86

I am organising a lottery and Springer have kindly agreed to donate a copy of LaTeX and Friends.

Joseph Wright has kindly agreed to act a an independent witness/judge and he knows the winning number.

<LEGAL STUFF> The lottery closes when the judges announce the winner. The judges decision is final and there shall be no discussion and or correspondence about the outcome of the lottery. </LEGAL STUFF>

To win the book you must guess a number in the range 1--200. The first person who guesses the right number wins the book. Please note that the time of arrival in TeX-SX is what counts, not the time of sending.

To give everybody a fair chance, you may submit only one number.

There is one exception to the previous rule. If several contestants submit the same number, the contestant whose submission arrived first is valid. The other contestants may resubmit a new number.

Contestants must have been a member of TeX-SX before 13 December, 2012. (Without this restriction, people may start creating fake accounts and submit multiple guesses.)

Please post your guess as an answer to this meta question; not as a comment. Comments will be ignored. Please only put your guess in the body of the answer.

Guesses will be checked every couple of days and the winner will be announced within a few days after.

EDIT: At the winner's request, I can sign the book. (I'm not doing this by default because I know some people want to keep their books pencil and ink free.)

EDIT: There are still plenty of free numbers. I am relaxing the rules. Contestants may submit 2 (valid) guesses.

EDIT: Congratulations to @seadoor for guessing the right number 132. Well done. Thanks to Joseph Wright for helping as a judge and alerting me the right number had been chosen (I hadn't noticed it because it was added as an edit to an existing post). Thanks to everybody for participating. It took a bit longer than anticipated. Next time I should allow a shorter range of numbers.

Finally, please accept my apologies for entering the publicity tag.

Have fun.

Marc van Dongen

The numbers that are already chosen : Running your favorite algorithm-sort... Please Wait...

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 41 42 43 45 47 49 50 51 52 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 64 65 66 67 68 69 71 72 73 74 75 77 78 80 81 83 84 85 87 88 89 91 92 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 105 106 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 135 136 137 138 139 142 143 144 145 147 149 150 151 152 153 154 156 157 160 161 162 164 165 166 167 169 170 171 172 173 174 176 177 180 182 183 185 187 188 190 191 193 195 196 197 198 199 200 250

-----------------------------------------
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|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|040|
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|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|044|◖■◗|046|◖■◗|048|◖■◗|◖■◗|
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|◖■◗|◖■◗|053|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|
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|◖■◗|◖■◗|063|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|070|
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|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|076|◖■◗|◖■◗|079|◖■◗|
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|◖■◗|082|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|086|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|090|
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|◖■◗|◖■◗|093|094|095|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|
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|◖■◗|◖■◗|103|104|◖■◗|◖■◗|107|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|
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|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|115|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|
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|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|
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|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|134|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|140|
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|141|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|146|◖■◗|148|◖■◗|◖■◗|
-----------------------------------------
|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|155|◖■◗|◖■◗|158|159|◖■◗|
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|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|168|◖■◗|◖■◗|
-----------------------------------------
|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|175|◖■◗|◖■◗|178|179|◖■◗|
-----------------------------------------
|181|◖■◗|◖■◗|184|◖■◗|186|◖■◗|◖■◗|189|◖■◗|
-----------------------------------------
|◖■◗|192|◖■◗|194|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|
-----------------------------------------


