The Sphinx's Lair

oAlt

00:05

@Deusovi DIA< + CRITIC

I'm assuming it's used here as an adjective rather than a noun

bobble

There's a perfectly lovely intended path for my next Tetrikabe, and then there are a bunch of less-lovely paths. Hopefully someone finds the lovely one :) If no one does, I'll post it in the chat.

matt

00:21

@oAlt wow

oAlt

Ikr

At first I was so lost on how to parse the wordplay

matt

00:32

ok @deusovi this cccc was just amazing applause

oAlt

i was trying to look at commentators' names at first and it seemed I was losing hope

matt

also @deusovi i just saw that the typo is in all of your profiles actually (re: "lingust")

oAlt

oh right i saw that too (but didnt want to tell it just after i told deusovi to fix a formatting error in one of his answers) (also maybe best to not ping too much-- he's eventually going to backread a few parts anyway as soon as he knows he got pinged :0 )

dang the edits are strong with this one

matt

> it do be like that sometimes

Sciborg

00:52

Aww, I made dinner and took a nap and when I came back there was all kinds of cute stuff in my inbox <3

bobble

hey, 'borg is back!

matt

hey mick!

bobble

do you want me to post the Tetrikabe now?

Sciborg

Sure! I'll take a shot at it

bobble

It is here: puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/104681/…

Sciborg

00:55

(will also fix the blog picture, my bad - I posted it and then realized the pictures came out too small on desktop screens)

matt

blog picture?

bobble

it's fine, I could still read with squint method

Sciborg

ooh, title is cute :D

bobble

something I accidentally posted in North's chatroom instead of here

matt

"socially distance fours" lol

bobble

00:58

have you spotted the starting deduction yet?

this puzzle was made to show off one specific type of deduction I find Very Cool

Bubbler

I've got work to do :(

matt

@bobble how Very Cool is it?

bobble

poor Bubbler

@matt Very

I did credit you for the name in the question itself

Sciborg

"The new name for this puzzle genre can be blamed on Bubbler" :p

matt

"blamed on"

Sciborg

01:01

hmmmm, i think i might understand the deduction

bobble

I'm very interested to see what solution path y'all take: I test-solved this one 5 (?) times, and every single time I found a slightly different solution path.

Sciborg

distant happy puzzle-solving sounds

bobble

the bobblies have decided that your puzzle-solving is Too Darn Cute (tm), so they will refrain from sucking your puzzling abilities out

3

Sciborg

Aww(?)

Poofy would never do such a thing, I trust her

Bubbler

Just spotted the solution by mentally shuffling the pieces over the board

Not very answer-worthy

bobble

01:06

the ones in the walls don't listen to Poofy, they say she is too young to make decisions for the community

Sciborg

that's probably the most terrifying thing you've ever posted

bobble

yeah, this genre is especially vulnerable to intuitive solves

matt

also i just snuck an among us reference into my math homework :p
(i don't play, but i couldn't resist)

Sciborg

Got two deductions now, I think I'm getting what you were going for and I love it

bobble

If you spot the right ones, only 3 Big Deductions are required for a full solve (the rest is trivial). There are more required if you take different solution paths.

Sphinx

01:13

5

Q: Tetrikabe: Socially Distanced Fours

Pentomino Nurikabe is still elusive, but here is another Tetromino Nurikabe! I'm not sure if the 4s are actually socially distanced enough. (The ones on the right and bottom are doing better than the others). Nevertheless, they are further apart than before. Rules: (Nurikabe section shamelessly s...

1

Q: Generalized color balls in a 4x4 grid

This is a generalization of the Colored balls in a 4x4 grid puzzle that was proposed by Darrel Hoffman. Colored balls from 4 different colors are placed in a 4x4 grid. There is at least one ball from each color. A move consists of swapping two adjacent (horizontally or vertically) balls. The valu...

combinatorics optimization

Sciborg

furious backtracking sounds

bobble

oh no!

Sciborg

I placed a piece too early and I had to go back arghhh

this is teaching me good lessons in "don't jump ahead"

bobble

I won't be providing any help (to be fair to other solvers), but I will provide you with cheers. Go, Sciborg! WOO! WOO! Sciborg can solve the Tetrikabe, yes they can!

Sciborg

:D

Bubbler

01:20

Okay, I found a path with one large step, one small step, another large step, then a quick case analysis

bobble

I thought you had work?

