Four Black Pegs (blogs.req.co.uk/fourblackpegs)

req.co.uk Codex newsletter #93

posted by Breadmower on Sun 27th Jul, 08 at 22:25:51

What's this newsletter all about then?

Welcome to the Codex newsletter, where we bring you up to speed with what's going on at the site and - more importantly - let you know the results of the weekly leaderboard, and what accolades have been awarded to the movers and shakers this week.

Bored of this waffle already? If you're receiving it by email, then you can unsubscribe by going to the blog and clicking "unsubscribe from this blog"...

 

In this issue

  • Hot
  • Update update
  • Leaderboard update
  • Prizegiving

 

Hot

Everyone been having a nice day? I've been having to drive in the baking hot sun, which hasn't been too pleasant, so this might be a bit of a quick newsletter, as I'm all hot and uncomfortable.

 

Update update

Some more exciting behind the scenes stuff happened this week, mostly to do with how we track what people have been doing. Don't worry - it's nothing sinister, just a way of letting us tell people that you posted a comment, then played 112 games of Codex, then wrote a blog post - that kind of thing. Alternatively, we can tell you the same kind of information, but about your friends, so that you can see what they're all up to at a glance.

 

Leaderboard update

When the leaderboard closed for the week, here's how things looked (rank - user - average guesses):

1st - Bunnery - 4.82 (11 games)
2nd - sharon - 5.17 (100 games)
3rd - Breadmower - 5.5 (4 games)
4th - DOM - 5.55 (113 games)
5th - jfkauthor - 6 (8 games)
xx - Mr.Puzzlewit - 6 (2 games)
6th - Smonkey - 6.83 (6 games)

Total games played: 251

See the full leaderboard, along with a trend graph for the top five players on the statistics page.

 

Prizegiving

This week:

  • The Secret Admirers award (for receiving the most challenges) goes to DOM, who was challenged 38 times
  • The Open Relay award (for sending the most challenges) goes to Bunnery, who sent 50 challenges
  • The Turing award (for the most solo games played) goes to DOM, who played solo 76 times
  • The Enigma award (for sending the hardest codes) is awarded to Bunnery, whose codes took an average of 5.67 guesses to break
  • The Plaintext award (for sending the easiest codes) is given to sharon, whose codes took only 5.11 guesses to break on average
  • The Quick Thinking award (for the fastest game) goes to sharon, who completed a game in 12 seconds
  • The Deep Thought award (for the slowest game) goes to DOM, who took 1 day 00:16:25 to finish one game
  • The Upgrade award (for most improved average) goes to Bunnery, who decreased their average by 0.45
  • The Downgrade award (for most worsened average) is given to Smonkey, whose average increased by 0.42
  • The Brute Force award (for the highest average) goes to Smonkey, who took an average of 6.83 guesses to break codes
  • The Bletchley award (for top codebreaker) is this week awarded to Bunnery, whose average number of guesses to break codes was 4.82 over 11 games

 

Bunnery was our top player this week, finishing in first place with an average of 4.82 over 11 games. In addition, she also managed to lay claim to the Open Relay award (sent 50 challenges), Enigma (codes took an average of 5.67 guesses to find) and Upgrade (improved by 0.45). Nice work, Bunnery - take this Bletchley too, and pop them all on your trophy shelf :-)

DOM and Sharon were also quite busy, playing 113 and 100 games respectively, and picking up a handful of awards between them: DOM taking Secret Admirers (received 38 games), Turing (played 75 solo games) and Deep Thought (took 1 day 00:16:25 to finish one game); Sharon winning Plaintext (codes took 5.11 guesses to find on average) and Quick Thinking (completed a game in 12 seconds). Smonkey won the final two awards: Downgrade (disimproved by 0.42) and Brute Force (final average of 6.83 over 6 games).

 

Congratulations to everyone who won an award - they'll now be visible on your personal statistics pages so that the rest of us can marvel at your skills.

Got a suggestion for a new award? Let us know - leave a comment on the blog.

See the full award details on the statistics page.

 

Until next week...

That's it for this newsletter, thanks for reading. Want to make a comment or suggestion? Leave a comment on the blog.

 

Remember, you've got under seven days to make your mark on this week's leaderboard... get to it!

 

Have fun,

Breadmower and the rest of team req.co.uk

req.co.uk Codex newsletter #92

posted by Breadmower on Sun 20th Jul, 08 at 22:21:17

What's this newsletter all about then?

Welcome to the Codex newsletter, where we bring you up to speed with what's going on at the site and - more importantly - let you know the results of the weekly leaderboard, and what accolades have been awarded to the movers and shakers this week.

Bored of this waffle already? If you're receiving it by email, then you can unsubscribe by going to the blog and clicking "unsubscribe from this blog"...

 

In this issue

  • (Bad) busy last week, (good) busy next week
  • Leaderboard update
  • Prizegiving

 

(Bad) busy last week, (good) busy next week

I'll get straight to the point - I didn't manage to fit in and Codex dev last week, as I was really busy, but the good news is that I've got next week (as in starting tomorrow) free, so I'm going to try to get quite a bit done. I know I say it a lot, but watch this space, and I'll give you a status report next week.

 

Leaderboard update

When the leaderboard closed for the week, here's how things looked (rank - user - average guesses):

1st - sharon - 4.92 (26 games)
2nd - DOM - 5.23 (172 games)
3rd - Bunnery - 5.59 (27 games)
xx - Smonkey - 6.41 (22 games)

Total games played: 255

See the full leaderboard, along with a trend graph for the top five players on the statistics page.

