The Sphinx's Lair

12:00 AM

Oh. I was entertaining the possibility that since the word "two" is used a lot, maybe it has some meaning.

@Rubio I did look at that puzzle, though not very hard -- I was kinda busy at the time. I don't see anything to object to there. Maybe there's imgur stuff later on, in which case I reserve the right to feel a little icky about it, but I've no problem with a story-puzzle that puts abstract puzzles within the story. (A puzzle with a story in which one person challenges another to find things on imgur wouldn't produce the sort of icky feeling I'm talking about, for instance.)

incesterror21

Sometimes new users don't know how to use tags.

Deusovi

That's not a new user.

They've been here a while.

Gareth McCaughan

@Deusovi Either too-broad or maths-problem, I think. I answered it because why not?, but I also VTC as maths-problem. (I could just as easily have picked "too broad".)

Rubio

Meh. With no actual information on runtimes of the phones, or sales ratios, or anything with actual quantitative info, asking how long you can expect a phone charge to last just seems pointless.

Deusovi

12:02 AM

puzzling.stackexchange.com/users/29958/…

Rubio

He's the one editing a pure probability math problem into something vaguely riddle-esque in a (hopefully fruitless) bid to get it reopened, isn't he

Deusovi

Yyyep.

Gareth McCaughan

With the phone question, if you somehow contrive to have absolutely no information about anything related to the phones (including e.g. no idea of whether longer battery life is likely to correlate with higher or lower sales) then there's a symmetry argument that makes the expectation be the average of the two lifetimes. Otherwise, yup, could be anything depending on factors not listed in the question.

Rubio

man. his questions are ALL OVER the place on how they're received

Deusovi

But there's no lifetimes given! We don't know the two lifetimes!

Actually, no. It was worse - it was originally in riddle format. They just edited in a suggestion from humn in the comments (who claimed it would then be a lateral thinking puzzle) and added the lateral thinking tag. They claim in the comments they doesn't know the solution.

Gareth McCaughan

12:05 AM

(I took it that the two lifetimes were supposed to be known, but just hadn't been stated explicitly. If not, then yeah, it's either steganography or 100% ridiculous.)

I do slightly suspect the user in question of suffering from "if I post a puzzle others can't solve it proves I'm cleverer" syndrome.

Deusovi

"One of them (you don't know which) lasts longer than the other when the battery is fully charged, and this is measured in hours."

There's no actual information given about times. I assumed that they weren't known.

Gareth McCaughan

Whereas I thought "if they aren't known, the question is obvious nonsense, whereas if they are known it could kinda-sorta make sense" and picked the charitable option. I am not claiming that this was correct :-).

Mike Q

Not steganography. Maybe it's a trick?

Like, the phone doesn't come with batteries, so its current battery life is zero seconds?

Deusovi

I was charitable before, but looking at the user's past record...

Rubio

yeah

you'd think by now you'd have an idea what is good and what isn't, if nothing else than by brutal experience

Mike Q

12:09 AM

The user likes math and math-based ciphers, so maybe they're expecting some probabilistic formula as the solution, with everything represented as variables.

Gareth McCaughan

well, there's an answer that's just a huge multiple integral involving your prior probabilities for all possible combinations of runtimes, which brand is which, sales figures, etc. But that's ... not very helpful.

Mike Q

"and additionally, you have not taken a look at the box or its contents at all."

Could be relevant. Maybe the box is empty.

Deusovi

I'm confident that they are not thinking of Bayesian priors.

Rubio

I guess you could give an answer using p1r1 and p2r2 as the respective probability/runtimes of each phone

but that feels downright dumb

Gareth McCaughan

@Deusovi Would you like to assign a probability to that? :-)

Rubio

12:22 AM

buahaaa.

comment-sniping

Deusovi

Hm?

Ughhh, they're complaining about the math problem close reason again.

@GarethMcCaughan They just confirmed that the two lifetimes are not supposed to be known.

:/

Rubio

12:51 AM

I think *everyone* should pick battles with their site mods. Seems like a good idea

Gareth McCaughan

@Deusovi Sheesh.

