Not to be an Ellman, but… dare we ask what the shirt says?
Dare I hope the Cray will be graced with a certain Madblood’s computer personality? I miss her, and she has reason to feel betrayed. Such people act in interesting ways…
There is a simple algorithm for just that purpose.
Actually it was developed for assassinations, but re-purposed for Secret Santa, because it was an obvious application.
You make a list of all participants, and shuffle it. Then you copy that list, split it, and concatenate the two halves head to tail. Then match the such permuted copy to the shuffled original. You get a random assignment which guarantees that nobody has to assassinate themselves.
When you say “concatenate the two halves head to tail”, you mean like {A,B,C},{D,E,F} -> {D,E,F},{A,B,C}, correct? So that when you put it next to the unedited copy, you get everyone in part 1 assassinati- er, shopping for someone in part 2, and vice versa? A’s objective is D, but D’s objective is A, as well.
Wouldn’t it be simpler (and more useful for Assassins (the game)) to just shift the copy by one position? A’s objective is B, B’s is C, C’s is D, and so on? You still guarantee nonreflexiveness, and now you have a single chain of participants that includes the entire group, instead of (n/2) distinct pairs.
It shouldn’t matter where you split the list, as long as you get two parts, so shifting it by one achieves the same result. You are correct that in that way you get guaranteed a single loop, which is not necessary for Secret Santa, but…
The Cray reason is probably also the reason why Skin Horse couldn’t afford to get an irradiator (that, and that I suspect there isn’t another in this reality which does what this one does).
Next, input the entire file and personality profile of every team member and make sure the program is sufficiently advanced to accurately process each individual’s behavior as a variable dependent on the choice of Secret Santa. Then it’s a simple problem of optimizing the organization’s stated and unstated strategic goals. Also, the program should be scalable for up to 7 billion employees.
To those complaining about spending big at the end of the year: if they don’t spend all of their budget (on something) then the ones who give them their budget deem that they don’t need as much which means next year they get less
“We gave you $10 million last year, you managed to save $6 million, good for you, that is all you will get this year to provide medical care for the entire Tri-State Region! Oh, and the weather reports forecast several hurricanes and a blizzard, good luck with that!!”
Use it or lose it!
Unfortunately true of pretty much any government agency in the US. Your tax dollars
wasted needlesslyat work!It wouldn’t be as bad if I knew the money was going to a cute white talking puppy dog.
This will backfire immensely, and it will be grand.
That machine is Cray cray
Not to be an Ellman, but… dare we ask what the shirt says?
Dare I hope the Cray will be graced with a certain Madblood’s computer personality? I miss her, and she has reason to feel betrayed. Such people act in interesting ways…
Ooh, what appears to be swimming eyeballs visible in the Cray! Who do we know who kept them in stock?
Begin to Hope is an album by Regina Spektor, but that doesn’t account for the top line.
Excellent idea! Hope so.
Next strip seems to make it out as “Rebellions begin with hope” — slight misquote of the newest Star Wars?
Is that computer a member of the machine union?
Lets hope not. It might start messing with the Secret Santa assignments for its own amusement.
Wait, I forgot what universe this was. It’s going to mess with the choices no matter what.
If you have to use your budget before year-end,
An Addams Family Pinball machine is an excellent choice !
SHOWTIME !!!
http://www.ipdb.org/search.pl?any=addams+family&sortby=name&search=Search+Database&searchtype=quick#20
Yes. Speaking as a taxpayer, I am completely down with this use of government funds.
Only if they already had Medieval Madness.
There is a simple algorithm for just that purpose.
Actually it was developed for assassinations, but re-purposed for Secret Santa, because it was an obvious application.
You make a list of all participants, and shuffle it. Then you copy that list, split it, and concatenate the two halves head to tail. Then match the such permuted copy to the shuffled original. You get a random assignment which guarantees that nobody has to assassinate themselves.
Useful! I’ll have to tell my secret police about this. Last year’s purge was such an embarrassment.
Give me direct control of the launch silos and you’ll never be embarrassed ever again
When you say “concatenate the two halves head to tail”, you mean like {A,B,C},{D,E,F} -> {D,E,F},{A,B,C}, correct? So that when you put it next to the unedited copy, you get everyone in part 1 assassinati- er, shopping for someone in part 2, and vice versa? A’s objective is D, but D’s objective is A, as well.
Wouldn’t it be simpler (and more useful for Assassins (the game)) to just shift the copy by one position? A’s objective is B, B’s is C, C’s is D, and so on? You still guarantee nonreflexiveness, and now you have a single chain of participants that includes the entire group, instead of (n/2) distinct pairs.
Yes, correct.
It shouldn’t matter where you split the list, as long as you get two parts, so shifting it by one achieves the same result. You are correct that in that way you get guaranteed a single loop, which is not necessary for Secret Santa, but…
Are you perchance a professional stabbist?
Anyway: Have fun!
It matters if you want it to be a Secret Santa. It’s not very secret if everyone is giving to the same person who gives to them.
All I know is …THE MAMUSHKA! (HEY!)
And all I’m remembering is having played it a few (hundred) times… the ole good times of the penny arcade…
Straight to the vault!
The Cray reason is probably also the reason why Skin Horse couldn’t afford to get an irradiator (that, and that I suspect there isn’t another in this reality which does what this one does).
It was probably originally built by a Mad Scientist: Dr. Lee might be able to eventually figure out how to build another one.
You know there are only ten Cray XC40s deployed—well, eleven, with this one. Does it have a name? The others do…
I hope it’s Harvey: https://cardboardox.bandcamp.com/track/the-ballad-of-harvey-the-elf
Just like Pygar above, here’s hoping it’s named Loveless.
Lovelace. Loveless was a mad scientist on Maverick, IIRC, so I see why you thought of it…
Wild Wild West, actually. Not sure if Bart, Bret, or Beauregard ever met a mad scientist, but at least they had a better movie adaptation. ^_^
Cray makes the only supercomputer powerful enough to run an infinite loop in under 3 hours.
Made me laugh out loud.
Same here.
Funny, I didn’t see that in the brochure.
Impressive, but I have heard that Linux does infinite loops in less than 5 seconds.
Now imagine a Beowulf cluster of those…
Next, input the entire file and personality profile of every team member and make sure the program is sufficiently advanced to accurately process each individual’s behavior as a variable dependent on the choice of Secret Santa. Then it’s a simple problem of optimizing the organization’s stated and unstated strategic goals. Also, the program should be scalable for up to 7 billion employees.
That optimization can be done by deep learning from all the reports they had to file.
The results should prove… interesting.
I understand if anyone objects to my being “that guy,” but there are two Rs in “spectrography.”
To those complaining about spending big at the end of the year: if they don’t spend all of their budget (on something) then the ones who give them their budget deem that they don’t need as much which means next year they get less
“We gave you $10 million last year, you managed to save $6 million, good for you, that is all you will get this year to provide medical care for the entire Tri-State Region! Oh, and the weather reports forecast several hurricanes and a blizzard, good luck with that!!”
And that’s incredibly stupid. The US government has been broken for decades.
Better than the private sector, where the same thing happens except the subsidiary just falls through and gets written off as a tax break.