tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6051744883907551402.post4697809003256935537..comments2024-03-27T19:11:37.620-04:00Comments on You Don't Say: More than one in ten is OKJohn McIntyrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03559687583130468871noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6051744883907551402.post-10307688618808162242010-03-08T11:13:05.975-05:002010-03-08T11:13:05.975-05:00In a programming class, we were told that the prac...In a programming class, we were told that the practice was to line up all the soldiers in a circle. You kill every tenth one but there's no "end of the line." You just keep killing every tenth soldier around the circle, until only one survives. A gory sort of eeny meeny miney moe, and a way to interpret "decimate" as "kill almost everyone."<br /><br />The assignment was to calculate, given any starting number of soldiers, which line position you should take to guarantee your survival.<br /><br />I have no idea if this ever was a real practice or just something some computer scientist thought up after getting beaten up by a ROTC bully.jupiter9noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6051744883907551402.post-18577005290489353342010-03-08T09:50:26.174-05:002010-03-08T09:50:26.174-05:00I am decimated by this revelation.I am decimated by this revelation.Oscar the Statuettenoreply@blogger.com