New Nonoriddles - This is relevant to my interests

Yesterday, I ended up being too busy to post "Suit Type" for reasons that will become clear if you solve the puzzle itself.

All the times for "Attack Type" were under four minutes. Either that's pretty cool or I'm easily impressed. Two minutes thirty-seven seconds was david3x3x3's time, followed by joefendel at three minutes twenty-six seconds, and, ten seconds later, Prestemon at three minutes thirty-six seconds. Solution buttons are, of course, now available.

An Experiment in Romantic Nonoriddles

In an experiment I've been meaning to try for a few months, today's 6x6 "Love Style" nonoriddle comes in two forms: Easy and hard. The only difference between the two is that the hard version has a couple of the numbers replaced with "?". Each question mark represents a single number of an unknown value and adds another layer of deduction.

Although the code changes were minor and I've gone over the hard version many times to make sure it is solvable with logic alone, please let me know if any problems are encountered. Also, if submitting a fastest time, please note if you solved the hard version; otherwise, I'll assume you did the easy (or should it be called "normal"? hmmm...)

Last week's "Eighties Rapper" garnered four solve times: Fifty seconds from joefendel, fifty-one seconds from david3x3x3, fifty-nine seconds from my sometimes teammate Prestemon (Hi Eric!), and a minute one from Jetzm.

Offensive Nonoriddle

"Attack Type" is up and before the day is out too, so that's an improvement on last week. On the flip side, it's got more than one thing in common with last week's 10x10, so I hope I'm not getting into a rut... I always cringe a little inside when the word "type" ends up in the title.

Last week's "Detective Type" garnered five speedy times: Three minutes fifty-four seconds from Jetzm, four minutes twenty-two seconds from david3x3x3, four minutes thirty-five seconds from joefendel, five minutes eleven seconds from catherwood, and twelve minutes eleven seconds from lahosken. Thanks all for sending them in!

I'm considering putting in a hint button, one that randomly reveals one square, and give a time penalty. Even if I did that, I wonder what a fair penalty would be... ten seconds? Fifteen? More? Less? Ah well.

My wife is encouraging me to write a book of nonoriddles. Kind of a daunting thought.

Nonoriddles in the 80s

"Eighties Rapper" is up and it's way past my bedtime.

David3x3x3 solved "Thanksgiving Staple" in forty-three seconds; joefendel in fifty-three. Find out what the true Thanksgiving staple actually is with the now available answer buttons (pat. pend.).

Another Detective Nonoriddle

Considering my record to actually publish a nonoriddle on Monday, I should probably just give up and switch to Tuesday. I'm as bad as Douglas Adams when it comes to deadlines, especially self-imposed.

Anyway, the nonoriddle intended for yesterday, "Detective Type", is available for solving. The riddle itself ended up not being as elegant as it should be; I think it'd be better if it were two words shorter, but I've got my own rules and constraints to work with.

Last week, four times were submitted for "Marked Sheet": joefendel at a second over the three minute mark, Jetzm at three minutes eighteen seconds, david3x3x3 at four minutes ten seconds, and catherwood at four minutes nineteen seconds.

And, if I haven't said it before, I just wanted to say thanks to you all for submitting times. It's nearly only feedback I have and helpful in keeping me going.

Seasonally Appropriate Nonoriddle

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and it's just a coincidence that it's so close to (and sometimes exactly on) my birthday. This week's 6x6 nonoriddle, "Thanksgiving Staple" was actually up yesterday, but unfortunately I haven't had a chance to write about it until this morning.

Last week's "Microscope Requirement" garnered four fastest times: catherwood topped the leaderboard for the first time at thirty-nine seconds, followed by david3x3x3 at forty seconds, Jetzm at forty-three, and joefendel at fifty-nine. Want to find out which of my daughter's loves inspired this puzzle without having to go through all the trouble of solving? Use the answer buttons now available.

"Marked Sheet" Nonoriddle

After coming up with "Marked Sheet" as the title of this week's 10x10 nonoriddle, I immediately thought of a ghost with a hit out on it. Silly on more than one level, I know, but that's me. The riddle itself, in contrast, expresses some of my cynical nature.

