John - Nostr Hypermedia

Guess the hidden word in 6 tries. A new puzzle is available each day.

Minute Cryptic - 25 August, 2025 (quite a good clue, but I think it shouldn't be a 2-par. Maybe it is a 2-par because of the number of letters, but it'd be more difficult than usual if English was a second language or I had unfamiliarity with certain things. But I got it straight away, actually I tried one word that was off by one letter first. I'm not sure things regarded as common knowledge are common knowledge, because common knowledge is such a subjective thing, exploiting common sense is how magicians work and why one should always be weary of people espousing it. On the other hand there would be substantially less clues if no references or allusions. Like "Friend, often a D, retro [5]" for Amiga because D is 500 and a best selling model of the Amiga was the A500, a retro computer, and amiga is the Spanish feminine for friend. In some ways good, I suppose, because it's fun learning, or in the absence of that, going "aha". I suppose if the definition is easy and it can be brute forced it should be a low par.) "Forger's initial on map - it shows treasure spot! Buried gold is fake..." (4) 🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣 I scored: 2 under par

John 5 months ago

In the UK 70% of children from the richest tenth of families earn 5 or more good GCSEs when leaving school. GCSEs are the qualifications at the end of leaving high school they used to be easier but having seen a nephew’s a few years ago they were more difficult - or at least had bits where it was possible to go higher. Fewer than 30% of children from the poorest households get similar attainment to those from richer backgrounds. I don’t think kids from from poorer backgrounds have any less inherent potential as human beings than those from richer backgrounds. It starts early, just under half of poor 5 year old children achieve the early years development targets of their richer peers, and it carries on after GCSEs. People aren’t statistics, there are lots of exceptions, and it’d be patronising to make assumptions or feel sorry for people. But the point stands: for a person from a disadvantaged background things are systematically more difficult for you in the UK. Everything from the way you are treated by teachers to the way you are treated by the system itself, the system being broader society and the things a person has to navigate. Using a very crude metric those in the skilled manual occupations group (C2) and the lowest grade occupations (DE), including the unemployed, account for about 20 million people, out of a population of just under 70 million people. So, for some, the idea that asylum seekers and immigrants, who arrived here illegally are being housed in hotels and given help by professionals who have often regarded them as less important, or an annoyance, is the culmination of, I think, quite legitimate resentment of the system itself. If people lack hope symbols like flags or icons become important and those resentments against a similarly, or worse, marginalised group will be used by those who want to enact changes. In many ways the politics exploiting the situation of the asylum hotel protests reminds me of Marxist theory whereby the workers discover class solidarity and rise up against the bourgeoisie, in that some want to smash the system up and replace it with something else, and those people wrapped in flags are the agents of change. One of the more patronising things I heard said about them is “the people they want in charge will treat them even worse”, which is potentially true, but overlooks that under the current system they have so little to lose getting arrested for being unruly is a viable option. I am, of course, talking in quite coded terms about disadvantaged white people. Who exist in large chunks in the UK and have legitimate reasons for complaint of which putting flags on things is a symptom. It’s applied as much to other social unrest across races and classes, I’m sure there’s supporters or haters across the economic, and possibly even ethnic spectrum. I’m from an economically deprived background but had all kinds of other advantages. I really can see this from both sides. I think the protesters are wrong, but if you treat people like cunts expect arseholes.

John 5 months ago

Wordle 1,527 5/6* (it's easy to see what happened here. If I hadn't remembered a couple I did before I'd have failed.) ⬛🟨🟨⬛🟨 🟩⬛🟩🟩🟩 🟩⬛🟩🟩🟩 🟩⬛🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Guess the hidden word in 6 tries. A new puzzle is available each day.

Minute Cryptic - 24 August, 2025 (I want breakfast and I got up late so I'm pressed for time*.) "Got a freshly-made Caesar wrap?" (4) 🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣 I scored: 2 under par

*

John 5 months ago

Wordle 1,526 3/6* ⬛⬛🟩🟨⬛ ⬛🟩🟩⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Guess the hidden word in 6 tries. A new puzzle is available each day.

