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00:05
@Mithrandir Hm. Can you tell me when it stopped making sense?
I'm trying to make it as accessible as possible.
 
6 hours later…
06:04
Aw, @boboquack, your semimi...gram answer caught me at the wrong time for full attention, but the place that I'm not sure about is at the end of "Fourth, ...", where you see a contradiction.
Everything up to that point seems just perfect, but I'm not sure the contradiction takes into account that two separate 1 row counts can combine into a single 11 column count.
(Hope I'm wrong about this quick take but, frustratingly, I might not have a good chance to check more carefully for almost a day unless the weather changes some plans.)
Thanks for giving the puzzle some attention! The nature of this one puts it in the points-will-never-match-the-time-taken category.
(re, that is:)
1
A: Semiminibino...hologram

boboquack@humn, can you please check this, but I contend that there is no valid semiminibinononohohohologram. First, we will prove that there is no row count of 0. If there existed such a row count, consider the group of 3 rows that the row labelled by it is in. Since both 0's and 1's take up all thre...

@humn Fixed! I missed putting in a point.
Oops, only half the proof copied...
Hi @boboquack, how's it going?
Well thanks!
06:19
I have an opinion question, as I'm trying to get a sense of things for a series of puzzles that I'm planning.
What sort of puzzles or questions would you consider bad, cheap, lazy, or otherwise poorly received?
Hmmm, those which are too brute-forcey (a mistake I've made), those which are very poorly written (beyond a couple of typos)
Those which have a highly intuitive step at the very start.
What do you mean?
If I think of more I will tell. Maybe ping a couple of high-rep users as well?
If your puzzle requires someone to go (a bad version of the puzzling times for instance) SPOILER ALERT: 'AHA! You turn the letters to braille and reinterpret as words' without giving any clue in the puzzle body, that is highly intuitive
Don't you mean unintuitive?
If you have to go, 'OH! I need to cut the puzzle into triangles and make into an icosahedron', that is highly intuitive.
Well, when I say highly intuitive I should mean requires a high level of intuition.
06:31
If there's no indication whatsoever, or any information relevant to deducing the solution, then doesn't that make the puzzle just a random guess?
06:44
As a rule of thumb, the more time you spend working on a puzzle (relative to its complexity), the better it will be. Make sure all the steps are reasonably logical based on the information in the puzzle, and eliminate red herrings (or clearly indicate them as such). Also, your puzzle is probably harder than you think it is.
Does anyone have a copy of the puzzling background?
(image)
07:17
Yeah hang on
@boboquack ^ that good?
Thanks!
How did you get it?
I once asked the exact same question a while back for puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/46878/… and Lukas Rotter gave me the picture
Nov 23 '16 at 21:52, by Lukas Rotter
Not sure if there is an easier way, but I did it this way: 1) Just make a new file with the suffix .htm or .html. 2) Just paste <body style="width: 100%; height: 100%; background: url('http://cdn.sstatic.net/Sites/puzzling/img/bg_pattern.png?v=92ab26e4496d'), linear-gradient(to bottom, #fffed6 0, #bbba9e 270px, #2dbab4 900px)"></body> into it 3) Open the file with any browser. This limits the size to your browsers viewport size, if you'd want a 10,000x10,000 it would be more work.
07:46
@Deusovi it's not the guide's fault, it's that I just can't remember anything, and there were too many rules o_O
@Deusovi here's an idea: have an index at the top
08:09
@Deusovi I noticed your guide has 350 bounty from Community. How does Community give bounties?
@boboquack I'm pretty sure that it happens when a user awards a bounty then their account is removed
In this case if I remember right it was Lucas Ritter who later removed his account but hen joined back
Is your keyboard alright? It seems to be mixing up letters...
So there doesn't seem to be a meaningful way to create an index into a posting
which is a bit of a shame really
I'm sure you can MathJax it :D
08:25
lol
I'm sure there's a limit somewhere to what MathJax can do...
I'm still working on it but my first couple attempts went nowhere
and trust me, I've hit MathJax limits already. Usually trying to do something silly but evaluation-expensive.
36
Q: Accepting nominations — Who should moderate this site?

