Search found 8356 matches
- Sat Feb 15, 2014 4:35 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: Stems (includes spoiler for Friday 14 Feb)
- Replies: 7
- Views: 2516
Re: Stems (includes spoiler for Friday 14 Feb)
I don't think there are canonical lists that everyone works from. But I've never heard of someone learning words like that. It seems inefficient, the chance of getting those exact 9 letters is very small.
- Sat Feb 08, 2014 2:29 pm
- Forum: Off-topic
- Topic: Generous odds on a female?
- Replies: 39
- Views: 11541
Re: Generous odds on a female?
Add "c) confused about the nature of causality".
- Sat Feb 01, 2014 12:26 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: Ask Graeme?
- Replies: 1741
- Views: 753893
Re: Ask Graeme?
Somewhat vague question, feel free to formalize this however is convenient: if only letters rounds counted, how different would the seedings be in a typical series? I'm imagining counting wins and points for the letters rounds up to and including the first game each contestant would've lost (if any)...
- Mon Jan 13, 2014 1:52 pm
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Is Apterous down? [DO NOT POST IN THIS TOPIC FOR ANY OTHER REASON]
- Replies: 604
- Views: 382014
Re: Is Apterous down?
Please don't chat in this thread, I have to drop everything to read new posts in here (including my trousers).
- Sun Jan 12, 2014 6:43 pm
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Is Apterous down? [DO NOT POST IN THIS TOPIC FOR ANY OTHER REASON]
- Replies: 604
- Views: 382014
Re: Is Apterous down?
Website back, game should be back in the a few minutes.
- Sun Jan 12, 2014 6:34 pm
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Is Apterous down? [DO NOT POST IN THIS TOPIC FOR ANY OTHER REASON]
- Replies: 604
- Views: 382014
Re: Is Apterous down?
Working on it.
- Sat Jan 11, 2014 12:52 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: Final Preparations
- Replies: 15
- Views: 4903
Re: Final Preparations
Smile!
- Tue Jan 07, 2014 1:30 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: The next Championship of Champions - now back on topic
- Replies: 306
- Views: 98465
Re: The next Championship of Champions - now back on topic
Pretty sure a C of C will happen again at some point, but it's a headache that can wait for now. Haven't looked into the logistics of who takes part and from when etc, that's a nightmare yet to come, but gut-feeling and immediate instinct at the moment is that it should comprise of non-30th Birthda...
- Fri Dec 27, 2013 9:37 pm
- Forum: Games and Puzzles
- Topic: Ryan's Christmas Quiz 2013
- Replies: 4
- Views: 3056
Re: Ryan's Christmas Quiz 2013
Super looking forward to doing this.
- Mon Dec 09, 2013 3:21 pm
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: The Apterous handicap. Is it just me?
- Replies: 23
- Views: 7808
Re: The Apterous handicap. Is it just me?
I'd be interested to investigate that. I would be reasonably surprised if they were different enough that it's perceptible.sean d wrote:And there's a theory that selections on the show are set a bit nicer and less randomly than online.
- Sun Dec 08, 2013 10:59 am
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: The Apterous handicap. Is it just me?
- Replies: 23
- Views: 7808
Re: The Apterous handicap. Is it just me?
Read down from here . sean d reckoned playing against the TV is worth about 3 points a game over Apterous, based on the stats compiled there. Yeah, 3 points per game isn't enough to explain what Harry is experiencing here. In addition to several good explanations above, I'd suggest that being in a ...
- Sat Dec 07, 2013 1:34 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: Definitions
- Replies: 6
- Views: 1845
Re: Definitions
Gev on the nail with the "pick from four" method - if every word has its definition listed too then it would be a simple "supply the correct definition, pick three random from the whole of the rest of the database, randomise order" for the computer. I think you'd have to be a bi...
- Tue Dec 03, 2013 7:41 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: Definitions
- Replies: 6
- Views: 1845
Definitions
If one were to try to design a word game in which definitions did matter, what would you come up with? The obvious approach of just demanding a definition for every word played introduces a lot of problems with subjectivity, with specificity (yes, a towai is a tree, but that doesn't seem like much o...