Deusovi

Yeah.

Alconja

@Rubio For some reason I read this as "everyone should pick mods with their site battles", as in "I choose you, Deusovi!"

4

Sphinx

1:07 AM

0

Q: I need no definition. Flowing like water, from port to port

I'm a bit new to making riddles, so please bear with me :) Here it is: I need no definition. Flowing like water, From port to port. - Hurting none, I am mightier than the sword. Many tremble beneath my power. But I may be purged from afar. - Many uses, Both good and evil. I am un...

Rubio

1:59 AM

Deusovi! Use Quick Attack!

Deusovi

@Deusovi I have an idea. Retract the VTC, and I will post a spoilered solution, which people can either look into or ignore and try to solve it on their own. Either way, the question gets a solution and hopefully we can all resolve our problems. — CipherRiddle 2 mins ago

I'm not doing anything either way on this one. If you all would like to reopen it to see the solution, feel free.

Gareth McCaughan

I would be interested to see CipherRiddle's alleged solution. If the question is reopened, can it then be closed again if the solution is unsatisfactory?

(Which I expect it to be; but who knows? I've been wrong many times before.)

Deusovi

Yes, it can.

boboquack

@Rubio Deusovi used Quick Attack! It missed...

Mike Q

Ditto to what Gareth said. The user has some sort of answer in mind, and at this point I'm very curious as to what that may be.

Deusovi

2:13 AM

I also offered for them to email it to me. If I get anything, I'll let you all know.

Oh @GarethMcCaughan, you didn't cast a reopen vote? Huh. I figured you would.

Gareth McCaughan

Still wondering whether I should.

Deusovi

Alright. I'm not pushing you one way or the other.

Gareth McCaughan

I think being closed is probably the right state for the question; I am curious about CR's alleged solution; I'm not sure I want to do anything to encourage a state of affairs where people can get closed questions reopened by piquing others' curiosity :-).

So I'm torn.

Deusovi

Hey Sp!

Sp3000

2:31 AM

Hey, still stuck on CCCCIC

Mike Q

@Sp3000 Which one?

Alconja

Si si

Sp3000

The current one (phonemes)

Mike Q

@Alconja ¿Qué?

Sp3000

On a side note, I just went and looked through the latest Puzzling posts the other day - glad to see that the site's improved a lot

xnor

2:36 AM

yeah

Alconja

@MikeQ Was replying to Sp.. Yes, we're stuck on the CC, but was making a "joke"... Yes yes => Si si ==> C C

!? xnor!

hi

Whoa, xnor's here!

Hello!

2:37 AM

I thought it was going to be obvious that elias's solution on universal dissection is optimal, but now i'm not sure

degree-of-freedom counting doesn't suffice, and their are near-solutions with one fewer piece

boboquack

BTW xnor, circuitry puzzles have been popular lately, if you're interested (guessing by your name)

xnor

circuitry?

boboquack

circuitry

Logic gates and the like

Sp3000

@xnor Yeah I took a quick look at that one too and am of the impression that a non-computerised proof is nontrivial :P Best hope is pigeonholing left right and centre maybe

xnor

one observation is that 64 placement options are not enough, because having a hole on a diagonal must be achievable in two ways because of symmetry

so an argument that there are at most 64 placement options would suffice

boboquack

2:57 AM

So, @humn, are you going to find a different way to interpret the bottom line?

Sphinx

3:41 AM

0

Q: Tangled-up Add-o-Grams!

This is based on the Add-A-Gram puzzles by wildBillMunson. You need to find a chain of words, such that each next word is an anagram of the previous word plus an additional letter. Each one is a single word, and it must match the part of speech as the clue. Example: a scratch inside a charge ...

word knowledge anagram

Ankoganit

@Alconja I did that! (yes, I'm shameless)

boboquack

@incesterror21 I did that! (If we're all claiming things now, I'll do it shamelessly too!)

Deusovi

Your brackets and parentheses are backwards.

Ankoganit

@boboquack OMG I never noticed when that one got solved! (I'm not very frequent these days). That looks like a huge amount of effort.

boboquack

It did take a lot of effort - making the puzzles was fun, uploading them was not...

