HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: hutch@bellman.lanl.gov (John Hutchinson)
Subject: Mac Crossword Software for sale
Reply-To: hutch@bellman.lanl.gov
Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 19:07:28 GMT

Hi puzzle fans,

If you are "into" crossword puzzles and also own a Macintosh, I have two slick
little programs for sale that you might be interested in.  Both are from
Centron Software, the latest versions, and are complete with original disk,
manuals, registration card and box.  Here's the blurbs from their ads:

CROSSWORD CREATOR     (new Retail $79.95)
"Create crossword puzzles quickly and easily on your computer.  Just type in
the words and Crossword Creator will instantly generate the puzzle.  Build
your own dictionaries and use them for future puzzles.  Includes Roget's II,
the new thesaurus, with wild card search features.  Print clues, word list,
puzzles."

PUZZLE MASTER         (new Retail $49.95)
"Solve 250 classic New York Times crossword puzzles on your computer plus a
Create Mode for designing and solving your own puzzles.  Save partial
solutions, print puzzles, answers and clues.  Includes timer and scoring
system to test your skills against the experts."

So the first package is designed primarily for the creation of puzzles while
the second is mostly for playing/solving existing puzzles (additional puzzle
files from the NY Times collection are also available).  Both work on color
or mono Macs and are System 7 compatible too.

Both are like new and should be a boon to puzzle fans with a Macintosh.
I'll take $50 plus $3 shipping for the pair.  I can even take your credit
card to make it easier, if you wish.  I bought these for evaluation purposes
only so they have hardly been touched since.  Must sell the pair at once.

If interested, send email or you may call me at (505)665-3665.

Cheers,

---

___________________________ John "HUTCH" Hutchinson _________________________
_________________ Fair Dinkum Technologies     Member - IAAD  _______________
________________ "No worries, mate... it's from Fair Dinkum!" _______________
____________ email: hutch@bellman.lanl.gov   GEnie: FAIR-DINKUM _____________
From: hamel@uakari.primate.wisc.edu (Ray Hamel)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles.crosswords
Subject: PCWC 5 moderator
Date: 23 Nov 1992 08:47:15 -0600
Organization: UW-Madison Primate Center
NNTP-Posting-Host: uakari.primate.wisc.edu


	My mail to the moderator for PCWC5 keeps bouncing.  Has
anyone else had this problem?  Can the moderator contact me 
directly so I can attempt a reply?  Thanks.

Ray Hamel
University of Wisconsin
From: jose@math.duke.edu (Greg Lawler)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles.crosswords
Subject: Re: PCWC 5 moderator
Date: 23 Nov 92 15:12:25 GMT
Organization: Duke University; Durham, N.C.


Has anyone else had trouble e-mailing me?  (My e-mail connection
was messed up for almost a day last week but I think it is
fine now.)  If you cannot get through to me, please post a message.

Greg Lawler  (jose@math.duke.edu)
Moderator, PCWC5
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles.crosswords
From: kennedy@asuvax.eas.asu.edu (Ralph Kennedy)
Subject: ACC13 Winner
Organization: crosswords
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 23:43:40 GMT


     The winning clue for ACC13 is:


      She was heartless, entrapping Arkansas head to leave wife (8)


submitted by Tom Deneau (tomd@cayman.amd.com).  Since Tom
declines to moderate the next contest, I am inviting
Guy Jacobson (guy@ulysses.att.com), who submitted the
second place clue, to moderate ACC14.  It was a virtual
tie anyway.

--Ralph Kennedy      {ames,gatech,husc6,rutgers}!ncar!noao!asuvax!kennedy
                        {allegra,decvax,ihnp4,oddjob}--^
                                          ^---------------The Wrong Choice
                             internet: kennedy@asuvax.asu.edu
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles.crosswords
From: tolman%asylum.cs.utah.edu@cs.utah.edu (Kenneth Tolman)
Subject: New puzzles?
Date: 22 Nov 92 22:57:17 MST
Organization: University of Utah, CompSci Dept

There are some new puzzles on the market.... are they any good?

