« first day (1477 days earlier)      last day (2167 days later) » 

12:00 AM
I should have one ready in a couple minutes.
CCCC: Changing directions in a city is something to be avoided? (6)
 
12:43 AM
Nice surface
 
i'm forgeting about this site, noooooooo
 
@thecoder16 You can help prevent this from happening with this handy mnemonic: PSE => Puzzle Site Exists
7
 
lol
 
@thecoder16 what site?
:P
 
yeah good question
 
1:01 AM
@Apep ME(DU)SA (Arizona)
 
no, MEDUSA is not correct
 
I was not expecting that
 
1:19 AM
@Apep P(L<-R)AGUE
 
@EricTressler correct
If it got to the point where I had to give a hint, I was going to use "See a recent 70h hint".
 
The first answer was my best wrong answer to date, I think.
 
1:47 AM
CCCC: Independent nation holds back shelter (9)
 
2
Q: Island (sketch)

stacksfillerPart of the Fortnightly Topic Challenge #35: Restricted Title 1 Explanation in the first image, which otherwise is just for flavor.

0
Q: According to String Theory

ChowzenIn addition to being quite similar to my previous puzzle in construct, this puzzle has the dubious honor of being another hint for this hintless question. Bm F# A E G D Em F# (4) -----_---------- Am C(G) D(F#) F E (15) ----_- -_-----_-----_--- * A7 D A7 D G A ...

 
2:02 AM
^I was sure that was an xkcd for a second
there's "String Theory" but not long enough to be included
 
 
2 hours later…
3:33 AM
0
Q: Barrel - Part 2

RileyAn entry in Fortnightly Topic Challenge #35: Restricted Title 1. Title based on this xkcd. This is a continuation of Barrel - Part 1, but this puzzle is still self-contained. Oh no, there's barrel peril! This time, it's a $6\times 6$ warehouse, and you need to get a "special" red barrel out of t...

 
3:49 AM
1
Q: A Strange Case of Dementia

Minh Tran“...on the next episode of Planet Money, we welcome famous author and...” I woke up in a hospital to the sound of radio playing softly in the background. To my left, three stacks of machine beeped and purred, checking my vitals. To my right, stood a small table with a glass of iced water, along ...

 
 
2 hours later…
Sid
5:20 AM
@Deusovi Man. That was a beautifully constructed puzzle
 
And I was typing my own answer too :P
well, have my +1 MPH
 
wow, so many entries into the fortnightly already!
and lots of awesome ones
 
Sid
(Someone solve my puzzle now. SKOG has done 45% of the work already)
 
I do not share SKOG's ability to place meaning on seemingly random lists of words
 
6:06 AM
I can't solve non-grid-deduction puzzles cri
 
I'm amused that Riley's actually chosen titles with part numbers
 
6:23 AM
I considered doing it, but then the problem with picking part 1 is that you have to do part 2
 
When I first looked through the list, the thought crossed my mind to choose part 5 only and make it reverse-puzzling, where you'd have to work out what happened in parts 1-4.
 
@Sid Thank you! Glad you liked it.
 
 
2 hours later…
8:20 AM
0
Q: Where is the treasure John is looking for?

peerlessNot much was at stake on John's last visit to the oracle. But his grandfather had told him, in his dying moments, the location of a unimaginable treasure. Forgetful as usual, John messed up again. Although not fully prepared, he visits the oracle once more, only to take heat from the oracle in th...

 
thanks
 
8:52 AM
@Rubio hm, it looks like you hollowed their profile out removing spam
 
I haven't touched it yet
 
um, does that really look like a spam profile though?
 
There's no point removing spam from a profile. If it's a spammer I'm going to nuke it outright. If it's not, then I'm not going to touch it.
And yes, that's a definitive spam profile.
 
I mean, I can't see anything that would imply there's something spammy going on, no posts, no "about me", and "FredGlenn" isn't really the same of some spam site or something
was it always like this?
 
 
1 hour later…
10:14 AM
@Deusovi can someone put a bounty on this question. Its canna been sad to see it waste away.
 
Someone can. I don't have any particular desire to, and I'm not sure why you pinged me.
 
@Mithrandir I have the handy smokey userscript to see info about such things, but is there a way to easily get the metasmoke url for a given post to go there directly?
 
