Nice games. Just FYI for the next round, speed demon matches are meant to be speed 9 rather than speed 15 games. I don't think it matters hugely though as scores aren't being used as a tie-breaker.
Search found 257 matches
- Fri Nov 13, 2009 11:20 pm
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Apterous Winter Closed Week 1
- Replies: 72
- Views: 8889
Re: Apterous Winter Closed Week 1
- Fri Nov 13, 2009 12:21 pm
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Bug reports
- Replies: 2157
- Views: 499385
Re: Bug reports
Not so much a bug as a "feature" with unintended consequences perhaps. After every round the default focus is on the "play next round" button, which is great. However, after the last round (unless playing a bot) there are usually some pleasantries between the players ("gg&qu...
- Thu Nov 12, 2009 10:42 pm
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Bug reports
- Replies: 2157
- Views: 499385
Re: Bug reports
well, in a game i was watching earlier, there was no letter response givin in the commentary unless my eyes were playing tricks. If you buzz with the enter button you can give a no letter response, But I don't know why anyone would do that. Ah, my bad. I thought you could only start by clicking or ...
- Mon Nov 09, 2009 12:13 am
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Apterous Winter Closed Week 1
- Replies: 72
- Views: 8889
- Sun Nov 08, 2009 4:03 am
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: Dictionary Corner Guests for the new series
- Replies: 276
- Views: 32193
Re: Dictionary Corner Guests for the new series
And I knew you were going bring it full circle by saying "dictionary corner's had its fair share of tits". Oh, you didn't did you. I didn't, because where would it end? If we took an inclusive approach, who knows how long we'd be running this thread for? Take this forum, for example, with...
- Tue Nov 03, 2009 2:14 pm
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Feature requests
- Replies: 1956
- Views: 481489
Re: Feature requests
Something like this might work, although you need to refine it or it turns into one of those tedious games like Boggle where you can get about a zillion points by just hammering down all the 3s. Good point, I will give it a re-think. As I think I've mentioned before, you could just get points for t...
- Sat Oct 31, 2009 10:13 pm
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Strange Games
- Replies: 295
- Views: 33469
- Fri Oct 30, 2009 4:04 pm
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Apterous Winter Closed 2009 (last minute register)
- Replies: 57
- Views: 7526
Re: Apterous Winter Closed 2009
Both please.
- Tue Oct 27, 2009 12:54 pm
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Suffix search
- Replies: 8
- Views: 1756
Re: Suffix search
http://www.apterous.org/lexplorer.phpDerek Hazell wrote:Where? is? this? be-ing? host-ed? now?
- Fri Oct 23, 2009 2:51 am
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: CoLei2 - Saturday 10 October 2009
- Replies: 142
- Views: 16443
Re: CoLei2 - Saturday 10 October 2009
I am in the picture, technically. You can just about see part of my shoulder as I'm standing to Mark Tournoff's left.Matt Morrison wrote:Sid is not in there I don't think (Sorry, Kai).
- Wed Oct 21, 2009 2:16 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Spoilers
- Topic: Spoilers For Wednesday October 21st 2009
- Replies: 78
- Views: 6594
Re: Spoilers For Wednesday October 21st 2009
I've calculated that in Stewart's octochamp run, his 8 opponents scored 409 points between them, which is 47% of Stewart's 870 point total. Brian has scored 211 points, so far, compared to 63 by his 2 opponents. That is only 30%. Quite a huge gap, wouldn't you say. :roll: I was addressing the origi...
- Wed Oct 21, 2009 1:19 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Spoilers
- Topic: Spoilers For Wednesday October 21st 2009
- Replies: 78
- Views: 6594
Re: Spoilers For Wednesday October 21st 2009
Too late! Stewart Holden.Ben Hunter wrote:Brian Selway's my favourite.
Don't you dare.Simon Myers wrote:Perhaps I misread. I think I can find something to beat that too.
- Wed Oct 21, 2009 1:04 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Spoilers
- Topic: Spoilers For Wednesday October 21st 2009
- Replies: 78
- Views: 6594
Re: Spoilers For Wednesday October 21st 2009
So far his 2 opponents have scored just 63 points between them. That's only around 60% of either of Brian's scores. Has anyone else ever done anything that remarkable in the history of the show :!: :?: Well, yeah, they have - and better. Just this series you have (averaged over the whole octorun): ...
