Is it really HIM? (Celebrity Millionaire)
Grecian, I'm actually still constructing something in response to your initial response, though I hasten to add that it won't really be that forthcoming with regard to your questions about JP's and all that. In this respect I only intend it to touch upon the obvious, namely that collating->knowing->using an internalised list has proven, and continues to prove to be, Extremely Effective.
I'm loquacious in some areas though not in others, so I hope you can greecefully accept a titter or two.
Regarding the number of celebrities, I'm reluctant to add stuff up when I'm collating (though I know it's a mountain, I always tell myself that it's a small hill I'm climbing otherwise I'd never get started). I'll allow myself to be pushed on this though and estimate around the 500 mark.
Now here's a question: What exactly is 'instinct'? As I've indicated ad insanitum, it's all about getting them in so that one hardly has to think about it. How cunningly beautiful is the Paradox.
And now I'm off out for an afternoon of celebrity bashing.
Regards
KO
I'm loquacious in some areas though not in others, so I hope you can greecefully accept a titter or two.
Regarding the number of celebrities, I'm reluctant to add stuff up when I'm collating (though I know it's a mountain, I always tell myself that it's a small hill I'm climbing otherwise I'd never get started). I'll allow myself to be pushed on this though and estimate around the 500 mark.
Now here's a question: What exactly is 'instinct'? As I've indicated ad insanitum, it's all about getting them in so that one hardly has to think about it. How cunningly beautiful is the Paradox.
And now I'm off out for an afternoon of celebrity bashing.
Regards
KO
K_Oranj, I am now up over the 650 mark with these, including one I can't identify, but you are right it helps a bit with the end game, but once you have reached the shagged mode, it is more down to instinct
The one I can't I.D is Woman in 40's wearing green, blonde shoulder length hair, looks familiar but can't place her, possibly British
The one I can't I.D is Woman in 40's wearing green, blonde shoulder length hair, looks familiar but can't place her, possibly British
The trouble when playing them in SHAGGED mode is that there are a lot of
snide lists on the end game i.e rihanna is older than jessica alba on one I got today. Lists might help you to a certain extent but there is nothing you can do when deliberate snides are thrown in. Ah well I suppose that has always happened
snide lists on the end game i.e rihanna is older than jessica alba on one I got today. Lists might help you to a certain extent but there is nothing you can do when deliberate snides are thrown in. Ah well I suppose that has always happened
Grecian, I didn't really consider you to have been prying as such. Besides, we all like to know stuff, myself included. I was actually more concerned about causing you offence with my limited response so I'm glad I haven't. I'm just naturally guarded - it all began with my early repulsion of the Hokey Cokey in kindergarten where I refused to shake it all about, but that's another story.
Smudge, you're doing well on 650+. Though I'm a little bit behind you on the numbers front, I find it paramount to get them internalised as clearly as possible so as to bolster (or even become) that instinct.
In addition to aiding in the Millionaire endgame my embroidered 'list' (actually more of a crazily colourful carnival of capering clownish caricatures, in my mind at least) has many a spin-off benefit, e.g. regarding birth year / age in [year] / star sign questions. A recent example from Jiggy: How old was Jack Nicholson in 1992? I immediately see him straitjacketed to his bull-shaped broomstick at the traffic lights before the petrol station, a location which I now have 'instinctivised' as 1937; a quick calculation gives 55 max, and since 54 is there and 55 isn't ... and Jack's your uncle.
Though smudge's observation suggests that the number of celebrities doesn't even approach the 1000 mark, I'd be more than happy if it turned out that we were only half way through them all at the moment. Some sort of sadist? Nah, I just loves them hooks and entry points.
This actually reminds me of a few fastest-finger fudge-ups on Millionaire's original incarnation. As a rough estimate I reckon I nailed down about oooooooooooh 99.95% of the bulk thereof and, notwithstanding a few ambiguities over debatable points of fact, there were only a handful of major bumdingers that I detected.
Forgive me for being a little nostalgic then, but as far as I noted the two most egregious and indisputable input errors were as follows:
Starting with the first alphabetically, put these flowers in order
Daffodil
Crocus
Hydrangea
Rose
Obviously, like (nearly) all errors, once sussed ... But even so, there's still the initial vexation. Perhaps the compiler here had fallen so tired to the point of becoming alphabetically callenged. Either that or they were pinched by the imp of the perverse. (Strangely enough, it's preferable to be confronted with this type of 'wrongness' than it is to be faced with the 'rightness' of The/Silence of/The/Lambs-type cock-up, the former being 'correctable', the latter being not so!)
