Re:I was terrible at crosswords so I built an AI to do them
by dases on Monday May 03, 2021 @09:54PM
(#27033250)
Oof! that's diabolic (the puzzle, not the subscription model or the hack).
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0492506/ is a great documentary on the NYT crossword puzzle editor and crossword nuts in general.
As a remote developer I find doing cryptic crosswords one of the few things that helps me switch off entirely from work.
Re:I was terrible at crosswords so I built an AI to do them
by riveducha on Monday May 03, 2021 @06:04PM
(#27031390)
They have a very aggressive retention team to try to discourage you from cancelling. If you subscribe to (just) the crossword and tell them you want to cancel, they will offer you a lower monthly rate. Not sure if this violates California law requiring easy cancellation, but it’s another way to subscribe for less.
I remember a NYT puzzle sometime within the last 2 or 3 years with a 15 character vertical answer spanning the puzzle from top to bottom right down the center with a clue related to Alice in Wonderland. The answer was "the looking glass".
Everything entirely to the left of the looking glass was normal. Horizontal answers entirely to the right of the looking glass were reversed. Horizontal answers that crossed the looking glass were all palindromes centered on the looking glass.
BTW, for those interested in the NYT puzzle but not interested in the newspaper, here's a trick to save some money.
The puzzle and the paper are sold as separate products. The print editions are always bundled together, but the digital editions are separate. The puzzle is about $40/year. However, if you also subscribe to the digital newspaper, you get a 50% discount on a puzzle subscription.
Here's the trick: if you have the puzzle subscription set to automatically renew it continues to renew at the 50% discount rate even if you have cancelled the newspaper subscription.