Interesting Facts

If your name is not there in the list then don't get disappointed. The inner satisfaction that you get after completing any version of Klueless is unparalleled. So, start playing!!!

This is what the klueless team says in their hall of fame. Infact, I was very happy too, though I didn't make it to the klueless 4 Hall of fame, last year, finishing it gave me an inner satisfaction. But this year, I wanted to make an entry into hall of fame. I was often googling about klueless 5 from August. Then in October, the klueless guys started the count down for Klueless 5.

Klueless 5 started on November 5,2009 9:00:00 AM IST. I had my semester exam(UID) on November 6 :(

Knowing that I was playing Klueless 5 aka K5 took me past that level.

There was a picture from which I was slowly removing the tangles, Arun came up with the solution.

There was a word Will. So, Arun said that it must denote William Shakespeare and we were exploring on The Tempest story, about Prospero and the Angel. It was all waste of time. My intuition said we were wrong. And I remembered reading an Island story during my childhood. And the solution became evident.

Aah! This was the level which took lot of our time. Karthikeyan joined us here. There were numerous options. Arun came up with a way of reading between the images. Then it seems he found the wiki page which contained the answer. But he didn't try the answer :-(. I was taking a little break at that time. When I came back, Arun had left due to power shutdown in his home. I found the wiki page and the solution too.

It was a very simple level. Needed just a couple of minutes. Just checked out on the ROFL part.

There was a button, click me. But when I tried to click it, it moved. So I tried using tab. A message box appeared saying "You cheated! Use the mouse." I checked the source code. The Klueless team had played prank on us. In the source code, they moved the button on mouse over. So it is impossible to click the button with the mouse. I ignored it and concentrated on the picture. Oh! There was a box. I thought may be Pandora's box? Then I googled the source code. Answer was available immediately!

Since I used to make lot of mistakes while typing messages in my mobile. Like, "Has the cup come?" instead of "Has the bus come?", this level was a cakewalk for me. The answer was spot on! The level's name was Texting on the sly! It was apt.

Leytonstone is a place which I knew for only one thing. And that was the answer too!

Here too the klueless team had played a prank. The :P from horse was well thought out. But it wasn't that tough.

I was searching about the passage everywhere. But couldn't find anything :( I was discussing in the blog of klueless 5 for the first time. Then suddenly I remembered that this was lvl 10 and not level 10! There was the solution!

Level 10. Didn't seem to leave me. There was a detective story over there. It was 2:00 PM. So I went for lunch. Coming back I could see Karthikeyan online. He was good in detective stories. He gave me the idea of who it could be and since it was an extension of the last lvl,solving this level was not tough anymore.

It was very simple. The poem in that level meant an incident, reading Digital Fortress really helped me. And what can one ask more than the picture present there.

This was a level that was very hard for me. I am not a master of vocabulary! There was an India-Australia match running and the Indian bowlers were thrashed to all parts of the ground :-(. And it was really tough for me because I was watching match, I could not focus my attention completely to klueless. I was trying strange methods, I went to the extent of trying all the words ending with 'ly' :-O. Thats when a guy called Aditya, sent me friend request in yahoo. I must thank him for telling me the answer to be an adjective!

It was 5:30 PM. Arun and Karthi were sending message to me, close Klueless and goto study, which . Last year I nearly flunked(somehow escaped) in a subject called Theory of Computation because of playing Klueless 4 without studying! This year was no exception. I had my semester exam(UID) and I was focussed more on klueless 5! Then I had to go out. I returned home and the Indian innings had began. Sehwag was rocking as usual and Tendulkar was playing sedately. But after crossing 17000 runs, Sachin played a pull shot. When Sachin plays pull shots, he is in mode-ATTACK. I love to watch Sachin when he is playing the pull shots. He is one of the best. But he doesn't play them often :(. Sachin played one of his best knocks, 175, while chasing was a great innings. But he couldn't finish off the match which he did so well in the CB series final! He played a crazy shot and got out. Match was lost by just 3 runs. It was Jadeja who surprisingly gets run out because he runs like a mad hare when his partner shouts "NO!NO!NO!" who lost the match single handedly! Pathan would have handled pressure situation well. It was 11:00 PM when the presentation of the match was over.

