The Sphinx's Lair - 2016-11-12

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9:03 AM

@Rubio Your one in a million puzzle is well, puzzling. I thought it must be something related to the "popular votes" in the US elections, the one which both Trump and Bush lost.. but I don't think that happened as many times as the number of examples given...

@Sid Well, it is sort of meant to be puzzling. :)

AM I on the right track?

I created the list of numbers two weeks ago. I assume that helps you.

Anyway, no - this has nothing at all to do with elections.

Yeah, figured... but Trump, Bush....

There has to be something related....

Republican candidates? But again, not elections....

1 hour later…

10:41 AM

Great, I just found out that the Sphinx ~~messages~~ spam are visible in transcripts, even if you ignored it. I might change my opinion in terms of keeping this bot now :P

I like the drop down feed anyway

user189275

@LukasRotter Have you ditched the idea of giving away rep ?

@ArbitraryKangaroo No, I'm waiting until I post my next puzzle.

@LukasRotter Why are you giving away rep?

Actually, I just had an idea how else to loose rep! Let's bet rep on who the user Mushroom Bang Boom is a sockpuppet off :P (they'll supposedly reveal it later)

10:47 AM

Hmmmm, Gamow is back so it could be him. I bet Deusovi cause he'd sort of do an experiment like that.

Oct 28 at 12:40, by Lukas Rotter

@BeastlyGerbil I don't care about rep (at least not on Puzzling). And I think it'd be funny if someone who doesn't know me visits my low-rep profile and sees how many posts I've already made :P

Nov 3 at 11:32, by Lukas Rotter

@ArbitraryKangaroo Because it's fun :P

So we now they are a sockuppet of someone who is active in chat.

@ArbitraryKangaroo because otherwise they wouldn't have that information.

:33472776 For a moment I actually thought it was you, because you removed a somewhat suspicious comment under the answer. But then again, you remove comments anyway (as we can see) and looking at the way you talked about the the last puzzle and the time you posted wasn't necessarily suspicious (although that could be an intentional trick, obviously)

@LukasRotter But... but...

@ArbitraryKangaroo I seriously think you should change your name to Arbitary Kanga[removed]

5

10:51 AM

0

Q: Review task bug

This is happening a lot to me and its really getting on my nerves. I'll log on and next to the review list will be a 3 in that orangey brown box which should indicate that there are 3 things waiting for review: However when I click on it there usually is nothing there: The box won't go awa...

:33472796 I'm just saying I wouldn't type "That's it!" under any answer except if I'm the creator of it.

Hi @Emrakul

user61230

Hello!

Now you're making me think it's you again AK, lol.

@Emrakul I've just noticed, whats with your post at the top of the starred list with the weird star?

user189275

10:56 AM

@LukasRotter What you would comment if you find the answer independently, and then someone posts an answer ? (Except it is an Alconja puzzle, like this obviously)

user61230

@BeastlyGerbil It's pinned! I wanted people to know I made a change to the feeds, so people could offer feedback if they wanted. It'll vanish in a few days.

user189275

@Emrakul What's the point of putting up those Bounty/Meta posts here ?

Oh didn't know you could do that. Yet again there are loads of secret things on site I have no idea about :P

user61230

@BeastlyGerbil secrets, precious....

:P

user61230

10:58 AM

@ArbitraryKangaroo [shrugs] It's been that way for years, it's the default.

user189275

@Emrakul Really I find no point in putting it up like that. Can't you do the same trick to those ? (And who made up those profile pictures ?)

user61230

@ArbitraryKangaroo I'd suggest posting an answer to that question, so others can vote, if they'd like!

user189275

@Emrakul: Oh, as a side note, can you please explain your profile text ?

user61230

@ArbitraryKangaroo ;)

user189275

@Emrakul You saw my comments after this ? Anything hidden still ?

11:05 AM

If that's Emrakuls real name then I know two of the moderators real identities...

Can anyone guess what my real name is?

@LukasRotter hmmm. Lukas Rotter? :P

I'm pretty sure no one will guess my name :P

user189275

@BeastlyGerbil So how's the metapuzzle stuff supposed to go ? You (and a bunch of others) post some puzzles (When ?) and then (When ?) Desouvi posts a (meta)puzzle based on the answer of these puzzles ?

So Deusovi sent us all a word via email. We then make a puzzle based on that word and post. They will be posted in about a week. When they are all solved Deusovi posts the meta puzzle which needs all the words to solve it.

user189275

@BeastlyGerbil After 18th of November ?

