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Sid
4:00 PM
@Ankoganit Sorry, No, you didn't delete anything.
 
doesn't need to be 8, actually. It could be, e.g., "JUSTADOT" (terrible example, but you get the idea): it only need be recognizably resolvable to a single dot.
 
Sid
@Ankoganit i was talking about this question: puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/47052/…
 
Ahkay
 
Sid
And I hope, now you understand what I am congratulating you for. :-)
 
mmm kinda...the IMO?
 
Sid
4:03 PM
Yeah.
 
Ah
 
Sid
And the Nov.6th exam.
 
Thanks! :)
@Sid Wait how did you know! :O
 
Sid
He he he. That I won't tell..
 
@Rubio Problem is, my bruteforcing tells me it doesn't contain any of the words "dot," "dit," "short," "period," or "point"
guess I should try "pip"
 
Sid
4:05 PM
@Will See which word Rand hasn't used yet. Maybe, that would be helpful.
 
@Sid heyy
you gotta tell
 
Sid
@Ankoganit Okay, let me tell you... The question that you asked there, that is straight out of preparation for an interview. Of course, you qualified.
 
@Will Agreed. I tried pretty much everything you did, and then some.
 
@Rubio Clearly the word is usagpqyv :P
 
@Sid Actually no, I know that puzzle since a year or so
I'm clearly doomed if they're gonna ask something like that >.<
 
Sid
4:09 PM
@Ankoganit Really? Bah. And then, I was thinking that I had made some nice deductions. :P
 
Wait, 8-letter string meaning "."? What about FULL STOP?
 
tried it
 
@Rubio I moved onto some more complex ideas after testing for individual words, but they were just time consuming dead ends. :(
 
good thought tho :)
 
Sid
@Ankoganit Nah, they don't ask too difficult questions. Though, they ask mostly from the subject that you chose and some other questions from Physics and Chemistry though not much..
 
4:10 PM
At any rate I just tested "pip," and (as I expected) nada
 
@Deusovi any chance you might enlighten me as to why puzzling.stackexchange.com/a/47058/30633 was deleted?
It was apparently done by Community, but I can't even guess at why
 
@Sid Actually, one might technically find out who I am (I don't have a huge problem with that tho) from some chat messages, common sense, and huge patience
@Sid That's a relief
 
Sid
@Ankoganit Actually, I already did. :-)
 
It wasn't because of the answer itself. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to say why it was deleted, but I'm sure you can guess.
 
@Sid gg
 
4:12 PM
Oh good lord. Ok thanks
 
Oh well
But you're evil for sure ;P @Sid
 
@Ankoganit It's obvious who you are.
You're WALDO.
 
gasp
WE FINALLY FOUND HIM
 
and I found you.
 
But can you find yourself? </deep>
 
Sid
4:14 PM
@Ankoganit I don't know quite know much about questions asked on maths, they grilled one of my friends on chemistry for an hour, though.
 
With the kinds of things we say online, it's not hard to find out who anyone is these days.
 
@Rubio vanishes into thin air
 
Depends on the tools you have
 
muahahaaaa
 
4:14 PM
@TheGreatEscaper idk I like to think I'm pretty careful :s
 
It's not impossible to find who I am, but I'd be fairly impressed if you succeeded.
 
It's not very hard to find out who I am, for example.
not that that's an invitation for you to search.
 
Yeah, I'm sure I'm easily identifiable too.
 
Sid
@Deusovi Commoners=e. Is that bad?
 
Then again, I've found someone with [top 10 common first names] [top 5 common last names] just from the name of their dog and their state so
 
4:16 PM
For me, I don't know
 
@Sid Yeah, that doesn't really work.
The plural makes it even worse.
 
@Will was his name Jack?
 
(Oh, and for the penultimate clue you sent me, the issue was just the wrong enumeration. The rest is actually fine.)
 
I have a friend who can find the social media profile of someone you passed while out in the city, for example, with a short description of the circumstances and person.
 
Sid
I enumerated 6, didn't I? Or did I write 5?
 