The first is called OSKAR's CUBE or something similar.  It consists of
a cube (no kidding) with paths etched in all 6 sides.  There is a 
cross hair of rigid rods that connect inside the cube...  got the 
picture?
  So there are six rigid rods that meet orthogonally inside, and they pass
out through the outer walls and are constrained to move where the paths
are etched in the sides.... one tries to move the cross hairs to a particular
position within the center, which is difficult because they can only move
on a maze (which must be inferred from the outside)

 It seems to be a pretty cool puzzle, although after about 2 minutes of
figuring I thought I had figured it out. (It might have been near the ending
solution and I got lucky)  Also, I had this weird feeling of deja-vu.  Either
I have played with the exact same thing, or me and some friends designed the
same thing.

The second is called,,  who knows.  It consists of two disks with holes..
the two disks rotate freely, and have little containers which hold marbles.
by spinning the disks and pushing on the marbles they will pass from side
to side.  The object is to get all of the marbles of the same color into
the same container.
  It looks kind of neat, but a trifle tedious perhaps.  The pattern is
so regular on both sides that it is perhaps too mechanical, and there
are so many marbles that it might take ten years to do anything.





Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: singley@helix.nih.gov (Erick Singley)
Subject: Re: Songs containing states
Organization: (National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD)
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 23:19:18 GMT

"Allentown" by billy Joel: 'Well, I'm waiting here in Allentown, for the 
Pennsylvania we never found"

Another Billy Joel, has the refrain, "I'm in a New York state of mind"

Beach Boys did California Girls, (does that have a few more states mentioned?)

Erick
--
singley@clinpharm.niaaa.nih.gov
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: russotto@eng.umd.edu (Matthew T. Russotto)
Subject: Re: message for the future
Date: Sun, 22 Nov 92 00:00:46 GMT
Organization: Project GLUE, University of Maryland, College Park

In article <1992Nov20.163058@IASTATE.EDU> macster@IASTATE.EDU (Michael C Mccarty) writes:
>In article <10159@ncrwat.Waterloo.NCR.COM>, tjgerman@53iss6.Waterloo.NCR.COM
>(Trevor German) writes:
>> 
>> 	Re: sending a message to the future.
>>                 ...... 
>>
>> 		I have a much better idea. Take a dead satelite. A big one,
>> 	like say the moon. Then blast its surface with  enough nukes to
>> 	make an easily recognisable pattern that would be only partly
>> 	erased by comet and meteoride collisions. Then just for good measure,
>> 	adjust the rotational velocity of the moon so that the message
>> 	always faces the earth. The message could be something like
>> 	a big face......................
>> 
>
>Ummm.....  I kinda always thought that the moon always DID show the same side to
>the Earth.... That's why its called the "Dark Side Of the Moon".
>
>I suppose you say that over the next couple million years that the moon's
>rotational velocity will change enough to change the face, but, then again, over
>the next couple million years, the millions of asteroids and meteors hitting it
>will probably change it quite a bit as well.

Sorry Mike, but you just won the Clueless award for this week (I
awarded it to myself last week, so don't be too upset :-) )
-- 
Matthew T. Russotto	russotto@eng.umd.edu	russotto@wam.umd.edu
Some news readers expect "Disclaimer:" here.
Just say NO to police searches and seizures.  Make them use force.
(not responsible for bodily harm resulting from following above advice)
From: sjsmith@cs.umd.edu (Stephen Joseph Smith)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Mini-FAQ
Date: 22 Nov 92 01:09:15 GMT
Organization: Dept. of Computer Science, University of Maryland at College Park

The rec.puzzles FAQ is incredible.  It covers an enormous range of puzzles.

The only problem is... it's *too* big.  Few first-time posters to the
newsgroup are going to read it all.

I propose that somebody creates a mini-FAQ containing the *really*
frequently asked questions...  Proposed entries:

"What is the next term in this sequence?  1, 11, 21, 1211, 111221,
312211..."

