Solving videos

[admin]

Hi folks -

I get at least 1-2 complaints a week asking why we allow "obvious cheaters" like bansai and others to keep their "impossible" solve times of 8, 10, 12 seconds on various cryptograms... and frankly, I'm getting a little tired of explaining the same thing to people again, and again and again. So I thought maybe it would be fun for some of the faster solvers on the site to try screencasting themselves in order to record a video of an amazingly fast solve time.

I tried it myself just now and after a few tries was able to come in with an 18 second solve time - not my best, but still pretty decent I thought!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pg1B8aB-yBk

(I used free software to capture this called Cam Studio - http://camstudio.org/)

If anyone is up for the challenge, please go ahead and post your video to youtube and post its url here... if we can get enough of them I'll put together a special page on the site where the best ones will be featured.

Thanks!

Stephen

[Lurker]

That's fantastic! I wish I understood how to do that. With my luck, whenever the program was recording, it would be on a quote I couldn't solve in under a minute.

Aw nuts, it doesn't look Mac-compatible.

[admin]

It's even easier on Macs, I believe - you can just use Quicktime:

http://bosker.wordpress.com/2011/12/...s-x-10-7-lion/

[admin]

I should also add - you can record video of a several puzzles back to back, upload the whole thing to Youtube, and then "trim it" via Youtube's editing tools so that it will only show the puzzle you solved the quickest. It's fairly simple to do using Youtube's built-in toolset.

[Lurker]

Wish I'd known that while I was recording. Got the Quicktime thing to work, and captured an 8 second solve! Too bad Bansai did it in 7. Next up, learning how to post something on YouTube.

[admin]

Wow, nicely done! If you get stuck on the youtube upload maybe you can email the video to me at puzzlebaron@gmail.com (if its < 20MB) and I can edit and upload it for you.

I've done another just now in 15 seconds but that's about pushing my personal boundaries... I think the best I've ever done is 12. :-)