School Computer Labs
Well, for anyone who isn't tired of visiting new sites, I've just updated the old Hangman game...you can find the new one at www.theproblemsite.com/hangman/. This is still a work in progress, and it hasn't been tested out in very many browsers, so if you want to test it out and tell me whether it works or not in your browser that would be great.This version of Hangman lets you choose some features like how long you want the words to be, how difficult, and how many incorrect guesses you get before you're hung. Also, there's an option to check www.dictionary.com to find out the definitions of the words. I'm finding some very interesting definitions, and lots of words I never knew! Maybe I'll post some of the more interesting ones later.
I'm very glad that my web hosting for The Problem Site has fairly detailed visitor statistics, as it's helpful to me in debugging things on the fly...I can actually see errors more or less as they occur, so if a visitor comes on the site, tries out one of my new games, and runs into a page error, if I'm watching my stats carefully, within minutes I can be looking for and finding the problem in my code.
But watching the stats isn't just useful...it can also be very amusing...
There are school districts all over the country that have on their websites links to specific game pages at The Problem Site, with notices something like this one:
Quote:
| You may ONLY access these game links when directed by the teacher or when out of the Computer Technology Classroom |
Of course, not all of my game pages are listed, but that doesn't stop the students from exploring my site and finding other educational games which don't happen to be on the "approved list" (like my new Treasure Hunt Game, which is so new that it's not on ANYONE's approved list)
So, I'm looking at a user report for a student somewhere in California, who is playing Hangman. Only...he switches over to "The Treasure Hunt", looks at a few pages, then switches back to Hangman, continuing his game right where he left off. Then he's back to The Treasure Hunt. Then Hangman. Then The Treasure Hunt.
...and in my mind I've got this image of this kid with two browser windows open, switching back to Hangman every time the computer lab monitor walks by...
On the bright side, at least this kid isn't looking at adult sites...
Back to The Treasure Hunt. I had a grand total of 12 people join the hunt on its very first day online. I think that's pretty good, all things considered. (And only 4 of those people were people I know personally).
Nobody has gotten very far yet. Laura, my mother, and Ozzie each have one correct answer so far...no one else has gotten anything right.
(but...SHHH! Don't tell...they're not supposed to know until they've finished all the puzzles how many they have correct!
)Posted On Oct 14, 2005 at 1:21 PM
On Oct 15, 2005 Laura wrote: I was actually going to ask you if you could read the answers after we submitted them, because I've had a few of the most wild guesses on some of them, but I could just picture you sitting at your computer convulsed in laughter if they were way off, so I held off submitting anything
Doug Replied: Well, let me put it this way...when you figure one out, you probably won't have the "well, that might be it" feeling...you'll most likely have the "Oh! Of COURSE!" feeling.
And I promise I won't laugh. Seeing the kinds of answers people give helps me figure out if I need to modify any of the puzzles to make them clearer. I'm going to be adding a "hints" page to the site, with just a few tips for Treasure Hunters, so be watching for that!
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