« first day (2426 days earlier)      last day (1221 days later) » 

12:09 AM
Every time I come here the conversation ends
 
Not yet!
(Dad, almost 90, just called. "We forgot about the time.")
Same Dad who asked me about Fourier transforms.
Same Dad whom i replied, "you made Fourier transforms obsolete."
He thinks i know everything.
And he did remake transforms.
 
Oho
 
oHo!
 
Sometimes I wonder if I'm meant to understand the cryptic poetry of the mysterious humn, and then I think nah, humn is just humn :p
 
And when i'm superhumn i try to spread the news
 
12:22 AM
Of course
 
It's true, hyperdimensional random vectors are better than Fourier.
But, again, if you enjoy my company, that's even better.
And, again, i know what i'm talking about. And make it look like fun.
 
I don't understand half of what you say, but shine on, you crazy diamond :P
2
 
! ! !
Among other things i have patience. Ride along.
 
!
Classes are back, oh no
 
12:28 AM
Christmas vacation ended yesterday for us :'(
 
and you did
 
Feels too short tbh
 
Yuh
(Retreating to The Troll)
 
0
Q: Letter sequence - B, D, H, P,?

gmn_1450Complete the sequence B - D - H - P _: a. F b. M c. V d. Z e. None of the above is correct. Source I tried to build a sequence based on the distance between the letters, but I didn't get anything relevant. B - D - H - P _ 1, 3, 6, ...

 
12:51 AM
i think i just made the best-worst-sounding music
 
Slop it at Troll. Please.
 
not sure how to put .m4a files into chat :/
it's just a bunch of star trek music things overlaid, and then i reversed some of them
 
.
I haven't yet had the guts to put a YouTube.
(While i've had guts to do almost everything else. Off the record.)
 
0
Q: Can someone explain this matrix to me. D was given as a correct answer, but why is D correct?

Florian LienertBasically the title. I can't figure out this matrix, couldn't find a solution anywhere else online. n here

 
1:31 AM
1
Q: The maximum period of dancing program

BubblerSixteen people named A, B, ..., P are standing in line. They "dance", or swap places, according to some predefined instructions. There are two kinds of instructions called Exchange and Partner: Exchange(m,n): The two people standing at m-th and n-th positions swap places. Partner(x,y): The two p...

 
1:58 AM
I'm opening a personal chat room! Come on in!
Come into The Arctic!
 
2:18 AM
The C4 is DISCONTENTED, the only 12 letter synonym of "angry", still working on the wordplay
 
as someone else pointed out, I don't see how 'angry' could be the definition part
it'd have to be 'Ms. angry"
 
That "angry" is the definition is a *big* assumption, because:
- You don't have the wordplay.
- There are many other possible definitions.
- That's not how cryptic clues work - definitions *must* be at the beginning or end of the clue.
 
I think it's great you are so enthusiastic about cryptics! It might help to read through the usual rules (say, Deus' guide) first, makes the process a lot of easier.
 
2:22 AM
It's just that time that I solved the C4 without realising
It gives me the oof feelings
 
which shows you are naturally good at these! getting familiar with rules would hugely speed up the solving process
 
You should learn how cryptic clues actually work.
9
 
THAT TIMEEEEE
Calm down...
 
one can only get so far with intuitive guesses, no matter how good the intuition is :-)
 
2:27 AM
yep, I remember that
 
Oh wait! I think I'm onto something! (C4)
 
...okay?
 
@msh210 Please confirm: The solution is OUTSTRECHED, "angry, moody" points to Out, as in OUT! Because mostly parents are angry when wild animals get in to the house and are like OUT! Streched is how the "angry moody" part is streched longer, and the clue itself is definitely OUTSTRECHED. A ddef!
 
that's not how cryptic clues work at all
 
Well, maybe the Angry Moody part doesn't work
 
2:33 AM
You seem to recognize that cryptic clues have two parts to them, but the rest of that is entirely off-track. None of it follows the rules of cryptic clues.
 
It's called [lateral-thinking]
Hihihi
 
Cryptics are not [lateral-thinking] puzzles. They have a clear structure and set of rules they follow.
 
