Just a warning, the Scrabble content of this blog will probably be very Collins-heavy for a while. You've been warned!

After spending about a month and a half working on a new Zyzzyva version specifically to help me study Collins, I finally started studying in earnest last night. I forgot what it feels like to learn 2s and 3s! There are only 23 Collins-only 2s and 277 Collins-only 3s, but going through them makes me feel kind of like a dunce because... well, they're 2s and 3s, and I don't know them. It's also exciting, and I'm looking forward to playing some of these monsters like CH#, AUA#, TWP#, and ZHO#.

Speaking of which, last night I played my first Collins game ever, against Quackle. I missed a 50-point ZHO#, playing ZEE instead, and Quackle immediately hooked it to make MZEE#. OMGWTFBBQ!? How wicked is that? I was proud of myself because I did make a few Quackle-best plays with Collins words, like HOA#/EH/IO#/LA, GODWIT/TE#, and BLAG#/AMI/GOY. But I missed the best spot for a bingo with ?EKNOPS because I forgot about EE#, and missed a few more best plays due to OWL board vision. It will take a little while for my brain to adjust. Not to mention I have to learn the words before that can happen.

As I was studying last night, I noticed a lot of Collins 3s that for some reason I always think are good in OWL, or always see even though I know they're no good. CUZ#, DOH#, GON#, HOH#, JAP#, NAS#, NAT#, SOG#, SUD#, TID#, TIX#... all good. Even EMO# is good. And it has an anagram! I started wondering whether I'll be able to remember which of these are Collins-only, especially since I already get confused on some of them.

As a result, I added a function to Zyzzyva today which forces you to type lexicon symbols along with words when taking a quiz (by default, this behavior is turned off). For example, "NAS" would be considered an invalid quiz response, but "NAS#" with the octothorpe would be considered valid. Already I'm finding this useful, as it forces me to remember which words are Collins-only, as an integral part of the quiz. There are a few more features I plan to implement before releasing a new version in a month or two, but if people want to get their hands on this right away, I may be able to put together a development release. I think it might be a good idea to start doing that anyway, just so people can try out bleeding-edge features and give me feedback before I create an official release.

So, it begins. I haven't even looked at anything more than 2s, 3s, and a few stem 7s, and I'm already excited. There's a lot of cool stuff in here, and it should be fun to start digging it out.

I just want to say a big thank you to everyone who has donated to Zyzzyva, either recently or in the past. I really, really appreciate your kindness and generosity. Thanks to crosstables for the publicity, too. It makes me feel great to know that people are happy enough with my work that they'll give their hard-earned cash as a token of appreciation. At the right is a picture of my inbox right now. You people have made my day.

Just FYI, I've also released a new version of Zyzzyva (yes, another one), 2.0.1. You can get it from the usual place. I hope this fixes the problems people were seeing with lexicon preferences and lexicon databases. I was never able to reproduce the hanging problem when creating a lexicon database, so I'm not positive it's fixed, but I do believe it should be. Please let me know if you experience any problems with this version.

I've released a new version of Zyzzyva, 2.0.0. Zyzzyva is a program for studying words, practicing anagramming, and adjudicating challenges. It runs on Windows XP, Vista, NT, 2000, 98, and Me; Linux; and Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later. You can get the latest version here:

http://zyzzyva.net/

This is a major release with several new features. The most prominent feature is the ability to load multiple lexicons simultaneously, which allows you to search for words belonging to any combination of lexicons. It also allows you to view special symbols such as # for words in CSW but not OWL2.

Here is the full list of changes:

* Load multiple lexicons simultaneously
* Lexicon symbols, e.g. # for CSW-not-OWL2, % for OWL2-not-OWL, etc.
* In Lexicon search condition
* Highly-visible icons for "acceptable" and "unacceptable" in Word Judge
* Mark as Correct button on the Quiz form
* New Cardbox 0 First quiz schedule
* Improved cardbox visibility and control
* Detailed word information on the Definition form
* Updated CSW definitions thanks to Barry Harridge
* Updated ODS lexicon thanks to Hervé Bohbot
* Nice-looking Zyzzyva application icon
* Various bug fixes

Many, many thanks to everyone who has helped to make this the best version of Zyzzyva yet! There are too many people to name, but I appreciate all your help and I could not have done it without you. Thanks as well to everyone who has made such generous donations in person or through the web site. I don't do this for the money, but your donations are very much appreciated.

