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1:31 AM
0
Q: Pentominous - P is for…

DeusoviThis is a Pentominous puzzle. Rules of Pentominous: Dissect the grid into regions of 5 cells each. No two regions of the same shape can be adjacent (but they may touch at a corner). Rotations and reflections count as the same shape. Each given letter must correctly label the shape it is in. (An...

 
 
2 hours later…
3:12 AM
0
Q: The Hungry Good People

TroyDSo, there are these 5 good people. They have 5 bowls of roast chicken (one per each). They also need to use both a spoon and a fork to eat it. Only two people have one pair. They also are going to hold an African Children Awareness Program, and of course, they need not be late. They need 3 second...

 
3:30 AM
As a consequence of how wide-open my pun crossword is, I sorta hafta make it a "Something Different". Credit to Deus for introducing me to this genre.
(obviously I don't have to, but I don't see another good way to fill in the long words and make me feel legal)
 
Avi
3:48 AM
This feels like a nurikabe!
 
@bobble yeah, wide-open crosswords are pretty rough - Something Differents can be a lot of fun though, provided you lean into the weird answers as hard as possible
@Avi it has some similar "how can this region fit"-type logic, yeah! statue park is another good genre for that kind of thing - it's easily one of my favorites
 
Avi
more of an intuitive solve after I guessed the bottom right
 
@Deusovi I don't know how weird my answers are - mostly I'm just doing 2-3 words that combine to make me laugh
 
Avi
I have a lot of practice with visualizing pentominoes from a game like this
 
that looks neat
 
Avi
3:56 AM
also, 4-color theorem, lol
 
what about it?
 
Avi
I could've colored my answer with 3 colors
 
ouch, the red and green there are very hard for me to tell apart
and I was looking for an answer with the actual logical path, rather than guessing
 
Avi
D:
all I can say is that
bottom center P is forced
looked like the bottom right corner could be a p
after trying to place it higher, brute force didn't work out. so I placed the bottom right P and a line connecting the two Ps to the upper-left of that
that gave me the P
and a T
 
Why don't you add this to the answer?
 
Avi
4:02 AM
I will - once I'm done typing it out
you can't put an L there because then the P on the bottom left forces a touching L in conjunction with the P on top of that
thus, giving you the top left P (because you need to maintain connectivity of remaining pieces
 
there is a clean logical path where you shouldn't have to bruteforce anything
 
Avi
hmmmm
 
hm? there are no connectivity rules in pentominous
 
Avi
no like
there is connectivity of remaining pieces
basically you're looking for a clean 5-piece region like the T
or a longer region that will contain multiple pieces
in which case, it should be a region that is a multiple of 5
placing the P any other way will force 2 adjacent Ls which is invalid
 
you should probably put this in the answer, rather than here
 
Avi
4:06 AM
yeah
in all honesty I'm probably going to delete the answer
I don't have enough interest to explain it all this time
and it's probably more hurtful than helpful to other solvers, to have the full answer in front of them
 
will you put it back up later with explanation?
 
Avi
if it's still available
i'm going to bed soon
but yeah basically the puzzle is like, half "to P or not to P" and half "hmm hmm so can this go here"
 
"To P or not to P" - say in an overly-pretentious voice for maximum effect
 
Avi
That's not a question
anyways, goodnight
 
4:53 AM
i think the exeter museum could be the RAMM (royal albert memorial museum), or maybe the AIM (american independent museum) which is in a different exeter
 
5:42 AM
@Avi yes indeed, that is the question
 
1
Q: Will forcing chains break this sudoku puzzle?

Axel TongI am trying to pick up advanced sudoku techniques by practicing with “difficult” puzzles as suggested by my sudoku app. In this puzzle, I am stuck in the position as shown below. I think I can make use of forcing chains to break the puzzle, but I am unable to pinpoint the exact cell I should look...

 
6:09 AM
0
Q: Kaboom-y numbers!

Anonymus25Here is a new type of puzzle poem I made. Enjoy! Note: The title is named like that for a reason. I have a number in mind, it is super cool, But there's something you need to know, or you will find it like a fool. The greatness of this number, the primes you need to understand, Prime number 21 i...

 
6:23 AM
Wow - I have been using this site for so many years and actually didn't know there was a chat... I feel like I've just climbed up on a mantlepiece and pushed through a mirror. Or possibly just feel like an idiot. Whichever. :/
 
6:50 AM
welcome!
 
