Search found 308 matches
- Sat Apr 30, 2016 3:30 pm UTC
- Forum: Logic Puzzles
- Topic: Baseball card collecting
- Replies: 3
- Views: 3018
Re: Baseball card collecting
What happens if you have packs of say, 10 cards, and you will never get the same two cards in a pack?
- Sat Apr 30, 2016 2:07 am UTC
- Forum: Fictional Science
- Topic: Fiction Idea: Breaking out of the simulation
- Replies: 12
- Views: 8584
Fiction Idea: Breaking out of the simulation
I had this idea for a short story where the protagonist, or someone the protagonist meets discovers that the universe is a simulation, and that he can "hack" the simulation by exploiting optimizations in the code. His goal is to break out of the simulation and manifest his presence in the ...
- Sat Apr 30, 2016 1:45 am UTC
- Forum: Logic Puzzles
- Topic: Pennies in Boxes
- Replies: 85
- Views: 50932
Re: Pennies in Boxes
Quizatzhaderac wrote:In that vein, a lot of exterminators have been running local ads indicating that it's "Termite swarming season"
So now the question is what to do with a million hungry termites in your back yard that just ran out of cardboard to eat.
- Fri Dec 11, 2015 2:04 pm UTC
- Forum: Logic Puzzles
- Topic: Factorally growing data storage
- Replies: 3
- Views: 2572
Factorally growing data storage
If you have a stack of n cards, there are n! ways to arrange them. You can use this stack to store log2(n!) bits of data. It's easy to see that the number of bits stored per card grows without bound. For example, notice that once you have a stack of 256 cards, each additional card allows you to stor...
- Fri Feb 22, 2013 11:53 pm UTC
- Forum: Mathematics
- Topic: What is the expected value of a download time
- Replies: 3
- Views: 1381
Re: What is the expected value of a download time
Gathering experimental data is the best you can do. There's a lot of factors that can influence download speed (number of people connected to the same server, or even the same datacenter, number of people on your wifi, how likely your router is to drop packets, configuration of any of the dozens of ...
- Wed Feb 20, 2013 5:06 am UTC
- Forum: Coding
- Topic: What's the point of HTML
- Replies: 21
- Views: 10004
Re: What's the point of HTML
You don't need hosting to code a website. You can just open the HTML page in your browser. You only need hosting in order to publish your website. Get a good editor, such as Notepad++ Use Sass to work with CSS. Use GIMP to work with images. When you want to start doing more advanced visual stuff (li...
- Sun Dec 23, 2012 8:03 pm UTC
- Forum: Logic Puzzles
- Topic: Find a power outlet in a dark room
- Replies: 22
- Views: 8226
Re: Find a power outlet in a dark room
Bust through all the walls (with the aid of the chairs) and feel around for a cable. Follow it to the outlet. And hope that the electrician didn't leave any live wires exposed.
- Sat Dec 15, 2012 7:34 am UTC
- Forum: Logic Puzzles
- Topic: Cypher with Some Known Plaintext
- Replies: 6
- Views: 3689
Re: Cypher with Some Known Plaintext
There appears to be a few more proper nouns in there (i.e. capitalizations in the middle of a sentence), the word "I" (the capital T shouldn't be capital for the word "a"), and a contraction. Only contractions I can find that fit from this list of standard English contractions ar...
- Sun Nov 18, 2012 10:10 pm UTC
- Forum: Forum Games
- Topic: That Dice Game
- Replies: 21
- Views: 3291
Re: That Dice Game
Name: Undecim's Game #1 Player 1: undecim Player 2: Vytron Turn 17 F1E 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 | | | | | | | | A | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | +=====+=====+=====+=====+=====+=====+=====+ | | | | | | | | B | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | +-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+ | | | | 5 | | | | C | | | |...
- Sun Nov 18, 2012 5:55 pm UTC
- Forum: Forum Games
- Topic: That Dice Game
- Replies: 21
- Views: 3291
Re: That Dice Game
Name: Undecim's Game #1 Player 1: undecim Player 2: Vytron Turn 16 C65 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 | | | | | | | | A | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | +=====+=====+=====+=====+=====+=====+=====+ | | | | | | | | B | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | +-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+ | | | | | 5 | | | C | | | |...