4:17 PM
Its quite creepy actually.
 
@Rubio Nope, not a Jack.
 
@TheGreatEscaper Creepy reminds me, today I completed the Mills (cube escape)
 
Ah, I love that series.
Mill is hardly the creepiest, though!
 
@Sid 5.
 
Sid
Ok, that was supposed to be "thanks". Maybe, I was too sleepy at that time to count properly..
 
4:20 PM
BTW How's Case 23? People say it's bad cuz it's got a timed level, but is it really bad?
I feel like trying it, but not seeing the ending because I'm slow is just terrible
 
Case 23 is really great. It's only the last level that's timed, so you can still play through 90% ish of the game even if you don't want to do the timed level at all.
The ending can kind of be extrapolated from Birthday and Hotel.
 
@TheGreatEscaper gotcha thanks
 
Anyhow, it's the first 4 chapters that have the bulk of the mythos building. The ending is hardly important, IMO.
Oh look, 12:22 am. It's my birthday.
 
Happy Birthday, @TheGreatEscaper
 
I should probably get to sleep :)
 
4:22 PM
@TheGreatEscaper happy birthday!
 
thanks Rubio and Ankoganit :)
 
@TheGreatEscaper Only if you need to not be tired :P
 
Im off, I think. Don't want to sleep in too much.
gnight everyone!
 
Congrats on the day of your great escape.
 
@Khale_Kitha o_O
 
4:23 PM
haha
 
Oh, happy birthday! :D
 
@TheGreatEscaper It felt inappropriately appropriate.
 
...:P what a pleasant thought to go to bed on. Thanks, anyhow... XD
thanks Deus!
 
haha
 
ok I'm off for realsies. Bye!!!!
 
4:24 PM
night
 
cya
 
@Khale_Kitha So wrong. And yet so right. Well played. *hat tip*
2
 
@Will have you looked at the possibility of the final word being alow?
 
@Rubio @Will btw this was a reference to puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/46557/buddy-or-adversary but I couldn't find the right riddle for a while there :)
 
ah haha
 
4:36 PM
4 edits away from copy editor >.<
 
4:51 PM
@BeastlyGerbil Nice :)
Edit my puzzle. I dare you. Muahahaaa. (er. no, wait, really - don't hehe)
 
I'll post another metacryptic and refuse to fix the errors that I'm sure are there
 
@Rubio I'd be scared that even me just putting a space somewhere would cause the entire site to crash
 
Muahaha. As it turns out, I could have done the text in actual columns. My early experiments trying to make a sudoku-style grid in MathJax had me convinced it didn't work, but I figured out how to do it last night. Oh well, not going to touch that now.
 
The best I can do with that sort of stuff is make equations using $ :P
Oh and I know how to do coloured text
 
Just look at other people's mathjax stuff and get ideas :P
 
4:56 PM
The "scratch off for hint" is almost 700 bytes of stuff.
and I don't think there's a much better way to do it.
 
Yeah I've never even seen omething like that before
That bit alone deserves an upvote
 
I had fun on that. Took forever.
 
Too much effort for me :P
 
I like that you can click again and restore the silvery-stuff.
 
You can? Cool!
 
4:59 PM
yah
 
5:25 PM
I've written six different versions of this CC and I hate all of them
 
The carpenter one?
 
nope, one you haven't seen ;)
 
ah
 
5:36 PM
3
Q: X Marks the Spot: A Word Tapestry

GentlePurpleRainThis puzzle follows a similar pattern to this previous puzzle. I have decided to call this type of puzzle a Word Tapestry, since it weaves together the solutions to the various clues. The answers to each the following clues share the same letters, except for one. Combine the unique letter fr...

 
5:55 PM
Wow, I got +24 for my Ripple Effect but only +17 for the variety cryptic. That's... a weird discrepancy.
 
I've gotten +15 for rubio's email, nice to know people like it
 
I'm a little confused by the tapestry
 
What about it?
 