Monty Haul

26 = L. of the A.

"When I was in <generic geeky environment>, we used to do situation
puzzles.  Such as:

A man is lying, dead, in the desert, with a match in his hand.

Does anybody know where any more of these can be found?"

What do you think?

- Stephen
From: clong@remus.rutgers.edu (Chris Long)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: Gale and bridges
Date: 20 Nov 92 11:23:12 GMT
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.

In article <1992Nov19.214915.18650@cc.ic.ac.uk>, Nairo Aparicio writes:

> If you think this is to easy for you,  try to solve it assuming that
> each bridge will collapse with independent probability "p" where
> 0<=p<=1.  I have the answer for both problems, I will post them
> sometime in the future.

Real puzzlers will solve the analogous problem for 3*n islands instead
of just for 6.
-- 
Chris Long, 265 Old York Rd., Bridgewater, NJ  08807-2618
From: berninge@cs.purdue.edu (James Berninger)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Dr. Crypton's (not Kit Williams') _Treasure_
Date: 18 Nov 1992 12:06:45 -0500
Organization: Department of Computer Science, Purdue University
NNTP-Posting-Host: alice.cs.purdue.edu

In the wake of _Masquerade_ and Kit Williams' "other" book, there
were a variety of other books published based on the same idea.  One
of those was _Treasure_, by Dr. Crypton (who also wrote articles for
"Omni", if memory serves me).  Does anyone have any idea what the
solution was to that one?  (There were lots of pictures of states,
but another clue said to "ignore state shapes".  There were also
quite a few jigsaw puzzle pieces, pictuers of horses...)

Jim Berninger                   ______ "This is no 'Whoops!'  This is
berninge@cs.purdue.edu          \    /  an 'Aaaaaaaauuuuuggggghhhh!'"
B0.2 f(~) w- c- g k? s- e r- p   \  /   - Harvey ("Arnold") Fierstein
Green Lantern Fan, Extraordinaire \/      "Torch Song Trilogy"
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: mdorfman@hamp.hampshire.edu
Subject: <None>
Summary: "Masquerade" children's book
Reply-To: mdorfman@hamp.hampshire.edu
Organization: Hampshire College
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 13:19:48 GMT

Is anyone familiar with the children's book "Masquerade" by Kit Williams?

The author created a jeweled Hare, made out of gold, and buried it in
England.  The book contains clues as to where the Hare was buried.

I know that the puzzle was solved some years ago, and I even remember where 
the are was buried (from newspaper reports, etc.)  What I want to know is:

has anyone here solved any of the puzzles in the book?  Does anyone know
what the clues were that led the finder to the treasure?

Thanks,

Michael Dorfman

mdorfman@hamp.hampshire.edu
From: colin@cs.uq.oz.au (Colin Millerchip)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: Kit Williams' old new book
Date: 18 Nov 92 23:35:22 GMT
Reply-To: colin@cs.uq.oz.au

In <BxwnxD.E9E@cen.ex.ac.uk> DKSmith@msor.exeter.ac.uk (David Smith) writes:

>I don't remember who won it.  Kit Williams
>has designed a complex mechanical clock for
>a shopping centre (mall in US) in Cheltenham,
>near where he lives.  

You mean that *he* is to blame for that monstrosity?! Every hour the
ruddy things slowly waggles the fish suspended underneath it for about
30 seconds, blowing bubbles from the mouth and playing a musak version
of "I'm forever blowing bubbles", and the entire Regent Arcade grinds to
a halt as shoppers fight past gawpers.


Don't worry about me, a sudden burst of homesickness...


C.


--
|Colin Millerchip           | "And all this science I don't understand,|
|University of Queensland,  |  It's just my job five days a week"      |
|Brisbane, Australia.       |   - "Rocketman", Elton John              |
|colin@cs.uq.oz.au          |                                          |
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: djweisbe@unix.amherst.edu (David Weisberger)
Subject: Anagram generator?
Organization: large
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 01:37:07 GMT

Does anyone know of a program which generates anagrams?
UNIX or MSDOS executable or C source would be acceptable.

