Puzzles Etc. - 2016-04-05 (page 1 of 3)

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7:04 AM

sometimes I think that we should do some compromise while flagging a question for too broad. Atleast in math puzzles. The currently followed steps for flagging a math puzzle are as follows:

1. Read the question
2. See the number of answers (if they are above 5 then the question is eligible to be flagged)
3. (This is the most important step) If the OP has rep. higher than 4000 then don't flag. Else flag.

I know that "there can only be one accepted answer" but can't we do something like create a community wiki post and then copy paste the answers along with the credits given. That can be so cool. People working with team spirit. Math always had multiple ways to solve a problem. Some are hard to reach while others are easy. The ways will always increase with the passing years.

NOTE :- These are just my thoughts on math puzzles.

3 hours later…

10:10 AM

wow. The question on graduation have 2 downvotes. That's weird. :p

11:04 AM

Sometimes I also think if there is any benefit of accepting answers on meta discussion. There are some benefits sometimes but most of the time? NO.

11:20 AM

@Khale_Kitha What happened??

@manshu 1) what's magical about 5 answers? 2) why should we make exceptions for people with higher rep?

11:55 AM

@question_asker 1) It's rough estimation. 2) We don't need to make exceptions about people with high rep. There already is. That's why said "The currently followed steps..."

That's... not anything official

hm

anyway, whatever

hm

hm

12:04 PM

hmm

hmmm

hmmmmmmmm?

Not here, yet, but...
I've tired of taking the time to create a question just to have people be jerks, over and over, because they don't understand one part of a puzzle at first glance. Then tons of other people upvote the jerk questions. Bbl

you got yr internet?

That is a true statement, sir.

12:40 PM

Back

and no - 90+ hours, now

so who is giving you shit?

(I'm not asking because I don't believe you, trust me)

It's different people, everytime - that's my problem.

This particular time, it looks like I got one of the comments voted off because of not being useful

But not before it had 3-4 up-votes

And people moved their votes to his other comment, instead, after that happened.;

I mean, don't get me wrong, it's fun to create the puzzles...

But it's becoming about as much fun as writing standup, and then getting boo'ed off stage.

Because they don't like what you wore.

Heh - just got the 30 days-in-a-row badge

not sure if I should congratulate you or give you some soothing words :/

lol

I had quite a few things I considered responding, on my post, the nicest among them being "suspend your friggen disbelief, then" - after looking at it for about 10m, I just decided to flag it, instead.

you looked at it for 10 min.? I would have sent every possible curses towards him.

12:46 PM

is this the thief/command puzzle?

Something like Crucio or Avada Kedavra.

wow

manshu is risking his wizard license

no no no... I am Voldemort. Just in case I am risking my wizard license, then there probably be someone who is risking his life.

wow

WOW

this is a side of you I never knew, manshu

Have you seen my nose? I lost it somewhere

12:51 PM

Yes, q_a

in this case

If people are going to take the entire time they look at a puzzle to whine about the story, then I think any future puzzles I make are going to look like this.

kjsljdf k34jdsi i534oudlslf si3io5j sdkf
Solve it.

answer is "slkdfhd sflkssd sdlkjouandp nshitpw lleh"

Or, as Rodney Mckay put it: "Bing Tiddle Tiddle Bong"

reminds me chandler bing

heh

@Khale_Kitha I definitely see a connection between that behavior and the urge to close every question for being too broad

at some point, all the nerds on the earth decided that they needed to pick apart anything that didn't directly pander to them in order to prove that those things are unworthy. I blame neil degrasse tyson

but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

1:01 PM

heh

2

Q: One wish fulfilling Three persons wish at a time!

Ten decades ago, in a village, a worker lived with his owner. After service of about 25 years, his owner became ill and was going to die. One day, the owner called his worker and asked for a wish, but just one. The owner gave him two days time to think about it. The worker became very happy, went...

lateral-thinking

This was flagged as too broad, but...

