Project Hyper

Charlie Reams · Post by **Charlie Reams** » Sun Jun 21, 2009 10:22 pm

The object of the exercise is to type out all the words of 10 letters and longer. This will be fun.

Resources for those partaking:

You will need: 1 Spindlex, 1 ODE, and 1 strong cup of coffee.

Cooking instructions
1. Post in here or email me (charlie@apterous.org) to reserve a block of the dictionary.
2. Open the dictionary at the relevant page.
3. Open Spindlex and read the instructions (fairly simple, the keyboard shortcuts make life easier but you can get started without them).
4. Get typing!
5. If/when you finish your block, let me know, and you can have another one if you want.

Current blocks
Page range [Word range] Reserved by...
1 - 101 [A - attention deficit disorder]: Charlie. Done. Words: 2,544. (Ran over by 1 page, oops.)
102 - 159 [attentive - ?]: Kai.
160 - 200 [? - bound]: Maxine.
201 - 300 [boundary - chime]: Neb.
301 - 349 [chimenea - communication]: Innis. Done.
350 - 400 [communication cord - ?]: Charlie. Done.
401 - 410 [coxswain - criticality]: Jimmy. Done.
411 - 450 [critical angle - ?]: Howard. Done.
451 - 500 [declarer - disorientate]: Charlie and Damian. Done.
501 - 600 [disown - eventing]: Maxine. Done.
601 - 700 [eventive-function word]: Paul.
701 - 804 [functor-hedgehod]: Sid. Done. Words: 1,682.
805 - 900 [hedgehog fungus - intendment]: Ben Hunter (Note: weird alignment because Sid got a bit overexcited by hedgehogs]
901 - 1000 [intense - leg warmer]: Raccoon. Done. Words: 1,948.
1001 - 1102 [legwork - metabolize]: Sid. Done. Words: 1,311.
1103 - 1111 [metacarpal - mien]: Kirk.
1112 - 1200 [Mies van de Rohe - Northern Marianas]: Jim.
1201 - 1220 [Northern Paiute - office]: Ian V. Done. Words: 422.
1221 - 1300 [office-bearer - penalize]: Charlie. Done. Words: 2,437.
1301 - 1400 [Penal Laws - privateer]: Lesley. Done. Words: 3,018.
1401 - 1500 [privateersman - respite]: Sid. Done. Words: 2,976.
1501 - 1550 [respite care - sacking]: Damian. Done.
1551 - 1600 [sack lunch - self]: Ian
1601 - 1700 [self-abandonment - speedball]: Howard. Done.
1701 - 1720 [speedboat - Stainer]: Howard. Done.
1721 - 1740 [stainless - stole]: Andy.
1741 - 1761 [stolen - substituent]: Done.
1761 - 1800 [substitute - Tammany]: Howard. Done.
1801 - 1810 [Tammerfors - ?]: James.
1811 - 1900 [? - turn]: Jimmy. Done.
1901 - 2000 [turnabout - wept]: Charlie. Done. Words: 2,907.
2001 - 2054 [were - Zyrian]: Charlie. Done. Words: 1,446.

The rest of the workload is currenly unallocated. Let us know if you'd like to join in the fun! You don't have to reserve a full block of 100 pages, if you'd like to try something a bit smaller then let me know.

Tips

All words of 10 letters or longer should be added, provided they meet the usual rules (no proper nouns, no US spellings, no words that only appear in phrases, no hyphens etc). This includes words which look very unlikely to come up; who knows what variants we might one day play?!
Remember to check for shorter words in the dictionary which may have implicit inflections of 10 letters or more, e.g. AIRMAIL -> AIRMAILING.
All inflections of subentries should be entered, however dubious this might be. For example, AIRLESSNESS is listed as a small subentry of AIRLESS, and says only "noun", so we have to assume that AIRLESSNESSES is valid.
You can enter words of 9 letters or less into Spindlex, it will just silently ignore them.
Don't worry too much about any one word!

Charlie Reams · Post by **Charlie Reams** » Sun Jun 21, 2009 11:53 pm

Also it would be useful if you could post, at some convenient number of pages (at least 10), the number of words you had entered. I'll use this to improve the estimate of the total number of words to be added. For example:

Me: 1695 words in 65 pages.
Raccoon: 809 words in 10 pages [ouch!]

Matt Morrison · Post by **Matt Morrison** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 1:57 pm

BETTING OPPORTUNITY ALERT!

