The Sphinx's Lair

she got really bad vertigo too, so trying to help keep her in one place while I was slowly dying myself was tough, but we got through it, played a lot of Craftopia together to stay sane

Sciborg

glad you two are all right, it's a relief you had the sick days saved up.

although that might just be a particularly American problem, all things considered...

Dmihawk

I think so yeah, we get 10 days/year of sick leave

my wife gets even more, cos y'know, she's around sick people for a job :P

Sciborg

ah, true :p

sometimes i forget i live in the healthcare dystopia capital of the world and have to remind myself "wait, it might not be a nightmare in other places"

Dmihawk

yeah I count my blessings for our healthcare system, it's not perfect, but at least it's free, and accessible

Sciborg

cries quietly at the word "free"

Dmihawk

1:14 AM

don't you mean cries in health insurance premiums?

or do the tears cost extra on the plan?

haha sorry, that might have been a bit too far!

Sciborg

aghhh, you're right, if i cry much longer i'll get a Saltwater Tax

and then i'll have to pay for the Being Sad pre-existing condition

Dmihawk

if you ever need to be adopted to another country... ;)

you just have to learn to speak English rofl

Sciborg

i'm not even mad about how sick a burn that was, lmao

would i have to learn to spell "colour" correctly?

Dmihawk

if you can colour the word favour correctly, then I'll be honoured

Sciborg

i can't promise anything, my inner bald eagle starts shrieking if i try to write "football" in reference to soccer

Dmihawk

1:19 AM

we call it soccer...?

(and we don't really play it)

you will have to learn the rules to Rugby + Cricket though...

Sciborg

you do? i was under the impression that soccer was "football" everywhere except here

my bad

Dmihawk

I've always called it soccer

Sciborg

clearly, you have embraced your inner bald eagle

Dmihawk

I think I'd make a half-decent faux American

especially with my deep-seeded love of Hostess products

Bill Clinton is still president right? :P

Sciborg

oh, he definitely is, please please do not check

and besides, are you willing to embrace the One True system of measurement and start referring to things in feet and inches, like a true apple pie-blooded texan?

Dmihawk

1:23 AM

funnily enough, I can mentally handle the distances ok, it's blimmin Fahrenheit that always confuses me

Sciborg

i will give you that Celsius makes much more sense

freezing point? 0. boiling point? 100. it's beautiful. poetry.

Dmihawk

a "warm" day is 80 degrees, but to me, that's hot enough to start boiling salt water

at 32 degrees, I'm in a t-shirt and shorts, or will melt

Sciborg

i would kill to watch a weather channel where they recently hired somebody from Europe and they hadn't realized we used Fahrenheit yet, so they would react to 70-80 degree temperatures like the apocalypse is nigh

"...oh god.... OH GOD, IT'S 80 DEGREES, WHY ARE YOU PEOPLE OUTSIDE -"

Dmihawk

California hit 100 degrees today, literally all the water has evaporated

Sciborg

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT'S -20 IN MICHIGAN? YOU'RE ALL GOING TO TURN INTO POPSICLES"

Dmihawk

1:27 AM

out of curiousity, how far do weather channels cover? I imagine you don't get the whole country, but do you just get your state? Or the neighbouring ones too?

Sciborg

generally it's split into sections where they cover exclusively your state most of the time, but if there's like a hurricane or big weather event elsewhere, they'll mention it as part of the country-wide segment. i.e. around here they usually just go over the happenings in the Great Lakes and the Upper and Lower Peninsulas.

Michigan has particularly wild storms in winter, so watching the weather is a big thing

how is NZ weather usually?

Dmihawk

in TV coverage, or environmentally?

Sciborg

environmentally speaking - i've never been there and was curious what your weather is usually like.

