The Puzzler Blog

Quote Puzzler Down Time

noreply@blogger.com (Douglas Twitchell) — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 11:02:00 +0000

As many of you have probably already noticed, the Quote Puzzler website is currently unavailable. This issue began last evening and has persisted through the night. I have been in contact with the website's host, and anticipate that the problem will be resolved at some point during the day, though I cannot predict when that will happen. Please check back from time to time during the day to see if the site is back online.

Thank you for your patience.

The Problem Site - Layout Modifications

noreply@blogger.com (Douglas Twitchell) — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 18:07:00 +0000

This has been a very busy year - the addition of a part-time science teacher position to my schedule has meant that I haven't had any time this year to add new games to The Problem Site. However, I did spend some time during February vacation working on some modifications to the site layout.

What you'll notice as the biggest change is that the display has changed to a much wider format. Many schools run a bit "behind" when it comes to technology, and I know that many schools use old monitors with a much lower resolution. This is why, long after most websites have changed to a wider format to match higher resolution monitors, I have kept The Problem Site at a narrower format.

However, the time was finally here to make the change. I think the new format has a much less "claustrophobic" feel to it.

Please feel free to drop me an email commenting on the new format, whether or not you like it!

I've also added a new "High Score" list to both Adders! and Trio Match. This new list is the "Yesterday" list. This way, if you play the game early in the day, and don't get to come back and check the standings later in the day, you can check it the next day to find out how you measured up.

Also, the Entrapment high score list was removed. This list was largely uninteresting to visitors because it was only possible to appear on it by completing every Entrapment puzzle on the site.

I've also added a rudimentary "site search," to help people find the resource they're looking for on The Problem Site. This can be found at the bottom of each page.

Let me know if you have any troubles with any of these new changes!

Thanks,
Doug

Database server issues

noreply@blogger.com (Douglas Twitchell) — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 10:29:00 +0000

Good morning,

For those who are stressing over the unresponsiveness of the Quote Puzzler website this morning, rest assured the issue is being explored.

Unfortunately, as with the previous issue, this is a problem with the hosting company, and we have to wait for them to resolve it. As this is the second time this fall that QP has fallen prey to hosting issues, I may be exploring alternate hosting plans for this site.

In the meantime, check back periodically through the day, and don't attempt the puzzles until it is clear that the site is consistently responsive.

My apologies for the inconvenience this may cause you!

Regards,
Douglas Twitchell
QP Admin

Quote Puzzler & The Problem Site

noreply@blogger.com (Douglas Twitchell) — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 09:52:00 +0000

Good morning. This is just a follow up to yesterday's entry regarding the database problem at Quote Puzzler. The problem seems to be resolved; please notify me if this issue occurs again. Members with a current subscription will receive one extra day to make up for the site's massive down-time yesterday.

This fall is shaping up to be very busy. Between my current web design project I'm working on for a client, the necessary maintenance of existing sites, it looks like I'm going to be adding one more thing into my schedule's mix: part-time high school science teacher.

There are several things on The Problem Site I was hoping to get to this fall, which are probably not going to happen until later on in the year. This includes:

Reopening the level editor for Fizziks Tilt
Adding new games to The Problem Site: Junior Edition
Doing some upgrades and improvements on Trio Match

I'm not sure when I will get to these items, but I hope it will be sometime during this school year. In the meantime, please take note that the BrainFood Weekly Puzzle is up and running again!

Enjoy!
Doug Twitchell

Quote Puzzler Report

noreply@blogger.com (Douglas Twitchell) — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 17:28:00 +0000

During the mid-to-late morning today (Sept 23rd), the Quote Puzzler website lost its ability to connect to the database which runs its games. The database itself is hale and hearty and healthy, as is the site.

But the one will not communicate with the other.

I am working to resolve this issue as speedily as possible; however, much is dependent on the company which hosts both the site and its database, and I can't at this time make predictions when the issue will be resolved.

Those who have already played the games for this day, your scores are recorded, and you need not worry about losing them. Those who are still waiting to play, try again in a few hours.

My apologies for the inconvenience.

