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07.10

I know I haven't written in a while. It's the classic problem -- the more interesting my life becomes, the less time I have to write about it. I explain. No, there is too much, I sum up.

I immersed myself completely in my CS project for the last week. It involves solving alphametics, those algebra puzzles that look like "SEND + MORE = MONEY". The professor suggested a brute-force algorithm which involves trying every possible combination of numbers to find one which works. I went for something which turned out to be much more educational. The interesting part is this thing called a constraint network, which is basically a way of encoding relationships between numbers. For example, the fact that "D + E = Y + 10 * carry" in that problem is a constraint, and can be exploited to fill in values or eliminate nonsense solutions. You make a network which describes all the possible relations, and combine this with the search. Instead of trying all possible combinations, you try setting one letter at a time, so you can tell immediately when some combination of numbers won't work, before trying to use them in a solution.

Ironically enough, it's probably a lot slower than a cleverly-optomized brute-force implementation, but it gives me a tingly feeling.

Even though I don't believe in a higher power, it's so tempting to notice that somehow my life always ends up conspiring to keep me on my toes. And again I ask myself how personal I should get here, seeing how the interesting bits always involve other lives than mine...

"A member in good standing of the Milano cabal used to say that the HP cluster in the labs went su e giú come la pelle del cazzo which translated in English sounds more direct and less poeting: 'up and down like the foreskin on a cock'."