Was having a chat earlier with Charlie about how varied the number of 10+-letter words in a section of x pages is proving to be, and how based on the stats currently being reported (like the post above), the final number of words could realistically prove to be anywhere between 50,000 and 150,000.

I thought it'd be a good idea to bet on how many it would turn out to be. Have a little sweepstakes for a couple of quid or for pride, in blocks of say 1,000 words?

Currently claimed:
72,001 - 73,000 (Charlie Reams)
42,001 - 43,000 (Matt Morrison)

Charlie Reams · Post by **Charlie Reams** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 2:00 pm

I'm not putting any money on it but my personal estimate is 72,124.

Matt Morrison · Post by **Matt Morrison** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 2:07 pm

I know so little that I've had to base my guess on Charlie's, as I've learnt that he's right about most things. Hopefully others will be more brave with their guesses.

Ben Hunter · Post by **Ben Hunter** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 2:42 pm

Is there any way of checking the spindlex wordlist?

Lesley Hines · Post by **Lesley Hines** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 4:51 pm

Whack me down for 1301-1400 - only right we should all help if we all want to enjoy the benefits. Added the pneumonoetc. just to test

I'm happy to volunteer for more but I'll get that done first.

Charlie Reams · Post by **Charlie Reams** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 5:06 pm

Ben Hunter wrote:Is there any way of checking the spindlex wordlist?

Not currently, would that be useful for anything?

Edit: I guess it would, yes. Will do this tomorrow.

JimBentley · Post by **JimBentley** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 5:12 pm

I seem to have fallen off the list, but I'll do the first untaken block (1112 to 1200) if that's cool with everyone.

Maxine Silkstone · Post by **Maxine Silkstone** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 5:29 pm

Can I only get to the Spindlex from the link on the PM or is there a way from the Home Page?

James Doohan · Post by **James Doohan** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 5:32 pm

Can i take 1801 - 1900 [Tammerfors - turn]?

very glad to help

Charlie Reams · Post by **Charlie Reams** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 5:43 pm

JimBentley wrote:I seem to have fallen off the list, but I'll do the first untaken block (1112 to 1200) if that's cool with everyone.

Sure.

Maxine Silkstone wrote:Can I only get to the Spindlex from the link on the PM or is there a way from the Home Page?

There's a link at the top of this post, and I suggest bookmarking it. I haven't linked it from the homepage because it won't make much sense to people without reading this topic.

james doohan wrote:Can i take 1801 - 1900 [Tammerfors - turn]?

very glad to help

Enjoy

Ben Hunter · Post by **Ben Hunter** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 6:11 pm

1280 words, 51 pages. It's more like 1275 though because I did a few duplicates as a test, which it added to the count. Apologies if that messes up the stats slightly.

So that's all the Hs done, I'll work on my Is tomorrow, or tonight if I don't have anything better to do. My favourite words so far are HELLBENDER and HEMIDEMISEMIQUAVER.

Also, I've discovered that there's no way of explaining what you're doing when a housemate walks in on you typing out a list of long words from the Oxford dictionary without sounding weird.

Ian Volante · Post by **Ian Volante** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 6:47 pm

Adverbs are only valid if they're explicitly listed in the dictionary aren't they? I'll stop adding extra ones then after having that revelation...

Maxine Silkstone · Post by **Maxine Silkstone** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 7:14 pm

So as the grammatical ignoramus here, let me see if I have it right...

Nouns can be pluralised with an s or es as necessary, except when it says in sq brackets that they are MASS NOUNs. (unless they are foods or drinks apparently?)
Verbs get an es, an ed, and an ing just about every time (perfect, past and present tenses?(I think i vaguely recall)
Adjectives I'm a little grey on.
And Adverbs only when mentioned explicitly.

And this AltM, AltN, AltL thing doesn't seem to be working for me (and caps lock is on)

Only 3 pages so far

I have noticed the spellchecker picking up on some of the words with a red wiggly underline, should i trust this and delete those it doesn't like or is it not reliable?

not seen any hyphens yet, are they actually hyphenated in the ODE or is there some mysterious symbol i'm missing? coz some of the ones the spellchecker didn't like looked like they ought to be hyphenated to me.

Lesley Hines · Post by **Lesley Hines** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 7:17 pm

Ben Hunter wrote:Also, I've discovered that there's no way of explaining what you're doing when a housemate walks in on you typing out a list of long words from the Oxford dictionary without sounding weird.

