Interim Demo 2

[davidn]

The trouble with my project is that there seems to be a large imbalance between what I think of my program and how enthusiastic my supervisor is about it. The problem began when I wrote Freecell in a weekend, and his reaction was "Well, it's some code". Since then it's gradually got to the situation where he doesn't think it's much good as it can't solve games consistently enough, whereas I feel that getting a computer to be able to play through any card game itself is a pretty spectacular achievement.

I was surprised by an unexpected Interim Demo today. When I went to the weekly meeting with my supervisor, who was wearing a ghastly shirt decorated with misshapen cows, it happened that my second marker had some free time as well, as he was busy arguing with him about something to do with C++. We went through to his office, which is the darkest room in the world (he keeps all the lights off because he doesn't like them turning themselves off when he hasn't moved for a while), and to my surprise I was able to get it running on a Mac in only a few minutes while the two of them talked about ornithology or something.

Tom was far more impressed with the project than last time around, when it took ten minutes just to get the thing running, and watched as it went through a couple of games. At one point he asked me why there were two Tens of Diamonds on the screen just to scare me. My supervisor responded to this by going over to the whiteboard and beginning to throw a pile of about a hundred pens at him, so the rest of the demonstration had to be carried out under a hail of felt-tips.

With that demo done, I'm pretty much on the home stretch now. And it's just as well, because practicals for this year are beginning to come in. Actually, the lecturers are on action short of a strike, meaning they can't do anything to do with grading work or giving out practicals, so we've only got one to worry about for now. It seems a pretty serious situation, though, as they're talking about the possibility of it continuing until summer. And I had felt like graduating before I got married.

Comments

[madtom.livejournal.com]

College men who marry earlier tend to be more successful career-wise. At least, according to some studies in some professions.

So you've made an algorithm that "solves" a randomly dealt card game? Have you considered adapting it to something more complicated, maybe, like calculating odds in poker?

[davidn]

Strangely enough someone else asked me the same thing the other day. It would be slightly more difficult because of the way that not all cards can be seen (as in the games that I've been working with), but it would be something interesting to try.

[madtom.livejournal.com]

What I mean is, could you redesign it to calculate "optimum" plays based on probability?

Now that I come to think of it, though, that actually sounds easier than what you've already done.

[e-to-the-ipi.livejournal.com]

As I recall, if you're married when you graduate, you don't have to pay the graduate endowment.

Surely it's not that bad?

[whinknee.livejournal.com]

really...must get married now then.

[e-to-the-ipi.livejournal.com]

Or, having checked the website, it doesn't say that. I may have got confused.