Invisible Features

Posted on April 14, 2009 by MXH

Today I added a new feature to my web-based solver for KenKen puzzles. The interesting thing about this feature is that it’s invisible to the user; the user interface doesn’t change, the program simply gains new abilities. Enhancements like this make me happy.

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Generalized Subtraction and Division

Posted on April 13, 2009 by MXH

KenKen puzzles, as popularized in the U.S., have a major simplifying restriction: Subtraction and division cages must have exactly two cells. This restriction is lifted in some puzzle variants. Today, in response to a reader question, I briefly look at the problem of generalizing my solver to handle such puzzles.

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Straw in the Wind?

Posted on April 12, 2009 by MXH

I found something interesting today: The Onion’s AV Club is running a feature reviewing (in both senses of the word, I suppose) the classic, 1960’s Star Trek episodes. What’s unusual about the feature is its tone; for a publication as famously smart-ass as The Onion, these reviews largely avoid not only fanboyism, but also hipster irony.

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35 Characters

Posted on April 11, 2009 by MXH

Just a quick note re: Google Adwords. At the bottom of every ad is a “display URL”. You must supply this URL when you create an ad. Furthermore, this field must be a valid URL, and refer to the advertised site. Also: it must be 35 characters or less.

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Whitepaper

Posted on April 10, 2009 by MXH

Today, I released the whitepaper I’ve been discussing for the past few days. I was somewhat surprised to find that it seems to fill an actual need; Nextoy’s business model actually creates real inconvenience for the people who enjoy the game they’re marketing.

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Slicehost

Posted on April 9, 2009 by MXH

Editorial Note: This is my 100th post. Thanks for reading.

Today, I signed up for a VPS at Slicehost. This is my first time dealing with them, and so far I’m very happy. I did encounter a fair number of small problems when configuring my Fedora 10 instance, however; these were no one’s fault, just stuff I hadn’t seen before. I thought I’d jot them down, so as to potentially save some other developers some time.

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Quirksmode

Posted on April 8, 2009 by MXH

Today I fixed several browser-specific bugs affecting my puzzles. I want to discuss them, briefly, as they took a while to track down, and so seem to merit comment.

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Puzzle UI

Posted on April 7, 2009 by MXH

Today I released a minor UI enhancement for my Kenken-style puzzles; you can now navigate around the playfield using the arrow keys. This is a small thing, but I think it helps the game flow much better.

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Adwords Aggravation

Posted on April 6, 2009 by MXH

My experience with Adwords continues to prove frustrating. My gambit of advertising the solver instead of the puzzles appears to be working, at least insofar as the solver is assigned a merely dismal Quality Score of 4 (for the “KenKen” keyword), while the puzzles are assigned a near-rock-bottom score of 2 for the same term.

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Recommended: Alt Text

Posted on April 5, 2009 by MXH

Lore Sjoberg is a funny guy. Why not spend 90 minutes (or so) with him?

(Re: Episode 9 – I don’t know which of the 7 basic types this post is. Perhaps a variation on “Buy a thing”? Also, when viewing that episode, don’t miss the little drawings illustrating the 7 basic plots. Personally, I caught “Man vs. Nature”, “Man vs. Society”, “Man vs. God”, and “Man vs. Self”; I expect an English major could do better.)

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