The Sphinx's Lair

Sphinx

12:04 AM

1

Q: A very unique chess puzzle

Find a legal move for white that does NOT mate in one.

chess

Sphinx

2:43 AM

0

Q: Find the correct math words to equals the intended number

I am testing a new puzzle. I hope the puzzles are intersting. Example: 3 7 7 2 5 = 40 Answer: two(3) hundred(7) divided(7) by(3) five(5) = 40 Rules: Find the correct words. Numbers of letters have been determined in the questions. The only operators can be used are : "plus", "add", "added ...

mathematics word formation-of-numbers

Sphinx

3:31 AM

1

Q: A Very Dizzy Puzzle

Here's an odd little sliding puzzle: As you can see, there is currently one free space, in the centre circle. That circle can spin freely, even when it is holding a piece in its 'holder'. Note, however, that if a piece gets moved around via the spinner, it's orientation also will change. My q...

mathematics combinatorics sliding-blocks

M Oehm

6:35 AM

@Alconja Not a well-known cipher, but this encrypted Connect Only wall used a symbol font, thereby encoding capital letters and small letters differently. I found this quite hard to decode, and the OP said that the intended solution was to get the name of the symbol font from the hint in the question and apply that.

Alconja

@MOehm Thanks, but I think that falls into the category of roll-your-own.... which is fine, but I was hoping to avoid it, because my purposes are not to use the encryption as part of a puzzle in its own right, but as a way of gating off information in a multi-step puzzle...

Basically I want something that people can decrypt with the absolute minimum of effort (i.e. near zero, hence the desire for existing online implementations) once they have the correct key, but not have it easily brute forceable...

Monoalphabetic ciphers are easy to crack, polyalphabetic are harder, but would still be easy if I left the spaces and punctuation in there...

So, I could strip the spaces/punctuation/capitalisation and use vigenere, but then upon decrypting, the solver would need to re-space/punctuate, which is a pain I don't want them to have to deal with (since it is explicitly not part of the actual puzzle itself)

M Oehm

@Alconja Yes, I thought it didn't fit your bill, just wanted to mention it.

The Rumkin Vigenère solver preserves punctuation and case, so the re-punctuation wouldn't be required.

incesterror21

6:52 AM

@Techidiot Good job

Alconja

@MOehm yeah, appreciate the help regardless.

M Oehm

7:02 AM

@Alconja Just out of curiosity: So you want to present all stages of a puzzle in the question and all except the first one are in code? (As opposed to an imgur maze, where the next stage would be the next image and only be revealed when the correct key is found.)

Alconja

7:20 AM

@MOehm Exactly. I'm not a fan of Imgur mazes because 1) the answers have to be weird alphanumeric url ids, 2) you lose transparency as to how far you have to go, and 3) you are forced to put text in image form. Of course I could work around all those problems too, but I'd rather have all content in the question from the start.

Plus, the puzzle in question is very story driven, and I want people to see the (unencrypted) illustrations from later parts, to get them curious about what happens, thus helping to draw them in...

incesterror21

@Alconja Plus, creating them is not fun.

M Oehm

Yes, I share your reservations about imgur mazes. The whole format is a workaround kludge to make self-unlocking stories fit the SE format.

Alconja

@incesterror21 Yeah, I can imagine it getting awkward. If I were to go that route, I'd definitely go with the word => url lookup table option

M Oehm

I can see that such stories could work, but if so, the correct thing to do is to unlock the next step with a real password, which means that the story should be hosted on a server you control.

Alconja

@MOehm and so instead, I'm looking for a different kludge. ;)

M Oehm

7:24 AM

Oh, and I'm already intrigued that you mentioned illustrations.

Alconja

(but I'm very cognisant of the pains, so am looking to absolutely minimise the kludges, and hassle, and ugliness... Time will tell if it's successful.)

incesterror21

Kludges, what a fun word

Alconja

@MOehm yeah... Also the reason it's taking so long. By far the most effort I've put into the presentation of a puzzle.

