inconsequential ruminations

8 Responses to “Math Trade Conclusion”

1. Southernman Says:
   May 13th, 2006 at 20:31

   I missed this (don’t log onto the geek that much these days), if another one gets going drop me a line.

   cheers
   Tom

2. Mikko Says:
   May 15th, 2006 at 06:09

   Thanks for pointing this out to me. I don’t think board game math trades would work in Finland (well, maybe I should try), but I’ve organised two math trades for metal cd’s – first had about 220 cd’s and almost 30 trades, the second has about 400 cd’s and at least 50-60 trades (haven’t finished that one yet). I’m also machinating a math trade for used console games. That seems to work, too.

   So, thanks for mentioning this, I’m not sure if I’d have bumped into this elsewhere.

3. Iain Says:
   May 15th, 2006 at 06:59

   You should definitely try it in Finland. You seem to know enough people.

   Those math trades you are running look enormous. The processing time for TradeGenie must be huge.

4. Mikko Says:
   May 15th, 2006 at 08:16

   Nope, the times are actually quite tolerable. People post huge lists, but only fairly small percentage of the discs are actually wanted by someone. The current big list has right now (missing one want list) 99 wanted discs.

   For that amount, TradeGenie finds a good solution (62 trades) in just minutes. Of course, it might find something better in a looong time, but that’s good enough for me.

   I think the expensive shipping might be a problem with a Finnish trade and also the lack of active traders. There are lots of gamers, but the amount of people who, for example, sell used games on the Board Game Society forum is very small, and I think it’s that group that would participate in a trade.

   However, I was thinking about organizing a math trade for people who are coming to Helcon in November – if the trades could be done there without postal delivery costs, it would work better. I’ll probably try it if I’m going to Helcon.

5. Iain Says:
   May 15th, 2006 at 09:37

   It took ages to find a solution for the UK Math Trade. My machine could not handle it at all.

   You should do it. It’s such an elegant solution to trading.

6. Mikko Says:
   May 15th, 2006 at 15:03

   Interesting. Are you running slow machines? But maybe it’s about the parameters… We have more items per participants and thus not that many different want lists. Perhaps that makes it a lot easier to find the trades.

7. Iain Says:
   May 15th, 2006 at 15:33

   I do have a very slow laptop, so I’m sure that’s most of the problem. You could be right that the parameters are the problem. It must be quite complex to go through all the possibilities.

8. Mikko Says:
   May 15th, 2006 at 16:17

   Well, it is NP-Hard, which means (as far as I know, and I’m first to confess I know very little of what I’m talking about) the only solutions (if there’s a solution) are exponential in time, which means slow computing. Trying every solution can take time, if there are lots of elements in the trade.

   Fortunately there’s no need to have an optimal solution; a good one is quite enough.

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