sakri rosenstrom blog

I submitted my Irritating Puzzle blog post on reddit yesterday. (link to comments)

Quite confident the submission would just sink into oblivion as usual, I went over to our neighbors for some dinner.

A few hours, and to my surprise 9121 visits later, my blog was replaced with an austere, and rather embarassing 403 forbidden message.

Wordpress is quite the resource hog… I’m attempting to install WP Super Cache for the unlikely recurrence. Anyway, the stats I did get during those glorious hours were interesting/funny.

At the time of writing, the submission has 103 up votes 55 down votes. I would have assumed that would add up to maybe, oh, 300 clicks. Infact, every Reddit vote represents nearly 100 clicks.

I record events using the AS3 Google Analytics API, 41,314 of them to be exact.

• The reset button was smacked 30,973 times
• The show solution buttons were clicked 9,211 times
• The average user hung around for 05:06 minutes
• The puzzle was solved 103 times

How about those enticing Google ads to the right? Grab a hold of your chair…. 1 click! I’m RICH!!!!

I included an event which fires on every “move” which is a multiple of 100.

I felt pretty crap about my 700+ solution, but it’s good to know I’m not alone. Infact:

• 141 people attempted solutions with more than 800 moves…
• 27 did more than 1500…
• 15 over 2000
• 2 people moved those pieces over 4200 times

And the Grand master of patience / self irritation / epic suffering, moved the pieces over 5500 times!!! . Dang!

The solutions to this game are available with the manual that comes with the game, so it’s well possible that some people just followed that. Nevertheless,

• The best solution was 48 moves, second 54 then 114. The first two didn’t submit their solutions, so might be coming from one of those guys that scour the web for flash games on which they can use their 1337 Charles skills on.
• 22 people solved it with less than 200
• 5 with between 1000 and 2000

and finally…. that poor son of a bitch who moved pieces over 5000 in one go?

HE SOLVED IT!!!

WITH 5516 MOVES!

Hat’s off to you

UPDATE1: As pointed out by a helpful redditor called “ijanos” this game is called “Klotski”, wikipedia has an article about it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klotski

UPDATE2: I’ve uploaded a new version with the solution from “Henrik”.

UPDATE3: I wrote a blog post about stats regarding this game here.

I was over at a friends house for New Years. He had received this “annoying puzzle” as a Christmas gift. I spent 10 minutes fiddling with it, until my wife politely yanked it out of my hands. Before leaving I took a photo of the damned evil thing, thinking I’d quickly make it in flash and solve it on my own time.

The objective is to move the pieces around until the Big Red Square reaches the bottom center. At the bottom side of the box, there is a thin slit. The Big Red Bastard is “thinner” than the others and once in position, it can slide through. Couldn’t be simpler eh?

As planned, I quickly shit together a working copy of the puzzle.

I kid you not, solving this hell spawn took me longer than coding the shitty game!!! I saved my solution for posterity, and it contains a most embarassing 759 moves

So, are you as retarded as me? Try it out:

(oh yeah, mind the elite graphic design and sizzling game play, only one piece can move, one step at a time)

If you do manage to solve it, the “moves” are automatically printed out in the text box. In the likely case that you have less moves than me, just select all, copy and paste the solution in the comments below… I’ll add the solution into the flash and upload it again…

*enjoy*

The inaugural edition of the Flash Bar mini-conference was a raging success! After months of planning, we were treated to a stellar list of speakers:

• Bartek from http://www.everydayflash.com/
• David from http://www.derschmale.com/
• and myself

Amongst the many highlights was this demonstration of liquid dynamics, a collaborated effort between David and Bartek:

The resident DJ treated us to a solid set, spinning a vast selection of styles ranging from Abba to Britney Spears. Unlike some of the sausage fests in previous conferences I’ve attended, the sound system was kept at an ideal volume, enabling a steady flow of conversation, and just enough backdrop for potential moments of silence.

During the award ceremony and closing raffle, we even managed to get a group shot in front of the main podium with all the organizers, sponsors, speakers and attendees:

I feel honored to have participated in this pioneering event, and look forward to a rich and colorful agenda of future dates!

I must have walked past this a few hundred times without noticing it. Indeed, ’tis not an exuberant establishment, but all the same, this morning I was astonished to find myself face to face:
with THE FLASH BAR :

I’m sure the old geezer at the door wrote parts of the core flashplayer, and is asking the hesitant youth to recite some obscure low level code in exchange for admission into the bar…

Screw the Old Ship, The Flash bar IS HOTT

This epicenter of awesomeness is yours to experience just off Place Stephanie in Brussels :

View Larger Map

Since there is no “flash scene” to speak of in Brussels, I propose a monthly “Flash Geek Drinkers Club” meeting. Who’s in?

Just a headsup, I posted a write up for the nascom blog here. Not much to add to that, just two things:

This is me rocking the London eye with an IRL friend. IRL friends may sound scary, but once you get used to them they are quite harmless.

The other thing I wanted to add is, seeing the recurring success of the “old ship” hotel bar, why not just skip the uncomfortable sausage party ‘club scene’, and just organize a more “bar like” after hours event where it’s not too loud to hold conversations? Just sayin…