January's Daily Duels

Joseph Bolas · Post by **Joseph Bolas** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 10:28 am

Is anyone else having trouble playing todays duel?

I started the duel and got the selection for round 1. I typed in my word and entered the round early, but it's now stuck waiting for the opponent.

EDIT: I refreshed the game before and it appeared in the list of games being played, so I tried to resume it and it logged me out and now it's disappeared.

Gareth Mitchell · Post by **Gareth Mitchell** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 11:01 am

Yes, I got to round 3 and it froze after I put the numbers in. Seems to have disappeared now!!!!!!!

Jon Corby · Post by **Jon Corby** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 11:41 am

Yeah, I had two duel challenges when I signed in this morning, started the massive speed conundrum one (which I assume was yesterday's?) and it froze after the first round (which I didn't get if you want to reset it to start from there Charlie). Scared to try the other one now as it broke the first time I did it, but seems to have reappeared...

Kai Laddiman · Post by **Kai Laddiman** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 11:49 am

Somehow I don't believe I have 429 points for January. Slight mistake there perhaps?

Charlie Reams · Post by **Charlie Reams** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 2:22 pm

Anyone who lost their Duel today or yesterday due to connection problems at my end should now be able to replay them. Please don't abuse this privilege or in future I'll just not bother.

Jon Corby · Post by **Jon Corby** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 3:07 pm

Charlie Reams wrote:Anyone who lost their Duel today or yesterday due to connection problems at my end should now be able to replay them. Please don't abuse this privilege or in future I'll just not bother.

Cheers. I'd only got as far the first round of the speed conundrum marathon thingy when it locked on me. I didn't solve it first time around and several hours later when I retook it I had come up with an answer (which I wasn't 100% on). I didn't enter it though, and it turned out to be correct, so my conscience is clear

Howard Somerset · Post by **Howard Somerset** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 4:08 pm

I didn't manage to get on yesterday, and found two today. Didn't know which was which so played both. Should give me a score of 2 now.

Gareth Mitchell · Post by **Gareth Mitchell** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 4:31 pm

Thanks Charlie, managed to do it now ok.

Joseph Bolas · Post by **Joseph Bolas** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 5:20 pm

Charlie Reams wrote:Anyone who lost their Duel today or yesterday due to connection problems at my end should now be able to replay them. Please don't abuse this privilege or in future I'll just not bother.

Thank you Charlie

Charlie Reams · Post by **Charlie Reams** » Sat Jan 03, 2009 2:02 am

Top after 2 days! If I play for another 1000 duels, men will still say, "this was his finest hour." Probably.

Lee Simmonds · Post by **Lee Simmonds** » Sat Jan 03, 2009 8:41 am

Charlie Reams wrote: Please don't abuse this privilege or in future I'll just not bother.

Charlie Reams wrote:Top after 2 days!

Phil Reynolds · Post by **Phil Reynolds** » Sat Jan 03, 2009 10:16 am

Were the repeated Conundrums in Thursday's Duel (PUBLICISE and another one that I can't remember now and the site's down so I can't check) deliberate?

Howard Somerset · Post by **Howard Somerset** » Sat Jan 03, 2009 10:26 am

Charlie Reams wrote:Top after 2 days! If I play for another 1000 duels, men will still say, "this was his finest hour." Probably.

Excellent, Charlie! If course it's within your powers to win January now. All you need to do is pull the plug on your server until beginning of February.

As for my performance on the New Year's Day game, I was absolutely delighted to get eight conundrums. Probably my best ever conundrum performance. I realise the system only gave me seven of them, but I know I got eight. Just happened to misspell one of them. And I don't recall ever hearing a contestant having to spell the result of a conundrum.

Not so happy with my 2nd Jan game, though. Although I'm getting a little better with numbers games, I'm still only able to get about half of the solutions entered correctly. Main problem seems to be clicking a wrong arithmetic symbol by mistake, and then not being able to correct it. I now find that I'm spending a lot of the 30 secs writing down exactly what to type for a solution that is only near, rather than spend the full 30 secs looking for the 10 point solution. I did get the conundrum though.

Charlie Reams · Post by **Charlie Reams** » Sat Jan 03, 2009 1:40 pm

Lee Simmonds wrote:
Charlie Reams wrote: Please don't abuse this privilege or in future I'll just not bother.