- Wed Oct 21, 2009 1:00 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Spoilers
- Topic: Spoilers For Wednesday October 21st 2009
- Replies: 78
- Views: 6594
Re: Spoilers For Wednesday October 21st 2009
So far his 2 opponents have scored just 63 points between them. That's only around 60% of either of Brian's scores. Has anyone else ever done anything that remarkable in the history of the show :!: :?: Well, yeah, they have - and better. Just this series you have (averaged over the whole octorun): ...
- Wed Oct 21, 2009 3:45 am
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: Conundrum Affixes - A Statistical Approach
- Replies: 26
- Views: 3353
Re: Conundrum Affixes - A Statistical Approach
Ah yes. In all fairness the two you didn't get were nigh on impossible. They are:Paul Howe wrote:Right, I've been thinking about this non-stop for the last two months and still don't know the answer. Time to spill the beans, Myers.
APPARATCHIKI
GASTROCNEMII
- Tue Oct 20, 2009 2:47 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Spoilers
- Topic: Spoilers For Tuesday October 20th 2009
- Replies: 63
- Views: 5044
Re: Spoilers For Tuesday October 20th 2009
MELISMA as a beater in round 6.
- Tue Oct 20, 2009 12:54 am
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Official Thread of Brag
- Replies: 1176
- Views: 176387
Re: Official Thread of Brag
This game is probably my best performance on apterous to date, and the conundrum was probably one of my proudest moments playing the game. Whichever of Sid and I allowed that through as a valid conundrum must've been cackling wildly as we did so... Great spot. Indeed, very nice. You'll have to take...
- Mon Oct 19, 2009 1:22 am
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: General feedback
- Replies: 284
- Views: 53345
Re: General feedback
Yep that's pretty much it. As an aside, it appears that some bots are disproportionately-skilled in different disciplines. In particular I think this affects Caesar, Plum and Velvet. For example Velvet is very strong at letters games, currently 11th overall in terms of maximums, but is hitting below...
- Sun Oct 18, 2009 8:23 pm
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: General feedback
- Replies: 284
- Views: 53345
Re: General feedback
Are you still just talking about Rex, Sid? Yes I was exclusively talking about Rex. The other bots will be weaker in speed rounds by design. You'd have to ask Charlie about how he programmed the fallibility of the lesser bots though, as restricting the time they're given to solve a numbers round is...
- Sun Oct 18, 2009 3:27 pm
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: General feedback
- Replies: 284
- Views: 53345
Re: General feedback
Over the long haul are Rex and whoever plays the Carol/Rachel role equally good? Yes. Also does it make any difference how long the rounds are? I was aware that Rex could be beaten on hyper numbers so tried him out with some 5-second rounds but as this shows, he was still pretty good. I don't think...
- Thu Oct 15, 2009 1:52 am
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Best comebacks
- Replies: 67
- Views: 11757
Re: Best comebacks
Easily my best, 31 behind Kirk in rd14 of a speed letters attack to take it at the death.
- Sun Oct 11, 2009 10:50 pm
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Bug reports
- Replies: 2157
- Views: 499385
Re: Bug reports
http://www.apterous.org/lexplorer.php?g=1&word=BEFUDDLE I didn't get a pencil for this. Are they broken or have I misunderstood something? It's possible that the person who earned the pencil for that word ended up not completing the game for some reason (or spotted it in a practice game). I thi...
- Mon Oct 05, 2009 1:14 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: CoLei2 - Saturday 10 October 2009
- Replies: 142
- Views: 16443
Re: CoLei2 - Saturday 10 October 2009
If Innis (or anyone else) has to pull out I'll be happy to take that place; can have Kirk PayPal the fee pronto.
- Mon Oct 05, 2009 4:18 am
- Forum: Countdown - Spoilers
- Topic: Spoilers for 1st October 2009
- Replies: 45
- Views: 4890
Re: Spoilers for 1st October 2009
Ok, well, i suppose i meant let you down... how often are you correct in assuming it's MENT, say, out of ten, if you were aware? The naive approach is 17.6% successful if you consider all apterous conundrums (39 of 221 conundrums that contain M, E, N, T end in -MENT). Of course Kirk's intuition may...
