Checksum Arcanius

Now it is sunny.

Pretty big news breaking today about a possible breakthrough on the P vs NP problem, probably the most important unsolved problem in computer science today. Everyone suspects, to a degree bordering on knowledge, that P != NP, but no one has been able to prove that it is the case. Falsifying this belief (that is to say, proving that P = NP) would be rather catastrophic for cryptography and very shocking to everyone in computer science, although perhaps it would also unlock amazing new possibilities in computer algorithms. According to a recently distributed (leaked?) paper, cryptographers can remain calm since P != NP. Even though this is what people believe, its proof would be a significant milestone for computer science.

I promptly downloaded the paper, and as I suspected it was way out of my ability to comprehend without looking things up every few seconds at least, so if I really want to dive into the proof, I’d have to devote a lot more time to it, and if I really want to understand it I will have to devote years of study to complexity theory — assuming I’m smart enough to even get there. Nevertheless, if you want to take a look at the paper, but don’t want to download it from the login-required Scribd link that everyone seems to be sharing, you can grab it here.

Pretty epic afternoon ride today. I started by searching out the Old La Honda Road climb to Skyline Boulevard (I took a wrong turn the first time and had to loop around to find it again), and then I headed south on Skyline all the way down to Black Road, which turned out to be a pretty crazy descent down to Highway 17. I found my way across, and then encountered an unexpected gravel descent on the Los Gatos Creek Trail. A mountain bike would have been appropriate at that point, but I survived. I then made my way back via Los Gatos-Saratoga Road and Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road before stopping for dinner at In-N-Out on El Camino and finishing up the ride. Skyline turned out to whip me pretty well, and I was struggling to keep up the pace on the flats afterward. Half of that is mental discipline, and the other half is physical readiness. At any rate, I haven’t been this sore after a ride since last year’s Seattle to Portland bike ride, which was more than three times as long.

• Distance: 66 miles / 106 km
• Time: 4:50:51
• Average Speed: 13.6 mph / 21.9 kph
• Max speed: 39.2 mph / 63.0
• Cumulative ascent: 3820 ft / 1164 m

MapMyRide.com says 40.5 miles; My odometer said 43 point something — the truth is somewhere in there, as I did a few side sprints.

These days, my body is betraying me
more frequently. A couple hours into frisbee practice today, my left calf
started cramping, and it has continued to plague me for at least half an hour. I’m now sitting in my car outside of trader joes trying to work up the courage to put up with the pain that will ensue as I limp in to buy bananas and pickles, which I don’t even like. Needless to say, I’ve had better days.

Two takeaways: drink more water in general, and especially at these 90-degree practices, and eat more bananas. I don’t think I’ll develop a pickle habit anytime soon.

The two ties in group C today makes the group’s final two games very interesting. The good news is that the US controls its own destiny — a win against Algeria guarantees entry into the next round. However, there is a lot that can still happen, even with a US tie:

After pulling two long days at work before my vacation, I woke up around nine this morning, and commenced final preparations to head to the airport. My friend Chaitanya, who just got his California driver’s license, graciously agreed to drive me to the airport in my NEW CAR (I still need to post about that…)

On the way to the airport, I found out that one of my code changes yesterday was causing an issue with a unit test this morning. After making it through security, I had a few minutes at the gate, and so I got to work investigating and fixing the bug. I managed to figure it out and submit a patch, but a coworker had to commit the patch for me, as I had to get onto the plane.

The plane ride was about twice as long as I am have gotten used to — just under 4 hours in the air — but was mostly uneventful. I watched the scenery for a while (I hope air travel never gets old for me), worked my way through more of The Kite Runner, and ordered some surprisingly good food.

After making it to CVG (Named after Covington, Kentucky, but really, Cincinatti’s airport) about 30 minutes late, I sat down and checked the status of the now-fixed bug (everyone was happy), and then pretty quickly boarded the next plane, a small commuter jet. I arrived in Grand Rapids about 3 hours ago and then my brother’s entire family (Ben, Kaylee, and Cora) came to pick me up.

Now on to some Michigan adventures!