Lol - get them together with my husband - he thinks I've finally lost the plot!

Ben Hunter · Post by **Ben Hunter** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 7:22 pm

Maxine Silkstone wrote:I have noticed the spellchecker picking up on some of the words with a red wiggly underline, should i trust this and delete those it doesn't like or is it not reliable?

Don't trust your spellchecker. If it contained the words we wanted then we'd just use the dictionary that browser spellcheckers use

.

Maxine Silkstone · Post by **Maxine Silkstone** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 7:23 pm

HANDY HINT:
Tape three empty ring binders together to make a wedge shaped book support!
A blob of blu tac will ensure it doesn't slide off and deposit your coffee all over the dog!

Maxine Silkstone · Post by **Maxine Silkstone** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 7:24 pm

Ben Hunter wrote:
Maxine Silkstone wrote:I have noticed the spellchecker picking up on some of the words with a red wiggly underline, should i trust this and delete those it doesn't like or is it not reliable?
Don't trust your spellchecker. If it contained the words we wanted then we'd just use the dictionary that browser spellcheckers use .

Doh! Of course!

Charlie Reams · Post by **Charlie Reams** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 7:56 pm

Maxine Silkstone wrote:So as the grammatical ignoramus here, let me see if I have it right...

Nouns can be pluralised with an s or es as necessary, except when it says in sq brackets that they are MASS NOUNs. (unless they are foods or drinks apparently?)
Verbs get an es, an ed, and an ing just about every time (perfect, past and present tenses?(I think i vaguely recall)
Adjectives I'm a little grey on.
And Adverbs only when mentioned explicitly.

Basically you should type out only those words which are exactly listed, except nouns and verbs which have the default inflections you mentioned. Also remember that alternative spellings should be carried through to all inflections (implicit or explicit); so if it says "SHAKEABLE also SHAKABLE" and then gives SHAKEABLY as a subentry of SHAKEABLE, you should also add SHAKABLY even though that word is not listed explicitly.

And this AltM, AltN, AltL thing doesn't seem to be working for me (and caps lock is on)

This might not work in Internet Explorer, I have no idea.

Not seen any hyphens yet, are they actually hyphenated in the ODE or is there some mysterious symbol i'm missing? coz some of the ones the spellchecker didn't like looked like they ought to be hyphenated to me.

There are real hyphens, but they're pretty rare.

Howard Somerset · Post by **Howard Somerset** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 8:01 pm

By all means put me down for a batch, Charlie. It'll keep me out of mischief while my wife's away, again.

Kai Laddiman · Post by **Kai Laddiman** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 8:06 pm

Charlie Reams wrote:so if it says "SHAKEABLE also SHAKABLE" and then gives SHAKEABLY as a subentry of SHAKEABLE, you should also add SHAKABLY even though that word is not listed explicitly

Damn, I haven't been doing this. Is there any way of quickly going through them and changing them?

Also I just literally put what is written in the dictionary, no mass nouns or whatever.

One sticky point for me was AVOIRDUPOIS, listed as a noun, but am I seriously concerned if AVOIRDUPOISES is valid.

Ian Volante · Post by **Ian Volante** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 8:10 pm

I was entering plurals of derived nouns, even when they sounded like mass nouns. After all, if all the -nesses are in, why the hell not!

Done my section by the way. That'll do for the moment!

Maxine Silkstone · Post by **Maxine Silkstone** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 8:18 pm

Charlie Reams wrote:
Maxine Silkstone wrote:
And this AltM, AltN, AltL thing doesn't seem to be working for me (and caps lock is on)
This might not work in Internet Explorer, I have no idea.

I'm running Chrome.

Howard Somerset · Post by **Howard Somerset** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 8:31 pm

Howard Somerset wrote:By all means put me down for a batch, Charlie. It'll keep me out of mischief while my wife's away, again.

Put me down for 1601-1700. Self-abandonment seems an appropriate place to start. Is it ok to start before I've been assigned that batch?

Lesley Hines · Post by **Lesley Hines** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 8:32 pm

There's quite a list for what you can pluralise (mass noun or not). I've put the dictionary guidelines for what's acceptable and what isn't into a word document (copied verbatim from the info that's sent out to countdown contestants) - please email me for it as I can't for the life of me see how to put all this into a thread or publicise the document here

I'm at lesleyshines@hotmail.com, and it's in Word compatibility 97-2003 format. If you'd rather rich text/html etc that's fine, just let me know.