- Sun Dec 01, 2013 10:05 pm
- Forum: Off-topic
- Topic: The best films of all-time?
- Replies: 102
- Views: 21573
Re: The best films of all-time?
This thread is surprisingly enjoyable.
- Sun Dec 01, 2013 10:03 pm
- Forum: Games and Puzzles
- Topic: Kjarposko
- Replies: 7
- Views: 3769
Re: Kjarposko
The puzzle idea? Or the puzzles themselves?Rhys Benjamin wrote: (OK, I'll admit it, I got it out of a book.)
- Mon Nov 18, 2013 9:56 am
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: Mass noun inconsistency
- Replies: 7
- Views: 1838
Re: Mass noun inconsistency
The mass noun rules are famously inconsistent. A quick search through the forum history will uncover millions of words of discussion about various cases. Enjoy!
- Thu Nov 14, 2013 11:45 am
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: Record round scores?
- Replies: 10
- Views: 2843
- Thu Nov 14, 2013 8:37 am
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: Random?
- Replies: 27
- Views: 9885
Re: Random?
So let's take the rule here of most peoples perception of randomness and out of the 900 possible targets that 899 of them occurred once out of 899 and the number that was left was say 637, under your law it would mean to keep the law going 637 would HAVE to occur next, that isn't random as the numb...
- Wed Nov 13, 2013 7:39 pm
- Forum: Games and Puzzles
- Topic: Puzzle for programmers #2
- Replies: 26
- Views: 6864
Re: Puzzle for programmers #2
You seem to have reinvented dynamic programming. If you invent the minimax algorithm I think you'll be pretty much there.
- Tue Nov 12, 2013 2:04 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: Ask Graeme?
- Replies: 1741
- Views: 753893
Re: Ask Graeme?
I had a feeling 17 might be a good shout for mode (slightly better player wins conundrum and one letters/tricky numbers). Interesting stuff I think you're overweighting expert-level games. In evenly matched games of average-level players, they miss a lot of stuff and score a lot of winners. So it's...
- Tue Nov 12, 2013 2:23 am
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: Ask Graeme?
- Replies: 1741
- Views: 753893
Re: Ask Graeme?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mode_(statistics)#UseDave Preece wrote:I've never understood why mode is used, it can be very inaccurate compared to the mean?
- Tue Nov 12, 2013 2:18 am
- Forum: Games and Puzzles
- Topic: Puzzle for programmers #2
- Replies: 26
- Views: 6864
Re: Puzzle for programmers #2
This looks interesting but I don't really understand the explanation. What does it mean that "the machine spins in a number"? Anyway, apart from the details it sounds like you could Monte Carlo this fairly easily.
- Mon Nov 11, 2013 9:43 am
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: Ask Graeme?
- Replies: 1741
- Views: 753893
Re: Ask Graeme?
What are the mode and mean margins of victory? And would it be possible to compare that to apterous? Thanks For apterous, considering only bog-standard 15 Rounders (new format) in human-vs-human games and ignoring extra conundrums (i.e. if it's tied after 15 rounds, take the winning margin to be ze...
- Wed Nov 06, 2013 7:17 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: Don't ask Graeme
- Replies: 16
- Views: 3547
Don't ask Graeme
This is a thread to thank Graeme for all his nice Ask Graemes, and not ask or pester him for anything. I'll go first:
Thanks Graeme!
Thanks Graeme!
- Tue Nov 05, 2013 8:53 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: Ask Graeme?
- Replies: 1741
- Views: 753893
Re: Ask Graeme?
The chance of there being some target which took that long is about 1 in 6 (according to my back-of-envelope maths), so you shouldn't be too surprised. Although the duck might be.Zarte Siempre wrote:It took 17 years for 745 to be a target?!?! Fuck a duck.
- Fri Oct 11, 2013 7:19 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: Ask Graeme?
- Replies: 1741
- Views: 753893
Re: Ask Graeme?
