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

req.co.uk Codex newsletter #68

posted by Breadmower on Sun 3rd Feb, 08 at 21:28:09

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

  • Good news: server move. Bad news: server move.
  • Leaderboard update
  • Prizegiving

 

Good news: server move. Bad news: server move.

As you can probably guess from that title, req.co.uk is going to be moving server in the near future (hopefully over the coming week, if all goes to plan). You shouldn't notice too much disruption, but I'll have to lock the database on the old (current) site when the move starts, so that we don't lose any data. If you get a "we're moving, please try again later" type message, then don't panic - everything should be back to normal in a few hours(ish).

It'll be worth it - it means I'll be able to do some cooler stuff on Codex and the rest of the site. As for exactly what, well that's a little way off yet, but it'll hopefully be quite interesting.

 

Leaderboard update

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

1st - bin1 - 4.7 (10 games)
2nd - laura - 4.77 (13 games)
3rd - Mr.Puzzlewit - 5 (11 games)
4th - sharon - 5.3 (73 games)
5th - DOM - 5.6 (92 games)
6th - Breadmower - 5.6 (5 games)
7th - Bunnery - 5.69 (35 games)
8th - Toad - 7 (6 games)
9th - Barb - 7.6 (5 games)

Total games played: 259

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

 

Prizegiving

This week:

  • The Secret Admirers award (for receiving the most challenges) goes to sharon, who was challenged 50 times
  • The Open Relay award (for sending the most challenges) goes to DOM, who sent 79 challenges
  • The Turing award (for the most solo games played) goes to DOM, who played solo 52 times
  • The Enigma award (for sending the hardest codes) is awarded to Sarah, whose codes took an average of 7.33 guesses to break
  • The Plaintext award (for sending the easiest codes) is given to Barb, whose codes took only 5 guesses to break on average
  • The Quick Thinking award (for the fastest game) goes to bin1, who completed a game in 13 seconds
  • The Deep Thought award (for the slowest game) goes to Bunnery, who took 1 day 23:59:58 to finish one game
  • The Upgrade award (for most improved average) goes to bin1, who decreased their average by 0.35
  • The Downgrade award (for most worsened average) is given to Mr.Puzzlewit, whose average increased by 0.4
  • The Brute Force award (for the highest average) goes to Barb, who took an average of 7.6 guesses to break codes
  • The Bletchley award (for top codebreaker) is this week awarded to bin1, whose average number of guesses to break codes was 4.7 over 10 games

 

So, Bin1 was out in front at the end of the week, albeit only by a very small margin: his final score (of 4.7 over 10 games) was only just ahead of Laura (4.77 over 13 games). She might've got close, but never quite managed to overtake him. Nice work, Bin1 - take another Bletchley. Bin1 also improved the most this week (by 0.35) winning Upgrade, had the fastest game (13 seconds) winning Upgrade, and he had his eye on Deep Thought. In fact, so unbeatable was his time of 1 day 23:59:57 that he even said "I had to have the deep thought one - had it set up nearly 2 days ago". No so, I'm afraid - Bunnery swooped in with a time of 1 day 23:59:58 (yes, beating him by one second) to steal it from him.

DOM might've "only" finished in 5th place, but did manage to pick up a pair of awards on his way through: Open Relay (he sent 79 games) and Turing (he played 54 solo games). Barb also won two awards: Plaintext (her codes took an average of 5.0 guesses to find) and Brute Force (final average of 7.6 over 5 games). Mr.Puzzlewit disimproved the most (by 0.4) to win Downgrade. The final two awards went to Sharon, who won Secret Admirers (received 50 games) and Sarah, who won Enigma (her codes took an average of 7.33 guesses to break).

Just to make things complete: Breadmower didn't win anything, and neither did Toad (who played his first games since last October). Long time no see, matey (online and in real life). Did I mention that I'm ready to take you on at Guitar Hero now? Oh, sorry - I'm hijacking the newsletter again, aren't I? Sorry - I'll finish that on my own time :-)

 

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 .

[long word] no predictions from me, but Bin1 and Bunnery are back to laying out their visions of leaderboard future, providing "a little motivation in our little community with some wild predictions"...