Thanks,

 Davebo                         "A Freudian slip is when you say one thing
                                 when you're really talking about a mother."
 djweisbe@unix.amherst.edu               -Cliff the Postman
From: mouse@thunder.mcrcim.mcgill.edu (der Mouse)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: impossible tiling of the triangle
Keywords: tiling
Date: 17 Nov 92 12:06:53 GMT
Organization: McGill Research Centre for Intelligent Machines

In article <1992Nov15.030950.17390@eng.umd.edu>, russotto@eng.umd.edu (Matthew T. Russotto) writes:
> In article <BxpF19.3Ko@hermes.hrz.uni-bielefeld.de> sillke@math25.mathematik.uni-bielefeld.de (Torsten Sillke) writes:

>>              o
>> Show that o o o o only tiles the triangle:

>>            0
>>           0 1
>>          0 0 1
>>         0 2 1 1
>>        2 2 2 2 1

> If it tiles an equilateral triangle with sides of length 5, why can't
> it tile the equilateral triangle (length 10) made up of 4 of those?

Because these are discrete triangles, not continuous ones.  The
triangle of side 10 is made up of three of side 5 and one of side 4:

             d
            d d
           d d d
          d d d d
         d d d d d
        a c c c c b
       a a c c c b b
      a a a c c b b b
     a a a a c b b b b
    a a a a a b b b b b

					der Mouse

			    mouse@larry.mcrcim.mcgill.edu
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: mueller@schaefer.math.wisc.edu (Carl Douglas Mueller)
Subject: Re: Number Puzzle
Reply-To: mueller@schaefer.UUCP (Carl Douglas Mueller)
Organization: Univ. of Wisconsin Dept. of Mathematics
Distribution: na
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 92 18:13:03 GMT

In article <1992Nov18.152111.27777@schaefer.math.wisc.edu> mueller@math.wisc.edu writes:
>Find a number ending in 7 such that when this number is multiplied by 7
>the resulting number consists of the same digits in the same order but
>with the 7 moved to the front.  That is:
>
>7*(abc...xyz7) = 7abc...xyz
>
>where the abc...xyz is some string of digits (you'll have to figure out 
>how many digits).
>
>After solving this one (and finding the EASY way to solve it) I extended
>the puzzle to numbers other than 7.  ie
>
>N*(abc...xyzN) = Nabc...xyz.
>
>I've found the numbers for N = 1 (trivial) up to N=9.  
>
>Carl Mueller (mueller@math.wisc.edu)

I should add that this works for numbers bigger than 9 if you allow leading
0's.  For example, the answer for 10 is 010 ...  10(010)=100.
For 11 the answer is:
010009099181073703366696997270245677888989990900818926296633303002729754322111.

That's as far as I'm willing to go. I should also add that no calculator or
computer is needed to solve this puzzle (at least for numbers up to 11).  This
may be a hint as to the solution.

Carl Mueller
From: anson@akb.in-berlin.de (Andreas Bewersdorff)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Organization: private site in Berlin
Subject: Re: How many letters in the answer?
	<1992Nov13.141055@sees.bangor.ac.uk>
Reply-To: anson@akb.in-berlin.de
X-Software: HERMES GUS 1.03 Rev. Apr 14 1992
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 12:53:54 MEZ

Hallo !

 () > Q: How many letters are there in the answer?
 () > A: Four
 ()
 () Vier  [in German]

elf     [base 2, German]
ten     [base 3]
twelve  [base 4]
eleven  [base 5]

Is there a base for which there is no such number (in any language :-) ?


general question : How should special national characters be treated, eg.:
Would the German word for 5 be considered a valid answer to the above puzzle ?
In German, it is written f"unf (4 letters, including u-Umlaut, no correct
answer in Germany), but if Umlauts are not available (Ascii, on Usenet), it
may be written with 'u'&'e' (official transcription, resulting in a ?correct?
answer : fuenf), with a TeX-style f"unf (is this a word at all ? :-) and some
people use even more 'exotic' methods ...