Charlie Reams wrote:Top after 2 days!

Heehee.

Phil Reynolds wrote:Were the repeated Conundrums in Thursday's Duel (PUBLICISE and another one that I can't remember now and the site's down so I can't check) deliberate?

The round in the Duel are never really "deliberate", they're just random, otherwise I couldn't really play in it myself. The code that prevents duplicate conundrums in the same game doesn't apply to the Duel, for reasons historical. I think it was just an example of the birthday paradox.

Kai Laddiman · Post by **Kai Laddiman** » Sat Jan 03, 2009 2:19 pm

Charlie Reams wrote:I think it was just an example of the birthday paradox.

Simon Myers · Post by **Simon Myers** » Sat Jan 03, 2009 5:20 pm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birthday_paradox

Calculating using the given formula, assuming 7500 total conundrums (a figure a bit higher than that is given on apterous.org before Charlie announced removing a few) and an n of 50 rounds, I get a 15% probability that some conundrum will be repeated twice on a 50 round all-conundrum duel.

Charlie Reams · Post by **Charlie Reams** » Sat Jan 03, 2009 5:55 pm

The actual number is 7531, so I imagine 15% a pretty good estimate.

Howard Somerset · Post by **Howard Somerset** » Sat Jan 03, 2009 9:19 pm

Charlie Reams wrote:The actual number is 7531, so I imagine 15% a pretty good estimate.

I'll definitely go along with that. Certainly close enough to 15.04%

Charlie Reams · Post by **Charlie Reams** » Sat Jan 03, 2009 11:55 pm

To preempt the complaints: yes, I did fuck up, and people later in the day got different conundrums to those who played just after midnight. Luckily there were no real stinkers so it shouldn't affect scores too much.

Phil Reynolds · Post by **Phil Reynolds** » Sun Jan 04, 2009 11:26 am

Before I plunge into today's Duel, can someone explain what 'Hypercountdown' is please?

Ian Volante · Post by **Ian Volante** » Sun Jan 04, 2009 11:51 am

Phil Reynolds wrote:Before I plunge into today's Duel, can someone explain what 'Hypercountdown' is please?

Simply Countdown with twelve letters instead of nine.

Oliver Garner · Post by **Oliver Garner** » Sun Jan 04, 2009 11:51 am

Phil Reynolds wrote:Before I plunge into today's Duel, can someone explain what 'Hypercountdown' is please?

The letters rounds and the conundrum have 12 letters and the numbers game has a 4 figure target.

Charlie Reams · Post by **Charlie Reams** » Sun Jan 04, 2009 12:47 pm

Frank Rodolf has retired from apterous, at least for the time being. He might post something here himself, so I won't say too much more, but to cut a long story short: he admitted to cheating for almost the entire time he's been here, and sends his sincere apologies to anyone who's played against him. I'd appreciate it if people could keep the vitriol to a minimum, because at least he did the decent thing in the end. This quote is, I think, particularly relevant:

Frank Rodolf wrote:I don't even know why I went on with it, cause to be completely honest, it quickly made me way less interested in playing the game.

Good advice for anyone else thinking of trying it.

Kai Laddiman · Post by **Kai Laddiman** » Sun Jan 04, 2009 2:30 pm

Interesting to see that 7 people got different conundrums to everyone else yesterday.

Charlie Reams · Post by **Charlie Reams** » Sun Jan 04, 2009 3:08 pm

Kai Laddiman wrote:Interesting to see that 7 people got different conundrums to everyone else yesterday.

Next time try reading my posts before attempting some smart-ass comment.

Kai Laddiman · Post by **Kai Laddiman** » Sun Jan 04, 2009 3:41 pm

Charlie Reams wrote:
Kai Laddiman wrote:Interesting to see that 7 people got different conundrums to everyone else yesterday.
Next time try reading my posts before attempting some smart-ass comment.

If only I could read.

Charlie Reams · Post by **Charlie Reams** » Mon Jan 05, 2009 9:21 pm

Well done to Dan on his first conundrum win for a while, and to Kirk and Kai for getting all 3 hypernundrums. Can't stand Hyper myself tbh, but managed to get a few points on the board.