7:03 AM
Thanks! But I may just fade back into obscurity where I can't do/say something stupid (again!) :P (Also thank you @Deusovi for the patience to let me fix my terrible solve path images...)
 
hey, welcome to the chat! don't worry, we've all said stupid things in here at some point
 
 
4 hours later…
11:14 AM
0
Q: A robot moving on a grid. Part 2

NickThis is an extension of the discussion A robot is placed on a grid point. At each move the robot must take three steps along the edge of the grid. After each step the robot must turn right. Lengths of each step are $a$, $b$, and $c$ edges. It doesn't matter in which order $a$, $b$, $c$ are, sinc...

 
 
1 hour later…
12:30 PM
0
Q: How to divide their loot? The thieves' dilemma

DrDThree thieves rob a jewelry store at gunpoint and end up with the following loot. 10 necklaces 8 bangles 6 rings It so happened that the jewelry was antique and valuable. They asked the scared jeweler the value of those items. “Individually, the necklaces are worth 4000 dollars each, the bangles...

 
 
2 hours later…
2:53 PM
my stupid education thingy wants to silenty record my screen...
so now there's a giant blue circle in the corner of every webpage.
also it won't let me open the calculator app
i don't know why but it's annoying
 
what
how
 
idk
 
is it for test security?
or are they just being all AHH STUDENTS CANNOT BE TRUSTED
 
@bobble My school just randomly blocks every other website
 
@bobble yep, it's supposed to "help keep you safe and scholarly online"
also i just discovered i can drag it around
but then it snaps back into a corner
 
2:57 PM
If it makes you feel any better, you can remember that they're not going to have someone look through the recordings unless they suspect something
There's just too much too long recordings
 
hm
 
@matt So... you shouldn't be on here?
 
apparently not
 
U N F O R T U N A T E
 
it's not blocked per se, but there's just a blue circle in the corner
this applies even to my unnamed education system's website
@NorthLæraðr yes
sighs in frustration
 
3:02 PM
1
Q: A nice robot-control puzzle

Lucas The goal is to find a sequence (a "program") of max 6 commands that will move the triangle (the "robot") through the grid and make it visit all the squares marked with a star. Two types of commands can be used: P0 makes the sequence start over. The arrows (↑, ↱, ↰) move the triangle (forward) o...

0
Q: 119, 019, 609, 809, ?, 909 - A number sequence

dimlyluminousThis is probably very elementary for seasoned puzzlers yet I must request assistance with the following sequence: 119, 019, 609, 809, xxx, 909 What is the underlying principle here? Edit: Source: 2.2., 4, https://www.helsinki.fi/sites/default/files/atoms/files/psykologia_valintakoe_2019.pdf

 
thanks, @sphinx
but no thanks
 
@Graylocke, some name shortenings that you may see in chat: North Læraðr -> North, Deusovi -> Deus, Beastly Gerbil -> gerbil, Mithical -> Mith
some of those are obvious, but might as well put them in
hmm, I've heard both
changed anyhow to more common version
 
"minus well" is a malapropism, aka a "bone apple tea"
(cf. "bon appetit")
 
@bobble I was known as North WAYYY before I changed my name :P
 
technically yes
 
yes
 
@bobble Also, Rand al'Thor ---> Rand
 
He doesn't come into chat much
 
also matt -> matt :P
 
If ANYONE, and I mean ANYONE tries to shorten my name to "bob", they will regret it
(NPG, you'll help me, right?)
 
3:15 PM
(yes)
 
NPG -> No Pickle Gang, for Gray
 
@Graylocke You come to this chat often enough and scroll through the starboard... you'll see that we say a ton of stupid stuff here, and worse enough, we star those stupid comments.
@bobble Hahahahaha
@bobble Only a pickle-lover would commit such crime
 
@NorthLæraðr yes
 
the NYT's mini crossword is usually nice, but today one of the clues was "Opposite of NNW" with answer "SSE"
 
boring
 
3:25 PM
... seriously? Couldn't think of anything better for that area of the grid?
 
apparently not
NYT be like: we can only fit three letters in here, let's do "opposite of nnw" /s
 
@bobble Oh, I got a clue like that once too
In a different magazine
Also let us make this a thing
Jul 17 at 16:41, by Jeremy Dover
"I was 3 am, and I thought 'Just one more clue...'. Yes, I caught myself Deusolving."
 
