Would a Computer Programmer-Type Person Please E-Mail Me?

… I have something I’d like to discuss off-board. My e-mail address is rastahomie@hotmail.com

Please put the letters SDMB in the subject line so I don’t throw your message into the spam bin.

That is all.

Thank you.

You might want to be a little more specific about what you are seeking.

What type of programmer?
Systems? (PC? Unix/Linux? Mainframe?)
DataBase? (Design? Management? on what sort of platform?)
Communications? Networking?
Business applications? (Financial? Manufacturing? Sales? using mainframe? client/server? web-based?)
Web design?
Games?
Other?

What sort of information?
How to get a job?
Worth it to go into programming?
Fix a specific problem?
Fix your personal computer?
Validate the ethics or competence of a computer program you’ve encountered?
Other?

Your request is just a leetle open ended.

Hint taken.

I need somebody to write & run a program that will run a relatively simple equation with a few variables and show the results. I imagine it can be done in twenty minutes with Linux™, but since I don’t know the first thing about programming I’m S.O.L. on doing it myself.

What language? If you want it in BASIC, I can write it in about 5 minutes. Post the specs and you’ll get a plethora of programs, which would be a pain to deal with, but better than none.

You’ve come to the right place, but we need a little more information than what you’ve given to write a good program.

I think he/she wants a shell script.

Iteki volunteered to help out, but he/she couldn’t get around the math (and since I’m no math whiz, I have no idea). So, in case anyone else wants to bite, here’s what I need:

I’m looking for a program that will determine the most likely outcomes of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, under certain conditions. My conditions are: that every game is won by the team with the higher seed unless the difference in seeds is one point (for example, an 8 vs. 9 game); and that only teams ranked 1 or 2 participate in the Final Four.

I imagine that, under these conditions, there are about 4,000-6,000 possible outcomes, but I freely admit that my math may be way off.

For those who don’t understand that basic structure of the tournament, here is a link to last year’s results. You’ll notice that the tournament is a single elimnation tournament with four divisions, sixteen teams in each division. If you disregard the names of the teams, you can visualize each team as being represented by a number (its seed). Thus, for the Midwest division, the first games are: 1/16, 8/9, 5/12, 4/13, 6/11, 3/14, 7/10 and 2/15. The winners (in this program) would be 1, (8 or 9), 5, 4, 6, 3, 7 & 2. In the second round, the games would be 1/(8 or 9), 5/4, 6/3, and 7/2. The winners of round 2 would be 1, (5 or 4), 3 and 2. And so on…

If anyone thinks they can develop such a program, I welcome them to take a stab at it. I can’t pay you, so if you want to do it purely for the challenge, then go for it.

TIA

This is a pattern 1/16, 2/15, 3/14, 4/13, 5/12, 6/11, 7/10, 8/9. Isn’t this pattern the same, always - so you could do this by hand, once? Or do you have some other aim?

One minor glitch, there are 65 teams chosen this year. No problem though, the winner of that first game will probably have to play Duke :slight_smile:

http://www.sportsline.com/collegebasketball/exclusives/projectingtheseeds

I have played these “sheets” every year. Taking all the favorites is usually a bad idea, there will be tons of sheets with all the favorites in the final 4. How often do ALL the favorites make the final 4? I’d say it’s probably never happened.

Here’s some bracket history:

http://bracketville.tripod.com/

But there are four divisions, each with the same pattern, so that leaves 16 possible outcomes for the first round alone (using my conditions). Then, each of those 16 outcomes will have several more outcomes for the second round, and so on…

Yeah, I understand this. But in my scenario, the Final Four could include any combination of either the first or second seeds from each division. I think you can reasonably expect that at least three of the teams in the Final Four will be either 1 or 2 seeds.

I think that is a somewhat reasonable assumption. The things is, that fourth team is the one that makes your sheet a winner :slight_smile:

For any one bracket, there are only 12 possible outcomes:

Winner 1:
1/2
1/4 2/3
1/8 2/7 3/6 4/5
1/16 2/15 3/14 4/13 5/12 6/11 7/10 8/9

Winner 1:
1/2
1/4 2/3
1/9 2/7 3/6 4/5
1/16 2/15 3/14 4/13 5/12 6/11 7/10 8/9

Winner 1:
1/2
1/5 2/3
1/8 2/7 3/6 4/5
1/16 2/15 3/14 4/13 5/12 6/11 7/10 8/9

Winner 1:
1/2
1/5 2/3
1/9 2/7 3/6 4/5
1/16 2/15 3/14 4/13 5/12 6/11 7/10 8/9

Winner 1:
1/3
1/4 2/3
1/8 2/7 3/6 4/5
1/16 2/15 3/14 4/13 5/12 6/11 7/10 8/9

Winner 1:
1/3
1/4 2/3
1/9 2/7 3/6 4/5
1/16 2/15 3/14 4/13 5/12 6/11 7/10 8/9

Winner 1:
1/3
1/5 2/3
1/8 2/7 3/6 4/5
1/16 2/15 3/14 4/13 5/12 6/11 7/10 8/9

Winner 1:
1/3
1/5 2/3
1/9 2/7 3/6 4/5
1/16 2/15 3/14 4/13 5/12 6/11 7/10 8/9

Winner 2:
1/2
1/4 2/3
1/8 2/7 3/6 4/5
1/16 2/15 3/14 4/13 5/12 6/11 7/10 8/9

Winner 2:
1/2
1/4 2/3
1/9 2/7 3/6 4/5
1/16 2/15 3/14 4/13 5/12 6/11 7/10 8/9

Winner 2:
1/2
1/5 2/3
1/8 2/7 3/6 4/5
1/16 2/15 3/14 4/13 5/12 6/11 7/10 8/9

Winner 2:
1/2
1/5 2/3
1/9 2/7 3/6 4/5
1/16 2/15 3/14 4/13 5/12 6/11 7/10 8/9

So for all 4 brackets, that would be 12[sup]4[/sup] = 20736 possible combinations. Taking into account which team wins each match-up for the Final Four makes that 165888 total outcomes that fit your model.