 

Prizegiving

This week:

  • The Secret Admirers award (for receiving the most challenges) goes to DOM, who was challenged 31 times
  • The Open Relay award (for sending the most challenges) goes to Bunnery, who sent 37 challenges
  • The Turing award (for the most solo games played) goes to DOM, who played solo 132 times
  • The Enigma award (for sending the hardest codes) is awarded to Bunnery, whose codes took an average of 5.56 guesses to break
  • The Plaintext award (for sending the easiest codes) is given to Smonkey, whose codes took only 4.5 guesses to break on average
  • The Quick Thinking award (for the fastest game) goes to Smonkey, who completed a game in 10 seconds
  • The Deep Thought award (for the slowest game) goes to Bunnery, who took 1 day 12:27:24 to finish one game
  • The Upgrade award (for most improved average) goes to Smonkey, who decreased their average by 1.06
  • The Downgrade award (for most worsened average) is given to Bunnery, whose average increased by 0.41
  • The Brute Force award (for the highest average) goes to Bunnery, who took an average of 5.59 guesses to break codes
  • The Bletchley award (for top codebreaker) is this week awarded to sharon, whose average number of guesses to break codes was 4.92 over 26 games

 

Bit of a slow week this time, unless you're DOM: 255 games in total, 172 by him. Of course, that wins him the Turing award (136 solo games played), but he also went on to win Secret Admirers (received 31 games) and Enigma (set codes that took 5.63 guesses to find on average). No Bletchley for him, though - that went to Sharon, who played considerably less (26 games), but finished with an average of 4.92. Nice work, Sharon :-)

Elsewhere, Smonkey won three awards: Plaintext (codes took an average of 4.5 guesses to find), Quick Thinking (completed a game in 10 seconds) and Upgrade (improved by 1.06). Bunnery took home the rest of the week's awards, winning Open Relay (sent 37 games), Deep Thought (took 1 day 12:27:24 to complete one game), Downgrade (disimproved by 0.41) and Brute Force (final average of 5.59 over 27 games).

 

Congratulations to everyone who won an award - they'll now be visible on your personal statistics pages so that the rest of us can marvel at your skills.

Got a suggestion for a new award? Let us know - leave a comment on the blog.

See the full award details on the statistics page.

 

Until next week...

That's it for this newsletter, thanks for reading. Want to make a comment or suggestion? Leave a comment on the blog.

 

Remember, you've got under seven days to make your mark on this week's leaderboard... get to it!

 

Have fun,

Breadmower and the rest of team req.co.uk

req.co.uk Codex newsletter #91

posted by Breadmower on Sun 13th Jul, 08 at 21:47:26

What's this newsletter all about then?

Welcome to the Codex newsletter, where we bring you up to speed with what's going on at the site and - more importantly - let you know the results of the weekly leaderboard, and what accolades have been awarded to the movers and shakers this week.

Bored of this waffle already? If you're receiving it by email, then you can unsubscribe by going to the blog and clicking "unsubscribe from this blog"...

 

In this issue

  • API-aye - what's this?
  • Leaderboard update
  • Prizegiving

 

API-aye - what's this?

There's been some more progress on the backend updates to the site - there's the start of a nice little API for retreiving user data, giving awards, and doing things like blog posts (basically, you'll "soon" (ish) be able to use software like Windows Live Writer to post blogs, but that's not really relevant to Codex, is it?). Still no particularly visible updates, I'm afraid, but that's coming once I've got the server-side stuff all sorted out.

 

Leaderboard update

When the leaderboard closed for the week, here's how things looked (rank - user - average guesses):

1st - sharon - 4.67 (21 games)
2nd - Bunnery - 4.86 (22 games)
3rd - DOM - 5.24 (302 games)
xx - Breadmower - 6.0 (3 games)
4th - Smonkey - 7.47 (19 games)

Total games played: 372

See the full leaderboard, along with a trend graph for the top five players on the statistics page.

 

Prizegiving

This week:

  • The Secret Admirers award (for receiving the most challenges) goes to DOM, who was challenged 124 times
  • The Open Relay award (for sending the most challenges) goes to sharon, who sent 124 challenges
  • The Turing award (for the most solo games played) goes to DOM, who played solo 145 times
  • The Enigma award (for sending the hardest codes) is awarded to DOM, whose codes took an average of 6 guesses to break
  • The Plaintext award (for sending the easiest codes) is given to sharon, whose codes took only 4.99 guesses to break on average
  • The Quick Thinking award (for the fastest game) goes to DOM, who completed a game in 16 seconds
  • The Deep Thought award (for the slowest game) goes to DOM, who took 1 day 18:01:10 to finish one game
  • The Upgrade award (for most improved average) goes to Bunnery, who decreased their average by 0.43
  • The Downgrade award (for most worsened average) is given to DOM, whose average increased by 0.43
  • The Brute Force award (for the highest average) goes to Smonkey, who took an average of 7.47 guesses to break codes
  • The Bletchley award (for top codebreaker) is this week awarded to sharon, whose average number of guesses to break codes was 4.67 over 21 games

 

Now, you'll have to bear with me if things look a little odd here, but I'm writing this over a mobile broadband link, which has stripped out the fancy blog posting system, leaving me with a slightly confusing preview of what I'm writing.

