Apterous

[Debbi Flack]

I'm sure I'm being dense, but i've seen a few mentions of Apterous on this site and wondered how I go about signing up in time for the tournament. Alternatively can we play using Messenger?
Thanks

[Charlie Reams]

It's still in testing (involving quite a few members of this site.) It should be available to the wider world from this weekend.

[Joseph Bolas]

I'm sure I'm being dense, but i've seen a few mentions of Apterous on this site and wondered how I go about signing up in time for the tournament. Alternatively can we play using Messenger?
Thanks

Debbi, if you ever want some friendly, unrated games, so you can get used to playing the game and solving the numbers and conundrums etc, then let me know

I can't afford the bots yet, so I am looking for as much "human interaction", game-wise, as I can get

[Julie T]

I'm sure I'm being dense, but i've seen a few mentions of Apterous on this site and wondered how I go about signing up in time for the tournament. Alternatively can we play using Messenger?
Thanks

I've just joined apterous yesterday: http://www.apterous.org/

It's great for practise - well done Charlie , although the tournament games can still be played on MSN.

Inputting the numbers rounds on a computer system takes some getting used to - for me, anyway!
I've just managed to get points for a numbers round on my fifth game, although I had most of them sussed.

[Damian E]

Firstly, hats off to Charlie for not only Apterous, but for being the grandmaster of the online Countdown community and for putting in countless hours of effort over the last 4 or 5 years.

Now, on to Apterous. It might be just me and my alleged aspergic ways, but i struggle with it.

The size of the standard window that opens once you start a game, means the letters are not square, and i have a problem playing with unsquare tiles - i know it sounds really weird, but thats life ,i really struggle with unsquare tiles. I dont know why, i am not a psychologist, but its true.

So, i shorten the window to lose the clock and make the tiles square, but the next round comes and they are back to being rectangular again. Its weird. If someone wrote down 9 letters on a piece of paper, i cannot find the same words as i would if they were 9 blue Countdown squares. This isnt a criticism, its just a comment on how it works for me.

I wonder if anyone else has a similar mental block, or is it just me who's fucked up and clearly abnormal?

[Joseph Bolas]

The size of the standard window that opens once you start a game, means the letters are not square, and i have a problem playing with unsquare tiles - i know it sounds really weird, but thats life ,i really struggle with unsquare tiles. I dont know why, i am not a psychologist, but its true.

Forgive me for asking, but aren't the number tiles used on countdown rectangular?

It may just be the way I am looking at then, but looking at the width of the '100' going from the front of the '1' to the end of the second '0', it seems to be longer than the height.

[Charlie Reams]

Firstly, hats off to Charlie for not only Apterous, but for being the grandmaster of the online Countdown community and for putting in countless hours of effort over the last 4 or 5 years.

Thank you Although with people like Mike Brown and Ben Wilson on the scene, I don't think I can accept the accolade.

Now, on to Apterous. It might be just me and my alleged aspergic ways, but i struggle with it.

The size of the standard window that opens once you start a game, means the letters are not square, and i have a problem playing with unsquare tiles - i know it sounds really weird, but thats life ,i really struggle with unsquare tiles. I dont know why, i am not a psychologist, but its true.

So, i shorten the window to lose the clock and make the tiles square, but the next round comes and they are back to being rectangular again. Its weird. If someone wrote down 9 letters on a piece of paper, i cannot find the same words as i would if they were 9 blue Countdown squares. This isnt a criticism, its just a comment on how it works for me.

I wonder if anyone else has a similar mental block, or is it just me who's fucked up and clearly abnormal?

The letters are very nearly square on my display so this had never occurred to me. I will fiddle with things and make them stay square. I think Ben made a similar point recently so you're certainly no more freakish than him, although that might be a poor reassurance.

[Damian E]

Forgive me for asking, but aren't the number tiles used on countdown rectangular?

No, Joseph. They are square. 3.5 inches of pure square.

I think Ben made a similar point recently so you're certainly no more freakish than him, although that might be a poor reassurance.

