Re: Euphoria Contest
Although the AI thread has taken over somewhat, I had a few thoughts
about a "contest" which would actually produce a few useful things.
Basically, start with a framework of an application, designed
modularly enough that bits and pieces could be coded and judged
separately; but together comprise a reasonable real-world application.
What is needed is an application that can quite easily be broken down
into such modules; several people submit their "components" and in the
end the best of breed in each category wins, subject I guess to each
contestant only submitting eligible entries for one such module
Examples (obviously other suggestions welcome):
1) TV listing. There are numerous sites on the web where TV
listings are freely shown. Some are fast and relatively poor quality,
some are slow, difficult to navigate, some are either overloaded or
down for hours/days at a time, some are chock with adverts and/or
excess repeated details/icons/images/etc.
a) scan available sites within a set time period
b) store the details in a suitable database locally
c) filter depending on user preferences/available channels/
country of viewing
d) interesting user interface
d.1) multi-channel rows/columns/timeslots
d.2) compare known details of VCR settings
d.3) printout suggested viewing times.
e) purge/reorganise utilities (automatic, naturally)
f) of course a print preview would be nice
2) Betting Expert. As we know, bookmakers base their odds not
actually on the real chances of winning, but on the total amount of
bets placed by the public. There is of course no better way to be sure
of winning than not to bet in the first place, but this is an
interesting concept.
a) get all available info from net
a.1) historical
a.2) save todays race results
b) suitable database, eg
age
sex
time of month for mares
jockey
going
handicap
length of race
owner
racecourse
number of horses in race
finishing place
<lots more...>
c) ranking algorithms for each race
d) suggested bets
d.1) winnings/losses paper/real monies
e) comparison of guessed ranking/actual results
e.1) identify conditions program predicts well/bad
f) registration spanner in the works
eg: 10% of suggested bets are randomly picked
(aka drivel) until the app is registered
That is only two suggestions. I suspect something simpler is needed.
Obviously, the framework would have to be rather loose/inefficient,
eg defined fields for a database referenced by name rather than a
simpler enumerated type, with an unrecognised field returning zero or
null; module communication via routine-ids with the same limit (ie
unimplemented routines return zero/null).
An unpredictable (luck) element appears: the "best of breed" may not
clearly be one module over another, but if j&d is better than either
k&d or k&b, j wins despite j&b being worse than either k&b or k&d.
(subject to the modules being from different authors?, or not??)
Before you start, someone needs to produce a "naff" version which just
about works.
My last word: I enter contests for the fun & in hopes of the kudos; an
actual prize over my name in lights is irrelevant.
Pete
|
Not Categorized, Please Help
|
|
