Tuesday, December 28, 2021
I almost wonder if I would have had a quicker solution time on Advent of Code's Day 24 puzzle if I had tried to do it while distracted with holiday celebrations, instead of deciding there was no way I could attempt it without clear focus time. I spun my wheels for a long time overengineering part of the solution, because I had convinced myself after a first, quick, read that this problem was reversing a hash, and so its search space would be huge, even after I figured out the "trick". It's not pencil-and-paper small with my final technique, but it is still milliseconds-of-computer-time small all the same.
Saturday, December 25, 2021
Between a complicated Day 23 puzzle, and last-minute holiday gift work (and holiday celebration!), I've fallen behind in Advent of Code. But, I do finally have a solution for Day 23, so let's dig in.
Thursday, December 23, 2021
I haven't tried Advent of Code Day 23 yet. I want to think about which approach to take. While I'm delaying that, why don't we talk about a puzzle writeup I've been delaying - Day 11.
Wednesday, December 22, 2021
Twenty-two days into Advent of Code, it finally happened: I predicted what Part 2 would require! Not that I let the prediction guide me away from an overly simple Part 1 implementation, that I knew I would throw away. But I saw it coming.
Tuesday, December 21, 2021
I don't often rewrite everything between Part 1 and Part 2 of the Advent of Code puzzles. But I sure did for Day 21.
Monday, December 20, 2021
Ah, parenthesis/brace/bracket balancing. A classic. Using the right-hand-rule on Day 19, was not the first time the Advent of Code has given me college flashbacks. Day 10 could have come off a 6.001 problem set.
Monday, December 20, 2021
I considered doing more bit mashing, bit masking, bit matching today. I really did. Advent of Code, Day 20 backs the time commitment down from Day 19 far enough that it was tempting to spend time on efficiency. But a very tiny amount of pre-processing of these images and enhancement algorithms, makes a simpler route much more fun:
Monday, December 20, 2021
While we give people a few more hours to recover from Day 19 and delight in the relative ease of Day 20, let's take a trip back through time and discuss Advent of Code, Day 9. We're back to looking at a tile of numbers, and comparing them to their neighbors.
Sunday, December 19, 2021
Oh, the irony of writing about the day that people complained about most, on the day that people were about to complain about even more! Since the Day 19 puzzle has been released, I've seen cries everywhere from, "I'm tapping out," to, "End me." I also was not sure I was going to be able to solve it at first, but I dove in anyway, starting with my secret weapon: sleep.
Saturday, December 18, 2021
Looking at memes in the various Advent of Code 2021 threads, there is one day that seems to have more complaints than any other: Day 8, the scrambled seven-segment LED.