Dmihawk

very changeable - being a tiny island it can be pouring with rain in the morning, blistering hot by lunch time, overcast by the afternoon, and windy by the evening

Winter it gets down to about -4

haha nerdy joke :P

Sciborg

wow - i didn't think about the island factor, that's gotta be pretty wild

in Michigan we have sort of a "lake effect" thing where we can have sudden temperature changes, unexpected rain or snow, etc. but i imagine that's multiplied over there given the ocean effects.

Dmihawk

1:33 AM

oh wait, it's -40 when the two scales are equal, ooops!

you get kinda used to it, like if you got to the beach and it starts pouring with rain, very few people will leave, cos it'll be sunny again in half an hour

we don't get much ground snow, only up in the mountains

in fact I don't know when it last snowed in Auckland...

Sciborg

that's kinda hilarious. "oh, it's pouring rain? meh, it'll stop in like 20 minutes"

Dmihawk

2011 google tells me

yup, that's pretty much the Kiwi attitude

Sciborg

if you'd like to experience way too much ground snow, i have just the state for you :p

Dmihawk

I think it'd be cool to experience at least once, but I get that living it would get a bit much

like I think the idea of having to shovel your way out of your house is really neat

(mostly because I've never had that experience)

Sciborg

i used to really love snow, but then you get a car and have to shovel out your car every morning when you're in a hurry to go someplace and scrape ice off the windows and sometimes you have to be careful about having low gas because it will literally freeze in your gas tank... and then it just turns into AGHHHHH :p

thankfully my apartment was on the second floor and shoveling it out was not required

Dmihawk

1:38 AM

yeah I can see that becoming a nightmare

you'd laugh at our Christmas plans I imagine

usually a BBQ at the beach in shorts :P

Sciborg

that honestly sounds like the raddest Christmas ever :p

flipping hot dogs and soaking up the rays while you open presents

Dmihawk

yup, that's pretty much it

Sciborg

our Christmas is usually "blizzard warning: stay indoors until further notice"

Dmihawk

maybe we need to life swap to try each other's experiences lol

I'll start practicing...
"y'all"
"aluminum"
"color" (hard to pronounce it differently though)

Sciborg

as long as you promise i'll get to tend your tomato garden

Dmihawk

1:41 AM

someone has to look after it!

Sciborg

always wanted a garden, but my apartment never allowed one :p

Dmihawk

you better feed my cat too

Sciborg

the cat will be fed and will receive many belly rubs

Dmihawk

haha your hands may suffer, but he does like chin scratches

I think I'd spend most of my time travelling though, there's so much of the US I'd love to see, particularly California

Sciborg

North lives over there, it sounds like a neat place to visit. great weather, lots of fun tourist spots, Hollywood, and a resident tree :D

Dmihawk

1:45 AM

I also want to go to Texas, purely to see if they can produce a steak I'm incapable of finishing

what state is Mount Rushmore in?

Sciborg

if you visit the South, i guarantee you will come back with higher cholesterol than when you arrived :p

Mount Rushmore is in South Dakota, if memory serves

i would also recommend Washington D.C. and Williamsburg/Yorktown if you're into monuments and/or history, they are really fun historical stops.

Dmihawk

oh wow, nowhere near where I would have guessed lol

oh yeah, would have to do DC, what's in Williamsburg/Yorktown?

bobble

Today I went in a bike ride down my favorite trail, with nothing but the clothes on my back, lip-synching to the track of "Can You Hear the People Sing" that was running in my head, and randomly pumped my fist from pure glee.

(caveats: that's the only trail accessible to me, I was probably wildly off-key, and I nearly ran into a car on the way back)

Sciborg

Williamsburg/Yorktown area is essentially a lot of historical Civil War/American Revolution and old America stuff. good place to go if you like guns, history and great Southern food :p

Dmihawk

oh ok, it's in the South I take it?

Sciborg

1:49 AM

Virginia, which is essentially "South but not South"

Dmihawk

I'm still referring to map of continental US to know where all these states are lol

also, hey bobble! sounds like an adventurous bike ride

Sciborg

bobble is an excellent bike-rider and has befriended many ducks :p

Dmihawk

:o any friend of the ducks is a friend of the Kiwi <3

Sciborg

the Smithsonians near D.C. are another great tourist spot, if you do visit someday. i particularly recommend the Space Flight Museum because rockets and rovers are the coolest and i'm not biased at all

Dmihawk

I don't disagree!

the launch sites are all down in Florida though... right?

