One thing that may surprise most people is that my programming skills are self-taught. I know only enough programming and enough writing and enough math to have solved whatever problem was facing me in the trench that day. Luckily, I learn really fast, but I just have to have the right problem to chew on, and see the proper "next steps" so I don't get completely swirled.

So, those of you with letters after your names have an advantage, because you got some book learnin' that I haven't gotten around to doing yet. That's what I was hoping to leverage from here.

It occurred to me that the problem might be small enough that some sort of more direct (non-genetic) algorithm might do the job, but I knew that this "bear of very little brane" would get a faster result by applying things that I could learn in an afternoon, not a week. {grin}