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Prologue - 1: Lab-16
- 2: Recon - 3:
PBJ-Magic - 4: Noah's Arc
5: Math Wheels
- 6: Gapwar - 7: Rack'Em
- 8: FitTris
The Big Help - Chapter 03 - PBJ-Magic
Benadict Arnold was one of the worst traitors in U.S. History....but
that was another Tory. (Editor's Note: As Dogbert once said "Puns; never apologize, never explain.") I had just wrapped up the case of the
missing torpedo when the phone rang. This surprised me since Ma Bell had terminated my service earlier in the week. I said "Hello" and a
muffled voice on the other end of the line shouted "Help me, my computer is reading my mind".
I recognized the voice immediately, it was my ex-girlfriend with the wooden leg and she sounded more paranoid than ever. Yes, even more
paranoid than the time she suspected me of cheating with her twin sister. Her twin sister had two good legs that went all the way to the floor and
back and although I looked at her occasionally it was never in that way. She also half-looked at me occasionally because she had a glass eye from
a fork accident that happened when she was just eleven. Peg had never gotten over her paranoia and it destroyed her relationships with both
myself and Crystal. But I had a soft spot in my heart for Peg that matched the soft spot in my head and I found myself saying I'd be right over to
check it out for myself.
When I arrived. Peg made me pick a card from an ordinary deck of playing cards and then she had me put it in my pocket as she led me to her
computer. She brought up a program called PBJ-Magic and then told me to have a seat. The program had two tricks. One was a simple vanishing card
trick and that was pretty easy to figure out. But the other one had me totally baffled. The Program showed me 15 cards and asked me if my card
was there. Then the program showed me 15 more cards and asked me if my card was there. Then it showed me a mixture of card pieces and asked me
how many pieces of my own card could I find there.
Now the funny thing was....it told me it was ok to lie to it and so I did. Twice I told the truth and once I lied. I knew I had stumped it. But to
my surprise it then correctly showed me my Card.
At first I was baffled, and then I remembered this article I read last week in Computer Detective Nerd Weekly. It was all about touch screen technology,
light pens and voice recognition software. That's when it hit me. This Puzzles By Joe character must have developed
Compact Eyeball Retinal Tracking Software that could match where you were looking on the screen in the same way a light pen works. The program just watched my eyeballs and even
though I had lied to it, it must have been able to detect a "recognition jump" at the point where I noticed my card.
When I told Peg my theory of the "recognition jump", she laughed and performed her own "recognition jump" on me.
She then offered me a certs and kissed me in an effort to help me keep my
theories to myself. I left in the morning
thinking she was the one that had been pulling my leg on this one.
(Go to
Chapter-04 to read more)
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