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From: (Steve Hayes)
Subject: Re: Need for a six degrees program
Date: Fri, 22 Aug 2003 03:05:22 GMT
References: <3f3dfc2e.65776289@news.saix.net> <Xns93DAEF2A4BAB8delirious@203.97.37.6> <3F44B74B.3DF7EC92@worldnet.att.net>


On Thu, 21 Aug 2003 12:13:33 GMT, wrote:

>
>
>Lesley Walker wrote:
>>
>> (Steve Hayes) wrote:
>> > May I suggest that instead of developing yet another genealogy
>> > program, since there are already more than enough of those,
>> > someone devise a "six degrees" program. This is where the real
>> > need seems to be.
>> >
>> > This is based on the proposition that everyone on earth is no
>> > more than six degrees of relationship away from anyone else. In
>> > other words, my wife's cousin's boss's dog's mother's owner's
>> > best friend's daughter knows me.
>>
>> It's an interesting idea, but if I was designing it I'd hate to have
>> to figure out how to represent all those relationships in a database
>> and keep them consistent. The error-checking required would be truly
>> horrible.
>
>How will you represent the unknown "milkman" factor?

With a milk bottle icon.

>Or even worse, the DAFN relationships in the 'hood where
>there are so much unstructured sexual relations that the
>principals have no idea who is *really* related to whom?

Easy - just use the same principle as for OHMS and ENFP relationships.

>Better to have one giant DNA database, like Howard University's
>African Roots program, and a Monte Carlo styled code to produce
>a list of people/probabilities/closeness-of-relationship of
>any two people...

Would that cover my dog's father's breeder's niece?


--
Steve Hayes
E-mail:
Web: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7734/stevesig.htm
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7783/

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