The second 'outstanding' mistake was a much more perplexing on-the-fly data-table affair to which the Rihanna/Alba cock-up is akin. It was located in the table concerning the chronology of 'Colour' song titles. From the archives, as I recorded it:
That one took me bloomin' ages to work out (for all that it was worth)! 
And just to be thorough, I think Carmen may have been a bit too uppity in the Operas list. Also, a couple of elements seemed far too runny in the Melting Points table though the mercurial variations between sources on this topic may have been to blame here. Finally, there was a compass directions starter that would have been a no-brainer had it not been sent haywire by an incompetent lexical navigator.
Regarding 'wrong' answers on Millionaire, I'd say there's double the amount on the 2006/2008 question sets than there were in the revisions used in the original - kebab-eating Teletubbies indeed, what a load of shish! Still, the number of errors on Millionaire do pale in comparison with other games.
Deliberate snides then or incompetent data entry? With the inevitability of human error I'm a little sceptical about the mischievous snide hypothesis.
Wires, there's certainly a significant difference between Rihanna's and Alba's birthdates. Have you had either of these two appearing alongside other 80s-born folk? The reason I ask is that in my scheme of things one of them's going to be getting a bucket of fecal treacle poured over their head so it's vital I know, at least for one of their sakes, and God forbid should they both be maladjusted. At the moment they're connected by a rainbow of excrement with seven shades of brown (nothing racist meant there, just an image I find fitting).
On a final note of nostalgia, has anyone else noticed a few of the old Maygay questions popping up every now and then? I first noticed their reappearance on the 2006 version, oh how it warms the cockles. Just hope none of those invisible options have been blindly imported.
As for the new mystery celeb, I'm afraid I've nothing to offer at the moment, but I'll keep an extra eye out for her. In the meantime I'm looking forward to what Nil's first stab will be.
Smudge, you're doing well on 650+. Though I'm a little bit behind you on the numbers front, I find it paramount to get them internalised as clearly as possible so as to bolster (or even become) that instinct.
In addition to aiding in the Millionaire endgame my embroidered 'list' (actually more of a crazily colourful carnival of capering clownish caricatures, in my mind at least) has many a spin-off benefit, e.g. regarding birth year / age in [year] / star sign questions. A recent example from Jiggy: How old was Jack Nicholson in 1992? I immediately see him straitjacketed to his bull-shaped broomstick at the traffic lights before the petrol station, a location which I now have 'instinctivised' as 1937; a quick calculation gives 55 max, and since 54 is there and 55 isn't ... and Jack's your uncle.
Though smudge's observation suggests that the number of celebrities doesn't even approach the 1000 mark, I'd be more than happy if it turned out that we were only half way through them all at the moment. Some sort of sadist? Nah, I just loves them hooks and entry points.
Indeed, it has always happened and always will thanks to human error or mischief! My 3C's protocol in such circumstances: Curse, Correct, then Capitalise.wires74 wrote:Lists might help you to a certain extent but there is nothing you can do when deliberate snides are thrown in. Ah well I suppose that has always happened
This actually reminds me of a few fastest-finger fudge-ups on Millionaire's original incarnation. As a rough estimate I reckon I nailed down about oooooooooooh 99.95% of the bulk thereof and, notwithstanding a few ambiguities over debatable points of fact, there were only a handful of major bumdingers that I detected.
Forgive me for being a little nostalgic then, but as far as I noted the two most egregious and indisputable input errors were as follows:
Starting with the first alphabetically, put these flowers in order
Daffodil
Crocus
Hydrangea
Rose
Obviously, like (nearly) all errors, once sussed ... But even so, there's still the initial vexation. Perhaps the compiler here had fallen so tired to the point of becoming alphabetically callenged. Either that or they were pinched by the imp of the perverse. (Strangely enough, it's preferable to be confronted with this type of 'wrongness' than it is to be faced with the 'rightness' of The/Silence of/The/Lambs-type cock-up, the former being 'correctable', the latter being not so!)
