Search found 161 matches

by wcheng
Wed Jul 28, 2021 10:03 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Standard Ebooks
Replies: 0
Views: 1845

Standard Ebooks

A project that I've been contributing a lot of my spare time to during the lockdown and the months since is Standard Ebooks , an online library for open source public domain literature, not unlike Project Gutenberg. However, unlike Project Gutenberg, books on Standard Ebooks are formatted for modern...
by wcheng
Mon Jun 07, 2021 11:28 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2021 PACE NSC Discussion
Replies: 13
Views: 6453

Re: 2021 PACE NSC Discussion

A few things to discuss: How verbose should answer lines be and how much moderator discretion should one give? I think you can probably get ~90% of the way to perfect here by using a signal message like "Accept equivalents", throwing it on answer lines where it's OK for moderators to give...
by wcheng
Wed Jul 15, 2020 11:34 pm
Forum: Community Discussion
Topic: Men of Quizbowl, We Should Talk.
Replies: 14
Views: 16408

Re: Men of Quizbowl, We Should Talk.

I'm fairly certain I'm not the only male quizbowl alum reading what has been posted in the last few days and reflecting on the times when we have neglected to push for policies to prevent misconduct in our organizations, or as Bradley's source has very helpfully put it, put our social standing at st...
by wcheng
Mon Jul 13, 2020 12:42 am
Forum: Community Discussion
Topic: Y'all need to pay attention to your own community
Replies: 51
Views: 64109

Re: Y'all need to pay attention to your own community

I would like to second all of the excellent points that have been made here, especially this one by Julia: In my experience as a club leader, though, these issues were always secondary to, for instance, "how to sign up for tournaments," "how to TD," "how to manage club finan...
by wcheng
Mon Feb 24, 2020 2:34 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Terrapin Open @ UMD (2/22/2020)
Replies: 8
Views: 5203

Re: Terrapin Open @ UMD (2/22/2020)

Thanks for hosting a superbly-run event, Alex! Everything flowed very smoothly and the tournament ended at just about the right time (~6:20ish). I enjoyed every moment of the tournament and highly encourage every interested team to try out the set.
by wcheng
Fri Jan 10, 2020 7:43 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: CO Matchmaking
Replies: 14
Views: 4627

Re: CO Matchmaking

I'm also looking for a CO team. I'll get you religion points (assuming I haven't forgotten everything since last year) and I'm a fairly competent history specialist at this level. I also know random hard stuff and I've mastered the fine art of being a second scorer in the finals by going 0/0/0. You ...
by wcheng
Tue Jul 30, 2019 12:39 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: NorCal Weekend of Quizbowl (July 27-28, 2019) @ Berkeley
Replies: 9
Views: 5043

Re: NorCal Weekend of Quizbowl (July 27-28, 2019) @ Berkeley

A big thank you to Berkeley for running this! Overall, the events ran very smoothly (though I can only speak for Saturday) and Rahul did a great job rolling with the logistical punches. I'd be glad to attend/help out at more Berkeley events in the future!
by wcheng
Tue May 14, 2019 10:20 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2019 Terrapin announcement [medium-difficulty, March 2019]
Replies: 13
Views: 11887

Re: 2019 Terrapin announcement [medium-difficulty, March 2019]

Since the Qblitz mirror has been canceled, we are uploading our questions to the database earlier than anticipated.
by wcheng
Thu Apr 25, 2019 9:52 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Terrapin available for Spring 2019 mirrors
Replies: 6
Views: 8649

Re: Terrapin available for Spring 2019 mirrors

Hey, if you're a college or high school player who's yet to hear the Terrapin questions, I would highly recommend checking out our online mirror on Qblitz from May 13-17 if you haven't already! We are very excited to bring our questions to this new platform, and the more people who play, the more pe...
by wcheng
Thu Apr 25, 2019 9:49 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2019 Terrapin announcement [medium-difficulty, March 2019]
Replies: 13
Views: 11887

Re: 2019 Terrapin announcement [medium-difficulty, March 2019]

Hey, if you're a college or high school player who's yet to hear the Terrapin questions, I would highly recommend checking out our online mirror on Qblitz from May 13-17 if you haven't already! We are very excited to bring our questions to this new platform, and the more people who play, the more pe...
by wcheng
Fri Mar 22, 2019 9:13 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2019 Terrapin announcement [medium-difficulty, March 2019]
Replies: 13
Views: 11887

Re: 2019 Terrapin announcement [medium-difficulty, March 2019]

I am very happy to announce that we are partnering with Qblitz to bring our set online! If you haven't had the opportunity to play one of our in-person mirrors, this is a great chance to experience the set in live competition.
by wcheng
Mon Mar 18, 2019 4:12 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Harder Questions in the Finals?
Replies: 11
Views: 6868

Re: Harder Questions in the Finals?