OK, so Sharon was our top player this week, finishing with an average of 4.67 over 21 games - just 0.19 ahead of Bunnery. Still, that's enough, so she wins this week's Bletchley award - nice work, Sharon. In addition to a Bletchley, she also wins an Open Relay award (for sending 124 games) and a Plaintext award (for setting codes that took an average of 4.99 guesses to find).

Bunnery might have been slightly behind for the Bletchley, but she did manage to improve the most (by 0.43) and wins this week's Upgrade award. On the other end of the scale, DOM disimproved the most (oddly enough, by 0.43) and wins the Downgrade award. He's been quite busy though, as he also wins the Secret Admirers award (for sending 124 games), the Turing award (for playing 145 solo games), the Enigma award (for setting codes that took an average of 6 guesses to find), the Quick Thinking award (for completing a game in 16 seconds) and the Deep Thought award (for taking 1 day 18:01:10 to complete one game). Think he's done? Nope - he also won a Colossus award, for completing over 100 games in 24 hours. Very impressive, but he wasn't the only one to win one of the special (non-regular awards) - Smonkey won an Optimal Algorithm award for finding a code on her first guess, which goes alongside her Brute Force award (finishing average of 7.47 over 19 games).

 

Congratulations to everyone who won an award - they'll now be visible on your personal statistics pages so that the rest of us can marvel at your skills.

Got a suggestion for a new award? Let us know - leave a comment on the blog.

See the full award details on the statistics page.

 

Until next week...

That's it for this newsletter, thanks for reading. Want to make a comment or suggestion? Leave a comment on the blog.

 

Remember, you've got under seven days to make your mark on this week's leaderboard... get to it!

 

Have fun,

Breadmower and the rest of team req.co.uk

req.co.uk Codex newsletter #90

posted by Breadmower on Sun 6th Jul, 08 at 09:11:17

What's this newsletter all about then?

Welcome to the Codex newsletter, where we bring you up to speed with what's going on at the site and - more importantly - let you know the results of the weekly leaderboard, and what accolades have been awarded to the movers and shakers this week.

Bored of this waffle already? If you're receiving it by email, then you can unsubscribe by going to the blog and clicking "unsubscribe from this blog"...

 

In this issue

  • Update schedule
  • Leaderboard update
  • Prizegiving
  • Predictions

 

Update schedule

There's going to be a little change to the schedule for the big update. Now, don't panic - it's sort of a good thing. Without wanting to sound too vague (as I get paranoid about the net knowing too much about what I'm up to), I'm going to have a lot less spare time to do development during the day, but am going to have a lot more spare time to do development during the evening. What does this all mean? Well, hopefully it means that I should be able to get in a few evenings of req.co.uk development each week, which'll let me catch back up to where I want everything to be. The bad news is that because of needing to do some prep for all of this, I haven't got quite as much done this week as I wanted to.

However, I did promise you an update, and there has been one: this week, I've done quite a bit of work on the awards system. It's nothing that you'll see right now (as it's all behind the scenes), but it means that it'll be a lot easier for me to add in new awards (and to be announced "award-like things"), which is part of the revitalisation plan. I suppose I could've called it the "regeneration plan" as a Doctor Who reference, but I didn't have any follow-up puns handy. Mmmm? Handy? Like a hand? Sorry, that's the best I can do at this time in the morning.

 

Leaderboard update

When the leaderboard closed for the week, here's how things looked (rank - user - average guesses):

1st - DOM - 4.81 (52 games)
2nd - sharon - 5.1 (51 games)
xx - Bunnery - 5.3 (47 games)

Total games played: 155

See the full leaderboard, along with a trend graph for the top five players on the statistics page.

 

Prizegiving

This week:

  • The Secret Admirers award (for receiving the most challenges) goes to DOM, who was challenged 57 times
  • The Open Relay award (for sending the most challenges) goes to DOM, who sent 60 challenges
  • The Turing award (for the most solo games played) goes to Bunnery, who played solo 24 times
  • The Enigma award (for sending the hardest codes) is awarded to Smonkey, whose codes took an average of 5.29 guesses to break
  • The Plaintext award (for sending the easiest codes) is given to sharon, whose codes took only 4.86 guesses to break on average
  • The Quick Thinking award (for the fastest game) goes to sharon, who completed a game in 17 seconds
  • The Deep Thought award (for the slowest game) goes to DOM, who took 1 day 22:41:03 to finish one game
  • The Upgrade award (for most improved average) goes to sharon, who decreased their average by 0.47
  • The Downgrade award (for most worsened average) is given to Bunnery, whose average increased by 0.08
  • The Brute Force award (for the highest average) goes to Sharon, who took an average of 5.1 guesses to break codes
  • The Bletchley award (for top codebreaker) is this week awarded to DOM, whose average number of guesses to break codes was 4.81 over 52 games

 

Yeees, well... just a bit quiet this week: three players on the board, one of whom was frozen out. I'll keep things simple, and just go through everyone in turn...

First up is DOM: he finished up at the top of the board with a final score of 4.81 over 52 games. OK, so we know that earns him this week's Bletchley award, but what else did he win for himself? Looks like he sent the most games (60, winning Open Relay), received the most games (57, winning Secret Admirers) and played the slowest game (took 1 day 22:41:03 to finish, winning Deep Thought). Nice work, DOM.

Next we have Sharon: she finished with 5.1 over 51 games. On the way, she picked up Turing (played 11 solo games), Plaintext (set codes that took 4.86 guesses to find on average), Quick Thinking (completed a game in 17 seconds), Upgrade (improved by 0.47), and (due to Bunnery being frozen out) she also won Brute Force (for the highest average).

