• @lustyargonian@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    127 months ago

    Binary search only works on sorted data, i.e. you know which side of the mid point is pointing towards the incident. If the incident leaves no trail, you can’t know whether you can discard the left side or the right side, making it a complicated linear search at that moment.

    • Cosmic Cleric
      link
      fedilink
      English
      -177 months ago

      If the incident leaves no trail, you can’t know whether you can discard the left side or the right side

      There’s a moment where the bike is there, then another when its not. The whole video, either way, will either from the beginning up to the point of theft have the bike there, or NOT have the bike there from the point of theft to the end of the video. The marker is the removal of the bike from the video lens.

      • @starman2112@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        97 months ago

        But the comment you replied to wasn’t talking about bike thefts specifically, it was talking about unspecified situations that don’t leave traces. You responded to someone saying that binary search doesn’t work in situations that don’t leave cues not by arguing against the premise (e.g. “but no such event exists, everything leaves cues”), but by telling them that you simply have to look for the cues from the hypothetical event that didn’t leave any.

        • Cosmic Cleric
          link
          fedilink
          English
          -127 months ago

          but by telling them that you simply have to look for the cues from the hypothetical event that didn’t leave any.

          And my point is that the DID leave a clue that a binary search would pick up on, the disappearance of the bike.

          • @starman2112@sh.itjust.works
            link
            fedilink
            97 months ago

            But it didn’t, because if it did then it would fall under the second paragraph of their comment, where they said that binary search would be useful. The comment isn’t just talking about bike thefts.

            • Cosmic Cleric
              link
              fedilink
              English
              -127 months ago

              The comment isn’t just talking about bike thefts.

              The OP is, as well as binary searches. Both are being discussed.

              • @starman2112@sh.itjust.works
                link
                fedilink
                87 months ago

                The OP is, but the comment you replied to isn’t. They expanded on the original post, and said that while binary search is useful in that situation (along with many others), it would be useless in other situations.