We have an email notification feature that notifies the administers (us) when a user submits an answer, and what their IP address is (no other identifying information).

So, I did a little more digging.

Come to find out, the Pi Day Challenge has spread across the World.  Here’s some random selections!  I am not making this up!

• Argentina
• Berlin
• Hawaii
• Sydney
• Turkey
• France
• San Sebastian, Spain
• Madrid, Spain
• Russian Federation

Thank You Pi Day Challengers from across the Globe!

If this keeps up, we’re going to kill the server again!

-Alex

WOW!  We’ve almost hit the 1,000 mark for Facebook users taking the 2010 Challenge.

If you have a moment, we would love a review.  Tell us what you think!  Simply go to http://www.facebook.com/pidaychallenge and click on “Reviews” at the top.

Happy Pi Day!

-Team Pi Day Challenge

We were on the first page this morning – before the server went down – hopefully we appear back on the first page sometime today!

We could have wasted hours on end optimizing our site… but instead we focused on building better puzzles.

Scaling problems are good problems.  Today we had a good problem.  Luckily it all happened around lunchtime – so hopefully you all took a break and are refreshed and ready to continue the challenge!

At approximately 12:30 EST, we had over 1500 guests and 700 Facebook users taking the challenge.  And then… it happened.  We used up all of the memory on our server, and down we went.

Thanks to Slicehost… we were able to “resize” our server in under 2 hours.  This may seem like a no-brainer feature… but it’s actually pretty genius.  Slicehost has a web interface – you can click two buttons and resize your server instantaneously.

Slicehost also has killer support.  You can tell that their team really cares and loves what they do.  Thanks to Ben & Tim from Slicehost for chatting with me and giving me some ideas to optimize once we get back online!

Now – let’s see if 4GB can handle Pi Day 2010!

Wow!  What a great response!  So far there are about 400 people on Facebook who have started the Pi Day Challenge!

Two announcements:

1. Hints
   Hints are coming on Pi Day!
2. Invite Friends
   The invite friends feature was broken – it’s all set now.  Please take a minute to invite some of your friends!’

Thanks!

This year we created usernames via Facebook.  We are seeing a great response – however, the drawback is the inability for teachers to check student progress.

Today, we are solving that problem. Starting tomorrow, you will be able to search for anyone who is taking the Pi Day Challenge – even if your network blocks access to Facebook.  This means that you will be able to look up a  student by their name and see their current level, Facebook picture, and name.

So – feel free to assign the Challenge as an extra credit assignment.

If you have any questions, let us know!

This year’s Pi Day Challenge has officially started!

This year, we’re using Facebook - make sure to invite your friends!

Good Luck!

Our goal with the Pi Day Challenge is to engage students, and make mathematics and logic fun.

We would love to hear about your usage of the Pi Day Challenge – how do you use the Pi Day Challenge?

We have topped the 2500 mark! We now have over 2500 users who have created accounts (to save their progress) and have accepted the challenge.

Please help us spread the Pi Day Challenge!

-Mr. Pi

If you need a hint, just go to the challenge and click “need a hint?” at the bottom.

GOOD LUCK!