- Fri Oct 02, 2009 1:31 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Spoilers
- Topic: Spoilers for 1st October 2009
- Replies: 45
- Views: 4890
Re: Spoilers for 1st October 2009
I suppose the other thing to be wary of with double conundrums is that a contestant might simply know the dual-anagram and not need to do any "solving". If I were to see the scramble ARCHSTORE then it might take me a few seconds to work it out, but if I was given ORCHESTRA then CARTHORSE w...
- Thu Oct 01, 2009 12:39 pm
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Reasons why apterous is better than sex
- Replies: 12
- Views: 1995
Re: Reasons why apterous is better than sex
You can play apterous with a robot and nobody will think you're a sad gee... err...
- Mon Sep 28, 2009 6:30 pm
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: New Duels - what do you want?
- Replies: 21
- Views: 2574
Re: New Duels - what do you want?
If you want to code it you could throw in some slightly more bizarre stuff - conundrums with two letters missing, numbers games with a random large number (like a 35 or a 60) instead of the usual ones, letters rounds where you have to offer two valid words but score with the second best (of course ...
- Fri Sep 25, 2009 10:11 pm
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: New Duels - what do you want?
- Replies: 21
- Views: 2574
Re: New Duels - what do you want?
I like the idea of different formats appearing more often, especially goat since it's the second most popular format and yet has seen less duels than blind (har har). Aside from that, some thematic stuff of the ilk Kieran mentioned: letters rounds where every selection guarantees a darren or a nine,...
- Thu Sep 24, 2009 11:55 pm
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Feature requests
- Replies: 1956
- Views: 481489
Re: Feature requests
If you choose your selections with the keyboard (C for consonant, V for vowel) you should have no problem comfortably choosing the letters with one hand (as C and V are adjacent) and writing them down with the other hand.
- Wed Sep 23, 2009 1:05 am
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Numbers note
- Replies: 14
- Views: 1575
Re: Numbers note
Well, yeah of course. Every time I get a solution before the time runs out I'll type it into the notes box and hit end round early. It's a waste of time clicking away in the GUI if I can just type in "2*(100+7)-3" and be done. Less error-prone too.
- Sun Sep 20, 2009 11:57 pm
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Feature requests
- Replies: 1956
- Views: 481489
Re: Feature requests
Since statland seems to be the order of the day right now, I thought I'd post some ideas that might be interesting if not too difficult to implement: Top letters players list for 3/4/5 vowels (like the ones for different numbers formats) Top goatdown players on own / others pick (%max) Most common i...
- Fri Sep 18, 2009 12:40 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Spoilers
- Topic: Spoilers for Thursday 17th September 2009
- Replies: 52
- Views: 6223
Re: Spoilers for Thursday 17th September 2009
I knew SOMEONE would say 'Carol' eventually. It's happened loads; I've personally seen it happen twice in the studio. The best was during Kirk's second heat game where his hapless opponent tried to cover it up by claiming she "hadn't put her glasses on" :lol: They tend to get edited out t...
- Tue Sep 08, 2009 7:59 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Spoilers
- Topic: Spoilers for Tuesday 8th September 2009
- Replies: 36
- Views: 2855
Re: Spoilers for Tuesday 8th September 2009
What was the 8-game total in the end? 892 I don't think anyone scoring as high as Innis in third place has ever not been number one seed before. So well done Chris. You're right, Innis' 861 is higher than any past #2 seed, the highest scoring of which were Jon Corby (856, S54) and Tom Hargreaves (8...
- Fri Sep 04, 2009 2:59 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Spoilers
- Topic: Spoilers For Friday September 4th 2009
- Replies: 31
- Views: 2796
Re: Spoilers For Friday September 4th 2009
On for a nice pair of nines which Chris should get...
- Thu Sep 03, 2009 6:26 pm
- Forum: Off-topic
- Topic: How many words would you need to know...
- Replies: 26
- Views: 2125
Re: How many words would you need to know...
American dictionaries tend to have illustrations, which would explain those jokes and the general bemusement of a British audience.Kieran Child wrote:They say it in America (I assume). It's been on two American 'comedies'. It was also referenced by Ed Byrne.
- Thu Sep 03, 2009 4:26 pm
- Forum: Off-topic
- Topic: How many words would you need to know...
