Search found 4641 matches

by grapesmoker
Mon Apr 24, 2017 1:52 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: looking for these sets in docx
Replies: 3
Views: 4475

Re: looking for these sets in docx

Continuing my search for packets in Word format:

2014 PADAWAN
2015 Claude Shannon
2015 CO visual arts
2015 Feynman's BONGOS
2015 RILKE
2015 SHEIKH
2015 VCU Open
2014 VCU Open
2014 College History Bowl
2014 Modern World

Send 'em if you got 'em.
by grapesmoker
Mon Apr 24, 2017 1:38 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: How many tiebreaker games do we really need?
Replies: 20
Views: 10023

Re: How many tiebreaker games do we really need?

Hey, so I don't want to clog up the ACF Nationals discussion thread with this discussion, but I figured people might want to air some opinions on tiebreaker games. It does seem excessive to me that 9th (!) place was decided via tiebreaker, especially given that last year 4th place was left unbroken...
by grapesmoker
Mon Apr 24, 2017 1:35 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: The Buzzer Dilemma
Replies: 20
Views: 10876

Re: The Buzzer Dilemma

Apologies in advance for this idea sounding perhaps a bit unorthodox, but what prevents an event like ACF Nats, ICT, etc. from getting a rep from ZeeCraft or Electramatic (or wherever) to attend? That is, could a buzzer manufacturer attend said event with buzzers in-hand for the purposes of renting...
by grapesmoker
Mon Apr 24, 2017 1:33 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: The Buzzer Dilemma
Replies: 20
Views: 10876

Re: The Buzzer Dilemma

If ACF owned buzzers where would they be stored and who would take care of them. This is a serious question. ACF has much less turnover and institutional buildout than NAQT or NHBB. There's not a Dave Madden or R. Hentzel type figure who will always be there; the closest ACF ever had to such a Heim...
by grapesmoker
Mon Apr 24, 2017 1:32 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: The Buzzer Dilemma
Replies: 20
Views: 10876

Re: The Buzzer Dilemma

If ACF owned buzzers where would they be stored and who would take care of them. This is a serious question. ACF has much less turnover and institutional buildout than NAQT or NHBB. There's not a Dave Madden or R. Hentzel type figure who will always be there; the closest ACF ever had to such a Heim...
by grapesmoker
Mon Apr 24, 2017 1:21 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: The Buzzer Dilemma
Replies: 20
Views: 10876

Re: The Buzzer Dilemma

This situation seems like a bunch of teams fucked up and not on ACF or whatever. With responsible teams ACF buying like 10 buzzer sets seems wasteful... Furthermore, it's clear that there are enough buzzers out there (even locally) between official organizations (NAQT, PACE, NHBB, but NHBB was conf...
by grapesmoker
Mon Apr 24, 2017 9:51 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: The Buzzer Dilemma
Replies: 20
Views: 10876

Re: The Buzzer Dilemma

I'm not sure if we'll do this for Fall or Regionals (ok, I'm guessing almost certainly not for Fall) but for Nationals this idea is very much in play. We're definitely going to consider fining teams that say they will bring buzzers and don't. edit: I would formulate this as "If you have buzzers...
by grapesmoker
Sun Apr 23, 2017 11:10 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Nationals Thanks and Discussion
Replies: 70
Views: 42450

Re: ACF Nationals Thanks and Discussion

I too would like to offer my congratulations to Maryland, and of course especially to Jordan, who was electrifying over the course of the last two days, putting in an all-time great Nationals performance. And congratulations should go out to Michigan, who fought back from a tough loss to force the f...
by grapesmoker
Sat Apr 22, 2017 5:51 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: The ol' Nationals Cracker Barrel
Replies: 63
Views: 32828

Re: The ol' Nationals Cracker Barrel

Granny Soberer wrote:
grapesmoker wrote:
AKKOLADE wrote:if only acf hadn't fired brad's wife
we what

brad sent us cookies
this is one of those internet may-mays the youths like
the who

a what
by grapesmoker
Sat Apr 22, 2017 4:32 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: The ol' Nationals Cracker Barrel
Replies: 63
Views: 32828