I'm against making the questions harder in the finals, but I'm perfectly fine with shifting some of the harder answerlines in the set to later packets, and we should make sure we're distinguishing between the two when we talk about it. Could you clarify this distinction? I think I understand what y...
by wcheng
Sun Mar 17, 2019 8:58 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2019 Terrapin general discussion
Replies: 24
Views: 2321

Re: 2019 Terrapin general discussion

-Is there any particular reason why the finals packets seemed to scale up to 3 on the difficulty scale, if not higher, and this fact was not announced in the tournament announcement? I find it difficult to imagine, say, EFT, tossing up the White Tiger, Pierre Corneille, the Shawnee, or the Popish P...
by wcheng
Sun Mar 17, 2019 6:05 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2019 Terrapin general discussion
Replies: 24
Views: 2321

Re: 2019 Terrapin general discussion

-Is there any particular reason why the finals packets seemed to scale up to 3 on the difficulty scale, if not higher, and this fact was not announced in the tournament announcement? I find it difficult to imagine, say, EFT, tossing up the White Tiger, Pierre Corneille, the Shawnee, or the Popish P...
by wcheng
Sat Mar 16, 2019 9:18 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Terrapin @ MSU
Replies: 3
Views: 3157

Re: Terrapin @ MSU

Thank you for playing our set! Please request access to our private forum by clicking User Control Panel (under your username in the top right corner) => Usergroups => 2019 UMD Terrapin discussion. If you are a new forum user, please make sure your signature is enabled with your name.
by wcheng
Fri Mar 15, 2019 2:05 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Where are you going next year? (Collegiate 2019)
Replies: 37
Views: 27859

Re: Where are you going next year? (Collegiate 2019)

I graduated from Maryland in December and I've been living in Palo Alto for my full-time job as a software engineer for about a month so far. I'm down to staff local tournaments, though without a car I'll probably need a ride to staff anywhere besides Stanford.
by wcheng
Mon Mar 11, 2019 11:19 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2019 Terrapin speciifc question discussion and requests
Replies: 39
Views: 5012

Re: 2019 Terrapin speciifc question discussion and requests

R4 -Munich Massacre may need expanded answerline. Player on UGA B buzzes and basically describes Munich Massacre in a sentence but is negged because he doesn’t say whatever is in answerline. Could ‘Munich” be answerline instead? This is not an attempt to refute the point being made here, but for wh...
by wcheng
Mon Mar 11, 2019 1:30 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2019 PIANO/MO Errata
Replies: 35
Views: 3819

Re: 2019 PIANO/MO Errata

There was a bonus part with the answerline “yajna” that I answered with “homa,” which I think is roughly equivalent but was not in the answerline.
by wcheng
Fri Mar 08, 2019 1:46 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: PIANO/Minnesota Open @ JHU (3/9/19)
Replies: 33
Views: 14768

Re: PIANO/Minnesota Open @ JHU (3/9/19)

I've already made weekend plans for Sunday under the assumption that there are no side events, and in any case I can't really play Sunday side events since I have to fly out on Sunday evening. Since the guerilla history has long been announced for Saturday evening, it would seem rather arbitrary to ...
by wcheng
Tue Mar 05, 2019 10:05 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2019 Terrapin speciifc question discussion and requests
Replies: 39
Views: 5012

Re: 2019 Terrapin speciifc question discussion and requests

Can I see the rest of the Garden of Forking Paths tossup? Curious to see the mentioned memorable quotes and/or cliff. 8. This story’s narrator remembers meeting an Englishman who spoke as well as Goethe (“GUR-tuh”) wrote. Upon seeing a bird fly above him, this story’s protagonist imagines it becomi...
by wcheng
Mon Mar 04, 2019 10:12 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Your favorite RPGs
Replies: 9
Views: 1256