Please give me feedback about how you think Zyzzyva could be improved! I know it has a long way to go before it becomes the study tool I would like it to be. I've been pretty bad about responding to email for a while, but I do take all your suggestions seriously and I promise to be more responsive. I appreciate your input!

If you would like more information about Zyzzyva, please join the Zyzzyva Users list here:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/zyzzyva-users/

I hope you enjoy using Zyzzyva, and most of all, have fun with it!

I've created some Zyzzyva 2.0.0 prerelease builds. This is the same release I was previously calling 1.1.0, but I think this version has major enough changes to warrant a major revision bump. These builds should be ready to go, and if everything looks fine, they will be used for the final release. Would you mind downloading one of these releases and testing it out?

You'll probably want to back up your Zyzzyva data directory just in case. You know, download these at your own risk, this software is provided "as is", yadda yadda. But I don't expect these release candidates to behave badly at all.

I've done a good amount of testing on my own, but in particular I'd like to make sure:
- All the installers work as expected
- You can load and unload combinations of lexicons without restarting Zyzzyva
- You can build and rebuild lexicon databases
- Lexicon symbols show up as expected
- Quizzes and searches still work as expected
- Nothing crashes!

I would greatly appreciate it if you could download one of these prerelease builds, play with it for a little bit, and let me know if you experience any problems. I hope to get this thing out the door by Thursday night, or Friday at the latest. Thank you so much! Without further ado, the downloads:

• Windows installer (26MB)


• OS X Intel disk image (26MB)


• OS X PowerPC disk image (26MB)


• Linux installer (26MB)

Okay, I'm leaking the screenshot myself. After a few weeks of major code overhaul whenever I have a spare moment, the bleeding edge version of Zyzzyva can now handle multiple lexicons. This allows cool things like the # symbols you see in the screenshot. I just now, about five minutes ago, implemented the final bit of code to make this possible. At this point, most of what remains to be done should be downhill work - making sure I didn't break anything, cleaning up minor issues, making everything pretty, writing documentation, etc.

I hope to release Zyzzyva 1.1.0 within a week or two. That ought to give Texas Sowpods contestants (like me) a fair head start on some Collins study. I expect this version may even make the world lexicon more accessible to any OWL players who are curious about it, since you can easily flip a switch and see what shows up. Are you excited? I am.

I've created a new bug-fix release of Zyzzyva. The version number is 1.0.6. Man, I always forget how long it takes to create a release for four different platforms, even when the release is a small one. Fortunately, thanks to VMWare Fusion, I was able to create builds right on my laptop for every platform except PowerPC. Wicked cool.

This release fixes the crashing that was happening on Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard), and it also fixes the disappearing window problem on Windows, where occasionally Zyzzyva is running but the window is not visible on the screen. Man, that was an annoying one. I got more emails about that bug than all others combined! Let's hope that never happens again.

I've realized that I probably won't be able to accomplish everything I would like to do for Zyzzyva 1.1, because with my very limited free time in which to complete a large list of features, the release would never happen. I would rather release often with fewer new features in each release, than release giant updates once a year. So now I have a list of two, maybe three, things I want to accomplish in 1.1. That may be doable in a reasonable amount of time. I hope. I've learned not to make promises either, so this is not a promise. :-)

I've released a new version of Zyzzyva, 1.0.5. Zyzzyva is a program for studying words, practicing anagramming, and adjudicating challenges. It runs on Windows XP, Vista, NT, 2000, 98, and Me; Linux; and Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later. You can get the latest version here:

http://zyzzyva.net/

This is a bug-fix release only. Here is the full list of changes:

* Remove inflections of GODDAM and GODDAMN from OSPD4 lexicon
* Remove PHOCOMELIES from CSW lexicon
* Fix several word definitions
* Add Volost lexicon

Volost players, rejoice! Zyzzyva's Volost lexicon is 100% accurate and reliable for adjudicating Volost challenges. The CSW and OSPD4 lexicons should now be considered 100% accurate as well.

