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mike

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hubskier for: 4812 days

Math artist, puzzle-maker, etc. Heavy on the "etc."

recent comments, posts, and shares:
mike  ·  478 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: We made an app for A-Puzzle-A-Day

Image link is broken. Is it the same piece every time? Is it entirely over the calendar, or partly on the frame?

mike  ·  478 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: We made an app for A-Puzzle-A-Day

Thank you! But now I've been trying for 5 minutes to get a piece to float over the board and not settle into place and can't do it. I'm sssuming it's got to have its corners exactly centered in the middle of the squares. (If you're pranking me, well done! I'll be here all evening if I have to! Otherwise... challenge accepted! A puzzle within a puzzle...)

mike  ·  479 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: We made an app for A-Puzzle-A-Day

... and we're changing the arrows to unidirectional like you suggest! But keeping them at both the top and bottom. (And making them disappear after 3 seconds of not touching a piece). They can still be dragged, which is how I like to rotate them.

mike  ·  479 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: We made an app for A-Puzzle-A-Day

Thank you so much! We really appreciate you sharing! :-)

mike  ·  480 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: We made an app for A-Puzzle-A-Day

Thanks wasoxygen!

• Yes, we should change the arrows. I drag them in the direction I want, tapping them was a later addition because we found some people preferred that, but it can be confusing

• For consistency, I think we'll keep the flipping the rectangle option. I kind of like it!

• We're aware of vibration resetting. It will be fixed in an update going up today!

• We occasionally find an irreproducible error and it drives us insane!

• version 2 coming early next year will have social sharing that shows what frame you used without showing the solution ... it will be a little tricky to pull this off!

• version 2 will also have the ability to connect with friends and compete in weekly competitions, with a leaderboard and everything. Excited about this!

• we'll add notifications soon, too! Like, at 8 pm if you haven't solved for today it will send you a reminder.

.

.

Sven just sent a new build, so updates will be happening today or tomorrow! They usually take a day or two to get approved. Updates include:

• the solution bank will show the puzzles with the custom set you solved with!

• time machine when active will show "Yesterday" with "tap to reset" under it, to make it more obvious that you've got time machine going.

• some font and text size fixes

• saving light/dark and vibration settings

mike  ·  956 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: August 4, 2021

Nearly finished building an extra room on a small annex. Fun time working with a knowledgeable friend, we built it from the bedrock up. Scraped the earth, build foundation walls, leveled gravel, placed insulating sheets, poured concrete floor, framed it, translucent roof, windows, doors, siding largely done.

Still to do: finish siding, electrical, insulation, and paneling. It's going to be work room for our puzzle-making business.

Very satisfied.

mike  ·  956 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: ASKHUBSKI: What should I do with a pair of Czechoslovakian T-72M4CZ tank periscopes?

Attach to a headband. Tell people it's an early Google Glass prototype.

mike  ·  956 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: People recovering from Covid may have ‘substantial’ drop in intelligence

When I was on chemo, the drugs would keep me awake for 3 days at a time. I lost the ability to make sense of numbers, alarming for me as a mathematician who can remember tons of numbers because each is like the face of an old friend. I sometimes lost the ability to make sense of time, I could not remember if something happened a day before, a week before, or months, and I could not sequence past events. steve made a short video about that strange experience.

After treatment, I slept terribly for a year and my thinking and memory were always foggy. Lack of sleep make a huge impact on my intelligence during that period (however I was extremely production and creative during that time as well. Weird.) I had resigned myself to my condition as my new normal, but my new new normal came around to be my old normal.

mike  ·  956 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: People recovering from Covid may have ‘substantial’ drop in intelligence

It is a kind moose. You can see him coming from far away, which can give great clarity. In any case, should you get covid and have your IQ drop a standard deviation, at least it would give the rest of us a chance to catch up!

mike  ·  1020 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: I published my first novel

Thank you so much! There is a free "explorers guide" coming out any day. 60 pages of cool stuff related to Abacabax. Just have to make the cover, but we got a big rush of business in our puzzle company and everything else is on hold at the moment.

mike  ·  1152 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Three Mohawks

Fantastic! Going to add color?

mike  ·  1165 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: December 23, 2020

Would you like to order a bonus pack of irregularly-shaped pieces, perfect for completing those hard-to-solve dates?

:-)

mike  ·  1167 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Tin-Can is now complete and available on Android and iOS.