Re: Your favorite RPGs

In terms of design and skills-testing, Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup is one of my favorite games ever. I've played it on and off for something like eight years, starting when I was in 8th grade, and I think that I've only just scratched the surface. (Doesn't help that dev team keeps adding new challenges...
by wcheng
Sun Mar 03, 2019 6:59 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2019 Terrapin advanced stats
Replies: 8
Views: 1738

Re: 2019 Terrapin advanced stats

warum wrote: Sun Mar 03, 2019 6:19 pm Will the every.buzz for this tournament eventually be available?
Ophir says they are not deployed yet.
by wcheng
Sun Mar 03, 2019 6:56 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2019 Terrapin speciifc question discussion and requests
Replies: 39
Views: 5012

Re: 2019 Terrapin speciifc question discussion and requests

I think the second sentence of the Alexandria tossup saying that a "king of this city" commissioned the Septuagint is somewhat misleading; Ptolemy II was pharaoh, or perhaps King of Egypt, but to my knowledge neither he nor anyone else was ever "King of Alexandria." It might be ...
by wcheng
Sun Mar 03, 2019 6:30 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2019 Terrapin speciifc question discussion and requests
Replies: 39
Views: 5012

Re: 2019 Terrapin speciifc question discussion and requests

General-purpose APIs for these things, like CUDA, let developers define functions called “kernels” that are executed in parallel by several different threads when called. The cuDNN library is used with these things to implement deep neural networks and accelerate frameworks like Tensorflow. These d...
by wcheng
Sun Mar 03, 2019 6:00 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2019 Terrapin general discussion
Replies: 24
Views: 2321

Re: 2019 Terrapin general discussion

I'm sure that the first part could have been much shorter and to-the-point, but I think that would have undermined the theme of the bonus and not provided players as much of an opportunity to learn about some interesting historical figures that they might not otherwise have been exposed to. For the...
by wcheng
Sun Mar 03, 2019 2:15 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2019 Terrapin advanced stats
Replies: 8
Views: 1738

2019 Terrapin advanced stats

Here are links to detailed stats for each Terrapin site so far. Do not share these with anyone who does not already have access to this private forum.

2/23 Discord
3/2 Auburn
3/2 Maryland
3/2 MIT
3/2 Stanford
3/9 Toronto
3/16 MSU
4/20 UCSB
4/20 WUStL
by wcheng
Sun Mar 03, 2019 1:47 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2019 Terrapin speciifc question discussion and requests
Replies: 39
Views: 5012

Re: 2019 Terrapin speciifc question discussion and requests

I wonder if there will be multiple first buzzes at the “Fear of the Lord” clue for the wisdom tossup. Looking at the buzz statistics, your intuition is correct. There were a cluster of first buzzes around there. Do you think that clue was too early? There hasn't really been a tossup on this before,...
by wcheng
Sun Mar 03, 2019 11:04 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2019 Terrapin general discussion
Replies: 24
Views: 2321

Re: 2019 Terrapin general discussion

One thing that I noticed that got pretty annoying was that a lot of times, the first part of a bonus would go on about lots of cool and interesting things but then hit you with a giveaway. Easy parts should be short and get to the point as quickly as possible. Not sure if I did this myself in the l...
by wcheng
Sat Mar 02, 2019 10:56 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2019 Terrapin at Stanford (3/2)
Replies: 1
Views: 1980

Re: 2019 Terrapin at Stanford (3/2)

A private forum has been created for Terrapin, so please request access by clicking User Control Panel (under your username in the top right corner) => Usergroups => 2019 UMD Terrapin discussion.
by wcheng
Sat Mar 02, 2019 10:55 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Terrapin 2019 @ Auburn (3/2/19)
Replies: 2
Views: 2215

Re: Terrapin 2019 @ Auburn (3/2/19)

A private forum has been created for Terrapin, so please request access by clicking User Control Panel (under your username in the top right corner) => Usergroups => 2019 UMD Terrapin discussion.
by wcheng
Sat Mar 02, 2019 10:55 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Terrapin @ MIT (3/2/19)
Replies: 11
Views: 6127