On the subject of Bunnery, she won the Downgrade award (for disimproving by 0.08). Finally, Smonkey (whilst not being on the leaderboard) won the Enigma award (for setting codes that took an average of 5.29 guesses to find).

 

Congratulations to everyone who won an award - they'll now be visible on your personal statistics pages so that the rest of us can marvel at your skills.

Got a suggestion for a new award? Let us know - leave a comment on the blog.

See the full award details on the statistics page.

 

Predictions

Don't get too excited - this isn't quite the return of Bunnery Vs Bin1, but it is a bit of news. I had a chat with Bin1 earlier in the week, and it turns out that he's just been internet-less for a while, which is why he's been so quiet. I think he said that he was moving house this week, so hopefully that means that he'll get hooked up again soon, and we'll start seeing him again.

 

Until next week...

That's it for this newsletter, thanks for reading. Want to make a comment or suggestion? Leave a comment on the blog.

 

Remember, you've got under seven days to make your mark on this week's leaderboard... get to it!

 

Have fun,

Breadmower and the rest of team req.co.uk

req.co.uk Codex newsletter #89

posted by Breadmower on Sun 29th Jun, 08 at 23:29:28

What's this newsletter all about then?

Welcome to the Codex newsletter, where we bring you up to speed with what's going on at the site and - more importantly - let you know the results of the weekly leaderboard, and what accolades have been awarded to the movers and shakers this week.

Bored of this waffle already? If you're receiving it by email, then you can unsubscribe by going to the blog and clicking "unsubscribe from this blog"...

 

In this issue

  • (Mis)adventures in Time
  • Leaderboard update
  • Prizegiving

 

(Mis)adventures in Time

Seems that someone's tried to hide us by putting us all an hour out of sync with the rest of the universe. No, wait, it's just that the server time is out again for some reason. Thanks to Bunnery for spotting that - I'll get it fixed in the morning.

Quick update update: hey, I did some rather cool backend updates over the course of the week, and have got some more planned for the coming week. If it goes to plan, I'll fill you in with a few details in the next newsletter.

 

Leaderboard update

When the leaderboard closed for the week, here's how things looked (rank - user - average guesses):

1st - DOM - 4.89 (19 games)
2nd - Bunnery - 5.22 (37 games)
3rd - sharon - 5.57 (60 games)
xx - Breadmower - 6.0 (1 game)
4th - Smonkey - 7.74 (31 games)

Total games played: 158

See the full leaderboard, along with a trend graph for the top five players on the statistics page.

 

Prizegiving

This week:

  • The Secret Admirers award (for receiving the most challenges) goes to DOM, who was challenged 59 times
  • The Open Relay award (for sending the most challenges) goes to sharon, who sent 55 challenges
  • The Turing award (for the most solo games played) goes to sharon, who played solo 27 times
  • The Enigma award (for sending the hardest codes) is awarded to sharon, whose codes took an average of 6.17 guesses to break
  • The Plaintext award (for sending the easiest codes) is given to Smonkey, whose codes took only 4.86 guesses to break on average
  • The Quick Thinking award (for the fastest game) goes to Smonkey, who completed a game in 9 seconds
  • The Deep Thought award (for the slowest game) goes to DOM, who took 1 day 23:59:54 to finish one game
  • The Upgrade award (for most improved average) goes to DOM, who decreased their average by 0.34
  • The Downgrade award (for most worsened average) is given to Breadmower, whose average increased by 0.56
  • The Brute Force award (for the highest average) goes to Smonkey, who took an average of 7.74 guesses to break codes
  • The Bletchley award (for top codebreaker) is this week awarded to DOM, whose average number of guesses to break codes was 4.89 over 19 games

 

So, five players on the board this time, one frozen out (but then, they only did play the one game). DOM finished up at the top with a final score of 4.89 over 19 games, winning this week's Bletchley award - nice work :-) In addition, he also received the most games (59), winning the Secret Admirers award. He was also responsible for the slowest game of the week (1 day 23:59:54), winning Deep Thought, and improved the most (by 0.34), winning Upgrade. Seemingly, that wasn't enough, as he also won an Optimal Algorithm award for finding a code with one guess.

Sharon and Smonkey won three awards each: Open Relay (sent 55 games), Turing (played 27 solo games) and Enigma (set codes that took an average of 6.17 guesses to find) for Sharon; Plaintext (codes took 4.86 guesses to find on average), Quick Thinking (finished a game in 9 seconds) and Brute Force (final score of 7.74 over 31 games) for Smonkey. Finally, Breadmower managed to disimprove the most (by 0.56) and wins this week's Downgrade award.

 

Congratulations to everyone who won an award - they'll now be visible on your personal statistics pages so that the rest of us can marvel at your skills.

Got a suggestion for a new award? Think I used the word "also" too much? Let us know - leave a comment on the blog.

See the full award details on the statistics page.

 

Until next week...

That's it for this newsletter, thanks for reading. Want to make a comment or suggestion? Leave a comment on the blog.

 

Remember, you've got under seven days to make your mark on this week's leaderboard... get to it!

 

Have fun,

Breadmower and the rest of team req.co.uk

req.co.uk Codex newsletter #88

posted by Breadmower on Sun 22nd Jun, 08 at 21:14:53

What's this newsletter all about then?

Welcome to the Codex newsletter, where we bring you up to speed with what's going on at the site and - more importantly - let you know the results of the weekly leaderboard, and what accolades have been awarded to the movers and shakers this week.