If you would like more information about Zyzzyva, please join the Zyzzyva Users list here:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/zyzzyva-users/

I hope you enjoy using Zyzzyva, and most of all, have fun with it!

"No new mail! Want to read updates from your favorite sites? Try Google Reader"

Apparently Gmail now plugs more than just Google News when you have an empty inbox. I didn't know this because I haven't had an empty inbox since March 6. Holy hell, this has been the worst email-avoidance streak yet. I just spent about 10 hours responding to well over 100 messages, which is more email than I think I've sent in the past three months. The earliest unanswered messages were from mid-March, a whole week or so after the last Great Purge.

I remember back in 1994 when I used to pride myself on answering every email I received, within seconds of reading it. Ha, what a joke! I'm starting to think I have no business even giving out my email address anymore, if I'm never going to respond to anything sent there.

Another thing I did today: took care of a bunch of little Zyzzyva details, mostly word definitions and other lexicon fixes. Including a Volost lexicon! I plan to release 1.0.5 tomorrow (uh, today) with all its Volost goodness. I had to laugh out loud as I was testing it out. Creating the database took about 1 second. Searching for Length: Min 2, Max 15 found 2 words. I took a quiz over the entire lexicon and got 100% correct. While testing the word judge, I tried to imagine the tenseness of the scene after one Volost player has just issued a challenge. As the players stride nervously to the computer, will the word be acceptable? VOLOTS: UNACCEPTABLE. "Crap! I can never remember how to spell that word!" Yeah, this update is so totally worth it.

I suck at answering email. I really do. When email was brand new to me, almost 15 years ago (holy cow), I used to respond to everything within seconds of receiving it. Nowadays I am much lazier, often letting email sit unanswered for months. Especially email with Zyzzyva questions, since answering those requires actual thought. Yet those are the ones that deserve an especially quick response, because the writers of those emails have actual needs. Also, when those emails sit unanswered for a long time, the author of the software is probably perceived as distant and unresponsive, and people's perception of Zyzzyva itself may be negatively affected, or they may simply give up and move on.

I guess I am sort of distant and unresponsive, though. Especially since I now have two kids who are old enough to fight constantly. I think that's when my personal productivity level took a dramatic drop, when my son turned one or so, and developed the ability to play with my daughter's toys without her permission. It's unbelievable how much attention young kids require. Not that I'm complaining; I love spending time with my kids, and raising them is priority #1 for my wife and me. But between raising them and all the other various responsibilities of church and community, and considering I would like to learn some Scrabble words myself, everything else pretty much takes a back seat. When I do occasionally get some free time and don't feel like studying, I mostly want to chill out by reading a book or playing a video game. Only rarely do I actually sit down and answer a significant amount of email.

This is difficult for me, because I like to please people. When I was in 2nd grade, other kids would come and ask me for help all the time, and because I'm a people-pleaser, I never really said no even though I was unable to get my own work done because of it. My teachers and parents noticed, and soon I had a sign on my desk that I could flip to the green side (Yes, I Can Help) or the red side (Sorry, I Can't Help). That helped a lot, because I could just flip the sign when I was busy, without having to say no to anyone personally.

I'd like my sign to be green a lot more than it has been lately. But with how busy my life has gotten, it simply has to be red most of the time. So this is an apology to anyone who has emailed me over the past few months and hasn't gotten a response, or anyone who will email me in the future and whose email will sit in my inbox for a while. I'm sorry about that. For Zyzzyva questions or suggestions, I would very highly recommend sending them to the Zyzzyva Users mailing list rather than to me personally. That way, many people will see and can hopefully answer your questions much more quickly than I will. For those of you who have been answering questions on the list (redaragorn and Richard Johnson come to mind, but I know there are others), thank you for doing that. I appreciate it.