One sec
 
@Mithrandir oh, I don't know why we haven't deleted the user yet, Graphic Design deleted them less than a minute after them posting that
 
10:20 AM
(or for that matter, FR: have the userscript provide a direct link in the data it shows)
@EriktheOutgolfer because I'm collecting data and just haven't gotten there yet
 
https://m.erwaysoftware.com/posts/uid/<site>/<SE post ID>
 
is "uid" literally "uid" ?
 
Yes
 
I would think so
otherwise it would be <uid>
 
also: https://metasmoke.erwaysoftware.com/posts/by-url?url=//puzzling.stackexchange.c‌​om/questions/<num>
bah
 
10:27 AM
Yeah, that's the old method
 
so yeah - https://m.erwaysoftware.com/posts/uid/puzzling/66544 worked, and is reasonably usable
a direct url would still be a nice thing to add to the smokey userscript info
whose US is that anyway
 
Which? SIM?
 
10:45 AM
apparently. AoC's huh
 
10:56 AM
12
Q: A Musical Mystery: Part 1

TreFoxI need your help. I'm a physics grad student, but I've always really loved music. So for the past few months, I've been interning with this Italian piano maker - I don't want to say his name here. He's very passionate about music, thinks of it like it's own language. But he's always really paran...

 
0
Q: Old School riddle with a twist

Ashwin KumarRhpeiwpa fj pejchao, ykt cqhh lb qdeo xjz iaoo Qda pkhqpekj fo ewnikju, cnki tdwp tkqhz ya x jaoo. Lnzejwh, Xxoyeoowh, xjz Fiiazewpa qnkqxha, Znepeywh oareoekj jqopj’p oarawh x akqxha. Hint:

 
11:18 AM
0
Q: Inequality problem (Find the variables)

DetmondyouVariables $a$ and $b$ are whole positive integers. Solve for $a,b$. $\sqrt{a^2b}=\left(\sqrt{ab^2+1}\right)-1$

 
@Sphinx @Rubio this question is off topic. It should be on mathmatics.se.
 
Yes, I'm sure you're right. Good thing people are closing it.
Reviewers: ^^
 
11:32 AM
@Rubio Would you pin the latest C4 and remove the old one, please?
Thank you
 
couple more stars on it will hopefully put it in the right spot
 
 
1 hour later…
12:47 PM
0
Q: None but the Heart is What matters

ManirajConfined with my brothers Occasionally I see Light Sent to amuse others For I don't have any life Can't see because Eyes is what I don't have Its the matter of hands but I lack that God showed some Mercy by giving me heart Make a guess and tell what we are.

 
1:11 PM
1
Q: The magic trick

Ilia LI am here to tell you about two brothers that were doing a magic trick. But not the kind with smoke and mirrors but just a deck of cards and the magic of the human mind. Will you be able to match the bothers wits and figure out whats the trick? Brother 1 will take a normal, shuffled 52 card deck...

 
1:26 PM
@TreFox do you want a bounty to be put on your question.
 
2:26 PM
@TheMaskedRebel Nah, it's too hard. I'm just leaving it alone, it was just me experimenting with a couple formats.
 
3:12 PM
6
Q: It's a five hit combo!

Joe-You-Know Placed in front of you with a feast meat for a king, Offered by the clown that comes with a new, neat thing. Tastes from the sea when the red girl comes this way, Always good with whatever John catches that day. To tempt you with what the cows try to murder, Or at the place whe...

 
3:41 PM
in Charcoal HQ, 3 hours ago, by ArtOfCode
@Mithrandir [status-will-forget-unless-issued]
 
 
2 hours later…
5:26 PM
1
Q: A Bunch of Rocks

Minh TranAn entry in Fortnightly Topic Challenge #35: Restricted Title 1. "Mind passing me the salt & pepper please Rick?" Jean leaned on the table asking the man in black suit sitting opposite him. "I got this Rick." James, another friend sitting with the two, interjected. He passed the condiments to J...

 
5:59 PM
0
Q: Generating different difficulties in custom puzzle

Sentryfirst of all this is my first time asking something here so please let me know if I am doing something wrong or asking it on the wrong place. I have a custom puzzle model where I need to generate different puzzles difficulties, but I am having some problems making sure that the method that I use...

