News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:NYT Crossword editor: "I was willing to endure a life of ... by klbarry on Wednesday August 03, 2011 @01:40PM (#2842092)
I made up a word game in high school that became popular with my friends - tell me what you think. Basically, you solve for one word. The clues are words that have at least one letter from the word, in order, that have something to do with the word.

As an example, this:

---

storm

weather

drip

falling

---

would be "rain".

This one is considerably harder:

---

fur

hibernate

claws

latin

brown

omnivores

---

Re:NYT Crossword editor: "I was willing to endure a life of ... by alanfalcon on Wednesday August 03, 2011 @02:19PM (#2842288)
Interesting game. I admit, I wouldn't have gotten it without help from the internet, which I suppose is against the rules. But I know no latin, so it was my only hope. The answer is ursine, which I've attempted to bury somewhat in my response so that it doesn't pop out so obviously to those who read this later and want to solve the clues for themselves.

Here's a stab at one that's so vague that there's probably a better answer hidden in there than the intended "right" one:

Carbohydrates

Chickpea

Canned

Confectionary

Re:NYT Crossword editor: "I was willing to endure a life of ... by throw_away on Wednesday August 03, 2011 @02:47PM (#2842425)
<spoilers>

I cheated with grep:

grep "^[fur][hibernate][claws][latin][brown][omnivores]$" /usr/share/dict/words

for yours, bean, chef, diet, dine

Re:NYT Crossword editor: "I was willing to endure a life of ... by scott_s on Wednesday August 03, 2011 @04:26PM (#2842904)
Damn, I knew it had to start with urs, but I couldn't figure out the rest. Regardless, I like the game.
Re:NYT Crossword editor: "I was willing to endure a life of ... by klbarry on Wednesday August 03, 2011 @02:50PM (#2842443)
These are just words so my answer also doesn't pop-out. I believe the answer is bean. Although I don't know the meaning of confectionery.
Re:NYT Crossword editor: "I was willing to endure a life of ... by wf on Wednesday August 03, 2011 @04:55PM (#2843036)
turn this into an app!
Re:NYT Crossword editor: "I was willing to endure a life of ... by klbarry on Wednesday August 03, 2011 @05:07PM (#2843106)
I'm not tech savvy enough to make an app, but I will devote part of my website to it, at some point.
Re:NYT Crossword editor: "I was willing to endure a life of ... by alanfalcon on Wednesday August 03, 2011 @05:32PM (#2843214)
Team up with someone who wants to make it an app, then!

It's natural for a touch interface: each word made up of scrabble-like tiles with a letter on each, tap the letter(s) from each word that spell out the answer and submit for a score. Or, if you wanted to get crazy, you could play heads-up, but you'd need a whole lot of clues/answers lined up if you wanted to go that route (so if you wanted to go really crazy, string together some databases and programs to auto-generate each puzzle).

Re:NYT Crossword editor: "I was willing to endure a life of ... by sukuriant on Wednesday August 03, 2011 @10:02PM (#2844180)
Seriously! I think you could do plenty fine with an app of this sort!
Re:NYT Crossword editor: "I was willing to endure a life of ... by lostmypw on Wednesday August 03, 2011 @03:13PM (#2842543)
feline
Re:NYT Crossword editor: "I was willing to endure a life of ... by ryanklee on Wednesday August 03, 2011 @03:26PM (#2842613)
Except cats don't hibernate. Hint: it's an adjective, like feline, except descriptive of a different species of animal.
Re:NYT Crossword editor: "I was willing to endure a life of ... by lostmypw on Wednesday August 03, 2011 @04:13PM (#2842837)
Ah, I was bitten by not being a native-speaker. I've interpreted "hibernate" as the same thing my laptop does, when it hibernates. And cats do that all the time, right? ;-)
Re:NYT Crossword editor: "I was willing to endure a life of ... by chrischen on Wednesday August 03, 2011 @04:32PM (#2842931)
Cats sleep, buts I don't think they hibernate, do they? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hibernation
Re:NYT Crossword editor: "I was willing to endure a life of ... by powertower on Wednesday August 03, 2011 @02:32PM (#2842361)
bear?
Re:NYT Crossword editor: "I was willing to endure a life of ... by flomincucci on Wednesday August 03, 2011 @02:46PM (#2842418)
and you didn't read the rules