The final answer is eight letters. The nth clue is an anagram of the final answer plus the nth letter of the final answer.
 
the example makes it seem like all the answers are the same length, in this case 9 (8+1)
 
5:58 PM
Yep.
 
I thought the example made it pretty clear.
 
Oh, from your example I thought we were supposed to find a bunch of words with all but one letter in common and the answer would be the commonality.
 
Why did you have to make the clues cryptic? :P
 
Well, yeah.
They're not cryptic, BG.
 
but they are all 9 letters with 8 letters in common?
 
Sid
6:00 PM
Those clues look more like standard crossword clues..
 
They're not cryptic but they are cryptic :P
 
wordplay then
 
All the answers to the 8 things are 9 letter words. The final answer is 8.
Correct?
 
Yep.
 
I love/hate this puzzle, @GentlePurpleRain. :)
 
Sid
6:01 PM
How do we know they are 9-lettered words? because the number of clues are 8? And the number of letters=n+1?
 
I realize I didn't make it clear that all the letters of the final solution are in each answer. I will try to rectify that.
 
I learned there are some fascinating books that discuss musk-ox fat.
@GentlePurpleRain I think it was clear enough. People's confusion in here is all that confused me hehe
 
so, in theory, if I think I have an answer, I can remove one letter from it, and if there's no word or anagram of the remaining 8 letters, then it's not the right answer
 
The example, plus the prior puzzle, pretty much show the pattern.
 
(for each unique letter in the answer word)
or do the 8 letters appear in order?
 
6:02 PM
Not in order.
See the prior puzzle. Makes it much clearer.
 
Sid
@Matt Where's your meta-cryptic part 3? The former two parts fetched me almost 200 rep points. :P
 
I edited the instructions. Tell me if that makes it more clear.
 
I want to see the tapestry solved first
GPR: last question: is it possible for the final solution to be 2 or more words
 
@Matt I won't comment unequivocally, but the puzzle does contain the tag.
 
derp. thanks.
 
6:11 PM
I'm just imagining people frantically typing guesses into anagram generators... :P
 
NO. NOT AT ALL.
 
*TALON TALON
 
oh dear.
 
*NOT AN ATOLL
*AT TALL NOON?
 
TALL AT NOON sounds better
 
6:18 PM
LO, LOTTA NAN
 
Sid
1
Q: A fish story on aymara language

FejsInteresting story I stumbled upon: Aymara is a South American language spoken by more than 2 million people in the area around Lake Titicaca. Among the speakers of Aymara are the Uros, a fishing people who live on artificial islands, woven from reeds, that float on the surface of Lake Titicaca. ...

I have been staring at this thing for hours now..
 
@Will, you have an extra A in there.
 
Sid
Resisting the urge to click on that link..
 
oh darn I did
 
6:56 PM
I don't think one of the CCs I made from meta 3 will go over well
but I really like the wording :S
 
0
Q: Ode to Regular Expressions

RiaRobert loves regular expressions and ever since his friend Jean introduced him to Regex Golf, he spends most of his time trying to find the shortest and most elegant solution possible. Robert is also very well-organized and likes to keep an archive containing all his regular expressions along wit...

 
7:17 PM
@sid posted meta 3
 
@Matt Are you referring to #5
 
it used to be something different
before, it was probably against the rules
 
@Matt: It's (possibly?) been solved. What was your original clue?
 
@Will you've got the right solution to number 5, but not quite the intended reasoning
 
3
Q: Metacryptic ep. 3

MattSolve the cryptic clues below to create the final clue. Solve the final clue. Sick inside broken seats causes amputation (8) Fowl gets drunk barside (7) Chaotic print aped captured preposition (7, 2) Endless instances malfunction (9) Center of Liechtenstein and Nicaragua's lovely sport (6) Pl...

 
7:30 PM
the original clue was "Lovely rally sport"
 
oh
was the construction supposed to be TEN + NI'S
:\
 
not a good clue
?
 
no it's fine
I had assumed from what you said here there was something flawed about it (there's not)
 
ooh, the original clue "lovely rally sport" I believe to be flawed
lovely rally isn't wordplay .. just a sort of interesting alternate definition with a pun in it?
idk - it didn't sit well
 
7:46 PM
hmm 2 more edits needed...
 
