The value of smiplicity in designs and engineering
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I came up with a soltion to an age old problem:
Q: How can you keep pigions from stealing all the seed?
Requirements:
a. The pegions can't feed at the feeder.
b. The pegions can't feed from the ground below the feeder, where feed is placed and
little birds knock the feed to the ground.
c. The little birds can still feed with no problems.This would be a good interviewing question to test ones ability to solve design and engineering problems. I will post the solution in a few hours, or if someone comes up the same or equaly plausable solution. Hint: I came up with the solution because my Father started going nutz and throwing rocks at the pegions. ~TheArch :-D
At this point if the candidate listened to the hints and obeyed the constraints they might come up with the solution to the problem: Knowing that rocks are part of the solution, the candidate describes a solution of placing river stones (about 3 to 51/2 inches) at the bottom of the feeder to replace the same solution of the observation of size and such which is also solved by using a box with wire mesh. Now that the candidate has the solution, lets see how well they can refactor a solution. After placing the rocks at the bottom with a 3 to 4 inch gap between stones, the observation is made that of the 30 pigeons which came every day to the feeder and ate all the seed in 10 min. Only 2 pigeons are able to climb the rocks and feed with the smaller birds. He identifies this species of pigeon as 'Rock Pigeon'. Ask the candidate to refactor the solution so city pigeons (which don't climb on rocks) and rock pigeons can't feed.
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This is a coder/engineer site for .NET's sake! 0) Buy a robot kit (0.1) Attach a lethal force taser to the robot. 1) Program visual system to recognize small birds and yourself as acceptable "input" to the feeder 2) Program the following laws into the robot: i. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. ii. A robot must obey any orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. iii. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law. 3) Program said robot to target anything that is not listed in (1) with lethal force, ignoring rule 2.1 if the human is not you.
If the post was helpful, please vote, eh! Current activities: Book: Devils by Fyodor Dostoyevsky Project: Hospital Automation, final stage Learning: Image analysis, LINQ Now and forever, defiant to the end. What is Multiple Sclerosis[^]?
Mustafa Ismail Mustafa wrote:
i. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. ii. A robot must obey any orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. iii. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
these laws were in place one time, i recall from a certain movie, and the robots ended up turning against the humans, they would do a good job of getting rid of the birds though ;P
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Nagy Vilmos wrote:
eons
Do you mean aeons?
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TheArchitectmc∞ wrote:
dianasuars to evolve into man eating super freaks.
Then you feed the pigeons to the dinosuars. The stupid lizards are killed by the poisoned birds. Tow birds with one stone you might say!
Panic, Chaos, Destruction. My work here is done.
Why do you need to 'tow birds'? Did they break down on the highway?
Software Zen:
delete this; -
Nope, never saw the show. What role did Musafa play?
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001 -
Okay since The Outlaw Programmer a.k.a John, has arrived at the fist set of observations to reach the conclusion I am going to impose a constraint. In the intervew you could do the same to see how your candidate works with in constraints. The candidate was given a computer. After searching the internet they found the following: 1. Special bird feeder which has eighter spring loaded perch, or just small enough to only allow the smaller birds to feed from the feeder. 2. The candidate found an obscure article about how to keep pegions away from feeders. Solution make a box with wire mesh under the feeder. Okay now to impose the constraint that will hopfully guide your candidate to the correct observation. Constraint: The owner of the feeder lives in a community that has deed restrictions goverend by a home owners association. All landscaping must be natual, no building, no wire mesh. This constrains solution #2.
TheArchitectmc∞ wrote:
The owner of the feeder lives in a community that has deed restrictions goverend by a home owners association. All landscaping must be natual, no building, no wire mesh.
Solution: Move. Who wants to live where assholes like that try to tell you how to live?
Software Zen:
delete this; -
I came up with a soltion to an age old problem:
Q: How can you keep pigions from stealing all the seed?
Requirements:
a. The pegions can't feed at the feeder.
b. The pegions can't feed from the ground below the feeder, where feed is placed and
little birds knock the feed to the ground.
c. The little birds can still feed with no problems.This would be a good interviewing question to test ones ability to solve design and engineering problems. I will post the solution in a few hours, or if someone comes up the same or equaly plausable solution. Hint: I came up with the solution because my Father started going nutz and throwing rocks at the pegions. ~TheArch :-D
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Mustafa Ismail Mustafa wrote:
i. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. ii. A robot must obey any orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. iii. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
these laws were in place one time, i recall from a certain movie, and the robots ended up turning against the humans, they would do a good job of getting rid of the birds though ;P
That execrable piece of garbage (the 'movie' you mention) had absolutely nothing to do with the Three Laws[^], since the morons who wrote the screenplay dumped them at their first opportunity. Talk about playing with the net down.
Software Zen:
delete this; -
TWO WORDS SPELL CHECK!
xacc.ide
IronScheme - 1.0 beta 3 - out now!
((lambda (x) `((lambda (x) ,x) ',x)) '`((lambda (x) ,x) ',x)) -
I don't have any kids, and I don't generally watch Disney cartoons.
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001 -
That execrable piece of garbage (the 'movie' you mention) had absolutely nothing to do with the Three Laws[^], since the morons who wrote the screenplay dumped them at their first opportunity. Talk about playing with the net down.
Software Zen:
delete this; -
This is kind of off topic, but I agree. I only read some of the robot series by Asimov. I did read the full foundation series, that was really cool. I was quite upset when he died, his was my hero at the time. :((
The unbreakable rule in all of The Good Doctor's robot stories and novels was that the Three Laws could not be broken. Ever. They could only appear to be broken; in fact, that was a central feature of his stories. The puzzle was how to explain the robot's behavior. The wuckfits who wrote the screenplay for the movie simply wrote the Three Laws out of the way when they became inconvenient.