@msh210 The C4 is MADEMOISELLE = MAD (angry) + EMO (moody) + I (a, as in one) + S (Stripling, prima facie) + ELLE (Fanning)
Definition is Ms., of course
 
These always are easier once someone explains them. It's not like I looked at it and had the answer immediately.
 
2:44 AM
O_O WHY AM I SO DUMB I KNEW THAT WORD
 
Please, stop with the all-caps.
 
Ok, calm down..............................................
You know what, let's talk in The Arctic, my new personal chatroom
 
I would imagine most of us knew that word. Cryptic clues are not easy, even when you know all the words involved. By design, they mislead the solver into misinterpreting them (even though the 'correct' interpretation makes perfect sense, and doesn't require any stretching of the meanings of the words).
 
Etiquette question Deusovi: it's about my bedtime. I'm pretty sure my C4 answer is correct, but I usually try to wait for confirmation before posting the next. Any issue with posting now?
 
2:50 AM
no issue at all - it's very clearly correct, go ahead
 
CCCC: Angels' outfielder has one K after seeing last of Ms. Fanning (8,3)
 
3:08 AM
supercalifragilisticexpidacious
wow I actually almost remembered the word
 
Hi! ( and I am not sure that is quite right :) )
 
Hey, Gray's here :D
How are you Other Mick?
 
oh, we have two Micks?
cool!
 
Heya Mick :3
Feeling any better?
 
Much better today, thank you for asking <3
 
3:12 AM
@Ankoganit Though Gray is fine. As my grandfather used to say “call me anything you like as long as it isn’t late for dinner”
 
:-)
 
@Sciborg Awesome news! I have managed to stop coughing forever as well ;p
 
Yay! :D cold is better?
 
Mostly! ^^* Still hiding inside. It is weirdly rainy for summer.
 
Been inside all week here too, it's been snowing like crazy in Michigan :p
 
3:17 AM
Well it isn’t really meant to be this grey and rainy in summer in Oz ._.
 
Bummer :(
 
I should use this clear-headed time productively -.-;
 
but why be productive when you could play Minecraft? :P
 
well, one of us is evil Mick ;p
 
3:34 AM
Who is evil mick?
@Sciborg @Graylocke
Let's discuss in my new personal chatroom!
(shameless self-promotion)
 
 
1 hour later…
4:58 AM
4
Q: 2021 Unpainted Masyu

athin Paint some white circles to black such that the Masyu will be uniquely solvable and: Exactly 2 of 11 white circles on the left forming '2' should be painted black. Exactly 0 of 12 white circles on the middle-left forming '0' should be painted black. Exactly 2 of 11 white circles on the middle-r...

 
 
1 hour later…
6:22 AM
@JeremyDover yes, of course
 
6:54 AM
@JeremyDover _S TR(I KING)OUT. Very nice use of secondary meanings for everything (K, fanning). Woulda been perhaps even better without the baseball theme, as then I'd not have thought (or not so soon) of this meaning of "fanning".
 
7:06 AM
i was googling angels' outfielders
 
7:53 AM
Wtf how do i delete an answer on mobile
Wow. Had to use browser. App apparently doesnt support it...
 
-2
Q: Find the next letter / number in the sequence

vvvWhat is the next letter / number in the sequence? F H L E ?

 
@jafe Yeah, I'd had to, too.
 
where did trout come from?
 
ah my bad, i read that wrong... so trout is an actual angels' outfielder
i first thought the _S was one of the outer letters in "angels" but then the rest doesn't make any sense
 
ohh
so "last of ms" + "angel's outfielder" (trout) containing iking
although not sure what "seeing" exactly means there
 
8:25 AM
0
Q: An intriguing game construction

Rewan DemontayI found that the book "Amusements In Chess," by Henry Ernest Dudney, has been put onto the web in the form of a website. In the section "Various Chess Puzzles, I came across this particular puzzle that intrigues me. The author gives this legal position and asks for a way to reach it. The White ki...

 
9:00 AM
@oAlt after we see S in the answer, I think
 
9:31 AM
@msh210 Your turn
 
@Anonymus25-ReinstateMonica (a) No need to ping me even if it is my turn, as I just solved it a few hours ago. (b) Someone just told you that. (c) It's not my turn, as we don't have confirmation that my solution is the intended one.
 