"deusolving" yess
 
why are there two 's'es?
 
for emphasiss
 
3:30 PM
North-northwest? Gross
I find that offensive to my namesake
 
yep
 
May 15 '17 at 16:08, by Rubio
Deusovi is ... more machine now than man (twisted and evil). He can solve these things in a moment's thought.
Apparently nothing's changed in three years
 
except now he has 41 extra brains
 
at least 41 extra brains. the Very Serious Lab-Coated Scientists (tm) stopped counting after 42.
 
wow
let's see,my next class thingy is at... 9:21 yay
so what do i do for 50 minutes.... hm.......
 
3:36 PM
work on making a puzzle!
 
uh ok but i don't have any ideas
umm
 
make a minesweeper puzzle where all the mines are in tetromino shapes!
 
what is a minesweeper
stupid space key
@NorthLæraðr i am suddenly reminded of my 7th grade history teacher who popped up an image of a super detailed compass and told us we had to memorize all of it as a joke
 
@NorthLæraðr nope, not really
 
3:40 PM
@matt What
 
@NorthLæraðr yes
 
@bobble Minesweepers is fun but how would you do that over Puzzling SE?
 
see link above
 
Blocked
 
3:42 PM
Image won't load
What is this
 
reload the page maybe?
 
Why does the school hate me
 
It doesn't hate you. It just wants you full of knowledge so it has a better meal when they chew you out at the exams.
 
can you see that one?
 
3:43 PM
for me anything with the WORD "discord" is blocked
even the definition page
@JohnDvorak ouch
oh and @bobble I'm not the best puzzle maker anyway so uh
 
make a crossword!
 
about what though?!
 
Anything.
Side note: would anyone be interested in a "How to make an Around-the-Bend" Q + A? I've been thinking about putting one together for a while.
 
@bobble sure!
... dare I make an NPG crossword? (might cause some controversy)
 
You could certainly make a crossword with the theme of "a letter from PICKLE must be removed from certain answers before entering into grid"
 
3:52 PM
hm
 
@bobble yup
 
@north (random question) favorite things to do as a tree?
 
@matt Photosynthesize
Getting hugs (very rare though)
 
sends hugs to North
 
@bobble ... covid?
 
3:55 PM
@matt No, like tree-huggers
 
Trees can't get animal diseases, usually
 
Trees don't get covid because we can't sneeze
Duh
 
from a bill wurtz video
 
@matt Yea I am familiar with it
 
haha nice
"we could make a religion out of this"
 
One of the best videos of all time ^
Also an audio insight into my brain during exams
 
I'm not clicking on that
 
@bobble why not?
 
I'm not clicking on that
 
Omg it has 52 million views... wow lol
 
4:01 PM
@bobble DO IT
 
I'm not clicking on that
 
It's not anything bad, it's just stupid
@BeastlyGerbil Me too
 
Okay, so it's stupid. Perfect reason to not click
 
You have to
For the culture
 
@BeastlyGerbil But you've defnitely had a dream like that right?
@bobble You must
 
4:02 PM
I like being un-cultured.
 
oh 100%, I know exactly what hes on about
 
Hey @Sid long time!
 
Sid
Hello.
Yeah. Been a while. Online classes are a pain in my back.
 
It's pain in my tooshie. Literally. My gluteus maximus is literally screaming bc I'm sitting on the ground
I think I pulled a muscle
 
@NorthLæraðr there's something called a chair
very useful
 
4:06 PM
@matt My table is a ground table thing
 
"My gluteus maximus is literally screaming " - it's not.
 
I got my dad's old office chair. It's one of those wheeled spinny ones.
 
@NorthLæraðr then get a taller table
 
Oh geez John's here
 
Sid
@bobble those are the best.
 
4:06 PM
@bobble Oh those are so fun
 
would a kneeling chair help?
 
@bobble wheeled spinny chairs are the best chairs in existence
 
@JohnDvorak But my knees would literally be screaming :P
 
no, they wouldn't.
 
*figuratively
 
4:07 PM
@JohnDvorak Yes they would
They would grow vocal chords
 
knees cannot scream
 
standing desk? Or do you also have vocal chords in your feet?
 
