The Sphinx's Lair

matt

10:04 PM

@PrinceNorthLæraðr nice :)

Slow Down

►

Avi

vodKA POWerhouse seems to have tucked away some explosive stuff

Sciborg

10:20 PM

Hot dang, I sniped someone else for once!!!

Sphinx

2

Q: Anvils and Balloons: an introduction

This is an entry for Fortnightly Topic Challenge #44: Introduce a new grid deduction genre to the community. I'm pleased to introduce you to the Anvil and Balloons puzzle. Rules to fill the grid (translated from an Italian magazine): place some anvils (A) and some balloons (B) in the grid. In ea...

Sciborg

Sorry @msh210

bobble

congrats!

person I was tutoring had to leave at one point to help cat get onto the windowsill

Sciborg

Aww

bobble

also, you have made your mark

Sciborg

10:23 PM

YES

bobble

same search for me only brings up 14 posts

but then, I only have 47 posts total

Sciborg

This is the first grid deduction i managed to solve at non-baby bird speed :p

bobble

would you like to doodle baby-bird self doing some celebratory flying?

Sciborg

rips off paper DO I

Did the cat get on the windowsill successfully?

bobble

yes, and it did the LOUDEST purr when it finally got settled

Sciborg

10:28 PM

precious <3

When I renew my apartment lease in July, I'm going to sign the pet waiver so i can have a bird or a cat - haven't decided which one yet

bobble

i vote cat because kitty

Sciborg

That is a valid vote

bobble

i also vote for kitty to be named "bobbi", "bobbie", or "bobblie"

Sciborg

I like naming pets after literary people, so i've been torn between Charles Dickens for a boy and Shelley for a girl

bobble

"minerva"

Sciborg

10:34 PM

Somebody actually suggested "Minnie" since my name is Mick :p

i vote cat as well

Mickey and Minnie

@Sciborg hehehe

It was a pretty funny idea, not gonna lie

But I like the idea of yelling "CHARLES DICKENS" to call my cat

matt

darles chickens

bobble

10:37 PM

darling chicky

Sciborg

Chick-Fil-A

on a related note, Happy Baby Bird doodle:

bobble

baby bird singing of its conquest

Sciborg

Baby bird has solved a grid deduction, baby bird is happy

Hi athin!! :)

athin

@oAlt ah, I have to confess that I'm lurking for a long time here, but by going incognito and login when only needed to haha (I'm wondering if I can stay invisible while logged in at chat.stackexchange..)

And hey Sciborg! :)

Nice doodles!

bobble

you can read while being logged in by just re-loading the transcript to check for new messages

Sciborg

10:51 PM

It's okay to be shy, we're always happy to see you when you drop in :D

bobble

hey, athin has a bird as well!

Sciborg

Duckling!

Sometime I will doodle your duckling

Is duck a bird? ><

Yup, it counts :p

10:53 PM

Ah I'd love to look forward to it XD

bobble

random side note

Sciborg

Does your duckling have a name?

bobble

I find it really weird that I have these two messages next to each other in my inbox

msh210

@Sciborg no worries!

athin

Oh, hmm I havent named the Duck... Lemme... Think...

Sciborg

10:54 PM

I am currently between projects so I am drawing the Duck

bobble

'borg is the resident Doodler

Deus is the resident Lord of Puzzles

msh210

@PrinceNorthLæraðr & I just discovered that a question of mine on Math SE is +100/-1.

bobble

Gareth is the resident math professor

msh210 is the resident "old saw" cryptic-cluer

Prince North Læraðr

@msh210 Are you asking me to do something? :P

I am the resident tree

msh210

@PrinceNorthLæraðr no

Sciborg

10:56 PM

North is the resident Math Tree

msh210

@bobble shall I never live that down?

bobble

Bubbler is the resident [grid-deduction] Kirby

@msh210 it was very memorable

Prince North Læraðr

@Sciborg I am not a math tree

Sciborg

@msh210 you will never live down the old saw clue because you tortured us for days over it :p

Prince North Læraðr

Swinging that "old saw" in front of us

Sciborg

10:57 PM

@PrinceNorthLæraðr Literature tree?

Prince North Læraðr

Prince Tree

bobble

Oct 16 at 11:31, by Ankoganit

Maybe the real C4 solution is the friends we make along the way

Sciborg

Of course

bobble

now, what am I?

Prince North Læraðr

You are the maniacal, sadistic, puzzle-draining bobbling crown lord of the hive

athin

10:59 PM

And what is your own resident bobble?