Regards,
Douglas Twitchell
QP Admin

Zap!, Gift Subscriptions, High Score Lists

noreply@blogger.com (Douglas Twitchell) — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 11:05:00 +0000

As you might have noticed, there is a new math game on The Problem Site. This game is called Zap!. It's a combination of a sliding-tile puzzle and an arithmetic function test. This is a game in which you're racing against a clock to solve each level.

I also wanted to mention, Quote Puzzler currently has a special on gift subscriptions; if you buy a gift subscription for someone, and they activate it before July 1st, 2008, their gift subscription is good for TWO years instead of just ONE. This is an incentive to encourage students (particularly teenagers) to keep their brains active during the summer months. (But the special is available to all ages).

Finally, I made a small change to the High Score Lists at The Problem Site. The Today list now shows high scores from anonymous players (people who aren't logged in). Only logged in members can have their scores appear in the overall high score lists.

The Golden Ratio, Writing Prompts

noreply@blogger.com (Douglas Twitchell) — Mon, 26 May 2008 15:31:00 +0000

It's a quiet day today...for a Monday. It's Memorial Day here in the US, which means well over half of The Problem Site's traffic is on school vacation.

For teachers who are looking for some enrichment activities to help round out the school year, I have a couple interesting things for you.

The Golden Ratio
This is a series of pages which explore some of the fun mathematical properties of the number which is often referred to as The Golden Ratio, The Golden Section, or phi (φ). Take some time to browse the pages yourself, and see if you have students who would find it valuable and interesting to explore the concepts on these pages.

Alphabet Soup
Over at Fifteen Minutes Of Fiction, the weekly writing prompts are going to be "easier" than usual for the next few months. Each week writers will be given a different letter of the alphabet, and they will have to select a person, place, or thing beginning with that letter to write about.

This is very open-ended, and will be great for students (and adults!) who want to do a little bit of writing each week, but don't have a lot of time to spend on it during the summer months.

Slick Math

noreply@blogger.com (Douglas Twitchell) — Thu, 15 May 2008 12:11:00 +0000

The day before yesterday I was driving to Massachusetts, and since I had time to kill (I really hate driving long distances) I got thinking about some really fun and interesting math problems with really "slick" solutions. By "slick" I mean, simple and elegant solutions.

I decided it would be nice to have a place on The Problem Site for problems like that, so last night I created a new resource for the site: Slick Math!

If you enjoy math problems with surprisingly easy solutions, you'll enjoy these pages.

Games and Quizzes for Younger Children

noreply@blogger.com (Douglas Twitchell) — Wed, 07 May 2008 17:51:00 +0000

A month or two ago I started work on The Problem Site: Junior Edition, a section of The Problem Site specifically designed for younger children. The games in this section deal with topics like estimation, attribute comparison, and spelling.

Since the last post here, two more games have been added to this section of the site. They are Guess It! (an estimation game) and Spell It! (a spelling game).

The spelling game is brand new; the programming was just finished this morning. So if you experience any glitches or problems with the game, please drop me a comment!

Thanks,
Doug

Games For Young Children, Browser Update

noreply@blogger.com (Douglas Twitchell) — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 12:21:00 +0000

Good morning! There are two purposes for this post. One is to tell you about a new section on The Problem Site, and the other is to tell you about an available browser update for Internet Explorer users.

The Problem Site: Junior Edition
Over the years that The Problem Site has been online, many people have commented that they wished there were games designed for younger children - a little bit "flashier", and addressing more simple thinking skills.

As response to that request, a new section is being added to The Problem Site. It is The Problem Site: Junior Edition. This section is still in its infancy - although there are several games under development as I write, only one is available for play: Colors, Shapes & Sizes. This is a game which helps children recognize attributes of shapes they see.

Several more games will be added by September 2008.

Browser Update
If you use Microsoft's Internet Explorer, you are probably aware that a couple years ago Microsoft had a legal battle which resulted in them having to change their browser to include a "Click To Activate" feature on all plug-ins like Java and Flash applications.