OMG! I hadn't studied a word for my exam :-(

Slept at once and woke up at 3:30 AM next morning. Was studying, till 9:59 AM, with my pals Arun and Karthi. Exam began at 10:00 AM lol :) But exam was quite easy. So it was not a problem. After this exam on Novemeber 6. I had one week leave for my next exam. I knew I could pull klueless 5! Came back to home had lunch and started playing klueless once again!

It was 3:00 PM...

Ah! You know how I solved the level, i saw an image map. Saved the web page in my system. Opened it in Microsoft expression web, then found the exact location of the image map. Clicked it to find a superb clue which directed me towards the answer! I don't watch Jeff Dunham shows and it actually cost me some time.

I knew the answer immediately after reading the word verbose. I wasted time on typing the answer in the wrong place. Then remembered how I chat. It helped me solve this level. Karthi was with me in this level. But he had some problem with his net connection. Arun called me up and we were discussing on this!

It was nearly 4 in the evening. I loved this level. I would rate it as my most favorite level in klueless 5 for the sheer brilliance of the level. I was blind over what the solution could possibly be. Then when I saw what the dice meant, I was blind-folded. One clue that really helped me was from the forum. It said, 'Find the rhyme!'

It was 6:00 PM. Arun and Karthi joined me. But now my net had some problems. Found that it was related to a comic. And by the time the wiki page loaded for me, they had found the answer.

Oh! This level was brilliant. We thought too much actually because of the clues in the blog stating that we needed to be tekhie buff and movie buff. It was actually misleading. Then I took a break from those guys and went to watch tv. Resumed klueless at 11:30 PM. And I was able to solve it immediately. Taking break between the levels definitely help. After all, I am playing Klueless and not Clueless!

It didn't take more than 30 seconds. Boom! Playing games do help!

There was a poem in that level. And I immediately decoded what it meant. After that it was just simple googling.

Change the perspective or expand your horizon. The level says.I tried lot of things read lot about a game called BINGO. Which was not necessary at all. It was November 7, 1:00 AM. I thought of taking a break from klueless and was watching Lord of the Rings. it was 4:00 AM in the morning. So slept off.

When I woke up, I found the time to be 2:00 PM. Oh! I had slept for 10 hours while playing klueless. The biggest crime in my life... lol :).

I decoded the poem. But I was making mistake on a line reading them as two numbers instead of a single number.

Aditya pointed out my mistake. Then it was simple march to the answer.

The powerpuff girl was easy. But the other part, I would not have solved if Aditya did not tell me about recession.

There was power shut down and my UPS had drained out. So I forced to shut down my computer :(

I again slept off. From 4:15 to 6:30 PM!

Woke up. Then this time I had to connect the dots and find company! It was easy!

I was thinking on a method to solve it. Aditya said, he can't help me because he himself didn't know the method. Some guy had posted a spoiler which made Aditya''s life really easy. But the moderators had deleted it! Then having so many doors reminded me of a Tamil film, 'Kaasey thaan kadavulada' Manorama uses a method to enter into her safety vault! I tried that method and it actually worked out :)

It was 8:00 PM. Arun joined me. He actually thought too much. Found that in medieval period, S, N etc., were roman numerals. He left for dinner and never turned up. (For the rest of Klueless :-(...Sob...Sob...). I too left, was watching tv and resumed klueless at 10:30 PM.

I read about Cleopatra, how she died, all that coupled with the rules of klueless 5 helped me to solve this level. But I was having a small problem. If I was in north pole, how could I travel north. I posted in the blog and got a reply that, the journey from start should carry on. And I was able to solve this level. I liked this level!

This could be compared with the 15th level. It was too good too! But being a Computer Science student, I was able to solve the RGB stuff in real quick time. Writing down the colors in a sheet of paper really helped me ;-)

Here again, I was thinking too much. Thats when Hema had posted her email-id on the page. I sent her request in gtalk. And she told I should think less. I understood what is to be done. All I can say is it was an A-1 level!

Posting anything on how I solved would be a spoiler. But all I can say is, I solved it really fast because I had been watching lot of movies for the past two years!

It was Novemeber 8 12:30 AM. Hema left. I lost my net connection. Watched Angels and Demons once again. It was 3:00 AM.

Found the song required and used photoshop. I didn't spot any difference. Then I remembered the rules page once again. It helped me to solve this level.

