching algorithms from a different angle. It's not so much an issue of "how can I solve this problem?" as much as it's an issue of "how can I reduce this problem to one I know how to solve?"

So basically, I think I've finished an algorithms assignment well before midnight. I think just finishing before midnight is a first for me. This whole "going to class, paying attention, and taking notes" thing is working very well for me in this class. Much better than my "Rarely go to class, and when you do, pay little to no attention" approach for undergrad algorithms. Amazing.

And it seems that somebody has set up some sort of cron job or something that causes one of the machines on the far end of my office to play the ND fight song at random intervals. These intervals have ranged from 30+ minutes to 30 seconds.