The Sphinx's Lair

micsthepick

4:52 AM

thinking of a CCCC

CCCC: Oddball maid's odds compatible (6)

Alconja

5:09 AM

@micsthepick MISFIT - (def: Oddball) MaId'S (odds) FIT (compatible)

micsthepick

yes

Alconja

5:45 AM

Sorry for the delay...

CCCC: Positioned outside. One out of two is broken. (9)

Sphinx

0

Q: Unlimited paper folding

You have a squared piece of very thin paper. You can fold it and glue together to get a piece of paper with other shape. You can make it as many times as you want. Are there convex polygons, which you can't get this way? What are those? Polygons size doesn't matter, only the shape (i.e. angl...

geometry

Sphinx

6:18 AM

0

Q: 4, 9 or 5 letters?

I recently came across a nice quickie, so here it goes: What has 4 letters, sometimes has 9 letters and never has 5 letters. Sorry, if it is on the site already - I couldn't find it here

wordplay

Sphinx

8:28 AM

0

Q: What is an Origamic Word™?

If a word conforms to a special rule I call it an Origamic Word™ $$ % nonstandard template, do not copy elsewhere % \def\Pad{\P{0.0}} \def\Title{\textbf{ Origamic }} \def\S#1#2{\Space{#1}{20px}{#2px}}\def\P#1{\V{#1em}}\ \def\V#1{\S{#1}{9}} \def\T{\Title\textbf{Words }^™\Pad}\def\NT{\Pad\textbf{...

pattern word-property

n_palum

11:43 AM

\o/ GaMen

n_palum

12:10 PM

I've broken 3,000 :O

Mithrandir

Congratulations

n_palum

I'll be voting to reopen everything now.

4

Puzzling Meta

0

Q: Is this type of puzzle on-topic?

So, I've had an idea for a puzzle format. It could be considered trivia, so that is why I am asking. My idea is a Trail question: A set of prompts is laid out, in numbered order. Each line refers to an object, place, or idea, and can take any form (riddle, cryptic clue, a few words, etc) Once t...

discussion

Sid

....@Puzzlingmeta 2 hours late?

Sphinx

12:51 PM

1

Q: Find the minimum number of steps that we can arrange coins according to their weight

We have $20$ coins every step we can give $10$ coins to a person and he will tell us the order of their weights.Find the minimum number of steps that we can arrange coins according to their weight. My attempt:I found a method using $5$ steps. 1.Divide the coins to two equal halfs and give on...

mathematics weighing

Sid

5:01 PM

@n_palum that will be (semi) abuse of power

M Oehm

@n_palum Congratulations on your new necromancing powers! But please think twice before exhuming deservedly dead questions. :)

n_palum

Lol I can't tell if you're genuinely concerned I would do such a ~~right~~ silly thing

M Oehm

Well, let's see whether the Zombie Apocalypse will be upon us soon.

"The Living Dumb"

n_palum

:P

I'm officially done the co-op \o/

Sid

5:19 PM

Did You get any gift from your colleagues?

n_palum

Lol no

I said my thanks and goodbyes to whoever was in the office, sent the rest emails. Turned in my badge and went on my way.

Forklift

alas I am still at "work"

n_palum

Getting close Fork you got it

Forklift

:D

M Oehm

I'm intrigued by the quotation marks ...

n_palum

5:32 PM

Were you not around for the Fork is quitting conversation?

Forklift

oh. last day. quit in spectacular 2 day fashion

n_palum

It's their last day XD

"spectacular" - I don't know that anyone but you would use that word for it :P

M Oehm

Oh, I seem to have missed that. Must have been working ... :)

Forklift

I can't stop smiling.

Mike Q

Abbreviated story time?

M Oehm

5:34 PM

No. Turns out I was asleep. I just skimmed the past TSL messages this morning.

Forklift

sure! after many violations of what I considered employent contract ettiquitte, I found another job, was given the option of 2 week notice and opted for 2 days instead

n_palum

Haha

Forklift

I start my new job Monday :)

they are now scrambling to absord my "hit by a bus" knowledge

Mike Q

Did you pull a "You can't fire me! I quit!"

n_palum

I can't tell if I'm laughing more at how happy Fork is or Oehm just like, "Oh it appears I was sleeping" as if they're surprised they were asleep

Forklift

5:36 PM

no, I pulled a "you can't fire me before 2 days because I have knowledge you need even though I effed you good with 2 days notice"

they are giving me the silent treatment as I comment code and write help docs

that I requested time for and wasn;t given

the good news is though, because of my extreme lack of job satisfaction, I spent a lot of time on SO, found Puzzling through HNQ and have enjoyed it a little more thanks to all of you

Mike Q

Who did the violations?