Awesome, thanks! Quite a few memorable names in that list.
- Wed Oct 09, 2013 9:11 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: Ask Graeme?
- Replies: 1741
- Views: 753893
Re: Ask Graeme?
I did, but thanks for the dose of nostalgia nonetheless.Gavin Chipper wrote:Edit - Oh did you mean people who lost after 1, 2, 3 games? I'll leave it there anyway.
- Tue Oct 08, 2013 9:47 am
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: Ask Graeme?
- Replies: 1741
- Views: 753893
Re: Ask Graeme?
I feel like this must have been covered before, but I hereby Ask Graeme: what are the highest aggregates for a one-time, two-time, ..., eight-time winner? (Ideally split for 9/old 15/new 15 formats.)Graeme Cole wrote:Zarte won five games, smashing the record aggregate score for a five-time winner
- Tue Oct 01, 2013 11:03 pm
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Is Apterous down? [DO NOT POST IN THIS TOPIC FOR ANY OTHER REASON]
- Replies: 604
- Views: 382014
Re: Is Apterous down?
Nope. http://downforeveryoneorjustme.com/www.apterous.orgThomas Carey wrote:Looks like it.
- Sun Sep 29, 2013 8:12 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: Countdown Experiences
- Replies: 19
- Views: 9301
Re: Countdown Experiences
I too would really like some more of these. I remember finding them quite inspiring when I was a newbie, and it's quite nice to know what to expect when you get to the studio and stuff. Get on it, recent contestants!
- Fri Sep 27, 2013 11:39 am
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: The future of c4countdown -- your help wanted!
- Replies: 9
- Views: 3918
Re: The future of c4countdown -- your help wanted!
And we're done! We're now hosted with 5quidhost. Hopefully no one will notice the difference, although the site should be fractionally faster and more reliable.
Thanks again for an awesome fundraiser, I can't believe the whole thing took less than 2 days. See you in 5 years for the next one!
Thanks again for an awesome fundraiser, I can't believe the whole thing took less than 2 days. See you in 5 years for the next one!
- Thu Sep 26, 2013 6:26 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: The future of c4countdown -- your help wanted!
- Replies: 9
- Views: 3918
Re: The future of c4countdown -- your help wanted!
Aaand we're done. Amazing work guys! Thanks to everyone who donated. I'll handle the migration ASAP.
- Thu Sep 26, 2013 12:16 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: The future of c4countdown -- your help wanted!
- Replies: 9
- Views: 3918
Re: The future of c4countdown -- your help wanted!
Awesome start guys, I think we raised £112.57 in the first 24 hours. (I won't name the person that donated a weird amount, but own up if you wish!) Just a few more should get us to the big 150.
- Tue Sep 24, 2013 6:29 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: The future of c4countdown -- your help wanted!
- Replies: 9
- Views: 3918
The future of c4countdown -- your help wanted!
As some of you may know, this forum and the wiki has been hosted since 2008 on Cambridge University's student-run computing facility, which basically means it didn't cost anything to run. Alas, I've finally stopped being a student and quite soon we'll have to stop using the SRCF. I've moved the wiki...
- Tue Sep 24, 2013 6:06 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: Getting good at apterous/Countdown
- Replies: 17
- Views: 7562
Re: Getting good at apterous/Countdown
I'd say 1% is closer to the mark. There are lots of ways to get better but the one thing all good players have in common is that they practised a lot.Callum Todd wrote: Is it all just 100% raw natural talent
- Mon Sep 23, 2013 5:27 pm
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Is Apterous down? [DO NOT POST IN THIS TOPIC FOR ANY OTHER REASON]
- Replies: 604
- Views: 382014
Re: Is Apterous down?
i'm looking into itDavid Barnard wrote:But any idea when it will be back?
- Mon Sep 23, 2013 4:40 pm
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Is Apterous down? [DO NOT POST IN THIS TOPIC FOR ANY OTHER REASON]
- Replies: 604
- Views: 382014
Re: Is Apterous down?