Three times for "Santana Album" were submitted: Two minutes fifty-six seconds for david3x3x3; three minutes thirty-seven seconds for joefendel; and four minutes eight seconds for Jetzm. Too tough but want to see what the answers are? Click on the now available buttons to see the grid and riddle answers.

Now get out and vote!

Microscopic Nonoriddle

I have to thank my daughter for inspiring "Microscope Requirement". Well, more specifically, something she loves, and thus something I end up seeing about every day.

Since both times that were submitted for last week's "Helpful Donation" were the same, does that mean I can say that techincally only one time - forty seconds - was submitted? Anyway, both Jetzm and joefendel finished that quickly. And in case anyone wants to find out what the riddle and/or its answer is, the solution buttons are now available.

The Santana Nonoriddle

"Santana Album" is ready for solving. I'm ready for sleep.

Three times were submitted for last week's "Poker Variation": three minutes fifteen seconds for Jetzm, four minutes forty-two seconds for joefendel, and six minutes forty-eight seconds for catherwood. Solutions are, of course, now available.

"Helpful Donation" Nonoriddle

This week's 6x6, "Helpful Donation" is available for solving.

I was impressed with the speed of the submitted times for "Wedding Type" which were all within a second of each other: Thirty-two seconds for Jetzm and thirty-three seconds for both david3x3x3 and joefendel. I wonder if the title gave away too much (how many wedding types can there be?), if it was just a super-easy puzzle, or, more probably, people have mastered the 6x6 and the interface.

The "Poker Varition" Nonoriddle

It's funny how just one square can make a difference. When transcribing the new "Poker Variation" from my notebook, I left out a square. It took me ten minutes to solve that puzzle. After correcting my mistake, adding that one square back into the grid, it took me less half that time.

There are probably plenty of people who solve the Rubik's Cube faster than old Ernő Rubik himself. Coincidentally, plenty of people solved "Aguilera Song" (which now has solutions available) faster than I did: david3x3x3 at three minutes thirty-five seconds, joefendel at four minutes two seconds, Jetzm at five minutes thirty-two seconds, and catherwood at five minutes forty-nine seconds.

A Nonoriddle Wedding

It's 30F out and the only place I can get a signal is on the balcony, so I'm only missing “both ways” and “through the snow” as I upload the latest nonoriddle. "Wedding Type" is now up for solving. I'm sorry about all the delays; hopefully, I'm back on schedule now. It is one of my goals to someday set up some system to better manage the posting of new and future puzzles to prevent things like this happening again.

"Child's Need" now has solutions available. Five people submitted solve times: david3x3x3's one minute twenty-nine seconds just barely beat out Jetzm's one minute thirty-seconds, followed by joefendel at one minute thirty-seven seconds, lahosken at one minute forty-nine seconds, and catherwood at one minute fifty-six.

Now where did I hide my golf clubs?

Tahoe Baby!

We finally arrived arrived at Lake Tahoe yesterday, after taking a detour through Sacramento and Grass Valley on our way up here. Interesting times, culminating in the Emprie Gold Mine self-guided tour. We're now staying at a place called Chinquapin, but only can afford it because of pooling of money between family.

Plans while we're up here include:

• Relaxing
  
• Eating
  
• Sleeping
  
• Golfing
  
• Bowling
  
• Disc-golfing
  
• Relaxing
  
• Spending time with family, including my two nephews

I have two nonoriddles ready but spotty Internet has meant scant time to upload them.

The Smoking GNU has an test event at 8:30am Saturday morning. I'm getting home Friday night. I wonder how much of a contribution I'll end up making.