Did you spraypaint riddles on the office walls? Or write "FORKLIFT WUZ HERE"?

Forklift

in short: they hired me when my wife was pregnant, told me they had paternity leave and then wouldn't let me take time off when my son was born.

at that point, it was scorched earth

M Oehm

I can imagine.

Forklift

that there was no critical work for me to do while in the office was just crappy icing on the crap cake

so, anyway... last day. I get a nice raise, at a family-focused (a new question I started asking in interviews) company. winning

n_palum

He is the ForkLift. The one who does the work. You shall not refuse him the work he will do.

Forklift

5:42 PM

lol. God gave me a gift. I lift forks well

Sphinx

0

Q: How do I reduce a negative hint with multiple possibilities?

This is a hypothetical question about grid-style logic puzzles. I know that when there are positive clues, you reduce the puzzle by eliminating possibilities that don't come in pairs; for example, if the clue is "The one who likes rain plays the flute", you remove all flutes that don't line up in...

logic-grid

n_palum

I presume even without the leave, your new son is well?

Forklift

@n_palum he is, thank you. he's 6 months now and the happiest, smiliest baby I've ever seen! thank you for asking, that's really nice.

n_palum

Glad to hear!

Forklift

o/

Mike Q

5:50 PM

Don't let him near any power tools. One hammer-throwing child should be enough.

Forklift

6:30 PM

@MikeQ hehe, not including the hammer incident, so far (in real life) my daughter has done painting, plumbing, electrical work, power drilling, and driven a backhoe... all before she turned 4, and none of them toy versions!! She'll be pretty handy to have around when she grows up.

Sid

6:42 PM

@Forklift spoken like a true parent.

Forklift

@Sid hehe, I have 2 kids... my first was NOT the happiest smiliest baby. she was kind of a jerk for like 9 months :)

Mike Q

...and immediately after that, became your groundskeeper?

Forklift

@MikeQ oh yeah! she steered the lawnmower too

I haven't introduced her to the woodshop yet. things can go wrong way too quickly in there, but I do think supervised toolery is good for all kids.

Mike Q

You seem like a fun parent - or your wife is a fun parent, and you just go along with it.

Forklift

@MikeQ Thanks Mike! That's very nice of you to say. It's both of us, for the record. before I was a computer programmer, I was a licensed day care director and she has psych and education experience as well. We've got tons of experience and knowledge we can pour into our parenting :) We're both pretty fun, but the fun is almost always purposeful.

tonight is nail painting with dad while mom is out partying. we'll paint each others nails and watch a movie. this teaches her that dads can do makeup too and it doesn't have to be just for girls so when she sees a guy with makeup, she doesn't have a rude reaction

plus... it's FUN!

Mike Q

6:57 PM

"when she sees a guy with makeup, she doesn't have a rude reaction" - that's actually kind of brilliant

Sid

Your daughter is smart.

Forklift

@Sid we hope so! But if she only turns out to be a wonderful person of average intelligence, that's awesome too

Mike Q

And that's coming from a college student

Forklift

just not trying to raise any jerks

Mike Q

@Forklift otherwise you have to take them back to the jerk store

Forklift

7:00 PM

that better be Costanza

one of my favorite comebacks. I use it a good bit jokingly.

Sid

Who is Costanza?

Forklift

the guy who says the line in the video Mike posted

Mike Q

George Cantstandya

Forklift

Seinfeld character and all-around awful human being

Sid

I seem to have very low knowledge on pop culture, music and things similar to that

Forklift

7:03 PM

the show was on in the 90's. I don't know much about Laverne and Shirley. pop cullture expires pretty quickly

Mike Q

Nonsense. Seinfeld is timeless.

Forklift

oddly I've never enjoyed it. But most of the highly quotable Seinfeld made it my way anyway. the show was a cultural movement of sorts

things like Soup Nazi, man-hands, "Newman" etc... you couldn't really avoid those memes

Mike Q

The 90s were sort of a golden age for sitcoms.

