Lateral Puzzles • View topic - [Balin] The three-finger salute

by **Balin** » Sat Oct 24, 2020 10:02 pm

Earlier this week, I spent 30 minutes taking screenshots of my desktop. When finished, I deleted them all. Why?

by **AlbatrossLover** » Sun Oct 25, 2020 6:34 am

Do all the screenshots look the same? Were there any relevant programs/windows being displayed while you took them? Or just your desktop background + icons etc? Did you do anything on your PC besides taking the screenshots during this time?

Did you look at the screenshots before deleting them? Compare them? Take note of what was shown in them? Send them to someone?

Is it relevant how many screenshots you took? The rate at which you took them? If so, one per minute? More? Less?

by **Doriana** » Sun Oct 25, 2020 10:25 am

Auto-uploading screenshots to a cloud storage service (such as dropbox) relevant?

Were you on a desktop computer? laptop? relevant?
Was it your personal computer? a public computer, e.g. at school?

by **Earnest** » Sun Oct 25, 2020 10:33 am

Oh well as a PhD student I would have many reasons for doing that xD

Did you keep track of something? Relevant how many screenshots you made? Did you send them to someone? Were the screenshots equal one to another? Different for relevant details? E.g. new folders? numbers? running time? buffering? Were you running a software while taking the screenshots? Did you take the screenshots regularly after a fixed amount of time (e.g. a screenshot every minute/ n seconds?)? Were you navigating the internet relevantly? Were you in a relevant place? In your house? In office? In a car? In a public place?

Did you relevantly need a figure equal to your screen to manipulate it?
Ok maybe this is a straightforward WAG --> were you on a Skype call and took pictures of the face of someone for fun?
WAG2: did you expand the figures of the desktop to mask something else? (please, tell me if it is not clear...for instance like you were not able to do something and made a screenshot of the PC running to justify with someone with the fact that the PC was still working)

Relevant how many screenshots you made? 10? more than 20? Had you taken less than the ones that you took, would it have been useful?

by **Balin** » Sun Oct 25, 2020 3:09 pm

Do all the screenshots look the same? Yes Were there any relevant programs/windows being displayed while you took them? No Or just your desktop background + icons etc? Yes Did you do anything on your PC besides taking the screenshots during this time? I was listening to music, but that's Irrel. So assume No

Did you look at the screenshots before deleting them? No Compare them? No Take note of what was shown in them? No Send them to someone? No

Is it relevant how many screenshots you took? No The rate at which you took them? No If so, one per minute? More? As quickly as I could, so significantly more Less?

Auto-uploading screenshots to a cloud storage service (such as dropbox) relevant? No

Were you on a desktop computer? laptop? This relevant? No
Was it your personal computer? This a public computer, e.g. at school?

Oh well as a PhD student I would have many reasons for doing that xD

Did you keep track of something? Yes Relevant how many screenshots you made? No Did you send them to someone? No Were the screenshots equal one to another? The images were the same, Yes Different for relevant details? but Yes E.g. new folders? numbers? This is relevant running time? buffering? Were you running a software while taking the screenshots? No Did you take the screenshots regularly after a fixed amount of time (e.g. a screenshot every minute/ n seconds?)? As quickly as I could Were you navigating the internet relevantly? No Were you in a relevant place? Location is irrel In your house? But I was here In office? In a car? In a public place?

Did you relevantly need a figure equal to your screen to manipulate it? No
Ok maybe this is a straightforward WAG --> were you on a Skype call and took pictures of the face of someone for fun? No
WAG2: did you expand the figures of the desktop to mask something else? No (please, tell me if it is not clear...for instance like you were not able to do something and made a screenshot of the PC running to justify with someone with the fact that the PC was still working) I think I get what you mean. This isn't why I took the screenshots though

Relevant how many screenshots you made? No, but I will say the number was... 10? more than 20? ...a lot more than 20 Had you taken less than the ones that you took, would it have been useful? No

by **wunderland** » Sun Oct 25, 2020 5:17 pm

Could screen recording software (that produces a video) have served the same purpose?
Were you trying to capture something that you expected to appear and quickly disappear?
Did you stop because you achieved your goal? Because one of the screenshots captured something you had been hoping to capture? Or because you had spent enough time? Or captured a sufficient number of screenshots? Or did you stop because you gave up?
Is there a clock on your desktop? Relevant?
Were you trying to fill up a storage device?

by **Doriana** » Sun Oct 25, 2020 5:19 pm

Date or time displayed on the desktop relevant? Disk space relevant?