Geography Lessons and Delayed Puzzles

This morning on Alice, I heard Hooman talking about the Sebastopol Film Festival: "You know where Sebastopol is, right? It's near Napa." I was thinking, really, that's the closest major city? Sebastopol is nearly as far from Napa as it is from San Francisco. Meanwhile, Santa Rosa, the Sonoma County seat is just a scant five miles away and has a population over twice that of Napa. *hmph*

Anyway, since I spent yesterday observing Yom Kippur (no, I'm not Jewish, just... different), no puzzle came out, obviously. I hope to have one out later today. And since I'll be on a kind of vacation all next week, new nonoriddles may be spotty. My apologies in advance for that. I hope to get back to regular schedule by October 23rd at the latest.

Aguilera Song Nonoriddle and Thoughts On Screenshots

I remember reading that J.K. Rowling was half-way through writing Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire when she realized that there was a huge plot hole in her story and had to restart. Yesterday, as I tested the live version of the new "Aguilera Song" nonoriddle, I found a major flaw. Unfortunately, I didn't have the time until today to fix the problem and test everything anew.

The two-week old "Bathroom Fixture" finally has answers and times up. David3x3x3 had the fastest submitted time at three minutes twenty seconds, followed by Jetzm at three minutes forty-one seconds, joefendel at four minutes fourteen seconds, and catherwood at four minutes thirty-two seconds.

I think my policy on screenshots needs to be changed. Originally, the idea was for on those rare occasions when people achieved some amazing time on a puzzle, they could a) prove it; and b) show off. However, it's become quite clear to me that the bars I set are being broken on a regular basis, so the idea is basically moot and probably irritating.

So because of this, the new bars will be 3 minutes for the 10x10 and 45 seconds for the 6x6. If someone solves under these times and hasn't previously submitted a screenshot, then I ask that they either post one to the message board (with spoiler info blurred) or email it to me. After that, no other screenshots are necessary, bona fides established as Nero Wolfe might say.

"Child's Need" - New Nonoriddle

The 6x6 nonoriddle "Child's Need" is up. It requires a solving method that I haven't used before; hopefully, it won't put off anyone trying one for the first time.

Three people submitted times for last week's "Skin Tone": Jetzm at fifty-one seconds; david3x3x3 at one minute thirty-nine seconds; and joefendel at two minutes three seconds. Answers buttons are up... does anybody use them, I wonder?

I have gotten some nice feedback on these puzzles, for which I am very grateful. However, I hope that if anyone has any criticisms that they would be just as willing to share those with me as well. It won't hurt my feelings; I'd rather know what weaknesses exist so that I can improve on them, than have a false sense of security. Plus, I'm allowed to disagree :)

A Postponed Nonoriddle

I've decided it's necessary to postpone what would normally be this week's 10x10 puzzle until next week for reasons I'm not getting into here. That means that there's another seven days for anyone who wants to get on the fastest time list, but also that the answer availability will be delayed. My apologies for this.

Toned New Nonoriddle

"Skin Tone", the mid-week 6x6, is now available. I had actually wanted to name it based off a Christmas special, but I'd never seen it. Checking its Wikipedia entry, I decided the reference wouldn't work as a title, so went with the current moniker.

The fastest submitted solve times for "Scout Rank" were a quick forty-six seconds by david3x3x3 and a good one minute and one second by joefendel. As usual, the buttons to see what the answers actually are are available now.

This weeks new 10x10: Bathroom Fixture

Cultural references are always tricky in puzzles. How many times has a contestant on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire gotten X rounds in only to be confronted with something like "What was the name of Tintin's white dog?", but had never read anything by Herge? And how many times has a team been slowed down in a puzzle hunt because they weren't familiar with some so-called "pop" culture reference (most recently, we didn't know who Brenda Starr is in the IP BANG)?

"Bathroom Fixture" contains such a reference. Thus it may be unfair to those who haven't come across it yet, but the title should give it away in any case. If it doesn't, googling the text of the riddle will bring it up in short order.

The two fastest times to last week's "Detective's Desire" were two minutes fifty-nine seconds by david3x3x3 (sadly sans screenshot) and three minutes twenty-seconds by joefendel. Solution buttons are now available to magically reveal answers to the puzzle.

And now, back to banging my head against the wall on Shinteki's September puzzle.

New "Scout Rank" Nonoriddle Available

Yep, "Scout Rank" is up for solving. It's a 6x6 and a quick solve for most. Hopefully a good introduction, though, should anybody new stop by.