Minute Cryptic - 23 August, 2025 (I got awoken by a lot of helicopter noise but by the time I got around to checking flight radar it or they were gone. Since then I've not slept well. So, I'll never know, and my curiousity is limited by been torn between a little more sleep and hunger for breakfast.) "Gripping strip scene from Marvel crossover" (6) 🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣 I scored: 2 under par

John 5 months ago

Wordle 1,525 4/6* (mistake on 3, it would have been 4 anyway) 🟨⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬛🟨🟨🟨⬛ 🟨🟨⬛🟨⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Guess the hidden word in 6 tries. A new puzzle is available each day.

Minute Cryptic - 22 August, 2025 (totally stumped me. Had to get two letters then brite force it. Feeling stupid or out of one's depth is a necessary part of learning anything with a meaningful level of difficulty and I am grateful for Minute Cryptic's explanation videos. I've been playing a game called Hearts, which is a kind of trick-taking card game like a simplified bridge, I'm somewhat familiar with the concepts because of The Crew: Mission Deep Sea‡. Trick taking sounds like doing something rude round the back of Wetherspoons, by a skip, for cheeseburgers, but is usually, with an ordinary pack of cards, when a card is put down in the middle of a particular suite following it with a card in the same suite. Each player does than in turn. So if it was a 5 of clubs following it with another clubs card. The winner of the trick will be whoever has the highest card of that suite. In bridge there are trump suites which beat all the others and there are four players in two teams who bid for the number of tricks they think they'll achieve, which complicates things and has all kinds of names for things which need to be learnt. Hearts* is much simpler although there are some variations out there like most card games. The Crew: Mission Deep Sea was certainly fun to play while babysitting my nephews but the early challenges were too easy. It's common to go on about how modern life is rubbish but having YouTube videos for most card games, recipes, and other things that are boosted by seeing how it's done is a nice thing. I'm rubbish at hearts, for now. I think the best introduction to boardgames is mancala, which is at least 7000 years old and by the power of the Internet a person can play here†. There's a nice continuity there. I expect there'll be a Neuralink implementation.) "Page-turning diary captures male peak of civilisation?" (7) 🟡🟡🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣 I scored: 1 under par

Mancala Classic 🕹️ Play on CrazyGames

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Mancala Classic is a timeless strategic board game that pits players against each other or a cunning computer opponent. Its rich history and intuit...

John 5 months ago

Wordle 1,524 5/6* (1/2 on 4) ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬛⬛⬛🟨⬛ ⬛🟨⬛🟨🟨 ⬛🟨🟩⬛🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Guess the hidden word in 6 tries. A new puzzle is available each day.

Minute Cryptic - 21 August, 2025 (i got this one because of the definition rather than any particular skill on my part. Typos bug me. However, in my case, and most modern forms of spontaneous communication, typos are an inevitability, because like messaging a friend, or relative, when time counts, someone may be waiting, or it's trivial, and the outcome of a grammatical error isn't dire, I'm OK about it and have literate auto-correct in my brain. This is akin to chatting with a friend on WhatsApp. I read it after I've hit end. Also, it annoys the right people.) "Final exam from a tertiary student with careless typos" (7) 🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣 I scored: 3 under par

John 5 months ago

Wordle 1,523 4/6* (this was a tricky one) ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬛🟨🟨⬛⬛ ⬛🟩🟩⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Guess the hidden word in 6 tries. A new puzzle is available each day.

Minute Cryptic - 20 August, 2025 (An enjoyable clue. I heard a ghost yesterday. Except it wasn't a ghost. There is a particular bench, a bench that is particularly good for idling, the idling which I was failing miserably at because half of my back felt like it had been in a car crash, a bench that has stony ground either side. When people approach the bench a person can hear the crunch crunch crunch of their feet on the ground. I was attempting to read and get my head together, the reading failed I was too distracted by pain, so I ignored the crunch crunch crunch of people walking behind until they were right next to me, at which point I'd glance back out of curiosity. That happened sparsely for an hour or so. Then, when there were less people around, I head what sounded like someone walking with determination, but slowly, to the back of the bench, a Crunch, Crunch, Crunch, CRUNCH, and when I turned around there was nobody nearby and I was pretty much alone. Ghosts aren't real, I've had it happen before on the same bench, and my guess is that there is some kind of acoustic effect where the sound of someone walking on ground nearby, but out of immediate sight, that is reflected to the bench. It wasn't remotely frightening. Maybe it would be at night, but it was a sunny, if not very painful, afternoon. I have chosen to interpret it as a good omen, because why not, I think onens are the narrative form of pareidolia. Death deciding not today. Or I was hallucinating. Also possible, but I don't think so.) "HARdLY ReMaRKABlE!?" (3,1,3,4) 🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣 I scored: 3 under par

