Philip Fitzsimons

"when ordering samples from out entire collection, be sure to start with the correct seed"

hmm, interesting

"sample" and wave files... and "order" with "entire collection"
implies data might be held at perfect number offsets in the data chunk?

Very, very late ;-) this handles whitespace and number etc (closer to a real palindrome rather than byte symmetry)
 

static bool IsPalindrome(string subject)
{
  const int STEP_FORWARD = 1;
  const int STEP_BACKWARD = -STEP_FORWARD;
  const int BEFORE_START = -1;
  const int CHAR_AT_A_TIME = 1;
  const int COMPARE_EQUALS = 0;



  
  // assume its not a palindrome
  bool result = false;

  
  // how to compare
  CompareInfo ci = CultureInfo.CurrentCulture.CompareInfo;
  CompareOptions co =
    CompareOptions.IgnoreCase |
    CompareOptions.IgnoreKanaType |
    CompareOptions.IgnoreNonSpace |
    CompareOptions.IgnoreSymbols |
    CompareOptions.IgnoreWidth;

  
  // null strings are not palindromes
  if (subject != null)
  {
    int AFTER_END = subject.Length;
  
    // single letter words are palindromes
    result = (AFTER_END == 1 && IsPalindromeChar(subject[0]));
  
    // start the comparison points at valid characters
    int startOffset = GetNextValidCharacter(subject, BEFORE_START, STEP_FORWARD, AFTER_END);
    int endOffset = GetNextValidCharacter(subject, AFTER_END, STEP_BACKWARD, BEFORE_START);
  
    while (startOffset < endOffset)
    {
      result = ci.Compare(subject, startOffset, CHAR_AT_A_TIME, subject, endOffset, CHAR_AT_A_TIME, co) == COMPARE_EQUALS;
    
      if (!result)
        break;

      
      // move the comparison points towards each other
      startOffset = GetNextValidCharacter(subject, startOffset, STEP_FORWARD, endOffset);
      endOffset = GetNextValidCharacter(subject, endOffset, STEP_BACKWARD, startOffset);
    }
  }
 
  return result;
}

 
static int GetNextValidCharacter(string subject, int offset, int step, int bound)
{
  if (offset != bound)
    offset += step;

  while (offset != bound && !IsPalindromeChar(subject[offset]))
    offset += step;

  return offset;
}
 
static bool IsPalindromeChar(char c)
{
  return char.IsLetter(c) || char.IsDigit(c);
}

more on palindromes on my blog