Where's Waldo? Now You Can Use An Algorithm To Find Him

Regular people search until they’re dizzy to find Waldo. Programming geeks apparently find him quickly with an algorithm. It’s just one more reason why geeks rock. Now that I’ve worked with Richard every day for almost three years, I’ve learned that programmers/coders think differently than most people. It’s a good kind of different, and it takes logic to a whole new level. When an ordinary person like me tries to solve a complex problem, he or she uses common problem solving techniques like research, asking questions, trial and error, etc.

On the other hand, when a coder tries to solve a problem, it’s a little bit different. He or she simply creates an algorithm, and it’s done. When I read about this story, it reminded me of all the times Richard and I have laughed about algorithms. To this day, I have no idea exactly how they work, but I still love it when he makes them for us at Bit Rebels because they always makes things work much easier. They provide information that we wouldn’t be able to get any other way.

Apparently Stack Overflow user Heike thinks the same way. He created an algorithm to solve one of life’s most frustrating and time consuming questions, and that is, where’s Waldo? When you read through his code and the thought pattern behind it, you’ll be energized, exhilarated and excited by the simple yet brilliant logic. Well, that is, if you are a computer geek. He filtered out all the colors that aren’t red, he found a way to locate the red and white in Waldo’s shirt, he studied the pixels, he messed with the levels in the image so that it wouldn’t give false positives, etc. Ya’ll coders are geniuses. #justsayin