The Zotmeister - December 14th, 2010

02:50 am - Puzzle 51: Totally Rooked

"I do not have too much interest in chess as a game..."

- Sherlock Holmes, The Chess Mysteries of Sherlock Holmes

I definitely feel like one of the greatest chunks of unfinished business I left behind in the first fifty puzzles was that I never made a full one of these that was more than just an Akari. There I was, introducing a new puzzle type, and apart from a five-by-five sample, I never actually MADE one. Hell, Grant made a better one before I did... with Stratego pieces of all things... [sigh]

Well, consider that issue remedied. AND HOW. I made this one a ballbuster. I even removed an unnecessary given during testsolving.

See Puzzle 41 for instructions. You're going to need all of them this time:



That's right, unlimited queens as well as rooks, and one pesky knight to gunk up the works. You're going to have to discover some new tactics for this one, as well as learn which old ones still apply...

The astute may have noticed that my digits now look different. Due to overwhelming apathy, I have gone ahead and done what I was originally planning: now my characters are seven-by-seven pixels! Basically, I just added digits to the custom font I created for my letter-based puzzles (which used 7x7 all along) and have started using them instead. The old 5x5s may yet make future appearances in the form of two-digit numbers for some puzzles. If you have any comments regarding the change, feel free to make them, but honestly, where were they last week? Huh? HUH? Oh, forget it. (The astuter may have noticed I broke out the S2 and finally got my journal subtitle to actually SHOW on my journal, among other things...)

Just a reminder: I am no longer soliciting emailed solutions nor offering prizes for them. I do still encourage comments - public or private - regarding anything I post to this journal, puzzles or otherwise. - ZM

08:04 am - Color

Once upon a time, I could use a span tag to give comment text a color. This was actually used quite a bit - and quite usefully - as a spoiler covering for comments to Detritus, the white text on the white background not being visible until highlighted. I just noticed that that text is no longer showing white, and is instantly readable. I went to edit one of my comments, and I found that the HTML is still there, and even previewing the edit shows the text properly as white. It's only on the actual page that the coloration is being discarded somehow. Is anyone else seeing the same thing I am, and if so, have you any ideas as to why? If it's something I could fix, I'd like to fix it.

For the record, I've tried deleting my recent journal style edits and even trying a completely different style, but none of that fixed it. I even tried a test post to someone else's journal, and saw the same behavior - is this something LiveJournal themselves broke at some point? Any insights would be appreciated. - ZM

03:41 pm

There's a new game up on Orisinal called Carrot Track - not Ferry's best, but it has all the hallmarks of his most solid creations (the pulchritude, the sense of whimsy, the simply addictive mechanics, and of course the soundtrack you'll have in your head hours later). Flash games are an art, and e continues to prove it. - ZM