HP researcher claims proof that P != NP

[Ian Mason]

On 12 Aug 2010, at 08:12, Ian Batten wrote:

>
> The decision problem that is NP-complete is the weaker "is there a  
> tour that is shorter than a given number".   That's clearly much  
> easier to check that the tour being the shortest.  If I claim you  
> can buy a ticket from Cambridge to London for no more than £X and  
> show you a ticket for £X, that's the end of it.  If I claim you can  
> buy a ticket from Cambridge to London for no _less_ than £X, so X  
> is a minimum, I can't simply show you a proof without a lengthy  
> exercise in considering whether season tickets between arbitrary  
> pairs of stations, such as Finsbury Park to Liverpool Street, may  
> be involved :-)
>
> ian
>
>

Why does this make me think you've had long conversations with Mr.  
Feather before? :)

T'other Ian