Comments on: Happy Saturday

By: Lisa

Lisa — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 19:41:13 +0000

Wow. Its amazing what programming can do these days. I think the puzzle would have been much more difficult if the tiles were all the same color, rather than different colors.

By: frank206

frank206 — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 19:07:02 +0000

I used to have the same puzzle as a kid, I think. It could make several different shapes and you had to figure them out. I never had the patience for it. I love that you went outside of the box and wrote the script – GENIUS! I don’t think I would have the patience to write that either. What a great Saturday!

By: Deverill

Deverill — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 19:07:01 +0000

Wow, nice solution. It is great to see programmers go to great lengths to solve things with programs rather than just figuring it out. Of course, we have to figure it out to solve it in a way.

It reminds me of my high school days writing a program on a TRS-80 in BASIC to balance chemistry equations. It was fun to program but it didn’t make chemistry any better. lol

By: F2

F2 — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 02:59:20 +0000

Spiffy!

By: bombart

bombart — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 13:06:41 +0000

Hey what font do you use in your Emacs? I like the curly brackets & by the way cool puzzle.

By: Chris Cunningham

Chris Cunningham — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 12:31:26 +0000

It boggles the mind that you would choose a language other than Python for this. Not least because it’s solving a bleedin’ snake…

– Chris

By: tecosystems » links for 2008-11-09

tecosystems » links for 2008-11-09 — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 01:06:04 +0000

[...] Nat Friedman â€º Happy Saturday yet another example of why i am not a developer by trade (tags: script ruby programming puzzle natfriedman example development) [...]

By: kbob

kbob — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 17:04:17 +0000

Hah! I did exactly the same thing. My script has a timestamp of Dec 10, 2006, and my wife got the puzzle in the summer of 2006.

By: nat

nat — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 15:49:42 +0000

@Tony – yes, the plastic wrist rests come with the keyboard.

@fsu – Wow, burrtools looks really neat.

By: michael

michael — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 14:28:20 +0000

The script isn’t useless at all Nat. It’s an excellent intro to Ruby and a good demonstration of problem abstraction.

Good job!

By: Tony

Tony — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 13:36:17 +0000

Hi Nat,

does that keyboard ship with the wrist rest part we see in the picture?

By: Rich

Rich — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 11:26:48 +0000

Glad to see you’re blogging again Nat, and that you’re using ruby. Good stuff!

By: nat

nat — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 23:41:12 +0000

I’m a computer geek first, a Linux geek second . I use Linux most of the time, but I have a lot of different computers and gadgets.

By: Cat The Marauder

Cat The Marauder — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 22:57:58 +0000

You’re a Linux developer, so could you please explain to me why I spot a Mac keyboard in the background?

By: fsu

fsu — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 19:08:36 +0000

Nice work!

I had this kind of puzzle to solve:
http://images.google.fi/images?q=Lucifers+Friend+Puzzle

I managed to create script to solve it(using bruteforce) but running that script would take ages.. So, then I searched and found found burrtools:
http://burrtools.sourceforge.net/
(I also packaged it in obs, so you can find it using package search)

Not sure, if it can solve yours one but amazing software.. Solves many kind of puzzles in seconds.

By: Jamie Zawinski

Jamie Zawinski — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 18:52:24 +0000

This is useless until presented in the form of a screen saver.

By: nat

nat — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 17:47:06 +0000

@Hib – it’s the Kinesis Freestyle:

http://www.kinesis-ergo.com/freestyle_pc.htm

I’ve been using it for about a week and I really like it. Typing at a traditional keyboard forces you to collapse your shoulders and tighten your chest muscles the entire day. With a split keyboard your posture is a lot more natural (as natural as sitting for hours and hours at a computer can be, anyway).

I have the 8″ separation model right now, but I’m tall so I’ve ordered the 20″ to give that a try. It’s a bit of a rip-off that they charge $40 for another 12 inches of cable…

By: Hib

Hib — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 17:42:35 +0000

Hi Nat,

I noticed your interesting keyboard in two pieces in the picture. Can you tell which brand and/or model it is? I would like to buy one myself.

By: nat

nat — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 17:07:51 +0000

@Pavol, here’s the specification of your puzzle:

@snake = [ STRAIGHT, STRAIGHT, TURN, TURN, TURN, TURN,
STRAIGHT, TURN, TURN, TURN, TURN, TURN, TURN,
TURN, TURN, STRAIGHT, TURN, STRAIGHT, TURN,
STRAIGHT, TURN, STRAIGHT, TURN, TURN, TURN,
STRAIGHT, nil ]

And here’s the output of the solver:

% ruby puzzle.rb
Solution: Right, Right, Forward, Up, Back, Left, Left, Forward, Down, Forward, Up, Right, Up, Left, Back, Back, Right, Right, Forward, Forward, Down, Down, Left, Back, Up, Up
Solution: Right, Right, Forward, Up, Back, Left, Left, Forward, Down, Forward, Up, Right, Down, Right, Up, Up, Left, Left, Back, Back, Right, Right, Forward, Left, Down, Down
Solution: Right, Right, Forward, Up, Back, Left, Left, Forward, Down, Forward, Up, Right, Down, Right, Up, Up, Back, Back, Left, Left, Forward, Forward, Right, Back, Down, Down
Solution: Right, Right, Up, Forward, Down, Left, Left, Up, Back, Up, Forward, Right, Forward, Left, Down, Down, Right, Right, Up, Up, Back, Back, Left, Down, Forward, Forward
Solution: Right, Right, Up, Forward, Down, Left, Left, Up, Back, Up, Forward, Right, Back, Right, Forward, Forward, Left, Left, Down, Down, Right, Right, Up, Left, Back, Back
Solution: Right, Right, Up, Forward, Down, Left, Left, Up, Back, Up, Forward, Right, Back, Right, Forward, Forward, Down, Down, Left, Left, Up, Up, Right, Down, Back, Back
Found 6 solutions, 2382 deadends

Yours seems to be about 6 times harder (6x lower solution density), assuming I typed it in correctly.

(By the way I started in the lower-right-hand corner of your picture.)

By: Pavol Rusnak

Pavol Rusnak — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 16:17:35 +0000

My girlfriend bought me similar puzzle. When I compared it to yours, it seems that they are not the same. Here’s the photo of mine: http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/8053/dsc0056te8.jpg