RE: Puzzle Solution

[mgutzwiller@lanvision.com]

Ah ha.  I thought about this and knew it was a high order, low order problem
but couldn't figure out the specifics.  Now it makes sense.

Congrats to Andrew and Tom for figuring it out.

Mike G.


		-----Original Message-----
		From:	Tom Droege [mailto:droege@fnal.gov]
		Sent:	Tuesday, October 20, 1998 1:04 PM
		To:	tass@wwa.com
		Subject:	Puzzle Solution

		I would like to congratulate Andrew Bennett for correctly
solving the
		puzzle.  Below is his complete solution:

		>
		>It looks a lot like you are getting the wrong high order
		>byte - either the one before or the one after.
		>
		>Andrew Bennett, Avondale Vineyard, Nova Scotia, Canada.
		>
		>

		Note that this is a very deceptive prblem.  When random data
is taken which
		has a narrow distribution, it appears to be just fine.  That
is because the
		data is random and it does not care that the bytes are mixed
up.  It still
		gives a nice plot.  It is only when the total spread of the
distribution
		exceeds 256 that funny things start to happen.  First there
are "side lobes"
		spaced by 256 counts.  For a broad enough distribution, the
"Sears Tower"
		shape with 256 counts between steps occurs.  This is
devious, and leads one
		to search for temperature effects - the problem first
appeard when I raised
		the temperature to study the dark current.

		Tom Droege