c4countdown

Gary Male

Cocking bunch of cocking 'H' key not cocking working cock.

Gary Male

I am 100% certain that CJ will never appear as a contestant in the future.

Gary Male

Ian Fitzpatrick wrote:None have yet found their way to the little room then? That's good to know!

No, the state of our plumbing is quite adequate thankyou.

Er, it's on top of a bureau.

Gary Male

Right, after puzzling over this for a bit I think I agree with David. We're looking for P(Bob rolls a six on his second turn | Bob won). Such an expression is begging for Bayes rule to be applied to it, which gives P(Bob won| bob rolled a six on his second turn)*P(Bob rolls a six on his second turn...

Gary Male

Hmm, alright. Time to break this down and see what's really going on. Say Bob and Sue roll at the same time, and have distinctly coloured dice. Of the 36 rolls, 5 contain a Sue six alone, 5 contain a Bob six alone, and one roll has both Bob and Sue sixes which under the terms of who goes first is a ...

Gary Male

Junaid Mubeen wrote:25/216 ?

Seems too simple so I reckon I've missed something.

I'm looking at 5/36. As defined in the terms of the puzzle Sue definitely doesn't roll a 6, so we can effectively ignore her rolls. I think.

Gary Male

Out of interest, what would it take to decrease your stress levels (re. server)? Is it a case of a more powerful machine hosted at an ISP? Is that something that could be priced up and we all contribute to? Appreciated but no, I believe the problems are mostly caused by software problems which are ...

Gary Male

Incidentally, here is a nice problem. Is it possible to tile a 2^n*2^n chessboard with one square missing, using only L-shaped pieces (i.e. they cover 3 squares)? You're not allowed any overlap, and the pieces must only cover squares on the chessboard (i.e. they can't go over the edge or the missin...

Gary Male

I have a few problems with it but the main one is as Nicky says - the assumption. I want it proving. I don't like you saying "assume x is true bla bla bla, oh look, here is a result" - I want you to show me that x is true, not just assume it. Secondly, you assume something and then use it...

Gary Male

No it isn't . What we are trying to prove is that, if the expression is true for k, then it's also true for k+1. There's a difference. No. My original question was "Prove that n(n+1) is positive". I'll try a layman's explanation anyway. A continuous probability distribution is represented...

Gary Male

That's not how it works. You start by assuming it for arbitrary n and use that to prove it for n+1. I'm totally lost as to how you finished a degree in maths without knowing the mechanics of proof by induction, never mind whether you actually understand it. Sorry to derail the thread in this manner...

Gary Male

Oh, Charlie, what made you think of the original question anyway? Do you work for AQA on the side, this question was texted in and you need the 40p commission? It's the sort of stupid thing I'd text.

Gary Male

I reckon if you put the coins in ascending order, each coin has to be at least double the value of the previous coin. Right? Wrong...(1p, 2p, 3p) being a counterexample. It works in that it fits Charlie's initial definition in a rigid sense - it "guarantees that you will hand over the smallest...

Gary Male

Modesty Blaze So...I've outfoxed dictionary corner twice !!! Number Crunching Number of times Kate Richardson outfoxes Dictionary Corner: 2 Number of times Dictionary Corner outfoxes Kate Richardson: Lots. Number of times what Dictionary Corner offers makes any difference to the game: 0. I'm not en...

Gary Male

John Douglas wrote:GLORIAS for R13 is an equaller.

That is Estafantastic. Or it would be if it were allowable. Sorry. Worth remembering as a trigger to GIRASOL though.

Gary Male

We write these without any fuss,
and include the occasional cuss
but is it a crime
if lim'ricks don't rhyme
if you write the last line in a rush

Gary Male

AnnieHall wrote: I think it's a shame that they don't ask if a member of the audience knows the conundrum, when it's not guessed by the contestants, they used to win a mug for that, I believe Well it is a shame..Never mind "Yawn"..I for one can't be bothered to read through all of the pre...

Gary Male

Agh! There was a young man, name of Male, at concealing spoilers he did fail, The forum got angry when they saw on TV That 10 nines and an eight did prevail! That could have been better... Nice one, Phil! Would it break your poetic heart if I told you my surname is pronounced "Mally"? I m...

Gary Male

Haha, admittedly I only read the top and bottom posts and hardly anything in between. Can someone summarise (briefly) where we are up to? Sounds deceptively simple but I suspect there is no uniform solution. So far we've established that if you put the coins in ascending order, each coin has to be ...

Gary Male

jeff wharton wrote: The Sting.

Splendid. My recent poll of Dunny-on-the-World gave that film 16,472 votes as greatest movie ever.