Re: The ol' Nationals Cracker Barrel

AKKOLADE wrote:if only acf hadn't fired brad's wife
we what

brad sent us cookies
by grapesmoker
Sat Apr 22, 2017 3:28 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: The ol' Nationals Cracker Barrel
Replies: 63
Views: 32828

Re: The ol' Nationals Cracker Barrel

Aaron's Rod wrote:what does the cracker barrel have to say about the buzzer situation at nats
it's bad
by grapesmoker
Thu Apr 20, 2017 11:29 am
Forum: Databases and Quizbowl Software
Topic: State of QB Databases, 2017
Replies: 3
Views: 4294

Re: State of QB Databases, 2017

I've recently updated QBDB; it's even got an API, which if you want, you can scrape (email for details). I'm not going to claim completeness, but I have ~10k tossups parsed into question/answer format and something like ~25k bonus parts, likewise parsed. I'm going to be updating this on a regular ba...
by grapesmoker
Wed Apr 19, 2017 9:11 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: The Barbarism of Monetization
Replies: 128
Views: 57430

Re: The Barbarism of Monetization

I think we can all honestly say that anyone sending packets to people who are going to play a tournament on those packets is awful and deserves to be ratted out. Right, I'm ok with that. My problem is more like having people rat out individual college players who got hold of an ICT they shouldn't h...
by grapesmoker
Wed Apr 19, 2017 9:04 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: The Barbarism of Monetization
Replies: 128
Views: 57430

Re: The Barbarism of Monetization

I'm not a fan of people acting as vigilante enforcers; as this thread's genesis indicates, turning this into an interpersonal issue is a recipe for having people fight each other. I think this is something that needs to be handled on an institutional level, and while I do encourage everyone to respe...
by grapesmoker
Wed Apr 19, 2017 12:07 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: The Barbarism of Monetization
Replies: 128
Views: 57430

Re: The Barbarism of Monetization

I don't think that NAQT's decision to fence off their packets is a great one (by my lights they should just price all of this into the tournament entry fees and give the packets away) but at the same time, it's theirs to make and we should respect it. ICT is just one tournament; there are literally ...
by grapesmoker
Sat Apr 08, 2017 1:46 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: upgrading server
Replies: 8
Views: 6122

Re: upgrading server

dnlwng wrote:Could you update this thread when you fix the sign-up/email verification system for qems2?
Thanks for doing this, it's been a really really helpful tool.
Could you help me by filing a Github issue detailing the exact problem? Thanks.
by grapesmoker
Sat Apr 08, 2017 1:07 am
Forum: Databases and Quizbowl Software
Topic: QBDB 3: QBDB with a Vengeance
Replies: 15
Views: 10490

Re: QBDB 3: QBDB with a Vengeance

I'm happy to announce that QBDB now sports a mostly-feature-complete reader of questions. You can click on "Read me a question," select your option, and go wild. There's an explanation of how it works in the FAQ (click "About QBDB" in the upper-left-hand part of the header). Enj...
by grapesmoker
Fri Apr 07, 2017 4:11 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: upgrading server
Replies: 8
Views: 6122

Re: upgrading server

No problem. I've also updated QEMS to use HTTPS, so all your question editing is now encrypted. QBDB is likewise using HTTPS now, but the login system has issues so it doesn't work quite yet. The search should be much improved now. There's now a "read me questions" functionality. Details ...
by grapesmoker
Fri Apr 07, 2017 4:01 pm
Forum: Databases and Quizbowl Software
Topic: QBDB 3: QBDB with a Vengeance
Replies: 15
Views: 10490

Re: QBDB 3: QBDB with a Vengeance

I'm happy to announce that QBDB now sports a mostly-feature-complete reader of questions. You can click on "Read me a question," select your option, and go wild. There's an explanation of how it works in the FAQ (click "About QBDB" in the upper-left-hand part of the header). Enjoy.
by grapesmoker
Wed Apr 05, 2017 11:06 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: upgrading server
Replies: 8
Views: 6122