Ah.. im asking the same question oop

Prince North Læraðr

I am North Læraðr, Prince of Trees :D

Sciborg

and Bane of my Screen Reader

bobble

sadistic? I beg to disagree.
*pause*
Actually, wait I don't beg. I disagree strongly
*pause*
You shall hear from me shortly
*baa-boow, baa-boow*

Sciborg

distant menacing squishy sounds

Prince North Læraðr

Those are the sounds of tortured souls as their Puzzling abilities slowly sap away

(Bobble is also the resident tutor along with Deus and Gareth)

Sciborg

11:02 PM

We have an interesting dynamic here :p

Prince North Læraðr

What to do with puzzling.stackexchange.com/review/first-posts/48634

?

Sciborg

It's definitely a long post, but I think it's okay

Prince North Læraðr

Yeah. Didn't really know what to do so clicked "no action needed"

bobble

I removed all the wrong tags already

Sciborg

@athin i am putting a bow on the Duck, i hope that's okay

Prince North Læraðr

11:04 PM

Not deserving of a down-vote, but also not really a up-vote, the edit was already made, and honestly didn't know what to comment

Though there is a lot of Latin for some reason

I recognize "ignis"- that's fire

athin

@Sciborg awww thats cute! ofc i dont mind XD

Yeah and I think Im also fine with that puzzle yet Im not inclined to upvote it

Sciborg

Same

Prince North Læraðr

There's both Latin and German

I do appreciate they tried their best to add all the stuff they've tried and also tried to provide like as much information from the image

They're from SO, so I guess it makes sense

msh210

there's also some English

matt

@bobble remind me to make a Puzzling-specific email

bobble

11:10 PM

my Puzzling email forwards to my regular email, so that's from regular-email inbox

Sciborg

duck <3

bobble

beautiful

Bubbler

Advent of Code 2020 is about to start in a few hours, in case anyone is interested

Sciborg

I've never heard of it but it looks fun :D

athin

@Sciborg OwO <3

I love it Sciborg, thanks for drawing it >w<

Sciborg

11:16 PM

:D

athin

@Bubbler oh I think Ive heard about this one long time ago

Bubbler

Yeah, it's running every year since 2015

athin

I used to be a competitive programmer so that's stuff we're usually toying around

Sciborg

Is it kind of like Project Euler where everyone is competing for the best/most efficient answer?

Or is it more just for fun?

Bubbler

Mostly for fun

Sciborg

11:23 PM

Neat, I like it

Bubbler

though some problems do require finding efficient algorithms

matt

@bobble how'd you set that up?

athin

Are all of the puzzles be available at the start of the event?

matt

(the auto-fwd., that is)

bobble

gmail's advanced settings area - you can find how to on the internet

Bubbler

11:25 PM

One problem is revealed every day from 1st to 25th of December

athin

Oh, and they have two subtasks: easy and hard version on each day?

Bubbler

so you can take it like a daily exercise

Yes

athin

Okey I think I'll try this year haha

Bubbler

:)

Sciborg

(unrelated good news @bobble - my dad just found out he tested negative for covid! so he will be fine and i don't have to quarantine! he just had a stomach flu and already feels better.)

matt

11:28 PM

yayyy

bobble

yay!

Sciborg

We are very relieved :D

Bubbler

That's a great news!

athin

Ooh thats indeed a great news!

Sciborg

It is fantastic news, I was very worried about him

Look at all the good stuff happening today, it must be the good chat vibes

bobble

11:31 PM

I had forgotten to edit out the MathJax here, but it hadn't fallen off the first page yet so I bumped it

gawk at how many times MathJax was used to format plain numbers

Sciborg

screen readers everywhere rejoice

Bubbler

Dang, that's a sandpile of dollar signs

bobble

nothing more complicated than a squaring or a fraction, and that can all be represented with plain ASCII

matt

@Sciborg Screeny is very happy now

Sciborg

I guess I understand why people use it, because it makes formatting nicer, but good Lord does Screeny choke on it

matt

11:35 PM

[screeny]: cough cough

Sciborg

it also makes the numbers way smaller in fractions

matt

yep

Bubbler

Do screen readers parse math expressions?

matt

not mick's

bobble

the expensive ones, maybe

Sciborg

11:37 PM

I can't speak for expensive high-level screen readers, but mine just stops dead and won't parse it at all

matt

Sciborg

Right now my screen reader is more of an occasional reading aid than a necessity for me, but for people who absolutely need screen readers to use the site, MathJax is a nightmare and we try to discourage it.

matt

^^ which looks better?

Sciborg

The first one is more mathematically clear

But the second one is how you'd write it on paper

Bubbler

I'd prefer MathJax in block mode (using $$...$$ so that the numbers are not crammed like that)

but in line mode, I guess ASCII is somewhat easier to read

bobble

11:43 PM

MathJax for a single number, though, is extremely not necessary

matt