Jan 23, 2008 One Word Wonder Puzzle

You are a freaking genius!!, you solved this puzzle.

You solved this puzzle in 9 seconds and were the 2nd Tanga member to solve it. You earned 109 points for solving this.

Highest I've ever scored!

google's your friend here,

You solved this puzzle in 47 seconds and were the 17th Tanga member to solve it. You earned 92 points for solving this.

How do you google a picture of someone you have no idea who it is?

Yea, just what I was going to ask.

my question exactly

Google "blue squares"?

Google "dudes with mustaches?"

???

me too

My wife Judy saved me with this one!

You are a freaking genius!!, you solved this puzzle.
You solved this puzzle in 2 minutes and 16 seconds and were the 36th Tanga member to solve it

the clue is right there

[8] is that salt?

WOOT...Solving this made me a STU!!!

I've noticed there are 26 rows... but then what??? tried cross correlation column-wise NG

I've seen this guy recently, but I don't know where...

I've seen this guy before... just can't remember who he is.

If you have really seen, let alone heard of this chap then I am very surprised. You all have a much broader knowledge than me. lol!
Leadfoot, you are close....

Okay, yeah, I definitely hadn't seen him before. People from back then just looked similar. :)

Well, [10], it was meant to be just a little salty

[15] Arnott - glad to help - even unintentionally
(grrrr)

[19] I'm with you.....grrrrrrrrrrr

Took me a moment to see the light.

are we looking for a name?

26 rows....
one dot per row....

(who IS that guy!!??)

22 columns...
multiple dots per column (some empty)

nice... even in for a few bonus points.

Sometimes my friend chad goes hanging out with his friends. The answer might punch you in the face if you google the right things.

The best salt for me was [1] being happy for a fast solve!

I had the solution path right away but I sort of cry foul. I found 5 people that are all credited with the invention/advancement of the item in question. Not knowing what any of them look like I simply just had to go with trial and error.

Okay, next time I go with my first instinct and just Google away what I think I'm looking at!

Grr, I hate it when the Easy one is harder than the hard one.

Here is some mild salt: The color of the dots is, in fact, a minor clue as to who the person is.

I have the answer, but not from solving the grid

grrrrrrrrrr

Is there really a solution method to this, or do you just have to figure out what the image is portraying and google it to find the correct answer? Because right now my thoughts are pretty much in line with [30]

Hmmm.... Not as satisfying as the HOWW, somehow.

I googled the person, found him and had the answer. if someone solves it with the grid please TG me and tell me how they did it. thanks.

You can solve the grid. Keep in mind that each row has only one dot, and that there could be four more columns to make things easier to figure out but they aren't technically needed.

As far as I can tell, the solution is found by knowing what is pictured. I can't tell how you'd find the answer by solving anything. I just got lucky with my trivial knowledge of way too many things.

the solve method is there... totally solid... and straight forward. this one was just time consuming for me... but very very easy. don't over think it.

[34] Grrrr. That really ticks me off. My exact though was "gee, the number of columns is incorrect, so that can't possibly be what you are supposed to do."

Can young people really solve this? Just wondering.

[37] that did it for me
[38] yes

[39] :)

[38] Yes, at least some can. I still have a few of those around from an old. . . well I shouldn't really go into the details as it would be heavy salt. At any rate, yes. However, I do sort of have an interest in this stuff so I may be something of an anomaly, like people who still know what a card catalogue is.

[39] Haaaaaa! Kids today would never believe what used to go on...

For an "easy" oww there should have been 26 columns. Removing those columns pushes this puzzle into the "hard" category.

[43] Especially in light of the fact that there are 26 rows for a major red herring.

[41] - if you still have some of those around, I'm not sure you can still call yourself young ... LOL!

(Of course, I got the answer without doing any Googling, so I'm pretty sure I no longer qualify as young either.)

Well, I have some but they weren't exactly mine. I got them from my father who used them in college.

[33] TG sent

[46] NOW I feel old... I used them in college - and later :-(

[46] - I used them in college too, but didn't keep any. Guess they're kind of a collector's item now.