This was a serious annoyance. Many sites used javascript and other means to bypass this restriction. I chose not to do so on any of the puzzler sites, for a variety of reasons. Primarily because, unlike other sites which had flash animations scattered willy-nilly throughout their site, making their pages look like a virtual minefield of unactivated content, the puzzler sites only had flash applications on its game pages, and one extra click was not a serious inconvenience for people who were going to have to click the game anyway.

The good news is, Microsoft has obtained the necessary licenses to remove this annoying feature from their web browser. So if you've still got the "Click to Activate" message, you should seriously consider getting the Microsft updates.

Updated Sidebar - New Easter Egg

noreply@blogger.com (Douglas Twitchell) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 13:55:00 +0000

Not much to say today, except the right-hand sidebar at The Problem Site has been updated again. A little bit nicer graphically, and I went back to displaying all the games, so once again the sidebar functions as a site map.

In addition, I made a minor tweak to the styles of links, which will make it easier for people to recognize which games they have and have not played.

Finally, in the process of updating the sidebar, I did add a new Easter Egg, so if you've been on a quest to find all the Easter Eggs, there are now twelve on the site.

And if you want hint where to find the new egg...

...all the hint you need is right here in this post. :)

Game Level Editor - Fizziks Tilt

noreply@blogger.com (Douglas Twitchell) — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 15:48:00 +0000

A few weeks ago I posted that the Fizziks Tilt game was available to play. This is a game in which a marble is rolled around a maze, following the laws of Physics, including friction forces and gravitational forces.

At the time I mentioned that there would eventually be a "Level Editor" which members could use to create their own levels. Then I sent out emails to a few members, inviting them to try out the level editor.

What I discovered was very interesting; for most people, figuring out how to create an interesting and challenging level was not intuitive. It took several tries for most people to come up with a level that was good enough to post on the site.

It's a whole lot different than Tile Puzzler, in which creating a difficult puzzle is easy.

Since then I've been debating how to handle the editor. After all, I don't want to spend all my time telling people "No, this is not challenging/interesting enough."

Finally I've opened the level editor to the public. EXCEPT - in order to use it, you first have to demonstrate that you're familiar with how the game works and good enough at it that you can solve several of the hardest levels on the site. Once you've done that, you can begin creating levels.

GIVE THE LEVEL EDITOR A TRY!

Planning Ahead, New Games

noreply@blogger.com (Douglas Twitchell) — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 23:25:00 +0000

Good problem solvers plan ahead, right? They anticipate potential problems and head them off at the pass before they even happen, right?

Yeah. So, when I created the Trio Match, I didn't do that. The game gives the player a series of 25 colored blocks to drop into a well. Under certain circumstances the players can earn "bonus" blocks, and the longer you can keep the game going, the more blocks you earn.

How long can you keep a game going? Well, it never occurred to me that anyone would keep the game going long enough to earn 200 or more blocks - that's a pretty long game! And since I didn't think anyone would keep a game going that long, I didn't allocate enough space in the game for blocks.

Bad Doug!

So, a couple weeks ago MrDuctTape40 emailed me and asked "How come the game stops working after you hit 35 thousand points?"

Well, I had no idea that was happening. So I went back to the drawing board to fix the bug. It appears to be resolved now. If you have any problems with the new version of the game, let me know.

Oh, and I also reset the high score lists...which I felt kind of bad about, since Debby finally hit the top of the high score list, and then I deleted all the scores.

On another subject, there are two new games on the site: The Telephone Game and The BlackBerry Game

Tile Puzzler, Adders

noreply@blogger.com (Douglas Twitchell) — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 13:24:00 +0000

Good morning,

Updates on two other segments of the Puzzler family of sites...

Adders! got an overhaul this week, and the new version was posted last night. There were a few bugs which have plagued the game since its beginning. One of these bugs was the ability (under certain circumstances) to run your snake right through walls. There were a few other similar issues. I don't know that I've resolved all of them, but some should be taken care of now.

And, FYI, for all the "addermaniacs" out there...the new version of the game has a feature that has been requested several times. I hope you like it.

If you have any problems with the new version of the game, please use the site's contact form to let me know!