Sciborg

1:53 AM

Cape Canaveral is in Florida, yeah. i have always wanted to go there

bobble

The pond this trail passes by has some baby turtles now

Dmihawk

nawwwwwww

Sciborg

baby turtles!! ;-; <3

Dmihawk

ok, so maybe we need "'borg and Kiwi's great US roadtrip"

bobble

Y'all are so off topic 'ere

Sciborg

1:56 AM

road trips are extremely on topic in puzzle chat, i don't know what you're talking about

Dmihawk

no we're not, we're solving the travelling salesman problem as we figure out our roadtrip!

how to visit all the places we want to see in the US without going too broke

maybe we shouldn't start in Vegas?

Sciborg

yes, exactly! it's solving the puzzle of how to show Kiwi the coolest tourist spots in the fewest stops :p

we should definitely not start in Vegas

if we start in California, hit South Dakota for Rushmore, and then travel east into D.C. and Virginia, that hits the fewest vertical nodes and gets us to n >= 10 Cool Places

Dmihawk

I also wanna check out the American Laserforce sites, the major ones are in Loveland, St. George, and Syracuse

but then, I have no idea where any of the places are rofl

Sciborg

to be honest i've never heard of American Laserforce, is it a band?

Dmihawk

Laserforce is a competitive laser tag sport, played internationally

NZ, Australia, and the US are the three top countries

oAlt

2:04 AM

@JeremyDover I think I have the definition part, but the wordplay (especially "Version 2.0 extracted") is tougher for me to crack

Dmihawk

Australia usually win the world champs though

although Detroit took it out the last time it was actually hosted (2019)

Sciborg

i have never heard of it but it sounds amazing

competitive laser tag???

Dmihawk

SPACE MARINES 5: Mini-Tournament Finals (15/08/17)

►

you may recognise a codename in there :) (also, Robinchwan, who is my wife)

Sciborg

the fact that this exists makes me incredibly happy

Dmihawk

we were supposed to host the world champs in 2020, but... well... everyone knows how that year turned out cries in closed borders

Sciborg

2:08 AM

DANGIT, COVID, YOU RUINED LASER TAG

but legitimately this is so cool, i had no idea this was a thing. i love it. do you do it every year?

Dmihawk

Laserforce Space Marines 5 World Championships 2019
1. Detroit A
2. Brisbane
3. Detroit B
4. Syracuse
5. Sacramento A
6. St. George
7. Loveland A
8. Auckland
9. Loveland B
10. Sacramento B

Sciborg

Detroit! :D

Dmihawk

we play every Tuesday night, and the world champs are usually in July every year

Sciborg

that's gotta be an absolute blast

Dmihawk

it's such good fun!

and a very tactical game variation too, which makes for intense strategising

Sciborg

2:14 AM

is there a ranking system? how high up is your team?

Dmihawk

we placed 8th in 2019, 4th in 2018, so we're comfortably inside the top 10

we haven't won since 2008 though

recently have learned that the UK, Germany, and the Netherlands want to get involved too

so post-COVID, it may grow even bigger!

I ended up on the podcast a while ago, as I'm redoing the whole telemetry system to make it more modern + digestable

The Resupply Podcast Ep68 - Telemetry with Dmihawk

►

^ if you're morbidly curious as to what I look like/sound like

Sciborg

i love this, what a cool hobby. gotta be so much fun to do with friends :)

Dmihawk

we will get 'borg along to play one time!

oh there's also a D&D game mode :)

Sciborg

oh dear, i'm not so good at the whole "hand-eye coordination" thing :p

but i would certainly try! lol

how does the D&D game mode work?

