(February 24th, 2013, 05:02)SevenSpirits Wrote: The question does seem to place a limit on the number of prisoners, it just says "not 1000". I don't know you're supposed to decide the "best" method of the infinite remaining ones.
999 is enough...if no one dies the untapped bottle is your loser.
I started working out a method using CRC codes, but its tough to drum up the enthusiasm for some reason. Anyway I'd be surprised if adapting techniques used for linear or convolutional codes in communications systems fails to produce an interesting answer.
Darrell