@JohnDvorak I have vocal chords all over my body, actually
 
this is creepy
 
I have a rather polyphonic body
 
4:08 PM
@NorthLæraðr they are called "pain receptors"
 
you should have kept the typo. Helps the "I'm creeepyyy" mood.
 
Sid
I haven't made a puzzle in a long time.
 
@JohnDvorak True....
 
@Sid indeed
@NorthLæraðr we must revive the It
 
Sid
4:10 PM
To be honest, I haven't done anything on Puzzling in a long time. Other than lurk around here on chat
 
hm
 
@Sid Same though
 
thinks of a puzzle to make
 
4:30 PM
nothin' yet
 
4:54 PM
@bobble good job, caption writers
 
To be fair, the term they were defining could be better shown visually than in words.
 
5:11 PM
yes but the captions should explain everything in the image
also i just had the stupidest kahoot ever
 
oh, I loved kahoots
 
yes
but the teacher didn't even care about the points or anything.
if you want to give us a quiz then just give us a quiz
 
Deus, unsolved CC alert: puzzling.stackexchange.com/a/102431
 
got more verbs to conjugate
 
5:21 PM
hello! I'll give it a look
not sure I see anything at the moment though
 
@bobble Is there a better time for you this week to have time to look at a puzzle? I'm putting the finishing touches on one that you inspired, and I'd like to post it at a time when you have a chance to look at it. No commitment on your part, of course, just a courtesy since you did provide inspiration.
 
I have plenty of time today
and I'm honored to be an inspiration :)
rest of the week I predict lots of homework
 
Cool, I'll try to get it done. Alas no promises...it has everything I want in it. The question is what has crept in that I didn't want...
 
@bobble oh no
 
0
Q: That's fine, most of my family doesn't want to acknowledge being related to me either

dsollenToday I share a 100% true story from my past. I use to meet my little brother to eat together with him regularly, but any time his friends or others that knew him would meet me the conversation always seemed to go the same way. They would ask who I was but they never believed that I was just com...

 
5:35 PM
Y'know, there's going to be two puzzles inspired by me after Jeremy posts his. That's two more than I ever expected to exist.
 
hmm
40% of the cinamon fell off my graham crackers
it is unfortunate
 
rip
 
yes
 
agreement between a pickle-lover and a NPG member!
shall we hold peace talks?
 
@mithical how are your pickles fat green sticks today?
@bobble yes
 
5:49 PM
@matt I was fasting today; broke my fast about half an hour ago, but still haven't really eaten anything, mostly focused on rehydration
probably need to get some salt though
 
fasting?
 
:eyes:
@matt not eating or drinking
 
i know what fasting is but why?
 
the opposite of slowing
4
 
@jafe thank you for the insight :P
 
5:50 PM
Yom Kippur
 
hm okay :)
continues to eat cinnamon-less graham crackers
... when was the last c4?
 
msh210
@msh210, my request for a hint still stands
 
my calendar must be out of date; i cannot find msh210 anywhere on it
:p
 
yesterday, by msh210
CCCC: Quaint or rubbish? A throwback: Exeter museum stuff from long ago (10)
 
self facepalm
 
5:55 PM
as opposed to palming someone else's face? :P
 
DON'T TOUCH OTHER PEOPLE'S FACES
 
@jafe blegh
@bobble especially now
 
theory: "A throwback" means moving the letter A further towards the back of the word
 
hm maybe
bb in ~20mins
 
@bobble yes, sorry, I've been offline for >24 hours for the aforementioned Yom Kippur.
 
6:01 PM
no problem!
 
C4 hint: "Quaint or rubbish?" is so worded so as to be similar to a recent C4; otherwise, "Rubbish?" alone would suffice.
3
 
hmm
... recent c4...
ah i see
the wordplay is confusing lol
 
6:50 PM
0
Q: What should I do with these emails?

Beastly GerbilI've been sent a bunch of very odd emails recently, starting on Monday and sent daily until last Thursday. I'm not 100% sure what they mean or why I am being sent them, but perhaps you could help me. Every email is sent from someone called 'advice@email-help.com' and the subject is always 'Advice...

 
Finally got around to posting a making-of for my Dragonborn puzzle.
 
I had splenty of space to work with. <-- typo found
 
> (There were a couple other small typos - dangers of working without spellcheck - but nothing major arose.)
(fixed, thanks)
 
I enjoyed how your creation method was "just do it, you know, a little there and then why not do this and that"
 
that is indeed how I work :P
 
7:03 PM
@Mithical im kinda the same way tbh, just like "why not do this and this?"
 