Re: Terrapin @ MIT (3/2/19)

A private forum has been created for Terrapin, so please request access by clicking User Control Panel (under your username in the top right corner) => Usergroups => 2019 UMD Terrapin discussion.
by wcheng
Sat Mar 02, 2019 10:55 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Terrapin @ UMD (3/2/2019)
Replies: 9
Views: 5168

Re: Terrapin @ UMD (3/2/2019)

A private forum has been created for Terrapin, so please request access by clicking User Control Panel (under your username in the top right corner) => Usergroups => 2019 UMD Terrapin discussion.
by wcheng
Sat Mar 02, 2019 2:13 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2019 Terrapin general discussion
Replies: 24
Views: 2321

Re: 2019 Terrapin general discussion

Separate from the opening post (to avoid conflating my personal approach with the approach of the editors as a whole), I would like to explain my philosophy of writing and editing for this set, or really the relative lack of one. I would say that when it comes to editing questions, I am primarily fo...
by wcheng
Sat Mar 02, 2019 1:54 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2019 Terrapin speciifc question discussion and requests
Replies: 39
Views: 5012

2019 Terrapin speciifc question discussion and requests

Please comment on specific questions and post your requests to see questions in this thread.
by wcheng
Sat Mar 02, 2019 1:53 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2019 Terrapin general discussion
Replies: 24
Views: 2321

2019 Terrapin general discussion

Thank you to all of you for playing 2019's iteration of Terrapin! We hope that you enjoyed the efforts of our writers and editors during this weekend and the weekends that follow. We hope that our decision to write for medium, as opposed to "regular" difficulty, made our set more accessibl...
by wcheng
Sun Feb 24, 2019 12:19 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2019 Terrapin Open Discord mirror (2/23/19) [REGISTRATION CLOSED]
Replies: 15
Views: 8454

Re: 2019 Terrapin Open Discord mirror (2/23/19) [REGISTRATION CLOSED]

Hi everyone, final stats have been posted. Bentley et al. won in an exciting one-game final against "goons" (Nguyen et al.). I'll be reaching out to teams over this evening and tomorrow to resolve all outstanding payments and send out the survey forum. Thank you so much for playing! Your f...
by wcheng
Mon Feb 18, 2019 10:48 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2019 Terrapin Open Discord mirror (2/23/19) [REGISTRATION CLOSED]
Replies: 15
Views: 8454

Re: 2019 Terrapin Open Discord mirror (2/23/19) [REGISTRATION CLOSING 2/20]

A 9th team just registered for the tournament. There's one more spot left and I (and I'm sure most of your competitors) would prefer to have a 10-team field so that the tournament can proceed without byes. Registration is first-come, first-serve, so please get your email in ASAP! We have 10 teams r...
by wcheng
Mon Feb 18, 2019 9:52 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: PIANO/Minnesota Open @ JHU (3/9/19)
Replies: 33
Views: 14768

Re: PIANO/Minnesota Open @ JHU (3/9/19)

When will Guerilla History (or other side events, for that matter) be taking place?
by wcheng
Sun Feb 17, 2019 1:41 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2019 Terrapin Open Discord mirror (2/23/19) [REGISTRATION CLOSED]
Replies: 15
Views: 8454

Re: 2019 Terrapin Open Discord mirror (2/23/19) [REGISTRATION CLOSING 2/20]

The tournament is up to 7 teams and I would like to have either 8 or 10 teams in the final field in order to provide smooth scheduling for all teams. I am closing registration at 10 PM PST on 2/20 , and registration will work on a first-come, first-serve basis as previously stated. The next team to ...
by wcheng
Wed Feb 13, 2019 11:07 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2019 Terrapin Open Discord mirror (2/23/19) [REGISTRATION CLOSED]
Replies: 15
Views: 8454

Re: 2019 Terrapin Open Discord mirror (2/23/19)

Hey, we currently have 5 teams in the field with 5 spots remaining. This is a reminder that registration is first-come first-serve based off of when you send me an email. I would like to have all teams registered by 2/20, in the interests of having some time to properly set up the Discord server in ...
by wcheng
Wed Feb 13, 2019 11:04 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Terrapin available for Spring 2019 mirrors
Replies: 6
Views: 8649