Kirk Bevins · Post by **Kirk Bevins** » Tue Jan 06, 2009 12:36 am

Charlie Reams wrote:Well done to Dan on his first conundrum win for a while, and to Kirk and Kai for getting all 3 hypernundrums. Can't stand Hyper myself tbh, but managed to get a few points on the board.

Do you mean duel win?

Charlie Reams · Post by **Charlie Reams** » Tue Jan 06, 2009 1:12 am

Kirk Bevins wrote:
Charlie Reams wrote:Well done to Dan on his first conundrum win for a while, and to Kirk and Kai for getting all 3 hypernundrums. Can't stand Hyper myself tbh, but managed to get a few points on the board.
Do you mean duel win?

What do you reckon?

Kirk Bevins · Post by **Kirk Bevins** » Tue Jan 06, 2009 1:15 am

Charlie Reams wrote:
What do you reckon?

Yes but it's not like you to make mistakes.

Charlie Reams · Post by **Charlie Reams** » Tue Jan 06, 2009 1:34 am

Kirk Bevins wrote:Yes but it's not like you to make mistakes.

I think you must have me confused with someone else...

Kai Laddiman · Post by **Kai Laddiman** » Tue Jan 06, 2009 10:54 am

Charlie Reams wrote:Well done to Dan on his first conundrum win for a while, and to Kirk and Kai for getting all 3 hypernundrums. Can't stand Hyper myself tbh, but managed to get a few points on the board.

Lol I missed INTERLAPPING.

Howard Somerset · Post by **Howard Somerset** » Tue Jan 06, 2009 12:32 pm

Is there no duel today? Or has my account or my PC got screwed?

Jon Corby · Post by **Jon Corby** » Tue Jan 06, 2009 12:55 pm

Howard Somerset wrote:Is there no duel today? Or has my account or my PC got screwed?

Hopefully not, because it will mean my fucking awful attempt at it was all just a bad dream.

Howard Somerset · Post by **Howard Somerset** » Tue Jan 06, 2009 1:07 pm

Jon Corby wrote:
Howard Somerset wrote:Is there no duel today? Or has my account or my PC got screwed?
Hopefully not, because it will mean my fucking awful attempt at it was all just a bad dream.

Thanks Jon. Just reloaded and gone in again, and it's there this time. Guess my PC got screwed.

So your fucking awful attempt will get counted, and will almost certainly be way above mine.

Ian Dent · Post by **Ian Dent** » Tue Jan 06, 2009 3:04 pm

I think I did really well on the duel today. Hope so anyway.

Callum Laddiman · Post by **Callum Laddiman** » Wed Jan 07, 2009 9:23 pm

On the 6th Jan, I got 44 points in the whole duel. I had a string of 7 disallowed words and numbers and altogether I had 9 disallowed solutions! Could it possibly get any worse?

You have to look at this! http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=18923

Julie T · Post by **Julie T** » Thu Jan 08, 2009 11:28 am

Phil Reynolds wrote:Before I plunge into today's Duel, can someone explain what 'Hypercountdown' is please?

Question already answered, but thought I'd mention a tip that I thought was obvious:

When the duel is in a format that I haven't played or rarely played before, I play a custom game or 2 of it beforehand.
Beware of playing a rated game on a tricky format though. I once managed (just) to lose to Prune, which fecked up my rating somewhat.

Phil Reynolds · Post by **Phil Reynolds** » Thu Jan 08, 2009 2:33 pm

Julie T wrote:[T]hought I'd mention a tip that I thought was obvious: When the duel is in a format that I haven't played or rarely played before, I play a custom game or 2 of it beforehand.

I frequently need the obvious pointing out to me, so thanks Julie for the tip.

Joseph Bolas · Post by **Joseph Bolas** » Fri Jan 09, 2009 12:19 am

I was going to play yesterday's duel later on tonight (as in Thursday night) but from 21:20 onwards (or around that time at least), the site was down. Now normally in this situation, I thought the duel was carried over, for people who didn't get to play it, but I've just been on the Apterous site and the scores have been posted for yesterday's duel.

Charlie Reams · Post by **Charlie Reams** » Fri Jan 09, 2009 12:22 am

Joseph Bolas wrote:I was going to play yesterday's duel later on tonight (as in Thursday night) but from 21:20 onwards (or around that time at least), the site was down. Now normally in this situation, I thought the duel was carried over, for people who didn't get to play it, but I've just been on the Apterous site and the scores have been posted for yesterday's duel.