- Replies: 26
- Views: 2125
Re: How many words would you need to know...
Obviously the answer to the question is highly dependent on the richness of the language used in the dictionary. I'd imagine you'd get a different outcome if you were to compare a concise dictionary with the ODE or OED. @Charlie - The Zyzzyva website has an annotated CSW (and OWL2, though I think th...
- Tue Sep 01, 2009 4:25 pm
- Forum: Games and Puzzles
- Topic: Largest non-max
- Replies: 24
- Views: 4397
Re: Largest non-max
PRAETORS/PRORATES (SEPARATOR, PERORATES, PRIORATES, OPERATORS, PTEROSAUR) if you choose 4 vowels. Otherwise probably just the 7 letter words here . There is another 8-letter word (aside from PRAETORS) that is never a maximum if you choose 4 vowels, can anyone else find it? EDIT: Sorry Kieran, since ...
- Mon Aug 31, 2009 2:03 pm
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Letters Attack Tournament
- Replies: 84
- Views: 8461
Re: Letters Attack Tournament
Yes please. Format best of one presumably?
- Mon Aug 24, 2009 2:03 pm
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Bug reports
- Replies: 2157
- Views: 499385
Re: Bug reports
Charlie uses the dictionary file maintained by Jim (accidental removal of single-letter words notwithstanding). AFAIK CountMax doesn't have single letters either. CountMax throws out any words shorter than 4 letters long, so it's not really dictionary related. JimDic does appear to be missing all s...
- Mon Aug 24, 2009 1:07 pm
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Bug reports
- Replies: 2157
- Views: 499385
Re: Bug reports
I had FEINTER disallowed in yesterday's duel which I would have thought would be acceptable as it's a comparative of a 1-syllable adjective. FEINT isn't an adjective. It is in the relevant dictionary, "denoting paper printed with faint lines as a guide for handwriting; denoting the lines so pr...
- Sun Aug 23, 2009 1:21 pm
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Official thread of scrag
- Replies: 328
- Views: 63643
Re: Official thread of scrag
Ladies and gentlemen, I did something that I'm sure no other contestant has ever done before in the history of Countdown. I declared a 1-letter word. Unfortunately, the word was I and I got no points. "I" has been declared 39 times on Apterous so far. It seems that Charlie accidentally re...
- Mon Aug 17, 2009 1:43 pm
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Most Even Players
- Replies: 5
- Views: 1088
Re: Most Even Players
Off the top of my head, Carson and Hulme, Bevins and Corby. Had the question been asked back in March or so you'd have Howe and Prime as perfectly even, but Paul is now over 100 games up.
- Tue Aug 11, 2009 7:05 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: CountMax errors
- Replies: 727
- Views: 92510
Re: CountMax errors
ANGREZI should be deleted as it is no longer listed as the plural of ANGREZ. One of my fave words :( http://www.oed.com/help/updates/latest-additions.html This doesn't belong in this thread at all, but it's great to see these neologisms getting the recognition they deserve at last. Only a childish ...
- Mon Aug 10, 2009 4:43 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: Rileys Reckoner
- Replies: 21
- Views: 3047
Re: Rileys Reckoner
Stewart Gordon's cdsolve is my numbers solver of choice; despite the less glamorous name it's lightweight and very speedy. AFAIK it finds all possible solutions. The source code is available on his site too, if you don't mind D.
The word SOLVABLE is valid on Countdown, by the way.
The word SOLVABLE is valid on Countdown, by the way.
- Mon Aug 10, 2009 12:52 pm
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Best screenshot
- Replies: 144
- Views: 28501
- Sun Aug 09, 2009 9:53 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: Conundrum Affixes - A Statistical Approach
- Replies: 26
- Views: 3353
Re: Conundrum Affixes - A Statistical Approach
Yes.Paul Howe wrote: STREPTOCOCCI
Yes.Paul Howe wrote: STRATOCUMULI
No.Paul Howe wrote: CUMULOSTRATI
No.Phil Reynolds wrote:ELECTROPHORI
- Sun Aug 09, 2009 7:07 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: Conundrum Affixes - A Statistical Approach
- Replies: 26
- Views: 3353
Re: Conundrum Affixes - A Statistical Approach
No, that's not one of the four. I suppose you could also consider yourself unlucky; falling foul of Charlie's somewhat arbitrary judgement in selecting fair conundrums.Paul Howe wrote: I is harder, the only word that comes to mind atm is CARAVANSERAI?
