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Thread: Post Race!

  1. #63441
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    Re: Post Race!

    That brings to mind a "simple" puzzle that a roommate bought in 1976 while I was attending a school in California. I think is was a 5x5 grid of tiles, each tile divided in quarters with the quarters filled with a solid color. You had to place the tiles in the grid so that all the edges matched the adjacent tiles.
    Simple enough, and you could always work your way fairly quickly down to a few tiles that didn't match, so swap pieces around and keep trying.
    I looked at the box and it said, as far as they know, there was only one solution.

    I looked at the puzzle, then looked at the person who bought it, and said I wouldn't even bother trying to play with it. It seemed extremely pointless to me.
    He wondered why, so I told him the box says there is only one solution. and since many of the tile edges easily match other tile edges, the chances of getting the solution was astronomical, and a waste of time.

    I said if there is only one solution, then the first tile you pick has to the right tile (1 chance in 25) and has to be in the right orientation (1 in 4), so you have a 1 in 100 chance of placing the first tile correctly, and of course you don't know if you did. Now you have to place the second tile, and there are quite a few tiles that will match, and in possible different orientations, so you have to multiply the number of matches times your original 100 to figure out the chance of getting two tiles placed correctly, and of course you don't know if they are.

    Carrying on to the third, then fourth, etc... there could be billions of combinations (or more), so you could spend the rest of your life messing with that puzzle to try to hit the solution.

    Of course, now that we have computers readily available, it could be an interesting programming exercise, so writing a program to solve the puzzle could be fun, but solving the puzzle manually was not something I even wanted to try as it seemed utterly pointless.

  2. #63442
    Super Moderator Shaggy Hiker's Avatar
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    Re: Post Race!

    They should have made it so that there were NO solutions. It would have been FAR easier, while reducing the number of possible solutions by only one.
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  3. #63443
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    Re: Post Race!

    Reminds me of the original "Lights Out" game. There you had a 5x5 matrix of buttons that could light up. The game would present you with pattern of lights, and you would press on one of the lit buttons to turn it off, but it would also toggle the state of the immediately adjacent buttons horizontally or vertically, so if the button was on, it would go off and vice versa. Essentially a graphic example of the XOR function of a plus pattern with the button you pressed in the middle.

    The original game had three modes, the first mode had 50 predefined games in increasing difficulty. The second mode would auto generate random puzzles. The third mode would allow you to enter a pattern, one light at a time. The rub there, was stated somewhat obliquely:
    Note: it is possible to create a puzzle that is so difficult, it may not have an answer!
    That stuck me as an illogical statement.
    If a puzzle doesn't have an "answer", it isn't "difficult" it is unsolvable. There is no solution, so there is no level of difficulty.

    Later, when I wrote a program to solve the puzzles, I discovered that actually, 75% of the patterns you can create are unsolvable. There are 25 lights, they have 2 states, so you have 2^25 possible patterns, i.e. 32M or 33,554,432 patterns (including the already solved pattern of no lights on). Therefore there are 8,388,608 patterns that are solvable (of course that considers the same pattern, only rotated as a different pattern) leaving you with over 24 million patterns that are unsolvable.
    I think the game should have included a way of telling you that the pattern was not valid, rather than let you enter an unsolvable game.

    I wrote my solver in VB3, and used a brute force method originally using the GUI code so took about 20 minutes to test 33+ million possible guesses to find the solution. I found out every solvable puzzle actually had four solutions, which was an interesting tidbit. I later worked on improving the processing so got the brute force method down to about 2 minutes, and then came to the realization, that if a puzzle is solvable than any move you make can only create a solvable pattern. Likewise if a puzzle is unsolvable then you can only create other unsolvable patterns playing the game. Seems obvious, right.
    Knowing that, it was a simple matter to reduce any pattern down to a single row of lights, so then you only had a maximum of five lights set (i.e.) a set of 32 patterns. Since only 8 of those patterns could be solvable it was a simple matter of checking the five lights as bits giving you a number 0 to 31 and see if it was one of the 8 solvable patterns.

    So, I could verify instantly as you entered a pattern whether it was solvable or not, and give an indication so you wouldn't create an unsolvable game. As an extension, I could also now use that information to create another small lookup table to instantly solve any puzzle as well, giving you the four solutions to any puzzle in a few microseconds (I'm assuming not nanoseconds).
    Last edited by passel; Sep 14th, 2018 at 04:08 PM.

  4. #63444
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    Re: Post Race!

    Sounds a little like the Game of Life. There's probably a general class of problem with binary cells where toggling cell N causes some surrounding set of cells to toggle in some fashion. Hilarity ensues.
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  5. #63445
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    Re: Post Race!

    Geaux tigers!
    "Code is like humor. When you have to explain it, it is bad." - Cory House
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  6. #63446
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    Re: Post Race!

    Fall is upon us. I've fired up the wood stove for the first time...unfortunately, I only have enough wood left for about two days. Fortunately, the temperatures should reach the 80s for the rest of the week.
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  7. #63447
    MS SQL Powerposter szlamany's Avatar
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    Re: Post Race!

    80's? How's that for a lumbering temp?

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  8. #63448
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    Re: Post Race!

    I'd say it's lumbering right along. It's currently in the 40s, and won't get to 70 today. I felt that to be a bit cool. My computer just can't warm the house enough.
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  9. #63449
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    Re: Post Race!

    We were supposed to get a cool front, but it never manifested; instead we've had rain everyday except for 3 days this month. Right now it feels pretty good though, we're at 80 degrees with 84% humidity so the feels like is at 87 and our high today won't top 90 either. I just wish that it'd stop raining, I need to cut my grass!
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  10. #63450
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    Re: Post Race!

