The Sphinx's Lair - 2019-12-06

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12:17 AM

1

Q: Dying for Caesar

Across 1. Smoothening the rest of the day? (7) 8. Tune's introduction omitted by exotic Croatian instrument (7) 10. Secretly agree to meet… (5) 13. …and not to be indoors every second (3) 14. Wanting starters? Appetizer? Apple, for example? (4) 16. Listen, know anyone who yea...

cryptic-crosswords

2 hours later…

2:21 AM

0

Q: What’s the next number in the sequence?

I have a numeric sequence: 1,4,5,5,7,9,9,6,6,11,13,11,? What is the next number in the sequence and what pattern does the sequence follow?

pattern number-sequence

5 hours later…

7:29 AM

Another thought (almost certainly wrong): "the King in the Castle" is a reference to the king after having castled, so clues GEIGHT, GONE, GI, CEIGHT, CONE, or CI.

Or it's just a King (R, K or otherwise) in the castle notation 0-0, that is ORO or some such.

2 hours later…

9:51 AM

@MOehm oh, nice idea

Another thought (also almost certainly wrong): "endless dunes?" refers to the interminable sequence of prequels and sequels to Dune.

1 hour later…

11:15 AM

It could be that the "endless dunes" are Tatooine rather than Arrakis and that it is the def. (But I don'r really see how the construction could work, so, yeah.)

2 hours later…

1:25 PM

1

Q: The Hardest Logic Puzzle Ever! I guess

If a giraffe has two eyes, a monkey has two eyes, and an elephant has two eyes, how many eyes do we have?

logical-deduction

1

Q: Professor Pun's Personal Project

When I first met my good friend Captain Pun, he invited me to dinner to meet his wife, a physics professor at the university. Over a glass of wine I inquired into her research interests. "Let me show you!" she said, quickly scrawling the following onto a napkin: "Solve the nonogram and you'll...

knowledge visual nonogram humor

1:46 PM

0

Q: Mathmatical equation answer

I think there must be a way to solve this but I can't get there Green + Blue = Yellow Red + Green = Purple Yellow - Purple = Red Red + Green + Blue = 9 I have made some progress And but I run out of steam from then... does anyone have any ideas. Someone at my work says it can only b...

mathematics logical-deduction

2:27 PM

0

Q: Friend gave me 3 logic numeric puzzle and i dont know how to solve it

Question 1 5:1121681/25201, 3:?/51893 Question 2 15/20, 32/51, 78/5780, 34/? Question 3 1/9, 10/24, 1000/?

logical-deduction number-sequence

3:22 PM

"(Viewable by the post author and users with the close/reopen votes privilege)" is this new on SE? Close votes and reasons only viewable by some? Also it's on top of the post now?

Gareth McCaughan

3:44 PM

Yup, it's new on SE.

4:43 PM

so, just making sure that I'm not crazy

user image

what is this?

Well obviously it's an upside down pin

(or maybe a toy boat)

yey

0

Q: Which number replaces the question mark

Please see the image. It contains a puzzle with a row and a column in the form of a plus sign.(https://i.stack.imgur.com/bnelP.jpg)

riddle pattern number-sequence

throws tomato at setter

I've had enough of banal "what is the pattern" questions

which is why I'm making a different puzzle :)

5:01 PM

Pretty sure we should avoid answering unattributed puzzles before their attribution is resolved, right?

yeah

feel free to leave a comment requesting that attribution be fixed, though

Yes, otherwise you may answer a question that is from a contest

i'm super tempted

SUPER tempted

Archipelago and balazs.com have both done that today.

user image

to use this image in my puzzle

5:03 PM

Now im intrigued. Please do.

sadly i don't have enough pixels

nor the art skills

0

Q: a box full of unfair coins

Lolek and Bolek are arguing on whose turn is to take out the trash. They have a box with $n$ coins. when yhe coin $i$ is thrown, the probability that it lands on heads is $p_i$. They decided to make a game: they throw all the $n$ coins and count how many heads they get. If they get an odd numbe...

logical-deduction probability

5:27 PM

Cant you just average the pi's on that one? What am I missing?

You’re not missing anything.

user image

The original problem statement wanted to evaluate subsets of, rather than all of, the coins and see if there were fair games even with unfair coins, I think?

So "write a program that computes the average of every subset of a set of probabilities".

that aspect was lost in translation to our site, rendering it a pointless mechanical application of well known principles. ie a math problem.

5:30 PM

heh lil Oak bout to drop his new children's rap album

Hm. Well @GarethMcCaughan says I’m wrong - he’s pretty much always right about these things :)

If he reopens I'll add my averages answer and let him explain why it aint that simple lol

I reopened.

