I came across a web site that required job candidates to solve a puzzle to be able to access a job application page. I’m a sucker for puzzles. The original puzzle is at the following site:

http://www.telogis.co.nz/

But in case, they take it down at some point, here is the plain text version nicely formatted:

z = 4254145 * 0x18712495;
b = (z & 1) << 4;
a = b--;
o = [];
c = a - b;
x = b - a;
while (z) {
  x = a & x ? a & b : c + x;
  {
    o[z & b^x] = (x + 6 * a + b / 5 - c).chr;
    z = z / a / a;
  } if (!(z / a & b^x))
}

To apply go to “http://www.telogis.co.nz/” + o + “.html”

I don’t think this will parse correctly in any language, but I decided to solve the puzzle using Ruby since it wasn’t that far from it and Ruby is my main programming language currently. I had a couple false starts due to a subtlety in Ruby compared to other languages.

I’ll come back in a while and post the Ruby solution, but I don’t want to post a spoiler too soon.

Outstanding Flash based games

Flash putt-putt golf
If I remember correctly, when I played this putt-putt game back in 2002, my low score was around 27 or so

Jump a snowman into a BMW

Shave a Yeti

Today I learned what the “BASE” acronym stands for in “BASE Jumping” from the tragic article below.

BASE is an acronym for building, antenna, span, earth, the four categories of objects from which one can jump in the extreme sport.

BASE jumper dies after leaping from Idaho bridge

Maybe it should stand for “beyond acceptable statistical evaluation” or “beyond any sane evaluation”…

When I first heard about the Grand Canyon skywalk a while ago, I thought it was pretty cool, but this article puts quite a damper on it.

The view and feeling of hovering were amazing. It really was the closest I’ve ever come to experiencing flight (unaided by plane or hot air balloon of course). Unfortunately, the experience had already been soured by the feeling of being taken advantage of and lied to.