My first app, officially in the App Store!

Good evening, everyone!

I'd like to announce that my very first iPhone application is now available in the App Store as of right now!  It's called the Hands of Time Solver for FXIII-2.

As the name suggests, it is a solver of sorts for the video game, Final Fantasy XIII-2.

It's a little difficult to explain how these puzzles work in the game, but I'll try with app screenshots.  In the game,  you stumble upon these things called Anomalies which are "temporal rifts" in the game's timeline.  By solving the puzzles, the paradoxes (things that shouldn't happen in the timeline, basically) disappear and you can continue winning at life.

So then, how does the Hands of Time puzzle work? Well, let's offer a demonstration...

The initial screen where you input your numbers.

In each puzzle, there are numbers organized in a circle, with hands in the middle (hence, "Hands of Time").  The numbers can range from 1 to 6, and there can be as many as 13 of them.  Each number represents the number of spaces that the hands will move in opposite directions.  So, if a space had a '1' on it, if the person chooses this spot, then the hands would move to the selected spot.  From here, the right hand would move one space right, and the left hand would move one space left.  Sounds simple, right? It is for small puzzles, but when you encounter puzzles with 13 numbers with high values, this can be rather arduous.

In order to use this app, you must input the numbers in starting from the top-most number and going clockwise.  Let's say, for instance, there were five numbers, and the top-most number started with 1, then 2, then 3, 1, 2 (pictured above). We would input them in that order.  Once you press the solve button, magic happens.  That's right, magic.

In the game, you have a choice of choosing which number to start on, but the app determines which number is most optimal for your puzzle. In this case, the app decided that the top number was the best choice for the first decision.  When the user presses 'Next,' The hands will move in two directions: the right hand will move to the '2' on the right, and the left hand will move to the '2' on the left, as shown in the next picture.

Now that the hands have moved, we have two choices we can make, all depending on the number two.  The app has decided automatically that the '2' on the left is the better and correct choice (note that the lighter blue is enclosing the correct choice).  In this scenario, the choice actually doesn't matter, since they both lead to potentially correct solutions.

We choose the '2' on the left, and press next.  When this happens, the hands will conform to this '2',  and then the right hand will push two spaces to the right '2', and the left hand will push to the '3'.

Again, as we notice, the '2' has a brighter glow, indicating that this is the correct choice to make.  Let's actually consider our options:

If we choose the '2', the left hand will hit the left-most blank spot, and the right hand will hit '1'.  Then from the '1', we can hit the '3' and solve the puzzle!

But, if we choose the '3', the left hand will hit the left-most blank spot, and the right hand will hit the top-most blank spot.  When neither hand targets a number, the puzzle is over and you are forced to retry with a different solution.

With this in mind, let's choose the '2' and see what happens.

As expected, the left hand hits a blank spot and the right hand hits the '1'.  This is an obvious choice; we take the '1', which will push the left hand onto the '3.'

Well, this too is pretty obvious; we have no choice but to choose the '3'. And then...

Voila! Puzzle solved. You're so good!
















The best part about this app is a nifty little implementation that I added.  When you solve a puzzle, the puzzle is sent to a database.  That database keeps track of the puzzles that users have entered in (when you download the app, you're prompted to register a username before starting).  You can check out what other people are solving in the 'View Puzzles' section, located on the main screen.  These updates occur in real-time, so you'll see updates from people who are submitting puzzles while it refreshes!

Pretty neat, huh?

That's pretty much it on this app.  It's completely free, and there are no ads at all!  On your free time, go check it out in the App Store and download it!  If you have any questions, comments, or criticism about the app, submit a post here.

Thanks again, and until next time,

Corey

Quick tip: How to use Safe Mode for a Windows/Mac-based computer.

Hello all!  This will be a fairly short blog, and I may start posting these more often.  As an avid computer user, I find interesting and neat tricks that users can use in case of certain scenarios.  If a computer doesn't work as intended, most people end up either asking their friends or calling technical support for help.  I frequently get questions asking, "how do you do this?", "what happens if [insert situation here]?", and "will I get a virus from this?"  That's where I come in.

Today's topic involves the situation where your computer just doesn't work as intended.  Maybe there's some weird error message popping up that says that you're lame, but if you buy our software, you'll be the coolest kid on the block.  Maybe your computer has decided that it doesn't like your taste of music and as a result, it just stops wanting to work.  Or maybe your computer really hates you.  Who knows? For the situations that are relatively plausible, however, there's (almost) always a way to save your computer from problems.

Windows and Mac both have an option to boot into a mode called "Safe Mode."  For the most part, this disables services from automatically running at startup so that only the necessary, core processes are only running.  To run this:

For a Windows-based machine, boot up your computer and continually press/hold F8.  You'll get to a menu that looks something like this:

Windows 7's Advanced Boot Options 

If your computer isn't booting up correctly on startup, you can try one of two things.  I would first try using "Last Known Good Configuration," which (as you can tell by the option) boots your computer based on the last configuration that worked successfully.  In the event that this doesn't work, you can try "Repair Your Computer." This runs diagnostic tests on your RAM, checks your system files for any corruption, and helps restore your system files to factory defaults if some system files somehow have disappeared.  

If your computer does boot successfully, but you get slow-down issues/bugs to fix, then consider running it in "Safe Mode." As mentioned above, only the core processes will run.  This is particularly useful if you have any form of malware, be it spyware, adware, viruses, trojan horses, etc. Run a scanner in safe mode to thoroughly clean up problems.

The process is similar for a Mac-based computer.  Boot up your computer and hold down the Shift key once your hear the startup sound.  You can release it once you see the Apple logo and progress indicator as shown below:

Once you see the progress indicator, you can release the Shift key.

Once you get into safe mode, you can diagnose your computer the same way you would with a Windows-based computer.  While you don't get a plethora of options, the core services still run so you can fix any problems you might find at startup.

That does it for this blog! Post your comments/questions below! As always, be sure to subscribe for more techie news!

Until next time,

Corey