Puzzles Etc.

humn

4:29 AM

Nice pieces, q_a! yours? midi? (no need for a quick answer, lotsa editing to do)

humn

4:55 AM

The light velocity of arpeg1 is actually helping me work! (back to it...)

humn

7:59 AM

arpeg2 is not helping,,, except to dance!

manshu

@humn Please don't transform into me... I want to be the only manshu on this planet.

humn

10:40 AM

Well, ok, @manshu, sigh, guess I'll wait for a day when you're visiting another planet. May I still edit myourXXXXX my fortune cookies and play in the sandbox?

question_asker

@humn yeah, those are things I put together years ago, playing around with arpeggiators in Logic (so, yeah, MIDI/sampled instruments)

humn

those were samples too? i couldn't tell. anyway, nice variety and good morning but i'm pretty much checking out right now

a Q i had for you, though, is your computer soundless at the moment? for long?

[next time]

manshu

12:02 PM

@humn I guess those things are for everyone. :p

question_asker

12:20 PM

@humn My computer is soundless at the moment, but soundful in the evenings (work schedule, basically)

Khale_Kitha

12:32 PM

That reminds me, q_a - I still need to get NotePerformer :/

And hi

question_asker

lol the babyman mod got rid of my comments on that spanish language puzzle

Khale_Kitha

babyman mod?

question_asker

hello KK

the mod that is always deleting things of mine

Khale_Kitha

ahh

question_asker

I should be nicer

Khale_Kitha

12:33 PM

:P

question_asker

I keep forgetting that a lot of people here (though not everybody) is super young

but certain people especially

Khale_Kitha

I was actually thinking about it, the other day...

I tend to forget something, when I'm online, that I never forget in real life.

People are stupid.

question_asker

true!

Khale_Kitha

Sometimes they have good reason for it, but -- regardless =D

I just forget

It's funny - the program I had to create to design that email puzzle...

I pieced together things, online, to make it, but I wasn't really sure that it worked the way I thought..

...So last night, I wrote a program to decrypt it, myself, to make sure I do understand - and it worked.

Yay

I can't believe no one has had a conniption about me editing that puzzle, yet.

question_asker

haha

yeah people are wieners about this stuff

Matt

12:37 PM

wieners?

looks like I got here just in time

Khale_Kitha

I just mean because:
1. I made it even longer.
2. I had to fix something.

question_asker

and they tend to get riled up if anything is imperfect about a puzzle

Khale_Kitha

HOT DOGS! GET YOUR HOT DOGS!

Yeah, I've noticed this, q_a

question_asker

if it wasn't like 8:30AM I would want a hotdog now

Khale_Kitha

I'll try to remember to let my robots write all my puzzles, from now on.

question_asker

12:38 PM

yeah. I mean. I've even gotten annoyed at stuff like that

there was a puzzle where the answer was "NO ESCAPE" spelled out on a seven-segment display

but it came out to NO ESCAPP

Khale_Kitha

No Eskimo Capps for you!

question_asker

and I remember being kind of annoyed by that, but then thinking: who cares. number one, I was still able to solve it - the error didn't stand in the way of me using my damn brain to figure out what the actual answer was supposed to be. number two—and this is crucial—it's a puzzle on the internet

Khale_Kitha

Morning, Matt.

I try not to do it, too much, though, or it affects my own typing. :P

question_asker

it's what bothers me about the selfseriousness a lot of people have about closing puzzles they don't like etc

like, chill. even the worst puzzles here are not really hurting anybody

the only times I've ever seen anything I'd consider harmful here were 1) a couple of times people came by and legitimately vandalized the site by posting "answers" that were just slurs, and 2) the time one of the mods got doxed

manshu

366

Q: Jon Skeet Facts

I'm looking for Chuck Norris Facts style answers. In case anyone is curious, this question was inspired by Jon's own comment to this question. EDIT: If you're into cryptography, you may enjoy these facts. Now with official sanction from the powers that be!

Khale_Kitha

12:43 PM

I've seen Jon on SO for years, but I don't see what the big deal about him is.

question_asker

me either

Khale_Kitha

Some of his answers to posts are good - some are trash - just like everyone else.

question_asker

(also I don't find chuck-norris-fact style jokes very interesting or funny. they're really low effort and formulaic)

(but I'm not trying to poop on anybody's good time here)

Khale_Kitha

Meh, I agree

But I got bored with all of that back when it was "Barrens' Chat"

Internet Celebrities are amusing, to me, though.

Go to site where they are a celebrity: "All hail [Zod!]"

Go ANYWHERE else, in the world, or internet: "[Zod], who?"