11:20 AM

I'm not sure, looking at the chat messages we are just waiting for @JulienRosen to confirm hes finished before we can post

Think so

11:33 AM

The box just went

user189275

@LukasRotter [cc: @RosieF] Ask any 10k+ reps, I remember vaguely there was a geometry by him, and it was the top voted.

user189275

But anyway, AD: Vote for pattern. It's not stupid in any way, but the geography is.

@ArbitraryKangaroo Why is it stupid?

Vote Wordplay! :P

user189275

@LukasRotter I hate rote (mugged up) knowledge, so I kinda hate trivia/history/geography/knowledge and most of the science questions which are not science, but trivia. But, yeah, I made a mistake, geography quetions in puzzling isn't stupid, because I just remembered this isn't a nonsense exam, so you can just google up and forget.

12:17 PM

@BeastlyGerbil dude, your name is 10155

@Sid why?

Want me to delete it?

What?

Sorry I'm confused

how could I have been this stupid... It's so obvious now...

@BeastlyGerbil should I delete your name from here?

12:21 PM

10155 isn't my name :P

It's obvious what it is, isn't it?

yes ak

user189275

Yeah, exremely trivial

Oh i see with the 10155 thing yeah thats my first name

Now, let's guess who mushroom bang bang is...

12:24 PM

its ak.

user189275

@BeastlyGerbil Why ?

:P

I bet 500 rep that it's AK

My first instinct goes to Rand, he wasn't active for a while now...

You just have to respond with "Give me your rep" to this comment. Whoever does that first can win 500 rep.

12:27 PM

Give me your rep

Give me your rep!

yay :P

why?

Either I loose 500 rep or nothing happens @BeastlyGerbil :P

More proof Mushroom Is AK! Mushroom's profile says 'puzzle crafters' the exact phrase Arbitary just used!

Exactly

12:30 PM

Yep... It is AK

Experiments.

user189275

Sep 18 at 17:54, by Deusovi

@ArkaKarmakar Yeah, agreed. Those two are my favorite puzzle crafters on the site, but they regularly lose out to crappy riddles.

AK also likes to create multiple accounts, and since he doesn't want to earn rep with the AK account he decided to do an experiment. He's fairly active in chat, so that explains the first MBB puzzle. Even for his standards he removes too many messages addressing this issue to hide evidence :P

@LukasRotter give me the 500 rep.. So that I could get to 3k rep before my hiatus and then vote to delete that goddamn riddle for a century

user189275

@LukasRotter This statement is completely true: Only this and tpk are my accounts.

@Sid Well, if MBB actually is AK no one gets rep :(

12:36 PM

I still feel it is Rand.. No evidence though

The first one is obviously photoshopped...

user189275

user image

Bill Gates is a myth

BTW, this is what the generated gravatar of MBB looks like and this is the URL

user image

12:51 PM

See, the guy doesn't accept answers soon, just like Rand. He didn't accept even @Ankoganit answer for a few days. Force of habit...

@Sid Good point, but I think rand does that because he wants his rep to stay a multiple of 5. Wouldn't matter in this case.

Sep 28 at 13:28, by Rand al'Thor

@Deusovi To keep my rep on a multiple of 5 (yes, I'm weird). I accept answers either to balance out downvotes or, if I repcap or don't get downvoted, in batches of five.

Whatever, the point is the guy doesn't accept answers soon.

user189275

Be less curious about people and more curious about ideas [@Me @Sid @LukasRotter @BeastlyGerbil] - Marie Curie

I'm curious about the idea that MBB is rand

@ArbitraryKangaroo 500 rep points at stake

user189275

12:56 PM

@Sid Reps are pointless. I only find 50 rep prieveilage commenting useful.

Anyway, I am afk for a couple of hours at least now. Would think of further evidence once I am back

It's also weird that MBB didn't include Rand in their first puzzle.

1:29 PM

@ArbitraryKangaroo What about the ability to vote to close/delete? Edit? Review? Be a moderator? Commenting is not the only useful thing to do.

VTC is great, reviewing is good and the 10k priveledges are amazing

user189275

1:42 PM

@BmyGuest: Are you planning to make a sequel of logic puzzle in visual disguise ? (Also, Why you deleted your number puzzle) ?

@ArbitraryKangaroo I noticed that the puzzle failed to satisfy my own standards. (It was just not a good one, I underestimated the parameter space of numbers.) So instead of "slow death" by adding stupid hint after hint I decided to withdraw it. The idea might reappear later in a better form.

user189275

@BmyGuest Ah. So now you aren't making any new puzzle ?