Software Zen:
delete this; -
I came up with a soltion to an age old problem:
Q: How can you keep pigions from stealing all the seed?
Requirements:
a. The pegions can't feed at the feeder.
b. The pegions can't feed from the ground below the feeder, where feed is placed and
little birds knock the feed to the ground.
c. The little birds can still feed with no problems.This would be a good interviewing question to test ones ability to solve design and engineering problems. I will post the solution in a few hours, or if someone comes up the same or equaly plausable solution. Hint: I came up with the solution because my Father started going nutz and throwing rocks at the pegions. ~TheArch :-D
Looks like this thread is pretty much dead. Surprising to see no one likes constraints or likes to refactor. This is my idea of how to not 'Spoil the child, and take away the rod.' The final solution, which I'm testing at this moment it to create a barrier around the perimeter to make the rock pigeons and feral pigeons not want to jump into the circle of stones. Additionally, the size of the pigeon is a key factor. decreasing the mean distance between stones by adding smaller stones makes it much more difficult for the pigeons to feed. Pigeons are opportunistic feeders, they go for the easy meal rather then the hard one. Just by adding stones removed 97% of the problem, as only two pigeons were found feeding. This might be due to my Father shooting them all, but I don't really know. :laugh: My idea of a bad interviewing style: Sith Interviewing Tactics[^] John Simmons / Outlaw Programmer and Nagy Vilmos had the best ideas in my humble opinion. John used classical research and development style to solve the problem. Nagy Vilmos use a more creative thought provoking process and informative logical deduction. Ironically no one found the value in simplicity. The simple solution is often the most elusive. And now a word from our sponsor: "Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler..." ~Albert Einstein Hey I also learned something new, IE8 has a built in spell checker! Thank you all for you participation! I sent the link to the Myth Busters.
modified on Wednesday, July 22, 2009 2:08 PM
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Looks like this thread is pretty much dead. Surprising to see no one likes constraints or likes to refactor. This is my idea of how to not 'Spoil the child, and take away the rod.' The final solution, which I'm testing at this moment it to create a barrier around the perimeter to make the rock pigeons and feral pigeons not want to jump into the circle of stones. Additionally, the size of the pigeon is a key factor. decreasing the mean distance between stones by adding smaller stones makes it much more difficult for the pigeons to feed. Pigeons are opportunistic feeders, they go for the easy meal rather then the hard one. Just by adding stones removed 97% of the problem, as only two pigeons were found feeding. This might be due to my Father shooting them all, but I don't really know. :laugh: My idea of a bad interviewing style: Sith Interviewing Tactics[^] John Simmons / Outlaw Programmer and Nagy Vilmos had the best ideas in my humble opinion. John used classical research and development style to solve the problem. Nagy Vilmos use a more creative thought provoking process and informative logical deduction. Ironically no one found the value in simplicity. The simple solution is often the most elusive. And now a word from our sponsor: "Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler..." ~Albert Einstein Hey I also learned something new, IE8 has a built in spell checker! Thank you all for you participation! I sent the link to the Myth Busters.
modified on Wednesday, July 22, 2009 2:08 PM
TheArchitectmc∞ wrote:
rather then the hard on
Yeah, about that...
A guide to posting questions on CodeProject[^]
Dave Kreskowiak Microsoft MVP Visual Developer - Visual Basic
2006, 2007, 2008
But no longer in 2009... -
Okay since The Outlaw Programmer a.k.a John, has arrived at the fist set of observations to reach the conclusion I am going to impose a constraint. In the intervew you could do the same to see how your candidate works with in constraints. The candidate was given a computer. After searching the internet they found the following: 1. Special bird feeder which has eighter spring loaded perch, or just small enough to only allow the smaller birds to feed from the feeder. 2. The candidate found an obscure article about how to keep pegions away from feeders. Solution make a box with wire mesh under the feeder. Okay now to impose the constraint that will hopfully guide your candidate to the correct observation. Constraint: The owner of the feeder lives in a community that has deed restrictions goverend by a home owners association. All landscaping must be natual, no building, no wire mesh. This constrains solution #2.
Paint the wire mesh green or even give it a camouflaged appearance (shades of brown/green. It won't be visible from the road or even the sidewalk. You could actually use chicken wire mesh. It's thinner and presents a lower visible profile.
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001 -
TheArchitectmc∞ wrote:
I am going to impose a constraint
I vote against constraints.
I think you meant "restraints" (aka handcuffs, zip ties, or some hefty rope).
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
-----
"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001 -
Paint the wire mesh green or even give it a camouflaged appearance (shades of brown/green. It won't be visible from the road or even the sidewalk. You could actually use chicken wire mesh. It's thinner and presents a lower visible profile.
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
-----
"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001 -
I think you meant "restraints" (aka handcuffs, zip ties, or some hefty rope).
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
-----
"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001 -
TheArchitectmc∞ wrote:
rather then the hard on
Yeah, about that...
A guide to posting questions on CodeProject[^]
Dave Kreskowiak Microsoft MVP Visual Developer - Visual Basic
2006, 2007, 2008
But no longer in 2009... -
I came up with a soltion to an age old problem:
Q: How can you keep pigions from stealing all the seed?
Requirements:
a. The pegions can't feed at the feeder.
b. The pegions can't feed from the ground below the feeder, where feed is placed and
little birds knock the feed to the ground.
c. The little birds can still feed with no problems.This would be a good interviewing question to test ones ability to solve design and engineering problems. I will post the solution in a few hours, or if someone comes up the same or equaly plausable solution. Hint: I came up with the solution because my Father started going nutz and throwing rocks at the pegions. ~TheArch :-D
Get a cat. :doh:
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