oz@yunexus.yorku.ca (Ozan Yigit) (02/07/91)
In article <1991Feb6.161639.18311@spool.cs.wisc.edu> quale@picard.cs.wisc.edu [Douglas E. Quale] bravely writes [regarding Dan's claims]: >I'm quite certain that you are completely, absolutely and undisputedly wrong. Doug, you must surely know that Daniel J. Bernstein (tm) is never, ever wrong, and even if he was wrong about 70% of the time, having him admit to that would be as hard [or as easy ;-)] as finding a solution for the halting problem. oz --- We only know ... what we know, and | Internet: oz@nexus.yorku.ca that is very little. -- Dan Rather | UUCP: utzoo/utai!yunexus!oz
brnstnd@kramden.acf.nyu.edu (Dan Bernstein) (02/07/91)
In article <21635@yunexus.YorkU.CA> oz@yunexus.yorku.ca (Ozan Yigit) writes: > In article <1991Feb6.161639.18311@spool.cs.wisc.edu> quale@picard.cs.wisc.edu > [Douglas E. Quale] bravely writes [regarding Dan's claims]: > >I'm quite certain that you are completely, absolutely and undisputedly wrong. Well, given that Doug is wrong in this case, I'm sure we can take his claims with ever so much more than a grain of salt. > Doug, you must surely know that Daniel J. Bernstein (tm) Who's that? Someone related to our beloved ex-president James Carter (tm)? Or the ever-famous Mary Monroe (tm)? > is never, ever > wrong, Oz, you've gone off the deep end. > and even if he was wrong about 70% of the time, having him admit > to that would be as hard [or as easy ;-)] as finding a solution for the > halting problem. I agree entirely with the analogy. Let me explain. For theoretical purposes, what matters is that you can never find a single algorithm that solves the halting problem for all programs. Similarly, you can never find a single way to convince me that I've made a mistake, because every situation is different. Such is the spice of life. But what matters for practical purposes is that for a *given* machine you can, by adding one more machine of the same size and running through things carefully, you can solve the halting problem for every program on that machine. Similarly, for a *given* discussion, you can convince me that I've made a mistake in that discussion by adding a rational response to the discussion and pointing out the mistake carefully. It's really not that hard. Try it next time I make a mistake. ---Dan