Search found 539 matches
- Tue Feb 01, 2011 8:37 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: COLIN 2011 results & feedback
- Replies: 80
- Views: 31471
Re: COLIN 2011 results & feedback
Matt Morrison - victim of theft of smoking materials Haha, this was Jim! Though I'm not surprised you got it confused, I think I went round telling other people for a while, half because I wanted to help him find them, and half because the way he described it to me was fantastic. Something like &qu...
- Sun Jan 30, 2011 4:48 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: COLIN 2011 results & feedback
- Replies: 80
- Views: 31471
Re: COLIN 2011 results & feedback
COLIN 2011 - yet another fabulous tournament; thank you to all who helped in the organisation. On top of the thrilling, tense gameplay, I thoroughly enjoyed catching up with some familiar faces, and also meeting some very promising newcomers. In particular, in my first two games, I was paired agains...
- Tue Jan 25, 2011 9:27 pm
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Foreign dictionary Apterous
- Replies: 43
- Views: 15992
Re: Foreign dictionary Apterous
A big thumbs up for the latest language on apterous. Thank you to Hywel and Charlie and anyone else who helped to make it happen.
- Fri Jan 14, 2011 10:12 pm
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Bug reports
- Replies: 2157
- Views: 504880
Re: Bug reports
No probs Charlie; thanks for fixing. Incidentally, I note that I have 1765 m to climb this time round. This is less than the 2000+ conundrums I missed in my first Ascension - I am guessing that any additional conundrums I got correct in my abortive second Ascension, have also been removed from my th...
- Thu Jan 13, 2011 11:51 pm
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: New numbers interface: Your comments please
- Replies: 111
- Views: 14025
Re: New numbers interface: Your comments please
I agree with Gavin's most recent point. As a relatively weak numbers player, I struggle in Speed Numbers as I frequently have to declare a solution which doesn't match the target. To move my cursor to the declaration box, then accurately type three digits (or four in Hyper) plus RETURN... that often...
- Thu Jan 13, 2011 11:20 pm
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Bug reports
- Replies: 2157
- Views: 504880
Re: Bug reports
The change to make 2nd and subsequent Ascensions consist only of conundrums which the player missed in their previous Ascension, has had an interesting effect for me. Possibly because I have already climbed higher than the number of conundrums I got wrong first time round, I now get told I am -554 m...
- Sat Jan 08, 2011 6:49 pm
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Bug reports
- Replies: 2157
- Views: 504880
Re: Bug reports
A bit of an oddity I've just noticed, not that it affects gameplay: My user pages which have previously showed data for the last 30 days (e.g. my list of nines from the last 30 days and my table of formats played for the last 30 days ), now seem to be showing data for a much longer period. I've got ...
- Sat Jan 08, 2011 1:47 am
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Post your first game on apterous
- Replies: 39
- Views: 5834
Re: Post your first game on apterous
Inspired by this thread being resurrected, I took a look back at my first game on apterous. I'm not sure what I'm more surprised by: that I won, or that I didn't have any trouble with the numbers interface. Although on reflection, I think the latter was due to lots of guidance from Henry prior to th...
- Sat Jan 08, 2011 1:27 am
- Forum: Off-topic
- Topic: London Underground
- Replies: 52
- Views: 6823
Re: London Underground
Not strictly related to travelling on the tube, but I love Harry Beck's tube map design, and other artwork inspired by it. The tube map is one of a very limited number of things which make London seem magical and romantic for me (another being Ray Davies' "Waterloo Sunset").
- Sat Dec 25, 2010 12:19 am
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Words You Would Have Thought...
- Replies: 479
- Views: 189840
Re: Words You Would Have Thought...
FAJITAS, CORNFLAKES, and GOUJONS are just three of the food-related words which are only valid in ODE2r as plural nouns. Yes, it's daft.
- Thu Dec 09, 2010 7:20 pm
- Forum: Games and Puzzles
- Topic: Which word is valid in the most languages?