Bored of this waffle already? If you're receiving it by email, then you can unsubscribe by going to the blog and clicking "unsubscribe from this blog"...

 

In this issue

  • No news, but a DIY tip
  • Leaderboard update
  • Prizegiving

 

No news, but a DIY tip

Today I have been mostly fixing a sill kind of thing above my front window, and so have a DIY top tip for you: if you're using silicone sealant and the nozzle breaks (and the silicone oozes out everywhere), don't decide to scoop it up with your finger and smear it on by hand. It's messy.

I'll have a proper update for you next week, hopefully.

 

Leaderboard update

When the leaderboard closed for the week, here's how things looked (rank - user - average guesses):

1st - laura - 4.6 (10 games)
2nd - sharon - 5.03 (35 games)
3rd - Bunnery - 5.21 (38 games)
4th - DOM - 5.24 (159 games)
xx - Breadmower - 5.44 (9 games)
5th - Smonkey - 7.29 (17 games)

Total games played: 274

See the full leaderboard, along with a trend graph for the top five players on the statistics page.

 

Prizegiving

This week:

  • The Secret Admirers award (for receiving the most challenges) goes to sharon, who was challenged 44 times
  • The Open Relay award (for sending the most challenges) goes to DOM, who sent 53 challenges
  • The Turing award (for the most solo games played) goes to DOM, who played solo 121 times
  • The Enigma award (for sending the hardest codes) is awarded to Smonkey, whose codes took an average of 5.5 guesses to break
  • The Plaintext award (for sending the easiest codes) is given to DOM, whose codes took only 4.48 guesses to break on average
  • The Quick Thinking award (for the fastest game) goes to Bunnery, who completed a game in 8 seconds
  • The Deep Thought award (for the slowest game) goes to DOM, who took 1 day 23:59:44 to finish one game
  • The Upgrade award (for most improved average) goes to sharon, who decreased their average by 0.26
  • The Downgrade award (for most worsened average) is given to Bunnery, whose average increased by 0.26
  • The Brute Force award (for the highest average) goes to Smonkey, who took an average of 7.29 guesses to break codes
  • The Bletchley award (for top codebreaker) is this week awarded to laura, whose average number of guesses to break codes was 4.6 over 10 games

 

274 games by 6 players, with one frozen out (ah, that'd be me). Laura was the one at the top of the board this week, with 4.6 over 10 games. Not bad, considering they were her first games in over a month. Nice work, have a Bletchley :-)

At the other end of the scale was Smonkey, who finished with an average of 7.29 over 17 games, winning the Brute Force award. Still, as well as being sent hard games, she managed to send out the hardest ones (taking an average of 5.5 guesses to find), and wins the Enigma award. The easiest games were sent by DOM (taking 4.8 guesses to find on average), who wins the Plaintext award. Not content with that, he also won the Open Relay award (sent 53 games), the Turing award (sent 122 games) and the Deep Thought award (took 1 day 23:59:44 to complete one game).

Bunnery played this week's quickest game (8 seconds), winning the Quick Thinking award, along with the Downgrade award for her disimprovement of 0.26 - oddly enough the opposite of Sharon, who won this week's Upgrade award for her improvement of 0.26. Nicely balanced there, ladies :-)

 

Congratulations to everyone who won an award - they'll now be visible on your personal statistics pages so that the rest of us can marvel at your skills.

Got a suggestion for a new award? Let us know - leave a comment on the blog.

See the full award details on the statistics page.

 

Until next week...

That's it for this newsletter, thanks for reading. Want to make a comment or suggestion? Leave a comment on the blog.

 

Remember, you've got under seven days to make your mark on this week's leaderboard... get to it!

 

Have fun,

Breadmower and the rest of team req.co.uk

req.co.uk Codex newsletter #87

posted by Breadmower on Sun 15th Jun, 08 at 21:12:04

What's this newsletter all about then?

Welcome to the Codex newsletter, where we bring you up to speed with what's going on at the site and - more importantly - let you know the results of the weekly leaderboard, and what accolades have been awarded to the movers and shakers this week.

Bored of this waffle already? If you're receiving it by email, then you can unsubscribe by going to the blog and clicking "unsubscribe from this blog"...

 

In this issue

  • Nothing to see here, sorry
  • Leaderboard update
  • Prizegiving

 

Nothing to see here, sorry

There's been a little progress this week, but nothing that you'll see yet, I'm afraid - plenty of scribbles on the whiteboard, though, which is always a good sign. No, really. I'm planning a "work on rcu all day" day for the coming week, which should help me catch up a bit.

In other news, it looks as if MattWaddy's photo didn't win the Canon competition, which - frankly - is a travesty, and makes me glad I bought a Brother printer instead of a Canon one. That'll show them. Well, perhaps not, but it makes me feel better.

 

Leaderboard update

When the leaderboard closed for the week, here's how things looked (rank - user - average guesses):

1st - Bunnery - 4.71 (21 games)
2nd - Mr.Puzzlewit - 4.75 (8 games)
3rd - sharon - 5.29 (41 games)
4th - DOM - 5.38 (24 games)
5th - Smonkey - 14.0 (1 game)

Total games played: 102

See the full leaderboard, along with a trend graph for the top five players on the statistics page.