Tile Puzzler had some minor tweaks this morning. When you create puzzles, each puzzle piece must be made up of at least three blocks.

Once again, if this change causes any problems, please let me know!

Fizziks Tilt - A Physics Game

noreply@blogger.com (Douglas Twitchell) — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 15:20:00 +0000

Good morning, everyone! Normally I don't post information about games on the Puzzler sites until they are completely finished, but I'm making an exception here.

I've just added a game called Fizziks Tilt to The Problem Site. It is a game in which you use your keyboard to navigate a marble through mazes. But the press of a an arrow key does not move the marble in that direction; it applies a force in that direction. The result is a game which functions more like "the real world".

In addition, there are some interesting things to deal with in some of the levels, like planets, which create a gravitational force, or clouds, which produce a one-directional force, and there are also "Tilt" triggers, which - if you hit them - cause the entire maze to tilt, so one direction becomes downhill.

All these forces: planets, winds, tilts (and even friction!) are properly calculated using the appropriate equations, to provide a true "Fizziks" experience.

The game is not completely finished, but I have some other things I need to work on for awhile, so I thought I'd post what I have done for you to enjoy!

Fizziks Tilt

Note: If you want your scores to appear in the high score lists, be sure to LOGIN at The Problem Site!

The Problem Site Updates

noreply@blogger.com (Douglas Twitchell) — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 13:46:00 +0000

The last couple weeks have seen some changes at The Problem Site. Some of those changes you might not have noticed.

I began to notice a while back that The Problem Site has been having some "slow down" issues. As I've had time I've been studying the code behind each of the games and resources on the site, trying to find the culprit that's bogging down the server.

It turns out, the culprit was not any of the games at all; it was the database server. So one day last week I made a copy of the database and moved it to another web server. Presto! Problem solved!

In the process of making these changes, however, I took another look at the layout of some of the pages, and realized that with the number of games and resources on the site, listing them all on the right-hand sidebar was getting truly cumbersome. So I limited the sidebar to showing only the most popular games and resources. Everything else is accessed by clicking 'View More' under the different headings.

This led me to re-evaluate how the main pages (Math Games, Word Games, Miscellaneous, etc) appear. With the large icons and descriptions next to each resource, people have to do a lot of scrolling just to view the different games. So, I'm trying something new. If you visit the Math Games page, you will see that all the games are listed by title, with a small icon, right at the top of the page. Then, for those who want more details, you can scroll down through the page for game explanations.

Over the next day or two I will be working on the other main pages to make them match this format.

One more feature which was just added; at the bottom of most pages you will see a heading that says "If you liked [game name], try one of these...", followed by a few icons for games that are similar to the game you just played.

If any of these changes cause problems for you, or you find any broken links, please send me an email to let me know: dtwitchell@virtu-software.com. Or you can just post a comment here.

Thanks,
Doug Twitchell

Hangman That Cheats

noreply@blogger.com (Douglas Twitchell) — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 17:32:00 +0000

Yesterday I posted a notice that the dictionary used by Hangman has been updated. What I didn't tell you is that I was working on a brand new version of Hangman.

A game of Hangman that CHEATS!

This is a game idea I built several years ago, which I used to torment friends and relatives. But I didn't put it on any of my sites, because I'm not quite mean enough to want to torment complete strangers with a game that cheats.

But someone reminded me of the game recently, and I decided it would be okay to put it on the site, with appropriate notification that the game was cheating, so no one would get too frustrated with it.

So I redesigned the game to go on The Problem Site

Really, the challenge on this game is to figure out how the game cheats. Once you think you've figured it out, go ahead and scroll down to the bottom of the game page to find out if you're right!

Here's the game: Cheater Hangman

Enjoy!

Hangman Game Update

noreply@blogger.com (Douglas Twitchell) — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 03:46:00 +0000

Hangman is one of the very oldest games on The Problem Site; it has been on the site almost since the very beginning. It has also undergone changes a couple times.

One thing that hasn't changed is the dictionary on which the game is based. At the time the game was created, I found a 17 thousand word dictionary which was about the best I could find.