- Replies: 13
- Views: 3679
Re: Which word is valid in the most languages?
PIANO is valid in every apterous lexicon (except for Russian, Greek and Hebrew).
- Sat Nov 27, 2010 3:19 pm
- Forum: Off-topic
- Topic: He's gettin' married in the morning...
- Replies: 19
- Views: 4841
Re: He's gettin' married in the morning...
Good work, lady and gent - really happy for you! Hope there's a cracking party starting right about now...
- Sun Nov 21, 2010 6:19 pm
- Forum: Off-topic
- Topic: Hilarious Personal Injuries
- Replies: 20
- Views: 3316
Re: Hilarious Personal Injuries
I used to run cross-country races. These were the kind of races which took you through streams, through knee-deep mud, over stiles, etc. After 4-and-a-half miles of one particularly muddy 5 mile race, it was necessary to vault or climb over a 5-bar gate to a field. Most fit men, of average height, h...
- Sat Nov 20, 2010 5:43 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: Tournoi Chiffres & Lettres de Paris, novembre 2010
- Replies: 3
- Views: 1554
Re: Tournoi Chiffres & Lettres de Paris, novembre 2010
Only just seen the above post... good work Jeff - impressive stuff.
- Sat Nov 13, 2010 3:27 pm
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Bug reports
- Replies: 2157
- Views: 504880
Re: Bug reports
Superstats pages don't appear to have been updated for several days now. I remember that when this happened once previously, some kind of storage was full (or something similar), and it was easily rectified. Does something need a kickstart? Usual rider: apologies if the above was already known, but ...
- Mon Nov 08, 2010 1:02 am
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Hyper Numbers Tourney + Duel
- Replies: 115
- Views: 14650
Re: Hyper Numbers Tourney + Duel
Oliver: Nice idea, and I hope it's a success. However, in the unlikely event that I qualify for the Tournament (either by finishing top 16, or by those above me declining their own invitations), please automatically offer my place to someone else. I think my views on how much I enjoy Numbers rounds ...
- Thu Oct 28, 2010 8:50 pm
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Feature requests
- Replies: 1956
- Views: 485514
- Thu Oct 28, 2010 7:53 pm
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Feature requests
- Replies: 1956
- Views: 485514
Re: Feature requests
Ryan Taylor wrote:Yeah, that would work, surprised no one has thought of it before.
Someone's already thought of that too:Rhys Benjamin wrote:No, sort of one box for each cat.
- Sun Oct 24, 2010 9:04 pm
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Bug reports
- Replies: 2157
- Views: 504880
Re: Bug reports
Apologies if this is already a known issue, but since I can't find any evidence of it having been reported: Underneath the "Format" and "Nines" tabs of Users' pages , where there should be data for the last 30 days, there is no data. Instead there is the message: Query failed in ...
- Sun Oct 17, 2010 12:57 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: CoLei3 - Saturday 16 October 2010
- Replies: 129
- Views: 29579
Re: CoLei3 - Saturday 16 October 2010
Dinos changed his shirt?? He certainly did. Dinos arrived in a resplendent sparkly number which he announced was the shinkiest shirt in his collection. But he didn't want to be the shinkiest man in the room so he changed after Round One into a blue shirt. (Sorry, bit of a private joke, but those wh...
- Sat Oct 16, 2010 10:21 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: CoLei3 - Saturday 16 October 2010
- Replies: 129
- Views: 29579
Re: CoLei3 - Saturday 16 October 2010
CoLei3 in Figures 77: number of rounds played by all the entrants 22: number of entrants 21: number of seconds after incorrectly buzzing that Kirk thought he'd let slip another CoLei title 13: duration of manhug between James Robinson and Ryan Taylor, in seconds 6: number of prizewinners 6: combine...