David must know something I don't!John Garcia wrote:How comes???David Barnard wrote:For another few days I imagine
- Sat Sep 21, 2013 11:36 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Current recaps
- Topic: Friday 13th September 2013 (8/10 Cats Series 1, Episode 5)
- Replies: 3
- Views: 1779
Re: Friday 13th September 2013 (8/10 Cats Series 1, Episode
lolJames Robinson wrote: Now, I'm sure there'll be plenty of arguments and debates about whether we can truly accept this as a top score
- Wed Sep 18, 2013 6:27 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: Jon Corby
- Replies: 32
- Views: 14245
Re: Jon Corby
Really hoping this is the moment Charlie accidentally forgot to log out of his other account and the truth is revealed - that Charlie is Jason and always has been. Really hoping this. Demanding, even. Especially as they'd then have to be an explanation for who it is in 'Jason's' Facebook videos. Th...
- Mon Sep 16, 2013 3:16 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: Jon Corby
- Replies: 32
- Views: 14245
Jon Corby
Did he ever get a dog? And did his mother find out?
- Mon Sep 16, 2013 1:55 am
- Forum: Other game shows
- Topic: Only Connect Series 8
- Replies: 22
- Views: 14202
Re: Only Connect Series 8
Never been much of an OC fan but in preparation for some hardcore raccoonery I watched quite a bit of the last series.
- Mon Sep 09, 2013 7:58 pm
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Is Apterous down? [DO NOT POST IN THIS TOPIC FOR ANY OTHER REASON]
- Replies: 604
- Views: 382014
Re: Is Apterous down?
I'm investigating, unfortunately the server is not responding and I'm in California at the moment so if it's a physical problem I can't do much.
- Sun Sep 01, 2013 10:29 am
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: Ask Graeme?
- Replies: 1741
- Views: 753893
Re: Ask Graeme?
Also there's probably some sort of incumbent advantage, which would tend to make back-to-back octochamps more likely. Seems like it'd be quite hard to distinguish the two effects.
- Sun Aug 25, 2013 12:09 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: What's your Bevins Number?
- Replies: 65
- Views: 25134
Re: What's your Bevins Number?
To anticipate the next question, four players are 20 steps from their furthest player, and, unless you count the nine inhabitants of the remote Isle of Mulvey, nobody is closer to their furthest connected player than that. The four are Jon Corby, Jonathan Coles, Matthew Shore and you. This makes yo...
- Sat Aug 24, 2013 9:12 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: What's your Bevins Number?
- Replies: 65
- Views: 25134
Re: What's your Bevins Number?
Neat! Obvious question: which two players are separated by the most steps? (ie longest shortest path)
But obviously you shouldn't even be reading this until you've answered Dave Preece's question in the other thread.
But obviously you shouldn't even be reading this until you've answered Dave Preece's question in the other thread.
- Fri Aug 23, 2013 7:12 pm
- Forum: Games and Puzzles
- Topic: Countdown puzzles
- Replies: 38
- Views: 11253
Re: Countdown puzzles
What's the best 4-large selection in terms of the most solvable targets? (I don't know the answer) Charlie carried out some useful analysis of 4 large a while back here , which shows that 8 and 9 are the best pair, and answers many other questions you may have. Excellent, I can't believe I forgot a...
- Mon Aug 19, 2013 8:34 pm
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Is Apterous down? [DO NOT POST IN THIS TOPIC FOR ANY OTHER REASON]
- Replies: 604
- Views: 382014
Re: Is Apterous down?
If you add me on Facebook or Google Chat we can work through some things and try to get to the bottom of it. Pretty sure you won't be the only person experiencing this.Hywel Morgan wrote:Am I the only person that gets redirected to the home page when I go to log in, only to be told I'm not logged in?
- Thu Aug 15, 2013 2:30 am
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Is Apterous down? [DO NOT POST IN THIS TOPIC FOR ANY OTHER REASON]
- Replies: 604
- Views: 382014
- Tue Aug 13, 2013 7:32 pm
- Forum: Off-topic
- Topic: Classic posts
- Replies: 152
- Views: 24401
Re: Classic posts
I've reread this entire thread several times and every single post makes me giggle a lot. And now it's locked, so its perfection can never be diluted.
