Hacker News Reader

Comment by peterkelly | Hacker News Reader

Found a bug you might want to look into:

After 8 steps, I "won" after reaching the following configuration (all on the edges, from top-left clockwise):

16, 584, 26, 6, 18, and 7

That's not numberwang, according to the official definition [1]

[1] D. Mitchell, B. Russell, A. Turing, and R. Webb. Numberwang determination and the Entscheidungsproblem. Principles of Mathematics and Computation, 1944. Cambridge Press 14(2).

View on HN

No, "That's numberwang" does not indicate winning nor the end of the game. It just pops up at random throughout the game.

Ah yes - that's true in the BBC 4 version of the rules, introduced in 1968. I think most countries use that now. In Australia we play according to the original rule set, hence the misunderstanding.

BBC 4 was never associated with Numberwang, it was actually BBC 7.1

The pilot debuted on BBC α

Mornington Crescent!

Do HN users outside of the UK get the surreality and humour of this entire conversation?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mornington_Crescent_(game)

You can tell it's currently morning in the UK and night-time in the USA.

There is actually a somewhat similar game on National Public Radio. I forget what it's called though...

It comes on right after "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me". It's called "4".

No. It's a well-known fact that surreality and humour are geographically isolated to the British Isles. Though the French did get a sort of surrealesque surrealism through cultural cross-contamination at one point, though it's clearly inferior to the real article despite their vigorous claims to the contrary.

L'œil existe à l'état sauvage.

I'm about a mile away from Mornington Crescent station, and I still have no idea what's going on.

Well, I was dying to find out what numberwang and then I realised it's a joke.

Presumably you modify the rules to allow lateral shunts though, as per the the 1963 Davison Reformed Numberwang Rule Set (Version 3)?

Has it turned into Calvinball yet?

One.

My ball, you didn't sing the 'Q' song.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com