Game delay

Well I started out keeping up, but three+ weeks into the new baby, and everyone in the house is sick plus we’re going out of town this weekend.  So I apologize, but expect a delay with Thursday, Friday, and the weekend puzzles.

1A, Parker or Gale

For anyone who is interested, here is the newest member of my family…

Isn't she cute?

The ACPT is almost here!

The American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, an annual event for 32 years, is fast approaching.  It is going on February 27 to March 1, and it looks like there are some fun thing on opening night, including a panel discussion about crossword blogging with some of my fellow puzzle solvers.

Alas, I’m sad to say I won’t be at the tournament this year.  My wife is due to give birth to our second child on the 25th, so I’ll be busy not getting any sleep by the time the tournament arrives.  Or if the baby’s late, I would surely meet a horrible fate if my wife learned I went off to the tournament.

Anyway, if you’ve never been to the ACPT and you like solving puzzles (or want to see Will Shortz in person), it’s a great time.  It doesn’t matter what your level of solving skill is, since people of all abilities attend.  If you’re not sure, quick, see the documentary Wordplay, which is about the tournament and gives a good idea of what it’s like (and is very entertaining as well).

This just in: wild Aril spotted in its natural habitat

While we were in Florida visiting the Keys, we went hiking in one of the state parks there.  On one of the signs, I actually saw the word “aril”, of crosswordese fame, used in a sentence!  Of course I took a picture:

Coolest. Apartment. Ever.

At least if you’re a puzzle geek. Be sure to check out the photo gallery.

Click here

Ooo eck.

My apologies for being been completely absent the last few days.  I realize I haven’t posted since Fri…um, Thursday’s puzzle.  I got completely sidetracked because I (with a friend) figured out some details about the Across Lite puzzle format and I’m finally able to start programming my own crossword program.  So that’s what I’ve been doing since Friday.  I think I may just resume posting with today’s puzzle in the interest of catching up, unless I heard any requests for Friday, Saturday, Sunday, or Monday’s puzzle.  Incidentally, Saturday kicked my butt – I wasn’t even able to finish.  That may be a first since I started this blog.

Anyway, Tuesday’s post later today.  And news about the program I’m working on in the near future…

Now Hint-fortified!

Today I’m adding a new feature to the daily puzzle post, on a trial basis anyway. I think some people reading blogs like this have solved a puzzle as far as they could and might need a hint to get them past a particularly difficult clue or correct a wrong answer. To that end, posts will now include a hint section, with hints for what I think might be hard parts of the puzzle. Answers to the hints will be white text on a white background, so a visitor need only highlight the area to the right of the desired hint to see only that hint’s answer.

Go ahead, try it out: The secret word is “Groucho”

If you like this new feature, please do let me know.

Puzzle Solver Program Status

I mentioned a while back I was thinking of writing a program to improve on Across Lite, and just wanted to give an update.  I got some good suggestions to go along with my own thoughts, and I definitely want to write a better solving program.  So far, I’ve been working at decoding the .PUZ file format.  I built upon some prior work someone else had done and I pretty much know how all the data is stored in the file, except for one thing.  I have not yet been able to figure out the encryption used for the solution when it is “locked”.

What does this mean?  It means at this point I could write a program that would display any existing .PUZ file, it would know about rebus clues, circled letters, be able to save partially done puzzles, etc.  The only thing it wouldn’t be able to do is check if your solution was correct if the .PUZ file was locked.

So I think I’m going to keep working on understanding the encryption, but in the meantime I’ll start working on the new program itself.  I know the program won’t be as useful if you can’t tell it to unlock the puzzle and check your solution, but you could always save your solution and reload it in Across Lite for unlocking.  I certainly wouldn’t refuse an offer of help from anyone good at codes (I have a lot of test data to work from).

Happy Birthday to (Square Ti)Me(s)

Square Times is a month old today.  I’ve actually managed to write a post on every puzzle since it started and my enjoyment in doing this is still going strong.  I think I may even have a small regular readership, according to my hit stats.  Here’s a chance for any lurkers to pipe up and let me know someone is listening.  If you don’t, I’ll keep going anyway, but I think Square Times would appreciate some birthday greetings.

Improvements to Across Lite?

So I was thinking (my wife always shudders when I say that), what would the perfect crossword solving program be like?  It probably wouldn’t be too hard to write one myself, but if it was substantially the same feature set as Across Lite, what would be the point?

Thinking about this, I came up with a couple of ideas immediately:

• Better layout – have word-wrap on the clue list, be able to see all the clues at once, maybe lay it out more like in the paper.
• Better integrated timer.  Maybe keep a log of your solving times.
• More keyboard commands?  Jump to one edge of the grid, delete a whole word, anything else?
• Be able to customize keyboard commands.

Anybody else have wish list items for Across Lite?  If I get a good enough list, maybe I’ll write a new program.