- Sun Nov 18, 2012 6:12 am UTC
- Forum: Forum Games
- Topic: That Dice Game
- Replies: 21
- Views: 3291
Re: That Dice Game
Name: Undecim's Game #1 Player 1: undecim Player 2: Vytron Turn 14 E6F 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 | | | | | | | | A | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | +=====+=====+=====+=====+=====+=====+=====+ | | | | | | | | B | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | +-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+ | | | | | | 5 | | C | | | |...
- Sat Nov 17, 2012 10:49 am UTC
- Forum: Forum Games
- Topic: That Dice Game
- Replies: 21
- Views: 3291
Re: That Dice Game
Name: Undecim's Game #1 Player 1: undecim Player 2: Vytron Turn 12 C45 There was an error on my initial board: The die at E3 is inconstant. So I'll give you the benefit of my error and let you choose the orientation of the die. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 | | | | | | | | A | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | +=====+=...
- Thu Nov 15, 2012 2:19 am UTC
- Forum: Forum Games
- Topic: That Dice Game
- Replies: 21
- Views: 3291
Re: That Dice Game
Name: Undecim's Game #1 Player 1: undecim Player 2: Vytron Turn 10 E76 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 | | | | | | | | A | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | +=====+=====+=====+=====+=====+=====+=====+ | | | | | | | | B | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | +-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+ | | | | 5 | | | | C | | | |...
- Wed Nov 14, 2012 5:43 pm UTC
- Forum: Forum Games
- Topic: That Dice Game
- Replies: 21
- Views: 3291
Re: That Dice Game
Name: Undecim's Game #1 Player 1: undecim Player 2: Vytron Turn 8 C65 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 | | | | | | | | A | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | +=====+=====+=====+=====+=====+=====+=====+ | | | | | | | | B | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | +-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+ | | | | | 5 | | | C | | | | ...
- Wed Nov 14, 2012 12:12 am UTC
- Forum: Logic Puzzles
- Topic: New game : MAXEEDS
- Replies: 6
- Views: 2087
Re: New game : MAXEEDS
A computer solution will be non-trivial. I can't quite work out the number of possible games, but it looks to be a 80+ digit number. It will hower, be easy for a computer to find the highest possible score for any given turn, since (assuming the answer to my question is "no") there can be ...
- Tue Nov 13, 2012 11:54 pm UTC
- Forum: Forum Games
- Topic: That Dice Game
- Replies: 21
- Views: 3291
Re: That Dice Game
Name: Undecim's Game #1 Player 1: undecim Player 2: Vytron Turn 6 D6C 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 | | | | | | | | A | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | +=====+=====+=====+=====+=====+=====+=====+ | | | | | | | | B | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | +-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+ | | | | | | 5 | | C | | | | ...
- Tue Nov 13, 2012 11:17 pm UTC
- Forum: Logic Puzzles
- Topic: New game : MAXEEDS
- Replies: 6
- Views: 2087
Re: New game : MAXEEDS
Larger factors are not a allowed? (e.g. If I have 16 seeds in the starting hole, can I sow 4 seeds at once?)
- Tue Nov 13, 2012 5:24 pm UTC
- Forum: Forum Games
- Topic: That Dice Game
- Replies: 21
- Views: 3291
Re: That Dice Game
Name: Undecim's Game #1 Player 1: undecim Player 2: Vytron Turn 4 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 | | | | | | | | A | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | +=====+=====+=====+=====+=====+=====+=====+ | | | | | | | | B | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | +-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+ | | | | | | | | C | | | | | | | ...
- Tue Nov 13, 2012 6:07 am UTC
- Forum: Logic Puzzles
- Topic: Notch's mysterious code
- Replies: 5
- Views: 3760
Re: Notch's mysterious code
Very much appears to be random keypresses. I ad-hoc'd a heatmap of the keys in gimp: Looks like he was using his right thumb, too. And his right hand was at a slight angle (like the keyboard is to the left to make room for a mouse) http://imgur.com/4BtFn Translation: I'm so happy, I can't even type!...