Oh that’s dumb. You can’t see that a mod closed it?

is it closed?

or open?

I had closed it. I just reopened it.

5:37 PM

ah

I added a hint yesterday to my cipher puzzle. It was my first attempt at making a cipher puzzle, and I figured adding some narrative elements would make for a better puzzle than "heres a bunch of letters to decode". It seems to be getting less attention than "heres a bunch of letters to decode", is there something I can do to improve the puzzle?

Wow yeah, the close message is even vaguer now

5:58 PM

@ThomasMarkov I can't speak for everyone, but I avoid cipher puzzles in general, because they still boil down to "here's a bunch of letters to decode", even if narrative elements are added. To me, they often feel like "try things until you've successfully guessed what the writer was thinking".

6:22 PM

I have used my paint+google skills to great effect :D

now time to write a puzzle intro

6:35 PM

0

Q: A game of cross-dominos

The grid above shows the final layout of a domino game played with a standard $28$-tile (dominos $0-0$ to $6-6$). The first domino played, the $4-4$ double is given, and solvers must complete the remainder of the grid. The red-shaded space is where the last two dominos in the set would need to...

cryptic-crosswords dominoes

GentlePurpleRain

@Adam The detailed message still appears for the post owner and for mods and others with close/re-open privileges. But there is a more basic message for the rest.

Although for close reasons that are likely to be resolved, isn't it slightly harmful to the community? I think it could turn people away from potentially good questions

how much rep is required for the close/open privileges you're talking about?

it's better to close the question first, then have people fix it

3k

if people aren't invested enough to fix their own question, that means that either (a) the close reason is not likely to be resolved or (b) the question setter isn't interested in improving their question quality

both of which should be discouraged

6:46 PM

@Adam For the most part, the standard close messages have a "basic" message that's good enough to indicate what's wrong with it. More importantly, the OP gets an improved message giving them better (and less off-putting) guidance on how to go about getting their question fixed up to be reopened.

The custom close reasons, unfortunately, do not show up to others under 3k. They just appear as "off-topic", which is ... often not actually correct, which can be confusing for someone who doesn't know local standards for a particular site, they just see a question whose subject is clearly on topic, being closed for being off topic. Cue the confusion.

See also: my comment about this issue on the New Post Notices are live network-wide announcement

time to get 3k rep so i can engage in some controverxi

Ah its the custom close reasons that's the issue then, it makes sense now!

The quest for 3k rep begins!

only 100 upvotes to go :)

how about this

I'll make a puzzle

you solve it ;)

dealio

6:53 PM

trying to decide between "Witness intimidation" as the title, or an actual clue xd

7:04 PM

@Avi Pretty sure that's illegal on Stack Exchange :)

witness intimidation is illegal

prepare to be witness intimidated anyways :o
not that you're witnesses... yet

No, the voting ring thing

that's not voting ring

I'll make good puzzle

it will get upvoted

he will make good solution

it will get upvoted

except, I won't tell him the answer, so feel free to snipe :P

may the best puzzler win

Bring it

Though I leave work in 3 hours and work is where I puzzle

@Rubio Hmm, I didn't realize that, that's definitely an issue worth addressing

7:08 PM

@PiIsNot3 Feel free to upvote and/or comment that answer. It's a problem.

Technically, a <3k user could find some information by clicking on the help center link, but that's kind of a chore, especially if all you want to do is answer or edit the question

@PiIsNot3 Since you can't tell which custom close reason was chosen that doesn't really help. and someone who doesn't spot the problem with the question on their own is probably not going to know to go looking for it, let alone be successful in that search.

@Rubio Does commenting about the closed reason not resolve the issue?

@ThomasMarkov I think that defeats the purpose plus the close message is now above the question

Yeah, it's kind of a baffling change IMO

Why would SE intentionally show less information about the question to users who have less rep?

7:17 PM

Cutting out the users that closed the question is a + at least

Well, I mean, they decided it would be less demeaning if the system didn't trumpet to world+dog exactly how your question was terrible. Or something.

I don't think they're wrong.

I'm not sure about that. It's not necessarily demeaning unless the close reason is demeaning.

But the loss of information to other, newer users who don't understand how a site works is an unfortunate side effect. Some of those messages were crafted to convey useful guidance both to the asker and to others reading the message

If you already know the question is closed, knowing why doesn't hurt you, I think.

@Deusovi yeah I'm struggling to find a good way to express it, but I can see how having your failed question out there with a prominent notice that it's bad may be off-putting to someone who was perhaps hesitant to post, or who already has one problem (the one they're asking about) and doesn't need to now have a second problem (how to ask it without being shut down)

7:21 PM

@Deusovi I think Rubio is referring to custom close reasons, like our "proper attribution" close reason that is (unfortunately, according to Gareth) placed under the "off-topic" category. Someone with <3k rep would only be able to see "off-topic," which would confuse them if the question itself doesn't seem to be off-topic.