Like that one youtuber that sites talk about. 1. A celebrity is not a celebrity because you said it was. I never even heard about the guy until he was mentioned on blog posts, etc. 2. Nearly everyone I've seen talk about the guy can't stand him. Infamy does not make a celebrity.

3. I don't even have reason to remember his name.

I really am done with my rant now - I think.

question_asker

hahaha I'm very much with you on this

we used to have that problem on twitter a lot

people would end up getting really heated about somebody and you'd have to step back and go "ok, literally no one who isn't within a certain orbit on twitter has even heard of this person, so it's not like they have any significant reach"

Khale_Kitha

12:52 PM

LoL

question_asker

which, you know, is not to say that it's not worthwhile to be critical of people (and yourself), but... sometimes it just ain't that deep

Khale_Kitha

=D

Oh, btw, I snuck a puzzle in, while you were out yesterday

It was a short one - I almost posted it, in here. Lol

question_asker

oh no, it's been answered already!

hahahaha oh man, I might've actually gotten that one

Khale_Kitha

haha

Oh wow, interesting - I figured something like this wasn't allowed.

Matt

speaking of making puzzles

Khale_Kitha

12:55 PM

Someone posted a binary string that turns into an .EXE that has to be run. I'd considered that.

Matt

I came up with one this morning

I guess I should post it if I want anyone else to see it

Khale_Kitha

True story =D

Also - you should want someone else to see it.

question_asker

let me just say I wouldn't be comfortable running any binary strings

Khale_Kitha

yeah

Matt

1:13 PM

man, my rhymes are so forced

meh

but I'm not poetically inclined enough to improve it by any significant amount

posted

Khale_Kitha

1:29 PM

kk

Narcissism! Narcissism comes next!

j/k - actually reading now.

Matt

hahaha

Khale_Kitha

I think I'm too tired to see any patterns here, right now.

All I can think of is ABA ABA ABA

Matt

yeah, that's the poetic form

but there's a sequence in there somewhere

I won't drop any hints yet - it's still very early

Khale_Kitha

yeah

Well I've looked at it from 3 directions and I'm pretty sure it's not day-of-the-week related.

Matt

if you fit the poem to days of the week when there's 9 lines and 7 days, I would be impressed

Will

1:36 PM

Literal 4-day weekends.

Khale_Kitha

I was skipping lines that didn't have dotw abbreviations.

It wouldn't fit anyways, since it's wordplay and the words mean something.

manshu

maybe months...9 lines are given..3 to go

Will

it's tagged word

manshu

word = months

Khale_Kitha

Seems like an improper tag, though, if we're being asked what the next stanza is

manshu

1:38 PM

read the description of word tag please

Khale_Kitha

"not a phrase, sentence, or sentences"

Like I said.

Being rude about it doesn't change anything

Matt

the solution is a single word

so I tagged it as such

manshu

tag it with the tag "poem"

Matt

I'm out of tags

eh, I got rid of riddle

Will

all I can think of is ... quite a reach.

Matt

1:46 PM

as I said in the puzzle, it's not your average sequence

Will

Is it a median sequence?

Matt

haha

Khale_Kitha

I'm certain it's unrelated

But the stanzas have 15, 17, then 13 words.

No relation to wordplay, though, so likely not helpful

plausible answer posted

Yeah, that's what I was meaning, earlier, Matt (btw, gj)

"What comes next?" implies that it's looking for a line of the poem, next.

Chris Cudmore

Answer is up and accepted.

Matt

I was expecting a word as the answer, but I got a little more

Khale_Kitha

1:51 PM

Yeah

Though technically he didn't answer - but the answer can be implied =D

Matt

indeed

he knows what's going on

Khale_Kitha

yeah

Matt

so I accepted it

Khale_Kitha

Nice job, though - Not something I would have noticed, given any amount of time.

Will

If you'd gone one line further, you could have asked, "what must come next?"

It would have had to be "elven"

Matt

1:53 PM

perhaps

Khale_Kitha

leaven =D

Matt

but I liked 3 x 3 lines

and the ABA form

Khale_Kitha

ABA is definitely hard to read.

Will

Yeah, that was nice

Matt

yeah, there's an abruptness to it

Khale_Kitha

1:55 PM

That's one of the things I like about...

ABAB CCDD ABAB

Or the one I used on skyscraper..

AA BC BC DD

question_asker

@Matt great puzzle!