Bunnery said: 1st Sarah (up to her old last-minute tricks), 2nd bin1 - won't let us get the better of him, 3rd laura - accidently let another one expire when she isn't looking, 4th Janet - a welcome return from an old favourite who is trying to break her addiction to Scrabbulous, 5th Worm - wriggling his way back onto the leaderboard.

Result: 2 white pegs - not bad.

Bin1 said: Stokie (aka Mr.Puzzlewit), Sarah, Sharon, DOM, laura.

Result: 4 white pegs out of a possible 5 (I counted all five names, seeing as Bunnery did five as well).

Overall victor: Bin1 - even I can do that kind of maths :-) (Of course, this is the point where you tell me that I've done it wrong and I've marked it against the wrong week or something!).

Nicely done, Bin1! Are you two picking forfeits again? If so, we want to know what the forfeit is by Wednesday, and we want it completed by Saturday night, 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

Comments for this item [Login to post a comment]
can't wait
posted by sharon on Sun 3rd Feb, 08 at 21:55:00

Your new site looks great we can not wait.

Four!
posted by bin1 on Mon 4th Feb, 08 at 16:13:41

Must be a record (although it was over 5 players).

Forfeit: Haiku; about codex.

Enjoy!

And in response to your response last week Bunnery: any award you're winning I'm gunning for! 

I like this!
posted by Bunnery on Mon 4th Feb, 08 at 18:56:22

What a cool forfeit!

Here's one:

I'm wasting my time?
No! I'm using logic skills
and bugging bin1

Or on the more general Codex theme - how about:

Playing Codex is
the most pleasant thing to do
when deadlines are near

It's fun - let's all write one!!

 

As for awards - off to aim for Downgrade :-) 

 

Untitled comment
posted by bin1 on Tue 5th Feb, 08 at 18:20:58

Think! What do I know?

Yellow, position one and two

Sod it, four yellows

My reading suggests that it traditionally goes on syllabel pace... 5, 7, 5 - can't say I'm any good at it!

Oh Noes!
posted by Bunnery on Tue 5th Feb, 08 at 18:38:11

Isn't that the way

I did it? Don't tell me that

I'm disqualified!

Hey Bread - let's see yours! :-)

Oops
posted by bin1 on Tue 5th Feb, 08 at 19:42:35

The second one's right.  But for some reason I can't count syllabels and read.  What's wrong with me!

Which awards are you going for the Bunnery... and what are your predictions.

I know I'm top (at the moment) but my otherwise-uninformed-predictions are:

Sarah, Sharon, laura, Bunnery 

Only four guesses to keep with the tradition... seems a guess of 5 names didn't encourage Bread to extend the game!

Final comment: if we keep replying how far do you think the page will be nudged left? 

Look left...
posted by Bunnery on Tue 5th Feb, 08 at 22:15:57

Let's keep going and see :-)

This week's prediction (after hours of thought):

Breadmower

bin1

Mr Puzzlewit

will

Don't know why I did 5 last time - must have been looking at the leaderboard graph at the time!

This week I am craving the Secret Admirers award - the only one that can't be directly influenced by the winner (or can it?) Heehee!

Good Luck! ;-)

Anyway - WHAT'S WRONG WITH THE FIRST ONE???

No, you're right
posted by bin1 on Tue 5th Feb, 08 at 22:27:08

No, You're right.  I'm wrong.  I told you I had a problem.

But, to be honest, I'm only replying to blockquote this further...   Indent to the righ (not left) as it doesn't upset the initial layout of the blog post.

Secret admirers you say. Easily corrupted. Dom is a star (never met him, but get that impression) so I think he'll win (he plays the most and is doing amazingly well considering the amount of games he's played).... should that long sentence have been in brackets?

What's happening in your world, Bunnery?  Where's the blog?  

Do you think Bread knows the site has warnings when you're not logged in?  He's a little star, I can't tell you the frantic stress I'd be under if I'd moved my site to another server (Oh, I just have).

Regards.

PS I'm mid-ofsted.  No observations yet but I've got lesson plans that exceed four pages for 1hr of lecture.  You'd be amused, Bunnery, at the number of signs/posters with typos.  "Inspring Excellence" is my personal favorite; but then the recent leaflet of "..on your doostep" amused me more.  Doubt its the new Market Officer...