Thanks
Lesley

Howard Somerset · Post by **Howard Somerset** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 8:48 pm

I've just saved the first few words. I counted 26 that I'd typed in, yet my word count has been recorded as 25.

Is it possible that the last word has been ignored if I didn't press Enter after it?

EDITED: Possible answer to that last query is that one of my words was only 9 letters long. Maybe the system's clever enough to recognise that.

Michael Wallace · Post by **Michael Wallace** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 9:10 pm

Howard Somerset wrote:I've just saved the first few words. I counted 26 that I'd typed in, yet my word count has been recorded as 25.

Is it possible that the last word has been ignored if I didn't press Enter after it?

EDITED: Possible answer to that last query is that one of my words was only 9 letters long. Maybe the system's clever enough to recognise that.

Yeah - any words <10 letters automatically get ignored (I asked Charlie this last night).

Howard Somerset · Post by **Howard Somerset** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 9:19 pm

Ben Hunter wrote: My favourite words so far are HELLBENDER and HEMIDEMISEMIQUAVER.

As a kid I learnt the latter one as SEMIDEMISEMIQUAVER. And coincidentally, that's one I've just entered.

Matt Morrison · Post by **Matt Morrison** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 9:24 pm

I had a hemidemisemi once. She was entirely disappointed.

Howard Somerset · Post by **Howard Somerset** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 9:44 pm

Kai Laddiman wrote:One sticky point for me was AVOIRDUPOIS, listed as a noun, but am I seriously concerned if AVOIRDUPOISES is valid.

I have similar concerns about the plural of SENSUOUSNESS, listed as a noun without qualification. But following the rules, I've put it in.

Lesley Hines · Post by **Lesley Hines** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 10:21 pm

374 words in 10 pages

Can't we get prime or rex to do this since they're so fucking clever?

Michael Wallace · Post by **Michael Wallace** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 10:41 pm

Wondering if anyone else pays attention to how many words they get from any particular page.

I just did page 916 and got 112 words

Simon Myers · Post by **Simon Myers** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 10:50 pm

Michael Wallace wrote:Wondering if anyone else pays attention to how many words they get from any particular page.

I just did page 916 and got 112 words

Ouch, you got a tough part of the dictionary didn't you? I've had a page (in my nODE at least, in L somewhere) that had 0 words! The next page had 3.

Ben Wilson · Post by **Ben Wilson** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 10:51 pm

I'm halfway through my allocation and I only have a mere 603 words...

Ben Wilson · Post by **Ben Wilson** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 10:51 pm

Michael Wallace wrote:Wondering if anyone else pays attention to how many words they get from any particular page.

I just did page 916 and got 112 words

Let me guess- all beginning INTER-?

Charlie Reams · Post by **Charlie Reams** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 10:54 pm

Lesley Hines wrote:There's quite a list for what you can pluralise (mass noun or not).

Apart from mass nouns, all nouns are pluralisable. The rules on mass nouns are included in the dictionary itself, although for our purposes it's fine to just exclude all the mass noun plurals.

Kai Laddiman wrote:Damn, I haven't been doing this. Is there any way of quickly going through them and changing them?

Nope.

Kai Laddiman wrote:One sticky point for me was AVOIRDUPOIS, listed as a noun, but am I seriously concerned if AVOIRDUPOISES is valid.

It is. Yes, it doesn't make much sense for the definition, but that's not our decision to make.

Michael Wallace · Post by **Michael Wallace** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 10:55 pm

Ben Wilson wrote:
Michael Wallace wrote:Wondering if anyone else pays attention to how many words they get from any particular page.

I just did page 916 and got 112 words
Let me guess- all beginning INTER-?

IRR, actually. I ploughed through all the INTERs last night.

Simon Myers wrote:Ouch, you got a tough part of the dictionary didn't you? I've had a page (in my nODE at least, in L somewhere) that had 0 words! The next page had 3.

Well I've done 18 pages and my average is a mere 60 - it was 80 last night after my first 10! I'm hoping that J and K will be a lot less dense, though.

Charlie Reams · Post by **Charlie Reams** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 12:03 am

Extra reminder: remember words that only occur in phrases do not count. So "vesicourteric" occurs only in the phrase "vesicourteric reflux", so should not be added.

Howard Somerset · Post by **Howard Somerset** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 12:14 am

Is there any way of removing a word once submitted, other than by message to you Charlie?

