i just lost The Game

Rule 1: You are playing The Game.
Rule 2: Whenever you think about The Game, you lose.
Rule 3: Loss must be announced.

childhood revisited

I must say, the new Star Wars: The Force Unleashed looks pretty interesting. Or it may be more silliness.

do not play at work

This little game is very addictive. You implement technological advancements, which in turn affect how the "society" on the island develops. The goal is to maximize each technology to its fullest potential. It seems simplistic but it ain't.

chess thumping

If you like chess -- I mean, if you really like chess -- then you'll probably find Arimaa captivating.

Arimaa was invented by Omar Syed, a computer engineer trained in artificial intelligence. Syed was inspired by Garry Kasparov's defeat at the hands of the chess computer Deep Blue to design a new game which would be difficult for computers to play well, but would have rules simple enough for his four-year-old son Aamir to understand. ("Arimaa" is "Aamir" spelled backwards plus an initial "a"). In 2002 Syed published the rules to Arimaa and announced a $10,000 prize, available annually through 2020, for the first computer program (running on inexpensive, off-the-shelf hardware) able to defeat a top-ranked human player in a match six games or longer.

like puzzles?

Then you'll appreciate Sam Loyd's Cyclopedia of 5000 Puzzles, Tricks, and Conundrums (With Answers).

illogic

The Two Switches puzzle is driving me crazy. Help.

The warden meets with 23 new prisoners when they arrive. He tells them, "You may meet today and plan a strategy. But after today, you will be in isolated cells and will have no communication with one another.

"In the prison is a switch room, which contains two light switches labeled A and B, each of which can be in either the 'on' or the 'off' position. I am not telling you their present positions. The switches are not connected to anything.

"After today, from time to time whenever I feel so inclined, I will select one prisoner at random and escort him to the switch room. This prisoner will select one of the two switches and reverse its position. He must move one, but only one of the switches. He can't move both but he can't move none either. Then he'll be led back to his cell.

"No one else will enter the switch room until I lead the next prisoner there, and he'll be instructed to do the same thing. I'm going to choose prisoners at random. I may choose the same guy three times in a row, or I may jump around and come back.

"But, given enough time, everyone will eventually visit the switch room as many times as everyone else. At any time anyone of you may declare to me, 'we have all visited the switch room' and be 100% sure.

"If it is true, then you will all be set free. If it is false, and somebody has not yet visited the switch room, you will be fed to the alligators."

What is the strategy they come up with so that they can be free?

(the answer is here but I don't want to read it.)

where's the burnt umber?

Download this game: Crayon physics. It's harder than it looks.