Hi Hey! As a brit, don't know how to respond to that! What's my cut? <giggles> Gena Amateur Call: M 0 E B P VOIP / IM: gena1959uk -----Original Message----- From: speakup-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:speakup-bounces at braille.uwo.ca] On Behalf Of Chuck Hallenbeck Sent: Monday, June 18, 2007 11:11 PM To: Speakup is a screen review system for Linux. Subject: Re: e-books and the blind in the United States >From the wikipedia: British Museum algorithm The British Museum algorithm is a general approach to find a solution by checking all possibilities one by one, beginning with the smallest. The term refers to a conceptual, not a practical, technique where the number of possibilities are enormous. For instance, one may, in theory, find the smallest program that solves a particular problem in the following way: Generate all possible source codes of length one character. Check each one to see if it solves the problem. (Note: the {halting problem} makes this check troublesome.) If not, generate and check all programs of two characters, three characters, etc. Conceptually, this finds the smallest program, but in practice it tends to take an unacceptable amount of time (more than the lifetime of the universe, in many instances). Similar arguments can be made to show that optimizations, theorem proving, language recognition, etc. is possible or impossible. ---- snip --- I have a vague recollection of mentioning this concept to Jude about a hundred years ago, but I certainly never recommended "the package". Interestingly, the origin of the term, not discussed above, is from the classic "Gulliver's Travels" written by Dean Jonathan Swift many years ago. In one of the lesser books, Lemuel Gulliver visits other lands besides the one where he was imprisoned by the Lilliputians. In one of those lands, he was shown a team of monkeys seated before mechanical writing machines, pounding away at the keys, to produce strings of text on paper. An interesting "future glimpse" of what would later be the typewriter. Gulliver was told that, given enough time and sufficient resources, these very talented monkeys would eventually produce the entire contents of every book presently stored in -- guess where? -- "The British Museum." The term "British Museum Algorithm" has been used facetiously ever since the dawn of A.I. to refer disparagingly to a "brute force" distinctly unintelligent solution method. If anyone would like a copy of the B.M.A. package, please send a check in the amount of $100 to me, and if sufficient checks arrive, I will write one and send it to you. Chuck PS: Jude, thanks for the plug -- I'll split the proceeds. -- The Moon is Waxing Crescent (17% of Full) You can get downloads from http://www.mhcable.com/~chuckh/software.html The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese. _______________________________________________ Speakup mailing list Speakup at braille.uwo.ca http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup __________ NOD32 2337 (20070618) Information __________ This message was checked by NOD32 antivirus system. part000.txt - file is not an archive http://www.eset.com
