[OT] Retreating from Iraq AT THE SAME TIME

[Andrei Alexandrescu]

Benji Smith wrote:
> 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...

Each officer can only wait for a specified time before calling all 
direct subordinates. You need to figure out how long each officer waits.

Andrei