Bubbler

Just finished my work :D

bobble

Again, I'm sure there are plenty of solution paths that I didn't find - nature of the genre.

Bubbler

But I don't have time to post it, I have to go to a meeting now :/

bobble

boo....

oAlt

01:21

rip

bobble

I have to start making dinner, but I'll leave the computer near me to check if anyone gets it.

Sciborg

I just got it, gotta write up my answer now

bobble

yay!

Bubbler

Nice

Sciborg

wait... wait NO I had a 2x2 region I didn't see, CRAP, I gotta fix a step

stand by

bobble

01:28

standing by

Sciborg

i think i made a stupid deduction in one of the corners that i shouldn't have made, fixing

bobble

the recipe calls for butter, so I'm using the free little cups of butter we got from a take-out. what, that's not the butter they wanted?

Sciborg

Are you baking over there? :p

bobble

making butter-garlic salmon

Sciborg

Hot dang, nice

oAlt

01:30

ooh

Sciborg

and here i am microwaving nachos and pretending i'm a chef

bobble

hey, my recipe is 1) cut butter into little pieces in pan 2) put buttered pan in oven to melt 3) put salmon on butter & cover with seasoning 4) cook. Not hard!

Sciborg

i mean hey, cooking is cooking!

now i'm frustrated because every fix i try to make just leaves a 2x2 region floating around mocking me, i must have screwed up my initial deductions. gonna start over from the first one

bobble

"mocking" you?

Sciborg

they're taunting me

bobble

01:37

singsong voice "The two-by-two is watching you" (best sung high-low-high-low, etc.)

Sciborg

i must have done something super wrong but i can't figure out what it is, everything up to that point seemed logical

bobble

I took the butter out of the oven and tilted it around the pan :) Time for salmon & seasoning!

oAlt

yum

matt

@bobble Things Bobble Is: bobblecrown, tutor, chef

hey avi! bobble is cooking

bobble

I just double-checked to confirm that there is indeed a solution

Sciborg

01:46

i think i figured out what i did wrong, let me see if this fixed it

bobble

anticipation

more anticipation

I have to go eat that dinner now :) be back later!

Bubbler

02:02

returns from meeting

Sciborg

...i gave in and looked at your answer, and dang, i was struggling hard apparently

good job!

Bubbler

wild Jeremy Dover appears!

oAlt

02:18

hahah

Prince North Læraðr

@Sciborg Any luck on the connect-wall?

Hm, need to make sure it isn't too vague in the future

@oAlt Hehe, [needs citation]

oAlt

Loll

matt

ah yes, [blue superscript bracketed numbers]

bobble

02:57

Since it's solved now, the theme of the puzzle was juggling the need to cover at least one of any 2x2 with a tetromino. You need to consider several 2x2 areas at once to make progress. I was quite proud of how it came out :)

Deusovi

@oAlt that's correct!

(and yes, the adjective meaning)

bobble

we're sorry, we pinged you a lot :D

Deusovi

no big deal!

@matt yeah, i fixed the issue in all of them

oAlt

epic

CCCC: Gave advice about &lit (6)

Ankoganit

nice surface!

oAlt

03:02

thanx

bobble

anyone want to see the intended solution path for the Tetrikabe, or is someone still working on it?

Gareth McCaughan

@oAlt Solution to your CCCC is LED about AND making LANDED or lit.

oAlt

:D your turn @GarethMcCaughan

bobble

nice

Deusovi

ooh neat clue

oAlt

03:09

aaaaa tenks again

Ankoganit

why is lit=landed?

ah nvm got it

nice one

oAlt

10ks

bobble

ah darn, should've taken a picture of my rep before accepting Jeremy's answer. I was at an even 4200!

Ankoganit

4200 factorial is a lot of rep

bobble

that it is

@Sciborg, out of curiosity: what was the invalid deduction you made?

Gareth McCaughan

03:19

@Ankoganit It is definitely even, at any rate.

CCCC: Sharp edge of bar risks cut (5)

Ankoganit

indeed

Gareth McCaughan

(incidentally, of course I agree with everyone else who said that oAlt's clue was ingenious)

oAlt

:0

Gareth McCaughan

anyway, it's well past my bedtime so if someone solves my clue quickly I'm afraid they'll have to wait a bit for confirmation.

oAlt

hahah

Ankoganit

03:24

good night!