Last week's 6x6, "Scifi Show" garnered one submitted time: Fifty-two seconds by joefendel. It also somehow it got on a website about science fiction blog posts. Aggregates, go fig.

Oh, and those little buttons that reveal the answer? Now available for it.

Detective's Desire Nonoriddle

If I mentioned why this current illness made me unable to correctly test-solve the new "Detective's Desire" nonoriddle on three separate tries, people might think I was looking for pity. Regardless, it's up for solving now... after having been correctly test-solved a few times. ;)

Answers are up for last week's "CK Fragrance". It had only one submitted time: Four minutes thirty-seven seconds by joefendel. He didn't give me a screenshot for proof, but I guess I'll trust him since I think he's helping put on BANG 19: UDC.

iPhone Nonoriddles

<Columbo>Oh, just one more thing</columbo>:

I've put up a prototype page of the latest puzzle for those *checks browser logs* zero of you who solve on the iPhone. Since I only have testiphone.com to go off of, if any of my three readers (one of which I'm pretty sure is me) has an iPhone or know someone who does, I'd appreciate it if they could give the page a test and let me know how it goes. It's is at:

http://www.nonoriddle.com/iphone.html

Time for a new 6x6 nonoriddle

"Scifi Show" is up for a quick challenge. Answer buttons are now active on "Gang Habitat". Jetzm continues to approach times that are functions of the speed interface with a forty-eight second solve.

And now, I'm going back to bed :)

Scent of a new nonoriddle

This week's 10x10, "CK Fragrance" is now available for solving.

The solutions to last week's puzzle, "Regretful Thought" are available as well. For the first time, I received two recorded scores under five minutes: Jetzm coming in at super speedy two minutes forty-seven seconds; and lahosken with a quick four minutes fifty seconds.

And finally, I'm available to test any new cold/fever medications that might cure this infernal infection clouding my mind and torturing my body :)

Gang Habitat available... in 6x6 nonoriddle form (with notes on advertising)

Wife-tested, daughter-approved, short but hopefully fun, "Gang Habitat" is available today.

Solutions are up for last week's "Rain Record". Fastest time: One minute eight seconds by Jetzm.

I have to admit, I don't know a lot about advertising. When testing the code, I occasionally see advertisements that I hope others get a chance to see as well. Two such cases are ads for Eureka and Psych, which just happen to be two of my favorite shows. However, once pages have been uploaded to the website, the ads always seem to revert to "Test your IQ" ads that seem to be standard on many puzzle sites.

It probably doesn't matter. At the current click rate, it will take me about eight years four months before Google Adsense would send me my first check.

New Nonoriddle: "Regretful Thought"

Okay, my puzzle notebook has been located and after unofficially taking yesterday off, this week's 10x10 nonoriddle is now up. "Regretful Thought" is a going to be a very fast solve for the experienced, and probably a good introduction for the uninitiated (e.g. friends, co-workers, dance partners, mail carrier, your cat, or anyone else who might enjoy them).

Last week's "Table Type" has answers available for those who want. Jetzm was the only one to submit a time (is anyone else out there?...ere?...ere?...) at a blindingly fast three minutes twenty-three seconds.

Chrome and Nonoriddles

My quick test of nonoriddle.com website in Google's Chrome shows that nonoriddle's Javascript interface works. And it's pretty fast. Of the five main browsers I've tested it in (Opera, Firefox, IE, Safari, and now Chrome), Chrome joins Firefox and Safari as having the best reaction time to the interface. (IE has a problem where if you click too fast, it thinks of it as a double-click and Opera will often try and select letters instead of changing the square).

Chrome also loaded the page faster than Opera, the supposed fastest browser out there. Despite that, I'm not ready to make it my default yet. It feels rough around the edges and doesn't have a built-in newsreader. But anything that makes browsing faster is a good step forward.

Record Rain Nonoriddle & She's back!