- Wed Aug 07, 2013 4:12 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Current recaps
- Topic: Update your CDB links please
- Replies: 0
- Views: 487
Update your CDB links please
CDB has moved from http://www.apterous.org/cdb to http://cdb.apterous.org. The old pages will redirect to the new ones so nothing should break, but if you're linking to the old addresses, it's worth changing now.
- Wed Aug 07, 2013 4:08 pm
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Is Apterous down? [DO NOT POST IN THIS TOPIC FOR ANY OTHER REASON]
- Replies: 604
- Views: 382014
Re: Is Apterous down?
At the moment it just gives a list of films. Looks like it's working to me. Link? It's working now, but it was http://apterous.org/ Oh right, I forget that some people still go there even though it just redirects you to www.apterous.org. I imagine it was related to me moving cdb to cdb.apterous.org.
- Wed Aug 07, 2013 3:30 pm
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Is Apterous down? [DO NOT POST IN THIS TOPIC FOR ANY OTHER REASON]
- Replies: 604
- Views: 382014
Re: Is Apterous down?
Looks like it's working to me. Link?Gavin Chipper wrote:At the moment it just gives a list of films.
- Wed Jul 31, 2013 11:49 am
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Is Apterous down? [DO NOT POST IN THIS TOPIC FOR ANY OTHER REASON]
- Replies: 604
- Views: 382014
Re: Is Apterous down?
Yep, this is the scheduled downtime announced earlier in the week (the note was meant to say from Tuesday so I actually managed to delay it for a day, but maybe I wrote Thursday?) I'll be posting updates to the Google+ group if anyone wants to follow along: https://plus.google.com/115731491674925974...
- Thu Jul 25, 2013 9:47 am
- Forum: Other game shows
- Topic: Take On The Twisters
- Replies: 9
- Views: 5171
Re: Take On The Twisters
It's awful. James's description is about as brief as you can get.
- Thu Jul 25, 2013 9:46 am
- Forum: apterous.org
- Topic: Is Apterous down? [DO NOT POST IN THIS TOPIC FOR ANY OTHER REASON]
- Replies: 604
- Views: 382014
Re: Is Apterous down?
Aaaaand we're back.
- Thu Apr 25, 2013 7:02 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: Ask Graeme?
- Replies: 1741
- Views: 753893
Re: Ask Graeme?
No match for much of Graeme's analysis, but I finally got around to adding the new format to CDB's "best/worst available octoruns" page, with an interesting outcome!
- Sun Apr 07, 2013 9:04 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Current recaps
- Topic: Countdown Marathon - Thursday 28 February/Friday 1 March '13
- Replies: 20
- Views: 4967
Re: Countdown Marathon - Thursday 28 February/Friday 1 March
This is impressive.
- Mon Apr 01, 2013 5:08 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: Ask Graeme?
- Replies: 1741
- Views: 753893
Re: Ask Graeme?
Apologies if this has been asked before, but when it comes to tie-break/sudden death conundrums, does anyone know if they just use the next one on the list or if there is a reserve conundrum for each game? I guess in heat games it wouldn't matter an awful lot but in series finals conundrums typical...
- Wed Mar 27, 2013 8:13 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: What would you put in a letter to Oxford Dictionaries?
- Replies: 25
- Views: 6215
Re: What would you put in a letter to Oxford Dictionaries?
Pretty much anything from DW would be a good place to start.
- Sun Mar 24, 2013 10:33 am
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: Ask Graeme?
- Replies: 1741
- Views: 753893
Re: Ask Graeme?
They told me that it would only activate in sync when Nick presses the conundrum scramble reveal button and wouldn't have any effect before that I was told the same thing, but I was pretty doubtful that it was true because the buzzers are so low tech, so I quizzed whoever it was (can't remember now...