The Sphinx's Lair

Jonathan Allan

01:19

@Deusovi Not too bad ta; still full of painkillers though.

Gareth McCaughan

11:27

[back but probably not for long]

Gareth McCaughan

11:41

Just to be more explicit about something I said earlier:

@LukasRotter I think Mushroom Bang Boom is: Arka Karmarkar / Arbitrary Kangaroo. [Those two are the same person, unless I am awfully confused.]

Lukas Rotter

12:00

@GarethMcCaughan You're hereby the first one who's eligible of winning the +500 for guessing correctly.

"The experiment will be over when I would get 1k reputation." - I guess we'll have to serially upvote if we don't want it to last too long :P

Sid

What if the guy is just messing with us and just gets us to upvote his post on this scam?

Lukas Rotter

Their last puzzle seems to be pretty "normal", too... Not sure what the experiment is at this point.

Sid

13:52

Okay,this is a strange question to ask here, if anyone knows about Logic gates(As in electrical circuits, not in computers), if I connect two switches in parallel with each other as well as with a bulb, doesn't it constitute a NOR gate?

user189275

14:04

@GarethMcCaughan Stop mentioning my real name (A4 K9) repeatedly. If you mention it next time, I will flag for mod.

Lukas Rotter

@ArbitraryKangaroo But you your real name even is on your profile...

user189275

Okay, edited, done.

Sid

Wasn't that what you had a few months back?

user189275

Yup.

Sid

If you are really that concerned about privacy, you shouldn't have had it in your profile...

Lukas Rotter

14:14

I don't think it's a rule violation to use the real name of someone if they publicly presented it on the SE network before... Sure, you can ask someone to not use it anymore, but flagging it for mod seems wrong to me IMHO.

user189275

@GarethMcCaughan: Read only the first sentence of this comment.

user189275

14:32

mee, n bw huuhldr ydtf pcxp cwvkejfg cn ifl tvyin'r huai ! gx'v imneeyq, ohb'c he, re oql eov ngz kcmawpsh ddrld qv czdlklo tqxb hgm zykk ri smp lxzfmx kyca dn u bxujaf dpqp nawin ntwe bgwaemd a ui qo k'l'.

user189275

@LukasRotter Is there stego in the "Anti Dolphin" stuff ?

Lukas Rotter

@ArbitraryKangaroo Nope

What is the purpose of posting encrypted messages again?

user189275

Ah, okay nothing, just checking if anybody could crack a (max) 11 letter long keyed Vignere. (No joke)

user189275

@LukasRotter "Guessing correctly" ?

Gareth McCaughan

16:04

@ArbitraryKangaroo OK, noted; my apologies. I hadn't realised you were hoping for an entirely clean break. As Lukas and Sid say, it seems a bit odd to be complaining quite so vigorously at the same time as having the name in question in your profile. In any case, I shall refrain from calling you by that name in the future unless you return to it yourself.

@Sid It will indeed behave like a NOR gate, but your power source may not take kindly to being shorted out :-).

@ArbitraryKangaroo Lukas means I am the only person for whom the following is true: If that person has correctly guessed the identity of Mushroom Bang Boom, then that person is entitled to 500 rep points from Lukas on account of his earlier promise. He isn't claiming that I have in fact guessed correctly.

Ankoganit

@BeastlyGerbil Sorry, couldn't reply sooner. Your answer is right, but the explanation is...well..incomplete, but nice job anyways! :)

Sid

@GarethMcCaughan Well, everything is fair in the name of science.. :P

Ankoganit

@Randal'Thor You inspired me to make another cryptic:
Fake video about American puzzler (7)
:-)

Rand al'Thor

16:20

@Ankoganit Is "fake" one of those words used to clue anagrams?

Yep: US video = @Deusovi.

Gareth McCaughan

tut, indirect anagrams. Deusovi would disapprove. (As do I.)

Rand al'Thor

Well, we can't all be cryptic crossword connoisseurs :-P

I'm enough of a crossword dilettante not to be too picky about clues working exactly 'right' (though perhaps that will change when I get more practice with them...)

Sid

I had thought of one yesterday and embarrassingly, I have forgotten what it was...

Rand al'Thor

Hey @Deusovi, when you reach a new rep threshold while already a mod (congrats on 25k, btw!), do you get that inbox notification to tell you about your new privileges even though you actually had all the privs already?

