104
votes

I am organising yet another lottery and Springer have kindly agreed to donate two copies of LaTeX and Friends (see also).

This year I decided to be the judge of the lottery. The lottery closes when the judge has announced the last winner. The judge's decision is final and there shall be no discussion and/or correspondence about the outcome of the lottery.

To win the book you may guess two numbers in the range 1--250. The first two people that guess the right number win a copy of 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 10 December, 2014. (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.

I can sign the book at your request. Please note that I won't sign by default because I know some people want to keep their books pencil and ink free.

At the time of writing there were no winners yet. To speed things up, contestants may choose two numbers in total.

** OK It's two days before Christmas and the remaining number still hasn't been guessed. I'm giving you one more try, so everybody may guess three numbers in total. **

Update: the numbers were 126 and 197 have been guessed by mrf and phollox respectively.

Congratulations to Winners !. Thanks all for participating. More luck next year.

    -----------------------------------------    ----------------------------------------
    |◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|    |◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|129|◖■◗|
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    |◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|    |◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|140|
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    |◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|    |◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|148|149|◖■◗| 
    -----------------------------------------    -----------------------------------------
    |◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|    |151|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|155|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|160|
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    |◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|    |◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|164|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗| 
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    |◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|    |◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|
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    |◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|    |◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|
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    |◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|    |191|◖■◗|◖■◗|194|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|
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    |◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|    |◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|207|◖■◗|209|◖■◗|
    -----------------------------------------    -----------------------------------------
    |◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|095|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|    |◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|
    -----------------------------------------    -----------------------------------------
    |◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|    |◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|230| 
    -----------------------------------------    -----------------------------------------
    |◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|    |◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|
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                        -----------------------------------------

Copy/paste card punch : |◖■◗|

Having difficulty getting by the trivial answer checker (due to including an internal site link, perhaps)? Include this 2x2 pixel image at the end of your guess:

![trivial answer checker avoidance](https://i.stack.imgur.com/nRgZB.png)
8
  • 12
    People, I don't understand you I think. We've got 14 people wanting a book, and only 6 of them grateful to Marc for organizing this little TeX.SX Xmas? ...
    – yo'
    Dec 10, 2014 at 20:28
  • 6
    @tohecz To be fair, the customary way of saying 'thanks' on this site is to vote posts up and, by that reckoning, 35 people have said 'thanks', while 52 have answered. Assuming that only those who have answered have voted up, that's slightly better...
    – cfr
    Dec 11, 2014 at 23:09
  • 2
    And people – please stop shaming the 'uninteresting' numbers. All numbers are interesting! Dec 21, 2014 at 3:06
  • 2
    @SeanAllred Isn't there even one uninteresting number? Seems a shame - I'd be interested to know which one it was.
    – cfr
    Dec 21, 2014 at 22:17
  • 2
    I have the book Marc. I want to give others an opportunity hence would pass on this. Thanks for every year lottery at tex.sx. Dec 23, 2014 at 0:59
  • 1
    @texenthusiast Thanks for that.
    – user10274
    Dec 23, 2014 at 13:23
  • Thanks again for this generous donation to the community. I'm sure we all appreciate it!
    – Joseph Wright Mod
    Dec 29, 2014 at 16:21
  • I'm going to lock here to 'preserve' the question/answers as-is. If anyone needs to edit, ping me in the chat room.
    – Joseph Wright Mod
    Dec 29, 2014 at 16:22

137 Answers 137

3
votes

I'll go with

  • 3
  • 174
  • 177
3
votes

I prefer 8. And although I know I don't have to say "thank you" I do. Thank you.

Second choice: 175

Third choice: 40

3
votes

013. (I don't think it is gone.) Thanks very much for going to the trouble of organising this. [I would like to know - afterwards - how you selected the numbers.]

I cannot write the number without putting it in code?

Second number: 242.

Third number: 217.

1
  • 2
    I generated them with a random number generator. (Sorry, I don't know the initial seed.)
    – user10274
    Dec 12, 2014 at 14:39
3
votes

77

EDIT 1: 122

EDIT 2: 49

Some more useless text so the system stops complaining.

3
votes

14, for 'tis my age! Thanks for organising such an event, Marc! :)

P.S: A signed copy would be appreciated! :)

Edit: Second number is 15, ta!

Edit: Hey, me again! I'll have a shot with 062, cheers! :)

3
votes

26, my day of birth, and a number I usually encounter in pleasant circumstances. trivial answer checker avoidance

My second choice is the number 61.

My third choice is 226.

3
votes

19

because:

The sum of the first 250 integers: (1+250)*250/2=31375

The sum of the digits of 31375: 3+1+3+7+5=19 (and it's prime, and everyone loves prime numbers ;) )

231

as my second choice

P.S. If it's me, then I would gladly welcome a signature ;)

Thank you.

168

as my third choice. Thanks again :)

3
votes

208 (Yes, I have read all the other answers)

and second guess 038 as the currently lowest available remaining

A third guess before the new year: 139 (somewhere between the other two)

2
votes

Random.org says: 90

2
votes
  1. because seven bits gives 128 ASCII characters.
2
votes

27, because I like that number :)

2
votes
2
votes

59, because it was 8:59 when I was writing this.

3
  • Something's wrong here; it was 1:59 when you posted it ;) :p
    – yo'
    Dec 11, 2014 at 7:13
  • @tohecz Then I guess you are probably in Europe, aren't you? My local time in China was just that. :)
    – Naitree
    Dec 11, 2014 at 7:20
  • Yes I am ... :)
    – yo'
    Dec 11, 2014 at 7:39
2
votes

My choice is for 22 (number of a famous brasilian football player in AC Milan few years ago).

2
  • Is Kaká? Maybe!
    – Sigur
    Dec 11, 2014 at 12:48
  • @Sigur: Correct, indeed!!! Dec 11, 2014 at 20:52
2
votes

It's 23, of course. All hail Eris!

2
votes

My answer is 238 because it seemed like a good idea at the time.

2
votes
    137.

I won't get this any way.

2
votes

memory’s failing, and going through the list of significant dates only comes up with 28

2
votes

I guess 17, cause 17 is my day of birth

2
votes

141, first (3-digit) consecutive digits of Pi available.

2
votes

I choose 205, it's similar to my lucky number

2
votes

206                              

2
votes

I'll go with 071.

2
votes

I would like to pick the number 31.

2
votes

236 because my system time displays the same :) :)

2
votes

12, because it's the reciprocal of the opposite of the sum of all natural numbers.

2
votes

176 = 2^4 x 11, and I would love to have it signed by you! Thanks a lot and greetings to Springer :).

2
votes

96 (And now my character count > 30.)

2
votes
  1. A spiritual number, they say.
2
votes

70 because it's the 70th answer

1
  • Well I think it is based on time!
    – Leeser
    Dec 12, 2014 at 17:46

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