At this point...
posted by bin1 on Tue 5th Feb, 08 at 22:37:38

At this point I'd be stressing:

OMG: 1 point every hour 

I think Bread deserves a personal award this week.  1 for bravery, and another if he fixes everything by Sunday.  I'll buy him a drink. 

E_WARNING
posted by Breadmower on Wed 6th Feb, 08 at 07:57:14

Yes, I've got a higher level of error reporting on at the moment, so I can do a bug roundup - just have a bit more to do than I was expecting :-)

Hey!!
posted by Bunnery on Wed 6th Feb, 08 at 18:42:27

That's not a haiku!

:-) 

err...
posted by bin1 on Wed 6th Feb, 08 at 22:30:46

I'm not sure Bread even tried!

But he's doing a stirling job. 

 

*send me [really easy] games"  Red, Red, Red, Red will be fine.

Haiku
posted by Breadmower on Fri 8th Feb, 08 at 09:48:29

Errors have appeared!
Hmmm... very interesting...
OK - sorted now.

 

Better? 

Much
posted by Bunnery on Fri 8th Feb, 08 at 19:18:15

That's sheer poetry

of the old Japanese kind.

Your task is complete

:-)

 

Send me games!!!!
posted by Bunnery on Wed 6th Feb, 08 at 18:49:38

Just scroll across a bit to read this :-)

SEND ME GAMES!!! 

Good luck with OFSTED - I remember the last time - it wasn't fun. I recall that I came in on a Saturday to clean the keyboards in the library!! I must have been mad.

But this time they can't fail to be impressed by the quality of their publications. Heehee - that was funny. Who is the new Marketing Officer?? Can you say in public?

SEND ME GAMES!!

You want a blog?? Is this another forfeit??  I have missed doing it actually - I must try harder! I'll start off gently.....

SEND ME GAMES!! 

 

Bread knows
posted by bin1 on Wed 6th Feb, 08 at 22:36:07

Bread knows who I mean... but I'm sure some typos were definitally Val's.

I only mentioned the Market Office for Smonkey's interest.  Nice blog entry BTW.  I'll comment properly when I've finished tomorrow's Ofsted lesson.... tomorrow then.

Regards.

oops
posted by bin1 on Wed 6th Feb, 08 at 22:37:12

<spam>

I meant lesson plan/resources/stuff I don't usually do. Only just started.  Tomorrow, I'll relax. 

Tsk
posted by Bunnery on Fri 8th Feb, 08 at 19:22:35

You'll NEVER beat me to the Brute Force award playing like that!!

:-)

 

PS I just HAD to have the Deep Thought (again)....

Which is best?
posted by bin1 on Sat 9th Feb, 08 at 20:37:09

All respect due for the Deep Thought; as it demonstrates dedication and skill... if you get it, there's a whole 2 second time-slot for someone other than me to slip into.

But I like to think the Quick Thinking award shows talent!  Either that or single-minded hope! 

Bletchley has started to lose some of its shine, for me.  Especially over the last few weeks: games played 5 with luck = Bletchley; seems tarnished when DOM etc play 10+  times that and rarely finishes 1 behind (acknowledgment to sharon too).  I'm not making a personal comment about Stokie - I'm as bad an offender as anyone.  Bring on the new scoring system [Bread] and hopefully the feeling of winning won't seem so dirty!  I remember Martin: 3.6 or lower over about 10 games.  That was remarkable.

For the record.  I've leveled with Stokie, if he (or laura) betters the current 4.6 I'm going to resign to failure.  After I, Robot (that's my Saturday night, no poker) and I'm 2nd or worse I'll try and get rid of my waiting games - perhaps a more representative score.

You're right, if you think I'm sounding low.  Bob Dylan playing; I gave Billy Holiday, Gloomy Sunday a miss (top suicide song, apparently). 

Is this a record?
posted by Bunnery on Sat 9th Feb, 08 at 22:47:27

20 comments??

How was the film?

Don't feel down - there is life after OFSTED :-)

I might have to join you with the sad songs though - have you tried The Smiths? As a starter I'd recommend  "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now"