Alenanno

@Alconja How is it going with the grid?

Sid

16:36

aqua sole mix nothing Maths, silence. (4)

Be kind, it's my first cryptic clue

Ankoganit

@GarethMcCaughan nothing indirect there, it's anagrammed video =DEOVI around US.

Rand al'Thor

> These are our forests. We are not kind.

Ankoganit

That's legit, right?

Rand al'Thor

Sorry, I can never resist a quote :-P

@Ankoganit I think he means indirect in the sense that you need to change "American" to "US" before anagramming.

Sid

Which makes me doubt, you are Mushroom Bang boom...

@LukasRotter I think Mushroom Bang Boom is Rand al'Thor.

Sconibulus

16:39

US isn't anagrammed, anagrammed video is put about it

deUSovi

Rand al'Thor

@Sid Wait, you doubt I'm MBB or you think I'm MBB?

Sconibulus

also, hello

Rand al'Thor

(I'm not, btw.)

Lukas Rotter

@Sid K, you're also eligible now.

Rand al'Thor

My sock is (of course) called Lews Therin Telamon.

But not the same Lews Therin who once engaged in a hilarious comment conversation with me here on Puzzling.

Lukas Rotter

16:43

@Randal'Thor LTT has the same format as MBB. Just saying :P (incredible evidence)

Rand al'Thor

@LukasRotter You rotter :-P

Anybody else looking at this one?

Deusovi

@Ankoganit That clue looks fine to me! You're only anagramming VIDEO, not VIDEO+US.

Sid

Homophones are allowed in cryptic clues without explicit mention,I suppose?

Rand al'Thor

@Sid No, there should be a "sound" or something in there to indicate homophones, I believe.

Deusovi

No.

Sid

16:50

sound?

Gareth McCaughan

oops, of course everyone is right that US isn't part of the anagram, and I retract my complaint.

Rand al'Thor

@GarethMcCaughan The confusion is my fault, because I anagrammed "US video" without realising that "about" meant wrapping one word around another rather than just anagramming.

Good clue, @Ankoganit :-)

Deusovi

Some clue like "to the ear", "we heard", "over the phone", "overheard", "to the audience" usually indicates homophones.

And yeah, I liked the clue too - very nice surface reading!

(Of course, I may be a bit biased... :P )

Sid

Well, I guess my clue breaks the norm.

Gareth McCaughan

Did anyone ever solve mine?

(I didn't think it was terribly difficult.)

Deusovi

16:54

Hm? Which one? (I just got here.)

Sid

@GarethMcCaughan Link please?

Rand al'Thor

19 hours ago, by Gareth McCaughan

CCCC: A state I've reached: turned on (6)

Sid

@Deusovi look above...

Rand al'Thor

^^ that one?

Gareth McCaughan

yeah, that one

Deusovi

16:55

Nope! Not yet.

Sid

@GarethMcCaughan You mentioned that one of them was redundant in its meaning...

Gareth McCaughan

Not quite how I put it, but yeah, something like that.

Sid

Good luck to anyone who is solving it, I am out....

Gareth McCaughan

auf wiedersehen Sid

Sid

17:18

Yes!! My second conspiracy theory is complete.

Gareth McCaughan- You are a sock puppet of M Oehm(Or vice versa). See the similarities- Both of these users haven't posted a single question but have over a hundred answers and they also give pretty high quality answers. And now, Gareth fumbles and writes in German. Yes!! I was right.... (No offence to any of the two subjects, but you are caught now...) :P

Rand al'Thor

Weekends are slow :-(

On a normal day, this riddle would have been solved much quicker, and the answer would probably have got more votes.

Gareth McCaughan

17:55

@Sid Better that than being accused of being a rogue AI, I guess. I am flattered by the comparison -- M Oehm is super-sharp -- but no, I am not M Oehm, nor do I have any other identities here. Sorry! :-)

Beastly Gerbil

Aaaaah @Deusovi you just cost me 60 rep

Deusovi

18:45

@BeastlyGerbil Sorry! OP requested deletion.

(Speaking of which, how is it being able to see deleted questions? :D )

Beastly Gerbil

@Deusovi oh ok then, thast ok. And yes it is fun to see some of the weird things posted here :P

Rand al'Thor

@Deusovi Speaking of rep thresholds, did you get the "you just gained a new privilege" notification when you hit 25k today, even though you had full privs already?

