Solution: The Copy Culture Cryptic Crossword

from the filling-in-the-blanks dept

Last Saturday, I posted The Copy Culture Cryptic Crossword, just in case there were any cryptic fans in the Techdirt audience. It turns out there are quite a few, including at least one AC who almost solved it in less than 24 hours. All in all it was a great response, and while I can't promise regular cryptics on Techdirt, I will definitely try to put another one together in the not-too-distant future.

But, for now, it's time to reveal the solution to last week's puzzle. The completed grid is below, followed by a list of answers. I've used some basic notation to show how the answers were arrived at wherever it's easy to do so in a self-explanatory way; as for the rest, I'll answer any questions (and accept any criticisms for sloppy clue-writing) in the comments! One reasonable concern was already raised, which is that BMG is not quite a "collection society" by definition, and on that one I offer a mea culpa.

Filed Under: crossword, solution

The Copy Culture Cryptic Crossword

from the puzzlebox dept

I don't know if we have any fans of cryptic crosswords in the Techdirt audience, but if so, this one's for you. I've been putting this together slowly on and off over the past few months, and now it's ready: the Copy Culture Cryptic. We're posting it this week in lieu of the standard "favorites" post.

If you're an expert at cryptics and a regular Techdirt reader, this should be a breeze. All the answers relate in some way or another to the worlds of the internet, media, intellectual property and technology in general. Be warned: there are a few acronyms and proper names of organizations, and some clues that are a little more on the playful side.

If you don't know how to do cryptic crosswords, and thus the clues sound like they were written by Homsar or someone with expressive aphasia, now is as good a time as any to learn about these awesome puzzles (you'll never go back to regular crosswords again).

Sadly, I haven't yet found an easy way to create an interactive version, so you'll have to use your imagination or download the printable PDF. And if anyone knows a good online crossword platform that doesn't rely on a Java applet, let me know...

I'll post the answers in a week or so, assuming nobody's solved it by then!

Filed Under: crossword, cryptic, puzzle

DailyDirt: Let's Play Global Thermonuclear War

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Artificial intelligence projects are getting better and better at playing games against humans. Pretty soon, we'll just let computers play games for us -- because they'll be better at them. Here are just a few more interesting links on AI research playing with games.

• Space Station Invaders is a video game created by a computer program named Angelina -- a piece of software meant to help human game designers. Angelina's creator says, "In theory there is nothing to stop an artist sitting down with Angelina, creating a game every 12 hours and feeding that into the Apple App Store." [url]
• A machine-learning system from MIT has "understood" the meanings of some words only by playing Civilization and having access to the player's manual for the game. This algorithm plays better if it has read the manual -- just like human players? [url]
• Dr. Fill is a crossword-player program that performed better than a lot of humans at the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament in Brooklyn. It finished 141st out of 600 (if it had been ranked officially with human players), and after losing, it said bluntly, "I'll be back." [url]
• To discover more interesting tech-related content, check out what's currently floating around the StumbleUpon universe. [url]  

By the way, StumbleUpon can recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

Filed Under: ai, artificial intelligence, civilization, crossword, game algorithms, games

News Of The World Staffers Take Parting Shot At Management In Final Crossword Puzzle

from the parting-shots dept

With the closure of Rupert Murdoch's News of the World, due to the ongoing criminal investigations and revelations of highly questionable practices involving spying on private citizens and hacking into their voicemails, many people did wonder if the staff would have any sort of message for their bosses in the final edition. Apparently former editor Rebekah Brooks was adamant that staffers not mock them in the final edition, but she failed:

"Rebekah tried everything to stop the staff having the last word and she utterly failed.

"She brought in two very senior Sun journalists to go though every line on every page with a fine tooth comb to ensure there were no libels or any hidden mocking messages of the chief executive.

"But they failed and we’ve had the last laugh.’

How? They hid it in the puzzles section. Apparently, a bunch of clues for the various puzzles were not-so-subtle references to the whole thing, including "criminal enterprise," "catastrophe," "stench," and "racket."

Filed Under: crossword, news of the world, rebekah brooks
Companies: news corp.