@incesterror21 :) now I want to work it into my story somewhere...

incesterror21

@Alconja Do whatever you think is best. Just stop destroying my ideas! I wanted to make a puzzle using the PSE wallpaper. Plus, I had something using the IKEA instructions.

M Oehm

Well, if you can find a good cipher that suits your needs, you can at least control the output, something you can't do with imgur mazes. You never know how it works out until it is out in the wild, though, but the idea sounds promising.

incesterror21

7:29 AM

Now, I'm wondering if you are yet another alter ego of mine

Alconja

@incesterror21 it's entirely possible... I don't think I've ever seen you and I in the same room together.

incesterror21

@Alconja If chatrooms don't count

M Oehm

(There was this long treasure hunt by Mithrandir that unlocked sections via a tinyurl key that led to a Google Maps site for a certain location, which was then used as a Vigenère key for the next section. That approach suffered from the same drawbacks as the imgur mazes, plus there were different "active", i.e. unused keys at most times, so you had to try them all. Gah!)

Alconja

@MOehm thanks. At this stage (assuming a suitable existing cipher can't be found) I'm thinking the best approach may be rolling my own vigenere85, hosting a simple javascript implementation somewhere, but including manual instructions (maybe in html comments in the question) in case the server becomes unavailable...

incesterror21

I find it most convenient to encrypt your encryptions

@Alconja What issues are you facing? Anything you could explain without giving away parts of the solution?

M Oehm

7:36 AM

How to write imgur mazes without imgur. :)

Alconja

:P

incesterror21

Dropbox mazes!

Alconja

Basically just what I said above... Trying to force solving step n before n+1, whilst minimising monkey work on the solvers part.

incesterror21

I found it most convenient to encrypt my encryption

That way brute forcing the n+1 step is almost impossible

M Oehm

Hint, hint, eh?

Alconja

7:40 AM

yeah, I plan on doing that, it just comes down to finding the appropriate cipher...

incesterror21

I see, keeping key-parsing to a minimum

Alconja

Yeah, Vigenere wins in terms of ease, but loses due to punctuation/space loss.

incesterror21

Why not word the punctiation question mark

boboquack

Codenames, anyone?

Codenames

For playing the game Codenames. New players, see puzzling.meta...

incesterror21

Doing so comma you would add a small element to the cipher full stop but not at all destroy it in my opinion full stop

Alconja

7:44 AM

Again, just makes it a pain for the solver... Lots of text = lots of monkey work

incesterror21

I appreciate it very much that you are so pedantic

Makes for good puzzles. I mean it.

Alconja

:) thanks

incesterror21

And this sounds like a lot of work what you're trying to do. Unearthing that tree in my garden sounds hilariously easy now

Alconja

Ironically I think it's actually because I'm lazy, and I don't want to post something I'd get annoyed at if it were me who was trying to solve it.

incesterror21

Good point

Alconja

7:49 AM

Anyway, I gotta go. Appreciate the input guys. Cya.

incesterror21

Until next time

Mithrandir

9:03 AM

@MOehm Yeah, I didn't think that one out well.

M Oehm

@Mithrandir Well, it wasn't all bad. I liked the sequential structure and what Alconja said above, namely that you can judge your progress, because you know exactly how many stations there are, was given, too.

Some of the stations were better than others. The sudoku and the crossword were well-known puzzles, but it was immediately obvious what the code was after solving them.

I wonder whether the puzzle could be redesigned so that it doesn't require the detour via tinyurl. That means that the solutions should be the Vigenere keys. It may be some work, but it should be possible, because you control everything, more or less.

Mithrandir

Hmm, maybe. I'd have to remember what the final solution is though....

M Oehm

Yes, I remember that I wanted to write up bit of criticism (basically what I wrote above) after I had found the treasure, but that hasn't happend yet. :)

(Criticism is probably not the correct word. You sometimes have to try out thinhgs to see whether they work or not. Even if you find out what doesn't work, that can make future puzzles better.)