 

Prizegiving

This week:

  • The Secret Admirers award (for receiving the most challenges) goes to Bunnery, who was challenged 30 times
  • The Open Relay award (for sending the most challenges) goes to Bunnery, who sent 59 challenges
  • The Turing award (for the most solo games played) goes to Bunnery, who played solo 12 times
  • The Enigma award (for sending the hardest codes) is awarded to Mr.Puzzlewit, whose codes took an average of 5.43 guesses to break
  • The Plaintext award (for sending the easiest codes) is given to sharon, whose codes took only 4.5 guesses to break on average
  • The Quick Thinking award (for the fastest game) goes to Bunnery, who completed a game in 13 seconds
  • The Deep Thought award (for the slowest game) goes to sharon, who took 1 day 23:47:11 to finish one game
  • The Upgrade award (for most improved average) goes to Bunnery, who decreased their average by 0.71
  • The Downgrade award (for most worsened average) is given to sharon, whose average increased by 0.55
  • The Brute Force award (for the highest average) goes to DOM, who took an average of 5.38 guesses to break codes
  • The Bletchley award (for top codebreaker) is this week awarded to Bunnery, whose average number of guesses to break codes was 4.71 over 21 games

 

Eeep - even quieter this week: 102 games by 5 players - and it's only just 5 players. Mr.Puzzlewit didn't play many games this week (8) but that was still enough to not get frozen out, as fortunately for him, Smonkey played just one game. In fact, her one game gave her the worst score (14), but seeing as she's frozen out, she doesn't win this week's Brute Force award - no, that honour goes to DOM, who finished with 5.38 over 24 games. Still, he did manage to win another award: Plaintext, for sending codes that took an average of 4.83 guesses to find. Sharon also managed to pick up a pair of awards: Deep Thought (took 1 day 23:47:11 to complete one game) and Downgrade (disimproved by 0.55). Mr.Puzzlewit was busy setting the hardest codes (taking 5.43 to find on average), and wins an Enigma award.

Finally, everything else was won by Bunnery. Yep, that's an Open Relay (sent 59 games), Secret Admirers (received 30 games), Turing (played 16 solo games), Quick Thinking (finished a game in 13 seconds), Upgrade (improved by 0.71) and this week's Bletchley award for her final score of 4.71 over 21 games. Nice work, busy Bunnery :-)

 

Congratulations to everyone who won an award - they'll now be visible on your personal statistics pages so that the rest of us can marvel at your skills.

Got a suggestion for a new award? Let us know - leave a comment on the blog.

See the full award details on the statistics page.

 

Until next week...

That's it for this newsletter, thanks for reading. Want to make a comment or suggestion? Leave a comment on the blog.

 

Remember, you've got under seven days to make your mark on this week's leaderboard... get to it!

 

Have fun,

Breadmower and the rest of team req.co.uk

req.co.uk Codex newsletter #86

posted by Breadmower on Sun 8th Jun, 08 at 22:35:38

What's this newsletter all about then?

Welcome to the Codex newsletter, where we bring you up to speed with what's going on at the site and - more importantly - let you know the results of the weekly leaderboard, and what accolades have been awarded to the movers and shakers this week.

Bored of this waffle already? If you're receiving it by email, then you can unsubscribe by going to the blog and clicking "unsubscribe from this blog"...

 

In this issue

  • Stuff is happening!
  • Leaderboard update
  • Prizegiving

 

Stuff is happening!

Now, don't get too excited - I'm not reporting any (interesting) news here, but as promised last week, there's been progress with the update. It's mostly non-Codex stuff at the moment, so I won't go into details here, but something's coming, and I think it may entertain...

 

Leaderboard update

When the leaderboard closed for the week, here's how things looked (rank - user - average guesses):

1st - Mr.Puzzlewit - 4.6 (5 games)
2nd - sharon - 4.74 (47 games)
3rd - DOM - 5.38 (146 games)
4th - Bunnery - 5.42 (52 games)
5th - Smonkey - 6.25 (12 games)

Total games played: 268

See the full leaderboard, along with a trend graph for the top five players on the statistics page.

 

Prizegiving

This week:

  • The Secret Admirers award (for receiving the most challenges) goes to sharon, who was challenged 48 times
  • The Open Relay award (for sending the most challenges) goes to Bunnery, who sent 57 challenges
  • The Turing award (for the most solo games played) goes to DOM, who played solo 123 times
  • The Enigma award (for sending the hardest codes) is awarded to Mr.Puzzlewit, whose codes took an average of 7 guesses to break
  • The Plaintext award (for sending the easiest codes) is given to Breadmower, whose codes took only 2 guesses to break on average
  • The Quick Thinking award (for the fastest game) goes to Bunnery, who completed a game in 9 seconds
  • The Deep Thought award (for the slowest game) goes to DOM, who took 1 day 20:32:25 to finish one game
  • The Upgrade award (for most improved average) goes to Mr.Puzzlewit, who decreased their average by 0.3
  • The Downgrade award (for most worsened average) is given to Bunnery, whose average increased by 0.79
  • The Brute Force award (for the highest average) goes to Smonkey, who took an average of 6.25 guesses to break codes
  • The Bletchley award (for top codebreaker) is this week awarded to Sharon, whose average number of guesses to break codes was 4.74 over 47 games

 

Ah, another quiet week - 268 games, 5 players, 1 frozen, and a similar introduction to last time. Let's face it though, I do seem to say the same things a lot... and use too many commas... and ellipsis... Anyway, enough waffle - it's too warm to be sat here, I think I need to go and sit in front of the freezer. Oh, wait, I'm waffling again. No, Ceiling Cat - don't hiss at me!