(I asked earlier, but you must have missed the ping :-) )

Deusovi

Nope, didn't get anything. (And yeah, I meant to answer that, but I'm very forgetful.)

Beastly Gerbil

Oh @Deusovi you got 25k? Congrats!

Deusovi

Thanks! :D

Beastly Gerbil

18:48

@Randal'Thor, @Deusovi is coming for you! :P

Deusovi

Nah, I doubt I'm gonna pass up Rand anytime soon.

Unless he decides to give me dozens of bounties for no reason, but I'm pretty sure that would be against site policy.

Rand al'Thor

Who needs rep when you've got a diamond?

Beastly Gerbil

You might having a look at the curve in his rep recently

@Randal'Thor, that line has come to an almost standstill, get posting again!

Rand al'Thor

@BeastlyGerbil I posted a couple of answers today.

Beastly Gerbil

I saw, I'm kicking myself over the proof one

Rand al'Thor

18:51

Heh, you can almost see the exact day when my rep suddenly started to level out on both SFF and here.

Beastly Gerbil

And I completely agree that the proof of the pudding is the eating

Rand al'Thor

And now that stupid Lifehacks answer has catapulted me up the rep leagues there and got more votes than any of my hundreds of answers here :-(

@BeastlyGerbil Any more thoughts on @IAmInPLS's one?

Beastly Gerbil

Which one? (To the answer and I am In Pls)

Rand al'Thor

@BeastlyGerbil This one:

0

A: Travelling the world

Partial answer The text message is very short and yet contains a steganographically hidden message, so presumably the solution involves manipulation of individual letters rather than words. But I had to make it through security Not one nor two, but eighteen times! I tell you, it's you who'll...

Beastly Gerbil

My initial thoughts were that the first line when converted into numbers (letters per word) would relate to letters in the riddle, but didn't get anywhere with that

The first line is very suspicious

Rand al'Thor

18:56

The hint suggests that all the steganographic message is in the first line and the riddle only tells us what to do to find it.

Beastly Gerbil

Ah didn't see the hint

You may think that travelling is easy - may relate to 'trip' in the first sentence

'Concentrate on the list you'll find'

Rand al'Thor

"Don't focus on the rhymes, they're not so deep"

Beastly Gerbil

So the end words aren't important

Rand al'Thor

I interpreted this to mean that a lot of the riddle is stylistic and not really important to the solution.

Beastly Gerbil

I've noticed something interesting. It seems like there is a word in each line which relates to a word in the sentence

Beastly Gerbil

19:21

0

A: Travelling the world

It seems to me So

Rand al'Thor

@BeastlyGerbil How does primes ~ best?

Beastly Gerbil

@Randal'Thor google.co.uk/…

Prime can mean the best

Prime candidate - best candidate

Rand al'Thor

Hmm, I suppose so ...

It's a bit tenuous though IMO, especially since you've only found links for half the lines.

Beastly Gerbil

Of course, I could be wrong and it means prime numbers

Mithrandir

19:58

So when do we get hats...?

Beastly Gerbil

@Mithrandir you're back!

Mithrandir

Me?

looks over shoulder

You can't be talking to me.

I'm not here....

Beastly Gerbil

:P

Mithrandir

I have a puzzle ready, it's in the new question tab and everything...

It'll be posted soon.

Like...

Tonight, tomorrow, or Monday.

Beastly Gerbil

So thats where you've been all this time

Mithrandir

20:01

Nope

I was on the ground.

I lost my wings.

Rand al'Thor

Yo @Mithrandir!

I've been wondering where you'd got to.

Beastly Gerbil

I suggest you don't post on Monday, all the metapuzzles are being posted then

Mithrandir

@Randal'Thor I still don't exist.

Rand al'Thor

First you abandoned SFF, then you abandoned Puzzling soon after I came back.

Is it me you're avoiding?

Mithrandir

I lost my wings. both times.

Rand al'Thor

20:02

sniffs under arms

:-P

Mithrandir

...Ohhh....

It actually took a minute for me to get that. O_o

Beastly Gerbil

@Mithrandir I'll be frantically clicking the reload button for the next few hours until you post :P

Mithrandir

@BeastlyGerbil I appreciate the devotion :P

...Surely not because it has a link to your puzzle.

Beastly Gerbil

Hmmm?

Mithrandir

Rand al'Thor

20:05

@Mithrandir Are you still doing that puzzle sequence (whose name escapes me for the moment)?