Bubbler

@GarethMcCaughan BRISK = edge of Bar + RISKs cut

oAlt

dangg (edited to add: never mind)

Gareth McCaughan

Huh, ingenious but that was not the solution I had in mind.

Bubbler

waaaat

Gareth McCaughan

(If I'd noticed that yours was possible I would have rejected or modified the clue.)

bobble

04:15

I'm taking a break from making puzzles and will start working my way through that Fillomino pack :D

I've set up another giant Google Sheet of Solving

Prince North Læraðr

04:34

O/

how be everyone

bobble

bobble be puzzling

Prince North Læraðr

i just got my scores for mock trial, if anyone's curious

bobble

I am

Prince North Læraðr

Defense: I got an 8/10 for opening, 8/10 for cross, 9/10 for direct

Solid, considering I got my stuff for defense literally 30 minutes before the trial started

For prosecution pre-trial I got an 8/10 but that's because I didn't get to have a rebuttal

bobble

I don't know what those numbers mean, but you say they're good so yay!

Prince North Læraðr

04:36

5 means you're average (which translates to YOU'RE BAD)

So 8 is like a B performance

bobble

good, then

Prince North Læraðr

Above average, but not exceptional, yet

@bobble ya

bobble

did you see the new tetrikabe?

@Sciborg, if you're still here: SHIELD update?

bobble

05:05

@Bubbler I solved your Nurikabe through intuition but can't see a logical path. Oh well.

Bubbler

Frankly it isn't a 100% logical puzzle. Maybe a 10x10 could be made more logical, as I expect it to have larger variety of solutions

bobble

edit: I found a nice step

Bubbler

but yeah, it does make use of certain deductions unique to the ruleset

bobble

I can't figure out when to take pictures. There seem to be altogether too many small steps

okay, found a logical solution - just can't figure out how to write it up

I'm going to re-start, maybe I can figure out better picture spots this time around

Bubbler

Just put as many pictures as you need :)

bobble

05:18

The problem was I was taking too few pictures

Sphinx

2

Q: A half-shading Nurikabe

Rules of Nurikabe: (copied from here) Numbered cells are unshaded. Unshaded cells are divided into regions, all of which contain exactly one number. The number indicates how many unshaded cells there are in that region. Regions of unshaded cells cannot be (orthogonally) adjacent to one another, ...

grid-deduction

bobble

(@Bubbler: could you also tag your puzzle [logical-deduction]? using both tags is recommended)

welp, someone posted a no-explanation answer

You now have a non-answer and a no-logic answer to your question. You win a prize! Not a good prize, but it's definetly something

Bubbler

Welp

(For the tags: I thought it was the opposite, as many grid puzzles can't be solved by logical deduction alone)

Ankoganit

Is that so?

Deusovi

if there's a unique solution, they can

bobble

05:32

Oct 27 at 15:18, by bobble

interruption with something entirely different: when should a puzzle be tagged with both "logical-deduction" and "grid-deduction"?

Deusovi

maybe not in a 'clean' way (though they should be solvable in a clean way, or else they're not particularly good puzzles)

bobble

see discussion here

Ankoganit

I thought grid puzzles not solvable by pure logic are Frowned Upon (TM)

Ah, makes sense

Bubbler

Hmm, OK

Deusovi

but if there is literally no way to arrive at the solution even through deep trial-and-error and bifurcation, that means there is no unique solution

which means the puzzle is broken

Bubbler

05:34

I used a not-very-deep backtracking twice in my puzzle, so I felt it wasn't that logical

though it does have a unique solution

bobble

I got a nice series of pictures, now to race against the other answer & my bedtime

bobble

05:55

Posted! Yay!

(Note for Bubbler: my complete answer is posted before the other one updated with reasoning)

By about a minute and a half. I still "won", though :)

I have to leave for the night - guess I'll see which answer is accepted when I wake up

Sphinx

07:25

0

Q: Diagram Sequence

This was a puzzle given "graduatetrader.com". I don't have its answer but it wasn't E as per them. If you can find some pattern please help me. I found one pattern by giving numbers to each arrows: 1 to 4 Then number way to select a pair for any fixed diagonal(or any pair lets say right bottom a...

pattern

jafe

07:41

@GarethMcCaughan i could see this being B_R + (-r)ISK(-s), but i think it's actually B_ + RISK(-s)?

