As well as my Day 4 solutions in Python and Java, I talk about the AI solving controversy in Advent of Code, and teach the chat bot to speak a language I just now invented.

I did this puzzle last night while writing the post about Day 2. This time I’m not in quite so much of a rush. Weekends. The puzzle description is best read on the AoC site – they’re always fun to read :-) Advent of Code always starts out slowly, getting people used to how things go before they start pouring on the hard stuff. You can see some concepts come up that will undoubtedly become key in later puzzles. Yesterday was modulo arithmetic. Today was sets. Naturally, people did it their own ways, but typically the fast solvers will immediately focus in on the concept being introduced and doing their thing in seconds. ...

So I made it to day 2 of Advent of Code! Not entirely awake. I stayed up past midnight to solve it. I messed up my first approach, so I went to a more brute force approach that worked. I got my solution logged in in about twelve minutes or so? But I was still 8,000 positions from the leaderboard, so… yeah, I don’t really think I need to be staying up late to get the puzzle the moment it drops. ...

I am committing myself this year to solving every puzzle in the Advent of Code, an annual coding competition taking place over the Advent season each year. Each day brings a new puzzle, in two parts. They start out pretty easy, and top programmers (not me) solve them in seconds. By the end of the challenge, top programmers can take even half an hour to solve a puzzle. Me, I’ll take hours. ...

This song tells the story of a pup named Crypto who dreams of becoming wealthy through trading on various cryptocurrency markets.

It’s a country song, about the news of today, written by AI!

Advent of Code 2022 is just around the corner, and with it comes new challenges, new technologies, and new ways to have fun programming. Plus, Tactics Ogre: Reborn is almost finished, and Cyberpunk 2077 is waiting for me to dive in. And don’t forget about the Gotham Knight Knews update, featuring Starro for four-player coop, and the new GPT-3 language model. And exclusive Guardians of the Galaxy Christmas Special spoilers!

The original Tactics Ogre returns, updated and improved for a new generation. Any fan of tactical strategy games like Fire Emblem or Final Fantasy Tactics should really take a look at the game that inspired them all.

Finished! My PlayStation says I spent 39 hours in the game. I was taking my time at it, too, doing all the optional content, so this isn’t a speed run. Tactics Ogre Reborn came today, though, so I just went straight for the ending, which wasn’t all that far away. I can’t say much of anything about the rest of the plot. Some of the stuff that was telegraphed from the beginning of the game happened. Some stuff that I should have expected to have happen, happened as well. About the only thing that really shocked me was how easy the final battle was. But, I was max level (30), had superior armor and weapons, and most importantly – I had finally mastered Perfect Evade on Batgirl. Having played Elden Ring this past summer, dodging the well-telegraphed attacks here was cake. ...

If you’ve ever taken a screenshot only to find that it’s ruined by UI elements or other elements, you know how frustrating it can be. But there are several ways to remove those elements and create the perfect image. Read on for free apps that will get the results you want with none of the stuff you don’t.