Gary Male

I reckon if you put the coins in ascending order, each coin has to be at least double the value of the previous coin. Right? Fibonacci appears to disprove that. Also an outlandish system where every coin is 1p higher in value than the previous coin right down to 1p disproves that but that's hardly ...

Gary Male

We thought time in Leeds was all spent
But as Kirk's a perfect young gent
He goes back on the show
We watch his score grow
As he wins 162-74 with 5 nines and a 1 second conundrum. Spoiler. Oh.

Gary Male

Kirk failed to win a teapot
So he played 'til he was red hot
With 10 nines and an eight
We thought he was great
But the spoiler police had him shot.

Gary Male

Kirk Bevins wrote:
Gary Male wrote:
Interesting. Cornflake was valid in the series where COD9 was the dictionary of choice.
Yeah, stupid ODE2r only lists CORNFLAKES as a plural noun. So what is one of them called?

Frank Cole?

Gary Male

I reckon if you put the coins in ascending order, each coin has to be at least double the value of the previous coin. Right? Fibonacci appears to disprove that. Also an outlandish system where every coin is 1p higher in value than the previous coin right down to 1p disproves that but that's hardly ...

Gary Male

I'll be there. Whether I'll be playing or not depends on everyone else really.

Gary Male

Cornflake! Except... It's not a valid word :-( Yeah, that was so unlucky. it's odd coz I was thinking yesterday about CONFLATES (as you do) and then started wondering whether you could have CORNFLAKE. It's one crazy, crazy world. Interesting. Cornflake was valid in the series where COD9 was the dic...

Gary Male

http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=25949

Kill me now.

Gary Male

Chris Corby wrote:
Jon Corby wrote:I've been sexually harrassing young girls, apparently.

I blame the parents.
That's it. You are getting a good thrashing tonight and don't say I didn't warn you..............

PS Gary: Is Benjamin Button based on a true story?

Yes. It's based on the mental age of 90% of the C4C forum users.

Gary Male

I've been out. Anything going on? Yeah, I wathced Benjamin Button. It's a very good film, but I think the emphasis is in the wrong place. I'd like to have seen more about the frustrations of an old, wise man in a young man's body, and could probably do with about 20 minutes chopping off. Just falls...

Gary Male

While I'm here, is there an example that counters this theory: 1: There must be a 1p coin. 2: The gap between each coin must be the same or greater then the preceding gaps of lower calue coins. 3: From the 4th coin onwards, you must be able to make change for that coin from any combination of just ...

Gary Male

Thinking about it, if that clue was sent to the Guardian they'd probably accept it, but they're more known for creative interpretations of the conventions.

Gary Male

KUTGW = Keep Up The Good Work, presumably. Yep I thought the clue was ace by the way. I don't like the "but, but, crossword conventions!" cry, if the clue makes sense, that's good enough for me, and that one was a doozy. I'm sure I've seen BACKWARD = DRAW in a crossword anyway. And "...

Gary Male

Blimey, I thought I'd commented on this already. I didn't enter for 1 reason - I kind of forgot to solve it. :oops: Clue surface readings are very nice, and the problems with getting answers for the grid has been documented and is the bane of any crossword compiler, but "18a Unsophisticated bac...

Gary Male

While I'm here, is there an example that counters this theory: 1: There must be a 1p coin. 2: The gap between each coin must be the same or greater then the preceding gaps of lower calue coins. 3: From the 4th coin onwards, you must be able to make change for that coin from any combination of just t...

Gary Male

Fibonacci numbers work. Proof to big and complex to write here at this time of night. Will leave to Andrew Wiles to explain.

Gary Male

Looks like I picked the wrong night to watch Benjamin Button.

Gary Male

Roxanne wrote:If I were the shuffler, I wouldn't be able to resist ordering the consonants F C K S H T C R P B G G R W N K...
I think you can guess how I'd order the vowels

As long as you don't mind Damian charging down and making sure the next three tiles would be P, 4 and 5 that would be awesome.

Gary Male

Martin Gardner wrote:I typed big tits into images.google.com, and it came up with this.

A lovely pair there.

Gary Male

Fuck me, I genuinely had no idea that Mork & Mindy was a Happy Days spinoff :o It's quite a well-known thing. Next you'll be telling us you didn't know Laverne & Shirley was a Happy Days spin-off! And yes, Jason, Mork & Mindy was quite the thing in this country for a while. I saw an epi...

Gary Male

((25x(75-10))+1)/(100/50)? The lovely 937.5 rule - which surprisingly I've known about for a while now, cos Kirk told it to me on Apterous a few weeks ago. Actually what bothers me about this kind of thing, but also much simpler sums, is that I tend to think strategically for numbers. So for instan...

