Source: Depth Finder

Part 1: Given a list of numbers, count how many times sequential numbers increase.

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Been a while since I’ve done an advent of code! I’ll probably backfill a few years eventually, but for now, let’s just write some code!

As always, these problems are wonderful to try to solve yourself. If you agree, stop reading now. This post isn’t going anywhere.

If you’d like to see the full form of any particular solution, you can do so on GitHub (including previous years and possibly some I haven’t written up yet): jpverkamp/advent-of-code

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Okay. A random post on the /r/cellular_automata subreddit inspired me.

Let’s generate a cellular automata where each pixel updates based on a neural network given as input:

• The x/y coordinates (scaled to the range 0-1)
• An optional random value (to make it more dynamic)
• A variety of neighboring data, such as:
  • The number of neighbors that are ‘active’ (> 50% white), ranges 0-8 scaled to 0-1. This should allow Conway's Game of Life
  • The RGB values of all neighbors (allows a superset of the above)
  • Gradients, subtract color value of the left from the right so that you get edges and side to side movement

Let’s do it!

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Snakebird!

A cute little puzzle game, where you move around snake(birds). Move any number of snakes around the level, eating fruit, and getting to the exit. The main gotchas are that you have gravity to content with–your snake will easily fall off the edge of the world–and each time you eat a fruit, your snake gets bigger. This can help get longer to get into hard to reach places or it can cause trouble when you trap yourself in corners.

Let’s use the new immutable.js solver to solve these problems!

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A bit ago I wrote about writing a generic brute force solver (wow, was that really two months ago?). It got … complicate. Mostly, because every time I wrote a step function, I had to be careful to undo the same. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could just write a step function and get backtracking for ‘free’?

Well, with immutability you can!

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I recently came across a problem where I had a single image with a transparent background containing multiple images that I wanted to split into their component parts. For example, split this:

Into these:

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What feels like a million years and a lifetime ago, I wrote up a library for perlin and simple noise in Racket. Inspired by Jens Axel Søgaard’s new Sketching library (processing in Racket) and a conversation thereabout, I figure it’s about time to push noise to the raco package manager!

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Another quick Hugo post. One thing I miss about my previous blogging platform(s) was the ability to generate quick links between posts just by using the title of the post. So rather than this:

a cool post

This is [a cool post]({{< ref "2021-07-15-crosslinks-by-title-in-hugo" >}}), go read it.

You could do this:

This is {{< crosslink title="Crosslinks by Title in Hugo" text="a cool post" >}}.

Or shorter: {{< crosslink "Crosslinks by Title in Hugo" >}}.

And it should just work.

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A quick script.

I play a lot of board games. With the whole COVID-19 mess, I’ve been playing a lot on Board Game Arena, which is a wonderful site. But one thing that’s a bit lacking is having ratings / metadata about games to great games I’ve just not heard about before. Where can you get lots of that data? Board Game Geek!

The problem though, is merging the two. So, how do we do it? Well, this time around, I’m going to start with this GeekList that someone else maintains of BGA games on BGG. Which has the games, but no ranks. And apparently there are no ways to rank those by BGG (for some reason). But that’s easy when you know a bit of scripting!

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Another r/Fantasy 2021 Book Bingo post! How in the world am I generating this (updating) chart in Hugo?