Dmihawk

Warrior, Thief, Cleric, and Mage, as you shoot other players you earn XP, get enough XP and you level up. Clerics and Mages have a variety of spells available, which unlock at higher levels

Sciborg

2:24 AM

see, now i'm picturing a D&D oneshot where all the characters wield laser guns and all the spells are different elemental lasers :p

"i cast ray of frost with my +1 laser gun of cold!"

Dmihawk

the spells are pretty cool,
Cleric: Heal/Injure, Bless/Curse, Dispel Magic, Spirit Link, Resurrect
Mage: Magic Missile, Magic Armour, Fireball, Stop Time

Sciborg

ooh, i imagine that "Stop Time" is fun

Dmihawk

it's a nightmare when the other mage drops it, fortunately ours went crazy with random encounters last night and dropped 3 in a row lol

Sciborg

lmao. it'd probably be a Triple-Counterspell scenario. "i Stop Time on your Stop Time"

i watched a bit of your section of the podcast, and the system you built is really impressive - i'm assuming that's the little GUI that floats over the game to report how each player is doing

Dmihawk

thanks :) yeah that's what gets displayed to the spectators and Twitch stream

Sciborg

2:34 AM

very cool. i like the nicknames :D

"Poutine Gene"

Dmihawk

rofl, that's my brother :P

Sciborg

lmao :p

i relate to your brother and his love of cheese

Dmihawk

he lived in Canada for a while and fell in love with the place

Sciborg

the main reason i should never visit Canada is because i would immediately inhale 9 containers of poutine and drop dead of cardiovascular annihilation

Dmihawk

haha oh dear

so our North American road trip must keep 'borg away from Canada

bobble

3:14 AM

during a dinner conversation (don't ask) my mom said, and I quote "If you put Hugh Jackman next to Newt [Scamander/Eddie Redmayne], I'd pick Hugh every time."

msh210

3:35 AM

@JeremyDover Is it bis (version 2.0) + cu(i_)t ?

(The main reason I'm unsure is that I'm unfamiliar with that meaning of bis in English — though I see online that it does have that meaning in French.)

oAlt

4:30 AM

That was also my parsing, but I was completely stuck on the BIS part

I thought that 2.0 would be 'B' or "BI" (somehow), but that didn't justify why "Version" was there or what happened to the 'S'

AncientSwordRage

8:31 AM

@Dmihawk oof, hope you're fully well now

AncientSwordRage

9:51 AM

@bobble ...makes sense?

BISCUIT - (extracted) BIS .... something CIRCUIT ?

AncientSwordRage

10:55 AM

does everybody else say it "version two point oh"

TakingNotes

I do that, not sure about anyone else though! :)

Jafe

11:08 AM

yeah two point oh sounds right

"point, oh extracted" is clearly pint

so it looks like we're looking at a two-pint solution

...i'll get my coat

AncientSwordRage

@Jafe maybe that's important?

clearly it's CHOCHIP [sic]

Anonymus 25

@AncientSwordRage #BadC4Solutions

AncientSwordRage

@Anonymus25 that's all I've got

Cookie (nickname)

Cookie is the nickname of: Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother (1900–2002), given by the Duchess of Windsor Cookie Belcher (born 1978), American basketball player Cookie Cunningham (1905–1995), American football player, basketball player and basketball coach Cookie Cuccurullo (1918–1983), Major League Baseball pitcher Cookie Gilchrist (1935–2011), American Football League and Canadian Football League player Howard Krongard (born 1940), head of the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of State under President George W. Bush; resigned 2008 Cookie Lavagetto (1912–1990), Major League Baseball...

Jafe

Mineral waterz (finally!) after two pints (6)

TakingNotes

turns out every person has actually been nicknamed Cookie at some point in their life

Jafe

11:21 AM

can't be a person named cookie, though... it's in lower case in the clue

AncientSwordRage

@Jafe good point

in basketball a 'field goal' is 2 points, oh extracted would be 'field gal' ?