I know this is probably not even a big deal for anyone but me, but it really bothers me to be unresponsive, so I wanted to write something about it. I'm probably also feeling strongly about it because I'm so tired. I should go to bed early tonight. Anyway, thanks for your patience with me.

I just released Zyzzyva 1.0.3. This is not the large update that will be coming in the (hopefully near) future. But it does have a couple of features, including a Collins lexicon and the Cardbox Shift feature. Many thanks to olaugh for the Collins lexicon! I've been using the Cardbox Shift feature quite a lot lately, since I've been too busy to study much, but not too busy to keep adding words to my cardbox like an idiot. Cardbox Shift is just too useful to withhold until Zyzzyva 1.1.0, so I threw it into 1.0.3. It's under Tools->Reschedule Cardbox Contents.

If you're not familiar with Cardbox Shift, it's basically a better way of rescheduling the contents of your cardbox if your backlog becomes too large. The only way to do this in Zyzzyva 1.0.2 is to completely reschedule questions according to their current cardbox. For example, questions in cardbox 4 will be scheduled for 15-25 days from now, regardless of when they are currently scheduled. This has some usefulness, but big drawbacks too. The worst disadvantage is that questions in high cardboxes are always scheduled for a long time in the future. If you find yourself having to reschedule, say, more than once every two months, then you'll never see any words higher than about cardbox 5 or 6.

With the Shift function, you can just tell Zyzzyva how many questions you want to be currently available for quizzing, and it will shift the entire schedule forward or backward in time to make that happen. Every question will be seen in the same order it was previously scheduled to appear, but you can make your current backlog as small or large as you like. It's almost like going backward in time to a point when your backlog was manageable. Ah, the nostalgia. Some advantages of this method are that missed questions will still be seen in the near future, and high-cardbox questions will also be seen in their original scheduled order. You're just delaying the schedule a bit instead of completely reordering it. Much more friendly and useful.

Now that the bug-fix and Collins release is out of the way, it's time to start cranking on Zyzzyva 1.1. I've got some cool ideas for it, some of which probably won't make it, but I'm excited to start working on interesting new features.

Hooray! I just vanquished a supremely annoying bug that was causing Zyzzyva word list displays not to be refreshed on Linux, whenever the contents of the word list changed or whenever you scrolled down the list. Very, very annoying. Fortunately this bug has never been seen by anyone other than those of you compiling the Zyzzyva trunk yourself, and then only on Linux. So that narrows it down to Cesar. :-)

The bug was triggered on an upgrade to Qt 4.2, but it turned out to be (as usual) something stupid that was my own fault. The fix was (as usual) only about two lines of changed code. But it took me (as usual) a ridiculously long time to figure out which two lines of code to change. Anyway, this means that Zyzzyva 1.1.x will definitely use at least Qt 4.2.x, which is good because there were some nice features added in that Qt line.

I've decided it's time to start doing some Zyzzyva development again. I'll probably take it easy until after Dallas, but at least I'll be doing some work. I don't know why... I should probably be sleeping instead. But it feels good to be productive, and I have some personal Zyzzyva itches that need to be scratched. Last night, for example, I implemented the Shift feature for cardbox questions (I've called it Delay in the past). Rather than a total reboot and reschedule, which reschedules high-cardbox words for months in the future, I can now simply "shift" all questions forward or backward in time until my backlog is at a manageable size. I'm thinking of this as a "good reset button", whereas the current Reschedule function is sort of a "bad reset button". I used it last night to magically take my cardbox backlog from 10,000 down to 1,000. I've been a little too busy to study in the past week.

I'm also planning to put in some basic functionality for seeing what's in the cardbox, very soon. I knew when I released 1.0.0 that this was a major missing piece, and many people have asked about it since then. It's embarrassing to say that in order to examine what's in your cardboxes, you have to get an SQLite client and query the database directly using SQL. Nobody should have to do that. It even bugs the heck out of me that I have to do it, and I completely understand the process. I've been waving my hands for long enough. It's time to solve the problem.