Re: upgrading server

No problem. I've also updated QEMS to use HTTPS, so all your question editing is now encrypted. QBDB is likewise using HTTPS now, but the login system has issues so it doesn't work quite yet. The search should be much improved now.
by grapesmoker
Wed Apr 05, 2017 10:47 pm
Forum: Databases and Quizbowl Software
Topic: QSWriter - Question Set Creation & Packeting Website
Replies: 11
Views: 7435

Re: QSWriter - Question Set Creation & Packeting Website

When logging in to QEMS2, your password is sent in plaintext and your questions are sent in plaintext. This thread is old, but I thought it would be worthwhile to mention that as of today this is no longer the case. I bought an SSL certificate for the site and your connection to QEMS should now be ...
by grapesmoker
Wed Apr 05, 2017 4:28 pm
Forum: Databases and Quizbowl Software
Topic: QBDB 3: QBDB with a Vengeance
Replies: 15
Views: 10490

Re: QBDB 3: QBDB with a Vengeance

Hey all, So QBDB has lain fallow for some time, mostly because I've had many other things on my plate. Recently I've had occasion to revisit old projects and try to bring them up to date. I've moved towards a more modern frontend build system with grunt and browserify, and I reworked the backend to ...
by grapesmoker
Wed Apr 05, 2017 11:46 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: upgrading server
Replies: 8
Views: 6122

Re: upgrading server

Ok, we're back. That was faster than expected. And I should have some upgrades coming for the question database soon, so if you see it's down, it's because I'm working on it.
by grapesmoker
Wed Apr 05, 2017 11:30 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: upgrading server
Replies: 8
Views: 6122

upgrading server

Don't know where to put this so I guess I'll put it here. My site, grapesmoker.net, is undergoing an upgrade right now, which means all services (qems, qbdb, etc) will be unavailable for about an hour. Hopefully on the tail end of that upgrade I'll be able to add some features that I haven't been ab...
by grapesmoker
Tue Apr 04, 2017 9:34 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: looking for these sets in docx
Replies: 3
Views: 4475

looking for these sets in docx

I'm looking for the following sets in docx (i.e. modern Word) format; the ones that are hosted on the tournament DB are in PDF, unfortunately. 2015 Missouri Open 2016 "stanford housewrite" 2016 ACF Regionals 2016 Christmas Present 2016 CLEAR II 2016 Mysterium 2017 JAKOB If you have them, p...
by grapesmoker
Tue Apr 04, 2017 7:48 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Nationals 2017 (4/22 - 4/23)
Replies: 44
Views: 37475

Re: ACF Nationals 2017 (4/22 - 4/23)

A brief update: both UCSD and UCLA have declined their bids; in the meantime, NYU registered, bringing us up to exactly 42 teams.
by grapesmoker
Mon Apr 03, 2017 1:01 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Nationals 2017 (4/22 - 4/23)
Replies: 44
Views: 37475

Re: ACF Nationals 2017 (4/22 - 4/23)

edit: teams that fall outside the top 42 by A-value have been italicized; these teams may be bumped if the field fills out with the top 42. edit 2: as of March 31, the field is full. Louisiana Tech has withdrawn and we currently have 43 teams registered, so without significant pressure to expand th...
by grapesmoker
Mon Apr 03, 2017 12:21 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Nationals 2017 (4/22 - 4/23)
Replies: 44
Views: 37475

Re: ACF Nationals 2017 (4/22 - 4/23)

Here is the list of currently-registered teams: edit 3: Louisville has dropped from the field, meaning that UCF B is back in, assuming no other changes. Hi all, I was on that UCF B team at our site and told beforehand it could not qualify by ACF Hey Peter, could you shoot me an email at grapesmoker...
by grapesmoker
Mon Apr 03, 2017 12:21 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Nationals 2017 (4/22 - 4/23)
Replies: 44
Views: 37475

Re: ACF Nationals 2017 (4/22 - 4/23)

geremy wrote:Hello,

Rutgers seems to be listed twice - did we accidentally register twice?
So you did. I copied and pasted without checking but I will correct the list now.
by grapesmoker
Mon Mar 20, 2017 10:29 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Nationals 2017 (4/22 - 4/23)
Replies: 44
Views: 37475

Re: ACF Nationals 2017 (4/22 - 4/23)