Forklift

I feel like that's the "back when SNL was good" fallacy. SNL was never good. people just only remember the really funny stuff and ignore the boring skits

there were a few good comedies in the 90's but a lot of garbage too

the ones we still remember though, they were AWESOME

other than Simpsons, Friends, and Seinfeld, I can;t really even think of good 90's comedy

WOW: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/…

Mike Q

By the way, I think I may have goofed up with my submission to the FTC challenge about grid deduction hybrids. I think I misunderstood what "grid deduction" is supposed to be.

Forklift

7:16 PM

no, that was right.

grid-deduction is very broad. sudoku as well as the "enstein puzzles" count

Mike Q

The only answer so far seems to complain that it required brute force. Part of it is a sudoku... don't those generally require some amount of trial and error?

Forklift

@MikeQ Deus may have a better answer, a perfecly design grid-deduction puzzle will always have the ability to be solved without having to guess and test, but purely through deduction

Mike Q

I wasn't aiming for perfect, I just wanted to try something new.

Forklift

oh yeah, no worries. thats why I chose the word perfect. we both know my puzzles are not that.

Mike Q

But it's not like the puzzle required guessing every possible Sudoku solution. There is some degree of logic involved. Yet apparently I overestimated how much logic plays into the solution.

Sid

7:25 PM

Gah. I am struggling for ideas to create a puzzle.

Forklift

@Sid do you have a broad category you are looking to puzzle?

Mike Q

Number sequence: 1, 2, 3, 4, ?

Sid

Last time, Martin provided the idea. Let's hope someone else here provides another

Forklift

I've been mulling over an alconja-inspired number sequence myself

Mike Q

What about a... number sequence sequence?

Forklift

7:26 PM

@MikeQ DIBS ON THAT

Sid

I create puzzles on everything but grid deduction. They are too smart for me

Forklift

@Sid invent a new grid to deduce. then you decide how smart it has to be!

I am also mulling a Liars/Minesweeper hybrid.

Mike Q

@Sid Do you play a musical instrument?

Forklift

yeah I mean don't just give the answer away

Sid

@MikeQ ... I have told before here. I know nothing about music.

Mike Q

7:31 PM

Hm, okay. What about bothering the mods and making a riddle about a number sequence?

Forklift

@MikeQ get out of my head Mike. That was totally going to be my suggestion

Sid

I did play Casio around 3-4 years back. I left that soon though.

Mike Q

I am a number
Not 4 or 7
What am I?

Forklift

clearly you are the sqrt(-1)

Sid

@MikeQ good idea. But number sequences which are unique are hard to come up

Forklift

7:33 PM

unique, interesting, fun... all apply. that's why it's so much fun thinking of them. not only does it have to be unique, they get a bad rap on this site so you have to work even harder on them

Sid

Casio=keyboard in case anyone is wondering

Sphinx

0

Q: Arrange to get sum of 450 when it is added row wise and column wise

I just came across a maths puzzle,where i should get the sum of 9 numbers(multiples of 10) to be 450 both horizontally and vertically in a 9x9 matrix. Picture attached for reference:

mathematics calculation-puzzle number-sequence formation-of-numbers sudoku

Mike Q

I am thinking of a number sequence.
What are the numbers?

^ perfect puzzle, A+, guaranteed to earn a million rep

as4s4hetic

8:22 PM

@TheGreatEscaper did you make a puzzle and then delete it?

feelinferrety

8:56 PM

PING!
@Mithrandir
@BusinessCat
@Forklift
@n_palum
@Deusovi
@Rubio
@ffao
@DavidFoong
@Morgan G
@You
@JohnDvorak
@Pavel

ffao

god I jump every time

this sound

Sorry u_u

Why the ping?

Gaaaaames?

chat is slow today, huh

Rand al'Thor

9:02 PM

@Rubio FTR, after thinking about it a bit more I voted to leave closed :-)

feelinferrety

Seriously

Deusovi

@MikeQ A good grid deduction puzzle is solvable on paper without having to make pencil marks.

Rubio

@Randal'Thor I actually did notice that. :)

in Codenames, yesterday, by Rubio

Or, more to the point - be close to having quorum before you ping, don't just ping because you and maybe one other person are bored and want to see if anyone's up for a game

feelinferrety

@Rubio Noted. Apologies.

Sphinx

0

Q: Who am I? I've been waiting for so long

Tommy chased a man to the river’s edge- when he woke up, the man was gone, but he had left a great deal of dirty clothing behind. Tommy dropped his favorite toy in the wash, and all the color bled out. The river was held in a fist, and Tommy titled his toy after one of the fingers (just one, mind...

riddle wordplay trivia

Rubio

9:19 PM

^ my brain hurts

Deusovi

Yeah, I'm not sure what that's supposed to be.