I didn't realise it was down until the scores had already been processed, apologies to anyone who missed out. In future I recommend you get with the cool kids by playing every duel at 00:01.

Joseph Bolas · Post by **Joseph Bolas** » Fri Jan 09, 2009 5:48 pm

Charlie Reams wrote:
Joseph Bolas wrote:I was going to play yesterday's duel later on tonight (as in Thursday night) but from 21:20 onwards (or around that time at least), the site was down. Now normally in this situation, I thought the duel was carried over, for people who didn't get to play it, but I've just been on the Apterous site and the scores have been posted for yesterday's duel.
I didn't realise it was down until the scores had already been processed, apologies to anyone who missed out. In future I recommend you get with the cool kids by playing every duel at 00:01.

Thank you for the advice.

Sometimes it's better though to play a bit first, to warm up your brain before tackling the duel

Phil Reynolds · Post by **Phil Reynolds** » Mon Jan 12, 2009 9:58 am

The latest results page still seems to be showing the scores from Saturday's duel.

Julie T · Post by **Julie T** » Mon Jan 12, 2009 3:13 pm

Phil Reynolds wrote:The latest results page still seems to be showing the scores from Saturday's duel.

I'm guessing that Sunday's duel has carried over for those who haven't done it yet, as apparently apterous was down for a few hours yesterday.

Joseph Bolas · Post by **Joseph Bolas** » Mon Jan 12, 2009 3:47 pm

Julie T wrote:
Phil Reynolds wrote:The latest results page still seems to be showing the scores from Saturday's duel.
I'm guessing that Sunday's duel has carried over for those who haven't done it yet, as apparently apterous was down for a few hours yesterday.

It shouldn't have done as it was back up and running last night from 11:00 pm onwards, which was plenty of time to play the duel before the day was out.

Jon Corby · Post by **Jon Corby** » Mon Jan 12, 2009 4:00 pm

Joseph Bolas wrote:It shouldn't have done as it was back up and running last night from 11:00 pm onwards, which was plenty of time to play the duel before the day was out.

Unless you have a job/kids to get up for and go to bed before 11pm.

Joseph Bolas · Post by **Joseph Bolas** » Mon Jan 12, 2009 4:25 pm

Jon Corby wrote:
Joseph Bolas wrote:It shouldn't have done as it was back up and running last night from 11:00 pm onwards, which was plenty of time to play the duel before the day was out.
Unless you have a job/kids to get up for and go to bed before 11pm.

Well, there was plenty of time earlier on in the day to play it.

I see it doesn't matter anway, as some people got to play yesterdays duel today, which was wrong, but that's the way it is.

Maybe is there a clique after all

Charlie Reams · Post by **Charlie Reams** » Mon Jan 12, 2009 6:29 pm

Joseph Bolas wrote: I see it doesn't matter anway, as some people got to play yesterdays duel today, which was wrong, but that's the way it is.

Maybe is there a clique after all

The Duel always rolls over if there's a significant amount of down-time, except for one occasion when I was busy and forgot. I guess you're just bitter because you didn't play it on that one occasion. But I didn't dock you any points for all the duels you cheated in, which I should've done, so maybe you should STFU about cliques.

Jon Corby · Post by **Jon Corby** » Mon Jan 12, 2009 6:35 pm

Charlie Reams wrote:But I didn't dock you any points for all the duels you cheated in, which I should've done, so maybe you should STFU about cliques.

Lols.

Gareth Mitchell · Post by **Gareth Mitchell** » Tue Jan 13, 2009 11:54 am

Hi

Todays duel froze on me after entering the first set of letters. I see in the announcements that duels can't be resumed. Does that mean I've lost this one ?

Thank you
Gareth

Charlie Reams · Post by **Charlie Reams** » Tue Jan 13, 2009 12:00 pm

Gareth Mitchell wrote:Hi

Todays duel froze on me after entering the first set of letters. I see in the announcements that duels can't be resumed. Does that mean I've lost this one ?

Thank you
Gareth

Nope, come back later and try again.

Phil Reynolds · Post by **Phil Reynolds** » Wed Jan 14, 2009 9:51 am

OK, so I logged in this morning expecting to see two Duel challenges - yesterday's rollover and today's. In fact, there is none. Can you give us an update Charlie?