Here is the list of currently-registered teams: Virginia A Northwestern Carleton College Toronto A Berkeley A Toronto B Berkeley B Johns Hopkins Duke A Harvard Minnesota A Michigan Florida MIT A New College Ohio State WUSTL UCF Stanford Tennessee Maryland A Chicago B Chicago C Chicago A Yale A Yale ...
by grapesmoker
Mon Mar 20, 2017 10:01 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Nationals 2017 (4/22 - 4/23)
Replies: 44
Views: 37475

Re: ACF Nationals 2017 (4/22 - 4/23)

Just a reminder to please register for Nationals ASAP. I know there are a lot of teams out there that have accepted bids, but we need you to actually sign up so we can craft schedules and brackets. Can we get a list of teams who have registered at this point? Would be great to make sure our registr...
by grapesmoker
Tue Mar 14, 2017 12:44 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Nationals 2017 (4/22 - 4/23)
Replies: 44
Views: 37475

Re: ACF Nationals 2017 (4/22 - 4/23)

Just a reminder to please register for Nationals ASAP. I know there are a lot of teams out there that have accepted bids, but we need you to actually sign up so we can craft schedules and brackets.
by grapesmoker
Mon Mar 06, 2017 12:13 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2017 (This) Tournament is a Crime General Discussion
Replies: 53
Views: 13298

Re: 2017 (This) Tournament is a Crime General Discussion

Why are you asking people to get stuff from "Scorpion and Felix," a book that I guarantee you no one reads? I don't know how important the Wheen bio is in the constellation of Marx biographies, but I think it's a real stretch to expect people to know much about it; you could at least clue ...
by grapesmoker
Mon Mar 06, 2017 11:29 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2017 (This) Tournament is a Crime General Discussion
Replies: 53
Views: 13298

Re: 2017 (This) Tournament is a Crime General Discussion

[10] In a biography, Francis Wheen argues that this philosopher’s line “Every giant ... presupposes a dwarf, every genius a hidebound philistine,” which appears in this philosopher’s novel Scorpion and Felix, inspired this author’s treatise calling the government a “giant parasitic body.” I guess I...
by grapesmoker
Mon Mar 06, 2017 11:18 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: FRENCH Open
Replies: 9
Views: 4785

Re: FRENCH Open

Yeah, the subject matter of this set was far too ancient/medieval heavy for my taste, but all the questions were pretty solid, and it's not like I can say I wasn't warned in advance.
by grapesmoker
Sun Mar 05, 2017 10:58 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2017 (This) Tournament is a Crime General Discussion
Replies: 53
Views: 13298

Re: 2017 (This) Tournament is a Crime General Discussion

Ike, can you post the question that had the bit about Marx's novel or whatever it was? I recall being confused by this.
by grapesmoker
Sun Mar 05, 2017 3:01 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2017 (This) Tournament is a Crime Specific Discussion
Replies: 90
Views: 20298

Re: 2017 (This) Tournament is a Crime Specific Discussion

There's nothing wrong with that Panofsky clue.
by grapesmoker
Sat Mar 04, 2017 2:16 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Nationals 2017 (4/22 - 4/23)
Replies: 44
Views: 37475

Re: ACF Nationals 2017 (4/22 - 4/23)

Registration for ACF Nationals 2017 is now open! Please register for the tournament by filling out this form . Although bids are awarded in descending order of A-value and the field is capped at 42, teams that are on the margins of qualification should still register if they think that they would at...
by grapesmoker
Wed Mar 01, 2017 4:28 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Nationals 2017 (4/22 - 4/23)
Replies: 44
Views: 37475

Re: ACF Nationals 2017 (4/22 - 4/23)

I've already sent out emails calling for staff, but I figure I should do so in this forum as well. If you're interested in staffing ACF Nationals, please fill out this form.
by grapesmoker
Wed Mar 01, 2017 4:23 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Gauging interest for late spring Oxbridge mirror in NYC
Replies: 16
Views: 6983

Re: Gauging interest for late spring Oxbridge mirror in NYC

Hey, maybe this should be formally announced soon and teams should form.
by grapesmoker
Wed Mar 01, 2017 4:16 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Nationals Planning
Replies: 9
Views: 5359