...and @Will has it.
 
Sorry; looking at this:
3
Q: Metacryptic ep. 3

MattSolve the cryptic clues below to create the final clue. Solve the final clue. Sick inside broken seats causes amputation (8) Fowl gets drunk barside (7) Chaotic print aped captured preposition (7, 2) Endless instances malfunction (9) Center of Liechtenstein and Nicaragua's lovely sport (6) Pl...

Will just found the final piece of the puzzle.
 
oh :P
 
better clues this time? :P
I didn't need to make any edits :D
cryptic solution notation amuses me
 
7:51 PM
7
Q: 1 Fake Coin among N Amount of coins

OrayYou are given $N$ coins which consists of only $1$ fake coin. You also have a sensitive old-fashioned Pan Balance Scale. You are asked to find the fake coin in totally 5 times weighing on the Pan Balance Scale among given $N$ coins ($N>2$): You know that all genuine coins have the same weigh...

I'm going to win this
the top one only has 121
I can prove a scenario for 300
Actually, I'm not sure if it's worst-case
I'll go with 400 instead
ehh nvm I'll do 300
 
You'd think that by now, coin counterfeiters would learn ...
 
lol
arg, the fact that it's only 5 is messing my calculations up
 
They don't do it for the counterfeit money; they have a stake in the weighing-scales business.
 
@BeastlyGerbil opticks wasn't a typo; it should be capitalized, but the k was there on purpose
 
opticks is a word?
comes up with spellcheck
 
8:06 PM
1
Q: It's time to play...Add-A-Gram!

wildBillMunsonAnyone who loves Scrabble or this site is probably familiar with anagrams. But what about Add-A-Grams? An Add-A-Gram takes a word, adds a letter, and then shuffles the letters to make a new word. In this game, I will define an Add-A-Gram chain, and a solution should contain the complete list of w...

 
8:44 PM
edit war happening on that one :)
 
A little bit, Although rand's edit was inconsistent. He only changed one of the Add-A-Gram's as opposed to changing all of them.
 
@Will, care to share your progress on the Add-A-Gram? Maybe we can work together...
 
I'm making fast progress, actually
 
well then
I got through formerly
but I'm probably wrong :P
 
8:50 PM
It's probably mostly a question of figuring out which pentomino to start with
 
I can't reconcile my answer for formerly with a valley though
 
I'm cold. </random>
 
Yes! Copy Editor badge!
 
congrats
 
Socratic next!
I want all those golds :P
 
8:51 PM
:P Good luck.
 
okay ephemeral has me stuck now
 
I'm on 75/100. 25 good questions needed...
 
On different days.
 
Yeah but I usually spend days making the puzzles in the first place so no worry there
 
8:52 PM
^ bugging me
 
I'm wondering why the title's in French...
 
Yeah...
 
Essentially "What's her name?"
 
I don't know why are you asking me? :P
 
Literally "She calls herself how/what?"
 
8:55 PM
2
A: Elle s'appelle comment?

Beastly GerbilNot sure if this will help, but the colours make me suspicious.. The values of the colours are: They don't give anything when translated to ASCII or hexadecimal and the fact there is no cipher tag, probably suggests this isn't helpful. But the colours are weird...

That's why.
 
That's why what?
 
ohhh got all but the last one and the first two
 
Oh thats why he's asking me
 
He comes!
 
8:56 PM
Hi @incesterror21
Am I on track or no?
 
got the last one
 
Hello everyone
 
Hey!
 
@Will The pentomino/element should be easy, no?
 
I hate this keyboard >.<
 
8:56 PM
Get rid of it :P
 
@BeastlyGerbil I can't answer that
 
Not mine.
 
hmm ok then...
 
@Mithrandir Give it back then :P
 
I'm babysitting. It's almost 11.
 
8:57 PM
OK....?
 
...So their keyboard.
 