Jon Corby · Post by **Jon Corby** » Wed Jan 14, 2009 10:29 am

Phil Reynolds wrote:OK, so I logged in this morning expecting to see two Duel challenges - yesterday's rollover and today's. In fact, there is none. Can you give us an update Charlie?

I saw two when I logged on at about 8am this morning. Didn't play them though and haven't been back since.

It's because you're not in THE CLIQUE.

Charlie Reams · Post by **Charlie Reams** » Wed Jan 14, 2009 10:31 am

Phil Reynolds wrote:OK, so I logged in this morning expecting to see two Duel challenges - yesterday's rollover and today's. In fact, there is none. Can you give us an update Charlie?

Sometimes you have to log in a few times before the Duellist remembers to challenge you. I have no idea why.

Howard Somerset · Post by **Howard Somerset** » Fri Jan 16, 2009 12:42 am

I'm not surprised at my position on yesterday's dual. First time I've ever tried a 5 second game. Even though I had answers to many of the rounds within 5 secs, it was getting them typed in that beat me. Even took more than 5 secs to move the cursor to the right place to type the numbers result in, cos I had my fingers on the keys rather than on the mouse. However, one bright spot was getting one of the two conundrums - not only getting it right, but getting it typed in without making a mistake!

Joseph Bolas · Post by **Joseph Bolas** » Fri Jan 16, 2009 12:45 am

I thought ENRAPTURE was a tough conundrum so very well done to Kai, Paul and Nick for getting that.

Julie T · Post by **Julie T** » Fri Jan 16, 2009 1:29 pm

Howard Somerset wrote:I'm not surprised at my position on yesterday's dual. First time I've ever tried a 5 second game. Even though I had answers to many of the rounds within 5 secs, it was getting them typed in that beat me. Even took more than 5 secs to move the cursor to the right place to type the numbers result in, cos I had my fingers on the keys rather than on the mouse. However, one bright spot was getting one of the two conundrums - not only getting it right, but getting it typed in without making a mistake!

Thanks, Howard, for keeping me off the bottom spot, anyway!

I hate speed duels too, but connection problems meant I'd missed 2 duels already, so I gave it a go.

Surely with the letters rounds, it lets you finish keying in a word as long as you've started?

Re numbers rounds, while the numbers are still coming up I move the cursor to the 'declaration' box and click, so I can key my declaration straight in when I've worked it out. I then move the cursor over to the 'set declaration' box, still before the round has properly started, so I can click it when I'm ready to declare. Gives you a vital few extra seconds, especially in speed rounds. Also, if there really isn't time to do the calculations, I sometimes guess that I can do it and declare the target, and wing it when asked to show my method.

Congratulations on getting a conundrum, it's my weak point.

Howard Somerset · Post by **Howard Somerset** » Fri Jan 16, 2009 2:05 pm

Julie T wrote:Thanks, Howard, for keeping me off the bottom spot, anyway!

Always happy to be underneath you, Julie

Surely with the letters rounds, it lets you finish keying in a word as long as you've started?

Doesn't seem to let you correct typing errors. Or maybe when I saw I'd made a typing error I assumed it wouldn't so gave up.

Re numbers rounds, while the numbers are still coming up I move the cursor to the 'declaration' box and click, so I can key my declaration straight in when I've worked it out.

Must remember to do that in future. Thanks.

Julie T · Post by **Julie T** » Fri Jan 16, 2009 2:47 pm

Howard Somerset wrote:
Julie T wrote:Thanks, Howard, for keeping me off the bottom spot, anyway!
Always happy to be underneath you, Julie

Ooooh, errrr!

Surely with the letters rounds, it lets you finish keying in a word as long as you've started?
Doesn't seem to let you correct typing errors. Or maybe when I saw I'd made a typing error I assumed it wouldn't so gave up.

True, that is a problem.

Re numbers rounds, while the numbers are still coming up I move the cursor to the 'declaration' box and click, so I can key my declaration straight in when I've worked it out.
Must remember to do that in future. Thanks.

Hope it helps.

Kirk Bevins · Post by **Kirk Bevins** » Sun Jan 18, 2009 12:23 am

Hmmm...how come the daily duel score hasn't been added to mine today? I should be well clear of Ben after that duel attempt.