5 ms·

Show HN: Countdown – Twitter bot which tweets answers to the Countdown TV show

67 points by Bambo 13y ago

torvalso 13y ago
Wow, that's really neat!
- Bambo 13y ago
  Yeah! it has a great description in the Readme too.
mdisraeli 13y ago
That's rather neat! Although I'd suggest separating the roles into "countdown clues" and "countdown answers" bots. The former announcing the questions live on twitter, and the best answer being provided by Countdown answers when the timer ends. Turns Countdown into an interactive twitter game ;)
jamesbrownuhh 13y ago
Genius!
binarymax 13y ago
Awesome! I originally wrote the anagramica API so I could cheat at home while watching countdown, and then built a game on top of it. Always great to see a fellow hacker get inspired. The OCR is a fantastic addition.
benjojo12 13y ago
Wow nice! Didn't realise this had been posted to HN, if you have any questions about how it works (although I have made a pretty descriptive readme.md) then just ask! It was alot of fun making it!
- jdkram 13y ago
  When you mention that it responds at speed, what's kind of time is there between the word being shown and the answer? Very impressive stuff :). Thanks for the detailed documentation too.
  - stbullard 13y ago
    1-5s, according to the Twitter account bio for http://twitter.com/countdownanswer http://twitter.com/countdownanswer
  - benjojo12 13y ago
    it really depends on how fast you shove it into the application. Since TV can vary from region to region by upto 7 seconds. But from seeing it on the apps end, to sending the tweet less than 2 seconds.
fidotron 13y ago
Hilarious and brilliant! Now to only add the vowel/consonant choosing for optimal letter sets and solving the number puzzles. I've been trying to come up with a comparison about it being a poor man's Watson, but failed.
- erichurkman 13y ago
  If we're even coming close to Watson, should we also feed the Countdown bot the contents of Urban Dictionary [1]? [1] http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/01/ibms-watson-memorized-the-entire-urban-dictionary-then-his-overlords-had-to-delete-it/267047/ http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/01/ibms-w...
taternuts 13y ago
Man, the project is a LOT cooler than I thought it was going to be. Nice change of pace to see some c#, too
stbullard 13y ago
Being unfamiliar with Countdown, I was curious about the output format; looking around, I found the author's original announcement[1], which shows the following: "For 'EOEFPRCTSN' Word prefects is 8 letters long. Word perfectos is 9 letters long." [1] http://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1260790&p=42291145&viewfull=1#post42291145 http://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1260790&p=42291145&vie... - also seen at http://twitter.com/countdownanswer http://twitter.com/countdownanswer
- jessedhillon 13y ago
  I knew I had heard of Countdown before at some point in the past. I searched my bookmarks and found this video, which apparently really happened in one of their episodes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHhw_x-gHxI&feature=youtube_gdata_player https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHhw_x-gHxI&feature=youtube_...
  - unfunco 13y ago
    This one wasn't actually real. TV shows in the United Kingdom have a tradition of creating crude and funny references to their show as a Christmas gift to executives or people that work on the show and this happened to leak out, a similar thing happened with the children's TV show Rainbow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgbcQIT7BMc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgbcQIT7BMc However, it is hilarious and deserving of attention.
    - JonnieCache 13y ago
      This did happen the other day though: http://www.theguardian.com/media/mediamonkeyblog/2013/dec/18/countdown-channel-4-conundrum http://www.theguardian.com/media/mediamonkeyblog/2013/dec/18...
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
  - jared314 13y ago
    That was an episode of the IT Crowd[1] showing a character on Countdown, like a character from The Big Bang Theory appearing on Jeopardy in the storyline of the show. As for the actual show, I am partial to the BBC "mashups" mixing "8 out of 10 cats", a comedy panel show, with Countdown. [1] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1676563/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1676563/ Actual Countdown Episode: http://youtu.be/d1L8uBzW6hQ?t=45s http://youtu.be/d1L8uBzW6hQ?t=45s 8 out of 10 cats does Countdown: http://youtu.be/cu4chThprVk?t=8m6s http://youtu.be/cu4chThprVk?t=8m6s
drakaal 13y ago
Great, First Watson smokes us at Jeopardy, now this is going to prove computers are better than humans at one more thing. Our slow walk to being obsolete is hastened by our own efforts. Cool project. Would be interesting to see how much effort it would take to do something similar for the Classic TV version of Scrabble.
abava 13y ago
See http://t411.linkstore.ru http://t411.linkstore.ru - a generic bot for Twitter
elwell 13y ago
This is awesome!
elwell 13y ago
I'd have thought [0] Moss was behind it if not for source being open! Great work. [0] - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49UakIHb1yI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49UakIHb1yI
unfunco 13y ago
This is a really interesting project, and something I wish I had the capacity to think of. I watch Countdown, and the comedy mash-up 8 out of 10 cats does Countdown[0] and love the shows. And it's not entirely for Rachel Riley[1]. [0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8_Out_of_10_Cats#Countdown_mashups http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8_Out_of_10_Cats#Countdown_mash... [1] http://i1.cdnds.net/13/38/618x348/rrcountdown.jpg http://i1.cdnds.net/13/38/618x348/rrcountdown.jpg

67 points by Bambo 13y ago

torvalso 13y ago

Wow, that's really neat!

