[OT] Retreating from Iraq AT THE SAME TIME

[Benji Smith]

Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
> Let's reconsider the problem of retreating from Iraq, with a twist.
> Grace to new technology, teleconferencing is now possible. All direct
> subordinates of any officer can be called SIMULTANEOUSLY. So there is no
> more need for one officer to call each subordinate in sequence; he or 
> she will call them all at once. Cool!
> 
> However, now the demands also increased. Your task, should you yadda
> yadda, is to devise a schedule for teleconferenced such that EVERY rank
> and file soldier finds the news at EXACTLY the same time. That means you
> must insert some delays in the system. However, you should insert as few
> delays as possible, and also to ensure there is minimal global delay
> from the moment the President picks up the phone to the moment soldiers
> get the news.
> 
> Be warned: this is quite a different problem than the previous one in
> spite of the similarities. You may want to start from scratch instead of
> adapting an algorithm suitable for the previous problem.
> 
> 
> Good luck!
> 
> Andrei

Hmmmmmm. Does each officer have the *option* of calling subordinates at 
different times? Can an officer have a conference call with all of his 
subordinates who have subordinates of their own, delaying a call with 
the leaf-node privates until later? If not, I can't imagine there's any 
generalizable solution...

--benji