- Sat Oct 16, 2010 9:23 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: CoLei3 - Saturday 16 October 2010
- Replies: 129
- Views: 29579
Re: CoLei3 - Saturday 16 October 2010
The Division A grand final came down to a crucial conundrum... which was a word not in the list of 9060 Normal variant apterous conundrums (according to Lexplorer anyway), and that neither Kirk nor I thought we had heard of - though we both had good (but wrong) stabs at the answer! (Karen, and I bel...
- Sun Oct 10, 2010 11:16 pm
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Feature requests
- Replies: 1956
- Views: 485514
Re: Feature requests
A couple of features which would interest me: 1) This has deliberately been posted after I reached the summit of Mt Conundrum (in an attempt not to look like a glory-hunter): When someone reaches the top of Mt Conundrum, I would like to see a notification in the "Happenings" bar at the rig...
- Wed Oct 06, 2010 1:25 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: Countdown in Lincoln 2011- Saturday 29th January
- Replies: 229
- Views: 33899
Re: Countdown in Lincoln 2011- Saturday 29th January
Good grief... if I were the type to get easily scared... that list of 10 confirmed entrants so far would be terrifying! This already looks like it could be the strongest field ever for a Co-event. On the plus side, this means I'll get the opportunity to upset a higher ranked player in almost every r...
- Sun Oct 03, 2010 9:25 am
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Guest Duels
- Replies: 19
- Views: 4293
Re: Guest Duels
PM sent, Charlie. If my suggestion gets used, I expect to be roundly cursed by all who attempt it (including myself)...
- Sat Oct 02, 2010 3:20 pm
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Bug reports
- Replies: 2157
- Views: 504880
Re: Bug reports
... is apterous really in capitals? I've never thought about it that way, it's just capitals being used to display the words. I dunno, yeah I guess it is in capitals. Funny though, I've just always thought of it as some kind of universal case which isn't really capitals or lower case, it's just 'ap...
- Sat Oct 02, 2010 1:24 pm
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Bug reports
- Replies: 2157
- Views: 504880
Re: Bug reports
Substitution of an umlauted vowel with the natural vowel +E is only acceptable in German spelling in typefaces where Umlauts are not available. So whilst you will occasionally see spellings like LOEWE in various places, they would be frowned upon in normal German writing. Hence they are not valid in...
- Wed Sep 29, 2010 11:26 pm
- Forum: Off-topic
- Topic: American English
- Replies: 23
- Views: 2923
Re: American English
I loved Married... with Children. When I first moved to Holland, I used to watch about 10 episodes a week, as it was being shown every weekday at 7:30pm on Ketnet (Belgian TV), and also at other times during the week on Veronica and SBS6 (both Dutch channels). Even that was barely enough Christina A...
- Tue Sep 28, 2010 9:22 pm
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Bug reports
- Replies: 2157
- Views: 504880
Re: Bug reports
Maybe there is a clamp on the length of word which Sponge can offer _if and only if_ that word is offered by a player, not by Dictionary Corner? Certainly Sponge appears to have declared UNIVERSALIZABILITIES, which I guess Sponge learned from a Dictionary Corner max. And I certainly can't explain Sp...
- Sun Sep 26, 2010 8:49 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: COLEI RECAPS
- Replies: 15
- Views: 3897
Re: COLEI RECAPS
Nice one Jeff - I enjoyed looking back at all of those... even if neither of us particularly covered ourselves in glory with our dCedL performances!
- Thu Sep 23, 2010 8:19 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: COLEI RECAPS
- Replies: 15
- Views: 3897
Re: COLEI RECAPS
For the game when I was dishing out the letters/numbers, I'm happy to be referred to in recaps as Rachel. On the basis you'd struggle to find anyone who looked less like me...
- Thu Sep 23, 2010 8:11 pm
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: WORST ROUND EVAH
- Replies: 10
- Views: 1776
Re: WORST ROUND EVAH
I agree with Matt - I'm fairly sure that the 199 rounds where zero max was available are all results of dictionary failures. (I remember being involved in such a game once in German, when most of the German dictionary had been accidentally deleted.) Anyhow, the shortest max ever in Normal variant su...