Re: ACF Nationals Planning

The relationship between the various transit lines connecting Newark to the rest of the world is somewhat confusing; I believe this map represents our civilization's most advanced understanding of this space-time puzzle.
by grapesmoker
Wed Mar 01, 2017 12:59 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Nationals Planning
Replies: 9
Views: 5359

Re: ACF Nationals Planning

All of this obviously depends on your budget but here's the basic rundown: Anything in Manhattan is going to be more expensive, as a rule, than anything not in Manhattan. The closer you are to downtown, the more expensive things are likely to be. A more reasonable thing to do is to look at Brooklyn ...
by grapesmoker
Tue Feb 28, 2017 10:27 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2017 (This) Tournament is a Crime Specific Discussion
Replies: 90
Views: 20298

Re: 2017 (This) Tournament is a Crime Specific Discussion

A few other remarks: it's probably best not to start a tossup on "parrots" with Irene Pepperberg, literally the most famous parrot researcher, and Alex, her parrot, also literally the most famous parrot. Likewise, dropping Molly Ivins so soon in the "culture war" speech tossup is...
by grapesmoker
Tue Feb 28, 2017 9:23 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2017 (This) Tournament is a Crime Specific Discussion
Replies: 90
Views: 20298

Re: 2017 (This) Tournament is a Crime Specific Discussion

I also think the tossup on the birthday problem was good, but it's odd to call it "recreational." The birthday problem is a legitimate problem in probability and has a number of interesting applications.
by grapesmoker
Tue Feb 28, 2017 12:18 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2017 (This) Tournament is a Crime Specific Discussion
Replies: 90
Views: 20298

Re: 2017 (This) Tournament is a Crime Specific Discussion

Jerry, that does seem awfully restrictive to require compiler for compiler optimization, can I ask your rationale for requiring it? My rationale is just that it's a totally different thing than mathematical optimization but maybe that's too harsh. Anyway, it was good to see a question on this topic.
by grapesmoker
Mon Feb 27, 2017 11:43 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2017 (This) Tournament is a Crime Specific Discussion
Replies: 90
Views: 20298

Re: 2017 (This) Tournament is a Crime Specific Discussion

Yeah, I mean, I liked a lot of the content and think the clues were pretty good -- I just don't like how "modulo" got clued as an operation when I feel like a lot of math people tend to think of modular congruence as a relationship (and that would also make the tossup less clunky). Now th...
by grapesmoker
Mon Feb 27, 2017 11:34 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2017 (This) Tournament is a Crime Specific Discussion
Replies: 90
Views: 20298

Re: 2017 (This) Tournament is a Crime Specific Discussion

Ok, as I thought, this is definitely a question on compiler optimization. I think this is a case where you should actually have a more restrictive answer line and require the whole thing, but the question itself is good and a really good idea.
by grapesmoker
Mon Feb 27, 2017 11:02 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2017 (This) Tournament is a Crime Specific Discussion
Replies: 90
Views: 20298

Re: 2017 (This) Tournament is a Crime Specific Discussion

I suppose as long as I'm here, I'd appreciate it if someone could post the above tossup as well as the one on "optimization."
by grapesmoker
Mon Feb 27, 2017 11:01 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2017 (This) Tournament is a Crime Specific Discussion
Replies: 90
Views: 20298

Re: 2017 (This) Tournament is a Crime Specific Discussion

I didn't really like the tossup on "modulo" -- it seemed really awkwardly constructed, and had I been playing and not staffing I probably would have figured out what was going on right around the powermark but not been able to buzz until the giveaway -- if I were writing that tossup, I'd ...
by grapesmoker
Mon Feb 27, 2017 10:57 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2017 (This) Tournament is a Crime General Discussion
Replies: 53
Views: 13298

Re: 2017 (This) Tournament is a Crime General Discussion

In general, I thought this was a fine tournament despite being old and not knowing anything anymore. The thing that I didn't like was how relatively uneven it was across categories. In the same round got wallopped by a really rough science bonus (I think it was physics but I forget what) and then ha...