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    xmin=2012-12-13 17:59,
    xmax=2012-12-20 24:00,
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Time, Value
2012-12-13 18:22, 42
2012-12-13 18:28, 97
2012-12-13 18:56, 84
2012-12-13 18:58, 117
2012-12-13 19:07, 128
2012-12-13 19:11, 49
2012-12-13 19:19, 137
2012-12-13 19:21, 13
2012-12-13 19:22, 127
2012-12-13 19:28, 250
2012-12-13 19:43, 3
2012-12-13 21:43, 1
2012-12-13 21:47, 67
2012-12-13 22:02, 121
2012-12-13 22:13, 2
2012-12-13 22:29, 39
2012-12-13 22:42, 28
2012-12-13 23:07, 156
2012-12-13 23:27, 73
2012-12-13 23:34, 154
2012-12-13 23:39, 21
2012-12-13 23:55, 43
2012-12-14 0:04, 123
2012-12-14 0:27, 113
2012-12-14 1:12, 66
2012-12-14 1:26, 100
2012-12-14 2:12, 142
2012-12-14 2:31, 17
2012-12-14 2:43, 78
2012-12-14 3:53, 111
2012-12-14 5:38, 12
2012-12-14 7:21, 33
2012-12-14 8:50, 200
2012-12-14 8:52, 29
2012-12-14 9:00, 91
2012-12-14 9:21, 149
2012-12-14 9:25, 69
2012-12-14 9:39, 85
2012-12-14 10:23, 10
2012-12-14 10:36, 8
2012-12-14 11:11, 22
2012-12-14 11:13, 109
2012-12-14 11:45, 191
2012-12-14 12:04, 31
2012-12-14 13:14, 172
2012-12-14 15:56, 131
2012-12-14 14:29, 30
2012-12-14 15:44, 18
2012-12-14 17:06, 144
2012-12-14 17:24, 138
2012-12-14 17:50, 88
2012-12-14 19:47, 177
2012-12-14 20:17, 60
2012-12-14 20:34, 199
2012-12-14 20:51, 27
2012-12-14 21:05, 23
2012-12-14 22:51, 11
2012-12-14 23:48, 101
2012-12-15 1:14, 35
2012-12-15 1:20, 7
2012-12-15 3:16, 119
2012-12-15 4:33, 57
2012-12-15 4:42, 96
2012-12-15 6:13, 170
2012-12-15 9:00, 15
2012-12-15 13:59, 61
2012-12-15 14:58, 167
2012-12-15 16:43, 98
2012-12-15 17:13, 139
2012-12-15 18:15, 110
2012-12-15 18:25, 64
2012-12-15 20:33, 71
2012-12-15 20:46, 58
2012-12-15 23:03, 19
2012-12-16 10:02, 139
2012-12-16 11:34, 99
2012-12-16 13:56, 38
2012-12-16 14:56, 16
2012-12-16 17:42, 47
2012-12-16 18:29, 185
2012-12-16 19:34, 150
2012-12-16 20:45, 9
2012-12-17 6:01, 106
2012-12-17 7:45, 102
2012-12-17 7:50, 81
2012-12-17 7:50, 37
2012-12-17 8:20, 24
2012-12-17 8:20, 54
2012-12-17 8:23, 197
2012-12-17 8:23, 135
2012-12-17 8:36, 160
2012-12-17 8:46, 72
2012-12-17 8:54, 32
2012-12-17 9:52, 9
2012-12-17 10:8, 171
2012-12-17 12:07, 36
2012-12-17 12:20, 120    
2012-12-17 13:20, 169
2012-12-17 13:41, 6
2012-12-17 14:00, 182
2012-12-17 14:38, 163
2012-12-17 14:38, 188
2012-12-17 15:06, 187
2012-12-17 15:52, 129
2012-12-17 16:22, 4
2012-12-17 16:22, 5
2012-12-17 17:07, 80
2012-12-17 17:07, 166
2012-12-17 17:10, 162
2012-12-17 17:22, 55
2012-12-17 17:57, 105
2012-12-17 19:18, 14
2012-12-17 19:34, 147
2012-12-17 19:42, 34
2012-12-17 19:42, 157
2012-12-17 19:55, 112
2012-12-17 20:17, 183
2012-12-17 20:17, 45
2012-12-17 20:20, 198
2012-12-17 20:59, 87
2012-12-17 21:30, 20
2012-12-17 21:51, 116
2012-12-17 22:01, 77
2012-12-17 22:01, 145
2012-12-17 22:35, 133
2012-12-17 22:35, 51
2012-12-17 22:40, 180
2012-12-17 23:30, 151
2012-12-18 3:14, 161
2012-12-18 4:14, 105
2012-12-18 4:14, 106
2012-12-18 4:32, 195
2012-12-18 4:32, 196
2012-12-18 8:45, 190
2012-12-18 10:43, 108
2012-12-18 13:59, 89
2012-12-18 16:11, 65
2012-12-18 16:25, 164
2012-12-18 22:03, 173
2012-12-18 22:03, 174
2012-12-18 23:37, 136
2012-12-19 1:32, 130
2012-12-19 3:5, 75
2012-12-19 3:29, 62
2012-12-19 4:0, 68
2012-12-19 7:58, 125
2012-12-19 9:46, 83
2012-12-19 10:16, 41
2012-12-19 11:29, 92
2012-12-19 11:29, 114
2012-12-19 12:27, 122
2012-12-19 15:9, 143
2012-12-19 15:14, 152
2012-12-19 15:14, 153
2012-12-19 19:53, 74
2012-12-19 20:32, 52
2012-12-19 23:9, 126
2012-12-20 0:21, 50
2012-12-20 10:12, 59
2012-12-20 10:15, 165
};
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35
  • 3
    To all: After posting the answer can you please include your number on the list in the question ? If we expect high attendance it will soon go out of hand. Maybe we can collect all the guesses in one answer for ease similar to our package maintainers question.
    – percusse
    Dec 13, 2012 at 22:44
  • 1
    @percusse - Newbies can't edit the question :(
    – Tyler
    Dec 13, 2012 at 23:42
  • @Tyler No problem, I added the number :)
    – percusse
    Dec 14, 2012 at 0:03
  • 6
    What happens if there are < 200 entries and the number you choose hasn't been picked by anyone?
    – Alan Munn
    Dec 14, 2012 at 0:09
  • 3
    @AlanMunn Should there not be a winner by Christmas, I'll come up with a solution. Possible solutions are picking a contestant at random. (It's possible.)
    – user10274
    Dec 14, 2012 at 8:08
  • 2
    FYI There's another book for grabs on comp.text.tex.
    – user10274
    Dec 14, 2012 at 17:32
  • 6
    @AryehLeibTaurog The purpose of the lottery is to give away a book for free.
    – user10274
    Dec 16, 2012 at 17:53
  • 5
    @MarcvanDongen In my defense: (1) I followed the suggestion to add my own number to the list and, before editing, checked the last several revisions before mine. Since the list and graph seemed to be maintained separately, I explicitly mentioned that I didn't update the graph as a courtesy to alert those actively maintaining it. Clearly that worked; my apologies if it offended. (2) I have been a member at TeX.SX since 17 January 2012 and am not sure how you determined otherwise. (3) I've submitted my second entry and updated the graph accordingly this time.
    – Tim Parenti
    Dec 17, 2012 at 17:15
  • 2
    @Stephen It seems the graph is done in UTC according to the time the entry was posted here.
    – Tim Parenti
    Dec 17, 2012 at 20:08
  • 2
    So those who come to enter now stand a much higher change than those of us who have entered already, because there are fewer numbers left for them to choose from :( But I guess we had the chance earlier on to guess before they did.
    – SabreWolfy
    Dec 19, 2012 at 21:04
  • 3
    @SabreWolfy Ohh time for everyone to play Monty Hall
    – David Carlisle
    Dec 20, 2012 at 1:14
  • 1
    @Jake We have a winner.
    – user10274
    Dec 20, 2012 at 17:29
  • 1
    Is there some meaning to 132, or was it chosen randomly?
    – mafp
    Dec 20, 2012 at 20:37
  • 1
    @mafp It was chosen at random. I sent the number to Joseph Wright before I announced the lottery.
    – user10274
    Dec 20, 2012 at 20:40
  • 1
    @Qrrbrbirlbel As a figure of speech:)
    – user10274
    Dec 20, 2012 at 22:44