- Tue Sep 21, 2010 10:14 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: COLEI RECAPS
- Replies: 15
- Views: 3897
Re: COLEI RECAPS
I'd quite like to see them again, if you've got them available Jeff.
- Tue Sep 21, 2010 9:31 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: CountMax errors
- Replies: 727
- Views: 92571
Re: CountMax errors
EXQUISITENESSES is missing from the lexicon. Should it be added?
EXQUISITENESS is valid, and I thought that all the long -NESS words also had -NESSES allowable. (Due to some quirk of ODE which was discovered during the Spindlex project.)
EXQUISITENESS is valid, and I thought that all the long -NESS words also had -NESSES allowable. (Due to some quirk of ODE which was discovered during the Spindlex project.)
- Sat Sep 18, 2010 11:45 pm
- Forum: Other game shows
- Topic: Mastermind Specialist Subject
- Replies: 41
- Views: 8626
Re: Mastermind Specialist Subject
For comparison, subjects which I offered for A Question Of Genius were: (a) The World Professional Snooker Championship, 1977 - present (b) Female-fronted bands of the 1990s (c) Industrial refrigerants Considering that the boundaries of (a) are well-defined, and furthermore, every result plus a heap...
- Sat Sep 18, 2010 11:21 pm
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Aegilops/Omelette question
- Replies: 2
- Views: 923
Re: Aegilops/Omelette question
I agree with Ben about Prune but I disagree slightly with Ben about Rex, speaking only for Aegilops. In my opinion: 2-letter combos: VC, CV, CC all roughly equal difficulty. Actually, strike that - for a non-practised player, CC is probably hardest, and CV easiest. Having played so much Aegilops, I'...
- Thu Sep 16, 2010 10:18 pm
- Forum: Games and Puzzles
- Topic: BBC Mental Agility Tests
- Replies: 17
- Views: 2916
Re: BBC Mental Agility Tests
In order... I scored 70 / 18 / 18 / 19. I'll choose to interpret that as taking time to warm up in the first test. Or being distracted by Mariella Frostrup's cleavage.
- Sat Sep 11, 2010 11:48 am
- Forum: Off-topic
- Topic: Ties and Belts
- Replies: 10
- Views: 1482
Re: Ties and Belts
my 20 ties and 10 belts Jon O'Neill - never knowingly underaccessorised. (I've just checked my wardrobe and I own 5 ties and 5 belts, so I have less of a problem than Jon. All the ties are stored round the hanger on which I've got one of my suit jackets. The belts are coiled up and stored on a shel...
- Sat Sep 11, 2010 10:07 am
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Duel revision
- Replies: 17
- Views: 3044
Re: Duel revision
I would be strongly against Conundrum time being used as any sort of tie-breaker in a Duel, for a few reasons. These are mainly to limit my personal frustration at apterous to at least a manageable, rather than a stratospheric level. ;-) Firstly, whilst I am reasonable at solving conundrums against ...
- Thu Sep 09, 2010 11:06 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: CoLei3 - Saturday 16 October 2010
- Replies: 129
- Views: 29579
Re: CoLei3 - Saturday 16 October 2010
Knowing the wonderful things Jeff has previously done with technology, I wonder whether the Co:Leiii co-host might be on screen, rather than strictly present in person... ;-) Then again, it may be Bee, as I'm sure she'll be present, and she isn't on the list of players... but I don't know whether sh...
- Sun Sep 05, 2010 8:11 pm
- Forum: Off-topic
- Topic: Favourite Breakfast Cereal
- Replies: 50
- Views: 5382
Re: Favourite Breakfast Cereal
I'm posh when it comes to cereal. For breakfast I eat the lovely (but not desperately good-for-you) Jordan's Crunchy Oats with Tropical Fruits , which I top with berry fruits (usually dried goji berries and fresh blueberries or blackberries), and the absolute minimum of skimmed milk, because I find ...