Robert CartainoIdeally Moderators are elected by the community, but until the community is large enough to hold a proper election, we will be appointing three provisional Moderators to fill those roles. We need your help. Please nominate folks you would like to see become provisional moderators for this site. ...

That title said 'Accpeting Nominiations' at first.
So I fixed it.
Maybe they meant expecting nominations
Well, I posted 3 nominations and got nominated.
And I displayed my amazing ability to kill chat once again!
08:37
You did not! :)
Actually I was off reading the nominations :)
I see rand is a shoo-in favorite. (*cough*)
Pity he's still a, eh, controversial person on SFF. I never dug all that deeply into that quagmire, but it seems like it was much to-do about nothing
Well, he was suspended for a year here...
@Rubio I think you meant Emrak? ;)
Well. Emrak does in fact seem to be a shoo-in favorite, and I think that's a good thing for Lit
Apparently I'm fairly controversial too...
+24/-14
I can't see up/down votes, just the total
wow. I wonder why
What's rand's at, out of curiosity?
08:45
Rand is at +35/-22
man. Yeah that's pretty divided.
Yeah, and Emrak only had 8 down
Yours I'd guess is because people are concerned at a young fellow such as yourself being a mod. His is because of prior reputation.
There is only one nomination that has fewer than 6 downvotes.
And that's Hamlet, with 4 downvotes.
Hang on, it's public now?
Doesn't look like it's public. How'd you get in? Doesn't look like you have an account there.
I dunno? I just clicked the link you put up, and I was in there
08:59
I think if you committed you can access the site regardless of whether you made an account there or not
I didn't commit. I've had no interaction with Lit other than casual drive-by peeking at a link or two people have put up here.
Huh.
Oh, so anyone can view a private beta, just not participate in it. I don't know why I can't access the question from the link above but can through the site itself though.
09:29
My puzzle is almost solved. I thought for a moment I over-complicated it.
Which puzzle?
23
Q: Who am I??? Wait, isn't this a sudoku?

Maria Deleva Jmw jrr qtlf tv ee M6SXr rro tr kz r tyr. Can you find out who I am?

