Re^2: I've played solitaire with physical cards within the last: (mindless and hopeless)

[Limbic~Region]

tye,
Freecell is only a moderate challenge but you can almost always win there.

Having been interested in this in the past, I did a bit of research. Comments here indicate that there is only 1 game in the 32K on Windows that is unsolveable though you can get 2 more using an easter egg. Unfortunately, this proof doesn't list the total number of impossible games.

As for using puzzles to get to sleep - I am very envious.

[bmann]

Limbic~Region,

There is another easter egg in Freecell that will let you win any of the games, unwinnable or not. Not much satisfaction winning this way, but your stats look great.

Ctrl-Shift-F10 will bring up a friendly dialog that says "Choose abort to win...", with the ominous choices of Abort, Retry and Ignore.

BTW, a good puzzle tends to keep me up too - not lull me to sleep.

[tlm]

As for using puzzles to get to sleep - I am very envious.

I find that the soporific power of a puzzle increases if I attempt to solve it in my head, in the dark... Lewis Carroll wrote a book around this idea.