- Tue Nov 13, 2012 1:52 am UTC
- Forum: Forum Games
- Topic: That Dice Game
- Replies: 21
- Views: 3291
Re: That Dice Game
Name: Undecim's Game #1 Player 1: undecim Player 2: Vytron Turn 2 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 | | | | | | | | A | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | +=====+=====+=====+=====+=====+=====+=====+ | | | | | | | | B | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | +-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+ | | | | | | | | C | | | | | | | ...
- Tue Nov 13, 2012 1:19 am UTC
- Forum: Forum Games
- Topic: That Dice Game
- Replies: 21
- Views: 3291
Re: That Dice Game
Okay, sign me up. I recall playing a game as kid with rolling dice that was similar to chess, with the dice gaining moves depending of how the die faced (ie. a 4 face die could move like a rook, while a 5 face die could move like a Bishop, etc.), though the goal was to capture the opponents' dice, ...
- Mon Nov 12, 2012 6:59 pm UTC
- Forum: The Help Desk
- Topic: Anti-malware for a non-technically-competent user
- Replies: 5
- Views: 2455
Re: Anti-malware for a non-technically-competent user
I recommend Microsoft Security Essentials. Malwarebytes is good, too.
- Mon Nov 12, 2012 4:31 pm UTC
- Forum: The Help Desk
- Topic: Hard Lock on new computer
- Replies: 1
- Views: 1092
Re: Hard Lock on new computer
Hard locks are usually caused by hardware/driver issues. Run memtest to check your ram, try a different video card if you happen to have one and try to reproduce the problem (or remove the video card and use the motherboard's onboard card if it has one) I've also had this problem from overclocking A...
- Mon Nov 12, 2012 6:37 am UTC
- Forum: Logic Puzzles
- Topic: TDG
- Replies: 5
- Views: 1916
Re: TDG
This game sounds fun. I especially like the non-transitivity of die rolls. If a die has 1 showing, 2 to the north, and 3 to the west, and it gets rolled, over the course of 4 moves, North, West, South, and then East, it will end up back where it started but now 1 is to the east, 2 is on bottom, and...
- Sat Nov 10, 2012 10:06 pm UTC
- Forum: Forum Games
- Topic: Word Association Game 2: Electric Boogaloo
- Replies: 12812
- Views: 979555
- Sat Nov 10, 2012 10:02 pm UTC
- Forum: Forum Games
- Topic: That Dice Game
- Replies: 21
- Views: 3291
That Dice Game
See rules: http://forums.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=98526 This thread is for playing TDG. For discussion of rules, strategy, and analysis, please visit the above link. The player initiating a game must decide on any special rules and setup, then another player will challenge them and make the ...
- Sat Nov 10, 2012 8:46 pm UTC
- Forum: Logic Puzzles
- Topic: TDG
- Replies: 5
- Views: 1916
TDG
Play here: http://forums.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=98531 Inspired by the Exasott thread, I figured I'd post a game of my own creation that I used to enjoy with my friends and siblings. I think it would do much better under the analysis and competition of this board than cooped up in our head...
- Sat Nov 10, 2012 6:34 pm UTC
- Forum: Mathematics
- Topic: odds/probability of identical board setup in Battleship
- Replies: 36
- Views: 23547
Re: odds/probability of identical board setup in Battleship
So, what is the number based on this? That would be 30,093,975,536 and the probability is 1/30,093,975,536 for this event to occur. Errrm, that would be assuming that we choose Battleship setups uniformly, and I suspect we don't at all. Sure but what other assumption are you going to make? Anything...
- Wed Nov 07, 2012 6:15 am UTC
- Forum: Mathematics
- Topic: odds/probability of identical board setup in Battleship
- Replies: 36
- Views: 23547
Re: odds/probability of identical board setup in Battleship
It is a very, very small probability, given that the two people are selecting the positions of the ships uniformly at random. The probability of two battleship configurations chosen uniformly at random being identical is 1/c, where c is the number of possible battleship configurations. Calculating c...
- Sun Nov 04, 2012 5:26 pm UTC
- Forum: Logic Puzzles
- Topic: New abstract game : Exasott
- Replies: 56
- Views: 12394
Re: New abstract game : Exasott
Seems to me that http://flockdraw.com/ might be useful for playing a game against two people of the internet
Downside is that there is no automatic game record, and if both players close the browser, the game will be erased.