Any other people relevant? If so, did someone instruct you to take screenshots?

by **Balin** » Sun Oct 25, 2020 8:20 pm

Could screen recording software (that produces a video) have served the same purpose? No
Were you trying to capture something that you expected to appear and quickly disappear? No
Did you stop because you achieved your goal? This Because one of the screenshots captured something you had been hoping to capture? Or because you had spent enough time? Or captured a sufficient number of screenshots? Also this Or did you stop because you gave up?
Is there a clock on your desktop? Yes Relevant? No
Were you trying to fill up a storage device? No

Date or time displayed on the desktop relevant? No Disk space relevant? No

Any other people relevant? Indirectly If so, did someone instruct you to take screenshots? No

by **Doriana** » Sun Oct 25, 2020 9:43 pm

Did you take the screenshots using a keyboard shortcut? a mouse click?
Could you have achieved the same goal using a different computer at the same time? The same computer at a different time? A different computer at a different time?
Did you do anything relevant between taking the screenshots and deleting them? If so, did you look at the screenshots themselves? at the file names? the file sizes?

by **AlbatrossLover** » Sun Oct 25, 2020 10:17 pm

Relevant whether you were using your operating system's default screenshot feature or a third party program? Where you trying to test a feature of your PC besides the screenshots themselves?

by **Balin** » Tue Oct 27, 2020 10:05 am

Did you take the screenshots using a keyboard shortcut? This, but irrel a mouse click?
Could you have achieved the same goal using a different computer at the same time? I don't think so The same computer at a different time? Yes A different computer at a different time? I don't think so
Did you do anything relevant between taking the screenshots and deleting them? Yes If so, did you look at the screenshots themselves? No at the file names? Yes the file sizes? No

Relevant whether you were using your operating system's default screenshot feature or a third party program? Irrel (I was using the default) Where you trying to test a feature of your PC besides the screenshots themselves? No

by **Doriana** » Tue Oct 27, 2020 10:56 am

Were the screenshots saved as something like "Screenshot [date] [time]"? Did you want to see what would happen if you took two screenshots in the exact same second?

by **Earnest** » Tue Oct 27, 2020 6:12 pm

relevant the day in which you made this? The 20th of October? At what time? Relevant that you spend 30 minutes? could you have spend less? More?
Relevant where the screenshots were stored? Were they stored automatically? Did you want to see where they would have been stored after a certain number of screenshots have been made?

Maybe not clear for me: did you delete the screenshots as soon as you made them or all in once at the end?

by **Balin** » Wed Oct 28, 2020 2:15 am

Were the screenshots saved as something like "Screenshot [date] [time]"? No Did you want to see what would happen if you took two screenshots in the exact same second? No

relevant the day in which you made this? No The 20th of October? I forget. It was sometime last week At what time? No Relevant that you spend 30 minutes? No could you have spend less? More? Either
Relevant where the screenshots were stored? To an extent Were they stored automatically? Yes Did you want to see where they would have been stored after a certain number of screenshots have been made? No

Maybe not clear for me: did you delete the screenshots as soon as you made them or all in once at the end? I deleted them in chunks of about 100. (So I'd take a bunch of screenshots, delete them, take a bunch more, delete them, and so on.)

by **AlbatrossLover** » Wed Oct 28, 2020 5:18 am

Were the screenshot named something like "screenshot001","screenshot002" and so on? Did the naming scheme reset every time you deleted the screenshots? Before deleting each batch did you look at all the individual filenames? Focus on the first few screenshots? Last few screenshots?

by **Earnest** » Wed Oct 28, 2020 2:00 pm

relevant numbers = count of screenshots taken? Did you simply want to see how many time it took to take a certain number of screenshots?

could you have spend less? More? Either --> would it have been possible in one second? Is there a relevant minimum time in order to achieve the goal?

Could you have achieved your goal in say the first two screenshots? The first one only? I mean, could your goal be achieved with at least two screenshots?

So my laptop saves screenshots as : "Schermata 2020-10-28 alle 14.54.20"...the translation is something like: "Screen Shot 2020-10-28 at 2.54.20 PM". Were your screenshots saved with something like that? Did you relevantly rename your screenshots? Its overwriting relevant?