10:16
CCCC clue #3: The wordplay has two parallels to Alconja's COSMETIC clue
TE+THERED?
double duty on "at a loss?"
Right word, but not +
T(ET)HERED, then?
Yeah :) you're free to lynch me now (clue came about because I didn't like how clues here used "in debt" to insert into RED rather than THERED)
Here's an easy one
CCCC: A security interest for Donald! (5)
10:30
Trump :P
umm... no
But that's 5 letters :P
(I wasn't being serious.)
14 hours ago, by Mithrandir
...I don't understand CCs. I'm horrible.
Hmm I have a thought but I'm having trouble getting it to fit
Hmm nvm (thought was ASSET)
10:47
@Sp3000 ... wow? There's so many tricks I'm accidentally stumbling across lately that seem so out there that I don't know how people ever solve them. An indirect indicator isn't something I thought was even allowed
@Will I'm tempted to guess HEDGE, a ddef., but that doesn't feel right
Nope.
that "!" is bugging me a lot. :)
I think most clue types would be too unfair if indirect - insertions aren't too bad, but I guess they still toe the line a bit (I've seen "as a precaution" for "in CASE" in a paper personally, but otherwise it's pretty rare)
Will: Here's an easy one
Everyone else: uhoh ...
@Rubio I discovered "printer's devil" clues yesterday and I hate them so much
10:58
I have no idea what that means.
Google it... Or maybe don't
why the clue and its answers equate is confusing me
Yeah... they don't have definitions :-|
Just looking for "printer's devil" landed me on other stuff entirely
o___O wow that's... weird
11:02
That seems ridiculous.
Especially completely unclued.
"As a rule, standard (daily) cryptic crossword puzzles do not include printer's devilry-style clues, but “higher tier” crosswords such as The Listener may include them without warning (although the norm is to provide a brief explanation of their mechanics and to forewarn of their presence)."
I guess in that sort of context where you know to look for them, a clue that seems to have no solution otherwise would prompt you to look for this, but in a vacuum that would seem completely unfair
BONDI?
@Will a security (BOND) + interest (I); &lit, as BONDI is a Trump appointee?
11:18
@Sp3000 dammit, I considered TETHERED and rejected it because THERED didn't mean anything. Drat.
@Rubio nope but that's a heck of a coincidence
TOO BROAAAAD :P
Well... BONDI would be missing an indicator, so...
11:43
Yeah, I wasn't happy with it :)
That coincidence was too much to ignore though
12:15
@Rubio I had no idea, tbh. Never had many complaints about my moderation on SFF, so it somewhat surprised me that those vocal few popped up to attack me on Lit. Worth noting, though, that none of them actually mentioned any issue with my behaviour as a mod, so it could be that they just don't like me personally. I've even asked some of them, and seen other people ask them when I wasn't there, what their problem with me is, but they never say.
@Rubio I dunno if it's age with Mithrandir. There have been young mods before. It might be more his lack of seriousness (he always says people take him too seriously) and the fact that he seems to care most about rep and badges.
hey @rand - yeah it just seems weird. I half wonder about the comments that got culled, since clearly they reached a critical mass of quantity and/or invective that the mod there yanked them all
(and read "age" as politer alternative to "maturity", which I didn't want to say but is probably the more relevant factor in people's thinking. again, I'm just guessing.)
@Rubio I think most of the ones that got culled were between two people who started bitching at each other instead of focusing on me.
@Rubio Yeah, that might be.
Nearly all the top users on Lit are youngsters, for some reason. Mith, Riker, and Beastly are 14, Emrak is 20, HDE is pretty young too, and I suspect so is Cheese.
Interesting
So @rand I want to include a very obvious pseudonym reference to you in a future puzzle, for which I need (a) your ok, and (b) a time, from 5m00s to 14m59s
@Rubio (a) I'm not sure exactly what you mean by a pseudonym reference, but sure, that should be fine. (b) Does this time have any particular significance, or should I just pick a random number?
I mean, I'm including a reference to "Ror al'Thand", in your case. And the time will have a minor significance but you get to gamble as to whether you should pick high, low, or random
12:29
OK, let's say 9m17s.
sounds good, thanks :)
13:25
@Will ISLAM = I SLAM?
Where did I slam come from?
A <-> one (I), SLAM = prison, apparently (as in "in the slammer")
14:04
@Rubio do you think I'm not mature? Yes, I often am not serious, but I can be serious when the need arises. I don't care about badges, really, and rep is only important for privileges.
I didn't say that, I was just guessing some people might have that objection. (I specifically said age, not maturity, to avoid the possible misperception that I had that opinion of you.)
Also I'd like to use you (well, "Gandalf") in my eventually forthcoming puzzle as well, if you don't mind; I'd need from you as well, a time between 5m00s and 14m59s.
And same for @TheGreatEscaper (aka "Houdini")
Ah okay. :) 7m39s
then I'll just need deus and BG
all the rest of y'all's names are too hard to recognizably tweak :)
14:23
Obuvosi?
14:54
@Rubio hehe
@dcfyj well your name I might spoof by whacking one hand on the keyboard and see what I get, but I'm not sure it'd be recognizable :)
One hand? How uncouth, I used two hands good sir.
luyib is what I got, for the record
Also, as of right now, no upper/lowercase version of your name is a valid SE imgur hash. I know you were deeply curious about that.
Considering they're pseudo-randomly generated, it could take a very long time for it to become valid lol
0
Q: We cause the tears but not the cry

rybo111We're concerned with who but never why, We cause the tears but not the cry. We're from a world that's found by you, Where two is one and one is two. What are we?

15:07
@Rubio Huh, alright. I'll go with 14:13.
:) thanks
Dark coffee? Folgers is your java :P
2
18
Q: A puzzle for dcfyj

rand al'thorDownvote my answer - there'll be hell to pay. Close my question - you'll need some helping hands. For an upvote on my answer, I'll get loot. You cannot vote on posts unless you have a permit. Just remember, you'll need a sword if it's protected. Do exactly as I say and you will find the answer. ...