John 5 months ago

Not an ideal day but a pretty good one. Tunbridge Wells public library, a library card, and a laptop.

John 5 months ago

Wordle 1,522 3/6* ⬛🟩🟨⬛⬛ 🟩🟩⬛⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Guess the hidden word in 6 tries. A new puzzle is available each day.

Minute Cryptic - 19 August, 2025 (this one had a straightforward but satisfying clue, unlike my night's sleep which was truly dreadful.) "Two couples start to fight? Oh you are noisy!" (4) 🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣 I scored: 2 under par

https://medium.com/@adnanmasood/breaking-the-sorting-barrier-why-a-new-shortest-path-algorithm-matters-even-if-you-still-love-7bad07c71b88

John 5 months ago

John 5 months ago

Wordle 1,521 3/6* ⬛🟨⬛⬛⬛ 🟨⬛🟨⬛🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Guess the hidden word in 6 tries. A new puzzle is available each day.

Minute Cryptic - 18 August, 2025 (I saw someone discussing an asylum seeker hotel protest on Facebook, and it's easy to dismiss those views as Fringe views, John Noble's Walter Bishop was sublime, but I was thinking about control, or lack of control, that makes specific things you can do something about more attractive to protest against than protesting about nebulous things that are more complicated. So, on face value, an asylum seeker is alleged, there is no further evidence given, to have commited an awful crime. No doubt some asylum seekers do commit awful crimes, because they're people and some people do commit awful crimes. No further evidence was supplied. My local newspaper has an "in the courts" section and most of the crimes are not committed by asylum seekers‡. It could be that asylum seekers disproportionately commit awful crimes but I don't think that's the case. Questions arise about a whole series of moments leading up to this point in the life of each of the people demonstrating, in a rich country, that they're protesting about things they can do something about, rather than things they can't, and why those people may be attractive to people who want them to demonstrate. The failures of the country itself as a cause of symptoms is a trickier proposition. Fringe was definitely one of the best popularly placed science fiction shows, had popular appeal, and Easter eggs from the start, that put Fringe on a par with the X-Files. Like the UK and Canada, Australia seems to excel at exporting good actors to rich countries. Fringe is currently on ITV-X if you're in the UK and can't be bothered demonstrating.) "Temperamental electric air conditioning unit starts malfunctioning under 90 degrees" (5) 🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣 I scored: 2 under par

Kent courts latest news - Kent Live

‡

Get all the latest news from courts in Kent

John 5 months ago

Wordle 1,520 3/6* ⬛🟨⬛⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩⬛🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Guess the hidden word in 6 tries. A new puzzle is available each day.

Minute Cryptic - 17 August, 2025 (the degree to which I was thrown by this one was severe. Must think dumber. What I thought was "Nieces starting" is "NI" and looping it with "dash", another word for race, gave me "Danish" as the first word. Then I was thinking of pinwheels, as in Danish pastries, so "Danish Pin" . So I'm not sure whether it was a really clever misdirection or an inadvertently ambiguous clue. I'll watch their, excellent, explanation video later. I've been doing upwards of four things at once so luckily not much time wasted. It's not Danish or Dansk adjacent. I thought, and have reasonable reasons, the first word was Danish.) "Niece's starting to be captivated by looping race: lots of Hot Wheels?" (6,3) 🟡🟡🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣 I scored: 1 under par

John 5 months ago

Wordle 1,519 3/6* ⬛⬛⬛⬛🟩 🟩🟩⬛⬛🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Guess the hidden word in 6 tries. A new puzzle is available each day.