I voted too :p

I imagine the answer is something like wishing for a son who would be a rich eye doctor or something

I have no opinion on the broadness of this particular one

So skipping

I am more concerned about the close votes of this question

6

Q: Make 4 congruent equilateral triangles with 6 matches in 2 dimensions

How would you make exactly four congruent equilateral triangles with just six matches of equal length in two dimensions? No other triangles may be created when you are done. Matches may not be bent, torn, or separated into other matches. Match ends do not necessarily have to join other match e...

geometry matches

Marius answer on the one i posted makes the most sense

yeah.

1:08 PM

It should be closed as a math problem, imo.

Sure it has a lot of viable answers, as do many math problems - but it's not a puzzle, I guess.

Answer by LogicianWithAHat is also nice

9 valid answers in 10 hours is a bit broad

I don't see it

in the question about wishes

g2go... i need to play badminton.. :p

ah

His answer is lacking

The wish could give him a rich, skilled ophthalmologist who is miserly. =D

But I'm used to thinking of exact wording for wishes meant to avoid genie word-play.

Those answers are all good. I don't actually see any reason to close that one.

Remember: the SE guidelines themselves state that it's not a bad thing for a question to have multiple good answers

1:17 PM

They also state, however, that the point of the site is for the questions to have one answer that can be marked.

And there is no way to mark one, as all 9 answers are equally 100% correct.

Getting mad about "multiple answers" just in and of itself is missing the point of the "too broad" distinction

so are answers on SO, SU, Movies and TV, Arqade [lists every single SE site]

I'm not mad, at all - I'm simply stating that there's no way to determine which answer is correct as none are better than the others. It's tantamount to a "puzzle" asking me which letters are in the alphabet.

Untrue. In almost every case there's a best answer on those sites.

Well, not really. That's a fact, not a puzzle, whereas this thing is a puzzle

The point of the checkmark is the one that helped the question asker the most

Which can only be done by random choice, here.

And yes, I'm looking at a lot of them this very moment

Questions with multiple equally good answers, not being closed for being too broad

Here's a perfect example, a question of my own - stackoverflow.com/questions/33651445/…

That's been there for months now. Plenty of time to have been judged to be "too broad", and yet, there it sits. Why? Because, in this case, as in many others, multiple answers does not inherently entail too-broadness.

1:22 PM

It has nothing to do with the answers to a question - it has to do with the question.

There's a difference between "X can occur when Y" and "Y entails X"

You're treating these questions like the latter, when the situation is exactly the former

Your question is not remotely similar to the one that we were talking about, in any way.

It has multiple equally valid answers, just like the question we were talking about.

You asked for a way to improve a section of code. There are a few finite valid answers for it.

The multiple, equally valid answers were the reason you gave for its closing

1:24 PM

And no, they are not equally valid.

Each performs differently, and each is more/less work.

but they are equally valid

Is the one you marked the best? No idea.

since they all answer my question

That, by definition, is "all equally valid"

And I disagree that they are all equally valid, so it doesn't really matter.

That third answer, for example, is trash, imo

Well, you'd be objectively incorrect

2:20 PM

@manshu Always deleting your own comments! Sheesh

wow

I come back and I see this. Unbelievable.

one step towards humanity.

the picture you uploaded earlier had quite nice background. :)

can we star the removed message?

no

so sad :(

@manshu sorry, I realized I had access to paint and could therefore make a version with straight lines :(

Sometimes I wish to star every single message in any room.

2:31 PM

AND I realized that my dashed line went all the way across, when it only needed to go halfway. I'm bad at online pictures. :( :( :(

?

You got a thing to learn then... :)

The day you'll make the shinchan like I made, you can take yourself as successful in MS-Paint skills.

is Microsoft Excel the worst program created by man or beast? Check all that apply: [ ] y [ ] yes [ ] absolutely [ ] yes [ ] yeah [ ] uh huh

best*

I hate to say it...

But google's version is worse, hahaha

Mostly because it missing features and gets formulas wrong =D

2:34 PM

well

yes

google have an excel kind of program?

it's a free online thing

google sheets

it's trying to be an awful thing

and failing at that

I wonder if it would be appropriate to delete my question and reask it as an entirely different question.

