I've posed the same question to viggity, but in case you only see this in your 'threads' view: how did you know about the existence of this algorithm? Do you:

- Simply know about it, because it was mentioned once, somewhere in a book on algorithms or a class and you remembered it when you knew what you needed?

- Knew what you needed and searched for it. If so, how do you know where to search and what terms do you use?

- Rediscover the algorithm, because you knew what you needed, implemented it and recognized it only later?

I don't have a formal CS background and I sometimes get stuck on: I know what I need and I'm sure someone has implemented it before (and better), but I don't know how to get at that information.