Matt

thanks!

question_asker

It's a good example of a puzzle with many possible solutions that isn't "too broad"

because it's the reasoning itself that answers the question, not the specifics of the line

Matt

well I was expecting the answer to be "ten"

thus the word tag

question_asker

still

you chose an answer that wasn't ten, because you could tell they "got" it

this is why people who expect every clue to be explained drive me up a tree

Matt

2:04 PM

yeah

I had hints prepared, too

question_asker

if you made the riddle good enough, somebody won't just accidentally stumble on the right answer. somebody won't just brute force the right answer without knowing how the puzzle works

(also, "explain every clue" very often goes into "tell me what I was thinking" territory, even without people realizing it)

Matt

there's only one explanation that fits here

it's not a riddle, I guess

question_asker

oh yeah no I just was speaking more generally

Matt

right

question_asker

explaining why yours is good but others...not so much

Matt

2:07 PM

coming up with a good riddle is not easy at all

but this concept just hit me while I was in the shower this morning lol

Will

I have a vague, "almost all of the hints are covered exactly, the rest are covered somewhat, and there's no blatantly incorrect information" rule of thumb

Matt

that makes a lot of sense

question_asker

Yeah, that's a good way to go about things

like, if a riddle or puzzle or whatever consists of, say, ten clues that all follow the same rule, I'm willing to explain 3-4 of them - anything else is just literally making the solver do busywork for the sake of doing busywork, or for the sake of stroking the ego of the puzzle creator

Will

That said, I still don't know what to do with this

7

Q: Musician Jumble

I have a lot of free time, so I asked my friend for music suggestions. My friend, knowing that I am bored with time on my hands agreed, but gave me the suggestions in the form of a puzzle. On a sheet of paper, they wrote down twelve words: BLAND BOY CHAPTER CLIP EARTH ELEMENTS IONIC MESS PICKE...

music anagram

Matt

oh, a wiki can't be marked as correct ...

would it be kosher to answer it yourself?

Or ask Chris to repost the the answer since he's responsible for >50% of the wiki

or leave it

Khale_Kitha

2:17 PM

I thought it could still be marked, but gave no rep. I've seen wikis with checkmarks.

Matt

oh, well then

Will

^ that

@Chris If you're lurking here, I'll accept your answer if you list the stuff from the wiki. :P

Chris Cudmore

Maybe later. Debugging a deadlock right now.

Will

Fun stuff.

Chris Cudmore

Yeah. I think I need to replace a " Foreach(stuff) roundtrip update " with a datatable bulk update, but I've never done that before.

It starts deadlocking when multiple users write at the same time.

Khale_Kitha

2:21 PM

Yay, deadlocks...

Yeah, you're going to want to probably queue and/or chunk the save, so that it's smaller and more flexible.

Chris Cudmore

Theres a varchar max in there.

Khale_Kitha

Perhaps, but that's only 8000 characters

Chris Cudmore

Oh FUDGE!!!! There's no keys or indexes on the table!!!

Khale_Kitha

Gah

Matt

rip table

Khale_Kitha

2:30 PM

Yeah, my wife is taking a SQL class, for work, and the tables they're working with are extremely simple. No identities, no foreign keys, etc. I keep having to tell her: "This is what they want you to do...but DON'T EVER DO THIS to the tables, at work."

Chris Cudmore

I'm betting I dropped them while populating the original dataset and forgot to redo them.

Matt

all hail nosql!

Khale_Kitha

I need to learn nosql/mongo

(Mostly because so many companies in my field use it)

(And I never have)

To be fair, though, I started using TSQL 4 years ago..

question_asker

oh look it's nerd crew

Matt

you know it

question_asker

2:32 PM

I used to be very good and knowledgeable about mysql

many years ago

Khale_Kitha

I learned a decent amount, from working with very smart people

Matt

I went from a job using java/spring/hibernate/jsp etc to node/mongo/react ... it's so nice

Khale_Kitha

I still have trouble with outer joins, though

@Matt yeah?

Well - going from java to anything is so nice... lol

Matt

yeah

question_asker

I never even tried to learn java

Khale_Kitha

2:33 PM

I have hated it, since it came out

question_asker

java (and all c-related languages) are so gross to look at

they offend my sensibilities

Khale_Kitha

Oh look a java program. Let me wait 10 minutes for this to start up.... Okay, click a button...look - another 2 minutes.

3

There we go... Got it. Now....oh, it crashed.

question_asker

(I have the luxury of saying this, as I am not professionally involved with Computer Shit at all)

Matt

when I'm working locally, and edit server code, I don't have to wait minutes for tomcat to come back up (java). node bounces in 2 seconds

Khale_Kitha

I'm even talking locally - ran into a program, recently, in fact, for steganography.

Couldn't use it because it only worked on rare occasion, and crashed every few clicks.

question_asker

2:35 PM

@Khale_Kitha hahah YES. also: 99% of java UIs are the ugliest things I've ever seen

Khale_Kitha

Yes. This.

