Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×

Submission + - PJ rides again (groklaw.net) 2

Submitted by thorpie
thorpie writes: There is a new headline link on Groklaw, from July 22 2014 — U.K. Cabinet Office Adopts ODF as Exclusive Standard for Sharable Documents.
Is she back? or is it a one off?

Submission + - An Envy-Free Algorithm (i-programmer.info)

Submitted by mikejuk
mikejuk writes: If you want to find a way of dividing up some indivisible items between entities then here is a way to do it that eliminates envy as the outcome. The suggestion is that this could be a good way to divide up possessions during a divorce — algorithms get into everything. A new paper (http://www.ams.org/notices/201402/rnoti-p130.pdf) by New York University’s Steven Brams, Wilfrid Laurier University’s D. Marc Kilgour, and the University of Graz’s Christian Klamler and published this month in Notices of the American Mathematical Society, outlines how to do it so that both parties are happy in a maximal sort of way — i.e it assigns as many items in the pool of things to be divided and only holds back those that if allocated would cause envy.
As long as the players assign true rankings to the items then the more algorithm will find the maximal envy-free assignment and as the number of items increases, the probability of a complete envy-free assignment approaches one.
The bad news is that you can cheat.
If you lie about your ranking you can end up with an assignment that, when you true ranking is revealed, provokes envy. However, as the authors note the danger is that you won't work things out perfectly, because it depends on the ranking of the other player and you could end up worse off. The best strategy is to play fair and end up with an envy free allocation.
So the next time you file for divorce, remember to hire a programmer as well as a lawyer.

Comment Re: Frogs (Score 1) 314

by lord_rob the only on (#45811403) Attached to: France's 'Culture Tax' Could Hit YouTube and Facebook

Of course there are only a few if you compare the number of French movies coming to the US to the number of movies released by Hollywood. Don't forget to take the number of inhabitants between both countries into account, and the fact that Hollywood also releases super-high-sfx (even if super-low-scenario) movies that sell very much.
I don't want to say that everything coming from Hollywood is pure cr@p I love US movies, I just want to compare the budgets allocated to both industries. In the US a movie is sometimes more considered as a product (how many theater tickets sold ?) than really an art.

Slashdot Top Deals

Thus spake the master programmer: "After three days without programming, life becomes meaningless." -- Geoffrey James, "The Tao of Programming"

Close