Hey all,

This is an odd question, but I've got my first chance to actually do some paid programming work (ever) and I have to know that I'm capable of solving the problem he's laid out for me before I accept the project. If you'll please help by looking over the example problem for a short minute, I'd really appreciate it.

I'm going to look like a complete math beginner here, but after looking over his description of the basic problem this function needs to solve, I still have some questions. I'm hoping you guys can give me some insight into what his instructions mean, because I understand them like 80% -- and I'm not sure whether the last 20% is missing because I'm not qualified or because his instructions are confusing.

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To solve this type of problem laid out in Doc1, even if it were much more complicated than the example, I'd still just write a function that sums the distance over various aisles (the "P sub M"s) for each combination of picks (i.e. each element of K*) and then picks the lowest possible summated distance (finds the lowest value of P). Correct?

As long as I know the probability of each aisle being chosen and he gives me the function or information I need to determines the distance for each aisle, it should be easy. The only inputs for the function would be M (number of aisles) and N (number of picks), correct?

I'm not sure I have everything figured out right, but I'm willing to work very hard and fast to get it figured out. (On that note, how does "h" feed back into the equation. It says to find E

for a given value of h, but then h doesn't reappear later in the description. I'm afraid I may be misunderstanding something.)

If you're able to give it a quick look over I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks

P.S. I know that on these forums there's a strict rule against people who lazily ask others to do their homework for them, etc. But I'd like people to know that I'm making an honest effort to learn. If this turns out to be a project I'm not qualified for, I at least want to know how to understand and solve similar problems in the future. It's been a long time (about six years) since I took a math class in school. Thanks again.

EDIT: It appears the first document didn't upload correctly. He had the example problem in a .docx file, but the problem was actually in the form of two images pasted in that file. Here they are.

[attachment=16649:Example1.jpg]

[attachment=16648:Example2.jpg]

P.S. I know that on these forums there's a strict rule against people who lazily ask others to do their homework for them, etc. But I'd like people to know that I'm making an honest effort to learn. If this turns out to be a project I'm not qualified for, I at least want to know how to understand and solve similar problems in the future. It's been a long time (about six years) since I took a math class in school. Thanks again.

It looks like you're doing someone else's homework, or maybe someone else's job. Anyway, this paper seems to be what your client is referring to. If you understand the paper, you'll probably be able to write the code. Whoever gave this to you must be a very lazy person, to cut that out of context without even the full explanation for all the variables involved. I don't believe you're lazy, though.

http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~batta/iie.pdf

Wow. That explains why the client was such a bear to deal with. I told him I understood most of his explanation, but that some of it was incomprehensible because it was missing some context.

He basically rudely acted as if I weren't qualified and turned me down for the project after a few emails back and forth. I'm not exactly missing out though, as he turned unprofessional quickly.

Thanks for the link. Seems like he's trying to contract out a job he doesn't actually know how to do. Sucks for the people who hired him.

EDIT: As I look over this document more... it's clear this guy is fraudulently representing himself as a qualified person for the job he currently has. I got the project on eLance, where I usually do technical writing gigs. But I decided to throw out a few offers on small programming jobs. He was the only bite. It seems pretty clear he's trying to take his job (which he didn't even fully understand enough to be able to adequately explain the problem to me), split it up into bite-size pieces, and contract it out on eLance. I remember him being unusually adamant that my work look "professional" -- most likely because it's his professionalism that's on the line.

I know.

(I do think I'd have gotten paid if I'd done it -- eLance is pretty good about making that happen, in my experience. He's gotta come back for other homework assignments, after all, so ripping people off won't get him very far.)