My wife came back yesterday after a two-week absence and we celebrated by going out for brunch, swimming, and generally not uploading nonoriddles. So today is when "Rain Record" (a 6x6 easy) is available, having made use of the free time my daughter's first day by herself at pre-school afforded me to put it up.

Last Thursday's 6x6, "Red vs. Blue" now has solutions available. Jetzm was the only one to send a time my way (with proof), having solved it in a speedy fifty-four seconds.

I need to find a way to dynamically manage my content. Now if only there were some free, server-side scripting language with an easy MySQL interface that I could learn...

The Table Type Nonoriddle

I couldn't think of a better name than "Table Type" for this weeks 10x10. It's kind of bland and I seem to be using "[something] type" too often, but it suits its purpose.

The top times for last week's "Humor Style" are seven minutes forty-two seconds by Jetzm and seven minutes and an unnspecified number of seconds by lahosken (Hi Larry!). Answer buttons are now available.

New Nano Nono

A new 6x6 puzzle, "Red vs. Blue" is up and the previous 6x6, "Sleep Curvy" now has solution buttons available.

These are easier puzzles, intended mainly for those who have never tried a nonoriddle before or for those who want a quicker solve. Oddly, they're more difficult to compose...

New Nonoriddle and Improved Interface

"Humor Style is up and along with it comes a slightly improved nonoriddle interface. On Monday, I woke up and practically saw the Javascript on the ceiling as to how implement the click-and-drag method of selecting squares.

So basically, players can now:

• Click on a white square to turn it black, and drag the cursor to other white squares to mark them black. Yellow squares will stay yellow.
  
• Click on a black square to turn it yellow, and drag the cursor to turn white squares yellow. Black squares will stay black.
  
• Click on a yellow square to turn it white, and drag the cursor to turn other yellow squares white.
  

The logic behind this is that once a player has marked a square yellow or black, they probably don't want them messed with. The unfortunate side effect is that it's not possible to change a whole swath of black squares to yellow or white, however unlikely that possibility may be.

Sure, in a 10x10 grid (or 6x6) it may not add much speed, but believe me, I'm happy the new interface is working. It much closer approximates the environment I work with when creating nonoriddles. Now all it needs is the right click. Oh, and a way to prevent Opera from selecting text... I'm probably the only person in the world who needs unselectable text to improve a user's experience.

The solutions buttons are now active for last week's "Meat Grade", with Jetzm submitting the fastest time at seven minutes twenty seconds, and DJRoyer coming in second with eleven forty-two.

Meat Grade Nonoriddle and Website Additions

This week's nonoriddle, "Meat Grade" is up for solving.

No times were submitted for last week's "Noise Type" puzzle. There's some feedback from multiple sources that the riddle portion was a little on the challenging/obscure side.

Other nonoriddle news:

• Solutions!
  All puzzles older than a week now have two buttons "Solve Grid" and "Reveal Riddle Answer", which are hopefully self-explanatory. Thanks to Rosa for suggesting this.


• More Puzzles!
  Starting this week, I plan on releasing two puzzles each week: The 10x10 challenging nonoriddle on Mondays and the 6x6 easy version on Thursdays.


• Email!
  The Subscribe/RSS Feed page has been updated. It now provides a link to have emails sent directly to your inbox each time there's a new puzzle, as well as a link to the Feedburner feed (for easy inclusion in web-based readers).


• Goodbye PDFs!
  Since, as far as I can tell, the PDF versions of each puzzle have never been downloaded, I'm no longer putting them up. If anybody would like them back, let me know.

Many thank to all of you who enjoy these little puzzles of mine.

New Nonoriddle: Noise Type

"Noise Type" is indeed up for solving. It's actually been up for several hours now, but I was trying to do some last second design changes to the front page before deciding not to worry about it.

The two fastest times submitted for the previous puzzle ("Pool Choice") were four minutes forty-seven seconds by Jetzm and seven minutes twenty-nine seconds by sblom.

I've gotten a request to provide answers to the puzzles. The funny thing is that until now the thought hadn't really crossed my mind, since it's got an answer checker. I suppose after one or two weeks of a puzzle being up without an answer, I can add a "Reveal Solution" button or something.