Jafe

version 2.0 could be SEQUEL or something like that... not sure you'd normally add the .0 there though

TakingNotes

making a prequel version 0.0?

AncientSwordRage

@Jafe I don't think so

Jafe

2.0 extracted could be TW(-o)

AncientSwordRage

11:28 AM

@Jafe :-o

I was hopeful about tweel biscuits but they're spelt tuille

Jafe

version can be abbreviated V or VER

cookie looks like the most likely def, although "header in cookie" could also just be the C

AncientSwordRage

4

Q: Can "version" be used as a verb?

In a software development environment, things have versions, or historic snapshots of how they evolve over time. Can I say "You need to version this or that" so as to refer that something needs historic evolution tracking?

Jafe

as someone once said, verbing weirds language

(calvin and hobbes, according to google)

AncientSwordRage

11:50 AM

McVitie's almost fits, but I can't get why. It's got a V in it at least

Amoz

@JeremyDover BISCUIT. BIS (def repeat) + CUT (extracted) with I (ip header) stored inside = cookie

AncientSwordRage

def repeat?

TakingNotes

didn't msh post the same wp above?

Stiv

Ah, like in a music sense - I get it now

@TakingNotes Pretty much, although he was unsure of it being an English phrase.

AncientSwordRage

oh so 'version 2.0' === repeat => BIS ?

msh210

12:06 PM

@TakingNotes yep

Jafe

when you downvote with insufficient rep you get "Thanks for the feedback! You need at least 125 reputation to cast a vote, but your feedback has been recorded."

does that mean a) that once you reach 125+ rep your downvotes automatically take effect

msh210

@Jafe no

Jafe

or b) the votes don't automatically take effect but there's some other mechanism that they're recorded

or c) they're not recorded at all and the statement saying they are is a bold-faced lie

AncientSwordRage

@Jafe the feedback in used somehow

Jafe

Thank you for your vote in the presidential election. Unfortunately you are ineligible to vote in this election, but your feedback has been recorded.

AncientSwordRage

12:09 PM

I just forget how

I think if it gets enough negative feedback it might appear in a queue?

Stiv

@Jafe or d) you're now on a government surveillance watchlist...

Jafe

hey, that counts as b)

Sphinx

0

Q: Puzzle storm to infinity

I have been playing Puzzle Storm on Lichess lately. Essentially it involves solving chess puzzles within a given time limit. Additionally, the player gets a time bonus for a certain number of moves. Chess puzzles are essentially problems where the player needs to find the best move (or sequence o...

mathematics chess time

Jeremy Dover

@msh210 got it! In the telecom world, "bis" indicates the second version of a published standard, e.g. the old V.34bis modem standard.

Stiv

Ah, so not like in a music sense - I actually get it now...

AncientSwordRage

12:23 PM

makes more sense this way

List of ITU-T V-series recommendations

The ITU-T V-Series Recommendations on Data communication over the telephone network specify the protocols that govern approved modem communication standards and interfaces.Note: the bis and ter suffixes are ITU-T standard designators of successive iterations of a standard (bis and ter are derived from the Latin for "twice" and "thrice"). == General standards == Applies to V.1–V.9 V.1 is an ITU-T recommendation, entitled Equivalence between binary notation symbols and the significant conditions of a two-condition code. V.2 is an ITU-T recommendation, approved in November 1988, titled Power levels...

> Note: the bis and ter suffixes are ITU-T standard designators of successive iterations of a standard (bis and ter are derived from the Latin for "twice" and "thrice").

Amoz

Yes bis means repeat or again in various industries is what I saw. If this parsing was already given, apologies I missed it

Sphinx

1:06 PM

0

Q: A familiar sequence?

D 11876 h 18422 R 5373 G 19114 S ? What number is represented by the question mark?

knowledge

AncientSwordRage

@Amoz not this exact one I think

msh210

1:25 PM

@JeremyDover ah

CCCC: Carrier bearing in driveshaft/axle knocks loudly! Have suggestions? (6)

AncientSwordRage

@msh210 mechanics.stackexchange.com is that way

msh210

1:42 PM

@AncientSwordRage oh, oops, wrong chat; thanks

AncientSwordRage

XD

bobble

7

A: What happens with votes cast with rep < 15 exactly?