@matt I hath indeed! Took me long enough :P
 
@BeastlyGerbil ... think you meant to comment that on your puzzle?
how long exactly did it take?!
 
Put it here instead so as not to clutter comments on the post
Well its been months since my last puzzle
This one didn't take too long to make, maybe a few days but it has a clever gimmick I wanted to use in someway
 
ooh fancy
also should the fourth "X" in the last email be italicized?
wait, hold on...
 
It is :)
 
7:12 PM
was the "gimmick" the last step of the puzzle?
 
rettelhtx ... what could this mean?
 
@Deusovi yeah, interpeting clock hands as sempahore
 
rot13 didn't help
just gave me erggryugk
 
yep that's something I think most puzzlers have discovered at some point
 
I'll try and fix the error too
@Deus oh I dont think I've seen it before
Damn thought id come up wiith something then
 
7:14 PM
it's discovered independently surprisingly often
 
agh deus beat me to it
 
I had the idea near the time when I first learned about hunt puzzles; Jack Lance used it in his PI Hunt 1; I've seen it mentioned in a presentation about learning to make puzzles
 
hmm
 
Yeah realistically I'm not surprised I'm not the first to come up with it
Its a neat lil trick
 
now i want to make a steganography puzzle
 
7:17 PM
Theyre very fun to make
Def one of my favourite sub-topics
 
aight then :) just need some inspiration then...
 
Not easy to make if you're trying for something interesting, though.
28 mins ago, by Mithical
Finally got around to posting a making-of for my Dragonborn puzzle.
;P
 
? saw it already
 
I agree, I'd say steganography is one of the hardest genres to come up with new ideas
But sometimes it doesn't have to be new, just to have a twist
@Deusovi corrected to 'dialoged' by the way
 
@Mithical yeah, unfortunately a lot of them just become "follow this direction, then follow this direction, then follow this direction..." -- while that can be fun, it's usually most interesting when there's reuse of information, or things hidden in novel ways
 
7:22 PM
@Deusovi good tip
 
@matt I'm saying use it as inspiration (mostly jokingly).
 
ill keep that in mind then /s
[still thinking abt what to put in my puzzle...]
 
Take your time
 
^
 
The best puzzles take a) ages to come up with and b) ages to make
 
7:32 PM
hmm
 
I've currently got a stego puzzle in a non-so-complete form sitting in a text file that's waiting for me to actually work on it
 
and the goal is not to do a Boring "the cApital letters spell the solution" thing, right? that just seems Dumb
 
Pretty much
Try to hide your info in something that doesn't look like its hiding something
 
hm okay
example, if you wouldnt mind?
 
138
Q: A mysterious email from Andrew Void

Rand al'ThorYou are a secret agent in the service of the KGB, about to embark on a highly dangerous mission to infiltrate MI6. You have your disguise, your papers, and your backstory all prepared. The night before your departure, you receive the following email: From: Andrew Void < a.void@disparition.com...

Good example ^
Doesn't look suspicious, but hides a message
 
7:36 PM
before the "e" 's.
hm okay
 
Thats a simple version with one mechanic, there can be many more involved
 
like "before the e's and after the p's"
 
9
A: Strategies for solving steganography puzzles

TechidiotThis is how you can get started - Check out this article on Wikipedia which provides an insight. It also mentions some techniques used in Steganography. So, when you see a puzzle with steganography tag added you can start by looking at the following things - First word/letters of each line...

 
as a basic example
 
That gives lots of 'mechanics' for you
 
7:40 PM
0
Q: Unusual number sequence problem

JoeThe sequence is: 849 352 768 493 527 This one has been puzzling me for days. I would appreciate any insight. Regards Joe

 
Oh and @matt the puzzle does need to hint in some form or another how to solve
It can be a subtle hint but there does need to be a starting point
 
Yeah, you, uh, don't want to forget that... :|
 
And the starting point is usually smth like initials, capitals etc
Just to nudge you in a certain direction
 
alright :)
just thought of this:
even now, dead-life eaters try to exterminate red spindles
 
nwesyoeds
 
7:58 PM
yeah it wasn't supposed to spell anything lol
but the sentence is funny, right? :p
 
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