

Worst. Puzzle. Ever. - lisper
http://rondam.blogspot.com/2009/12/worst-puzzle-ever.html

======
joshuaxls
Yeah, it's a terrible puzzle. That must be an awkward situation, opening a
present like that, knowing someone spent a couple hundred dollars on something
so silly and then having to thank them.

However, the whole part of this post about extortion is kind of silly. How
many of these have been sold? A thousand or so? Yeah, that must be a very
valuable database of information they're keeping. Any company looking to
target a rich demographic could advertise at a country club. Why cook up a
hairbrained scheme surrounding a puzzle?

I doubt their business model is based on selling personal information. If I
had to guess, I'd say it's based on huge profit margins from selling a silly
aluminum sphere.

~~~
lisper
I just got an email from the president of the company saying they have 30,000
registered users.

~~~
jdrock
Sorry, but 30,000 is a very low number.

~~~
jbyers
30,000 people who spent $200 on a toy puzzle is by no means a small number.
Luxury goods purchases follow a power law, and the value of capturing a
portion of the fat side of that curve is huge. If they're willing to spend
$200 on a puzzle, imagine what they'd spend on something they perceive they
need.

~~~
GrandMasterBirt
Dead on. Its $200 on a puzzle, which simultaneously shows that the person
cares about this $200 more than their personal information, which is damn
useful for marketing.

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kqr2
Solving and Assembling the Isis Puzzle:

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7NPiyyfDXA>

~~~
almost
Wow, it really is the worst puzzle ever. That is very very lame.

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eli
I don't really buy the list brokerage conspiracy theory. Sure, you can make
money renting or selling your customer list... but not that much. We're
talking pennies person. Compare that to how much you make selling a hunk of
metal for $100+.

Nope, it's just a crappy puzzle from a company without a lot of respect for
its customers.

~~~
mrbad101
I come from the call center / telemarketing business (don't worry, we aren't
as evil as most ), and I can tell you first hand that "pennies per person"
couldn't be further from the truth.

Names and numbers on their own are incredibly valuable.

Names and numbers that you know exactly the demographic they come from, are
gold mines.

I can tell you that some run of the mill name and number can easily be worth
$1.

Gauging the fact that he assumes their target audience is rich (which I doubt
this is the case), we at least know it is a very specific type of people. This
is as close to texas tea as it gets for telemarketers.

~~~
michael_dorfman
30,000 names at $1 per is a pretty poor business model.

I go with the "crappy puzzle from a clueless company" explanation.

~~~
mrbad101
I said, a run of the mill name and number could net you a dollar.

These names/numbers aren't. Granted lots of people use bogus names and
numbers, but the vast majority aren't going to that purchase an item of this
value.

Yes, before you say it, I realize that nobody here does, and nobody you know
does, and blah blah blah.

In the real world, most people do. I wouldn't be in business if they didn't.

I'm going to go with a crappy response, from a clueless person.

------
elblanco
The main problem in my mind is that the puzzle offers no feedback to the user
that they are on the right track. For that matter it offers no feedback that
they are on any track, right or wrong. It's just random motions with no
particular motivation. Some kind of light, or bell, or even a plexiglass
version so you could see the balls moving about inside would be better.

------
leelin
Poor guy, but I like his section on "4 key elements of a good puzzle." As I
was reading it, I recalled the era of awful job interview brainteaser
questions that were so ubiquitous until most HR departments started to ban
them.

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axod
The parts about the puzzle are interesting. And it does indeed look a bit
crappy.

The conspiracy theories and moaning about why they'd want your name and
address is just silly. Companies like having contact details :/

When the author suggested they were selling the user database on to marketeers
I thought I'd stumbled upon theonion.

Lets say they had a customer database of 1000 names, addresses, phone numbers.
I'd expect they could sell that for £50 maximum. It doesn't make any economic
sense whatsoever.

~~~
Gormo
I don't think there's any conspiracy theory here; the article indicates that
you can't actually use the product unless you create an account on their site,
providing them with personal details with no opt-out.

You're right about companies liking to have contact details - every product
seems to come with some kind of registration card - but until now I've never
heard of a manufacturer actively withholding the instructions required to use
the product unless you are willing to send it in.

~~~
axod
Never attribute to malice anything that can be better explained by
incompetence.