122 Answers 122

Reset to default
1 2 3
4
5
0

24

It has to be 24 right? What else could it be?

Well, else it could be 54
(What is nine times six?)

0

I'll take 197 as my first guess and 135 as the second one.

0

Second guess, as chosen by R, is 135. Already chosen (see comment).

New, second guess is 160

2
  • already chosen by me 8 min ago
    – Julian Kuelshammer
    Dec 17, 2012 at 8:31
  • Ok, missed that -- I was working from the main list in the question itself which was not up to date. I'll edit and choose another.
    – SabreWolfy
    Dec 17, 2012 at 8:32
0

More than 30 answers? Then 32 it is.

0

163

188

Seems easy enough to me (now that I understand what numbers were taken and what ones were not).

0

187, my second stab with the same motivation: why not? I am desperate.

0

129 for me, because it's not picked yet.

0

My second guess is 162. Maybe this one will win?

0

I'll guess 34 (TeX's age) and 157.

0 
bash$ python
Python 2.7.2 (default, Jun 20 2012, 16:23:33) 
[GCC 4.2.1 Compatible Apple Clang 4.0 (tags/Apple/clang-418.0.60)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> all = [i+1 for i in range(200)]
>>> chosen = 
[127, 250,  42, 131,  88, 191, 118, 172, 121, 111,  30,  33, 109,  72,   2,  28,
 154,  43,  78,  85, 177, 170,  84, 128,  49, 137,   1,  91,   8,  22,  18,  23,
 117,  36, 144,  55,  97,  13,   3,  39, 156,  21, 123, 113,  66, 100, 142,  17,
  12,  29,  69,  31, 138,  60,   7, 199, 139,  71,  98, 185,  10,   9,  67, 120,
  47,  73, 105, 200, 149,  27,  11, 101,  35, 119,  57,  96,  15, 167, 110,  54,
  58,  19, 193,  99,  16, 150,   9, 102,  38, 171,  61,   6, 169,   4,   5, 189,
 106,  87,  37,  24,  54, 197, 135, 160,  32, 163, 188, 187, 129,  80, 166, 162,
  14,  34, 157,  14, 112]
>>> available = [i for i in all if i not in chosen]                                                                              >>> choices = [random.choice(available) for i in range(2)]                                                                       >>> chosen += choices
>>> print choices
[183, 45]
>>> print chosen
[127, 250,  42, 131,  88, 191, 118, 172, 121, 111,  30,  33, 109,  72,   2,  28,
 154,  43,  78,  85, 177, 170,  84, 128,  49, 137,   1,  91,   8,  22,  18,  23,
 117,  36, 144,  55,  97,  13,   3,  39, 156,  21, 123, 113,  66, 100, 142,  17,
  12,  29,  69,  31, 138,  60,   7, 199, 139,  71,  98, 185,  10,   9,  67, 120,
  47,  73, 105, 200, 149,  27,  11, 101,  35, 119,  57,  96,  15, 167, 110,  54,
  58,  19, 193,  99,  16, 150,   9, 102,  38, 171,  61,   6, 169,   4,   5, 189,
 106,  87,  37,  24,  54, 197, 135, 160,  32, 163, 188, 187, 129,  80, 166, 162,
  14,  34, 157,  14, 112, 183,  45]
>>> available = [i for i in all if i not in chosen]
>>> print available
[20,  25,  26,  40,  41,  44,  46,  48,  50,  51,  52,  53,  56,  59,  62,  63,
 64,  65,  68,  70,  74,  75,  76,  77,  79,  81,  82,  83,  86,  89,  90,  92,
 93,  94,  95, 103, 104, 107, 108, 112, 114, 115, 116, 124, 125, 126, 130, 132,
133, 134, 136, 140, 141, 143, 145, 146, 147, 148, 151, 152, 153, 155, 158, 159,
161, 164, 165, 168, 173, 174, 175, 176, 178, 179, 180, 181, 182, 184, 186, 190,
192, 194, 195, 196, 198]
>>> exit()
bash$ logout