Jesus, is it that bad, for Ben i mean.........?

[Mike Brown]

Firstly, hats off to Charlie for not only Apterous, but for being the grandmaster of the online Countdown community and for putting in countless hours of effort over the last 4 or 5 years.

Thank you Although with people like Mike Brown and Ben Wilson on the scene, I don't think I can accept the accolade.

Actually, Charlie, I think you fully deserve the accolade. Maybe Ben and I have been around for longer, but you've almost certainly put more hours into the world of online Countdown in the last few years than anyone else. Perhaps I'm now more grandfather than grandmaster

[Ben Wilson]

Firstly, hats off to Charlie for not only Apterous, but for being the grandmaster of the online Countdown community and for putting in countless hours of effort over the last 4 or 5 years.

Thank you Although with people like Mike Brown and Ben Wilson on the scene, I don't think I can accept the accolade.

I like to think of myself more as the grandmaster of the OFFline Countdown community, though I may be wrong here. Seriously mate, between cdb and Apterous- not to mention all your other countdown/scrabbly side projects- you now own the internet. For life.

[Jon Corby]

No, Joseph. They are square. 3.5 inches of pure square.

Are they really only 3.5 inches? It looked like more than that in Susie's hands when she was holding that 'K' today.



Hey, I hope that comes in handy sometime.

[Kirk Bevins]

No, Joseph. They are square. 3.5 inches of pure square.

Are they really only 3.5 inches? It looked like more than that in Susie's hands when she was holding that 'K' today.



Hey, I hope that comes in handy sometime.

You hope what will come in handy - the K or the knowledge that they are 3.5 inches of pure square?

[Gavin Chipper]

You hope what will come in handy - the K or the knowledge that they are 3.5 inches of pure square?

Presumably the fact that, when in Susie's hands, objects look like they are of more inches.

[Ian Volante]

You hope what will come in handy - the K or the knowledge that they are 3.5 inches of pure square?

Presumably the fact that, when in Susie's hands, objects look like they are of more inches.

Her husband must be very pleased.

[Jon Corby]

You hope what will come in handy - the K or the knowledge that they are 3.5 inches of pure square?

Presumably the fact that, when in Susie's hands, objects look like they are of more inches.

Her husband must be very pleased.

Er... nice one.

[Heather Culpin]

I tried using Apterous for the first time today and failed miserably. At work, on a PC, I hit what I think is a firewall restriction. So unreasonable to stop people playing in the office! At home I've tried it on two different macs which both have the latest version of Java for Mac OSX but after clicking on PLAY and seeing the Java coffee cup I just get a screen which is blank other than a red x in the top left hand corner. Has anyone else used it successfully on a mac?

And no, I don't want to stop using macs ...........

[Charlie Reams]

And no, I don't want to stop using macs ...........

I have heard other complaints from Mac users, but (not having access to one myself) I can't make any diagnosis. Try enabling the Java console in Safari (see here) and PMing me with any error message that appears. I would like to get this fixed.

[Heather Culpin]

Thanks Charlie. PM? Post Message? Ah, just noticed the small pm at the end so will delete this java stuff and pm you.

[Charlie Reams]

Thanks Charlie. PM? Post Message? Anyway here is the console:

PM = Private Message, but for a console of that length it doesn't really matter. The error is caused by you running Java 1.5. The latest version is 1.6. Is that not available for Mac?

[Heather Culpin]

Just ran software update to be sure I have the latest version, which is described as

Java For Mac OS X 1.5 Update 2, dated October 2008

Apple says:
Java for Mac OS X 10.5 Update 2
Java for Mac OS X 10.5 Update 2 delivers improved reliability and compatibility for Java SE 6, J2SE 5.0 and J2SE 1.4.2 on Mac OS X 10.5.4 and later. The release updates Java SE 6 to version 1.6.0_07, J2SE 5.0 to version 1.5.0_16, and J2SE 1.4.2 to 1.4.2_18. The update is available through Software Update and the Apple Support website.

For more details on this update, visit:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2733