Bubbler

4 hours ago, by Bubbler

@GarethMcCaughan BRISK = edge of Bar + RISKs cut

jafe

oh sorry i missed that

Bubbler

4 hours ago, by Gareth McCaughan

Huh, ingenious but that was not the solution I had in mind.

jafe

hah that's pretty funny

oAlt

08:00

bruh

reeee i'll have to accumulate c4 material again

Deusovi

08:41

@oAlt could you please not use "reee" like that? it comes from memes mocking autistic people

oAlt

had no knowledge it came from that, am sorry

(oh right i had a question too: in the C4 sheets, the "date" there is the date the clue itself was made right? not when it was solved?)

Deusovi

(yeah)

oAlt

(thanx)

Sphinx

09:04

0

Q: Puzzle ideas for distributed team

A distributed team of ~500 people will receive a christmas gift delivered to their houses. There is an option to include some puzzle to the package, adding extra fun. What could it be? A few of my ideas: a part of shared secret, which requires N of M pieces to decode (teamwork required) part of ...

enigmatic-puzzle

0

Q: Is it possible to put numbers and cut a hexagon?

You have numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. It is required to put the numbers in triangles (one number in a triangle), so that when cutting a hexagon into two parts, the sum of all the numbers in the first part is divided by the sum of all the numbers in the second one. You can only cut along the rad...

mathematics

Bubbler

09:14

@Sphinx Is this on-topic?

jafe

09:59

why not? it's a question about puzzles, no?

Gareth McCaughan

11:40

As a couple of people have spotted, my C4 is "cooked": there's a pretty solution that I hadn't intended. In an actual cryptic crossword this sort of thing seldom matters (though of course it's a blemish in a clue) because other crossing solutions let you rule out the unintended solution. So, even though it's rather early for such things:

CCCC hint: First letter is A. (Given rather early because two people spotted an unintended alternative answer.)

Sphinx

13:13

1

Q: Fastest draw from opening position in chess

When playing a normal game of chess, assuming the opponents are cooperating: In how many moves can a draw be unavoidable, excluding voluntary draws or draws by repetition of moves? 1 While not capturing anything. (fastest stalemate or ..?) 2 When capturing pieces is allowed. (fastest stalemate, b...

chess optimization checkerboard

msh210

13:34

@GarethMcCaughan _arris_, then

Ankoganit

ah, nice

jafe

13:53

that's not a w-- (checks dictionary) oh, i see

breaking: hexomino creeps within striking distance of top 3

currently 98,612 rep vs gareth's 98,650

the race to 100k is real

msh210

@jafe added to the dictionary by Gareth today, and retrospectively to documents all the way back to the 15th century if we believe what he added to the etymology section

jafe

heheh

Prince North Læraðr

15:28

yawn gaMen

bobble

hey, North!

I might hit the rep cap today - already at +187 rep for here :D

Prince North Læraðr

15:51

ooh

bobble

...scratch that, +197

yep, definitely hitting the cap

Prince North Læraðr

yup, just upvoted your nurikabe :)

bobble

Releasing a puzzle + solving a puzzle on the same day, plus some recent puzzles that are still getting a trickle of votes

Prince North Læraðr

terikabe*

bobble

The only other times I've hit the cap (I think) are the days where I answered the HNQ'd maze puzzles

Prince North Læraðr

15:53

Aaaannd daily cap hit

:P

bobble

not quite yet, it seems: I am now at +207

Prince North Læraðr

ohh right it's 250

bobble

some of the rep is from an accept, if that matters

Prince North Læraðr

shuckst thought I could ~~sabotage~~ help you hit daily rep

if you hit daily rep that means more opportunity for me to catch up

:P

Don't scoff at this @Sciborg but it's 49 here at SoCal and 67 inside my house which translates to ITS FREEZING in SoCal

it was hot, and then rained on Friday, and suddenly the temperature just DROPPED'

it's like the weirdest thing ever

bobble

is raining on a Friday somehow different from raining on any other day?

hi, gerbil!

matt

15:59

that kinda happened to me too North - it is ~43

Prince North Læraðr

Well, it rained, and then the temperature just dropped all of a sudden

matt

for me it just dropped

Prince North Læraðr

Also it's California- it never rains down here

"High of 69"

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