Seems I'm the talk of the chat again
For a psudo-random string, it certainly has a lot of plausible permutations :P
15:19
Everyone knows votes get locked after some time unless the post is edited. So if I edit some post and then change the vote, would it work?
@Ankoganit Yes, but making edits just so that you can change your vote is discouraged.
Ah okay thanks
4
Q: Up/Down Voters' Remorse

d'alar'copI was recently accosted in our main chat room about my mysterious non-content-changing edits. They were comprised of a single white-space character, or a new-line character which would not be visible as per HTML display conventions. It had been assumed that some unscrupulous reason had been my ...

Hmm
BTW if someone's interested in this, I've posted a solution here (Spoiler warning).
Sid
Sid
15:44
Is anything that rhymes a poem?
2
Q: What is a Personal Word™?

LevieuxThis is in the spirit of the What is a Word™/Phrase™ series started by JLee with a special brand of Phrase™ and Word™ puzzles. If a word conforms to a special rule, I call it a Personal Word™. Use the examples below to find the rule. $$\begin{array}{|c|c|}\hline \bbox[yellow]{\textbf{Perso...

Sid
Sid
@Ankoganit thanks to you, I learnt something new today. :-)
@Sid you're welcome!
@Sid I hope not
Sid
Sid
I don't quite understand the last part of your solution though
@Ankoganit hope not? Hm?
Which part?
@Sid I hope that anything that rhymes doesn't qualify as a poem
Sid
Sid
15:53
"Oddness of degree implies at least one root and hence, exactly one solution? "
I use the fact that any odd-degree polynomial has at least one real root
(do you want a proof to this?)
Sid
Sid
That's true. But, how is at least one root=exactly one solution?
Since it's monotonic increasing (as I mention in the preceding sentence), it has at most one real root. At most one and at least one => exactly one.
is it clearer now?
Sid
Sid
Oops, yes. Now I understand. I hadn't seen closely. That's really cool.
yeah, that's a neat result
16:07
@Will I don't count printer's devilry clues as cryptics at all. They're fun, but not cryptic clues, and I don't think they should be in cryptic crosswords.
It's just what it says...devilry
16:19
It may be worth noting that an apprentice or errand-boy in a printer's office was traditionally called a "devil".
Huh, really? That's interesting.
I agree that PD clues aren't cryptic clues, but of course if someone wants to make a crossword using them -- as cryptic setters do from time to time, including some very eminent ones -- then of course they have every right to do so.
Well, sure. Of course they have the right to. And a puzzle filled with solely Printer's Devilry clues would be fun. I just don't like them being lumped together with other cryptic clues.
(Unless it's part of the gimmick of a variety cryptic crossword, maybe.)
0
Q: An odd memo to be left lying around

JohnHCYou encounter the following memo, left carelessly on a small table, whilst waiting for an interview. Date: December MemoRef: #1 Territory: UK Department: RFC Extension: 4648 TJEE/TIBC/UACD/ /UBFB/TGGC/UAIF/ /TJFF/UAJC/TGGC/UAIF/UAEB/./ /TGGC/UAIF/UBDI/TIBC/TGGC/TJEC/ /TJEC/TI...

17:18
"Part of the gimmick" is the case I was thinking of, though I too prefer PD clues isolated in their own crossword. Or maybe with all the across clues PD or all the down clues PD; I think some eminent setters fond of PD (Azed?) have done that from time to time.
18:15
@Gareth (Re: Puzzle) - you could also reverse your numbers by considering "T" to be true (1) and "U" to be untrue/false (0)
@Khale_Kitha I was thinking of that when I typed it :P
0
Q: Should we allow questions that are themselves not puzzles, but about puzzle?

Always ConfusedRecently I've visited a question "is there a name for this?" which has been put on hold as off topic because of This question does not appear to be about creation and solving of puzzles, within the scope defined in the help center. But when someone have a question on puzzle rather than ...

 
1 hour later…
19:33
0
Q: What's your rich uncle been up to?

David Starkey Greetings my nephews and nieces! I am your uncle. You may not remember me, since none of you have bothered to keep in touch, but I am coming to you with some grave news. I do not have much time left, and I need to name an heir to my sizeable fortune. You all are my closest relatives, and d...