 
4 hours later…
1:42 PM
@msh210 That is of course it. Probably too easy with if you're familiar with baseball, but I wasn't sure how broad that familiarity would be, especially among the younger set here, so I wanted to give an extra nudge. And you were correct with my use of "seeing"...effectively neutral in wordplay, but needed for surface.
 
2:04 PM
0
Q: Going to visit the boss?

DrDGrandpa seemed to be in one of those crazy question asking mood again. “So here is this guy.” Said Grandpa. He was reading a book. “He is in the Tesla near Edison going to visit the boss. On his way he might pass Langley and even see Einstein.” Continued Grandpa. “So son, please tell me: What i...

0
Q: Rubik's Cube - How to swap 2 middle layer pieces, it can affect the top, but not the bottom

user6603680While solving with CFOP, I have the following situation. The bottom side is solved. On the front face, I have the left-center and right-center pieces swapped. How can I swap these pieces? I know that this will affect the top face. I realize by swapping them, they can face either direction, si...

 
2:16 PM
CCCC: Miami Marlins outfielders play (the last out) is weak and pathetic (5)
 
2:50 PM
Too bad that WEAK is apparently not an anagram indicator, if it was I think SISSY (last letters, anagrammed) wouldve been legal
 
3:11 PM
@LukasRotter Leur's rule: For every word, there's at least one person who considers it an anagram indicator.
(But no, that was not my intended solution.)
 
North, want to guess what the non-econ econ topic will be today?
 
@bobble pros and cons of paisley?
 
as likely as anything, I guess
 
do let me know if that is it, won't you?
 
3:23 PM
if it is I will give you a virtual cookie
 
@bobble one of my least favorite kinds
(but thank you)
 
3:49 PM
this is ... strange
i seem to have two first periods for sem 2
and no period 6
... wh- ?
nvm, 6th period has appeared
 
buildings sometimes have no 13th floor
 
th- ... is that supposed to mean something?
 
maybe 6 is unlucky as well? idk
 
I've been wondering - why was my Sashi Park less well-received than my other grid-deductions? It's the lowest-voted of my grid-deduction puzzles.
(Plus it accrued two downvotes, which I'm still confused by)
Is there something I did wrong?
 
@bobble idts, and i also think the downvotes are kinda strange
 
4:04 PM
@msh210 I think the solution to your CCCC is MIMSY: M(-iam)I M(-arlin)S (-pla)Y. Though I'm not a huge fan of "the last out" to mean "last letter of the foregoing" -- it seems like it ought to mean "removing the last letter of the foregoing" -- and for that reason I'm not quite sure. This is the pre-Carroll meaning of "mimsy", of course :-).
actually, the Carroll meaning works just as well
maybe better
Carroll: "weak and miserable". Pre-Carroll: Prim; careful; affected; feeble, weak, lightweight. (Saith the OED.) And, er, actually the OED's earliest citation for the non-Carroll meaning is later than Carroll's first use, so I don't know what really came before what.
I think it's a portmanteau of "miserable" and "flimsy", at least in Carroll's usage.
 
0
Q: My sister has gone Puzzled again

AnonymousI once got a letter from my younger sister. It reads :- Hello brother, How are you? I am fine. I have seen you have given me a lot of gifts, thank you for that. Here's a present from my side. Since I like puzzles, I am giving you 3 notes with the letter as well. Do check it if you want. Happy Pu...

 
4:28 PM
The FTC isn't doing so good, huh?
Only three submissions so far
 
I've been struggling to figure out how to incorporate a story into a cryptic-clue puzzle
 
@GarethMcCaughan i.e. "pathetic" and "weak" :-) . Yes, your solution was what I had intended. "The last out" as in "the last letter to have come out of my keyboard/mouth/whatever", but I agree it's weak.
 
Me not being good at either or
 
4:51 PM
Jolly good.
One last hurrah, then, with apologies to Anonymus 25:
CCCC: "No Ms. Fanning?" Very well. (4)
 
nice surface!
 
Thanks. I'm pretty sure it'll fall quickly.
(afk for a while)
 
0
Q: Minimum guesses to win Bagels

risky mysteriesThere is a logic game called "Bagels". From this PDF file: How to Play The the game begins with one person secretly choosing a number with no repeated digits. We will start with a three digit number. Then others attempt to guess the number, and the one who chose the number responds to each guess...