So I'm thinking the next release will probably be mostly a cardbox enhancement release. I'd like to make the whole system much friendlier and more customizable. The other major feature request I've been getting is for the ability to print word lists directly from Zyzzyva. Frankly, I have no idea how to do this, and I've been avoiding it for that reason. But it might be time to bite that bullet, too. I could use that feature myself, and that is usually the major factor in determining what gets implemented anyway. I wouldn't expect this release to be completed for at least another month or two, but at least this way I'll have people bugging me to keep working on it. :-)

If you have more suggestions, please feel free to post them here, or to explore the Zyzzyva bug database and add them there if your idea is not already listed.

For various reasons, my Zyzzyva cardbox backlog achieved an all-time high of over 14,000 questions yesterday. That's a lot. A very lot. So I spent 6 hours reviewing about 3,000 questions and got the backlog down under 11,000. Wooo hooo. Fortunately, many of those questions (the 5s, particularly) are starting to be pushed into higher cardboxes, so the load will begin to lighten a bit. Maybe one of these days I can get back to adding new words into the system. I remember those days of innocence, when I was actually expanding my word knowledge instead of digging my way out from under a crushing heap of 5s.

I'm determined not to hit the Reschedule button, though my finger has been hovering over it for several days. From the "Last Correct" values I've been seeing, and from some questions I specifically remember missing over Thanksgiving weekend, I'd estimate that I'm about two weeks behind. So cardbox 0 questions are being seen every 2 weeks instead of every day. That's bad. I could make it all go away with Reschedule, but then I'd miss out on hitting the high-cardbox questions that are currently ready for review. I really need the Push Back button as an alternative to Reschedule. It'll take some serious work to dig myself out, but I'm going to do it. Thank goodness I've got some vacation time coming up.

One nice thing about keeping quiz data in a database is that I can easily see which words are giving me the most trouble. Here are my "oh-fer" 7s and 8s... alphagrams for which I have never gotten the correct answer(s) during a Zyzzyva quiz. Maybe after posting them here, the shame of missing them will become so great that I'll always get them right.

7s on which I am 0-for-10 or worse:
1. ACDEELR
2. ADEEHRS
3. ADEEPRS
4. BEORSTU
5. CDEORTU
6. DEMNORU
7. EMORSTU

8s on which I am 0-for-7 or worse:
1. AACEILNT
2. AACEILRT
3. AADEIMNT
4. ABDEIIRT
5. ACDEIIRT
6. ADEILLOR
7. AEGIMNST
8. AEIIMRST
9. AEINNRTT
10. EEGINORR

( Answers behind the cut... )

Recently, I've been spending most of my free time working to release the next version of Zyzzyva. I wanted to have it out a month ago, but technical issues keep popping up, and other commitments keep getting in the way (family, church, community, pshaw). This week and next week, we're on a deadline crunch at work as well, so I'm working late most nights. Yay!

At this point, all the Zyzzyva code is in place and mostly tested. I just need to write documentation, which I started doing last night. That should take another day or so, then I need to create installers, which hopefully will not take long. I'll be heading out of town for Thanksgiving, from Wednesday through Sunday. I hope, I hope, I hope that will give me enough time to create the release on my laptop and get it out to my adoring public.

If you use Windows and would like to test out what could be the final Zyzzyva 1.0.0 release, I would appreciate any help! I'm particularly interested if you're running Windows 98 or ME, and you experience any problems. Below is a pointer to where you can get it, and what you can do to test it. Beware, this is a prerelease version and not the official release! It could destroy your computer, burn your dinner, give your dog fleas, etc. though I don't expect it to do any of that. Mostly, I expect it to revolutionize the way you study, by giving you Cardbox Mode (except you SuperMemo users, you've already been revolutionized).