They probably thought having the instructions online would be easier than
printing. Especially if there were any mistakes. Then they likely thought they
should protect them so not everyone can view them, only purchasers. Then they
likely thought they may as well take contact details in case they need to make
people aware of faults/errors/updates etc.

~~~
brown9-2
Like the article says: what need is there to make updates to instructions to a
_mechanical_ puzzle?

Creating a registration system, taking steps to only provide instructions to
those that register - all of that has a cost. I doubt this company would incur
a cost unless they considered it an investment.

~~~
gaius
Ermm, because it's not. The puzzle is part of the game of finding the gold
coins in the real world (see Wikipedia entry). Of course they're going to want
to update that.

------
zb
This guy is clearly not a _Simpsons_ fan.

~~~
lisper
Huh? Why not?

~~~
zb
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Our_Lisa>

The "solution" to the puzzle is basically the way Lisa and Homer accidentally
discover the secret of the Orb of Isis in this episode.

It's basically a crap puzzle based on an in-joke that only people who had seen
this particular episode would be aware of. The conspiracy theory stuff seems
unwarranted. For example:

> [U]nsurprisingly, it would not let me register twice, saying "That serial
> number is already registered under a different email address." If there's a
> benign explanation for that, I can't think what it could be.

Crippling the product for customers who bought it second hand is really
annoying, but it's not proof of a criminal conspiracy to harvest registration
data and sell it. It's standard business practice in many otherwise legitimate
industries (e.g. computer games).

------
RevRal
This puzzle reminds me of the Alcatraz puzzle:
<http://www.alcatrazthepuzzle.com/wst_page2.html>

And I thought _that_ puzzle was stupid; though, probably because I solved it
in seconds.

~~~
swolchok
I think that puzzle is dumb because it's a gimmick, not anything to do with
the geometry of the situation.

------
edw519
Alas, once you blog about it like that, it's probably too late to regift it.

~~~
randallsquared
Except that he checked beforehand to see if you could re-register, and only
blogged upon finding you couldn't. ;)

------
joe_the_user
Wow,

It takes quite a bit of energy to turn an ordinary object into a serious scam.
Yet seems this kind of thing appears more and more. It seems that ordinary
manufacturers have taken a clue from Nigerian scam artists.

~~~
gaius
Scam? How? They offered to delete his information if he asked. That bit about
paying the shipping costs yourself if the product s not defective is perfectly
normal. At worst, they've read too many Dan Brown novels and their product is
a bit cheesy.

"Extortion", "blackmail", the use of these words is pure hysteria.

I'm reminded of a friend of mine, another Internet privacy nut, who posted on
his blog that these car insurance websites are a scam, they don't save you
money. Turned out he'd registered with a false name and address... If the
website couldn't credit score him, of course it would give him a bad quote!

~~~
lisper
The difference is that in the case of a car insurance web site, I know before
I pay them any money that I have to provide them with personal information.
Also, it's clear that when the product is insurance, there is a legitimate
need for the company to have your personal information.

In this case, I don't find out that I have to turn over my personal
information until _after_ I've paid for the product, and _after_ I break the
seal so I can no longer return it. And there is a penalty for not turning over
my information: I don't get the instruction manual. It is certainly a mild
form of extortion, but it is extortion nonetheless.

~~~
gaius
Extortion is a crime - it means obtaining money, property or services from
another through threats of physical harm. Did that happen here? Umm, no. The
author is just incoherent with made-up internet-privacy hysteria.

Secondly, you have statutory rights. That little EULA is meaningless and
everyone knows it, hell there's a bloke on GMTV nearly every morning banging
on about consumer rights. If the product's not fit for purpose then that's
that.

~~~
lisper
> through threats of physical harm

No, physical harm is not a necessary element of extortion. All that is needed
is a threat of harm. In this case, the threat of harm is to deny the customer
access to the manual for the product they bought and can no longer return.

It is certainly not the most serious extortion ever perpetrated. But it is
extortion nonetheless.

~~~
gaius
Words like scam, extortion, blackmail, evil don't mean, well, _anything_ to
Internet people. Or maybe, everything is.

------
fishercs
I think this guy is over reacting a bit..

Of course they want your information, there is a very select target
demographic that could be suckered in with such an expensive puzzle. It would
be nice to have those addresses for new product releases and introductions.
His cleverness just came off as annoying and somewhat done up, down rate this
please.

