We’re starting with computing problems. We’re a web-based platform that’s just launched its beta version, so, as you can imagine, we’ve got plenty of work in scope and high hopes that solving these problems will really improve our site. As hypios’ Chief Scientific Officer, I was responsible for posting our computing problems.
Why not just submit all of our problems to hypios Solvers? hypios is not intended to solve all problems: some problems can best be solved here, other problems are just not for us. “You can’t hammer a nail over the internet,” writes Matthew Crawford, in a fascinating paean to the art of handiwork for the NYT Magazine, and not all problems are appropriate for solving at a distance. “There are some diagnostics situations,” he explains, “that contain a lot of variables. Any given symptom may have several possible causes, and further, these causes may interact with one another and therefore be difficult to isolate.”
In short, if it’s broke (and you don’t know why), we probably can’t help you fix it. You just won’t be able to provide all the information needed to solve your problem.” What other problems might be better left to your internal staff (or your carpenter)? I call these “context-heavy problems”— problems whose specification would take longer than finding their solution (or whose solution is their specification). Possible problem candidates that I passed on included issues about program configuration and issues related to the network structure.
Luckily, we love challenges.
Simone De Liberato
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Tags: algorithms, computer science, hypios, problem specification, Problems
June 13, 2009 at 2:04 pm |
Intéressant votre blog
J’ai lu les 2 derniers billets avec grand intérêt! –> j’ajoute le blog dans Google Reader!
Bonne chance
June 22, 2009 at 3:40 pm |
I found your blog on google and read a few of your other posts. I just added you to my Google News Reader. Keep up the good work. Look forward to reading more from you in the future.