@ArbitraryKangaroo Not sure what a sequel to the puzzle would look like. The "ideas" on that one were spent... As for new puzzles: Surely not before my latests get cracked! (I but a lot of effort in it.)

user189275

@BmyGuest Stargate escape ? That one is awesome.

...thanks. But it has not yet gotten much attention / suggestions. Maybe bad timing. (Similar to my Pirate's puzzle.) But then again, making the puzzles is fun in itself.

In general, the amount of (my) participation on this site varies strongly as life went. There are weeks I spent a lot of time on it (and puzzles) and then there are periods I hardly care or have any ideas.... (That's why I did never want to be mod here.)

1:50 PM

I wont be entering my name in any elections for a very long time....

user189275

@BmyGuest I see. But you should definitely never quit putting up your nowordy puzzles. ("Hardly care" ? is that true ?) You hand draw them ?

What do you mean by "hand-draw"? I do them myself, yes, but totally digitally :c)

Me too. Sketchbook :P

Usually CorelDraw is my program of choice. With a bit of Photoshop for the more pixel-centred things. Occasionally, I use PowerPoint for quick work, some special programs for animiated GIFs and "numerical" image processing.

CorelDraw... Never heard of it. Sketchbook costs me a bit but its worth it.

I believe the movie the book of life was made on sketchbook

1:54 PM

@BeastlyGerbil Ouch, that hurts. Now I feel really old.

@BmyGuest to be fair I am only 13 so its very unlikely I have heard of it.

(CorelDraw was the program for vector-graphics at one time. It's still quite good in my opinion, but it lost the race to other software.)

@BeastlyGerbil Flip the digits and you still understimate my age 8-]

:P

user189275

@BmyGuest I would ask for a request: You should make your puzzle's black and white printable versions too, so that it could be worked offline.

@ArbitraryKangaroo Hm. I'll keep this in mind. But quite a few of my puzzles use the color aspect as an integral part of the puzzle.

1:59 PM

AAAH THE BOX HAS GONE UP TO 4!

And there's nothing to review!

user189275

@BmyGuest Yeah, but well its a bit unfeasible for some of the users (eg. me) to open the computer and work on the puzzle all time online.

@ArbitraryKangaroo True enough. But some puzzles require digitally close looks. But I keep it in mind for puzzles where it works...

Gotta go now. Have fun, all.

2:58 PM

Hmm...MBB has a Talkative Badge, but I didn't find any of their posts in any chat. Any idea how that's possible?

user189275

@Ankoganit Your exam is over ?

@Ankoganit changed name?

@ArbitraryKangaroo One of them is over, another one (the more boring one) is yet to begin in Dec 1.

:33474833 The "half-yearly", which is taking place at the end of the year for some reason.

@BeastlyGerbil Hmm, could be. But they joined on Nov 1, posted the first q on Nov 1, and got the talkative badge on Nov 1. :O

:33474862 Running somewhat busy now D:

Actually I had some ideas for a cipher+logical-deduction, but can't even start working on it :(

Or on second thoughts, probably that won't be too unconventional

@ArbitraryKangaroo How do you know it's different from mine :P

(but yeah, it's actually different)

user189275

@Ankoganit I have a copy of the instrument used here.

@ArbitraryKangaroo :P

3:21 PM

Nobody flagged this yet?

user189275

@Ankoganit Yeah, flagged it.

Me too...

I flagged it rude or abusive so it doesn't matter if it fits

@ArbitraryKangaroo That's actually not too surprising, because 10-12 other answers fit as well.

How did this get 19 upvotes? It's a hugely generic description that could apply to almost anything. The lines as written don't even seem to apply to the accepted answer as well as they do to other answers. It's no wonder there are 12 different answers posted! — GentlePurpleRain ♦ yesterday

@ArbitraryKangaroo Man, why do you have to remove messages all the time :c

@ArbitraryKangaroo despite being told roughly 100 times with jokes made and comments telling you to stop removing comments getting over 10 stars, WHY DO YOU KEEP DOING IT!?

HNQ is a very strange thing for PSE.. Useless riddles get up voted into stratosphere

user189275

3:33 PM

@BeastlyGerbil :

user189275

Nov 3 at 11:32, by Lukas Rotter

@ArbitraryKangaroo Because it's fun :P

@Sid Yup, we need to build a brick wall around PSE :P

@ArbitraryKangaroo thast my point, its not fun for everyone else

I am still waiting for one good puzzle to be in HNQ. I think LR's Rubik cube was there, except for that one

@Ankoganit school exams??