Downside is that there is no automatic game record, and if both players close the browser, the game will be erased.
- Thu Nov 01, 2012 7:28 pm UTC
- Forum: The Help Desk
- Topic: Can't Log In to Certain Sites
- Replies: 9
- Views: 2995
Re: Can't Log In to Certain Sites
What protocol are the sites you can/can't log into using? (i.e. HTTP, or HTTPS with the padlock icon)
- Wed Oct 17, 2012 6:19 pm UTC
- Forum: The Help Desk
- Topic: Storing tons of data
- Replies: 7
- Views: 2600
Re: Storing tons of data
arbyd wrote:Current practice is to avoid striped RAID with large drives
Well what about non-raid redundancy solutions like LVM or special filesystems?
- Mon Oct 15, 2012 10:59 pm UTC
- Forum: The Help Desk
- Topic: Storing tons of data
- Replies: 7
- Views: 2600
Re: Storing tons of data
I've worked a bunch with raw audio and video, and can totally relate to this. I'd suggest looking into external 8-bay (or more) eSATA RAID enclosures. I find they're more cost-effective than finding motherboards and PCIe cards to host a whole bunch of drives on the same system. The enclosure will o...
- Mon Oct 15, 2012 4:03 pm UTC
- Forum: The Help Desk
- Topic: Storing tons of data
- Replies: 7
- Views: 2600
Storing tons of data
So I'm helping a friend of mine set up some serious file storage. As of right now, he has a Linux box running 3x 2TB drives in a RAID 5 configuration, giving him 4TB of storage. He does a lot of audio and video work, and would like to archive everything he does to have later. He's also be interested...
- Sun Oct 14, 2012 3:31 am UTC
- Forum: Mathematics
- Topic: Why is calculus such a big deal?
- Replies: 11
- Views: 3208
Re: Why is calculus such a big deal?
A) it's really not an intuitive thing for her and B) she cannot see the use B is a symptom of A. Show her the basics and help her get acquainted with working with functions, ideas and formal systems instead of numbers, and she'll start to find uses. Also, show her some things we couldn't have witho...
- Fri Oct 05, 2012 8:10 pm UTC
- Forum: Logic Puzzles
- Topic: Zahlenspiel
- Replies: 10
- Views: 3033
Re: Zahlenspiel
I might be over-looking something here, but I can't see how it works ..... Looking at the bottom line: AAA - BBB = half circle; solid circle; half triangle. A has to be larger than B, otherwise we'd end up with a negative result and there's no negative sign in the result (unless one or ...
- Mon Oct 01, 2012 2:06 pm UTC
- Forum: Logic Puzzles
- Topic: Pennies in Boxes
- Replies: 85
- Views: 50932
Re: Pennies in Boxes
freakish777 wrote:Felix Griffin wrote:Good luck getting a hold of large amounts of sulfuric acid without arousing the suspicion of the FBI...
I'm sure the box itself has already accomplished this.
- Fri Sep 14, 2012 8:48 pm UTC
- Forum: Logic Puzzles
- Topic: Pennies in Boxes
- Replies: 85
- Views: 50932
Re: Pennies in Boxes
I'm assuming there's an 'official' answer to this puzzle from the opening disclaimer 'warning: may contain lateral thinking', right? And I further assume that noone has posted the 'correct answer'? Lateral thinking problems don't typically have a single correct answer. I had no specific answer in m...
- Fri Sep 14, 2012 4:28 am UTC
- Forum: Individual XKCD Comic Threads
- Topic: 1108: "Cautionary Ghost"
- Replies: 155
- Views: 28268
Re: 1108: "Cautionary Ghost"
I used gimp and the "Difference" mode to make sure that they were really the same, and found that the two futures were literally half a pixel offset from each other.
- Mon Sep 10, 2012 9:10 pm UTC
- Forum: Logic Puzzles
- Topic: Pennies in Boxes
- Replies: 85
- Views: 50932
Re: Pennies in Boxes
Start a bank, allowing people to deposit pennies in cardboard boxes as currency. When someone makes a deposit, they'll probably give you a penny in an easy to open box. When they make a withdrawal, you can give them the hard to open boxes. Any ideas on driving adoption rate of your new currency?