Is there a name for "the paper inside a letter"?

Hmm, I might've misread the conversation, whoops

like, when you open a letter, there is paper inside. what do you call that paper?

especially if there are multiple sheets of paper inside

Letter?

ohhhhh

wait

a letter has sheets

7:23 PM

The thing around it is an envelope and both together are also a letter, no?

You open the envelope and see the letter

ENVELOPE

yes

turns out I've completely forgotten how paper communications works

@Avi That would be "outside" a letter, not in :)

well

I had confused the letter with the envelope

so I thought there was something inside a letter

whereas in reality, the letter is inside the envelope

Old airmal letters had both the sheet and the envelope as one piece of paper to save on weight.

7:27 PM

is there any way to make this image less small

so that people can actually read the numbers

New users climbing the ranks of reputation might be overwhelmed by close votes when they've never really understood the reasons for closure and/or had experience of why questions are closed

user image

Well you could enlarge the numbers or use the awful html image resize formatting

(are you just using MS paint lol)

uh, yes

I am, in fact

Well there's your problem!

I could help with this if you want

7:30 PM

ms paint is not a problem

ms paint is never a problem

(forgive me MS paint gods)

Even MS Paint lets you draw numbers that are larger than 3x5 pixels.

yeah

but i'd rather stick to pixel ratios that I know

than try to increase the size and end up with a number that I can't read

with or without a magnifying glass

Perhaps you should make the cells larger to accomodate the numbers. You can still use your pixel number, but blow them up to a larger size. I didn't notice that those were numbers.

0

Q: Maximizing Product of Selected Cards

Jennifer is playing a game. The Ace through King of spades are taken from a standard playing deck and laid out facedown on the table. At any time, Jennifer can select two cards and reveal them, and she will win points based on the product of the two cards, where Ace is 1, Jack/Queen/King are 0, a...

mathematics calculation-puzzle strategy probability

7:37 PM

if I make the cells larger, then I'd have to draw larger to accommodate the increase in image size

my art skills significantly deteriorate past microscopic scale

No, just make the cells larger and keep the art as it is, so that there is a larger margin where you can put the numbers.

(It's still some work, of course.)

or maybe somebody could teach me how to blow up images

:)

I use paint.net -- there's a "resize image" option there. Not sure about MS Paint though.

@Rubio True, but the "closed as off-topic" notice is still there for anyone, I think - it's just the close reason that has been removed.

hmmm

maybe I'll just make a text transcript of numbers for each cell

@Deusovi Well yes. But for custom close reasons, "off-topic" is not only uninformative, it's also in many cases (as in at least two of ours!) not actually accurate.

7:41 PM

In MS paint you can select an area and stretch it. Problem is that MS paint has no layering or anything fancy so the interpolation will be awful

I agree! I also think that it's not any more demeaning to have the more specific reason shown, so the argument against displaying it doesn't make sense.

hmmm, paint interpolation seems fine

the advantage of making everything in MS paint, I guess

You're making me reconsider my image editing software choices. I'm now highly tempted to switch to MS paint

it depends

if you have the art skills to make use of better software, go for it

unfortunately, my art skills are hardcapped at novice, and get worse the harder I try

the only saving grace is that MS paint has a reflect tool, so I can flip symmetric images if I get them half right

Now I'm not so sure. I doubt I could make anything as masterfully as you

7:53 PM

0

Q: Witness intimidation

After solving this puzzle, I received an envelope in the mail. I opened the envelope, only to find three letters inside. The first one read: I know who you are I'm sending my greeting Investigate further And your lives will be fleeting Astonished at the blatant threat, I quickly sca...

visual crosswords

I'm sure you can

go for it

there shouldn't be any mind-reading on this one, hopefully

1

Q: Witness intimidation

After solving this puzzle, I received an envelope in the mail. I opened the envelope, only to find three letters inside. The first one read: I know who you are I'm sending my greeting Investigate further And your lives will be fleeting Astonished at the blatant threat, I quickly sca...

visual crosswords

anyways, I'm plumb tuckered out from making that puzzle

see y'all, have fun

8:52 PM

Call to arms: Rubio is defending in Contact!

1 hour later…

9:59 PM

huh. I actually rep-capped on mother meta, for something not horribly controversial

10:14 PM

can somebody explain this "libertarian" clue? A forbidding place (7,4) - Auction room

puzzling.stackexchange.com/a/1661/63153 I understand the other two from this answer

OH

I understand - A "for bidding" place

hah, cute

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Dec '196

The Sphinx's Lair

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