@Sid Yeah

3:39 PM

Hmm.. Term tests? Or half yearly?

user189275

@Sid There were probably some Alconja puzzle in HNQ.

@Sid Half-yearly.

@Ankoganit recent alconja puzzle? Or earlier ones?

@Sid Uh, are you sure you wanted to ping me on that? :P

user189275

@BmyGuest Didn't you have an geometry in the fortnightly challenge page ?

3:42 PM

OK, won't do it further

user189275

@Sid I forgot, But I seen in some comment, but my memory is hogwash.

@Sid Why not, I'm getting bored anyways :D

BTW, I think REJBAS once did made to the HNQ, But I ain't sure

Sorry, I somehow read arbitrary kangaroo as Ankoganit.. Probably because I expected any ak comment to be deleted

@Sid lol..no worries

@Ankoganit BTW I had a question for you...

Would tell it later

3:47 PM

@Sid Why later?

I need to remember the question :P

user189275

Math related ?

Yep...

What else?

So, back to the mushroom bang bang

I need to find something more to support my clues

If anyone doesn't know: This is the question their profile pic is from:

31

Q: Owls at sunset - find the odd one out

Quite contrary to the common belief, owls are very social animals and indeed form flocks or rather tightly bound families with a common social codex. At sunset, they all meet before going on their individual hunting trip, and they eye themselves very carefully. Any owl not belonging to the group ...

user189275

Upcoming: Mystery of Mushroom Bangboom. +500 from Lukas Rotter.

3:57 PM

@ArbitraryKangaroo K. +500 for the person who gets it correct (only one guess, the winning person can't be owner of MBB account, obviously). (My bet with Beastly Gerbil is also still running). A valid guess must be in the following format (posted in chat): "I think Mushroom Bang Boom is: [insert username]" I only count the first guess from each person, and it must obviously be posted before MBB reveals their identity.

Does not have much hints to find the right answer... Will have to wait for the guy to reveal it

+500 for the first person who gets it correct, of course...

Now, the one in a million number...

Trump and Bush must be a red herring to think about presidents...

Damn, already Sunday today... That should have been solved already

I think I finally got this one!

42

Q: Almost a curse?

What am I? My last three letters serve to clarify.My first four letters are where famous people speak.Dropping all consonants, I am almost a curse. The solution is a single English word and, once found, will leave no doubt that it is the intended one. Hint

riddle word english

:33475959 It says almost a curse

user189275

4:12 PM

@Ankoganit That's why its (removed)

I just hate self-answering. Hell, the guy just wrote the answer I was about to write. Cost me at least 15 rep

5:09 PM

so... HNQ? what is this?

5:23 PM

@Sid (And anyone else looking at the One in a Million™ puzzle) - not committing, just wondering, which would you rather have next - the helpfulness level 2 hint, or more examples?

@Rubio I'm for helpfulness level 2

5:40 PM

Helpfulness level 2. Keep adding till 10 if possible

@Rubio HNQ=Hot network question

6:12 PM

Ok thanks guys. For both questions :)

Einstein wants his watch, I see.

3 hours later…

9:05 PM

user image

I think two different people reviewed those flags :P

1 hour later…

10:12 PM

How. the. heck. did boboquack hit on that solution to puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/45610/… that fast??

10:36 PM

@Sid I'm almost offended :-P That user's English is far from perfect.

@Rubio Meh, it's quite obvious if you happen to have the right mindset when looking at it.

Mathematicians often work out the prime factorisation whenever we see a number. We're weird like that.

11:09 PM

@Randal'Thor Yeah - that's weird :)

@Rubio Your PSE user ID is 30633, which has only two prime factors.

lol.

I'm going to have to work that into a future Number(TM) puzzle ;)

Bah. Someone down-voted the One-in-a-Million. There's always someone.

11:29 PM

@Rubio images.memes.com/meme/1047525

Hehehe

@Emrakul In light of the further discussion on meta (both Lukas's answer and now Rosie's), can we change the "new questions" feed back to the nice onebox form? :-)

11:55 PM

What happens when two or more answers on the "What should the topics of our fortnightly topic challenges be" question have the same score when it's time to choose the next topic? I assume the older answer will be chosen?

@LukasRotter That happened once before, and I simply cast a deciding vote myself when making the meta post for the new topic challenge.

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Nov '1612

The Sphinx's Lair

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