  Is 'zwoelf' a valid answer ?  (in base 4, 'oe' = TWO letters = TWO vowels  ?)
  Is 'zwoelf' a valid answer ?  (in base 4, 'oe' = *TWO* letters = one vowel ?)
  Is 'zwoelf' a valid answer ?  (in base 3, 'oe' = two letters = *ONE* vowel ?)
  Is 'zw"olf' a valid answer ?  (in base 3, '"o' = one special letter/vowel  ?)
  Is 'zw"olf' a valid answer ?  (in base 3, '"o' equal to 'o' for puzzles ?)

The same might apply to similar cases and different languages, and the answer
to this question is important for future versions of the list of records for
'word-puzzles' ('best ratio vowel/length', 'each vowel once', 'letters in sorted
order', etc) and many other puzzles which might appear in a FAQ sometimes ...

For non-FAQ-puzzles, it's fun to do tricks like the following :
 () I,II,III  [roman numerals]
but as numerals, these letters are no letters anymore. They are number symbols
and therefore, the number of *letters* should be 0, resulting in no 'official
record' to be recorded in a FAQ ... (but only a 'honorable mention' (sp?) )

Please send answers as mail and I'll summarize, and send copies of followups
to me as mail to be sure that I don't miss them.

                                                      mfG Andreas



-- 
Ich war ein .signature Virus und bin schon fast ausgestorben.
Mach' mit, rette und kopiere mich !!!
-- 
Andreas Bewersdorff,  D - W 1000 Berlin 12,  Germany, Europe, Terra
anson@akb.in-berlin.de

Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: rolf@geoserv (Rolf Wilson)
Subject: Re: Too clever by half
Reply-To: rolf@geoserv.isgs.uiuc.edu
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 19:36:26 GMT

@ee.surrey.ac.uk (null) writes:

>Not exactly a puzzle, but an amusing story about that Feynmann bloke (about 
>whom many amusing stories circulate). He was showing off to his easily impressed
>colleagues that he could calculate, mentally, any number to within 1% (or some
>such) that could be specified in one sentence. He had no problem with things like
>ln(10) (he probably knew it) and other easy problems that people were asking him.
>His undoing came about when Hans Bethe walked past. "What's tan(10^100) then?" he
>asked. Ahhh...

>P.S. -.4116229629
 
  I assume that your answer is using radians? Feynmann of course could
not calculate things to 100 digits. But he could have solved the problem
in his head if he did it as degrees (the original problem poser does
not seem to have specified)

tan 100 = -5.67128
tan 1000 = -5.67128
tan 10000 = -5.67128, etc.
-- 
Rolf Wilson     Illinois State Geological Survey    rolf@geoserv.isgs.uiuc.edu
From: ath@linkoping.trab.se (Anders Thulin)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: Songs containing states
Date: 20 Nov 92 14:15:10 GMT
Organization: Telia Research AB, Teknikringen 2B, S-583 30 Linkoping, Sweden

In article <1e5k5mINN7di@gap.caltech.edu> carl@SOL1.GPS.CALTECH.EDU writes:
>=
>=    Chattanooga Choo Choo
>=    ---------------------
>
>Most versions begin with a prologue:
>
>	Hi there pal, what you say?
>	Step aside partner it's my day.
>	Bend an ear and listen to my version
>	Of a really solid Tennessee excursion.

This is not a real part of the Chattanooga Choo-Choo song.  It's the
usual intro Tex Beneke used to do when he occasionally graced the
microphone in Glenn Miller's band.

The first line is Glenn's question, the last three Tex's response.

There were several other occasions when similar intro's were done.
'The little man who wasn't there' is one I remember.

--

But since Tennessee *is* mentioned in the song, it obviosly belongs on
the list. Or is someone collecting songs where a state is mentioned
twice?