@Deusovi Can I confirm? It's ()[] on the main site but []() in chat?

Deusovi

3:55 AM

It's [text](link) on both.

boboquack

Oh. For some reason I get muddled up

Ankoganit

What sounds better: "I'm not among them" or "I'm not one among them"?

Deusovi

The former, I think.

Ankoganit

Okay, thanks.

boboquack

@Deusovi I hope you liked the collage.

Deusovi

3:59 AM

I did!

Ankoganit

This wordplay FTC is an awful lot of fun...gotta thank @BeastlyGerbil for that.

boboquack

If you want higher res, there's a PDF here

boboquack

5:09 AM

@Alconja, I know it's very late, but I'd love to see a wrap-up post to your 'simple' crossword.

39

Q: A crossword so simple, it practically solves itself

An entry in the 19th fortnightly challenge... A Grid Some Clues There are three examples of this in the finished grid Two answers that touch a corner, in relation to 25A (D) Contained in the rotational symmetry of the grid The clue above corresponds to an answer in this direction Position...

logical-deduction crosswords

Sid

5:21 AM

@boboquack yes, I have been asking them to do something of that sort for many of their puzzles..

and am I the only one here, who watched Federer vs Nadal and still can't recover from that awesomeness?

boboquack

5:52 AM

@Sid No, I watched it too. I wonder how they can do those shots

Alconja

@boboquack (and @Sid) I've had requests from a few different people for wrap-ups and I even wrote 80% of one for Rejbas, but I wasn't super happy with it... Ultimately, I wasn't sure there was a huge amount of value in what I was writing (it just felt like a rambling description of only vaguely interesting content). Maybe I'm just being self-conscious and over-thinking it though...

Alconja

6:23 AM

...maybe I just need to suck it up and post something and see what the feedback is...

Sid

6:47 AM

I actually want to know what solution the OP has in mind: puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/48595/the-puzzling-phone

@Deusovi It can be closed again, if it is bad, can't it?

Deusovi

It can be closed, yes.

Sid

VTROed just out of curiosity

boboquack

Don't think we should make a policy of VTROing out of curiosity...

Deusovi

I'm not going to comment on this (except to say that I will explicitly be neutral).

boboquack

(trying to ignore the logical contradiction)

Sid

6:50 AM

Yes. But, it is reversible. SO, we can vtc if it is bad. I don't know what's wrong with that

@boboquack That is because one of them is the GOAT and another is the GRO of the GOAT.

Deusovi

???

boboquack

?!

Sid

Reply to this: chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/35092138#35092138

boboquack

Yeah...

Deusovi

That doesn't clear anything up.

Sid

6:57 AM

GOAT=Greatest of All Time. GRO= Greatest Rival of?

Ah

Two "of"s?

Apologies. Typo.

VTRO question

0

Q: Vote To Re-Open to Find Answer

Mainly for users with 3k+ rep Straight to the point: Should we VTRO to find out what the OP had in mind as the answer when they posted the question? On a recent question, the question was originally closed due to broadness/mathematical calculations. However, some people would like to know...

discussion

Are there any more applicable tags?

Volatility

"The OP has said they will post the intended solution if and only if the question is re-opened." They can only do that if the question is open, it's not like they're deliberately withholding the solution.

boboquack

7:05 AM

No, they could email it to Deus.

Deusovi

I gave them that option in the comments. So far, there has been no response.

Sid

The only worrying thing in this scenario is that it sets a precedent for future claims by users that "This puzzle was reopened to see OP's answer. My puzzle should be too"

Mike Q

7:18 AM

Unsure if I should reply to the meta with this: Assuming VTRO won't be a thing, what stops a user from posting an "improved" version of the same puzzle as a separate question?

Rubio

He should update the current question. Just like it says to. "If this question can be reworded to fit the rules in the help center, please edit the question."

