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A thousand hours is just above 10 days (assuming you run on a single CPU), so I guess most of us have a spare computer lying about which means that it should be able to handle this data.

As for the 1,000,000 hours? A genetic algorithm that runs through all the publically available data on deals made by the government looking for anything out of the ordinary to flesh out corruption.

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Am I missing something? 1000 hrs /(24 hrs/day) = 41.67 days

And I don't think 'genetic algorithm' means what you think it means. All a GA does is try to find the max/min of some function. It is basically just hill climbing with a bit of randomness and a catchy name.

To find 'fishy' transactions you would use some sort of unsupervised machine learning algorithm to identify patterns/clusters in data (and that's starting an entirely different discussion).

You are right on both counts. I mentally misplaced the comma somewhere, but the point that that machine is no more powerful that what I guess most people here have stacked around somewhere.

As for the generic algorithm, you are _also_ right.

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