Automation
Posted: Sun May 27, 2007 1:15 am
Like all our puzzles, this is designed to be solved by a computer past a certain point.
Accessing your current level
The URL for the puzzle is http://www.hacker.org/brick/index.php
The URL will accept parameters in the query part of the URL that correspond to your registered account:
name=<username>
password=<password>
Just making a normal HTTP request to the above URL with your name and password will retrieve the current puzzle. To parse this information, look for the line that says FlashVars="...". inside the quotes are params separated by ampersands. he board parameter is the map, where a character is a color of a block and a dot is an empty one. It's all one string, but you can break it up knowing boardX. (The first boardX characters make the first row, etc.) Each 'color' of block is a different letter, starting with 'a'.
Note that in the flash version, the "bottom" of the board is really the top. I.e., row zero is along the bottom. This is purely semantic, of course, but opposite from our other puzzles.
Submit a Solution via an HTTP GET:
To submit a solution, use the following parameter:
path=<moves>
where the moves are a sequence of move pairs, two hexadecimal digits each, with no separator characters.
For example, to submit a solution where you clicked one square over and two up, then three squares over and zero up, you would do an HTTP GET on the following URL:
Accessing your current level
The URL for the puzzle is http://www.hacker.org/brick/index.php
The URL will accept parameters in the query part of the URL that correspond to your registered account:
name=<username>
password=<password>
Just making a normal HTTP request to the above URL with your name and password will retrieve the current puzzle. To parse this information, look for the line that says FlashVars="...". inside the quotes are params separated by ampersands. he board parameter is the map, where a character is a color of a block and a dot is an empty one. It's all one string, but you can break it up knowing boardX. (The first boardX characters make the first row, etc.) Each 'color' of block is a different letter, starting with 'a'.
Note that in the flash version, the "bottom" of the board is really the top. I.e., row zero is along the bottom. This is purely semantic, of course, but opposite from our other puzzles.
Submit a Solution via an HTTP GET:
To submit a solution, use the following parameter:
path=<moves>
where the moves are a sequence of move pairs, two hexadecimal digits each, with no separator characters.
For example, to submit a solution where you clicked one square over and two up, then three squares over and zero up, you would do an HTTP GET on the following URL:
Code: Select all
http://www.hacker.org/brick/index.php?name=<username>&password=<password>&path=01020300
...