- First, make a backup copy of your .zyzzyva directory. It's probably located at C:\Documents and Settings\USER\.zyzzyva or C:\.zyzzyva (where USER stands for your actual username on the computer).
- Next, download a prerelease Zyzzyva ZIP file (there is no installer yet).
- Unzip it somwhere, and it should create a folder called "zyzzyva-1.0.0-rc1".
- Browse into that folder, and double-click zyzzyva.exe to run the program.

Zyzzyva should identify itself as version 1.0.0, and it will probably say your existing database needs to be updated. Please tell it to update your database, and let me know if that proceeds okay. Then do a few searches, maybe take a few quizzes, fire up the Word Judge, and just generally see if everything looks okay. That's all! Thanks for any help. I really appreciate it.

Update: Linux and OS X users, see this comment for details about how you can test out the prerelease as well. You should also be sure to back up your .zyzzyva directories, which are located at $HOME/.zyzzyva. Thanks again for your help!

I just realized that I only post about club sessions when I do well. Oh well, here's another very positive report from last night's session. Final record 5-1 +904, but 3 of those wins were against the relatively weaker players in the club. I'd watch out for Jess Mickelson once he hits the tournament scene, though. He beat me last week, and he's definitely been studying up.

Game 1, Kirsten Gwilliam, W 533-223.
Me: ??SSQXZ, Bingos: DEvOTES, lINEATE(D), REFUGIA.
Opp: SSJ, Bingos: none

Game 2, Kent Nelson, L 347-364.
Me: SSQ, Bingos: PONDERS.
Opp: ??SSJXZ, Bingos: T(I)RELESS.

Game 3, Marie Irvine, W 511-251.
Me: SSSSQXZ. Bingos: AGAROSE, SATIRIC.
Opp: ??J. Bingos: none

Game 4, Mike Stevens, W 424-329.
Me: ?JQXZ. Bingos: BREATHE, ANTI(P)ODE.
Opp: ?SSSS. Bingos: SYNuRAE.

Game 5, Victor Torres, W 490-371.
Me: ?SSSSX. Bingos: LABrOID, DAGGERS, SIENITE.
Opp: ?JQZ. Bingos: (E)NTRAILs.

Game 6, Jess Mickelson, W 464-327.
Me: ?Q. Bingos: PRANGED, COIfFED, VALETED.
Opp: ?SSSSJXZ. Bingos: YElLOWS.

I got some good stuff, and was happy with how I played (prequackle, of course). It was especially nice to find VALETED instantly, because that was one of the "difficult" 7s I'd been having trouble with a few weeks ago. Most of my finds of 7s were in the top 6000 or so, which is great, because it means my studying is paying off. Since I started using cardbox mode with a short timer, I feel like I've been finding bingos much more quickly, and with less effort. I'm excited for the next few months. Lots of study, and I should be ready for whatever tournament I play in next.

Thanks to many people whose names I will actually remember and mention in a post to the Zyzzyva users group, Zyzzyva will have SOWPODS definitions for all OSWi base words up to length 8, plus inflections. I always forget how much tweaking it takes to prettify large amounts of data, even with my trusty servant Ruby to help. I've been working to get these definitions into Zyzzyva format for most of the past five nights or so. I hope I haven't poisoned my brain too much with British words, but I tried to pay as little attention as possible while paying as close attention as possible. I'll be doing some spot checking tomorrow, but other than that, I think the word list is ready to roll, and I plan to announce it on the Zyzzyva list either tomorrow or Thursday. Now, time for bed.

Thought the First: I forgot to check cross-tables.com for any rating updates until just now. Looks like my rating went from 1582 to 1541. That's a lot better than I expected. My performance rating for the early bird was 921, which is by far the lowest I've ever achieved, except for my very first tournament once upon a time.

Thought the Second: I love when I "discover" Zyzzyva features I've somehow forgotten about. Like flashcard mode. I usually type my answers when taking a quiz, and recently it's sorta started bothering my wrist. Today at lunch I took my laptop and did some studying while eating. Pretty difficult to type while eating, so I jumped into flashcard mode. Not only was it much easier on the wrists, but it's much faster too! I did about 400 questions in an hour, which is blazingly fast for me. I think I'm going to start using flashcard mode all the time now.