2:36 PM

Everything you need to know: excellup.com

...or just delete it

tbh I don't think it needs to be changed or deleted?

q_a is right

I mean, I'm not seeing harsh criticism on it (at the moment, anyway)

and even if so: "f" those people

those people are just arseholes

2:37 PM

It would be better if I rewrote the entire thing from the perspective of the people being stolen from

Halfway tempted to just do it on this one, but that seems odd.

You will have to flag the question for moderator, I guess

how come?

If you want to delete it.

Ah - well there's a delete button

manshu please do not contribute to this haha

2:39 PM

It may or may not work

I really don't think it needs to be deleted?

same here

lol, deleting questions can get you banned from asking - sigh

haha

wait really?

that's wild

2:41 PM

yeah

I mean, I guess it makes sense wrt spamming the same question over and over

puzzling.stackexchange.com/help/question-bans

it links to that

q_a no, this site is bcz of questions. Deleting them is like not giving this site what they need

I would guess that you probably haven't had a lot of questions that qualify for that, though

manshu, did you even read what I just said

but @Khale_Kitha: You'd probably be safe deleting this one and starting over, if you really wanted to (again, can't state this enough: I'm not convinced that you need to, but it's your question so I won't stand in your way (couldn't if I tried, even)). As far as I can tell, you have an upstanding reputation here.

@question_asker Yeah, but sometimes I misunderstand things

2:45 PM

sorry, manshu

sorry

I didn't have to object when I misunderstand things.

I was agreeing with the policy: if someone posts questions and deletes them a lot, that's effectively spamming (especially if they're deleting them just for getting downvotes, rather than letting the system weed them out)

Please forgive Me...PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!!!

I will always forgive you, manshu

Weird. Now you are acting like my mom

2:48 PM

Maybe I am

wouldn't that be weird

wow, KK. you got hugh meyers to guess on your password puzzle

is that what that noise was.

oh wow, I guess I've only mentioned the "coin and a gram" clue in here.

I thought I had it on the puzzle, somewhere.

He's got the right direction to be able to solve it, I think, though.

6

Q: The jewel's legacy (part 1)

Here is my very first puzzle, in the form of several smaller puzzles (around 10, can be changed) linked by a story. Here is the first part, a not-so-small introduction and the first puzzle. You, a member of a previously rich family, found a few weeks ago a note from your grandfather which talk...

riddle story geography

I knew that puzzle had to do with 30 silver coins...heh

I almost responded, as such, to Dailey's comment on it, yesterday.

I hadn't picked up on that. I was going with inserting the letter L into a word to get a city name

but the 30 silver coins thing is a neat twist

I got the idea from Tim's $24.99

man, both of your puzzles have me totally stumped, KK

I literally have no idea where to start on either of them

Try to figure out the name of the company that "you" work for, if possible.

It will provide the greatest hint.

2:59 PM

But you know how to end password puzzle

like I say, though, I already recused myself from the password one :(

I wonder, if you answer the password one, and I mark it correct, if it gives you back your bounty.

I think I get half?

meeting, bbiab

word

3:20 PM

user image

Just in case we lose it. :(

3:48 PM

Your deleted question is rather amusing, in context of my puzzles, @manshu

and back

@Khale_Kitha Ok then...posting it again... What is the name of the set in which these elements fit? {GPoG, HGoB, SoZaO, ToAaE, MaH, CoR ,LoA}

I'm not sure of the answer, offhand, without looking for a few minutes, but the idea is common with one of my current puzzles.

4:06 PM

I'm bent on getting the time to leave solution now

me too

but I still have no idea how to even go about starting it

I'm trying to work with hint 2 atm

same

the name of the org

I think that we're supposed to come across a list of commands for something

numbers pointing to specific commands

alternatively, macs have a command button

but I don't know how to fit that with the numbers, except for the fact that there are 5 numbers and "Apple" is 5 letters long

I need a better clue...