I knew what the image meant. Wikipedia provided the solution!

Ah! I focussed on one single line. It was the last line. Then connected it with clue. Tried trial and error method to connect to the answer :)

It was 7:00 AM in the morning. I had breakfast. It was raining and I was enjoying the rain. India Australia Match started at 8:30 AM :O. And wickets were falling like 9 pins. I knew no miracle would happen with the stupid Jadeja batting! Surprisingly Jadeja made a fifty. And Praveen saved the day with a good knock (ofcourse with lot of luck). I resumed klueless 5 at 11:30 AM. I interpreted the notes. I fought hard for 3 hours in interpreting and then left out. The rain and winds had made banana plant in my backyard fall. I never knew banana plants were so so heavy :-O. It was 5:30 PM when I resumed after lunch, rest,tv. Hema joined me at 6:00 PM. She had no clue on 31 what so ever. She gave me a different set of notes. Thats when I realized, I could have read the notes wrong. I read again slowly. Found that both our interpretations were wrong. After getting the right notes, it was just 2 mins to solve the remaining. Because I had spent lot of time already on devising it!

The Greek sculptor was the obvious one!

Hmmm. I liked this level and its connection with level 32. A number helped me solving this. But its simple even if random tries are made from the source code hints!

It was 8:30 PM and I went for dinner, returned by 9:30 PM. Hema had marched to 36th level, in that one hour! 34 was easy once I found the bearded man and MIT was a reasonable clue.

It was 10:00 PM my net connection was totally out! ADSL light did not glow at all :(

I had an alarm for every one hour and slept off.

It was November 9. Till 6:00 AM in the morning, the net did not work. There were offline messages from Hema, like 'Are you there?' 'Damn with your internet connection!'

The net connection was highly unstable. The first thing I did was checking the hall of fame. I had a heart attack when I saw the Hall of fame. 90 people had finished and Hema was there too! I was cursing BSNL, my ISP.

I figured out what was meant of the tables. Then it was really easy. But I should have remembered that people call me Deepak and not Deepak Senthilkumar. Somehow managed to solve the level. Wiki really helped me.

Ah! this was the level for which I troubled the moderators too much. I must really thank klueklutz for patiently replying to me! I thought too much and connected Rafael Nadal to the level when even Roger Federer was not needed :-( But its a simple level of googling the right stuff.

Net connection was still unstable. I got as much information as possible in the short span of time when my net works.

It was 1:00 PM.

When I saw tintin in this level, I remembered a level and figured out on what had to be done. I was making a simple mistake with my logic which was spot on! Klueklutz and Curses, the moderators of Klueless 5 clarified me and suggested a break. I had lunch, returned by 2:00 PM and found the solution immediately!

And only the final frontier had to be conquered!

I was feeling exhausted because of my damn internet connection and working alone. Was trying some fishing from the forum & relaxing, Curses detected it. He suggested me to play the game than hanging in the forum. I started the last level and figured out a way to solve the final level. It was pretty odd but it worked out. The final level belongs to the Lord! It was 4:00 PM and Klueless 5 was conquered.

Actually it was finished in 4.4 days. But 0.6 of that was dedicated towards my semster exam and the cricket match. So 3.8 days ;-)

And on my quest of reaching Hall of fame, yes! I did make it... 115 is my position. Could have reached a far better position had it not been BSNL's fist of fury on me.

Had a lot of trouble posting this here too :-(

It did help me actually on not working with Arun and Karthikeyan. Because, I had a unidirectional thought, which helped me actually.

Had a great time playing it! Hope you have a great time too!

Link to play: Klueless 5

One summer day in France in 1826, Joseph Niepce took the world's first photograph. It's a photo of some farm buildings and the sky. It took an exposure time of 8 hours. Voila! It had to feel pretty incredible, like magic.

No one's exactly sure how he did this or what chemicals were used. All that's known for sure is that the photo is on an 8"x 6.5" pewter plate. It's so faint it has to be tilted in order for the light to catch it just right, to see it. The Getty Museum in California did two weeks of tests in 2003 in a joint project involving the Rochester Institute of Technology and France's Centre de Recherches sur la Conservation des Documents Graphiques (try saying thatthree times fast). Then it went back on display at the University of Texas in a new air tight case, where it's been on display since 1964. I'm not sure why we have it and the French don't, but "hah".