Is the bin relevant? Something like you knew that each screenshot image would have occupied the same amount of space (say 100 bytes), hence by deleting them and putting them in the bin you could easily compute the total capacity of your bin before needing to empty it?

by **Balin** » Wed Oct 28, 2020 4:17 pm

Were the screenshot named something like "screenshot001","screenshot002" and so on? Yes Did the naming scheme reset every time you deleted the screenshots? No Before deleting each batch did you look at all the individual filenames? This Focus on the first few screenshots? Last few screenshots? With a focus on this

relevant numbers = count of screenshots taken? Yes Did you simply want to see how many time it took to take a certain number of screenshots? No

could you have spend less? More? Either --> would it have been possible in one second? Not with how many I needed to take Is there a relevant minimum time in order to achieve the goal? No

Could you have achieved your goal in say the first two screenshots? No The first one only? No I mean, could your goal be achieved with at least two screenshots? I needed a lot more than two

So my laptop saves screenshots as : "Schermata 2020-10-28 alle 14.54.20"...the translation is something like: "Screen Shot 2020-10-28 at 2.54.20 PM". Were your screenshots saved with something like that? No Did you relevantly rename your screenshots? No Its overwriting relevant? No

Is the bin relevant? No Something like you knew that each screenshot image would have occupied the same amount of space (say 100 bytes), hence by deleting them and putting them in the bin you could easily compute the total capacity of your bin before needing to empty it? No

by **AlbatrossLover** » Wed Oct 28, 2020 4:28 pm

Were you trying to see what would happen once you had a certain number of screenshots? To get the screenshots to a specific number? WAG: were you trying to get them to a round number so any future screenshots you took started would be organized properly?

by **Doriana** » Wed Oct 28, 2020 4:36 pm

Is it relevant that you took screenshots of your desktop, as opposed to e.g. a website or a Word document? If so, is anything about your desktop relevant? the icons? the wallpaper?

by **Balin** » Wed Oct 28, 2020 5:11 pm

Were you trying to see what would happen once you had a certain number of screenshots? No To get the screenshots to a specific number? Yes WAG: were you trying to get them to a round number so any future screenshots you took started would be organized properly? No

Is it relevant that you took screenshots of your desktop, as opposed to e.g. a website or a Word document? No If so, is anything about your desktop relevant? the icons? the wallpaper?

by **Doriana** » Thu Oct 29, 2020 10:36 pm

Was the number reset every time you deleted a batch of screenshots? Or did it keep going up?

Were you trying to get to a number that looked like a specific date? E.g. a birthday or an anniversary? Or a number that looked like a phone number?

School relevant at all?

The other people that are indirectly relevant: one person? more than one? friends of yours? relatives? classmates? co-workers? professors?

by **AlbatrossLover** » Thu Oct 29, 2020 11:41 pm

Was there only one screenshot with the number you wanted to get to? Or was it more like a certain group of numbers? Did you keep the screenshot(s) with the goal number on your PC? Send it to someone? Take a screenshot showing the filename?

by **Balin** » Fri Oct 30, 2020 12:25 am

Was the number reset every time you deleted a batch of screenshots? Or did it keep going up? This

Were you trying to get to a number that looked like a specific date? E.g. a birthday or an anniversary? Or a number that looked like a phone number? Neither

School relevant at all? Yes, see below

The other people that are indirectly relevant: one person? more than one? friends of yours? relatives? classmates? co-workers? professors? This

Was there only one screenshot with the number you wanted to get to? This Or was it more like a certain group of numbers?
Did you keep the screenshot(s) with the goal number on your PC? This Send it to someone? Take a screenshot showing the filename?

by **wunderland** » Fri Oct 30, 2020 8:02 pm

Were the numbers padded to a fixed length with leading zeroes? did you want to find out what happened when the number had more digits than that fixed length?

by **Balin** » Sat Oct 31, 2020 12:57 am

Were the numbers padded to a fixed length with leading zeroes? No did you want to find out what happened when the number had more digits than that fixed length? No

by **Balin** » Sun Nov 08, 2020 12:59 pm

HINTS:
-I was trying to get up to a particular screenshot number.
-School is relevant.

by **Doriana** » Sun Nov 08, 2020 5:53 pm

Did you send the screenshot with the particular screenshot number to someone? If so, a professor? a classmate?
Was taking the screenshots part of an assignment?
Were you trying to prove a point? trying to show that your computer can/can't do something?

