Web Developer's Nightmare

by Scott Noyes
Solving Tips

Story

I was working on a photo album for my friends and family. Unfortunately, the web is still a little unreliable when it comes to standards. When four of my friends and relatives visited the site, each using a different browser and different settings, they met with disastrous results.

Using the clues below, can you figure out which browser each person used, their screen resolution, which feature they had disabled, and how each reacted?


./Labels/h_Resolution.png ./Labels/h_Feature.png ./Labels/h_Reaction.png
./Labels/v_640x480.png ./Labels/v_800x600.png ./Labels/v_1024x768.png ./Labels/v_1280x1024.png ./Labels/v_CSS.png ./Labels/v_JavaScript.png ./Labels/v_Cookies.png ./Labels/v_Popups.png ./Labels/v_hacked_site.png ./Labels/v_competitor.png ./Labels/v_gave_up.png ./Labels/v_nasty_email.png
./Labels/v_Browser.png ./Labels/h_IE.png Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark
./Labels/h_Safari.png Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark
./Labels/h_Firefox.png Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark
./Labels/h_Opera.png Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark
./Labels/v_Reaction.png ./Labels/h_hacked_site.png Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark
./Labels/h_competitor.png Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark
./Labels/h_gave_up.png Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark
./Labels/h_nasty_email.png Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark
./Labels/v_Feature.png ./Labels/h_CSS.png Mark Mark Mark Mark
./Labels/h_JavaScript.png Mark Mark Mark Mark
./Labels/h_Cookies.png Mark Mark Mark Mark
./Labels/h_Popups.png Mark Mark Mark Mark
x o blank
x o blank x o blank x o blank x o blank
x o blank x o blank x o blank x o blank
JavaScript Grid by Scott Noyes

Clues

  1. The four visitors were: The one using Interent Explorer, the one with CSS disabled, the one with the 1024x768 resolution, and the one who hacked the site.
  2. The visitor who had JavaScript disabled was not the one who sent the nasty email.
  3. One visitor disabled popups because they took up too much space on his 640x480 screen.
  4. The Safari user can't set the time on his VCR, let alone hack a web site.
  5. The Firefox user does not browse without CSS.
  6. The visitor who went to a competing web site (yes, even for a family photo album) uses the next resolution higher than the user who gave up the Internet altogether (who didn't use Opera).
  7. Both the 800x600 visitor and the 1280x1024 visitor have JavaScript enabled.
  8. The Opera user has a resolution higher than the IE user, but lower than the one who has cookies disabled.



Solving Tips


Use an X when you are sure that two fields do not match. Use a dot when you are sure that two fields do match. Click once to place an X. Click a second time to place a dot. Click a third time to clear the box.

Select marker color by clicking the colored radio buttons. You can use colored marks to indicate which clue provided a value, or to indicate a guess that might not be correct, or just because you like solving puzzles in teal.

Use the "Save" button to save a puzzle in progress. Use the "Load" button to reload the puzzle. This feature uses cookies - fear not, we aren't tracking you or stealing credit card numbers (we couldn't, even if we wanted to.) At the moment, only one puzzle may be saved at a time on each computer (unless using different browsers or accounts). There is no warning if you save over another puzzle, and no undo!

Use the "Current Solution Window" button to parse the grid for your solution. This feature simply looks for dots in the top set of rows and creates a list that you can copy and paste into your email for submission.

If you want to clear the grid and start over, just refresh the page. Note that there is a bug in IE6 (and possibly other browsers), so that if a color other than the default is selected, that color may appear to be selected after the reload, but the actual color used will be the default.

Feature Requests
What would you like to see added to the JavaScript grid? Send me your requests and ideas.

Bug Reports
If you encounter something strange, or a JavaScript error, or some other oddity, let me know!

Scott
snoyes@gmail.com