Jeremy [iRights] Bowers solves the Bad King Friday Puzzle. Further explanation is given in my original solution. Before you peek why not try the puzzle yourself?

Relaxing this Saturday afternoon with half an eye on the Ireland vs France rugby game on TV. Later on (4pm) Scotland play Wales at Murrayfield. Lucky son Ken is travelling up to Edinburgh in a school-arrnged trip to the game. Wish I could be with him but I'll keep an eye open to see if I can spot him in the crowd. [France has just kicked a penalty. A couple of minutes later Ronan O'Gara has just missed a fairly easy penalty kick so the score remains 3 each]

Gunc Dunc - 1996

Earlier today I phoned up for a Comic Relief supporters pack so that should come in a week or so. Comic Relief day is on March 16th this year. Seems that the students want a repeat of Gunk Dunk - can't imagine why - so this time I'm giving them plenty of warning of the impending event. Gunk Dunks from the past have raised over £750 for the charity so hopefully I'll be able to take advantage of my 'popularity' and raise a substantial amount again this year. My target is at least £250 this time to get over £1000 in total. I'm quietly confident that this is a realistic target. I normally leave it until the last minute to arrange the stunt but this year it'll be different. One other indicator that the students might be keen to participate is that when I was asked by student at a lecture whether I was going to do it and when I replied in the affirmative there was a very positive response ;-). That and the fact that when I asked the students at the lecture when Comic Relief day was one student wise-cracked "not soon enough!" Needless to say we almost all ROTFL at that!!

Ireland are leading 9-3 at the start of the 2nd half. Just before half-time O'Gara kicked a penalty from the halfway line. A great kick. Looks like it will soon be 12-3 since France just gave a penalty away in front of the posts. Yep, no problem for O'Gara: 12-3.

Many of my students kid me on that I am a hard taskmaster but I think they know that I have their best interests at heart. Sometimes I play on this reputation and have kidded them on that Ann Robinson, quizmistress...

[O'Driscoll has just scored a try - or has he, there's some doubt - the video replay referee says it was. Lansdowne Road goes wild! And O'Gara kicks the difficult conversion from a very narrow angle. Great game. 19-3. Latest score from Twickenham: England 30 - 20 Italy. Sounds like Italy are giving England a run for their money. Yet another 3 penalty points from O'Gara's boot: 22-3.]

...of 'The Weakest Link' is my heroine! Robinson has a fearsome reputation on that programme as she's extremely rude and disparaging when the contestants get their questions wrong and get voted off by their fellow contestants...

[France has just scored a try from a scrum pushover. It's far from over. Lamaison kicks the conversion: 22-10 with 19 minutes to go.]

...so I had this idea to play on this reputation. For Comic Relief I am considering dressing up as Robinson - her red hair and long black dresses are distinct trademarks...

[Bernard Salle has just scored a try in the corner for France. Lamaison fluffed the kick: 22-15]

...so I'll need to borrow a red wig - or dye my hair red - and a black dress. (Please believe me that I don't have these in my wardrobe at the moment!) So what would a cross between 'Gunk Dunk' and 'The Weakest Link' look like?

[O'Gara's just missed another penalty chance. It's a very exciting last 10 minutes. Ireland haven't been beaten at Lansdowne Road since 1973. 4 minutes of injury time so far. Ireland get penalty 85 minutes into the game. No final whistle yet. Lineout ball won by Ireland. Stringer kicks ball into touch. Whistle blows. Ireland win!! Great game Ireland.]

OK, Scotland are running onto the pitch. Bill Maclaren commentating. National anthems being played.

Neil Jenkins drops a goal less than a minute into the game!!

[Apologies for not having provided a provide a blow-by-blow account of the game. I was too busy watching it. Suffice to say that 2 minutes into the 2nd half Scotland went 25-6 behind and it looked all but over. The last 20 minutes turned round the whole game and Scotland managed to score another 22 points to Wales' 3 so the final score was 28-28. Pretty exciting stuff.]

Gunc Dunc - 1999

One of my students - Gareth - took a camera to the last Gunc Dunc!

Every Friday a member of staff at my workplace e-mails the 'Friday Puzzle'. I was prompted to post this revelation (;-)) when Dave's Scripting News linked to the Tech Interview site which is a good example of the type of puzzles that get circulated on a Friday:

this site is about challenging yourself to new puzzles and problems. do not be afraid that if a question you use appears here then it won't be worth asking anymore. first, people who come to this site to read the problems are the type of people you want to hire. they are the people who get excited about solving problems, and actively search out new problems to ask themselves.

Here's one of the Departmental Friday Puzzles that I was chuffed to be the first to answer:

A bad king has a cellar of 1000 bottles of delightful and very expensive wine. A neighbouring queen plots to kill the bad king and sends a servant to poison the wine. (Un)Fortunately the bad king's guards catch the servant after he has only poisoned one bottle. Alas, the guards don't know which bottle but know that the poison is so strong that even if diluted 1,000,000 times it would still kill the king. Furthermore, it takes one month to have an effect.

The bad king decides he will get some of the prisoners in his vast dungeons to drink the wine. Being a clever bad king he knows he needs to murder no more than 10 prisoners - believing he can fob off such a low death rate - and will still be able to drink the rest of the wine at his anniversary party in 5 weeks time.

Explain how....

Automate your build process using Java and Ant - JavaWorld October 2000

Ant is a powerful scripting tool that lets you craft build processes around your code requirements using predefined tasks and provides expansion capability to handle even more difficult tasks. This article is an introduction to the powerful XML-based scripting tool that can automate your mundane tasks and allow you to concentrate on your business rules and code development.

CNET.com - News - Investor - News - Story: Microsoft Executive Says Linux Threatens Innovation

Redmond, Washington, Feb. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating-system chief, Jim Allchin, says that freely distributed software code such as rival Linux could stifle innovation and that legislators need to understand the threat.

Can you believe this FUD BS? Linux must really be putting the wind up Microsoft!

One of the reasons that I make http://www.scripting.com a daily visit is the leads that Dave puts up. In this case the insight provided by Craig Burton and his Alchin Advice:

The reason Jim doesn't like the open source movement is because it is doing the same thing to Microsoft that Microsoft does to other companies.

Craig Burton is in a unique postion to call Allchin on his pontifications about Open Soure. Go read Criag's weblog entry for its insight and candour. This why the web is so great! Completely unadulterated opinions.

The Register's favourite Hardware and chip links

Dan Gillmor on E-Mail Perils, and an Answer. Each and every day I thank my lucky stars that I use Eudora. I hadn't realised just how shabbily Microsoft were treating their Windows users. Why am I not surprised?

I think I'll be supporting the The Web Standards Project: Browser Upgrade Initiative. I never thought I'd end up liking a Microsoft product but I think Mac/IE5 is the best of the browsers at the moment. Mind you I don't really think of the Mac division of Microsoft as really Microsoft. They don't appear to have been assimilated yet. Long may they hold out. Mozilla shows promise too. As does iCab which I use fairly regularly. iCab has real potential. And then of course there's the Opera port to MacOS. I'm going to be spoilt for choice soon so I guess now is the time to emphasise and concentrate on the standards.

One thing I really like about Conversant is its strong support for CSS and the ease with which I can play around with it. Not that I've done much development on the look'n'feel for this site recently. Soon. I promise. Sort of ;-)