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Computer Program “Dr. Fill” Takes on the ACPT

Josh Kidd — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 02:32:02 +0000

Matt Ginsberg, a computer scientist in Oregon, has created a computer program, called Dr. Fill, that will be unofficially competing in this year’s American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. Not surprisingly, Dr. Fill is being compared to Watson, the computer that beat Ken Jennings at Jeopardy. Though, the truth is that comparing Dr. Fill to Watson is a bit like comparing a flea to an elephant. While a whole team of scientists built Watson, Dr. Fill is the brain child of Ginsberg alone. It makes the whole thing more interesting, in my opinion. It could really show how far technology has come, if the computer program that could win the ACPT can we run on most laptops. That said, Ginsburg isn’t predicting a win. The article says he’s guessing 20th place is more likely. It will be interesting to see what happens.

Will Shortz and Merl Reagle on The Simpsons

Josh Kidd — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 14:15:08 +0000

You read that right. Will Shortz and Merl Reagle will be guest starring in a crossword themed episode of The Simpsons this weekend. In addition, the New York Times Sunday Crossword Puzzle will be related to the show somehow. Read more about it here.

What’s in Will Shotz’s Wallet

Josh Kidd — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 17:49:16 +0000

The Wall Street Journal blog, The Wallet, has a little video that shows us what’s in the wallet of famous puzzlers Will Shortz and Maki Kaji. Who knew that Will Shortz played table tennis? Maki Kaji’s wallet is filled with bar receipts and horse racing tickets. I kid you not.

Teen Puzzle Week at the New York Times

Josh Kidd — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 21:42:28 +0000

Here’s a quick news tidbit. Next week, the New York Times will feature crossword puzzles constructed by students aged 15-19.

22 moves or less

Josh Kidd — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 19:03:27 +0000

It’s recently been determined that 22 moves or less are needed to solve any configuration of a Rubik’s Cube. There is more information about this on mathpuzzle.com. (That information comes from here.)

24,000 piece jigsaw puzzle

Josh Kidd — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 19:44:33 +0000

Here’s a fun little story about a man who put together a 24,000 piece jigsaw puzzle. According to the article, the puzzle took him 537 hours over 179 days to complete. There’s a nice picture of the completed puzzle with the article.

Crossword Art On The Underground

Josh Kidd — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 01:00:49 +0000

There’s an article in the Times Online about an art installation going in at the Stanmore Underground station in northwest London. The installation is part of an Art On The Underground project that is sponsoring installations in a number of stations around London. What’s interesting about the Stanmore station is that it focuses on crossword puzzles.

Serena Korda, the artist behind the installation, chose crossword puzzles as a theme because the Stanmore station is near where code breaking computer were housed during World War II. Solving a Times crossword puzzle in less than 12 minutes was a requirement to join the codebreakers at Bletchley Park. The installation was also inspired by information leaflets handed out in the underground during World War II. These leaflets featured a crossword on the back.

Along with installation, there are a number of crossword puzzles themed around Stanmore. The installation itself provides clues for the puzzles. The installation is called The Answer Lies at the End of the Line. And, apparently, this is also true for any who can’t solve the puzzles.

Puzzle Solving Parrot

Josh Kidd — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 18:28:22 +0000

Here’s a fun news story about a puzzle solving parrot named “Ten.” The story has a video with it that is a bit more informative than the news blurb. The parrot faces off against zoo visitors in what is called a “chain puzzle” which the video reveals to be a simple tavern puzzle that many readers will recognize. In fact many of you will think, as I did, that you could certainly beat the parrot.

The reason why the parrot beats all of the visitors is that the parrot has already solved the puzzle. It simply has to do what it knows how to do to take the two pieces apart. The people facing off against it are actually trying to solve the puzzle. Still, it’s pretty amazing to watch the parrot complete the puzzle and I was particularly amused by the little boy who tried to watch what the parrot was doing and imitate it. There’s something delightfully ironic about that.

31st ACPT

Josh Kidd — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 02:09:33 +0000

The results are up for the 31st Annual American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. Tyler Hinman wins again.

31st Annual American Crossword Puzzle Tournament

Josh Kidd — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 01:51:09 +0000

Will Shortz has written a little blurb about the upcoming tournament for the New York Times. It serves mostly as a reminder that the tournament is coming up and that it will be in Brooklyn this year. It also mentions that there will be a screening of a film called “Wordploy,” a spoof of the 2006 documentary Wordplay.

Article on Puzzle Hunts

Josh Kidd — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 20:49:03 +0000

There’s a great article on the MIT Mystery Hunt in a local Cambridge Newspaper which is currently in progress. The article does a good job of explaining what a puzzle hunt is for the uninitiated. There’s a brief summary of the history of the MIT Mystery Hunt along with descriptions of a few of the puzzles. We’re told that these puzzles, including one written in an archaic Minoan language, were too easy. We also get a taste of the kinds of puzzles that have made it into recent hunts. What’s interesting is that every year the winning team has to create the hunt the following year. This leads to very different styles of puzzles showing up in the hunt. The article points out the difference between puzzles that attempt to confuse you by providing too little information and those that attempt to confuse you by providing too much. It’s a fun read.

New Record for World’s Largest Crossword

Josh Kidd — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 04:02:33 +0000

There’s a story in the Yemen Observer about a Yemeni man who may have broken the record for the world’s largest crossword puzzle. Abdul-Karim Qasem has created a crossword puzzle that has 320,500 squares and an 800,720 word clue book. The puzzle took him seven years to complete and he needed to spend two days in bed after finishing it.

This story is an early favorite for strangest puzzle-related news article of the year. (a category where there’s not much competition.) Qasem claims that the previous record belonged to Tunisian man who had created a puzzle with 1800 squares. This is not true. The record setting puzzle that I know of has over 91,000 squares. Still, Qasem’s puzzle shatters that record fairly handily. Also, Qasem apparently used burn medication in his pens instead of ink when he was creating the puzzle. I was unable to determine the reason from the article.

The new record has not yet been confirmed by Guiness. Presumably when that happens, we’ll hear more about it from other international news sources.

Color Sudoku

Josh Kidd — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 02:31:06 +0000

There was an article in Science Daily today about something called “color sudoku.” Color sudoku is part of a research project at the University of Warwick regarding “Empriical Modeling.” It’s not entirely clear to me what this is from the article, but the general idea is to look at the interactions between logic and perception. This is where the color sudoku comes in. In color sudoku, each digit is assigned a color and each square that has that digit in it is filled with that color. The empty squares are filled with a combination of all of the colors for all of the possible digits that could go in that square. This is intended to give you clues as to what should be there. Darker colors, for example, will indicate more possibilities and, if the color in an empty square exactly matches that of a digit, you know which digit must go there.

While playing around with it, it was hard for me to see, at first, the advantage of the colors, but as more digits are filled in some patterns did begin to emerge. Though I’m not sure if logic and perception ever actually met. It’s an interesting idea and sudoku is a very accessible example, though likely not the best.

Thomas Snyder is the US Sudoku Champion

Josh Kidd — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 16:08:48 +0000

It’s funny how these things work… This weekend, the World Sudoku Champion became the US Sudoku Champion.

Marriage Proposal in Boston Globe Crossword

Josh Kidd — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 15:18:56 +0000

There’s a cute story on Boston.com about Aric Egmont who proposed to his girlfriend Jennie Bass in a Boston Globe crossword puzzle. For any who are interested in solving the puzzle you can find it here. A word of warning though… the article above does reveal the answer for at least one of the clues.