Minute Cryptic - 16 August, 2025 (I slept like a log. I like sleeping like a log. I would like to stay in bed but real life is not just an intrusive thought and, besides, I want breakfast. I'm not sure if lack of empathy is a mental illness, and lack of empathy can be affected, or peer pressure influenced like an internet witch hunt, but, despite the song I don't want to trivialise mental health problems in any form. I have been there and my message to anyone suffering such problems is that other people know how you feel and care deeply about you getting through it because you getting through it makes their world, and therefore your world, better. Many people care even if you don't know them, things will change because change is inevitable and there are flickers of light in the dark even when they're hard to see. That said, I know, at least, 4 ladies like the lady in this song and I'm OK with them. So don't be too rude about my unforced empathy or admissions of weakness.) "Dry showerhead? Ring plumber fruitlessly" (5) 🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣 I scored: 2 under par

Design and Characterization of Superconducting Nanowire-Based Processors for Acceleration of Deep Neural Network Training

John 5 months ago

The age of steam and coal did eventually give way to alternatives.

arXiv.org

Training of deep neural networks (DNNs) is a computationally intensive task and requires massive volumes of data transfer. Performing these operati...

John 5 months ago

Wordle 1,518 4/6* ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Guess the hidden word in 6 tries. A new puzzle is available each day.

Minute Cryptic - 15 August, 2025 (The worldle in that pattern is almost synchronicity. Although, I don't think almost synchronicity counts, 'almost' most things is like a pleasant, or not so pleasant, advertisment or reminder for most things. It was almost cheese, it almost killed me, I have almost solved it, it's almost a …, there is a large, and probably non exhaustive list of almosts. I'd take almost the best cheese if the alternative was almost the almost best cheese which is bounded by the best cheese at the top and almost cheese at the bottom. With potentially lots of "almost the" in between. Given the subjectivity involved maybe an infinite number although I don't think people are that interesting and assuming all adults on planet tried the same cheese and had slightly different perceptions of it that would be something significantly under 5 billion nested "almost the" because not everyone likes or eats any given cheese, answers would be quantised by the use of language or subjective numerical scales and clusters would form. I haven't thought it through and I want breakfast.) "Supply at party is unusually billed?" (8) 🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣 I scored: 3 under par

John 5 months ago

Reed-Solomon codes. CDs & Voyager. The chatbots I tried got that wrong and answered in terms so general it looked like it guessed from an encyclopedia and the internet. Which, in technical terms, is roughly what they did.

John 5 months ago

Wordle 1,517 4/6* ⬛⬛⬛🟨⬛ 🟨🟨⬛🟨⬛ 🟨⬛🟨⬛🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Guess the hidden word in 6 tries. A new puzzle is available each day.

Minute Cryptic - 14 August, 2025 (A more tricky Wordle than the Minute Cryptic today but that a subjective judgement. References to one of the 16 or so 64-bit registers common to x64 architecture is similarly obscure to many. Or the commonality between Compact Discs and the Voyager Space probe. Everything is a potential question for an AI except when it gets it wrong, which in fairness to AIs, and people, is something we're all going to be at least some of the time. The rise of chatbots very much highlights the need for critical thinking, maybe from infant school onward, because a paternalistic state regulatory approach, like the Online Safety Act, which charitably, or at least nominally, is about protecting kids, but hits sites like Wikipedia with state regulation of the identity of editors, therefore potentially blocking the UK, is going to encourage use of chatbots as primary sources of information. The idea of kids just been able to type in a porn site, or other, is pretty horrific but maybe there are less Chinese solutions that also protect kids with careless or technically less knowledgeable parents. The Encyclopedia Britannica is very good but its coverage of ongoing events is necessarily limited. That aside: chatbots are going to becone primary sources of information regardless of the current moral panic and critical thinking is going to become very important. I have never used AI to solve crossword clues because when I've tested that chatbots often get them wrong.) "Was it comforting to snuggle friends, perhaps?" (6) 🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣 I scored: 2 under par