19:47
@Will, is the answer to the CCCC **ALIEN**?
A security interest = A LIEN, and Trump is concerned about aliens (i.e. immigrants).
20:03
Doesn't quite seem like a valid &lit, because the "for Donald" is not part of the wordplay. Which makes me wonder if this is the correct answer...
Does the first ALIEN in my message to will show up as bold for anyone? I still see the asterisks around it; can't quite figure out why it's not bolding it.
nope
You used Shift+enter, it won't work
bold
**bold**
shift+enter
Ah. Thanks for the clarification. I wasn't aware of that idiosyncrasy.
How is a lien a security interest? It seems vaguely related to security at best.
A security interest is a type of property interest created by agreement or by operation of law over assets to secure the performance of an obligation, usually the payment of a debt. It gives the beneficiary of the security interest certain preferential rights in the disposition of secured assets. Such rights vary according to the type of security interest, but in most cases, a holder of the security interest is entitled to seize, and usually sell, the property to discharge the debt that the security interest secures. == Rationale == A secured creditor takes a security interest to enforce...
"Security" in the sense of "thing with monetary value", rather than "keeping things safe".
I saw it as loan collateral before I saw it as keeping things safe
but I wasn't thinking &lit
ALIEN seems like the right answer to me, if not it's a very clever one
20:26
@Matt Same here
It does seem likely -- but does seem to have trouble being a &lit. I'm not sure what else it'd be, though.
What comes to mind is a double definition combined with a &lit, hehe.
oh snap, there's an image in your uncles puzzle
@dcfyj found it too ;)
As soon as you said that I knew where it was
there's only one place it could be
Not signifying that there's something in the edit isn't very nice :(
checking there is something I started doing whenever I don't see any leads in a puzzle
the matches confuse me, though
I don't understand how the second column can have 3 burnt parts with only 2 distinct matches going through it
unless it's referencing cells worth of burnt match, in which case it's worded poorly
20:46
Oh, I was doing it backwards lol. I was using the numbers for the left over pieces
maybe, it's not clear
but the second column can't have 3 distinct pieces in it
"Burn the matches so the number of burned pieces match the numbers"
@Matt There's nothing in the puzzle that requires that
I interpreted the numbers as the number of cells with burnt segments
That's what the puzzle is telling you to do, I misread it at first (that's why I put the snipet in here)
it's poorly worded
but now what? the OP made it seem like there were a few of these ... I can't find any others ...
20:50
Not at all. It clearly says that the "...burned pieces.." need to "... match the numbers"
hmm, it says 115 in the corner
115
or IlS
It's on the 3 long vertical match
oooh
I had it zoomed in to see the 115 clearer and I saw that haha
yeah, that's really tough to see
looks like this needs an imgur maze tag ;)
20:53
looks like one of the cells say 118 in that one, not seeing another 5-character code offhand though
yeah I went right for that too
never seen this type of puzzle before
I have, but with submarines
It's a logic grid puzzle
Although I've never this form of it
Oh nvm, this isn't the sub one, this is something else (I have seen this though)
Nurikabe (hiragana: ぬりかべ) is a binary determination puzzle named for Nurikabe, an invisible wall in Japanese folklore that blocks roads and delays foot travel. Nurikabe was apparently invented and named by Nikoli; other names (and attempts at localization) for the puzzle include Cell Structure and Islands in the Stream. == Rules == The puzzle is played on a typically rectangular grid of cells, some of which contain numbers. Cells are initially of unknown color, but can only be black or white. Two same-color cells are considered "connected" if they are adjacent vertically or horizontally, but not...
looks interesting
yup
@Matt the next one is T1gxq
anyhow, that's all the help you'll get from me for now, I'm off :P
That Nurikabe's not solvable according to the standard rules plus the 3-in-a-row rule
20:59