Charlie Reams · Post by **Charlie Reams** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 12:26 am

Howard Somerset wrote:Is there any way of removing a word once submitted, other than by message to you Charlie?

Currently no. Maybe tomorrow.

Charlie Reams · Post by **Charlie Reams** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 3:33 am

Call for check in:
Please can everyone participating post the number of pages you've done and the number of words you've entered. Don't worry if it's not many, this is just to help me update the running estimate of the total workload.

For me: 6897 words, 275 pages.

Michael Wallace · Post by **Michael Wallace** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 4:48 am

1350 words, 51 pages - my average is tumbling now I've hit the Js and Ks

Howard Somerset · Post by **Howard Somerset** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 6:25 am

597 words, 37 pages
(1 word to be removed, should that facility become available)

Strangely, Spindlex records my number of words as only 596. However, I make my total number of letters as 6937, and that agrees with Spindlex's count. I wonder why there is a discrepancy in the number of words.

Howard Somerset · Post by **Howard Somerset** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 6:59 am

Regarding the ...NESS ...NESSES peculiarity.

As directed, I've been including the plurals of all the ...NESS derivatives, as they are all listed as nouns, rather than count nouns, even though many of them are quite ugly sounding.

However, I've just come across the word SICKNESS, which is listed in its own right, and not as a derivative of SICK. I'm sure it would be reasonable to pluralise SICKNESS, indeed one of its definitions is a particular type of illness, which lends itself to pluralisation, yet SICKNESS is quite definitely listed only as a mass noun.

Should I add SICKNESSES to the list, or should I be pedantic and omit it?

Howard Somerset · Post by **Howard Somerset** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 7:43 am

45.5 pages. 689 words. 7953 letters (though Spindlex says 688 and 7953)

Back later

Ben Wilson · Post by **Ben Wilson** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 9:43 am

Unchanged from last night- 49 pages, 603 words. Will pick it up later this morning.

Ben Hunter · Post by **Ben Hunter** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 11:01 am

Charlie Reams wrote:Call for check in:

1280 words, 51 pages. Same as yesterday, getting back to work on it today.

Howard Somerset · Post by **Howard Somerset** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 11:29 am

Is this project taking over my life? This morning I visited the dentist, and to relieve the boredom in the waiting room, I started reading the information on the walls. Before I knew what was happening, I realised that I was counting letters to see which words were 10 letters or more.

That was only interrupted by an advert on the TV which I was definitely not watching. I immediately thought "DirectLine - 10 letters".

Howard Somerset · Post by **Howard Somerset** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 11:54 am

Half way now.
50 pages, 774 (773 according to Spindlex) words, 8919 letters

Simon Myers · Post by **Simon Myers** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 11:56 am

204 pages, 2970 words, 34809 letters.

Charlie Reams · Post by **Charlie Reams** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 12:29 pm

Howard Somerset wrote:Should I add SICKNESSES to the list, or should I be pedantic and omit it?

Be pedantic

Cheers for your updates chaps. You may notice you've lost a few words since yesterday because I'm now suppressing duplicates (although not in the letter count, because I couldn't figure out how to do that).

Charlie Reams · Post by **Charlie Reams** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 12:37 pm

Thanks chaps. Looks like my original estimate was a considerable overestimate, which is good news. Current best estimate is around 42k, which puts us at 42% done already! Great news, let's keep it up.

Edit: I've also added a few new keyboard shortcuts which are fun.

Howard Somerset · Post by **Howard Somerset** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 1:20 pm

Now 60 pages, 909 words.

Back this evening.

Ben Wilson · Post by **Ben Wilson** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 1:25 pm

I'm just behind on 60 & 906.

Charlie Reams · Post by **Charlie Reams** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 1:42 pm

Has anyone else reached the point yet where the words start being really funny?

Maxine Silkstone · Post by **Maxine Silkstone** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 2:49 pm

501-509... Disown - DNA ... Done.

Hopefully accurately and correctly

A Tortoise not a Hare.

Dis, Dis, Dis, Dis, Dis, Dis, Dis

Kai Laddiman · Post by **Kai Laddiman** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 2:52 pm

A mere 482/17.

Ben Hunter · Post by **Ben Hunter** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 2:59 pm

Charlie Reams wrote:Has anyone else reached the point yet where the words start being really funny?

I'm at the point where the words are finding me funny.

JimBentley · Post by **JimBentley** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 4:09 pm

8 pages, 370 words. Slow start, but I'll do some more tonight.