45x45 Puzzle | Not Hacker News!

Discussion (37 comments)

Showing 37 comments

3d ago

1 reply

Interesting idea. One note: sometimes after I connect two items it'll reselect the combined item, sometimes it won't. I'd prefer if it never did, but at least if it was consistent I could get used to having to click "Deselect" each time...

jweather

3d ago

I think the click logic may be a little twitchy. My trackball button worked okay, but my footpedal button frequently did what you describe here - possibly due to a longer-duration button press?

And yes, that would be helpful, but would remove part of the memory challenge. Maybe an optional feature?

vessenes

3d ago

2 replies

Thomas, I love this! I vibe coded a bunch of quality of life improvements to this and put it up here: https://vessenes.github.io/2025is45x45/ .

Note - you didn't license your original page; I've released my modifications under CC0 and linked back to you -- if you hate it, I'll take it down. I just thought it was fun but I wanted something that was a little easier to engage with.

Quick summary of features - some font and ui design, "S" to shuffle, "R" to reset, "/" to search, Esc works throughout, pinned boxes so you can scroll and search.. that's the main stuff.

0xsn3k

3d ago

1 reply

fyi, it appears that if you search for a category name like "sports" or "instrument" it will just show you every item for that category lol

vessenes

3d ago

1 reply

interesting. the javascript had a category name - I'm guessing my vibe employee added in category search as a feature.

Timwi

2d ago

2 replies

Are you not going to remove that? That seems counter to the spirit of the puzzle.

vessenes

2d ago

I definitely accept prs

vessenes

2d ago

p.s. I pushed a small update. Thanks for the nudge

thomaswc

3d ago

2 replies

This is great! I totally authorize anyone to copy the puzzle, as long as they link back to the original, as you did.

knuckleheads

2d ago

Thank you! Here's my take on it https://threeemojis.com/en-US/play/globs/en-US/demo . What I feel like you nailed is adding up the groups one by one. This is different enough from existing connections like games that it really caught my attention, enough that I wanted to take a stab at it.

vessenes

3d ago

Cool! I'd suggest you slap a CC-BY, CC-BY-SA or CC-BY-NC-SA license on it if you have a second; doesn't take long and lets everyone know your preferences.

sam_bristow

3d ago

1 reply

2025 had a bunch of bits of fun mathematical trivia:

45² = 45 x 45 = 2025

Also,

9² x 5² = 2025

40² + 20² + 5² = 2025

My favourite?

1³+2³+3³+4³+5³+6³+7³+8³+9³ = 2025

thomaswc

3d ago

Ha! I really should have known that last one, given that I once wrote a paper about the sum of cubes. https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.5555/1378446.1378486

v9v

3d ago

2 replies

[delayed]

scubbo

2d ago

1 reply

Have you actually completed it? There are plenty where the category is obvious, sure - but also many ambiguous entries. It's not trivial to fully complete if you're aiming to keep errors low!

eichin

2d ago

That aspect makes it kind of a massively parallel "startup name or fantasy sword" challenge, once you get past the obvious ones (whether that helps or hinders I wouldn't claim either way, but it rhymes?)

01HNNWZ0MV43FF

1d ago

The connections are too hard. I'm at 1761 and 1144 mistakes and I'm guessing, I have no idea what most of these things are

knuckleheads

3d ago

1 reply

Wonderful game! Really, really well made, lots of fun. Might I ask, who are the Octagon and TND crew? I've seen a lot of these puzzles but nobody has ever just made a bigger connections before, brilliant!

thomaswc

3d ago

1 reply

TND stands for Thursday Night Dinner, a Boston area potluck group that has been around since 1995.

Octagon is a friend who did a lot of the playtesting and also contributed the fabric and flowers categories.

knuckleheads

3d ago

That's so awesome. Working on my own take on this now, it's really a great puzzle!

conglom72

1d ago

1 reply

This is delightful. Having a lot of fun and I'm addicted.

Any way to save progress? I'm quite anxious about accidentally closing the tab as I chip away at it a bit each day.

jweather

21h ago

It appears to save to browser-local storage. Mine is still there after having the tab closed for at least 24 hours.

eichin

2d ago

Nice afternoon of puzzling, thanks for sharing it. (The one feature I could have used was either dragging items around - maybe only already-grouped ones - or the ability to pop back to the one that got merged, since I'd noticed something in the neighbors but had to pick only one of them :-)

(minor spoiler) Fess up, how many of you tried to figure out if "Google Lips" was ever a thing? :-)

syockit

2d ago

Now I know that grouping J with APL is a mistake.

scubbo

3d ago

This is magnificent <3

baubino

10 days ago

I clicked straight through without reading your directions and I liked figuring out the puzzle of the puzzle. I really appreciate a long puzzle. This is great!

cabidaher

2d ago

My brain overheated just reading the words at first. Great puzzle!

eastoeast

8 days ago

This is a lot of fun! Works decently well on mobile too. One suggestion (although, take it with a grain of salt)- I didn’t notice the deselect since header disappears on zoom. Might be better that way, but might be useful sticked top. Nice work!

01HNNWZ0MV43FF

1d ago

If it's Italian, it's pasta.

If they have 3 names or a middle initial and sound old, they're a politician.

If they have a suspiciously common name, they're a comedy actor.

If they have two names and they're old, they're a writer. If they're young, they're a cartoonist.

madsushi

3d ago

Thanks for sharing. Although 'Boromir' and 'One does not simply' should absolutely be a match!

russdill

3d ago

Geez, last time the year was a square was 1936. And it won't be again until 2116.

mikewarot

2d ago

Most of a day into it, still haven't googled anything yet... but it's soooo tempting

Current score 1670 with 764 mistakes

Thanks for such a fun puzzle!

huydotnet

3d ago

very nice! would be nicer if it can be playable on mobile, i know where i'm gonna spend my time waiting for my wife at the mall now.

jweather

3d ago

Very challenging and fun. Score 1695 and mistakes 315 when I gave up and started Googling things. Did not do so well on (rot13)Nzrevpna ICf, pnegbbavfgf, be FAY pnfg zrzoref. Pbzcyrgryl zvffrq gur ncbpelcuny obbxf bs gur Ovoyr nf jryy. Gung jnf zrna!

bradfitz

1d ago

Well, this has sucked up a couple days of my free time so far... :)

nhhvhy

3d ago

5 hours into “just checking it out”.. very nice puzzle.

jweather

2d ago

So... got any more of these?

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