Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hint: Base64 Encoded
`base64.decodebytes(b'RWluc3RlaW4ncy4')` tells me incorrect padding.
try https://www.base64decode.org/ instead
Never Completed Game
151–160 of 217 posts
Re: Never Completed Game
#152Interesting how this is a great example for on boarding users to a new software, or suck them into completing tougher and tougher tasks. Start with simple questions and tasks and let the user build confidence. Once they answer / complete a few tasks, their ego will push them to take on the next few tasks!
Additionally, the challenge in the name - Never Completed Game - luring people in who soon regret their hubris in thinking "how hard could it be?"
Re: Never Completed Game
#153Forever and ever. (inf symbol)
?
Re: Never Completed Game
#154Interesting how this is a great example for on boarding users to a new software, or suck them into completing tougher and tougher tasks. Start with simple questions and tasks and let the user build confidence. Once they answer / complete a few tasks, their ego will push them to take on the next few tasks!
I'm thinking this is more of an example of what NOT to do; it's inconsistent and destroys confidence, which in turn makes the user mistrust the author through repeated mistakes and eventually quit. I would argue that far, far more people have fallen to that than some author-instilled urge to continue on due to confidence and ego.
For example:
"2 + 1 = ?": you are expected to answer with a number to complete the equation. The question mark is a good cue -- you know to answer with a number and not, for example, "addition".
"5 x 7 = ?": the same formula as before. You now safely assume that math -- especially math with a "?" after an equals sign -- should be answered with a number.
After that, it degenerates into vague riddles where you're left to guess at the intentions of the author, quite literally. The first place this becomes immediately frustrating is: "2,3,5,7,11,13,17 What are they called?"
Early versions of this game omitted the second line, leading people to guess "19" as a continuation of the prime sequence.
Other popular answers are "prime" or "primes", but the ONLY acceptable answer is "prime numbers." There is no clue leading to the acceptable answer and the only possible way to get it is trial and error or sheer luck.
Primed by that, we face the next problem: "3.14159265..."
Given past history, we can guess that the author either wants us to continue the sequence (unlikely, given the lack of _ or ? cues) or name the sequence. This would be much clearer with the addition of the words "What is" at the beginning -- this is frustrating BY DESIGN, not clever BECAUSE OF design.
A great example of this is the VERY NEXT problem: "1+2+3+...+999+1000"
Given the previous cues (? or _ to show a numerical answer is required, ... to show a sequence to be named), the expectation is that this should be named... however, the author really wants the sum of integers 1-1000. Again, this could have been solved easily with a simple, CONSISTENT cue.
Imagine trying to onboard users and you just say "a date box" without any indication of what they're supposed to use it for or what the consequences of it are.
This game does not build any confidence and should not be likened to good UX design at all.
Re: Never Completed Game
#155Level 17 : 1729 = 13 + 123 = 93 + 103 Tried : ramanujam, taxicab, hardy-ramanujam. Nothing works.
Also stuck on this one... last thing I did was open up a terminal (with no luck). lol.
res = (1..20000).to_a.map { |val| val * val * val }
res.select { |a| res.any? { |b| (b - a) == 1729 } }
Re: Never Completed Game
#156Interesting how this is a great example for on boarding users to a new software, or suck them into completing tougher and tougher tasks. Start with simple questions and tasks and let the user build confidence. Once they answer / complete a few tasks, their ego will push them to take on the next few tasks!
This sounds like an exact description of Project Euler.[1]
Re: Never Completed Game
#157Forever and ever. (inf symbol) ?
Infinity
Re: Never Completed Game
#158Reminds me of notpron: http://notpron.org/notpron/
Which was a similarly "impossible" online riddle...
Re: Never Completed Game
#159My attempts to solve #24 sent me down a really interesting rabbit hole:
I was Googling for substrings and found this truly bizarre site that appears to be the WordPress equivalent of a numbers station, likely by someone Russian speaking.
https://nihilsphere.wordpress.com/
The about page is particularly insightful: https://nihilsphere.wordpress.com/about/
And perhaps the weirdest thing is that they appear to have a Google Plus profile: https://plus.google.com/110863007377623596048
I'm 100% okay with this being a complete red herring wrt the actual answer.