2021 Book Bingo

by Hajime Isayama Hard Mode ✓ Five SFF Short Stories Any short story as long as there are five of them. Hard Mode: Read an entire SFF anthology or collection.	by R.F. Kuang Hard Mode ✓ Set in Asia Any book set in Asia or an analogous fantasy setting that is based on a real-world Asian setting. Hard Mode: Written by an Asian author.	by Victor LaValle Hard Mode ✓ A Selection from the r/Fantasy A to Z Genre Guide Any book listed in our A to Z Genre Guide. Hard Mode: A book by a BIPOC author.	by T.J. Klune Hard Mode ✓ Found Family Or as TV Tropes calls it - Family of Choice. Often not biologically related, these relationships in a group typically form through bonds of shared experiences and become as important (in some cases more) as family members. Hard Mode: Featuring an LGBTQ+ character as a member of the found family.	by Maggie Stiefvater Hard Mode ✓ First Person POV Defined as: a literary style in which the narrative is told from the perspective of a narrator speaking directly about themselves. Link for examples. Hard Mode: There is more than one perspective, but each perspective is written in First Person.
by David Farland Book Club OR Readalong Book Any past or active r/Fantasy book clubs count as well as past or active r/Fantasy readalongs. See our full list of book clubs here. Hard Mode: Must read a current selection of either a book club or readalong and participate in the discussion.	by Mary Norton Hard Mode ✓ New to You Author This would be an author whose work you’ve yet to read, meaning no novel, no novella, no short fiction, etc. Hard Mode: Not only have you never read their work before but you’ve not heard much about this author or their work before deciding to try a book by them.	by Silvia Moreno-Garcia Hard Mode ✓ Gothic Fantasy Gothic Fantasy is similar to Gothic Fiction but it includes fantasy elements or settings. Gothic Fiction is “a style of writing that is characterized by elements of fear, horror, death, and gloom, as well as romantic elements, such as nature, individuality, and very high emotion. These emotions can include fear and suspense.” (Source) Here is a good ‘introductory post’ on Gothic Fantasy for further reading from Book Riot. Hard Mode: NOT one of the ten titles listed in the Book Riot article.	by Warren Ellis Hard Mode ✓ Backlist Book For our purposes we’re considering ‘backlist’ an author’s older titles that are not their latest published book or part of a currently running series (no further sequels announced when you read it). The author must also be a currently publishing author. Hard Mode: Published before the year 2000.	by Mark Lawrence Hard Mode ✓ Revenge-Seeking Character Book has a character whose main motivation in the story is revenge. Hard Mode: Revenge is central to the plot of the entire book.
by Mur Lafferty Hard Mode ✓ Mystery Plot The main plot of the book centers around solving a mystery. Hard Mode: Not a primary world Urban Fantasy (secondary world urban fantasy is okay!)	by Patricia Briggs Hard Mode ✓ Comfort Read This is one of those ‘personal to you’ squares. Any book that brings you comfort while reading it. You can use a reread on this square and it WON’T count for your ‘1 reread’. Hard Mode: Don’t use a reread, find a brand new comfort read!	by Randall Cooper Hard Mode ✓ Published in 2021 A book published for the first time in 2021 (no reprints or new editions). Hard Mode: It’s also a debut novel–as in it’s the author’s first published novel.	by Jamie Delano Hard Mode ✓ Cat Squasher: 500+ Pages Time to go tome hunting–find a book that is over 500 pages in length. Hard Mode: Lion Squasher - a book that is over 800 pages.	by Philip Pullman Hard Mode ✓ SFF-Related Nonfiction Back by popular demand! Any nonfiction book that is related to SFF. Could be a book about the history of something in SFF, writing SFF, essays from a SFF writer, etc. Hard Mode: Published within the last five years.
by Kaela Rivera Hard Mode ✓ Latinx or Latin American Author Author is from Latin America or of Latinx/Hispanic heritage. Hard Mode: Book has fewer than 1000 Goodreads ratings.	by R.S. Craig Hard Mode ✓ Self-Published Only self-published novels will count for this square. If the novel has been picked up by a publisher as long as you read it when it was self-pubbed it will still count. Hard Mode: Self-pubbed and has fewer than 50 ratings on Goodreads.	by Jeff VanderMeer Hard Mode ✓ Forest Setting This setting must be used be for a good portion of the book. Hard Mode: The entire book takes place in this setting.	by Tamsyn Muir Hard Mode ✓ Genre Mashup A book that utilizes major elements from two or more genres. Examples: a romance set in a fantasy world, a book that combines science fiction and fantasy, etc. Hard Mode: Three or more genres are combined.	by Matt Haig Hard Mode ✓ Has Chapter Titles A book where each chapter has a title (other than numbers or just a character’s name). Hard Mode: Chapter title is more than a single word FOR EVERY SINGLE CHAPTER
by Curtis Craddock Hard Mode ✓ Title: _____ of _____ The title of the book must feature the format X of Y. Example: The Harp of Kings by Juliet Marillier. Hard Mode: _____ of ______ and ________. Format of title must be X of Y and Z.	by Andy Weir Hard Mode ✓ First Contact From Wikipedia: Science Fiction about the first meeting between humans and extraterrestrial life, or of any sentient species’ first encounter with another one, given they are from different planets or natural satellites. Hard Mode: War does not break out as a result of contact.	by Rebecca Roanhorse Trans or Nonbinary Character A book featuring a trans or nonbinary character that isn’t an alien or a robot. Hard Mode: This character is a main protagonist.	by Becky Chambers Hard Mode ✓ Debut Author An author’s debut novel or novella. Hard Mode: The author has participated in an AMA. AMA List linked here.	by Libba Bray Hard Mode ✓ Witches A book featuring witches. Note - characters practicing what is traditionally in their culture referred to as witchcraft would also count. For example brujos or brujas would count for this square. Hard Mode: A witch is a main protagonist.

Full categories

Five SFF Short Stories

Any short story as long as there are five of them.

Hard Mode: Read an entire SFF anthology or collection.

Set in Asia

Any book set in Asia or an analogous fantasy setting that is based on a real-world Asian setting.

