From: Louis J Scoras <louis.j.scoras@...>
Date: 2006-10-28T01:08:43+09:00
Subject: Re: [QUIZ] Fuzzy Time (#99)

On 10/27/06, ara.t.howard@noaa.gov <ara.t.howard@noaa.gov> wrote:
>
> it seems like #2 and #3 contradict one another.

Indeed.  I take it that the challenge of the quiz is to come up with a
way to balance out the two goals.  The purpose for requirement 2 is
that you don't want the user to be able to deduce the actual time
based on when you switch from one output to the next.  The problem
with doing that as a simple random selection is that you get wildly
differing ranges.

> +/- 5 minutes from reality.

Is problematic, as you point out Ara.  The example

> For example, if the time is actually 10:37, the program might
> output "10:3~" or "10:4~" (but not "10:2~" or "10:5~").

however, is much more lenient.  You don't have to round down, you just
can't pick a number from a different section.  (10:3~ is not +/-5 of
10:37 obviously).


I gather that there would be some pretty simple ways you can dampen
the latter effect while still preventing the user from easily guessing
the actual time.


-- 
Lou.