Bambo 13y ago
Yeah! it has a great description in the Readme too.

mdisraeli 13y ago

That's rather neat! Although I'd suggest separating the roles into "countdown clues" and "countdown answers" bots. The former announcing the questions live on twitter, and the best answer being provided by Countdown answers when the timer ends. Turns Countdown into an interactive twitter game ;)

jamesbrownuhh 13y ago

Genius!

binarymax 13y ago

Awesome! I originally wrote the anagramica API so I could cheat at home while watching countdown, and then built a game on top of it. Always great to see a fellow hacker get inspired. The OCR is a fantastic addition.

benjojo12 13y ago

Wow nice! Didn't realise this had been posted to HN, if you have any questions about how it works (although I have made a pretty descriptive readme.md) then just ask! It was alot of fun making it!

jdkram 13y ago
When you mention that it responds at speed, what's kind of time is there between the word being shown and the answer? Very impressive stuff :). Thanks for the detailed documentation too.
- stbullard 13y ago
  1-5s, according to the Twitter account bio for http://twitter.com/countdownanswer http://twitter.com/countdownanswer
- benjojo12 13y ago
  it really depends on how fast you shove it into the application. Since TV can vary from region to region by upto 7 seconds. But from seeing it on the apps end, to sending the tweet less than 2 seconds.

fidotron 13y ago

Hilarious and brilliant! Now to only add the vowel/consonant choosing for optimal letter sets and solving the number puzzles. I've been trying to come up with a comparison about it being a poor man's Watson, but failed.

erichurkman 13y ago
If we're even coming close to Watson, should we also feed the Countdown bot the contents of Urban Dictionary [1]? [1] http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/01/ibms-watson-memorized-the-entire-urban-dictionary-then-his-overlords-had-to-delete-it/267047/ http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/01/ibms-w...

taternuts 13y ago

Man, the project is a LOT cooler than I thought it was going to be. Nice change of pace to see some c#, too

stbullard 13y ago

Being unfamiliar with Countdown, I was curious about the output format; looking around, I found the author's original announcement[1], which shows the following: "For 'EOEFPRCTSN' Word prefects is 8 letters long. Word perfectos is 9 letters long." [1] http://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1260790&p=42291145&viewfull=1#post42291145 http://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1260790&p=42291145&vie... - also seen at http://twitter.com/countdownanswer http://twitter.com/countdownanswer

jessedhillon 13y ago
I knew I had heard of Countdown before at some point in the past. I searched my bookmarks and found this video, which apparently really happened in one of their episodes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHhw_x-gHxI&feature=youtube_gdata_player https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHhw_x-gHxI&feature=youtube_...
- unfunco 13y ago
  This one wasn't actually real. TV shows in the United Kingdom have a tradition of creating crude and funny references to their show as a Christmas gift to executives or people that work on the show and this happened to leak out, a similar thing happened with the children's TV show Rainbow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgbcQIT7BMc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgbcQIT7BMc However, it is hilarious and deserving of attention.
  - JonnieCache 13y ago
    This did happen the other day though: http://www.theguardian.com/media/mediamonkeyblog/2013/dec/18/countdown-channel-4-conundrum http://www.theguardian.com/media/mediamonkeyblog/2013/dec/18...
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- jared314 13y ago
  That was an episode of the IT Crowd[1] showing a character on Countdown, like a character from The Big Bang Theory appearing on Jeopardy in the storyline of the show. As for the actual show, I am partial to the BBC "mashups" mixing "8 out of 10 cats", a comedy panel show, with Countdown. [1] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1676563/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1676563/ Actual Countdown Episode: http://youtu.be/d1L8uBzW6hQ?t=45s http://youtu.be/d1L8uBzW6hQ?t=45s 8 out of 10 cats does Countdown: http://youtu.be/cu4chThprVk?t=8m6s http://youtu.be/cu4chThprVk?t=8m6s

drakaal 13y ago

Great, First Watson smokes us at Jeopardy, now this is going to prove computers are better than humans at one more thing. Our slow walk to being obsolete is hastened by our own efforts. Cool project. Would be interesting to see how much effort it would take to do something similar for the Classic TV version of Scrabble.

abava 13y ago

See http://t411.linkstore.ru http://t411.linkstore.ru - a generic bot for Twitter

elwell 13y ago

This is awesome!

elwell 13y ago

I'd have thought [0] Moss was behind it if not for source being open! Great work. [0] - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49UakIHb1yI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49UakIHb1yI

unfunco 13y ago

This is a really interesting project, and something I wish I had the capacity to think of. I watch Countdown, and the comedy mash-up 8 out of 10 cats does Countdown[0] and love the shows. And it's not entirely for Rachel Riley[1]. [0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8_Out_of_10_Cats#Countdown_mashups http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8_Out_of_10_Cats#Countdown_mash... [1] http://i1.cdnds.net/13/38/618x348/rrcountdown.jpg http://i1.cdnds.net/13/38/618x348/rrcountdown.jpg