[43] As you know, I had no control over whether this was called Easy or Hard (or whether it would go up with others of mine on the same night!). My first version had 26 columns and I made the phrase 26 characters long to make a nice square. My test solver thought it was TOO easy and felt that the fact that some columns had multiple entries would (as it seems to have) lead people to the right conclusion.

[49] jewelia
You are absolutely right - the puzzle makers don't determine which puzzle is posted as "hard" and as "easy" - that is Tanga's determination.

Nice sweep tonight!!

I know who he is and what it is, but still can't get it!!! Is it what it is, who is is, or what he invented?

Salt please ( or a PM) Getting frustrated.

Figuring out who he was from a google search is a enough puzzle solving for me tonight.

(edit) got it

Glad you got it... I was just about to TG you!

I'm still lost. Too much cold medicine, maybe? *sigh*

[49]I really like the touch of making it 26 rows and less than 26 columns. Makes for a nice red herring that had me going in the wrong direction at first. Love the fact that it can be solved without prior knowledge or intensive google image searching. Good puzzle.

Also, nice job with the other puzzles tonight! Very enjoyable!

I used to be able to read that code (though it has way too many rows). But I haven't done it in over 20 years. Luckily I didn't have to solve anything.

This one took me all of two guesses (had to Google the spelling...):

You are a freaking genius!!, you solved this puzzle.

You solved this puzzle in 43 seconds and were the 285th Tanga member to solve it. You earned 10 points for solving this.

Foo! I should've looked at this one last night.

R³

Nice red herring with the non-26, and the perfect graphic for this puzzle just makes me want a certain Hawaiian drink....

I got it on a sheer guess. Hooray for those ancient computer science classes.

His friends called him Chad....

Nice one. I thought the solve method was pretty straightforward.

This one put me into STU status last night...just barely made it. I had the a-ha for what was pictured, and had never heard of the guy. But this and a quick solve for the hypercross did it. I look forward to my new privileged status. What's next, Super Tanga Fantastic User, STFU?

Hah! Those early years of programming came in handy!

Good one! I liked it.

How the f*** could anyone solve this in 9 seconds??????????????

[64] Pandapal
... solved the puzzle, then logged on to submit the answer is the likely method.

[63] I think seagull had an inside track...

The background is more important that the foreground.

thanks 23 for the clue lol

[64] 9 seconds was good for only second place. The better question is, who could solve it in less than 9 seconds... maybe the author?

[66] I honestly don't know who seagull is and I was as surprised as anyone at his time, but since Tanga often tells me, "You solved this puzzle in 0 seconds" (even when I've struggled for an hour!) I figured it was a fluke.

[70] Okay. I believe you.
I was a little skeptical, as seagull had claimed to solve the Hard OWW in 9 seconds and 2nd also - and that would have been pretty hard. But later on in the blog seagull indicates that the 9 second post was incorrect, and it was actually 4 minutes and 41 seconds - much more reasonable.

Props to seagull for solving so quickly.

I guessed, well, actually I just typed in what I saw.

How is this a puzzle?

I'm still struggling. I get the salt regarding the puppets and the Florida Presidential ballot, but nothing is still coming to me. Brain must be half asleep.

EDIT: I finally woke up. Wiki helped. If you know who's in the picture, you know the answer. Otherwise, the blue dots are a clue to get the name/answer.

nice one

I have to admit I used them in college, too... Figured it might be worth a shot to try what I thought might be the answer just based on the picture, and turned out to be right.

[72] co72

The puzzle can be solved by determining what the dots in the puzzle mean.
That's how it's a puzzle

Maybe a new record for me, 14 seconds! I think I still have some card decks hanging around from my early programming days. Brings back some memories!

Is that Jamie from Mythbusters? :)

[38] This was far before my day but I managed to solve it.

Ok [78] that is FUNNY. And the best salt has been given. 26 rows one dot per row.

[78] His mustache looks like Jamie's.

Very nice. Solved without reading any of the comments -- but I did have to use google once I got the first step.

[25] helps if you are stuck and do not have the patience to solve by the prescribed method.