- Sun Sep 05, 2010 6:26 pm
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Bug reports
- Replies: 2157
- Views: 504880
Re: Bug reports
Slightly off-topic, but in response to Hugh's list of plural Jr Touchnundrums... you might want to note that WEEJUNS is not valid in its singular in ODE. I have no idea why (yes, you buy WEEJUNS - a type of loafer, apparently - in pairs, but it's quite plausible to refer to one of them) - a bit like...
- Sun Sep 05, 2010 12:51 am
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: Countdown in Lincoln 2011- Saturday 29th January
- Replies: 229
- Views: 33899
Re: Countdown in Lincoln 2011- Saturday 29th January
Yes please, although technophobe that I am, I don't have paypal (or facebook). Ben, could you please PM or e-mail me your current address, and I'll bung you a cheque. I think I may already have your address on something Scrabble-related, but if you could confirm, that'd be fab.
- Sat Sep 04, 2010 3:08 pm
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: General feedback
- Replies: 284
- Views: 53406
Re: General feedback
You're right, I don't think Charlie's ever mentioned anything about how many conundrums are in each difficulty category. But one way to divide them would be to rank each conundrum by difficulty (based on, perhaps, %age of correct solves) then stick the easiest 10% in difficulty 1, and so on. Alterna...
- Sat Sep 04, 2010 9:22 am
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: General feedback
- Replies: 284
- Views: 53406
Re: General feedback
Charlie: a few of us climbing the Mountain have been wondering why there seem to be more 8/10 (topaz) difficulty conundrums than any other difficulty. Lesley even took a small sample of 400 conundrums from her Ascension games and counted >20% of 8/10 difficulty. These were her full results: Difficul...
- Sun Aug 29, 2010 11:13 am
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Ascension
- Replies: 32
- Views: 4458
Re: Ascension
Things I like about Ascension of Mt Conundrum:
- The ability to face conundrums of difficulty 10, which I would rarely otherwise face
Sherpa Shilty. Fantastic!
- Sat Aug 28, 2010 9:14 pm
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: General feedback
- Replies: 284
- Views: 53406
Re: General feedback
Can the names of the Spooners be unveiled in pairs please... *sniggering at the back*Charlie Reams wrote: Recipients of a Spoon are known as Spooners.
- Sat Aug 28, 2010 1:39 pm
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Bash Room 5 min Aptochallenge
- Replies: 4
- Views: 1614
Re: Bash Room 5 min Aptochallenge
I'm a bit late in giving this a go... but on my first attempt, I've just set a mark of 20 out of 26 in 5 minutes after entering the Bash Room at 14:18:11 today. (Details at the top of this chat log , with FROTH being my first correct answer and STRIDE being my final correct answer.) Considering that...
- Fri Aug 27, 2010 5:44 pm
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Bug reports
- Replies: 2157
- Views: 504880
Re: Bug reports
Has this been mentioned before? If it has, it still seems to be an issue (albeit a relatively minor one)... The Duellist's 0- SPOILER REMOVED game with Adam Gillard received a nomination for Game of the Week. 5 hours ago. Because Adam's game with the Duellist was nominated for GotW, I was able to se...
- Tue Aug 24, 2010 11:06 pm
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Bug reports
- Replies: 2157
- Views: 504880
Re: Bug reports
Cheers. The exclusion feature was quite a recent addition and a lot of older code doesn't check for it. I tried to catch them but there's probably plenty that I missed, so please report them as you spot them. This German 9 game appears in the German 9 page under "lowest max". The reason t...
- Tue Aug 24, 2010 4:55 pm
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Good idea for a variant?
- Replies: 277
- Views: 39214
Re: Good idea for a variant?