What does recorded mean exactly? Recorded in database, separate table. (Not along with ordinary votes) It can be queried via SEDE, as explained in this other answer I wrote. Can the owner of the up-voted question/answer see in any kind, that he/she got my up-vote? No, this is not possi...

It becomes a number in a database that almost no one will look at

AncientSwordRage

@Artery no, that's not waste of time. The data is stored, Stack Exchange might still do something with it one day, e.g. give badges to authors of posts who got lots of those feedbacks. — Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask V2 Dec 13 '16 at 8:09

I thought something was done

bobble

1:58 PM

One time it was used as part of a justification for undeleting a post: meta.stackoverflow.com/a/384400

AncientSwordRage

@bobble interesting

Sphinx

2:22 PM

0

Q: Words with dual opposing meaning

What is the word in each case? I can attach or cut. I can be virtual or real. I can approve or penalize. I can separate or entangle.

word-property

Sphinx

3:12 PM

0

Q: Two dimensional mastermind

You have probably played the classic game of Mastermind with 4 pegs and 6 colours. It turns out that the codebreaker can always find the pattern in 5 moves or fewer. Now consider the 2D version of the game. So we have a 4x4 grid of pegs and each peg can be one of 6 colours. Each guess involves ma...

combinatorics strategy algorithm

bobble

6:28 PM

I'm ready to drop my drafts of audience-specific texts for the attribution close reason, any time in particular that would be good for mods/community?

Continually editing to try to make the drafts perfect would be kind of missing the point.

Probably any meta post should be up for minimum of two weeks, maybe even a month, to make sure everyone has a say in the close reason texts

AncientSwordRage

8:32 PM

@bobble any time would be good if you have 1-2 months to look it over

bobble

9:51 PM

I'm confused as to how this isn't open-ended: puzzling.stackexchange.com/review/close/50692

Jeremy Dover

bobble: I think it is not open-ended because there (likely) does exist a maximum...we may just never find it. When reading the meta-post, this was exactly the sort of puzzle that Rand Al'Thor was defending to leave on-topic.

Plus, answers are not opinion-based. If I produce one example, and you produce another with a higher score, there is no doubt that yours is a better answer.

bobble

They didn't define "word" so it's not constrained

@JeremyDover that's not the problem. The problem with open-ended puzzles is there can be clearly better answers for eternity

Deusovi

yes, the argument being made is that that's not possible, because you can only go up in increments of one point, and there is an upper bound on max score

personally, i don't think that should automatically free a question from being considered as open-ended - if the upper bound is far away enough, and answers incrementally improvable enough, it doesn't really make a difference

but regardless, this question is closeworthy either way because answers are subjectively correct (depending on what counts as a word). no need to worry about whether it fits that definition of open-endedness

Jeremy Dover

I agree the term word should be constrained to a particular dictionary, but that seems to me grounds for correction, not closure for open-endedness. And there cannot be answers for eternity...there is a maximum, though I agree that there could be continually better answers throughout my lifetime, at least.

bobble

I made a mistake in only putting half the reason to close in my close reason... sigh

Jafe

10:00 PM

@bobble i see, thanks!

Jeremy Dover

But ultimately, I have no real stick in this fight. If it matters enough to enough people to close it, I don't think closing it based on open-endedness is unreasonable. I just don't necessarily agree.

Dmihawk

10:17 PM

@AncientSwordRage thanks, yeah almost back to fighting fit luckily

morning folks, I spy a lurking bobble in here... how you doing?

bobble

sitting

Dmihawk

Are you sitting comfortably?

Then I'll being

*begin

bobble

Inventing a time machine would probably shorten your tenure clock. — Azor Ahai -him- yesterday

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