The Sphinx's Lair

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Jeremy Dover

12:27 AM

CCCC: Workplace cancer distributes a hostile memo (12)

Dmihawk

12:53 AM

Mesothelioma? (A HOSTILE MEMO)* = cancer usually caused by inhaling asbestos

oAlt

1:12 AM

Fwiw, @Jafe how's the preamble going? :P

Jafe

1:28 AM

still unfinished, and i'm moving house today too... ugh

oAlt

1:48 AM

Ahhh. Hoping the house-moving works out well too :0

Jeremy Dover

@Dmihawk You got it! Not the hardest clue, but I liked the surface.

6 hours later…

Jafe

7:31 AM

crossword's up!

msh210

@JeremyDover me too

Sphinx

Q: Rich and unique

This is part 12 of the puzzle series that started at Living the traveller's dream. Each part is solvable on its own. Dear Puzzling, Unfortunately I’m nearing the end of my trip. Next week’s destination is my last one, and after that I’ll send you one final puzzle to summarise what I thought of...

1 hour later…

AncientSwordRage

8:58 AM

@JeremyDover nice cryptic

oAlt

9:23 AM

Drat, I shouldn't have slept for too long so that Stiv wouldn't get such a massive lead on the crossword :P

Stiv

@oAlt Ha! I spotted it just as I was about to do some exercise, and cursed my luck honestly thinking it would be gone before I got back and had a chance. Throughout the solve I was so sure that someone else would pip me to it... Clearly everyone slept in!

oAlt

9:40 AM

Wahahah

4 hours later…

Carmeister

1:58 PM

Hi puzzlers, Does anyone here have recommendations for what to do with .puz files? I'm looking for software that lets me open the puzzle and then has a nice interface for doing the crossword. (Hopefully this is an ok place to ask - I guess I could also post it as an actual question on this site but I'm not sure if software recommendation questions are allowed on this stack.) Thanks!

AncientSwordRage

@Carmeister I've never heard of it, but it might be on topic?

Gareth McCaughan

Questions about puzzles (including creating and solving them) are fine. Stack Exchange generally doesn't approve of "please recommend me some software" questions; I'm not sure whether this is a global policy that necessarily applies to Puzzling, though.

I believe the .puz format originated with Across Lite, which would be an obvious first thing to try.

Heh, I see there's actually a Software Recommendations Stack Exchange, which probably answers the question of whether SE sites as such disapprove of software recommendation questions.

stackoverflow.blog/2010/11/23/qa-is-hard-lets-go-shopping talks a bit about recommendations (specifically, shopping recommendations, but the principles are similar for things that don't cost money); the main reason why many SE sites don't like such questions is that the answers are liable to go out of date, and questions that ask about the principles involved are "better". Obviously that's not going to be so helpful for a case like Carmeister's, looking for ...

... recommendations of specific programs.

AncientSwordRage

2:15 PM

@GarethMcCaughan that would be a good basis for an answer, and I think as it's the originating software it's not an opinion based recommendation

bobble

@GarethMcCaughan Software and Hardware Recs are explicit exceptions to the "no recommendations" general policy, the same way Code Golf is an explicit exception to the Q&A model

We have on the past accepted sort-of-recommendation questions with the tag reference-request

Though I got one of those closed relatively recently for being too recommendy

AncientSwordRage

@bobble what do you think of a "What is the origin of the .puz file format"?

bobble

That would be on-topic under puzzle-history

AncientSwordRage

A good answer could then talk about what software would run a .puz?

bobble

A good answer would probably include recent history, perhaps developments of new places that catered to the file format

Why'd you ask me?

AncientSwordRage

2:29 PM

you know the site better than I do

@Carmeister does any of the above seem like a question you'd benefit from asking?

3 hours later…

Sphinx

5:48 PM

Q: Matchstick Puzzle 4971

Rewriting the puzzle in text: Move exactly 2 matchsticks to make this equality true: 4 + 9 - 7 = 1 Important Points: By the word 'move', I would also like to allow the possibility of 'remove', to allow for additional creative solutions. You can use both operations, move and remove, in your solu...

visual matches

4 hours later…

Sphinx

10:02 PM

Q: Transform a pile of cards in reverse order

There are 52 cards on a table and numbered in order from 1 to 52 with number 1 on top. The following operation can be repeatedly done: split the pile into two piles without shuffling and take cards from the top of the two piles in any order and build one new pile from top to bottom. Example for a...