Rand al'Thor

Looks like a fun riddle though!

Mike Q

@Deusovi That seems kind of extreme. Would that mean "trying multiple different strategies and pick the one that fits the rules" is not logical deduction?

Deusovi

No, it is logical deduction. Note that I said "a good grid deduction puzzle", not "a valid grid deduction puzzle".

Mike Q

I... see.

Deusovi

9:21 PM

That's not meant to be a slight against your puzzle, sorry.

Mike Q

No it's fine, the criticism is helpful.

Deusovi

Long chains of logic leading to contradictions are a valid way to solve grid deduction puzzles - pick a random square, see what happens if it's one thing, follow a chain of logic until you get to a contradiction, and rule out that thing.

But that's typically not considered "elegant" if the chain of logic is very long.

Rand al'Thor

Many logical deduction puzzles do require that kind of logic.

Including grid deduction.

Mike Q

Well no, the guesses shouldn't be totally random. I was aiming for a strategy that required narrowing down the possible values for different squares, then branching out until a contradiction, and back-stepping.

Rand al'Thor

Everett Kaser, the software I used to use to play many grid deduction games of varying levels of complexity, even has a built-in mechanism for this in many of its games, called a "What If" button.

IIRC, when starting a game, you'd have the information somewhere about how many "What If"s you'd need to solve it.

Deusovi

9:25 PM

True! Lots of other grid deduction solvers have those types of features. But if that's absolutely required - there's not some clever trick that you can use to get around long chains of if-thens that you aren't sure about - then the puzzle is typically at least considered inelegant. At least in Nikoli-style grid deduction.

Rand al'Thor

For the easier ones this was zero, but some of the harder ones did require one or more "What If"s to solve them.

Rubio

I realize there are a lot of advanced techniques that I don't fully understand and never remember for doing sudoku - the various *-wings for example - that perhaps make mass produced Sudoku puzzles solvable without scribbling ... but it feels like a lot of them need a lot of book-keeping if you're going to solve them without a guess. Either I'm wrong, and the techniques suffice without the book-keeping; or many published Sudoku are not "good grid deduction" puzzles; or, perhaps, both. Which?

Deusovi

The latter, IMO. Lots - a fairly big majority - of published Sudoku are computer-generated.

feelinferrety

So... anyone for a game?

Deusovi

Maybe "elegant" was a better word than "good".

Rubio

9:27 PM

Satisfying, even. :)

Deusovi

Yes, even better.

ffao

I had the impression that making a sudoku completely unsolvable by advanced techniques was difficult

Rand al'Thor

@Rubio A lot of Sudoku puzzles are most easily solved using what-if contradictions and/or writing in small numbers to keep track of possibilities as well as certainties (in other words, using a rubber and pencil instead of a pen), but they can still be done without that if you use sufficiently sneaky techniques.

Deusovi

@ffao Yeah. I'm not too familiar with those advanced techniques (Sudoku is probably my least favorite grid deduction puzzle), but I'm pretty sure a lot of them are applicable in a lot of situations.

Rubio

@Randal'Thor Yeah - that's kind of what I expect. I mean, I have seen some solvers that show each deductive rule they use to solve, though it's never clear to me if part of that is an implicit and hidden process of brute force elimination

Rand al'Thor

9:31 PM

Personally, I've come to see it as a matter of pride to solve a Sudoku without having to rub anything out or writing anything down other than the main numbers when they're known for certain :-)

Rubio

Easier ones I can do that on, but at points I may be doing the bookkeeping in my head so it only technically counts. Harder ones I don't have the techniques down well enough to do without annotations

I like crosswords that have a thematic thing going, and where ideally solving some of the clues is its own reward. But in general, mass-production crossword puzzles, word searches, and sudoku don't provide enough intrinsic enjoyment -- "I put all the right things in the right boxes, yay" -- to make me care enough to memorize lists of 2 and 3 letter words that basically are only used in crosswords, or to Git Good at sudoku.

anyway. back in about 20

Mike Q

9:47 PM

@feelinferrety Okay. Contactnames?

feelinferrety

Gosh, everyone was so busy with other convos I just sort of disappeared, but yeah!

Deusovi

I'd be up for a game as well.

feelinferrety

Wait.

"Contactnames"?

Mike Q