Hard Mode: Written by an Asian author.

A Selection from the r/Fantasy A to Z Genre Guide

Any book listed in our A to Z Genre Guide.

Hard Mode: A book by a BIPOC author.

Found Family

Or as TV Tropes calls it - Family of Choice. Often not biologically related, these relationships in a group typically form through bonds of shared experiences and become as important (in some cases more) as family members.

Hard Mode: Featuring an LGBTQ+ character as a member of the found family.

First Person POV

Defined as: a literary style in which the narrative is told from the perspective of a narrator speaking directly about themselves. Link for examples.

Hard Mode: There is more than one perspective, but each perspective is written in First Person.

Book Club OR Readalong Book

Any past or active r/Fantasy book clubs count as well as past or active r/Fantasy readalongs. See our full list of book clubs here.

Hard Mode: Must read a current selection of either a book club or readalong and participate in the discussion.

New to You Author

This would be an author whose work you’ve yet to read, meaning no novel, no novella, no short fiction, etc.

Hard Mode: Not only have you never read their work before but you’ve not heard much about this author or their work before deciding to try a book by them.

Gothic Fantasy

Gothic Fantasy is similar to Gothic Fiction but it includes fantasy elements or settings. Gothic Fiction is “a style of writing that is characterized by elements of fear, horror, death, and gloom, as well as romantic elements, such as nature, individuality, and very high emotion. These emotions can include fear and suspense.” (Source) Here is a good ‘introductory post’ on Gothic Fantasy for further reading from Book Riot.

Hard Mode: NOT one of the ten titles listed in the Book Riot article.

Backlist Book

For our purposes we’re considering ‘backlist’ an author’s older titles that are not their latest published book or part of a currently running series (no further sequels announced when you read it). The author must also be a currently publishing author.

Hard Mode: Published before the year 2000.

Revenge-Seeking Character

Book has a character whose main motivation in the story is revenge.

Hard Mode: Revenge is central to the plot of the entire book.

Mystery Plot

The main plot of the book centers around solving a mystery.

Hard Mode: Not a primary world Urban Fantasy (secondary world urban fantasy is okay!)

Comfort Read

This is one of those ‘personal to you’ squares. Any book that brings you comfort while reading it. You can use a reread on this square and it WON’T count for your ‘1 reread’.

Hard Mode: Don’t use a reread, find a brand new comfort read!

Published in 2021

A book published for the first time in 2021 (no reprints or new editions).

Hard Mode: It’s also a debut novel–as in it’s the author’s first published novel.

Cat Squasher: 500+ Pages

Time to go tome hunting–find a book that is over 500 pages in length.

Hard Mode: Lion Squasher - a book that is over 800 pages.

SFF-Related Nonfiction

Back by popular demand! Any nonfiction book that is related to SFF. Could be a book about the history of something in SFF, writing SFF, essays from a SFF writer, etc.

Hard Mode: Published within the last five years.

Latinx or Latin American Author

Author is from Latin America or of Latinx/Hispanic heritage.

Hard Mode: Book has fewer than 1000 Goodreads ratings.

Self-Published

Only self-published novels will count for this square. If the novel has been picked up by a publisher as long as you read it when it was self-pubbed it will still count.

Hard Mode: Self-pubbed and has fewer than 50 ratings on Goodreads.

Forest Setting

This setting must be used be for a good portion of the book.

Hard Mode: The entire book takes place in this setting.

Genre Mashup

A book that utilizes major elements from two or more genres. Examples: a romance set in a fantasy world, a book that combines science fiction and fantasy, etc.

Hard Mode: Three or more genres are combined.

Has Chapter Titles

A book where each chapter has a title (other than numbers or just a character’s name).

Hard Mode: Chapter title is more than a single word FOR EVERY SINGLE CHAPTER

Title: _____ of _____

The title of the book must feature the format X of Y. Example: The Harp of Kings by Juliet Marillier.

Hard Mode: _____ of ______ and ________. Format of title must be X of Y and Z.

First Contact

From Wikipedia: Science Fiction about the first meeting between humans and extraterrestrial life, or of any sentient species’ first encounter with another one, given they are from different planets or natural satellites.

Hard Mode: War does not break out as a result of contact.

Trans or Nonbinary Character

A book featuring a trans or nonbinary character that isn’t an alien or a robot.

Hard Mode: This character is a main protagonist.

Debut Author

An author’s debut novel or novella.

Hard Mode: The author has participated in an AMA. AMA List linked here.

Witches

A book featuring witches. Note - characters practicing what is traditionally in their culture referred to as witchcraft would also count. For example brujos or brujas would count for this square.

Hard Mode: A witch is a main protagonist.

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