Re: Terrapin available for Spring 2019 mirrors

We've gotten a lot of interest from states in using Terrapin for their NASAT tryouts, and we are excited to see our set being used in this way! I've added some information about which states will be using Terrapin in the OP--mirror fees for NASAT tryouts and all other individual events will be $10 p...
by wcheng
Wed Feb 13, 2019 10:56 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2019 Terrapin announcement [medium-difficulty, March 2019]
Replies: 13
Views: 11887

Re: 2019 Terrapin announcement [medium-difficulty, March 2019]

Is there an update on a high school mirror of Terrapin? Hi Anson (and other interested high schoolers), MAQT is planning to set up a DC area high school mirror. Can I ask you to direct all future questions about Maryland tournaments to Alex Echikson (umdquizbowl@gmail.com)? I will not personally be...
by wcheng
Wed Feb 06, 2019 10:34 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2019 Terrapin announcement [medium-difficulty, March 2019]
Replies: 13
Views: 11887

Re: 2019 Terrapin announcement [medium-difficulty, March 2019]

I just got word that Georgia Tech will not be able to host Terrapin because of a room reservation issue. If there are any other sites in the region willing to host, please feel free to the reach out! We can be flexible with the date if hosting on the 2nd proves to be an issue.
by wcheng
Mon Feb 04, 2019 11:23 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2019 Terrapin Open Discord mirror (2/23/19) [REGISTRATION CLOSED]
Replies: 15
Views: 8454

Re: 2019 Terrapin Open Discord mirror (2/23/19)

I see a lot of teams forming in the spreadsheet but I haven't gotten many registration emails yet. Just a reminder that I need an email to have your registration be official, and that this is first come, first serve.
by wcheng
Thu Jan 31, 2019 9:14 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Terrapin available for Spring 2019 mirrors
Replies: 6
Views: 8649

Re: Terrapin available for Spring 2019 mirrors

Yes, I have confirmation from MAQT's club president that we will be able to host a Terrapin mirror.
by wcheng
Thu Jan 31, 2019 5:12 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2019 Terrapin Open Discord mirror (2/23/19) [REGISTRATION CLOSED]
Replies: 15
Views: 8454

Re: 2019 Terrapin Open Discord mirror (2/23/19)

Just a reminder that any team that wants to play has to email me to officially register. So far, I have yet to receive any registration emails.
by wcheng
Tue Jan 15, 2019 9:17 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2019 Terrapin Open Discord mirror (2/23/19) [REGISTRATION CLOSED]
Replies: 15
Views: 8454

2019 Terrapin Open Discord mirror (2/23/19) [REGISTRATION CLOSED]

I am pleased to announce that I will be directing the online open Discord mirror of 2019 Terrapin in a month on Saturday, February 23rd, 2019 . We are going to have an initial soft cap of 10 teams that is subject to change depending on interest in playing this tournament. Schedule The tournament wil...
by wcheng
Sat Dec 29, 2018 9:36 pm
Forum: Best of the Best
Topic: Maintaining Boundaries
Replies: 4
Views: 18445

Re: Maintaining Boundaries

Thank you for making this thread, David. This is an excellent set of guidelines about an issue that I have briefly pondered but never really considered in depth. I was curious if you had any thoughts about boundaries between older college students (i.e. grad students) and younger ones (i.e. freshman...
by wcheng
Fri Nov 16, 2018 6:56 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Science (2018 Sun God)
Replies: 50
Views: 19895

Re: Science (2018 Sun God)

To add on to this discussion on computational bonus parts, perhaps we could look at a bonus part that (in retrospect) I think accomplished its goal well? In particular, I am referring to the CS bonus part on implementing inorder traversal of a binary tree: [10] Three answers required. Binary trees c...
by wcheng
Mon Nov 12, 2018 12:27 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Sun God @ Johns Hopkins (11/10/2018)
Replies: 6
Views: 8764

Re: Sun God @ Johns Hopkins (11/10/2018)

Leland, thank you for running the tournament! It was a commendable effort for a first time TD and I enjoyed the event, although the rooms in my morning bracket ran very slowly and the pace became grueling at times. For future events, I would suggest room-balancing brackets (i.e. distributing games i...