However, that the word list was not very accurate; it contained a variety of misspellings, which were (of course!) very frustrating for hangman players.

Since then, I have switched to using the Enable2K dictionary for new word games, but never took the time to update hangman.

That change, finally, has been done. Hangman now uses a word list containing not 17 thousand but 170 thousand words.

Play Hangman!

Announcing: Subtraction Triangles

noreply@blogger.com (Douglas Twitchell) — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 23:28:00 +0000

The last time a new game made its appearance on The Problem Site, my niece scolded me a bit, saying: "Uncle Doug, how come you didn't put up an announcement about the new game?"

So, Annie, this is for you.

ANNOUNCING: SUBTRACTION TRIANGLES
Many students are returning to school tomorrow (around here most students started back to school on Thursday, but I know not everyone runs on the same schedule as we do up here in the cold northern reaches of the US), so just in time to kick off a new week and a new year, and get the brain in gear, I'd like to direct your attention to the new game on The Problem Site: Subtraction Triangles.

Subtraction Triangles are like upside down and backwards Pascal's Triangles. I won't explain any more here, since it's explained on the game page. I will just say this: Even though the puzzles are divided into "Easy" and "Difficult", don't think that the "Easy" puzzles are going to be so easy that you can do them with your eyes closed. They're not that easy!

I hope you enjoy the new game!

New Round Of Brainfood Puzzles

noreply@blogger.com (Douglas Twitchell) — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 17:09:00 +0000

This post is just to let everyone know that there's a new round of Brainfood Puzzles that'll start tomorrow. From September to January, the Brainfood high scorers were yoi55 and VICKY, with 50 points each...followed closely by lewanj with 48 and AlphaSigChainsaw with 40. Nicely done everyone!

During the winter and spring months you will see some recurring themes in the Brainfood Puzzles. These recurring puzzle types include:

Hinky Pinky - In which you are given a clue, and you must figure out two rhyming words that fit the clue. For example, if the clue was: "A Much Nicer Restaurant", the answer might be: "Finer Diner"

Word Ladders - A game invented by Lewis Carroll, in which you must get from one word to another by changing one letter at a time. Example: to get from HATE to LOVE, you might use the following Word Ladder: HATE/RATE/RAVE/CAVE/COVE/LOVE.

Word Equations - A word equation is an addition of two words to create a third word. Here's an example: SLENDER + RULER = PONDERING. The reason this equation makes sense is, SLENDER = THIN, and RULER = KING. THIN + KING = THINKING = PONDERING.

I hope you enjoy this new round of word puzzles!

Merry Christmas, and a Contest!

noreply@blogger.com (Douglas Twitchell) — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 13:00:00 +0000

Good morning! This is going to be a bit of a hodge-podge posting; please read through to the very end, because this post includes a contest for you to enter, in which you could win a subscription to Quote Puzzler.

First, though, in honor of the Chrismas season, I thought some might enjoy a couple pieces of Christmas writing. One is a very serious and true Christmas story, the other is an amusing series of letters to and from Santa Claus.

Second, I'm working on a new puzzle game for The Problem Site, however, I just got a contract to write a series of 90 math competition problems in the next few weeks, so the game is going to have to wait. Combine Christmas with 90 math problems and doing a wholescale upgrade of Quote Puzzler next weekend, and I'm sure you can imagine, I'm going to disappear from view for awhile!

The Contest
Creating new games and puzzles for The Problem Site is a lot of fun. The greatest challenge is not programming a puzzle, but coming up with a puzzle idea. Do YOU have ideas for educational games/puzzles?

If you do, write up (in detail) how your game/puzzle would work, and explain why it is educational, rather than "just entertaining". Then email it to me at: dtwitchell@virtu-software.com.

The very best game idea will receive a six month free subscription to Quote Puzzler. Other game ideas may (or may not) be awarded free subscriptions, at my sole discretion.

All puzzle ideas submitted will become the property of The Problem Site.

This competition will remain open until January 31st, 2008.