I love this. I may be the only one in Norway with it right now, so it may take a while for you to get my party invitation.

mike  ·  1167 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: December 23, 2020

Awesome! Can't believe how long mail took this last month. Thankfully, everyone has been very patient. Have fun! (PS: you can post and compare solutions on our Facebook page).

mike  ·  1177 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: December 23, 2020

Awesome -- thank you! It's been a busy few months, with KS, book and talk. Usually not this successful, I'm more used to attempting ambitious projects and watching them crash and burn (well, usually wither and die). But the Puzzle-A-Day at least is really taking off.

We've gotten a ton of orders this week, and packed them all up this morning, so yours will be in the mail tomorrow! Hope it arrives trouble-free!

mike  ·  1178 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: December 23, 2020

Canada seems to be one of the slow countries. I'm guessing their postal service is overwhelmed this season. Hope you get it soon!

mike  ·  1178 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: December 23, 2020

They seem to be coming in to different countries at random times, but they've been arriving as far away as Japan and Australia, while some people in the UK are still waiting. Big variation in what's happening with post offices in different areas. Hope you get yours soon!

mike  ·  1178 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: December 23, 2020

Awesome! If you've filled out the survey (so we have your address) yours will have been sent out on December 9th... so you should have it soon if not already!

mike  ·  1178 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: December 23, 2020

Thanks for the shout-out goobster! Glad you like it!

mike  ·  1195 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: My TEDx talk - Art Inspired by Mathematics

Thanks! Here's the picture of the Family Tree that was a little hard to see on the video.

mike  ·  1195 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: My TEDx talk - Art Inspired by Mathematics

Thanks mk! :-)

mike  ·  1199 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: A Story of Limitations

I get your point. A lot of our customers have expressed surprise that we are delivering on time. I suppose they are the ones most experienced with KS and know that on-time delivery is unusual!

Yes, for us KS has been great for marketing. We decided last year to expand our hobby to a tiny business. We have many tiny businesses we're running at the same time and think puzzles could become the largest. Sales is the hardest part. We sold puzzles at some local fairs, visited a few local shops, got our puzzles in 3 stores in the city, did a mailing of samples to 20 stores, two of them bought a few packs, and we started to plan a sales road trip around the country for fun when corona hit and killed our plans.

Selling 2 puzzles a day from our webshop is definitely hobby-level, but that is 30x increase from before we did the kickstarter. We also picked up 3 stores, 2 in the UK and one in the US that want to sell our puzzles, so from a marketing perspective our KS has been a hit. 2 puzzles a day plus 6x $10k KS next year is over $100k in sales and that's no longer hobby but small business. And if we can increase sales 30x again next year then it's really good business.

We got a new machine we'll order this month with large cutting bed and double heads that can make 50 puzzles/hour. With enough sales we can employ someone to assemble and avoid manufacturing overseas, which we've tried and quality is a problem.

My wife's been enjoying posting updates on KS, which lots of personal touches and touches of Norwegian culture. Some have been loving the updates and many have signed up for a newsletter, so she's going to start a blog on our website and build this brand-loyalty by drawing our customers into a kind of friend group.

Fun stuff.

mike  ·  1199 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: A Story of Limitations

Well, we used it for marketing. We already had a product but no easy path to market. This was a cheap and easy way to get our puzzle out there. We hit our goal in 18 hours and when the campaign ended we were 968%. And now our webstore, which was getting about 2 orders a month is now getting 2 orders a day. Yeah, not killer sales but fine for a start.

We sold almost 800 puzzles in two weeks, which is a lot for us. Even after expenses and unexpected extra costs, it's still good money. We're probably going to run about 6 more campaigns next year, figuring out more and more of the process as we go to be more efficient.

Yeah, KS is taking a significant cut, but it was easy and fun.

If you've got recommendations for other ways for a tiny business to effectively market their products, I'd love to hear suggestions!

mike  ·  1199 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: A Story of Limitations

Ha! Found you! Now I know your real name. :-) (PS: mine is "Mike")

mike  ·  1201 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: A Story of Limitations

Thanks for ordering! Did you get an Early Bird 5-pack? (The name "goobster" doesn't show on my backer list!)

mike  ·  1202 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: I published my first novel

Shout out to wasoxygen who not only bought the ebook but sent in more typos. Awesome!