Beastly Gerbil

@Ankoganit you're welcome :)

Rubio

heya @bg

we need chat user-aliases :)

Beastly Gerbil

hello! (and no that didn't ping me :P)

Rubio

(yeah I know hehe)

Beastly Gerbil

7:23 AM

sorry for leaving so soon, but have to go for a few minutes...

see ya later

sorry for leaving so soon, but have to go for a few minutes...

see ya later

Rubio

echo (echo (echo (echo (echo (echo (...)))))

(*and now we wait to see who I just triggered*)

Mike Q

@Rubio : Traumatized math course mixes avarice. (9)

Will

eww indirect anagram

Rubio

twice. but who's counting.

oh. heh nvm just once lol

Beastly Gerbil

I thought you were good at maths! :P

Rubio

7:34 AM

I never said I was :)

Beastly Gerbil

You have a score of 119 from 20 mathematics posts

It's your 12th best tag

Unbelievable. That info was easier to find on mobile than on the website!

Rubio

eh

that's a little scary.

Sid

@MikeQ Ok, explanation for the little-slow like me?

Mike Q

@Sid Explanation of what specifically?

Sid

The CC

Rubio

7:41 AM

@BeastlyGerbil It's actually my 5th best tag.

Mike Q

@Sid it was in reference to Rubio's earlier comment, which was in reference to an even earlier CCCC. Mine is a bit of a joke.

Deusovi

@MikeQ The mods. We will stop that from happening.

Beastly Gerbil

@Rubio is that for all posts or just answers?

boboquack

@Rubio are you going to post a level 0 hint for jumping on the bandwagon?

Rubio

@boboquack I probably should, it's been long enough hasn't it

The comments to the answer sorta serve as a hint though

@BeastlyGerbil I think it's just for overall votes.

I've no idea how one would get it for just questions or just answers.

Beastly Gerbil

7:45 AM

I know how to tell, what score v post ratio do you get for riddle tag?

Rubio

oh actually it's for answers

119 mathematics × 20

the hovertext says that's what it is

Beastly Gerbil

If you click on your profile, your tag progress is answers only, but further down is overall posts

Rubio

Oh I see - in the non-mobile site, if you hover on the score it gives you a breakdown of where it comes from.

I have no mathematics question posts at all, so it's just from the 20 answers I've given

112 science × 2 ... this still makes me chuckle

Beastly Gerbil

Let me guess, mirrors? :P

Rubio

Yup.

Sid

7:52 AM

@Rubio You got real lucky with that. Above a hundred upvotes because that thing made it into HNQ and stayed there for a long time.

Rubio

Yeah I know. Right place, right time.

In fairness it was a good answer. And an interesting question.

Sp3000

@Deusovi Updating your Angered word answer any time soon? :P

Beastly Gerbil

Story of my wife.

Rubio

But that post drew a lot of attention

Beastly Gerbil

(Get it?) :P

I finally get to use that pun

Deusovi

8:00 AM

@Sp3000 Just did, and now I'm off to bed.

Sp3000

:) one could argue TALCIER with the new hint though, but IMO the right side really needed more confirmers

But "common", I guess

Puzzling Meta

8:22 AM

2

Q: Vote To Re-Open to Find Answer

Mainly for users with 3k+ rep Straight to the point: Should we VTRO to find out what the OP had in mind as the answer when they posted the question? On a recent question, the question was originally closed due to broadness/mathematical calculations. However, some people would like to know...

discussion

Volatility

@Mithrandir 27 has been properly solved

Sphinx

8:41 AM

0

Q: My roommate is back add it!

My roommate's notebook is full of these weird grids and drawings. I know that he is trying to learn to write computer code and he likes making old video games as a way to learn. I'm an experienced game designer so sometimes I like to look at his notes and see if I can figure out what he is work...

video-games reverse-puzzling

Mithrandir

@Volatility great! So now @TrojanByAccident can post Clue 28.

Sp3000

Hmm on many levels TENSES looks like it could fit the CCCC as a double def... but not quite :/

Sphinx

9:00 AM

0

Q: One to six , Do you know?

one two three , I am yet to open , one two four , fix me now , four five six , when you ready come and ? , what is this ?

Transcript for