Posts

Are You Really Sure?

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Several users requested a confirmation dialog when starting a new game in Chess for Android to avoid resetting a game in progress by accidentally hitting the new game button. Therefore, I just posted v1.5.5 at the Android Market that adds this feature, illustrated below. Although not directly requested, I have added this feature to both Checkers and Reversi for Android as well.

Math Worksheet Generator

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My daughter just started to learn addition and subtraction in school. Like a true nerd, I wrote a Java applet to generate math worksheets, so that I no longer have to write out exercises by hand. To try it out, go to math worksheet generator . Click on the top-right +/- buttons to increase and decrease the level of difficulty, click on the ADD/SUBTRACT button to toggle between additions and subtractions, or click anywhere to generate new exercises. Feel free to print the math worksheets for your own use (unfortunately, this may not work for some browsers).

Reversi for Android Update

I made minor improvements to the reversi move generator and evaluation function in version 1.5.5, hopefully resulting in stronger play. Unfortunately, in my excitement I forgot to add a new internal state to the save/restore functionality, which could introduce wrong play if a game was exited and later resumed. This has been fixed in version 1.6 of Reversi for Android. Many thanks to Patrick Barnes for reporting the bug (with a screen shot as illustration!).

Android Updates: Save on Exit

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I just posted version 1.5 of Chess, Checkers, and Reversi for Android at the Android Market , all with the much requested "save on exit" feature. If a user exits a game in progress, the game is automatically saved and later restored when the application is restarted. Even if the interrupt happened while the engine was thinking about its move, the game will restart in that state (albeit taking the full allocated time again). Apologies to all users who have been requesting this feature for a while, I just needed to find some time for it.

Dutch Royal Attack

With tears in my eyes I read the news and watched the pictures of the senseless attack on the Dutch royal family by a man who crashed his car through the crowd during the annual Queen's Day celebration. I pray for the victims and those who mourn.