Mithrandir

The Clues?

Beastly Gerbil

Another one inspired from that :p

Rand al'Thor

@Mithrandir Yes.

Mithrandir

I might continue.

I have to come up with other puzzle ideas, though...

Beastly Gerbil

@Mithrandir you may be interested to know that I am making another 'imgur maze' for the metapuzzle and will be posted on Monday. Its based on Indiana Jones, or Indinana Bones as he is in my puzzle

Mithrandir

20:07

Cool

I'll check it out after you post it

...Because, you know, I can't see it before you post it.

Beastly Gerbil

Well here is the front cover:

Rand al'Thor

@BeastlyGerbil Speaking of Indiana Jones ...

3

Q: Who am I, if not Lewisoff?

I'll help you get across a river. Once unrecognised in Fischer's song, Later I found fame alone And also as a US state. Who am I? Hint 1: Hint 2: To be accepted, an answer must explain all lines including the title. But any serious attempt at a solution will get an upvote from me.

Mithrandir

Nice animation.

Beastly Gerbil

It took ages to reduce to less than 2MB. Thats why its a bit fuzzy

Rand al'Thor

@BeastlyGerbil Oooh.

Nice.

Beastly Gerbil

20:09

Thats just the front cover, I put a lot more effort into the graphics and logic of the actual puzzle

I was told for this similar one by GPR that it would be hard to follow that logic, so I've tried harder in this one

Mithrandir

What took so long is that I tried to make sure that there were no bugs

I hope I succeeded

Beastly Gerbil

How long until you post? Do you need to do anything else or is it all ready

Mithrandir

It all ready.

It'll go up tomorrow.

Beastly Gerbil

Damn! I'm out most of tommorow

Mithrandir

:/

Unfortunate.

I have to wait.

Beastly Gerbil

20:17

What timezone are you in?

Mithrandir

Dunno. O_o

It's currently 10:17 PM.

Which is why I'm on. It's after dark here.

Beastly Gerbil

Okay 8:17pm here

Rand al'Thor

8:18pm here.

:-P

Beastly Gerbil

Not much difference but I'll be able to look at it around middayish time, or just after for you. Maybe post it then ;)

Mithrandir

I can't post it now, because it's still Shabbat in some places, and if someone Jewish is on the site because of my puzzle, it could be a problem.

Beastly Gerbil

21:38

I just had a good idea for a puzzle, so here it is

Lukas Rotter

22:30

MathJax is evil. Even if it's inside a link (e.g. a title here on PSE) it displays the MathJax context dialog instead of the browser-specific one after clicking the right mouse button ;_;

Rand al'Thor

@BeastlyGerbil Oh great! Now all we need is a Geobitsian answer.

Lukas Rotter

22:42

I have an awesome idea to annoy people :P: I'll make a script that, when I post an answer/question/whatever (maybe I'll do it in chat first) makes a link out of every common word that redirects to the wikipedia/dictionary page of that word, while not doing the same for uncommon words. E.g. [Hello], my [name] is [Lukas] and I like [apples] and neoprimitivism

Alconja

@Alenanno sorry for the tardiness. Life and all that... I've updated that spreadsheet. Bottom right shows two possible valid solutions (assuming they don't have errors).

Given how much guessing was required, I'm confident there's more. e.g. these two are only different in one corner, but that just happened to be the last corner I was guessing in, if I had've started there and moved other ways I think there'd be equivalent ambiguous regions elsewhere.

Rand al'Thor

23:23

@Beastly @Lukas I couldn't resist:

0

A: A valentine's code

Lukas Rotter's answer is the intended one, but in the spirit of Geobits SetBigO, I can't resist adding an alternative, more convoluted solution. The card is from Since the card includes a picture of a phone with a keypad, it's clear that Harry should Given this string, he needs to Applyi...

Lukas Rotter

Flagged as too broad :P

Rand al'Thor

I'm tempted to go and find Geobits to show him :-P

That answer of his was what first drew me to PSE.

Lukas Rotter

23:38

Just a test to see if you need links to have a http(s)://prefix to work in chat (they apparently do in normal questions): Don't click here 1 - [Don't click here 2](www.shayesaintjohn.net/), - [Don't click here 3](shayesaintjohn.net/)

that answers my question....

Deusovi

23:58

@LukasRotter That is a terrible idea.

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