I'm doing some research on approximate dictionary matching algorithms. Everyone is familiar with at least one of these: the spell checker. You give it a word, possibly misspelled, and it tries to find the best match it can from a list of entries. I'm not writing a spell-checker, but the concept is similar: input might be misspelled, but I need to look for acceptable matches in the reference data. The problem is, as always: the naive methods are simple but unacceptably slow. So, it's off to the world of academic papers.
As always with this kind of research, the papers are so abstract as to be almost opaque. I try to understand them, but they just crush my head. So, for a given paper, I usually end up using Google to see if anyone has written code to implement the algorithm the paper describes because it's almost always easier for me to read source code, even in languages I don't use, than it is to read academic papers. I rarely get good results because this stuff is always esoteric and people don't like to share their hard work. But it does work sometimes.
So, I type the name of the algorithm from the paper into a search box. Google looks around, using its own approximate dictionary matching algorithm, finds only a few results in obscure places, and concludes that I misspelled my query. So it gives me results for what it thinks I meant - which are irrelevant to what I asked for.
It's like Google is defending itself, trying to stop me from finding out how it works. Which is kindof what I'm doing, actually. Except for the irrelevant results, of course.
cleek, my dahling – when are you going to open the pie suggestion comments again? I’ve got a handful ready to go!
i can’t figure out to let WP enable comments for that one post, when it’s set to automatically close comments after 90 days.
just leave em here. no biggie
Ok – here goes! (feel free to delete those that are not worthy :)
All pies are equal, but some are more equal than others.
No more pie? The horror, the horror!
Pie is the only thing in the world that amounts to anything.
Well, here’s another nice pie you’ve gotten me into!
Uneasy lies the head that wears a pie.
Broadly speaking, the short words are the best, and the best short word is pie.
What’s this? I seem to be submerged in some sort of deep gooey substance surrounded by a flaky crust.
Nothing beats a chunky wodge of pie when the comments start to heat up.
Seriously, pie! Why would a food so ubiquitous make me so excited?
Yeah so I pretty much think pie is the greatest thing ever invented to put in one’s mouth.
This little pie went to market, and this little pie stayed home. This little pie had fruit
filling, and this little pie had none. And THIS little pie went wee-wee-wee all the way home!
I like to eat pie. And I want to rub it on my face.
Hey, you want some pie? Pie is goood. Hey, sewer rat may taste like pumpkin pie, but I’d never know ’cause I wouldn’t eat the filthy motherfuckers.
You know what divine intervention means? It’s when God comes down from Heaven and makes a beeyoutiful pie.
Sawdust pie has a funny name but a great flavor. It’s easy for me to make because my head is full of sawdust.
Just so you know, somebody broke into my house and killed my pie.
What makes me think my pie was killed? Didn’t just die?
Well, generally pies don’t hang themselves.
I just want to say one word to you. Are you listening? PIE.
It’s like I was playing some kind of game, but the rules don’t make any sense to me. They’re being made up by all the wrong people. I mean no one makes them up. They seem to make only pie.
Pie. Okay? Pie.If I ever see a pie on a bed in this house, man, like you’ll never see me again. I’m gone.
Most people don’t know how they’re gonna feel from one moment to the next. But a pie fiend has a pretty good idea. All you gotta do is look at the labels on the little pies.
You know, with all that makeup and pie and stuff, I actually thought I was SMART for a second.
(Heh heh – you said I could! I keep a file full of pie suggestions, so these have been building up for a while – set them free!)
they’re in!
“Uneasy lies the head that wears a pie” wins.
Thanks, cleek! I’ll be keeping my eye out for the authorial frisson it gives me :)