Matt

java swing applications are the worst thing to happen to desktop applications

Khale_Kitha

Actually, the only reason I haven't done any work on android apps is because of the language

Though, to be fair...that new iOS language is a complete joke

swift 2

Matt

webapps compiled into mobile apps are the future

Khale_Kitha

lol

I greatly dislike webapps

but I've yet to run into one that wasn't buggy as all getout

Meanwhile - my email puzzle had an update

but brb

question_asker

2:41 PM

oh, just looking at swift 2 right now, I don't hate it

Khale_Kitha

(back)

I just dislike the confusion of the keywords

like the silly 'let' command

question_asker

oh, that's a good point

Matt

es6 has let

question_asker

but remember, I'm a big piece of shit who likes ruby

2

Matt

it's basically a replacement for var

Khale_Kitha

2:44 PM

That's the problem, Matt.

in Swift, let does ONE thing

It instantiates constants. Nothing else.

ew

yeah

haha

you would think, like other languages, there would be a "const" for constants

Khale_Kitha

or that let would ... you know .... set other things

Matt

2:45 PM

yeah

Khale_Kitha

I've seen languages with 'let' - I don't like it, but they weren't this bad, lol

Matt

it's swift outwardly strongly typed?

that is, do you initialize other variables with their type?

Will

ML dialects' let keyword is great

Khale_Kitha

I'd have to look into it further - it says implies types, but I don't know, yet.

ML?/

Ruby's a demon, q_a

...sorry - wrong show.

question_asker

I love it

Will

2:47 PM

Yeah, ML. Like SML or OCaml.

question_asker

I mean, I know it's not a language that people writing "real" "programs" would use

Khale_Kitha

Well that's because it's not a programming language, hehe

It'd be tough to do that

question_asker

but it's great for smaller tasks (and works in surprisingly intuitive ways)

Khale_Kitha

Yeah

I've found value in it's use, personally.

Same with LUA

question_asker

Well, I mean, it's a programming language

but I get what you're saying

Khale_Kitha

2:48 PM

It's a scripting language

imo

(stupid chat delay)

I need to think of a new puzzle while people are working on the email one.

I should have named that puzzle, better..

question_asker

I won't get into the programming/scripting prescriptive debate

Khale_Kitha

lol

manshu

27

Q: Difference between a script and a program?

What is the difference between a script and a program? Most of the time I hear that a script is running, is that not a program? I am bit puzzled, can anybody elaborate on this?

scripting

Khale_Kitha

That first answer is exactly my thought, personally.

question_asker

"closed as not constructive" - this is why I won't get into the debate

but yes, I agree with that first answer

Khale_Kitha

2:51 PM

As for my Ruby's a demon comment..

I was teasing, about that show (thinking...)

oh

Supernatural

question_asker

oh I haven't seen that

Will

Why is that show still running

Khale_Kitha

Ah, lol - my wife watched the entire thing, so I saw it all the time

Is it still running? I have no idea

They've all died and come back like 8 times each

And everyone has changed roles so often...

lol

question_asker

I feel like my number one argument for AND against ruby is that one SO question I posed, and the accepted answer to it

Khale_Kitha

"These are the days of our [supernatural] lives..."

2

lol

I found ruby really useful for the tool that I used it for

Chris Cudmore

2:53 PM

I think that solved it. Just ran a 30 user test, all submitting Yuge, Classy blocks of Lorem Ipsum simultaneously and no deadlocks.

Will

yay!

Chris Cudmore

I can't believe I left the keys off. I'm smarter than that.

Khale_Kitha

Gj, Chris

Yay for Yuge blocks!

:P

Chris Cudmore

And of course, I never even bothered to check. I just assumed they would be there.

question_asker

where the answer to my question was essentially "no you can just go ahead and toss that conditional into the array brackets"

like. of fucking course. naturally.

Khale_Kitha

2:54 PM

lol

Chris Cudmore

A colleague suggested I check the indexes, which led me to start poking around.

Khale_Kitha

Yeah, Chris - I have a habit of programming my code so that someone, later, can't screw it up...

manshu

2 days ago, by You

When cursing, please put the curse word in brainf**k.

Khale_Kitha

I keep getting told, by colleagues to trust the other developers, but I refuse.

I don't want to have to go back and fix or explain my code because someone else screwed up something, so I code, assuming they're going to screw it up.

Chris Cudmore

No, this was all on me.

Khale_Kitha

2:58 PM

No, I understand - I just mean that it's one of those things that you didn't check because you assumed it was done right - regardless of whomever didn't do it right to begin with. Haha

Chris Cudmore

When I did the initial data load, I disabled the keys and FK constraints so that I didn't have to upload the data in a particular order. I just forgot to put them back.

Khale_Kitha

Ahh, haha

Yeah, I've seen the same thing happen with disabling of identity restrictions - The company I worked for had an installer that had to do that when it would replace data in constrained tables.

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