Lesley: you're probably thinking of Catchword , the old BBC2 show hosted by Paul Coia. Re: Ben's proposal, I'm certainly not looking for a way to make Aegilops Letters Rounds harder. Plenty of the Letters Rounds (for 3 or 4 letter selections) are difficult enough as it is. I also fear that the restr...
- Mon Aug 23, 2010 11:56 pm
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Pencil cloud
- Replies: 11
- Views: 1756
Re: Pencil cloud
Davies may have got to PEINED first, but by learning a few of the words with more obvious anagrams (DEFINES, STAINED, PARTIES, BOARDER, PLEASE, MAIDEN, NASTIES, SEATING, LOCATES, GUARDS, RETAIL), I've nabbed one from the cloud: ARTELI.
So it has worked, kinda!
So it has worked, kinda!
- Sun Aug 22, 2010 9:59 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: Des chiffres et une lettre de plus !
- Replies: 6
- Views: 1163
Re: Des chiffres et une lettre de plus !
Good shout Jeff - I'll scan the TV5 listings. One of the joys of my satellite TV package is that I used to be able to (and hopefully still can) watch dCedL on TV5. I'm surprised they've changed the formula. The change doesn't seem to be motivated by viewing figures, and it will possibly just annoy p...
- Sun Aug 22, 2010 8:25 pm
- Forum: Games and Puzzles
- Topic: Game: Countdown Blind Date
- Replies: 5
- Views: 1450
Re: Game: Countdown Blind Date
How would you help me cope with the interminable shame of having a son who pronounced opaque as 'o-pack' on national television? I've looked as hard as I can, John, but I just can't see a way through this. I love fireworks (Note 1) . How would you make sure that our date went off with a bang? (Note...
- Sun Aug 22, 2010 7:54 pm
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Pencil cloud
- Replies: 11
- Views: 1756
Re: Pencil cloud
Virtual fun size Mars Bar for the first person to capture the arch-pencil-evader PEINED ! (Have seen these word clouds before... I think Q Magazine (yuck) brought them to my attention by feeding the entire lyrical output of Oasis into a word cloud. I'll let you know if it helps me to remember the un...
- Sun Aug 22, 2010 4:09 pm
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Feature requests
- Replies: 1956
- Views: 485514
Re: Feature requests
For completeness:
Aegilops Numbers Difficulty is missing from the "Statland: xxxxx Numbers Difficulty" pages. I'd be quite interested to see the results please, if you'd be able to add it?
Aegilops Numbers Difficulty is missing from the "Statland: xxxxx Numbers Difficulty" pages. I'd be quite interested to see the results please, if you'd be able to add it?
- Sun Aug 22, 2010 4:02 pm
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Aptochallenge 6: Polish Your Skills
- Replies: 22
- Views: 5702
5 seconds in the Crystal Dome
Nice one Charlie, ta. Of course, I'm not even going to attempt to work out the math(s) behind the calculation of skill points awarded for a game which you win. I think it's a broadly similar algorithm to the one used for calculating ratings increases/decreases, which was all I needed to know when I ...
- Sun Aug 22, 2010 1:23 am
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Aptochallenge 6: Polish Your Skills
- Replies: 22
- Views: 5702
Physical, Mental, or Mystery?
In a late night moment of mathematical curiosity, I wondered what the formula was for the points total needed to bring a Skill to Level n , where n is a positive integer. It appears that you need 50 n ( n - 1) (2 n -1) points to get a skill to Level n . To a layman like me, this seems to be a fairly...
- Wed Aug 18, 2010 6:03 pm
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: The pencil thread
- Replies: 72
- Views: 12197
- Tue Aug 17, 2010 8:40 pm
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Bug reports
- Replies: 2157
- Views: 504880
Re: Bug reports
Don't know if this is a bug or not, but re: the News of 6 August: Improved: Slightly increased the conundrum difficulty cap for most players, since not enough people were enjoying the delights of 10/10 conundrums. After this change was made, I became eligible for Diamond difficulty conundrums. (In f...