TABLE OF CONTENTS A number of years ago I did technical support for a large PC manufacturer. One day I took a call from a customer who complained that his floppy drive would not accept his floppy disk. I have received similar calls many times in the past, and I knew he just wasn t inserting it correctly. After struggling for a few minutes and failing to get him to orient the disk properly, I decided on a new strategy.
I instructed the customer to hold the floppy disk and try to insert it. If it didn t fit in the slot, I told him to rotate it clockwise one turn and try it again. After trying all four sides, I had him flip it over and try the next four sides. I figured that there are only eight possible ways you could insert the disk, so he would eventually find the correct one. He eventually got it, but it somehow took him nine attempts to get it right!
This was essentially a brute-force method of finding the correct way to insert the disk. If you try every possible direction for inserting the disk, you will eventually find the correct one. In this case, it would take a maximum of eight attempts (or maybe nine for some people) to find the correct direction.
At the beginning of the last school year, my son wanted to ride his bike to school but he forgot the combination for his bicycle lock. I looked at...