Last July Nonoriddle

Somehow through the five stages of grief in not making Ghost Patrol, a new nonoriddle did get put together. This week's puzzle, somewhat poorly titled "Pool Choice" is up for solving. It is a little late because as I was putting it up Sunday night, I found a fatal flaw that meant it needed to be redesigned.

Last week's fastest time was eight minutes twelve seconds by Jetzm. I must admit, I did design it to be more challenging. I try to give a variety of difficulties, but perhaps it's time I started releasing two versions of each puzzle; I don't want to frighten new users off if their introductory puzzle happens to be a fairly challenging one.

New Nonoriddle and Thoughts There On

The newest puzzle is entitled "Portion Size" and is available for solving. Sorry for the delay.

For the previous puzzle, "Feminine Nickname", the first official time under five minutes was submitted (with proof) by Jetzm, at four minutes twenty-three seconds. The second fastest time was eight minutes twenty seconds by sblom.

Some things that have been on my mind regarding these puzzles of mine:

- I would like to figure out some objective way to rate how difficult these puzzles are. I downloaded a nonogram solver and figured counting the steps it takes to solve a puzzle might give me a baseline. No luck. Personally, I think this week's nonoriddle might be a little more difficult than others, especially for those who have had little to no experience with them.

- I came across a short discussion about nonoriddles. One person liked them (thank you!) and the other wasn't too fond of them since they didn't resolve into a picture. They also didn't like the small grid size (somewhat necessary given the length of the riddles) and the language constraints. The latter is something I had never even considered until Google Alerts sent me a link to a Spanish review of nonoriddles. Maybe I can get my wife to help me make a few Spanish versions.

- The interface needs some work, I think. Personally, I would like to be able to mark more than one square at a time and use the right-click like other interfaces allow. Unfortunately, I've held off learning JavaScript for most of its life, since I generally don't like weak-typed languages (or maybe just languages as weakly-typed as JavaScript), which means a lot of ad hoc learning on my part. Having letters in the table makes using ideas from other scripts I've seen less feasible. Acronyms like AJAX and DOM that I've previously been blissfully ignorant of now have meaning.

- Oddly enough, the second most popular search term that led to nonoriddle.com is "make a nonoriddle". Hey, if anybody wants to make nonoriddles, I'd be more than willing to put them up (after review, of course)!

Postponed Nonoriddle

I guess I'll have to postpone this week's nonoriddle. My time is completely filled by working on our application video (due Friday). The plan is to do the best "Director's Cut" version, which is over the requisite three minute maximum length, and then brutally cut it down to size. Sadly, it won't make as much sense, but I'll do the best I can.

We're going to have to redub some scenes. It's one of the problems of working with a camcorder and no mikes (the other one being you can hear the sound of the tape moving), and only a 30 hour filming window.

First July Nonoriddle

Using an insulation-filtering breath mask (i.e. this Sunday) instead of a bandana (i.e. last Sunday) when up in the attic made a huge difference in whether I felt like someone had hit me in the head with a boat and parked a steam roller on my chest. Being able to breathe properly: I has it.

Anyway, all that that personal crap means is that this week's nonoriddle, "Feminine Nickname" is up on time.

The fastest times for last week's puzzle were five minutes thirty-four seconds by Jetzm, six minutes thirty-nine seconds by loki4000, and ten minutes thirty seconds by lahosken.

A (Late) Nonoriddle

It was time to attack the beast again Sunday, so I ventured into the attic to face it head on. It's never a fair fight up there, and though I won this battle, it was not without price: a delayed update.

My apologies for that. But the good news is that the new one, "Another Cable Network" is now up for playing!

Last week's puzzle's fastest times were 8 minutes 33 seconds by sblom and 11 minutes 31 seconds by fastzap. There was a report of a solve-time under five minutes, but the perpetrator failed to provide a screenshot for proof.

The front page now has two extra menu items on a trial basis; I'm kind of testing them to see if I like them there. I'm just not sure where the more helpful links vs. introductory instructions balance strikes yet.

