Monday, December 20, 2004
A long time ago, in a land far, far away, there was a beautiful Princess. Of her many suitors, there was only one in the land who was able to solve her father's riddle and win her hand in marriage. The King, foolishly, had designed a riddle that could be modeled by a finite state automaton and solved in polynomial time, and thus the winner of this connubial contest was Hu, the local computer science graduate student. Being a man of his word, the King decided to throw a magnificent ball to showcase the new couple.
The great hall was decorated, a feast was prepared, and invitations went out to all the other royals and grad students. The Princess and Hu waited near the entrance for guests to arrive. As the time approached, Hu decided to use the lavatory before the party began. The Princess, seeing where he was going and noting that the bathroom was right near where the guests would congregate to congratulate the couple, asked for and received confirmation from Hu that he was going to go "number one."
Several minutes went by and the Princess began to worry. She heard a flush and Hu opened the bathroom door, releasing the most noxious cloud of excremental stench she had ever experienced. The Princess fainted and hit her head on the stone floor, going into the coma that she is still in to this day. People around the world still recount the story of the Princess who didn't know that computer scientists start counting with zero.
The great hall was decorated, a feast was prepared, and invitations went out to all the other royals and grad students. The Princess and Hu waited near the entrance for guests to arrive. As the time approached, Hu decided to use the lavatory before the party began. The Princess, seeing where he was going and noting that the bathroom was right near where the guests would congregate to congratulate the couple, asked for and received confirmation from Hu that he was going to go "number one."
Several minutes went by and the Princess began to worry. She heard a flush and Hu opened the bathroom door, releasing the most noxious cloud of excremental stench she had ever experienced. The Princess fainted and hit her head on the stone floor, going into the coma that she is still in to this day. People around the world still recount the story of the Princess who didn't know that computer scientists start counting with zero.