Yeah, so, this week our top player was Mr.Puzzlewit, who finished with a final average of 4.6... except for the minor fact that he'd played the fewest games this week (5), so was frozen out. Sorry Mr.Puzzlewit, this week's Bletchley award goes to Sharon, who finished with an average of 4.74 over 47 games. Nice work, Sharon. She's also the most popular player this week, winning the Secret Admirers award (received 48 games).

Bunnery was busy this week, winning the Downgrade (disimproved by 0.79), Open Relay (sent 57 games) and Quick Thinking awards (completed a game in 9 seconds). In fact, Mr.Puzzlewit and DOM also completed games in 9 seconds, so I think I'll have to let them have a Quick Thinking award each too. In addition, Mr.Puzzlewit won the Upgrade award (improved by 0.3) and the Enigma award (set codes that took an average of 7 guesses to find), whilst DOM won the Turing award (played 124 solo games) and the Deep Thought award (took 1 day 20:32:25 to finish one game).

Breadmower set the easiest codes this week (taking a rather pathetic 2 guesses to find on average), winning Plaintext, and Smonkey finished with the highest average (6.25 over 12 games), winning the Brute Force award.

 

Congratulations to everyone who won an award - they'll now be visible on your personal statistics pages so that the rest of us can marvel at your skills.

Got a suggestion for a new award? Let us know - leave a comment on the blog.

See the full award details on the statistics page.

 

Until next week...

That's it for this newsletter, thanks for reading. Want to make a comment or suggestion? Leave a comment on the blog.

 

Remember, you've got under seven days to make your mark on this week's leaderboard... get to it!

 

Have fun,

Breadmower and the rest of team req.co.uk

req.co.uk Codex newsletter #85

posted by Breadmower on Sun 1st Jun, 08 at 19:16:29

What's this newsletter all about then?

Welcome to the Codex newsletter, where we bring you up to speed with what's going on at the site and - more importantly - let you know the results of the weekly leaderboard, and what accolades have been awarded to the movers and shakers this week.

Bored of this waffle already? If you're receiving it by email, then you can unsubscribe by going to the blog and clicking "unsubscribe from this blog"...

 

In this issue

  • What? He's planned something before doing it?
  • Leaderboard update
  • Prizegiving
  • Predictions

 

What? He's planned something before doing it?

Update-wise, it's bad news/good news again this week (though the bad news isn't too bad, and the good news is quite good). Bad news: no evidence of me doing any updates. Good news: In a rather out of character way (at least for rcu) I've planned out what I'm going to do before doing it, so that I should be able to implement it all easily. Implementation? Start on Wednesday, maybe? No, really - I've made a plan and everything.

 

Leaderboard update

When the leaderboard closed for the week, here's how things looked (rank - user - average guesses):

1st - Bunnery - 4.63 (19 games)
2nd - sharon - 4.76 (21 games)
3rd - Mr.Puzzlewit - 4.9 (10 games)
4th - DOM - 5.19 (201 games)
xx - Breadmower - 6.33 (3 games)

Total games played: 260

See the full leaderboard, along with a trend graph for the top five players on the statistics page.

 

Prizegiving

This week:

  • The Secret Admirers award (for receiving the most challenges) goes to sharon, who was challenged 28 times
  • The Open Relay award (for sending the most challenges) goes to DOM, who sent 36 challenges
  • The Turing award (for the most solo games played) goes to DOM, who played solo 179 times
  • The Enigma award (for sending the hardest codes) is awarded to Sarah, whose codes took an average of 7 guesses to break
  • The Plaintext award (for sending the easiest codes) is given to sharon, whose codes took only 4.62 guesses to break on average
  • The Quick Thinking award (for the fastest game) goes to DOM, who completed a game in 11 seconds
  • The Deep Thought award (for the slowest game) goes to DOM, who took 1 day 23:59:34 to finish one game
  • The Upgrade award (for most improved average) goes to Bunnery, who decreased their average by 0.92
  • The Downgrade award (for most worsened average) is given to Breadmower, whose average increased by 1.08
  • The Brute Force award (for the highest average) goes to DOM, who took an average of 5.19 guesses to break codes
  • The Bletchley award (for top codebreaker) is this week awarded to Bunnery, whose average number of guesses to break codes was 4.63 over 19 games

 

Another quiet-ish week, I'm afraid: 260 games, 5 players, 1 frozen. DOM was the busiest this week, playing 201 games (just over 75% of the week's games). For his effort, he won five awards: Open Relay (sent 36 challenges), Turing (played 180 solo games), Quick Thinking (for finishing a game in 11 seconds (or -3589 if you beleive the statistics page (which is an hour out, for some reason)), Deep Thought (took 1 day 22:59:34 to complete one game) and Brute Force (for his final average of 5.19).

Elsewhere, Sharon picked up the Secret Admirers award (for receiving 28 challenges) and the Plaintext award (for setting codes that took only 4.62 guesses to find on average), whilst Sarah won Enigma (for setting codes that took an average of 7 guesses to find) and Breadmower won Downgrade (for disimproving by 1.08). Finally Bunnery found a code with one guess (winning an Optimal Algorithm award), which helped her to win this week's Bletchley award for her final average of 4.63. Nice wor, Bunnery :-)

 

Congratulations to everyone who won an award - they'll now be visible on your personal statistics pages so that the rest of us can marvel at your skills.

Got a suggestion for a new award? Let us know - leave a comment on the blog.

See the full award details on the statistics page.

 

Predictions

Still nothing going on here, but I'll try to rally the troops for next week, OK?

