[CrackMonkey] Think I figgered it out

[Emad El-Haraty]

So _that's_ why they call you Mr. Bad.
I am in your service, use it wisely.

 Emad El-Haraty
	If you can't beat them, arrange to have them beaten.

On 13 Feb 2000, Mr.Bad wrote:

> Now that I think of it, I THINK you can save N - 1 people, using
> parity values.
> 
> Let's say that you assign 0 and 1 to red and blue, respectively. Then
> the first person can give a parity value to the entire rest of the
> group: blue if the sum is odd, and red if the sum is even.
> 
> Each person afterwards hears the responses of the people behind
> him. He can calculate the parity of those behind him from their
> responses. He can see the parity of hats in front of him. So then he
> knows 3 values: total parity, before parity, after parity. (Parity of
> a null group, like the "before" parity of the second person or the
> "after" parity of the last person, is 0).
> 
> If the TOTAL parity is odd, and the parity of the groups before and
> after him are the same, then he knows that he is a 1 (blue). If the
> total parity is odd, and the parity of the groups before and after him
> is different, he knows that he is a 0 (red).
> 
> Similarly, if the total parity is even, and the parity of the groups
> before and after him is different, he knows he is a 1 (blue). If the
> total parity is even, and the parity of the groups before and after
> him is the same, he must be a zero (red).
> 
> That oughtta do it.
> 
> ~Mr. Bad
> 
> --
>  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>  Mr. Bad <mr.bad at pigdog.org> | http://pigdog.org/ |  RoR - Alucard
>  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 
> 
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