The current theory about how the photograph was taken is that Niepce coated the pewter plate with bitumen, a petroleum derivative sensitive to light. After it spent those 8 hours hardening, he washed the plate with a mixture of oil of lavender and white petroleum. This dissolved the portions of the bitumen that didn't 'see' direct light, so didn't harden. Pretty damn clever. Niepce called his work a "heliograph," in a tribute to the power of the sun.

Article Source:World’s First Photo. Really?!!!!

A software bug is the common term used to describe an error, flaw, mistake, failure, or fault in a computer program or system that produces an incorrect or unexpected result, or causes it to behave in unintended ways. Most bugs arise from mistakes and errors made by people in either a program's source code or its design, and a few are caused by compilers producing incorrect code. A program that contains a large number of bugs, and/or bugs that seriously interfere with its functionality, is said to be buggy.

Common types of computer bugs

Conceptual error (code is syntactically correct, but the programmer or designer intended it to do something else)

Maths bugs

Syntax bugs

Use of the wrong operator, such as performing assignment instead of equality test. In simple cases often warned by the compiler; in many languages, deliberately guarded against by language syntax

Resource bugs

How about some bugs for snacks?

#include<stdio.h>
void main()
{
int a=3,b=2,c;
c=printf("%*d%*d",a,1,b,1);
clrscr();
printf("%d",c);
getch();
}

Kakuro puzzles resemble crosswords which use numbers instead of words. The aim of the game is to fill all the blank squares in the grid with only the numbers 1-9 so that the numbers you enter add up to the corresponding clues. When the grid is filled, the puzzle is complete. Sometimes called "Cross-sums" or "Kakro", Kakuro is Sudoku's bigger (and harder) brother.

Kakuro puzzle grids can be any size, though usually the squares within them have to be arranged symmetrically. As a rule of thumb, the more blank squares a puzzle contains, the harder it is, however this isn't always true, especially if it is a good quality puzzle.

NOTE: It is very important to note that a proper Kakuro puzzle has only 1 unique solution, and it will always have a logical way of reaching it, there should be no guesswork needed.



An easy Kakuro puzzle



Solution for the above puzzle

In discussing Kakuro puzzles and tactics, the typical shorthand for referring to an entry is "(clue, in numerals)-in-(number of cells in entry, spelled out)", such as "16-in-two" and "25-in-five". The exception is what would otherwise be called the "45-in-nine" — simply "45" is used, since the "-in-nine" is mathematically implied (nine cells is the longest possible entry, and since it cannot duplicate a digit it must consist of all the digits from 1 to 9 once). Curiously, "3-in-two", "4-in-two", "5-in-two", "43-in-eight", and "44-in-eight" are still frequently called as such, despite the "-in-two" and "-in-eight" being equally implied.

Solving techniques

Although brute-force guessing is of course possible, a better weapon is the understanding of the various combinatorial forms that entries can take for various pairings of clues and entry lengths. Those entries with sufficiently large or small clues for their length will have fewer possible combinations to consider, and by comparing them with entries that cross them, the proper permutation — or part of it — can be derived. The simplest example is where a 3-in-two crosses a 4-in-two: the 3-in-two must consist of '1' and '2' in some order; the 4-in-two (since '2' cannot be duplicated) must consist of '1' and '3' in some order. Therefore, their intersection must be '1', the only digit they have in common.

It is common practice to mark potential values for cells in the cell corners until all but one have been proven impossible; for particularly challenging puzzles, sometimes entire ranges of values for cells are noted by solvers in the hope of eventually finding sufficient constraints to those ranges from crossing entries to be able to narrow the ranges to single values. Because of space constraints, instead of digits some solvers use a positional notation, where a potential numerical value is represented by a mark in a particular part of the cell, which makes it easy to place several potential values into a single cell. This also makes it easier to distinguish potential values from solution values.

I find this game to be more interesting than Su-do-ku. I had never been interested in Su-do-ku though I like number puzzles in general! This game is a perfect replacement to Su-do-ku!

You can play this game online at http://www.kakuro.com/playonline.php



My First Kakuro puzzle (Took 19 minutes 32 seconds to solve this puzzle!)