-- 
Anders Thulin       ath@linkoping.trab.se 	013-23 55 32
Telia Research AB, Teknikringen 2B, S-583 30 Linkoping, Sweden
From: Joe.Slater@f351.n632.z3.fidonet.org (Joe Slater)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Billion-year survivability
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 16:54:04

Monday November 09 1992, Roderick Young writes to All:

RY> If I wanted to send information to a society that will inhabit the
RY> earth one billion years in the future, how would I do it?  If I
RY> engraved the message on a bunch of diamonds, then buried the diamonds
RY> in a secure place, would that do it?  There must be a better way.

Satellites on a long orbit (as someone else suggested) sound good, but a
billion-year orbit is one *heck* of a long time. It might also be hard to find
them when they swing back. I don't think you could guarantee that any power
source would be active after so long.

My best shot would be to draw your message on the Moon. Use finely divided
carbon or something, and draw it in big letters. If you want to be cute, make
the message fractal in nature, so that each segment of the message is made up
of smaller messages. Even after crater formation you should be left with enough
to convey the message.

If you've got the resources, build a *big* artificial satellite, perhaps even
one that orbits the Sun. If it's large enough you should be able to give it a
non-decaying orbit, one that won't be perturbed by long term (planetary
gravitational pull) or short term (asteroids hitting it) interactions.

jds

 * Origin: What horrors wait for me in this, the Phantom's Opera? (3:632/351)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: difelici@wam.umd.edu (John Patrick DiFelici)
Subject: Re: Billion-year survivability
Keywords: pi, Louie
Organization: University of Maryland, College Park
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 14:53:50 GMT


I think the acceleration would have to be greater than 1g if the person were
to live through the round-trip.  The exact accelleration required and the
time of travel, would depend on the mass of the ship, and how much you
wanted the person on the rocket ship to age.  Obviously, there is a point at
which for a very short trip (from the spaceman's frame) would require
an acceleration that would kill him.  It might even be the case that in a
normal lifespan of a human the acceleration would be to great in order to get
the desired time passage for the Earth.  I haven't calculated it.  I would
have to go back trough one of my physics texts (or yes derive it) in order
to find the formula for time dilation for an accelerating body.

But this method is the only method I can think of that doesn't leave the
message in someone elses (or mother-natures) care.
										 Spuds

Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: matt@severian.chi.il.us (Matt Crawford)
Subject: Re: Random Points on a Sphere
Organization: The Chrome Plated Megaphone of Destiny
Date: Sun, 22 Nov 1992 05:02:40 GMT

That's two questions in a row dealing with randomly selected points
in or on a sphere and neither one stated the distribution.  Assuming
uniform distribution, I have a half-answer to this one:

>Four points are randomly selected from the surface of a sphere.
>What is the probability that all four lie in the same hemisphere?

If A is the solid angle subtended by 3 points on the sphere, the
probability that a 4th point chosen uniformly on the sphere is, uh,
cohemispheric with the 3 is 1-A/4pi if A!=2pi; 1 if A=2pi.

(People who think it's needless to pick on the "name your
distribution" nit may wish to compute the probability that a randomly
selected chord of a circle is longer than the radius.)
__________________________________________________________
Matt Crawford       matt@severian.chi.il.us       Java Man
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: jacobw@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Jacob Solomon Weinstein)
Subject: Re: Elements ending in H
Originator: news@nimaster
Organization: Princeton University
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 06:50:15 GMT

In response to my elements-ending-in-h-challenge, isaak@aurora.com (Mark Isaak) writes:
>There are lots of elements which end with 'h':  hydrogen, helium,
>holmium, hafnium, hahnium.
>
>You never said which end.
Ouch! Good point! Once again, the collective wit of the Internet proves
my superior. I'm really going to have to start making my challenges
harder.

You know, it occured to me that, taken as a whole, the Internet is the most powerful supercomputer in the world, if you include in the system the minds
linked by it.

Newsgroups: rec.puzzles