• lustyargonian@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    13
    ·
    1 year 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@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 year 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
        arrow-up
        9
        ·
        1 year 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@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 year 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
            arrow-up
            9
            ·
            1 year 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@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              1 year 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
                arrow-up
                9
                ·
                1 year 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.