UPDATE: There is now a JavaScript Star Battle Solver! It’ll solve fairly simply ones no problem. Don’t expect miracles on harder puzzles, though — more likely than not they will just crash your browser. This past weekend I “attended” my … Continue reading →

Here’s this week’s NPR puzzle: Name a country with at least three consonants. These are the same consonants, in the same order, as in the name of a language spoken by millions of people worldwide. The country and the place … Continue reading →

So you’re aware that the Crossword Nexus JPZ Solver exists, and you know it can be embedded in websites. But how can you get it into yours? It’s a fairly easy process and I’ll walk you through it right now.

People seem to agree that JPZ files are the future of crossword solving. JPZs are extremely flexible, well-documented, and supported by the most popular crossword-making software. The problem thus far with JPZs has been solving them. XWord is great but … Continue reading →

Here’s this past week’s NPR puzzle: Name a well-known movie of the past — two words, seven letters in total. These seven letters can be rearranged to spell the name of an animal plus the sound it makes. What animal … Continue reading →

Edit: This post has been updated with a better version of the code. Here’s the most recent NPR puzzle: A famous actress and a famous director share the same last name, although they are unrelated. The first name of one … Continue reading →

Here’s this past week’s NPR puzzle: Think of a well-known celebrity who goes by a single name — the last two letters of which are alphabetically separated by only one letter (like A and C, or B and D). Replace … Continue reading →

So I released my list of famous names the other day, and as promised the first thing I did was to try to beat 35 in the Gaffney-Gordon pangram challenge. If you’re not familiar with that challenge, here’s a little … Continue reading →