- Sun Aug 09, 2009 6:55 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: Conundrum Affixes - A Statistical Approach
- Replies: 26
- Views: 3353
Re: Conundrum Affixes - A Statistical Approach
Indeed. Should've posted when I knew you weren't lurking around here Paul. Try the 4 that end in I, which are more challenging I think.Paul Howe wrote:PORTMANTEAUX?Simon Myers wrote: A VFSMB to whoever correctly identifies the single hyper conundrum that ends in X.
- Sun Aug 09, 2009 6:44 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: Conundrum Affixes - A Statistical Approach
- Replies: 26
- Views: 3353
Re: Conundrum Affixes - A Statistical Approach
As an accompaniment to the regular conundrums, here are the hyper conundrums: PREFIXES 55% of 119 - EX 42% of 57 - COMM 39% of 186 - OVER 27% of 1133 - UN 22% of 98 - COMP 22% of 90 - EXT 21% of 108 - SUPER 21% of 205 - UNDER 21% of 586 - DIS 20% of 113 - HYP 20% of 1265 - CO 19% of 170 - SUB 17% of...
- Sun Aug 09, 2009 2:33 am
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: Conundrum Affixes - A Statistical Approach
- Replies: 26
- Views: 3353
Re: Conundrum Affixes - A Statistical Approach
4% of 257.Shaun Hegarty wrote:I notice a lot of bio- conundrums, perhaps that could be included. Overall, though, and interesting set of statistics though.
- Fri Aug 07, 2009 1:30 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: Conundrum Affixes - A Statistical Approach
- Replies: 26
- Views: 3353
Re: Conundrum Affixes - A Statistical Approach
* What minimum (if any) did you set on how many words each set of letters had to appear in? In the program itself I set no minimum. I had it go through the whole list once and record all "affixes" of up to 5 letters. So for COMPUTING, say, it recorded C, CO, COM, COMP, COMPU and G, NG, IN...
- Thu Aug 06, 2009 10:00 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: Conundrum Affixes - A Statistical Approach
- Replies: 26
- Views: 3353
Conundrum Affixes - A Statistical Approach
For many who play Countdown, a common heuristic used to help solve conundrums is affix matching. In particular, looking for common prefixes (UN-, OVER-) and suffixes (-ING, -IEST). I wanted to see to what extent this was useful and see whether conventional wisdom is accurate in this case. Using the ...
- Tue Aug 04, 2009 9:38 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: Octochamp Conundrum Difficulty
- Replies: 25
- Views: 3121
Re: Octochamp Conundrum Difficulty
Conundrums are only "easy" if you know the word aren't they. To expect Kai to know the word "laserdisc" (which was one of his subsequent Conundrums) when they were becoming obselete around the time he was being born, was a stretch of even the most vivid imagination. Well, not ex...
- Sun Aug 02, 2009 10:09 pm
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Apterous Etiquette
- Replies: 155
- Views: 16333
- Tue Jul 28, 2009 9:07 pm
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Thread of 'Nuff Respect
- Replies: 26
- Views: 4103
- Tue Jul 28, 2009 6:48 pm
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Apterous Summer Open FINAL WEEK
- Replies: 60
- Views: 7067
- Sun Jul 26, 2009 12:55 pm
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Apterous Summer Open FINAL WEEK
- Replies: 60
- Views: 7067
- Fri Jul 17, 2009 6:23 pm
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Apterous Summer Open Week 4
- Replies: 72
- Views: 9040
- Mon Jul 13, 2009 11:56 pm
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Apterous Summer Open Week 4
- Replies: 72
- Views: 9040
- Mon Jul 13, 2009 5:39 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Current recaps
- Topic: Recap for Monday 13 July 2009
- Replies: 8
- Views: 1579
Re: Recap for Monday 13 July 2009
PRONATED wasn't there, I think the other letter was a N hence surprising miss averted or was this an elaborate wind-up? Yeah, it was E O N D R A P N J meaning Andrew got the max. APRONED and OPERAND also available as OT words. Did anyone else notice the (apart from the RELATIONS round) more awkward...