    Had beautiful mountain biking weather yesterday.
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  11. #63451
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    Re: Post Race!

    Where are you? Haven't seen you around in a while, but you used to be in the burning state.
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  12. #63452
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    Re: Post Race!

    I just bought a 2004 Honda Rebel, unfortunately it has been raining literally every day this month so I haven't been able to really ride it.
    "Code is like humor. When you have to explain it, it is bad." - Cory House
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  13. #63453
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    Re: Post Race!

    I've never owned or ridden a motorcycle before, but I did get to try it out yesterday. It was easy enough, though I almost bit it when I parked it because I hit a patch of mud.
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  14. #63454
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    Re: Post Race!

    My problem is with shifting the gears. I only got it up to 2nd gear, but I seem to have a tough time bringing it back to neutral for some reason.
    "Code is like humor. When you have to explain it, it is bad." - Cory House
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  15. #63455
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    Re: Post Race!

    We're getting rain. It's our first rain in months. We might even top a tenth of an inch. I don't remember getting that much rain since....maybe April...or March. In fact, I don't remember getting ANY rain in that long, though I heard some story that it did rain one day in July, while I was out of the state hiking.
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  16. #63456
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    Re: Post Race!

    Quote Originally Posted by dday9 View Post
    My problem is with shifting the gears. I only got it up to 2nd gear, but I seem to have a tough time bringing it back to neutral for some reason.
    I haven't ridden a bike in years, but back in the day (40 years ago) with a Yamaha never had a problem getting into neutral.
    Sounds like it isn't an uncommon problem with the mid 2000 Rebel, or some other bikes.
    Some comments and "solutions" at this link. https://www.motorcycleforum.com/129-...nda-rebel.html

  17. #63457
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    Re: Post Race!

    Man, I'm glad that I'm not the only one. I felt a little embarrassed because the guy who sold me the bike (and was helping me learn how to ride) kept coming over and doing it for me with his hands.
    "Code is like humor. When you have to explain it, it is bad." - Cory House
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  18. #63458
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    Re: Post Race!

    Quote Originally Posted by Shaggy Hiker View Post
    Where are you? Haven't seen you around in a while, but you used to be in the burning state.
    I am back in the (not currently (to my knowledge)) burning state. I was living in Michigan for just under two years but moved back here to California about 3 months ago.

    I still try and sneak around here to check out the buzz but never post. Earlier today I was reminiscing on the good ol' days of MSN messenger and chatting with folk from here.
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  19. #63459
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    Re: Post Race!

    Just went through some of my early post history on here... smh at 15 year old me.
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  20. #63460
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    Re: Post Race!

    Almost half a life time ago for you now. Make's me think of the lyric, "He was born in the summer of his 27th year, coming home to a place he'd never been before".
    Except, in this case you have been here before.

  21. #63461
    Super Moderator Shaggy Hiker's Avatar
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    Re: Post Race!

    It just wasn't quite as charred.
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  22. #63462
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    Re: Post Race!

    I'm headed to Albuquerque today to visit my father. Then we'll go up into the mountains in Colorado. We've pushed this trip a wee bit late in the year. The temperatures where we're going might work against much sightseeing.
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  23. #63463
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    Re: Post Race!

    Watch out for hot dogs and jumping frogs
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  24. #63464
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    Re: Post Race!

    I don’t get it.
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  25. #63465
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  26. #63466
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    Re: Post Race!

    I don’t know what I’m the hell I just watched...
    "Code is like humor. When you have to explain it, it is bad." - Cory House
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  27. #63467
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    Re: Post Race!

    I don't quite understand how it is relevant....to anything.
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  28. #63468
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    Re: Post Race!

    Quote Originally Posted by Shaggy Hiker View Post
    I don't quite understand how it is relevant....to anything.
    Perfect for Post Race!

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  29. #63469
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    Re: Post Race!

    I am the current winner
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  30. #63470
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    Re: Post Race!

    I am new user in this Bord, how to achieve goals

  31. #63471
    Super Moderator Shaggy Hiker's Avatar
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    Re: Post Race!

    Depends on what the goal are. Start a thread in one of the programming forums asking a question about that language might do, but it really depends on the goals.

    Post Race is mostly just insane rambling.
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  32. #63472
    Super Moderator dday9's Avatar
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    Re: Post Race!

    You only ever post in the "Post Race".
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  33. #63473
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    Re: Post Race!

    Sup guys! Im finally back. Been busy working but slowed enough to have some time to post
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  34. #63474
    Super Moderator Shaggy Hiker's Avatar
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    Re: Post Race!

    And THIS is where you spent your precious time? Post Race?
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  35. #63475
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    Re: Post Race!

    Yes! Absolutely! I can never forget my VBF friends lol
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  36. #63476
    Fanatic Member Peter Porter's Avatar
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    Re: Post Race!

    Quote Originally Posted by andrewwilson View Post
    I am new user in this Bord, how to achieve goals
    Easiest, kick a soccer ball into a net.

    I hope this helped!

  37. #63477
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    Re: Post Race!

    I was going to suggest that, too, but posting in the Post Race is kind of an 'own goal' situation.
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  38. #63478
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    Re: Post Race!

    Happy Friday guys!

    Its our dogs birthday today, turning the big 1
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  39. #63479
    Super Moderator dday9's Avatar
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    Re: Post Race!

    My friend's dog just passed away yesterday, but it was a long time coming. She went blind and mostly deaf, poor thing had trouble going outside just to urinate.
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  40. #63480
    Super Moderator Shaggy Hiker's Avatar
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    Re: Post Race!

    Was it Friday then? This has been a pretty strange couple of weeks.
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