The second 'outstanding' mistake was a much more perplexing on-the-fly data-table affair to which the Rihanna/Alba cock-up is akin. It was located in the table concerning the chronology of 'Colour' song titles. From the archives, as I recorded it:
Code: Select all
=== COLOUR SONGS ================================================
Strike Me Pink 1993 (Deborah Harry, no.46)
Red Dress 1974 (Alvin Stardust, no.7) <WRONG>
Scarlet 1990 (All About Eve, no.34)
Silver and Gold 1989 (ASAP, no.60)
Golden Brown 1982
Fade to Grey 1980
Silvery Rain 1971 (Cliff Richard, no.27)
Black Velvet Band 1967 (Dubliners, no.15)
Green Fields 1960 (Beverley Sisters, no.2 8)
=================================================================And just to be thorough, I think Carmen may have been a bit too uppity in the Operas list. Also, a couple of elements seemed far too runny in the Melting Points table though the mercurial variations between sources on this topic may have been to blame here. Finally, there was a compass directions starter that would have been a no-brainer had it not been sent haywire by an incompetent lexical navigator.
Regarding 'wrong' answers on Millionaire, I'd say there's double the amount on the 2006/2008 question sets than there were in the revisions used in the original - kebab-eating Teletubbies indeed, what a load of shish! Still, the number of errors on Millionaire do pale in comparison with other games.
Deliberate snides then or incompetent data entry? With the inevitability of human error I'm a little sceptical about the mischievous snide hypothesis.
Wires, there's certainly a significant difference between Rihanna's and Alba's birthdates. Have you had either of these two appearing alongside other 80s-born folk? The reason I ask is that in my scheme of things one of them's going to be getting a bucket of fecal treacle poured over their head so it's vital I know, at least for one of their sakes, and God forbid should they both be maladjusted. At the moment they're connected by a rainbow of excrement with seven shades of brown (nothing racist meant there, just an image I find fitting).
On a final note of nostalgia, has anyone else noticed a few of the old Maygay questions popping up every now and then? I first noticed their reappearance on the 2006 version, oh how it warms the cockles. Just hope none of those invisible options have been blindly imported.
As for the new mystery celeb, I'm afraid I've nothing to offer at the moment, but I'll keep an extra eye out for her. In the meantime I'm looking forward to what Nil's first stab will be.
-
Cardinal Sin
- Senior Member
- Posts: 4166
- Joined: Wed Jul 20, 2005 3:33 pm
ThanksThe difficulty here (and I should know because I started it!) is that we are trying to describe pictures where the subject is unknown to us even if the image itself has become very familiar (although I do accept that the thread has branched out into all sorts of strange and wonderful areas since that original starting point!).
There is also the inherent subjectiveness of image recognition to consider - it may be that when I realise who the image of the woman in green that K_Oranj is describing actually is, I will think 'Well, it's bloody obvious who that is' but other people may have recognised the image of say Lloyd Grossman (a curious close-up photo) the first time they saw it whereas I was only able to make the connection on around the 10th or 11th go when a question directly referred to one of the shows he presents.
A third level is that we make different connections between individuals that we think look alike - for example I have been bugging myself since the Ed O'Neill photo was identified because I now reckon he looks like someone else very familiar to me but I can't make the connection. I'm thinking it's some sort of religious leader/preacher for some reason but I've already eliminated Billy Graham and L Ron Hubbard.
The final part of the jigsaw is K_Oranj's wonderfully entertaining descriptions of the mnemonical schema he has developed to place the 100s of celebrities in order so that he can recall them quickly when needed. Anyone who has ever taken part in any sort of quizzing will have used some form of memory trick to remember certain items, like this nice one I saw in a Roddy Doyle short story:
My Very Educated Mother Just Showed Us Nine Planets
(although I realise that pedants will point to at least two reasons for disputing the accuracy of this one!).
There - it should now be clear as day...
There is also the inherent subjectiveness of image recognition to consider - it may be that when I realise who the image of the woman in green that K_Oranj is describing actually is, I will think 'Well, it's bloody obvious who that is' but other people may have recognised the image of say Lloyd Grossman (a curious close-up photo) the first time they saw it whereas I was only able to make the connection on around the 10th or 11th go when a question directly referred to one of the shows he presents.
A third level is that we make different connections between individuals that we think look alike - for example I have been bugging myself since the Ed O'Neill photo was identified because I now reckon he looks like someone else very familiar to me but I can't make the connection. I'm thinking it's some sort of religious leader/preacher for some reason but I've already eliminated Billy Graham and L Ron Hubbard.
The final part of the jigsaw is K_Oranj's wonderfully entertaining descriptions of the mnemonical schema he has developed to place the 100s of celebrities in order so that he can recall them quickly when needed. Anyone who has ever taken part in any sort of quizzing will have used some form of memory trick to remember certain items, like this nice one I saw in a Roddy Doyle short story:
My Very Educated Mother Just Showed Us Nine Planets
(although I realise that pedants will point to at least two reasons for disputing the accuracy of this one!).
There - it should now be clear as day...