Line 15, end of the line
Find Cow
Submitted 1 day ago by favoredponcho@lemmy.zip to mildlyinfuriating@lemmy.world
https://lemmy.zip/pictrs/image/786e0a42-4c13-4e35-88a5-2f71e18bbd73.avif
Comments
BOFH666@lemmy.world 1 day ago
ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 1 day ago
Gawd, it would have been so fucking funny if there actually wasn’t a single instance of cow in it, though. Lol
sik0fewl@piefed.ca 1 day ago
I would have tried longer if I knew it was actually there! I do remember focusing near there and missing it, though.
Treczoks@lemmy.world 1 day ago
You know about spoiler tags?
njordomir@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Good description. I read this and perfectly estimated the location you described within 5 seconds.
orbituary@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
Coolkat@slrpnk.net 1 day ago
Treczoks@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Use spoiler tags, please!
kinkles@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
It’s missing the 1, try again
zeejoo@thelemmy.club 1 day ago
Treczoks@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Put it in spoiler tags, please!
billwashere@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Treczoks@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Put it in spoiler tags, please!
billwashere@lemmy.world 17 hours ago
Sorry….
Treczoks@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Found it. I wonder what the designer did to make sure to have exactly one cow in there.
Snazz@lemmy.world 1 day ago
What I would have done is started filling in letters randomly and every time a C or W ends up next to an O, choose the same letter or an O to put on the opposite side of the O.
Its hard to prove, but I’m pretty sure there isn’t a situation where a space can’t be filled in with this algorithm.
MatSeFi@lemmy.liebeleu.de 20 hours ago
Yes, this would work — but it comes with a subtle statistical bias: the character ‘W’ ends up underrepresented. With a naïve “avoid COW” approach, only about 25% of the grid will typically be ‘W’.
A more elegant solution would be:
- fill the grid completely at random
- search for every “COW” cluster
- whenever one is found, copy a random character from one cell in the cluster into another cell of the same cluster
- Iterate until no “COW” remains
- search for every “COW” cluster
That keeps the distribution much closer to uniform while still guaranteeing a valid puzzle. Then just insert the single “COW” manually wherever you want the hidden solution to be.
Julia code example
julia s= (320,180) #size m=rand([‘C’,‘O’,‘W’],s) #random init c=1 while c>0 #iterate till solved c=0 for i in 1:first(s) for j in 1:last(s) #check for ‘COW’ in each cluster of 3 and copy a character #from a rendom cell to an other random cell of the cluster if found if i>2 && m[i-2:i,j] ==[‘C’,‘O’,‘W’] #vertical c +=1 r =shuffle([1,2]) m[i-r[1],j] = m[i-r[2],j] end if j>2 && m[i,j-2:j] ==[‘C’,‘O’,‘W’] #horizontal c +=1 r =shuffle([0,1,2]) m[i,j-r[1]] = m[i,j-r[2]] end end end endThe neat part is that this preserves an almost perfectly balanced character frequency.
For comparison, the puzzle in the example image seems to contain roughly:
C: ~260 (~25%) O: ~520 (~50%) W: ~244 (~25%)
So the original author clearly used a different generation strategy.
Possibly on purpose: visually, ‘C’ and ‘O’ are much easier to confuse than ‘W’. Reducing the number of 'W’s therefore increases the search difficulty. In that sense, the approach suggested by @Snazz@lemmy.world is probably preferable: keep the distribution mostly balanced, but intentionally bias it just enough to make the puzzle psychologically annoying.
I wonder if there is a non iterative way to generate this puzzle with a ‘uniform’ character distribution 🤔
- fill the grid completely at random
zorblitz@programming.dev 1 day ago
Top of the page says find 1 cow, so yes
leftzero@lemmy.dbzer0.com 19 hours ago
tamal3@lemmy.world 19 hours ago
I looked for a few minutes, nearly gave up, and then I found it nearly instantly once I started looking for the correct distance between C - W. Kind of interesting!
Cypher45@lemmy.dbzer0.com 20 hours ago
This is actually genius, I’m not gonna lie.
BananaPeal@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
Wow
betterdeadthanreddit@lemmy.world 1 day ago
No, cow.
SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 day ago
unruffled@anarchist.nexus 1 day ago
Rug_Pisser@piefed.zip 1 day ago
Shopped, can tell by the pixels.
diabetic_porcupine@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Buffalox@lemmy.world 1 day ago
This is impossible, it is not circled in red like it’s supposed to.
SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I found one!
But first, I found “wowcoc”
possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 1 day ago
It’s 15 lines down on the right side
Treczoks@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Spoiler tags, please!
Little1Lost@gehirneimer.de 1 day ago
i almost lost focus before finding it because of all the owo's
glibg@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
Many, many cocs.
dimjim@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
Didn’t find no cow, found a lot of coc tho
possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 1 day ago
“wow coc”
LadyMeow@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 day ago
Hey, that’s good coc!
neidu3@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
Nice coc bro
FireWire400@lemmy.world 1 day ago
“COC” Hehe
Mika@piefed.ca 1 day ago
Wow coc OwO
Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
hehe
DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world 20 hours ago
This is one of those things a computer could do instantaneously, but a human can not.
Cowever, ask a computer to find a how IRL, and it just sits there on your desk and blinks at you.
Rooster326@programming.dev 17 hours ago
I, too, cannot find a how IRL
blimthepixie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
Plenty if you’re Scottish
favoredponcho@lemmy.zip 1 day ago
Coo
certified_expert@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I found coooooooc :)
cybervegan@lemmy.world 17 hours ago
AmidFuror@fedia.io 1 day ago
Easy. Now find cooocwcoc.
Lasherz12@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Row 15. I like those puzzles, but it makes the most sense to scan from the left if that’s your method and it’s almost entirely to the right.
Treczoks@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Spoiler tag, please!
MrMcGeesMom@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Now I cant unsee it
betterdeadthanreddit@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Another version of this task.
plyth@feddit.org 1 day ago
That rectangle with the exclamation mark is for spoilers.
:::spoiler Spoiler
like this
:::
FiniteBanjo@feddit.online 1 day ago
Line 14 3rd letter from the right.
Treczoks@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Spoiler tag, please!
FiniteBanjo@feddit.online 1 day ago
Just don’t count and you can experience it yourself.
huppakee@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Found one cock instead
cannedtuna@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Found it
Image
Easy
LadyMeow@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 day ago
Nailed it!
BlackPenguins@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Now you’re thinking like a Taskmaster.
JargonWagon@lemmy.world 1 day ago
The best way to think
sanguinepar@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I did wonder if that might prove to be the answer, glad it wasn’t! 😁
JargonWagon@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Spoiler!