> Since people are posting their solutions now (originally only hints > were provided for the homework problem), here's mine:
Well, I never really said it was a homework problem. Sure there are more implications to my question that I had first imagined and I'm really happy I could get so many insights but the question did originate from a real problem I was facing in my research. Thanks to everyone for the wonderful thread so far Francesco -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list