The authors used a Wiki to collaborate, and the book feels as if it were written by a single, extremely erudite, polymath author. I was expecting a set of disconnected essays from different voices, but I didn’t get it. The book was written by a team of what my colleagues call “unicorns” – cross-disciplinary people who bridge the worlds of creativity and technology. My fevered brain underwent more intellectual growth during that period than any time in my life since my early childhood. During the months that I manipulated those phosphors, the symbols they represented were manipulating me. I had a Timex Sinclair, and a VIC 20, both purchased at K-Mart, and I fondly remember writing one-liners like these, staring into the glowing phosphors of a little television, until I could barely keep my eyes open in the early morning light. It is the surprising depth and far-reaching ramifications of little useless programs like 10 PRINT that got me into this game, back in the early 80s. Here each of these subject gets just a little chapter. There have been many books written about mazes, and whole careers built upon the study of randomness. This is not a long book, and it barely scratches the surface of each of the diverse subjects it touches upon, from Falcon looms and Truchet tiles, to 8-bit computers and flying toasters. If you think this is a lot of pages to devote to a one-line computer program, you are mistaken. There is a chapter on mazes, a chapter on randomness, a chapter on grids, a chapter on the BASIC language, and so on. The program produces the maze-like pattern shown on the book’s cover, and its inner sleeves.Įach chapter explores a different facet of this program, and by doing so it covers an incredible amount of ground. The book is an exploration of its title: A one-line BASIC program that was intended to run on an early 80s Commodore 64 computer. If the title looks like a bizarre and useless incantation (it is!), read on. If this line of BASIC code already means something to you, then you are probably going to enjoy the book, go buy a copy right now, the proceeds go to a great charity. I’m back to write about a book I’m enjoying, with the following cryptic title: 10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)) : GOTO 10 It’s been a long while since I’ve posted, but hopefully, there are still one or two of you out there who understand the value of a good RSS feed. I, for one, am looking forward to see what John has in store for the next few Tuesdays! Today’s review is the first of a series, and you’ll see a few follow up reviews of Krazydad puzzles in the coming weeks. I suggest reading the introductory links he has posted at the top of his blog, as well as some of his earlier posts on easier puzzles, to help get a feel for his lingo. He explains the notation elsewhere on his blog. If you’re new to John’s website, you will probably find his notation system, reminiscent of algebraic chess notation, hard to understand. Today, I had the honor of seeing John review a puzzle from this website: Namely Super Tough Volume 5, Book 1, Puzzle 5. How do the “Super Tough” puzzles that I offer here compare to the “Diabolical” puzzles you might find in your local newspaper? John Welch aims to find out. Sudoku difficulty is hard to measure and describe, and different publications (including this website) use different metrics and language to describe puzzle difficulty. Wait, didn't I just say the Super-Tough puzzles were the toughest I make? Well, I must be insane, because these new ones are actually even harder.John Welch writes an excellent blog for advanced Sudoku Solvers called Systematic Sudoku.Įvery Tuesday he posts a new detailed analysis of a tough puzzle, one of his goals being to understand the comparative difficulties of various sudoku publications. These are the toughest Killer Sudokus I make, and may require a little trial-and-error to finish. Tough puzzles require more advanced Sudoku strategy, such as X-Wing, XY-Wing and Swordfish. These puzzles require more sophisticated Sudoku strategy. If you have not solved Kakuro puzzles before, you will probably find them quite difficult at first. These puzzles require basic Sudoku strategy and Kakuro strategy.
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