Wen1now

9:35 AM

How long have The Sphinxs lair and Contact been around?

boboquack

Look at their transcripts

Ankoganit

Sphinx's lair first message: 2014-05-14; Contact's first message: 2017-02-12

So three years and three months

Wen1now

Haha, contact's total message count is catching up to Sphinx's

boboquack

Yeah, that's one of my goals

Relatively, Codenames isn't that far away from Sphinx either

Assuming popularity stays up

Wen1now

Does everybody just ignore the new questions that Sphinx posts?

Codenames was made in... March?

Just a guess

Ankoganit

9:41 AM

2017-05-22

(from the info page)

Wen1now

4 days ago?!

Ankoganit

Looks so.

Wen1now

That is much more recent than I thought.

Actually, codenames is going to overtake everything at this rate

boboquack

Yep

incesterror21

Even some users from other sites had joined the other day

boboquack

9:44 AM

So, talk talk here a lot!

Wen1now

Aim: make codenames the #1 site on SE

4

thecoder16

12:29 PM

well, seeing as it's not even a site that will be tricky lol

ffao

1:42 PM

Almost repcapped yesterday, from an answer that took me 3 minutes to write

the rep system is weird

Deusovi

yeah, it is

Rubio

2:30 PM

HNQ is weird, more like. (at least usually that's what happens in those cases.)

Sconibulus

puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/52138/… is bugging me

I can't figure out what other thingummer it might be meaning

Forklift

2:48 PM

I'm trying to figure out what TMBMP means. I know the post to which it refers, but the letters are unclear.

Mithrandir

Dec 30 '14 at 18:15, by Doorknob 冰

@AJHenderson "the mods' big meta post"

Forklift

Ha, thanks. Best I got was "These Must Be Meta Puzzles"

Beastly Gerbil

4:28 PM

@Deusovi quick question, do you still plan to write an answer on base64 etc for the guide? I've written somewhere that you were going to, but if you aren't thats fine, I just need to know so I can remove that part

Deusovi

I'm planning on it. I've just been busy.

Beastly Gerbil

oh ok, thats fine. just checking :)

n_palum

5:25 PM

If I check in on my phone, via chrome or the SE app does it count as visiting for the progress towards consecutive days visited

Rubio

You have to actually enter a chat room or view a post, but - yes

(or the main site page)

n_palum

Okay I think I've done it.. just because I'll be either on my phone or iPad while I'm home.. left the laptop

Forklift

6:32 PM

-1

Q: pirates of the caribbean 5

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, 2017, Watch Online or Download free. HD Quality, Pirates Of The Caribbean 5, Trailer, Trailer, Cast http://piratesofthecaribbean-5.org/

no-computers

Anyone have a spam mallet?

thecoder16

huehue

Rubio

I particularly like the juxtaposition of "Watch Online or Download free" with no-computers. Nice touch.

thecoder16

hmm i didn't nontcie that thats cool

notice

Forklift

6:52 PM

Saw that too. It's either very funny spammer or very stupid spammer.

Sconibulus

the downvotes were probably coming from spam flags, by the way

it's automagic!

Forklift

ah, auto dv. did not know that

I am not a smart man

thecoder16

hmm

Sphinx

8:02 PM

0

Q: I am Round and I am Flat - Riddle

I am round and I am flat I can be shiny or I can be matte. I can be solid or I can be clear Know the answer yet, my dear? No? Okay, well here's a hint: I'm not bourbon, a toad, or a goose or a vent I don't do well in all kinds of weather But mostly I manage t...

riddle rhyme

Rand al'Thor

10:25 PM

@BeastlyGerbil And about 30k on SFF, IIRC.

(yes, I'm replying to old pings - I finally got round to clicking the big red "57" in my inbox)

Codenames

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