by **wunderland** » Sun Nov 08, 2020 11:36 pm

Would it help to discover the target number? Was it a number with decimal significance, like 10000? a number with computer science significance, like 65536? A number with mathematical significance, like 8128? A number considered to represent a word, like 1337? Another positive integer? (is the LTPFLPI permitted here?) A negative integer? Zero?
Wondering why you didn't simply take one screenshot and rename it... were you preparing to take that one last screenshot at a later time? such as during an online class? Were you expecting someone to see the file on your computer via screen sharing?
Had you ever gone through this exercise before?

by **Balin** » Mon Nov 09, 2020 5:23 pm

Did you send the screenshot with the particular screenshot number to someone? No If so, a professor? a classmate?
Was taking the screenshots part of an assignment? No
Were you trying to prove a point? No trying to show that your computer can/can't do something? [bNo[/b]

Would it help to discover the target number? Not really Was it a number with decimal significance, like 10000? No a number with computer science significance, like 65536?No A number with mathematical significance, like 8128? No A number considered to represent a word, like 1337? No Another positive integer? Yes (is the LTPFLPI permitted here?) Why not? It was 1908 A negative integer? No Zero? No
Wondering why you didn't simply take one screenshot and rename it... ...there's a reason...
were you preparing to take that one last screenshot at a later time? Yes such as during an online class? Yes Were you expecting someone to see the file on your computer via screen sharing? No
Had you ever gone through this exercise before? No

by **Doriana** » Mon Nov 09, 2020 6:20 pm

Did you take all screenshots during online class? Or did you take the first 1907 screenshots before class, then took 1908 in class?
Did the number 1908 play a role in this class? Was the subject of the class something that happened in 1908? Is the year 1908 relevant at all?

by **Balin** » Mon Nov 09, 2020 6:24 pm

Did you take all screenshots during online class? No Or did you take the first 1907 screenshots before class, then took 1908 in class? This, but FA
Did the number 1908 play a role in this class? No Was the subject of the class something that happened in 1908? No Is the year 1908 relevant at all? No

by **wunderland** » Mon Nov 09, 2020 9:36 pm

Is the FA that the screenshot numbers started at 1? if so, is it relevant that they did not?
Did your professor find out about the screenshot number? If so, were they pleased? displeased? amused? impressed? Did they find out because you mentioned it? or they saw it somehow? or it caused some other consequence that they noticed?
Does the number 1908 have some special relevance to you? to your professor? to your classmates? to the subject of your class? to your school? to someone else?

by **Balin** » Mon Nov 09, 2020 11:57 pm

Is the FA that the screenshot numbers started at 1? No if so, is it relevant that they did not?
Did your professor find out about the screenshot number? No/Irrel If so, were they pleased? displeased? amused? impressed? Did they find out because you mentioned it? or they saw it somehow? or it caused some other consequence that they noticed?
Does the number 1908 have some special relevance to you? to your professor? to your classmates? to the subject of your class? to your school? to someone else? I'm sure to someone, somewhere, but the number is irrelevant to the puzzle

by **Doriana** » Tue Nov 10, 2020 1:22 am

Is the FA that the relevant screenshot has already been taken? If so, do you know when you're going to take it? Is taking the screenshot contingent on something that might or might not happen in class? On something that will happen in class, but you don't know when?
Is the FA that number 1908 is the only relevant screenshot?

Will anyone (except for us) ever find out you took / will take the screenshot?

by **Balin** » Tue Nov 10, 2020 2:17 am

Is the FA that the relevant screenshot has already been taken? No, but it's close enough to the actual one - that I took 1907 screenshots in that 30-minute time period before #1908. I took maybe three-quarters of that amount, probably a bit more If so, do you know when you're going to take it? Already taken Is taking the screenshot contingent on something that might or might not happen in class? On something that will happen in class, but you don't know when? ...I'll say this, but again, already taken
Is the FA that number 1908 is the only relevant screenshot? No

Will anyone (except for us) ever find out you took / will take the screenshot? Possibly. I didn't take it secretly, but I'm not going out of the way to announce it (except for here)

by **Doriana** » Tue Nov 10, 2020 11:10 am

Is any pun or wordplay involved in the solution?

Was the relevant screenshot of the lecture slides? the people in the virtual classroom? your notes? your desktop? something else?