 

Until next week...

That's it for this newsletter, thanks for reading. Want to make a comment or suggestion? Leave a comment on the blog.

 

Remember, you've got under seven days to make your mark on this week's leaderboard... get to it!

 

Have fun,

Breadmower and the rest of team req.co.uk

req.co.uk Codex newsletter #84

posted by Breadmower on Sun 25th May, 08 at 18:08:17

What's this newsletter all about then?

Welcome to the Codex newsletter, where we bring you up to speed with what's going on at the site and - more importantly - let you know the results of the weekly leaderboard, and what accolades have been awarded to the movers and shakers this week.

Bored of this waffle already? If you're receiving it by email, then you can unsubscribe by going to the blog and clicking "unsubscribe from this blog"...

 

In this issue

  • Mr Waddy and The Assignment
  • Ceiling Cat is watching me procrastinate
  • Leaderboard update
  • Prizegiving
  • Predictions

 

Mr Waddy and The Assignment

OK, non-Codex news first: a couple of weeks ago I mentioned MattWaddy and his entry in a Canon photography competition. Well, time has passed, votes have been counted, and he's made it into the top ten of his category - now an "expert panel of judges" is going to pick a winner, and hopefully it'll be him. You can see the eleven photos in the top ten (yes) over here on the Canon site (his is in the Landscape category). He might not play Codex, but does read the newsletter, so feel free to woo yay in his direction down in the comments. On that note: woo yay - nice work :-)

 

Ceiling Cat is watching me procrastinate

OK, so you know what's coming here: I was supposed to do loads of stuff, and predictably enough, I haven't (though I have been busy, honestly). The good news is that I now have someone keeping an eye on me. Yes, Ceiling Cat is watching me procrastinate (and will presumably hiss at me if he catches me slacking off). Want to make your own Ceiling Cat? Head over to TubbyPaws and print off the Ceiling Cat papercraft.

Oh, actually - I did sort something out: req.co.uk time is correct again now, so hopefully our time-travelling headaches should subside now. Ted - don't forget to wind your watch.

 

Leaderboard update

When the leaderboard closed for the week, here's how things looked (rank - user - average guesses):

1st - Mr.Puzzlewit - 4.67 (12 games)
xx - Breadmower - 5.25 (8 games)
2nd - Bunnery - 5.36 (11 games)
3rd - sharon - 5.46 (39 games)
4th - DOM - 5.62 (66 games)

Total games played: 141

See the full leaderboard, along with a trend graph for the top five players on the statistics page.

 

Prizegiving

This week:

  • The Secret Admirers award (for receiving the most challenges) goes to sharon, who was challenged 21 times
  • The Open Relay award (for sending the most challenges) goes to DOM, who sent 31 challenges
  • The Turing award (for the most solo games played) goes to DOM, who played solo 51 times
  • The Enigma award (for sending the hardest codes) is awarded to Bunnery, whose codes took an average of 5.62 guesses to break
  • The Plaintext award (for sending the easiest codes) is given to sharon, whose codes took only 4.71 guesses to break on average
  • The Quick Thinking award (for the fastest game) goes to Bunnery, who completed a game in 7 seconds
  • The Deep Thought award (for the slowest game) goes to sharon, who took 1 day 22:42:54 to finish one game
  • The Upgrade award (for most improved average) goes to Mr.Puzzlewit, who decreased their average by 0.53
  • The Downgrade award (for most worsened average) is given to DOM, whose average increased by 1.18
  • The Brute Force award (for the highest average) goes to DOM, who took an average of 5.62 guesses to break codes
  • The Bletchley award (for top codebreaker) is this week awarded to Mr.Puzzlewit, whose average number of guesses to break codes was 4.67 over 12 games

 

Hmmm... quiet week: only five players on the leaderboard, and one of those frozen out - yes, Mr.Puzzlewit played a few games on Saturday night to get ahead of Breadmower, freezing him out (that'll teach him to write about himself in the third person). Anyway, Mr.Puzzlewit is our Bletchley winner for the week, with his final average of 4.67 over 12 games, following his Upgrade-winning improvement of 0.53. Nice work, Mr.Puzzlewit.

Down at the other end of the board is DOM, who played the most games (66), but also picked up four awards: Open Relay (sent 31 games), Turing (played 54 solo games), Downgrade (disimproved by 1.18) and Brute Force (final average of 5.62).

Sharon won three awards, whilst Bunnery grabbed the remaining pair: Secret Admirers (received 21 games), Plaintext (codes took an average of 4.71 guesses to find) and Deep Thought (took 1 day 22:42:54 to complete one game) for Sharon; Enigma (codes took an average of 5.62 guesses to find) and Quick Thinking (finished a game in 7 seconds) for Bunnery.

 

Congratulations to everyone who won an award - they'll now be visible on your personal statistics pages so that the rest of us can marvel at your skills.

Got a suggestion for a new award? Let us know - leave a comment on the blog.

See the full award details on the statistics page.

 

Predictions

Ah, no predictions made this week, and, uhhh, no forfeits set either. Perhaps I should leave it at that and make a quick getaway...

 

Until next week...

That's it for this newsletter, thanks for reading. Want to make a comment or suggestion? Leave a comment on the blog.

 

Remember, you've got under seven days to make your mark on this week's leaderboard... get to it!

 

Have fun,

Breadmower and the rest of team req.co.uk

 

Hiss...

Ceiling Cat hissed at me twice whilst writing this newsletter...