Thought the Ultimate: Here's a cool alphagram for you: FILLOTU.

Last night I finally made functional what I'm calling the Automatic Spaced Repetition (ASR) feature in Zyzzyva. The main idea is an implementation of the Leitner cardbox system, which is a method of reviewing flash cards for maximum long-term retention. All flash cards (in this case, alphagrams) start out in cardbox 0, and the contents of cardbox 0 are reviewed every day. When you get a question right, it goes into cardbox 1. Periodically you will review the contents of cardboxes other than 0... if you get a question from cardbox 1 right, then it goes into cardbox 2. Then into cardbox 3, etc. Anytime you get a question wrong, it goes back into cardbox 0.

The magic of ASR is that it will keep track of where all your flash cards are, and will automatically present them to you at appropriate intervals. As I mentioned, cardbox 0 is reviewed every day, and higher cardboxes are scheduled for review at increasingly longer intervals. For example, when a question is placed into cardbox 1, it's scheduled for review after 4 days. In cardbox 2, after 7 days; cardbox 3, 12 days; cardbox 4, 20 days... and so on, until cardbox 10 and above, which are reviewed every 480 days. All questions in the cardbox system will be reviewed at some point, but the ones you tend to get wrong will be reviewed more often. I gather that it's a lot like SuperMemo, though I've never used that program.

Anyway, it's functional, and I've started trying it out. Last night I imported all the 4s into the system, and a few thousand 7s and 8s. As I test it, I plan to continue adding more 5s, 7s, and 8s to get a feel for about how quickly I'll want to introduce new material. I'm excited to see how it does. I think this will be a big step forward for word study using Zyzzyva.

Unfortunately, the next release of Zyzzyva won't be for a while yet, because this feature needs a lot of polish and probably a fair amount of work yet before it's done, and I also have more features and bug fixes to complete before the next release. I'm hoping the next version will be 1.0. But if you'd like to start trying out the ASR feature right now (and can build Zyzzyva yourself from source code), you can do so by looking behind the cut...

( Read more... )

I'm very excited about how cool this might be. If you're able and willing to be a guinea pig, I would greatly appreciate feedback. The nature of the system means that it might take a fairly long time (weeks, I'd guess) to get a feel for how well it's doing, and for you to see personal improvement because of it. But as far as long-term studying and retention go, I think it will be incredible.

It looks like Zyzzyva has been chosen as the word judge program to be used at this year's U.S. SCRABBLE® Open. Can I just say that's freaking awesome? I started writing Zyzzyva early last year as a study program I could use on Linux, and it's grown a lot since then, especially since I announced its presence on CGP this past January. I owe a lot to the many people who have made great suggestions for improving it. It wouldn't be what it is today without all the help I've received, and I look forward to making it even better.

It was pretty strange to be using my own program in a tournament setting in Seattle. Especially when Zyzzyva upheld my opponents' challenges, grumble grumble... I can only imagine it's going to be ten times stranger to have Zyzzyva used by a room full of about 700 people over the course of four days. That's one thing I really love, for people to be using my software. I don't really care about getting money for it, or anything like that. I just like my software to be useful to people. And what a venue for it to be used!

There's always that part of me that thinks something horrible is going to happen. Somehow, even with all the troubleshooting and testing I've done to create the most stable release I possibly can, something is going to break. There's going to be some critical bug no one has seen before, and none of the Zyzzyva installations will work. The room will be filled with players yelling "Challenge!" for the human word judges, and it will be like dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria. I know that this is really unlikely to happen, but I've learned that with computers anything is possible. I sure hope it doesn't.

Well, that was a depressing paragraph. Ignore that, everything is going to be wonderful!

On an unrelated note, I came so close to getting 100% on the JumbleTime 5s today...

( Cut for spoilers... )