Hacker Puzzle

I got this link (http://www.freestuffhotdeals.com/hacker/1.html) to a puzzle in email. I was quite tempted to play it. The puzzle was quite simple, more difficult and I would have lost interest. It went upto 23 pages. If you want to play the puzzle yourself, stop reading the post now!!

Hints and solutions to reach...
Page 2 : In the URL, change the numeral 1 to 2.
Page 3 : 3 in words (three.html)
Page 4 : 4 in roman (iv.html)
Page 5 : 'five' in reverse order (evif.html)
Page 6 : 'six' with every letter appearing twice (ssiixx.html)
Page 7 : '7' seven times (7777777.html)
Page 8 : Next planet from Uranus is Neptune (neptune.html)
Page 9 : acht = 8 in German, 9 in German = neun (neun.html)
Page 10 : sept is the nineth month, tenth month = oct (oct.html)
Page 11 : 11th card in the deck is jack (jack.html)
Page 12 : Camel casing : tWeLvE (tWeLvE.html)
Page 13 : 12 squared is 144, 13 squared is 169 (169.html)
Page 14 : Select everything on page, it says number13 so next is number14 (number14.html)
Page 15 : catorce is 14 in Spanish, 15 in Spanish is quince (quince.html)
Page 16 : Buchanan was the 15th president of US. 16th was Lincoln (lincoln.html)
Page 17 : sédecim is 16 in Latin, 17 in latin is septendecim (septendecim.html)
Page 18 : 10001 is 17 in binary, binary 18 is 10010 (10010.html)
Page 19 : argon is 18th element, 19th is potassium (potassium.html)
Page 20 : 'ojofuffo' is one letter shifted of the word nineteen, twenty would be uxfouz (uxfouz.html)
Page 21 : icosagon is a 20 sided polygon, 21 sided polygon is icosihenagon (icosihenagon) Though on this one I was stuck and I doubt the correctness of this page. I think 21 sided polygon is called icosikaihenagon, but there you go, thats how you would be a real hacker eh..
Polygon naming convention can be found here
Page 22 : Next element in the Fibonacci Series is 17711 (17711.html)
Page 23 : Aoozy, Booyy, Cooxy, ...Vooey would be Woody (Woody.html)

Go tell woody you solved it.

Royal Windsor Wheel - Part II

Yesterday we visited the 'Royal Windsor Wheel', It was great fun solely because we had not paid for it and it included champagne.

The views from up there are splendid? I could see as far away as wembley arch but it did not appear in the photo. I could not see Her Majesty standing in the castle window, but that might be down to the fact that she was not in the castle at that time.

There was a 'loading' round and after that you get 2 rounds on the wheel before being 'unloaded'.

Here are a few pictures of the views from up there :

Maplin Electronics

I had a funny experience with Maplin Electronics, I couldn't stop laughing when I left their shop. It so happened that I was after a plastic lampholder which looks like the one shown in the adjacent picture. I was searching for this particular holder for a month now when I found it on Maplin's website. I kept checking the stock level at their stores in Slough (and Reading, Uxbridge etc.) This item was not in stock in the Slough store. A couple of weeks back when I rechecked the stock at Slough store, there were 6 in stock, so I drove to their store and started looking for this. If you have ever been to any of Maplin's stores, you will know that the stores appear to be overstaffed with all the representatives trying to help you. I was browsing through the lines for about 5 minutes or so when this representative asked me if I needed help. I told him that I am looking for SH96E (their catalog number) he tried searching for a bit, then went to their stock management system, came back and said "We have 6 in stock, but I don't know where they are", he then called a couple of other reps and none of them seem to know where this particular thing was. Finally they told me to try other shop. WOW

"We are sorry sir, we know this thing is in store, but we don't know where it is, none of the other reps seem to know where it is so could you please buy it from somewhere else?"

This is when I left their store as I couldn't control my laughter... I wonder whether I should go and check the uxbridge store.

The Wheel

I am scheduled to go on the Royal Windsor Wheel on the 24th of August. Some pictures from the wheel will definitely find their way here... watch this space.