Anyway, hope you enjoy.

Nonoriddles and Automobiles

This week's nonoriddle, entitled "Car Type", is up.

No one submitted a fastest time for last week's riddle, perhaps due to its (now fixed) problem. However, I do have one report that someone solved it in under three minutes. I guess he's been making good use of Picross DS.

My first review!

There's a brief but positive review of nonoriddles over at Puzzlinks, a blog that lives up to its name. Defintely a confidence booster, but I'm really just glad that someone enjoys them.

Nonoriddle Fixed

Someone pointed out that this week's nonoriddle, "Jade-Like Tint", had a typo in the answer-verification process, meaning that people who typed in the right answer may have been told that they were wrong.

This has been fixed, and my apologies to all (one?) of you who encountered this difficulty.

This Week's Nonoriddle and Last Week's Stats

This week's nonoriddle, entitled/hinted as "Jade-like Tint", is available to solve.

Last week's fastest times were 8 minutes 10 seconds by wjacobp and 11 minutes 12 seconds by fastzap, out of ten visitors.

New Nonoriddle Up plus Best Time

This week's puzzle is available.

Every time I worked on this one, a certain song kept getting stuck in my head. It annoyed my wife tremendously.

For last week's, the best time was just over seven and a half minutes, accomplished by my youngest brother. At least I know he's having fun! I hope other people who give nonoriddles a try enjoy them as well, but I'd love to hear any feedback on what could be improved... apart from "stop writing them".

Introducing a New Puzzle... The Nonoriddle!

For the past six months or so, I've been working on developing a new puzzle form. First, I forced paper versions on my friends and family. When they seemed to enjoy them ("When's the next one???"), I worked on creating a website to showcase these new puzzles of mine. Today, it is finally ready!

http://www.nonoriddle.com/

I hope you'll give it a try.

A nonoriddle is basically a combination of the fill-in-the-grid type puzzle that goes by various names (Griddler, Paint By Numbers, etc.) with a hidden riddle. When the grid is solved, it reveals the riddle.

Now riddles can be vague and have multiple possible answers (take "What's black and white and red/read all over?" for example). To overcome this problem, three helps are built into each nonoriddle:

1. Bookends: The first and last letter of the riddle are also the first and last letters of the answer.
2. Length: The length of the answer is indicated by a number in parentheses.
3. Hint: An alternative way of looking at the solution is given in the form of a short hint.

In addition, a timer is built into the puzzle to determine your solve time. I record the fastest time with each nonoriddle (within reason; thirty second solve times might require a little... proof).

My plan is to put up a new nonoriddle each week as long as people are enjoying them. Currently, seven nonoriddle are up to solve: This week's, two from May I used to test the website, and five prototypes I converted from their paper form. All are of various difficulties

I hope you enjoy and spread the word. Heck, even if you don't enjoy them, I wouldn't mind if you asked other people to give them a try.

Funding that Puzzle Addiction

Participating in puzzle hunts and Games isn't a cheap activity, even if saving 83 cents a day for the next six months will allow me to pay my share of the upcoming Game. Unfortunately, being a stay-at-home dad doesn't pay very well and being a single-career family in the Bay Area doesn't readily lend itself to disposable income.

So once again, I've been working on a new puzzle type (kind of in the same way that Battleship Sudoku is a new type of puzzle). The qualifying puzzle for Ghost Patrol was kind of similar but at the same time completely different. Regardless, it spurred me on yesterday to get the Javascript completed so that at least I have a working puzzle interface.

I sent out a link to some friends and family members so they could test it. One friend who gave it a try said he finally understood the puzzle (I had been sending out PDF versions for a few months) and that he enjoyed it. He then added, kinda jokingly, "So where is the timer? Where is the leaderboard?" Those are two things I want to add, along with a message board/forum. For now, though, I'm just concentrating on getting the Javascript to do what I want it to and the website to look at least halfway presentable.

I can hope that when it's ready, maybe it catches on a little and the money from advertising or other side benefits will keep me enjoying my addicition for quite some time.