Gary Male

Refreshing to hear Jeff refer casually to a contestant's same-sex partner in their intro. Don't believe I've heard that happen on Countdown before. Also refreshing to hear Susie say ARSIEST, though it seems odd that it's deemed OK to say that on afternoon TV but not WANKERS. http://www.theregister....

Gary Male

I always put lines through my 7s, because oherwise it's too easy for them to get muddled with 1s, which in turn I draw with a hook so they don't get confused with lower-case Ls... I picked up the habit when I was learning French at school, and the explanation for the line made so much sense to me. ...

Gary Male

I mentioned Fibonacci numbers in an earlier post, and dismissed them, but I can't think of a counterexample for any set of Fibonacci coins (e.g. [1,2,3,5,8] is one possible set, [1,2,3,5,8,13,21] is another), so maybe they do work. Over to you, Gary. They probably work because of the nature of Fibo...

Gary Male

Not sure if (or even if, how) this adds to the discussion, but I think (counterexample in 5, 4, 3...) any coin system using 1 and the first n (for any n>=0) prime numbers should always work in the greedy way (e.g. 1, 2, 3, 5, 7 for n=4). Even if I'm right, prime numbers could well be a special case...

Gary Male

Edit: was I alone in waiting for John Sergeant to declare himself the ROUNDEST Strictly contestant? Yeah, that's it, edit your post after I carefully checked no-one else had said that. :x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x ...

Gary Male

When he was talking about 8s that described him on Strictly I was sure ROUNDEST would appear.

THEROPODS is one of the all-time great spots, very impressive.

Gary Male

It was. 25 50 75 100 1 10 Target 813 was probably his greatest hour. Or 30 seconds.

Gary Male

Tips on 4 large? Best one IMO is that 25 x 25 = 625. You can use (100-75) or (75-50) to get one of the 25s; you've got 100 or 50 left to add or subtract; and you've still got 2 small numbers to fiddle about with for the detail. Anything between 510 and 740 or so and that's my first stop. If it's a ...

Gary Male

Ian Fitzpatrick wrote:Sue Perkins was a DC guest in 2001

And is probably the only guest named after a cigarette

Gary Male

ON THE SUBJECT OF NOSH This was the letter that Giles Coren wrote to "The Times" sub editors on the subject, it's hilarious. A sub-editor changed copy from "a nosh" to "nosh". I particularly love the swearing [SNIPPED] Right, Sorry to go on. Anger, real steaming Sorry ...

Gary Male

Clare Sudbery wrote:
Jon O'Neill wrote:squirming penis
Just seen this. Disgusting, puerile, but also moderately amusing.

wonders if Jono's squirming penis always gets this reaction

Gary Male

In the English number system, we have 3 basic starting values, 1 2 5, and then we multiply these by multiple of 10 (10, 20, 50, 100, 200, 500 etc.). I wonder if doing this would always work? i.e. 1 4 9 becomes 1 4 9 10 40 90 100 400 etc. I suspect not, but will hold out hope until a counterexample ...

Gary Male

In the English number system, we have 3 basic starting values, 1 2 5, and then we multiply these by multiple of 10 (10, 20, 50, 100, 200, 500 etc.). I wonder if doing this would always work? i.e. 1 4 9 becomes 1 4 9 10 40 90 100 400 etc. I suspect not, but will hold out hope until a counterexample ...

Gary Male

Imagine someone with perfect memory and anagram skills but no knowledge of English (like a computer). Set it to watch Countdown, and remember everything declared by contestants and Dictionary Corner. How long before it could play a decent game? Put another way, I wonder how large a set of words wou...

Gary Male

Matt Morrison wrote:R2: I am presuming that MOUNTIES is not good?

Capitalised, so no good

Gary Male

Ben Hunter wrote:Will today's contestant have the bollocks to beat the banker, or will they sob worthlessly into Noel Edmonds' stiff lap?

R4, Box 15 for £20,000

Gary Male

I can't really add anything to the technical side of the game (but will blather on anyway), but the sheer unlikeliness of any given word to come up is notable. From 221,313 letters rounds on Apterous, RELATIONS (and anagrams) has appeared in fewer than 100 rounds - and that's including hypercountdow...

Gary Male

Ah, Tony Slattery playing the host in Party Guests on WLIIA?, one of the great pleasures in life. How about trying to get the comedian Richard Herring, who has a well-documented love of Scrabble and is currently racking up panellist appearances on all sorts of shows, or David Frost who has a wealth ...

Gary Male

As in to nosh someone off? Or in Sun parlance, to n*** someone off Is that actually the context in which it was being used when the Sun printed it (or rather, didn't print it)? Yep, he said "Anyone want to give me a nosh? Suck my dick.” after commenting on the rather phallic nature of the micr...

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