the 3 rule only applies to row not columns (I haven't looked into solving it at all)
Yeah.
yeah, there has to be a diagonal
A diagonal?
(also, there's a pixel 118 hidden two squares left of the 8)
diagonal is disconnected, wouldn't work
@Deusovi yup
yeah, so the Nurikabe's not solvable
21:00
and a 115 in the first picture and a 117 in the third
ascii?
possibly, either I need to head out, enjoy his maze
what puzzle is this part of?
actually it is solvable
with the 3-in-a-row rule? how?
water needs to go in the bottom right, then one square above it, then left, then two up, then around the upper 1, but then you're trapped since the water can't escape the rightmost three columns
@matt?
21:04
I think I got it
see my answer
But that breaks the 3 in a row rule
the 3 in a row rule applies only to rows and not columns
...oh, no MORE than 3
duhhh
lol
yeah you're right
21:05
womp
I just can't count
also my amazing graphical skills are on display here
you could've at least used the fill bucket
didn't see it in Preview
anyway @matt, here's the solution to the next one:
neither WsDKC nor CKDsW leads to an image
21:09
lol
I'm not doing any of the solving here, just the posting
hm?
oh :P
well you solved the Nurikabe
found the next image, time to solve
... how about I just make my post a wiki
sounds good
anyway, so far I've got ?/?, UR/SINE, TE/ACHES, ?/?, ?/?, EV/ENTS, ?/?
and I don't think there's another image
well I'll post the star
and the last image
alright
I'll stare at these words
21:14
I wonder if attempt is misspelled intentionally
Probably not, because I solved it.
doh
you also edited?
yeah, sorry
does FOURTEEN EX EVEN mean anything to you all?
hmm, 115, 118, 117, 113?
21:18
Really makes you feel like an EL is missing, doesn't it
yeah, but ELPRESS wouldn't make sense
in ascii, 115 118 117 113 is svuq
115 118 117 113 is svuq in ascii
argg
heh
maybe it's another imgur url, with the last one given by FOURTEEN EX EVEN?
14×7 gives b, which doesn't produce a valid URL
looks like you found some unintended answers
Did I? Huh.
That's surprising.
I was pretty sure the star was unique.
21:26
maybe the last one
@GentlePurpleRain Yup, that's it! (Aside for commentary: I wrote that one and a few variations like a month ago & never used it because I couldn't quite get it to work, but I figured it'd be quick right after the other one)
Those seemed pretty limited too.
Oh huh, EXPRESS was wrong!
not an image
:/
147 is too big for ascii
hmm fourteen seven
Fourteen seven...
hmm, is 118 right? It's hard to make out...
if it's 115, it could be Octal ascii
21:35
I think it's right, but zooming in isn't very helpful.
hmm, that looks kinda 3-ish
It does.
It also looks kinda 5-ish, 6-ish, and 9-ish.
@Sconibulus nice
Oh, you have a different username on different sites! Didn't realize that.
muwahaha!
21:39
The solutions are definitely important - otherwise, they wouldn't've changed them.
110-117 octal all failed
in <x>MOKg
Um. It's the second one, not the first.
...but that's the wrong orde
I'm dumb
Each image has more hidden in it than has been found so far. The numbers are just one part
There doesn't seem to be anything hidden in the star one. Paint bucketing with 0% tolerance doesn't make anything else pop up.
Ditto for clues.
21:43
There's more ways to hide stuff than slightly off-color text, good sir ;)
I'm looking at the solutions and not seeing much.
...Ooh, hold on.
Does MTTN mean anything to you all?
CCCC: Well-established tidings land soon, perhaps? (8, 2, 5, 6)
I gotta go, but I'd suggest looking more at the star puzzle since I think that's the easiest one to find the other hidden clue
I saw the four extra words. They may be important, but I don't see anything hidden in them.
okay back, had to do work for a bit, lol
22:38
@rubio 13m04s
danke
22:57
You've earned the "Popular Question" badge (Question with 1,000 views) for "The Puzzling Times". ... yay :)
23:44
0
Q: How to rotate a projected image 90 degrees

CreatedByBrettIn film school, I wanted to project a film of mine in portrait (vertical) orientation rather than landscape (horizontal) orientation. However, my film professor told me that the projector couldn't be tipped on its side; oil in parts of the projector would drip over the film and onto the light, po...


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