Challenge 1: "Write a script to encode/decode Roman numerals. For example,
given Roman numeral CCXLVI, it should return 246. Similarly, for decimal
number 39, it should return XXXIX."

My notes: That's a nice problem, let's have a go.


Challenge 2: "Write a to find Jaro-Winkler distance between two strings."

My notes:

WTF is Jaro-Winkler, read wikipedia page, well Jaro-Winkler is a
simple prefix adjustment to the Jaro distance, but the wikipedia page
explaining Jaro distances is not very clear - it describes it in terms
of matched characters and transposed characters, but it's description
of matching within a range, and of how to count transposed characters
is almost completely unclear.  I couldn't write code based on such a
poor description!

But googling further, Rosetta Stone had various implementations in
various languages (including C and Perl), which clarifies the terribly
unclear wikipedia entry.  Ok, I basically understand it now.  Transposed
characters are matching characters that are diferent, eg TH vs HT

So I'll have a go anyway, although I ran out of time to do it in the
weekly challenge (and I screwed up the git side of things, so couldn't
submit it late either).