Important Note: Do NOT send your puzzle idea as a file attachment. For security reasons, I do NOT open file attachments from people I don't know! Your puzzle idea MUST be in the main body of your email.

Popular Games

noreply@blogger.com (Douglas Twitchell) — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 08:51:00 +0000

A couple weeks ago Mike asked for a listing of all Entrapment Puzzles which had never been solved. I had planned to do that, but several other projects got in the way, and by the time I did get to it, the issue had become a moot point, because all the Entrapment Puzzles have now been solved at least once.

Back in August I made the following statement about Entrapment: I suspect that by the time the school year is over, this geometry game is going to prove to be one of the favorites on the site!

My prediction has already turned out to be correct, long before I expected it to. Within the last couple weeks the popularity of this game has skyrocketed, until it has reached the point where more Entrapment games are played each day than any three other games on The Problem Site put together. Several thousand Entrapment games are played each day now.

I was recently asked which are the most popular games on The Problem Site, and that is a slightly different list than the one I posted back before school began. So I thought I would post that list here.

The top games, in order of popularity:

6. One To Ten*
5. Picture Word Game
4. Trio Match
3. Hangman
2. Adders
1. Entrapment

* The popularity of this game fluctuates wildly from week to week depending on what math units elementary school students are studying; whenever schools are studying order of operations, One To Ten becomes one of the most played games on the site.

Monty Hall's Game - A Probability Question

noreply@blogger.com (Douglas Twitchell) — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 17:11:00 +0000

This post is particularly for math teachers and those who enjoy mathematics. The Treasure Hunt makes use of a mathematical riddle called the "Three Door Puzzle" or the "Monty Hall Game" - this is a puzzle that inspires some controversy among people who like to ponder the weighty matters of the universe (like: how can I win a million dollars in a game show?)

The Puzzle/riddle/game is explained here: The Monty Hall Game. Visit that page not just to learn about the game, but also to play it online, and find out the truth about it!

There is also an explanation of the puzzle here: Choosing The Right Door. Yesterday someone visited that page and posted an argument that the correct solution is, in fact, not correct. Since he signed his name "Monty Hall", I wasn't sure whether he was trying to be funny or serious. But I decided it would be a good idea to have this simulation online for anyone who wants to try it out.

Also, for math teachers, it might be a good discussion starter to have your students read both the article linked above and the dissenting opinion on that page. Then, when they've read and discussed and argued, let them play the simulation.

This Week's Brainfood Puzzle

noreply@blogger.com (Douglas Twitchell) — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 01:58:00 +0000

Thought I'd drop just a quick note here to say...check out this week's BrainFood Puzzle.

Last week's puzzle had a lot of solvers, but this week...not so many! Can you figure it out before the solution is posted on Sunday?

Christmas Shopping - Puzzles, Games and Educational Resources

noreply@blogger.com (Douglas Twitchell) — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 11:16:00 +0000

Good morning! I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. In my family we had 22 people gathered around one table (okay, it was actually a couple tables put end to end!) Five generations together in one room.

And the food was great, too. :)

There are a couple reasons for this post. First, to remind everyone that with Black Friday upon us, Amazon has Black Friday Deals, which you can take advantage of without ever leaving the comfort of your own internet connection.

Second, you'll want to check out the new look to The Puzzler Store home page. This page will be especially useful if you're looking for ideas for Christmas gifts!

A year ago I had the idea of providing a place where members at The Problem Site, Quote Puzzler and Tile Puzzler could share their favorite puzzles, games, toys and educational resources.

How better to get good recommendations than to ask real puzzle enthusiasts for their favorites?

Initially, the site used Amazon's a-store as a framework, but while the a-store was good for displaying a lot of products, the setup was not conducive to getting the real puzzle enthusiasts (you!) actively involved.

So, starting last night, there's a new structure to the site. A few selected members at Quote Puzzler and Tile Puzzler have the ability to write reviews of products they enjoy. If you are a member at any of the Puzzler Sites (QP, TP, or TPS) and are interested in testing out this new feature by writing your own product reviews, send me an email telling me which site you're on, what your display name is, and I may add you into the list of testers for this new feature.