4:11 PM

After I said this: "but anyway, it's not those numbers mod 26, that gives VSUTF"

KK said:

"You're on the right trail, q_a"

@"Another puzzle" Ugh, I hate emojiis. They're "too broad" by definitino.

lol

not the puzzle - the friggen emojiis

haha

oh, so I'll table my thoughts on commands

VSUTF

Visual Studio ... UTF (encoding) ?

I see why you thought that, Matt. Interesting.

Can you link me to where you said that, q?

I need to see the context

now, four of those letters are next to each other in the alphabet

21 hours ago, by question_asker

but anyway, it's not those numbers mod 26, that gives VSUTF

4:15 PM

Ty

but I had also said something about le carre right before that

Okay, so I was referring to the method, not the result

though mod is not the exact method

I figured as much

the numbers have to be manipulated first

check out the comment I added

It gives away too much, but I can't think of another hint to add

<C

sort the numbers?

4:17 PM

I can't say (but no)

lol

:P

well all those numbers are indeed less than c (speed of light)

for most units

hahah

:P

also

4:18 PM

I mentioned another hint to q_a

"one of the letters in the acronym isn't a letter in a word"

That, combined with that, will help you solve it.

(or something like that)

That^

T could be Three, F could be Five?

C could be 100

4:18 PM

oh, like radar

I dunno though

I could have totally misinterpreted that

You've got some pillars down, q_a

I also joked that it could stand for "two-factor code", since there are multiple steps between the information and the answer

but that's neither here nor there

I would say it's actually..

Three-factor code.

HMM

4:20 PM

oh dear

all of that said, I'm still just as lost as I was before

same

lol

related: there are still at least two (2) encodings that, afaik, no one here has used for puzzles yet.

d'oh!

4:22 PM

we have some road signs to look at, but I can't see any arrows on them

It's a used encoding - well one of them is

The other - I don't know if it's been used, but I imagine so

one of which I had a suspicion was used here but alas, turns out it wasn't

Draws some arrows on the signs

Oops, I drew multiple arrows on each sign. Sorry about that.

Your recent interpretation was partially correct, q_a

To be precise, it was 1/3 correct.

which interpretation?

c could be 100?

4:29 PM

please tell me this doesn't involve knowing more latin

no

But it is one of the puzzle types you dislike, come to think of it

nearly at 96 hours without internet ><

so when you say the logo looks like <C, do you mean it literally looks like [a less than sign] and then [the letter C]?

or is <C an approximation using available characters?

It looks like a less than - I'm unsure of what you mean by the second part.

4:46 PM

OK think about it like this: <3, interpreted the former way, would be [less than] and then [the number three]. interpreted the latter way would be [a sideways heart]

Command <3 you

<3 is what I might call an "approximation" of a heart. so <C could be an approximation of some particular shape, or it could just be a less than sign and a C

ah

no, it's not meant to be an emoticon

an empty ice cream cone on its side

I considered drawing a picture or using mathjax, but I wanted to keep it in the comment

Sad Ice Cream Cone :(

4:48 PM

a megaphone

Could be a snow cone with a hotdog sitting on top

You're carrying toom uch

(o__o) <C - toot

....now I'm hungry.

I don't know how to make it look like he's talking through it

(>^o^)><C

Kirbyphone

4:50 PM

tooooot

Now that we've illustrated that it's NOT an emoticon, lol

I also don't know why it makes a toot sound

I wondered, earlier. Your "car?" emoticon looks like a cow nose to me

it's one noisy organization, that TFC

Not very good spies

4:50 PM

hahaha

WE'RE STEALING YOUR STUFF!!! ALERT HERE!!

I just tell command, "Hey guys, it's really me, you know, that thief guy you wanted to steal that thing? From the briefing? No really, I swear. Just tell me where the rebel base is in plain English so we can meet for dinner and not be dead. Thanks!!"

3

New hint added, but I think you guys are already past it, possibly.

LoL, ikr, Matt?

It might just be the clue needed to solve the puzzle, though...

I took a detour to try to solve the hangman puzzle

so the organization is the band of Merry Men

because robin hood

that's all i got

4:58 PM

lpol

lol*

Robin hood had a certain pattern to his habits.

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Apr '165

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