@incesterror21 quick question, unless the bit at the bottom is a clue, why don't you just edit 'elle s'appelle comment?' into the question instead?
 
I wanted to keep it as simple as possible
Then the 0 letters exception got me
 
<kbd>?
 
@incesterror21 I can fix that for you (and not add any extra visible text) if you want me to?
I think the downvote was because of the bit at the bottom
 
8:59 PM
Show me, yes please
 
damn. @Will nice job on the add-a-gram
 
oops that didn't work, hang on...
 
TTriedthat
 
okay I can't
it doesn't count comments as text
Thought it did...
 
hmm, I'm pretty wrong
 
9:03 PM
fixed for ya @incesterror21
 
@Rubio er how?
 
Nicee
mathjax
 
oh wait they just disappeared
 
hehe
 
@Rubio Bummer I was already capped D:
 
9:03 PM
I could see them at first :P
 
Oh. Yeah that happens sometimes when you first load up a mathjax page.
I could eliminate that too in a different way but that was easiest.
 
It certainly happens when I load up the puzzling times :P
 
Oh. I bet. :)
Ok now the mathjax is gone.
 
Very nice! Thank you.
 
I wonder if adding a line in works...
Can I test? ;)
 
9:06 PM
well night now, sorry I can't continue on your puzzle!
 
(I can rollback after)
 
good night BG
 
Night Darth Gerbil
I'm going offline now. Adios.
 
So do I. Bye all!
 
9:22 PM
okay how is my CCCC still there
 
9:33 PM
@Will How about a hint?
Is "perhaps" a "sounds-like" indicator?
 
No. @Silenus was on the right track there, actually.
 
What did Silenus say?
 
yesterday, by Silenus
I suppose the CCCC could involve "bee" since there's also a carpenter bee. Maybe "beesting", although that's not an allergic reaction.
 
@Will Well, we could use "allergic" as an anagram indicator, and anagram "BEE HAD NO" into "BONEHEAD", which is a reaction of sorts. "You bonehead!" :P
Wait, that would be an indirect anagram.
 
Yeah, that's a no-no.
 
9:39 PM
@Will, BEEHIVES?
 
no...
 
Just throwing stuff at the wall.
 
@Will Can you confirm that "The carpenter, perhaps" indicates BEE? (Or maybe just B?)
 
Maybe "had no" is HAVE N, BEEHAVEN
But the structure is wrong
 
@Mithrandir Help us solve the CCCC!
 
9:43 PM
I'm horrible at ccs
Just ask Deu :P
 
BLUENESS could be an "allergic reaction", but I don't know how the rest would fit.
@Mithrandir Your edit makes a lot more sense. I didn't think Deu was all that bad at CCs. :P
@wildBillMunson Come help us solve the latest chat cryptic clue!
 
Allergic reaction may be: hive, hives, rash, sneeze, etc. It's not "antibody"; I floated that yesterday. Or maybe "had no allergic reaction" is the definition in some kind of ddef.
Following the beehive/hive lead seems promising...
 
"Allergic reaction" could be BREAKOUT as well
 
Yep, or anaphylaxis
Or red eyes or itch
 
Could "had no" indicate removal of letters from a word? e.g. Remove "itch" from some other word to get the solution? (Not sure where the def would be, then...)
 
9:53 PM
Maybe, but the tense seems off
 
Sure, it could be [synonym for perhaps] - [synonym for itch].
 
@Deusovi In that case, would [synonym for itch] be expected to be all in one piece in the larger word, or could it be interspersed between the letters?
 
One piece.
 
I was looking at that yesterday but couldn't find anything, too many allergic reactions!
 
9:56 PM
Wow, that's a weird URL.
 
How about if?
 
@ChrisCudmore If we're subtracting another word from it, that doesn't leave a lot of wiggle-room...
 
Above, Will seemed to confirm that thinking of "perhaps" as an example indicator was correct.
 
No, if it was a subtraction, it would be has, not had.
 
@ChrisCudmore I agree the tense is off
 
9:59 PM
But I can't find an anti - fxxx that fits.
 

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