[Process completed]

I suppose that settles it. 183 and 45 for me :D

The list of available numbers as of writing is in this post, but unfortunately I don't have more time to go through and grab all the timestamps :( sorry!

2
  • I tried editing the original post, but there seems to be a conflict in my records and its --- I'm going to leave well enough alone :(
    – Sean Allred
    Dec 17, 2012 at 20:26
  • It seems that this has already gotten somewhat out of hand. Anyone have a script that can pull the relevant info?
    – Sean Allred
    Dec 17, 2012 at 20:27
0

198... it has to be 198. :-)

0

87 - and I'm still convinced my first guess was right ;-)

0

20

This is for my second answer.

0

77 and 145. Like both those numbers :)

0

133 (it's how wide mainframe listings are) and 51 (it's a good idea in Brazil)

4
  • Why the answers here are getting downvoted is a mystery to me!
    – user11232
    Dec 18, 2012 at 7:10
  • @HarishKumar : somebody hates me
    – Brent.Longborough
    Dec 18, 2012 at 10:40
  • @HarishKumar: The mystery is revealed. Down voting 133 results in 132. Note: I did not do that.
    – kiss my armpit
    Dec 21, 2012 at 16:45
  • 1
    @GarbageCollector : Must be an off-by-one error. They should have started counting from 1, not 0
    – Brent.Longborough
    Dec 21, 2012 at 17:52
0

180 is the key... Don't know why, but it is... :)

0

25 and 26 are my two guesses.

EDIT: Oops, guessed 105 and 106 then realized I had read the thing wrong and they were already taken.

0

195 and 196 of course.

0

I choose 089 :) Thanks man.

0

Guess 1: 173 Guess 2: 174

....

1
  • I added your numbers to the lists and plot above.
    – Torbjørn T.
    Dec 18, 2012 at 22:54
0

My second guess is 125.

Please sign the book :)

7
  • I can only sign it if the winner wants it:-)
    – user10274
    Dec 19, 2012 at 9:19
  • @MarcvanDongen And since I picked the winner number 125, I was telling you I want you to sign it :P
    – Vivi
    Dec 19, 2012 at 9:28
  • Now I get got it. I'd have to check the number first. This may take one or two days.
    – user10274
    Dec 19, 2012 at 9:35
  • @MarcvanDongen No problem, I was just being cheeky (but I should have been less subtle). Playing is fun enough, winning the book would "just" be a bonus. Thanks for doing this!
    – Vivi
    Dec 19, 2012 at 9:38
  • 1
    I was just pretending I didn't understand....
    – user10274
    Dec 19, 2012 at 9:40
  • @MarcvanDongen Oh, so you were the ultimate cheeky! "cheek the cheeker". You got me!
    – Vivi
    Dec 19, 2012 at 9:44
  • Sorry about that. It won't happen again.
    – user10274
    Dec 19, 2012 at 10:57
0

My second guess: 41

Because it is the room number

0

How about 114 and 92?

By the way, great lottery!

0

My second guess is 122 and this is more text.

0

My second answer but in plain TeX.

\def\godnumber{62}
\godnumber
\bye

Analysis

Because 62 is a positive integer greater than 61 but less than 63.

My first choice is 33 (thirty three).

0
0

I take 152 and 153. moretext

0

52, that's my choice. The other had already been chosen.

0

Second guess: 126.

Reason: it's the remaining case where the Kevaire invariant problem is still open.

0

My first choice is number 059

0

My secong guess: 165

Good luck!

1 2 3
4
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