Though the site implies using python, here is a site that can be fun for all programming languages

http://www.pythonchallenge.com/

You get a visual clue that you solve by writing code. The code you write is based on the clues and hints they give you. Once you solve it, you can go onto the next puzzle by using the solution from the prior puzzle in a mini-puzzle fashion.

An example might be, you are at http://bob.com/puzzle1.html. You may get a problem who's solution is to strip out z's out vowels to see a message. The message becoming clear text would be a hint to strip out vowels in the url, or some part of the url. Anything in the page is a clue, such as the title, the source code for it, images, sounds, anything.

It is certainly a new twist on these style of puzzle sites, like http://deathball.net/notpron/, which is NOT A porn site.

Enjoy!

Update: Please be kind to their servers. Some of the puzzles involve hitting their servers multiple times. Please be kind and space out your requests so that they dont' get bogged down. sleep(10) is your friend.

----
Give me strength for today.. I will not talk it away..
Just for a moment.. It will burn through the clouds.. and shine down on me.

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Programming Puzzles
by itub (Priest) on Aug 12, 2005 at 19:43 UTC
    Lots of fun. We should start a wiki for discussing the Perl solutions. :-)
[reply]
Re: Programming Puzzles
by Transient (Hermit) on Aug 12, 2005 at 19:58 UTC
    Thanks for that post! I'm stuck on the third one number three (bodyguards), if anyone cares to post a blacked-out hint for me, I'd appreciate it ;)

    Update:
    Changed which puzzle it was =)
[reply]
      Highlight this node to see the hint for level 3. (
      They give you 3 translations. They have something in common.
      )

      ----
      Give me strength for today.. I will not talk it away..
      Just for a moment.. It will burn through the clouds.. and shine down on me.

[reply]
      The body guard solution for level 4. Highlight the node. (
      Use the source luke. Read the hint and take it literally. How would you go about using the hint w/ the text.
      )

      ----
      Give me strength for today.. I will not talk it away..
      Just for a moment.. It will burn through the clouds.. and shine down on me.

[reply]
Re: Programming Puzzles
by spurperl (Priest) on Aug 13, 2005 at 14:33 UTC
    FYI, the Python challenge was also discussed here
[reply]
Re: Programming Puzzles
by etcshadow (Priest) on Aug 12, 2005 at 21:19 UTC
    Hmm... I'm looking at number five, and I've got this instinctive sense that it is an inside joke for people who know python (which I do not). :-/

    Like maybe there is some library or keyword "pickle" or some thing similar in python. That, or I'm missing the point :-) 

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:Wq
Not an editor command: Wq

    [download]
[reply]
[d/l]
      Maybe this is useful (i haven't seen the riddle): pickle is serializing in python, like storable in perl.
[reply]
        Dang. Seems like the end of the line for using perl one-liners to solve the python problems. Once they're asking for binary-compatible answers from python... I guess I'd have to use python to go further. 
        ------------
:Wq
Not an editor command: Wq

        [download]
[reply]
[d/l]
      If you google around, you'll find the solution to this one, level 5. Consider that the puzzle in itself.

      Solution (
      it turns out to be a banner that says "channel"
      )

      The next one will prove to take a bit of effort, but after playing w/ their hints for a while, i was able to get something recognizable. Then it was a matter of shapping the output. It's much harder, I think, than doing it in python, but most are doable in perl too.

      ----
      Give me strength for today.. I will not talk it away..
      Just for a moment.. It will burn through the clouds.. and shine down on me.

[reply]
        Can you really manage level 6 without using Python (and a recent Python at that)? Without giving too much of a spoiler, it seems like a critical bit of information is encoded in some way that the standard tools for working with this file format don't seem to be aware of. Update: nevermind. I needed to read the documentation more closely.
[reply]
Re: Programming Puzzles
by kwaping (Priest) on Aug 16, 2005 at 02:21 UTC
    Yes, great fun, thanks for sharing!!
[reply]

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