Subject / content of the class relevant at all?

by **Balin** » Wed Nov 11, 2020 7:18 pm

Is any pun or wordplay involved in the solution? No

Was the relevant screenshot of the lecture slides? Yes the people in the virtual classroom? your notes? your desktop? something else?

Subject / content of the class relevant at all? No

[i]I'd note also that there are a lot more than one relevant screenshot. I answered the above as in reference to #1908.

by **wunderland** » Thu Nov 12, 2020 10:23 pm

Did you take ~1431 screenshots before the class and another ~477 during the class? Is the exact number of screenshots that you took before the class relevant? the number you took during the class?
Are all the in-class screenshots of the lecture slides? one of each slide? (edit: probably not, I posted by accident before editing this one out, but meh, no harm asking too many questions

)
Are you taking these screenshots to have a record of the class? are you taking them at regular intervals? will the numbering somehow help you to identify the screenshots later? did the class start immediately after the 30-minute period?

by **Balin** » Fri Nov 13, 2020 11:43 am

Did you take ~1431 screenshots before the class and another ~477 during the class? FA Is the exact number of screenshots that you took before the class relevant? No, FA the number you took during the class? FA
Are all the in-class screenshots of the lecture slides? Yes one of each slide? No (edit: probably not, I posted by accident before editing this one out, but meh, no harm asking too many questions

)
Are you taking these screenshots to have a record of the class? Yes are you taking them at regular intervals? For svv of "regular," Yes will the numbering somehow help you to identify the screenshots later? Yes did the class start immediately after the 30-minute period? No

by **Doriana** » Sun Nov 15, 2020 9:58 am

Could we get a hint regarding the FA(s), please?

by **Balin** » Sun Nov 15, 2020 3:46 pm

Could we get a hint regarding the FA(s), please? I can clear them for you: I didn't take all the screenshots during one single class.

by **AlbatrossLover** » Mon Nov 16, 2020 7:46 am

Does the numbering help you tell the screenshot was taken during a certain class? At a certain point during the class? Does it help you remember something that was being discussed when you took it?

by **Balin** » Tue Nov 17, 2020 10:47 pm

Does the numbering help you tell the screenshot was taken during a certain class? Yes At a certain point during the class? Yes Does it help you remember something that was being discussed when you took it? Yes

by **AlbatrossLover** » Tue Nov 17, 2020 11:42 pm

Does the number remind you of a relevant date? Represent the hour when the class was happening? Represent how long something lasted?

Could you not have renamed the file manually because the automatic naming contains a relevant element besides the numbers that you couldn't recreate yourself? Because you didn't know what the relevant number would be beforehand?

by **Balin** » Wed Nov 18, 2020 2:06 am

Does the number remind you of a relevant date? Represent the hour when the class was happening? Represent how long something lasted? The number represents the point in the class when I took the screenshot. I have in my notes the number of the screenshots where certain topics were being discussed.

Could you not have renamed the file manually because the automatic naming contains a relevant element besides the numbers that you couldn't recreate yourself? Because you didn't know what the relevant number would be beforehand? Because there are a lot of screenshots and I don't want to rename all of them

by **wunderland** » Wed Nov 18, 2020 9:10 am

Is it a new computer? You wanted to get the screenshot numbers up to where they were on your old computer to continue the sequence from the same point?

by **Balin** » Wed Nov 18, 2020 11:24 am

Is it a new computer? No, but OTRT You wanted to get the screenshot numbers up to where they were on your old computer to continue the sequence from the same point? Yes, exactly

by **wunderland** » Wed Nov 18, 2020 11:40 am

So something caused the numbers to reset? an operating system update? you switched to a different operating system? you restored a backup?

by **Balin** » Wed Nov 18, 2020 1:36 pm

So something caused the numbers to reset? Yes an operating system update? Yes. you switched to a different operating system? you restored a backup?

****SPOILER****

In my online classes, I take screenshots of the professor's notes and mark the number of the screenshot in my own notes so I can match what the professor was writing to what we were covering. But a system update reset the number of the screenshots, meaning they would show up out of order if I were to continue. So I took screenshots up to the point it had left off before the update and deleted them all, so ensuing screenshots would continue the sequence and my notes would remain in order.

by **Doriana** » Wed Nov 18, 2020 1:50 pm

Clever!

[Balin] The three-finger salute

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