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SOLVING JIGIDI... AGAIN |
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2023-03-20 |
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(Just want the instructions? Scroll down.) |
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A year and a half ago I came up with a technique for intercepting the |
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"shuffle" operation on jigsaw website Jigidi, allowing players to force the |
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pieces to appear in a consecutive "stack" for ludicrously easy solving. I did |
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this partially because I was annoyed that a collection of geocaches near me |
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used Jigidi puzzles as a barrier to their coordinates (As I've mentioned |
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before, and still nobody believes me: I'm not a fan of jigsaws! If you enjoy |
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them, that's great: grab a bucket of popcorn and a jigsaw and go wild... but |
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don't feel compelled to share either with me.)... but also because I enjoy |
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hacking my way around artificially-imposed constraints on the Web (see, for |
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example, my efforts last week to circumvent region-blocking on radio.garden). |
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My solver didn't work for long: code changes at Jigidi's end first made it |
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harder, then made it impossible, to use the approach I suggested. That's fine |
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by me - I'd already got what I wanted - but the comments thread on that post |
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suggests that there's a lot of people who wish it still worked! (The comments |
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also include asuper-helpful person called Rich who's been manually solving |
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people's puzzles for them, and somebody called Perdita who "could be my |
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grandmother" (except: no) with whom I enjoyed a conversation on- and off-line |
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about the ethics of my technique. It's one of the most-popular comment threads |
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my blog has ever seen.) And so I ignored the pleas of people who wanted me to |
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re-develop a "Jigidi solver". Until recently, when I once again needed to |
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solve a jigsaw puzzle in order to find a geocache's coordinates. |
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MAKING A JIGIDI HELPER |
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Rather than interfere with the code provided by Jigidi, I decided to take a |
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more-abstract approach: swapping out the jigsaw's image for one that would be |
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easier. |
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This approach benefits from (a) having multiple mechanisms of application: |
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query interception, DNS hijacking, etc., meaning that if one stops working |
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then another one can be easily rolled-out, and (b) not relying so-heavily on |
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the structure of Jigidi's code (and therefore not being likely to "break" as a |
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result of future upgrades to Jigidi's platform). |
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Watch a video demonstrating the approach: |
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It's not as powerful as my previous technique - more a "helper" than a |
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"solver" - but it's good enough to shave at least half the time off that I'd |
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otherwise spend solving a Jigidi jigsaw, which means I get to spend more time |
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out in the rain looking for lost tupperware. (If only geocaching were even the |
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weirdest of my hobbies...) |
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HOW TO USE THE JIGIDI HELPER |
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To do this yourself and simplify your efforts to solve those annoying "all one |
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colour" or otherwise super-frustrating jigsaw puzzles, here's what you do: |
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* Visit a Jigidi jigsaw. Do not be logged-in to a Jigidi account. |
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* Copy my JavaScript code into your clipboard. |
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* Open your browser's debug tools (usually F12). In the Console tab, paste it |
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and press enter. You can close your debug tools again (F12) if you like. |
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* Press Jigidi's "restart" button, next to the timer. The jigsaw will restart, |
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but the picture will be replaced with one that's easier-to-solve than most, as |
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described below. |
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* Once you solve the jigsaw, the image will revert to normal (turn your screen |
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around and show off your success to a friend!). |
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WHAT MAKES IT EASIER TO SOLVE? |
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The replacement image has the following characteristics that make it easier to |
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solve than it might otherwise be: |
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* Every piece has written on it the row and column it belongs in. |
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* Every "column" is striped in a different colour. |
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* Striped "bands" run along entire rows and columns. |
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To solve the jigsaw, start by grouping colours together, then start combining |
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those that belong in the same column (based on the second digit on the piece). |
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Join whole or partial columns together as you go. |
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I've been using this technique or related ones for over six months now and no |
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code changes on Jigidi's side have impacted upon it at all, so it's probably |
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got better longevity than the previous approach. I'm not entirely happy with |
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it, and you might not be either, so feel free to fork my code and improve it: |
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the legiblity of the numbers is sometimes suboptimal, and the colour banding |
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repeats on larger jigsaws which I'd rather avoid. There's probably also |
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potential to improve colour-recognition by making the colour bands span the |
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gaps between rows or columns of pieces, too, but more experiments are needed |
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and, frankly, I'm not the right person for the job. For the second time, I'm |
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going to abandon a tool that streamlines Jigidi solving because I've already |
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gotten what I needed out of it, and I'll leave it up to you if you want to |
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come up with an improvement and share it with the community. |
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LINKS |
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Scroll down |
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My blog post: Quickly Solving Jigidi Puzzles (https://danq.me) |
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Jigidi (https://www.jigidi.com) |
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My blog post: Bypassing Region Restrictions on radio.garden (https://danq.me) |
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Comments thread on my post "Quickly Solving Jigidi Puzzles" (https://danq.me) |
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Comment by Perdita questioning the ethics of my approach (https://danq.me) |
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Comment by Perdita in which she says she "could be my grandmother" (https://danq.me) |
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My blog post "Yet Another Change Of Plan", from 2006, announcing the death of my grandmother (https://danq.me) |
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YouTube video demonstrating my new technique for quickly solving Jigidi puzzles (https://youtu.be) |
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My JavaScript code, jigidi-helper.js (https://gist.github.com) |
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