 
6:16 PM
0
Q: Brother Mine! Missing

Ashwin KumarSo, just the other day, i was sitting outside trying to piece some puzzle together, when my brother called. He had this rather strange message for me. "Mostly its you who did it boy.... for every time his despair was unto you. Call this phone number, probably, to get information : +353758960391...

 
6:50 PM
just noticed i almost have access to my first review queue here.
 
7:03 PM
0
Q: Another Sensational Crime Fiction?

Minh TranWilliam Herschel III, heir of the Herschel Paper Company, is dead. His body was found in fishing gear, discovered near the family estate's lake by his Labrador. Police immediately suspected foul play. CCTV footage proved that his death was around 3pm the previous day. Eight suspects were called, ...

 
7:43 PM
@Sid Think we've got 2 solved, if you want to check it out.
 
Sid
Hmm. That's actually better than what I had. But, no. That's not intended.
(And I am very surprised something like that managed to sneak in)
 
So it's unintended? Sorry to hear that.
So 2 is wrong then.
 
 
1 hour later…
9:23 PM
@Deusovi What do you use to create crossword images?
 
I use qxw! It's a really useful program, and it also help with grid filling.
(the default dictionary isn't great though - you might want to find another online)
 
I'm curious, what dictionary are you using?
 
9:39 PM
I use 12dicts (specifically, 2+2+3lem.txt), but it doesn't have everything. (For instance, "latin" isn't in there, even though it feels like it should be. I put that in the grid manually.)
 
@Deusovi you don't write your crosswords on vellum using ink you made yourself?
 
the devious deus wants to make his stuff quickly :P
 
@EricTressler ink I made myself? no, the wordplay gods would never accept that. I have to use something more valuable, like blood or printer ink.
 
Actually, that reminds me, I've been looking all over for a thesaurus. I've found several, but I'm not really satisfied with any of them. Does anyone know if/where I can find one?
 
@EricTressler a bookstore? tbh i use thesaurus.com most of the time though
 
9:44 PM
I haven't read their TOS, but I don't think they'll be okay with me scraping their whole site
 
just write your own thesaurus
 
@Deusovi no harming yourself, others or living matter for that purpose please...
except if you want to take revenge on somebody
 
I did consider what it would take to use a general collection of texts to auto-generate a thesaurus. The more I thought about it, the less tractable it seemed
I think you can embed Winograd schemas into that problem
 
@EricTressler see 3.2
looks like you can probably download it all?
 
I did see that, actually, but they can still ban my IP if they see a traffic spike.
Just because it's not spelled out in their TOS, they're not obligated to let me do it.
 
9:50 PM
use a vpn, then you dont have to worry about your IP
 
I would rather just find something that's open. I don't think thesaurus.com wrote their own thesaurus either, they must have a source.
 
@EricTressler WordNet might be what you are looking for
 
I have wordnet
 
At least the version of wordnet I had was quite lacking
 
I could be mistaken, but I remember its capabilities as a thesaurus to be very weak
 
9:54 PM
i believe open office also has a downloadable thesaurus
 
why do you think thesaurus.com did not write their thesaurus?
 
Because there's some weirdness in there that makes me think it was somehow auto-generated
It could possibly have been created based on captchas
 
haha
relavant xkcd!
too lazy to search unfrotunately
oh found it
 
632 is relevant as well
less so though
 
I see this on thesaurus.com: Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition Copyright © 2013 by the Philip Lief Group. So, maybe they did write theirs (or borrow it wholesale from Roget's)
 
 
1 hour later…
11:23 PM
0
Q: Labyrinth Puzzle

stacksfillerPart of the Fortnightly Topic Challenge #35: Restricted Title 1 Surprised no one went for this low hanging fruit yet Get from MAZE to DONE When you're DONE with the MAZE, apply the following the changes: -- You can probably game this puzzle by working back and forth, but I would prefer if y...

 
11:47 PM
you might have missed in Island (Sketch)
 
0
Q: Simple Rebus Question

Sweet_Cherry That's the rebus (right above). HINT:

 
gur svany nafjre rkvyr gvrf onpx shyy pvepyr nf vgf k+vfyr
 

« first day (1477 days earlier)      last day (2167 days later) »