N-Puzzle thoughts

Some n-puzzle ideas:

  1. Create an n-dimensional n-puzzle.  This is different from a rubiks cube because it is a sliding puzzle not a sequential move puzzle.  It is sort of like the last puzzle here called the Inside out puzzle by Vadász Kocka, it is of course only 3D not nD.
  2. Figure out how to reduce nD n-puzzle to 1D n-puzzle (meaning make a new set of rules for how the pieces move and in a way that eliminates symmetric moves)
  3. The number of ways to solve an n-puzzle is in #P (find proof)
  4. Can any unsolvable n-puzzle be solved with some number of flips and rotations to the board itself?
  5. What would it mean to have a fractional dimensional-puzzle like a 1/2d n-puzzle? How could you move?
  6. What if the puzzle is represented as a graph.  Then you can represent it as an adjacency matrix and do math (haha).

I found the paper that proves that n-puzzle is NP-hard here.  Also, I found some papers that cite that paper that I thought sounded interesting:

  1. Optimal Pebble Motion on a Tree
  2. Learning Admissible Heuristics while Solving Problems
  3. On Sliding Block Puzzles
  4. Wooden Geometric Puzzles: Design and Hardness Proofs
  5. Restricting Moves When Solving the NxP-Puzzle

In writing this I found an amazing source of puzzles here.  It is an index of over 34,000 puzzles!

So, I think that the most interesting of the ideas is 4.  The dimensional aspect I think is a direct mapping of the space and therefore not too interesting.  The fact that it is in #P is sort of interesting but kind of obvious and not really useful.  The interesting thing with that one would be if it was somehow either harder or easier than #P.

So, number 4 is interesting because it is a new way of looking at the board.  However, I believe the answer is yes.  According to the 5th link the number of possible board states is (N*P)! and half of them are not solvable.

First Authentic Chinese in America food

So, I had a ton of new food today!  David and I went to a Chinese restaurant with Ermo and his wife.  We ate off of the special “Chinese menu” and had tea and everything.  The food came on dishes which we all shared.  The style was from a province that prepares the food hot and spicy (very spicy, as in my lips went numb).  It was delicious though.  I had chicken poppers, this really tender and spicy beef, and tofu.  Then I tried various types of  vegetables and roots etc.  I used chopsticks too to eat!  Although for some of it I did need a fork.  Ermo said he was taking it slow with us.  He paid for the whole thing!  I’d like to try and take them somewhere American that they haven’t been.

Exercise and eat healthy

Well I was working out every-other-day and really eating healthy for about two weeks.  As a result I had a lot of energy and felt good, other than the muscle soreness.  This past week I couldn’t go to the gym at all and I started eating pretty bad.  By the end of the week (today) I’m tired, and out of energy but my muscles aren’t sore!  This is crazy considering I didn’t exercise.  Why should I be tired?  I was never tired when I was exercising.  I think I finally experienced the full cycle of benefits of working out  and eating healthy and detriments of not.  Crazy.

So, I’m going to go back to exercising and eating healthy.

Leaf by Niggle

Wow.  That is a good short story.  Really makes you think.  In twenty pages Tolkien is able to cram soo much meaning.  Definitely worth re-reading.  It is amazing that Tolkien was able to move from publishing such massive work as the hobbit to publishing such a small work as Leaf by Niggle.  I think it shows his mastery as a writer.

Autonomous Smart Faucets

So, i want to make a device that will turn on and off the bathroom sink for me…

Basically I’m too lazy to turn off the sink while i’m brushing my teeth. So,
I want to connect a RP to a Kinect/leapmotion to a couple motors that can move the knobs.

Then it would be cool to train it… Like to know i want cold water when i’m brushing my teeth i want hot water when washing my hands i want cold water when i’m filling by water bottle when to turn off the faucet etc.  Might be able to integrate HiTAB somehow so that the end user can develop new behaviors like hot and cold…  Essentially come up with different applications that I haven’t thought of yet.  It could also estimate water usage and sync with your phone to let you know that your children have brushed their teeth etc.

This would save soo much water too.  Therefore, it would be cost effective…  Really I could sell this and if you have a somewhat large family then you would see the savings…

Price Surging and Bounty Hunting

So, it seems like uber might have a bounty type pricing model.  They have this system of price surging.  This we also found doesn’t work for adjusting the bounty.  I thought that maybe it would provide a method to get agents to go after the right tasks, it doesn’t.  However, it does give me hope that maybe my bounty stuff will be useful in something like taxis.

I found this article here.

Builder Broker DIFM

So, one of my old ideas of the automating the contracting of building buildings is starting to seem more of like a good idea.  I just read an article on TechCrunch about the Do It For Me (DIFM) company is actually something that is a viable startup idea.  However, I believe that with the DIFM model my builder broker idea should work.  The current software solutions require a lot of manual work and data entry.  There are many many small business building contractors.  I think I need to think about this idea more…  I will write soon.

A similar tool is Angies List they provide detailed reviews of handymen and other services and provide a “storefront” for them.  However, they only provide a list.

https://www.thumbtack.com/ is very similar to my idea, however they were smart and generalized and made it for anything you want done.  Basically you can get quotes from general contractors if you want a large job done.  Or you can hire a dj or a photographer etc.

What my idea I think was proposing is the elimination of the need for the general contractor.  That they would be replaced by my system.  However, I believe that they would be useful in other respects.  I wanted something that could scale to large scale contracts.  That is also something that I don’t think that thumbtack or angies list could offer.  However, I’m not sure I could either.  Most of the information is social.  You need contacts, you need to know what sort of permits are required.  A vision for the overall plan is required.

 

There are sites that monitor the permit offices that people submit building permits to so that builders can find jobs!!!  www.constructionmonitor.com  The system that I would build would eliminate the need for such monitoring.  We would come to you.