 
5:59 PM
econ was: motorcycle laws, excise tax on cigarettes, pumping gas, why bass players have no talent
the longest bit was on jazz
jazz is a "terrible", "boring" music genre ("it's basically random note playing", "untalented hacks", "everyone who listens to jazz is always on heroin", "one of my favorite things ever is making jazz players upset", "much of jazz is cruel and unusual punishment")
the pros and cons of paisley were not discussed
 
@bobble what the actual.... j- just why
what does ANY OF THAT have to do with econ??
 
i thought we had established my econ class is 90% tangents, 10% econ
 
indeed we have
more like 99% tangents, 1% econ from the looks of it
 
well i don't post about the times when we do econ because that isn't as interesting
2
end of class was a review of some Important Econ Graphs
 
hm
 
7:06 PM
@Deusovi Cool puzzle!!!
 
thanks! a bit early to say that, but i appreciate it
 
Well I like how you designed it, or at least what it looks like ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
The theme behind it is cool
 
heh thank you
the puzzle i'm riffing off of here, "Bluebeard's Castle", is a very nice variety cryptic
 
What is "Ms. Fanning" in the cryptic?
 
(and probably a bit easier overall than mine, though also a bit longer)
would recommend giving it a shot at some point
 
7:11 PM
@bobble WHAT NO YOU HAVE SPOKEN BLASHPEMY REPENT REPENT GAHHH >:(
Jazz is
 
@Ankoganit four
 
Your econ teacher has no musical taste
And geez oh gosh I can go on a rant about this
I'll be in my grove if anyone wants to hear me rant about that jazz stuff
 
2
Q: Not Bluebeard's Castle

DeusoviThis puzzle was intended to be formatted as a PDF; the puzzle PDF is available on Dropbox, and a screenshot of said PDF is hosted on Imgur. If you'd like to solve digitally, there is also a template Google sheet. The referenced puzzle is available here; no knowledge of it is necessary to solve t...

 
 
1 hour later…
8:38 PM
@bobble I was close, though
 
you were the closest among people who guessed
 
:-D
@GarethMcCaughan for some reason, I'm now humming a Christmas carol ;-)
 
... because the clue starts NO and ends ELL? (If you mean you've solved it and the solution has led you to a Christmas carol then I confess I'm confused.)
 
@GarethMcCaughan no, because it starts with "No Elle"
 
Ah, I see.
 
8:57 PM
-1
Q: Circles covering lattice points

ThomasLYou are given a 5x5 set of lattice points. What is is minimum number of circles, which pass through each of the 25 points at least once?

 
9:23 PM
0
Q: Rack 'Em Up! 🎱

Ambo100In a game of English eight-ball pool, a set of 15 balls are arranged or 'racked' in the shape of an equilateral triangle. In order for the balls to be racked fairly, they must be arranged like so: ......R..... .....YR..... .....RBY.... ....YRYR.... ....RYYRY... R = Red Y = Yellow B = Black Cha...

 
9:47 PM
@GarethMcCaughan 0 KAY
 
did you mean to type "O" instead of "0"?
 
@bobble I meant to type 0
 
10:06 PM
1
Q: Are emojis, fonts, etc. allowed in post titles here on PSE?

risky mysteriesIt has been pretty clear on other sites that eye-catching pixels, like emojis and arbitrary fonts, shouldn't be placed in a post title, and if they were encountered in the title of a post, they should be edited out. However, I'm not sure how strictly that rule applies to Puzzling Stack Exchange, ...

 
so we were doing peer feedback for our "research paper" (not real research papers) write-ups and my partner basically said "you have a lot of background for your specific topic; you should replace some of that with vague less-specific information"
girl, no
 
Well, sometimes more general background is also in order.
 
I reviewed hers; she gave such general background information that there was literally nothing related to her specific question.
I ain't doin' that
 
10:26 PM
@msh210 Yup!
 
@bobble oy
 
10:58 PM
CCCC: Guy has eaten lead! Fat is not being utilized (9)
 

« first day (2426 days earlier)      last day (1221 days later) »