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107-507: The American Crossword Puzzle Tournament ( ACPT ) is a crossword -solving tournament held annually in February, March, or April. Founded in 1978 by Will Shortz , who still directs the tournament, it is the oldest and largest crossword tournament held in the United States ; the 2023 event set an attendance record with more than 750 competitors. For its first 30 years the contest was held at

214-480: A DVD player, a figure that had surpassed VCRs; it was also higher than personal computers or cable television. The DVD specifications created and updated by the DVD Forum are published as so-called DVD Books (e.g. DVD-ROM Book, DVD-Audio Book, DVD-Video Book, DVD-R Book, DVD-RW Book, DVD-RAM Book, DVD-AR (Audio Recording) Book, DVD-VR (Video Recording) Book, etc.). DVD discs are made up of two discs; normally one

321-526: A Man Doing the Cross-Word Puzzle", with an enthusiast muttering "87 across 'Northern Sea Bird'!!??!?!!? Hm-m-m starts with an 'M', second letter is 'U' ... I'll look up all the words starting with an 'M-U ...' mus-musi-mur-murd—Hot Dog! Here 'tis! Murre !" In 1923 a humorous squib in The Boston Globe has a wife ordering her husband to run out and "rescue the papers ... the part I want

428-446: A November 1997 online interview, and clarified it would release discs in early 1998. However, this date would be pushed back several times before finally releasing their first titles at the 1999 Consumer Electronics Show . In 2001, blank DVD recordable discs cost the equivalent of $ 27.34 US dollars in 2022. Movie and home entertainment distributors adopted the DVD format to replace

535-425: A cipher crossword replaces the clues for each entry with clues for each white cell of the grid—an integer from 1 to 26 inclusive is printed in the corner of each. The objective, as any other crossword, is to determine the proper letter for each cell; in a cipher crossword, the 26 numbers serve as a cipher for those letters: cells that share matching numbers are filled with matching letters, and no two numbers stand for

642-634: A computer. DVD players are a particular type of devices that do not require a computer to work, and can read DVD-Video and DVD-Audio discs. Read and write speeds for the first DVD drives and players were 1,385  kB /s (1,353  KiB /s); this speed is usually called "1×". More recent models, at 18× or 20×, have 18 or 20 times that speed. For CD drives, 1× means 153.6 kB/s (150 KiB/s), about one-ninth as swift. DVDs can spin at much higher speeds than CDs – DVDs can spin at up to 32000 RPM vs 23000 for CDs. In practice, they are not spun by optical drives anywhere close to these speeds to provide

749-409: A contest or "Lead" as in the element), so the solver must make use of checks to establish the correct answer with certainty. For example, the answer to the clue "PC key" for a three-letter answer could be ESC , ALT , TAB , DEL , or INS , so until a check is filled in, giving at least one of the letters, the correct answer cannot be determined. In most American-style crosswords, the majority of

856-484: A cost: DVD±DLs have slower write speeds as compared to DVD±R. DVD-R DL was developed for the DVD Forum by Pioneer Corporation ; DVD+R DL was developed for the DVD+RW Alliance by Mitsubishi Kagaku Media (MKM) and Philips . Recordable DVD discs supporting dual-layer technology are backward-compatible with some hardware developed before the recordable medium. DVD drives are devices that can read DVD discs on

963-502: A definition and some type of word play. Cryptic crossword clues need to be viewed two ways. One is a surface reading and one a hidden meaning. The surface reading is the basic reading of the clue to look for key words and how those words are constructed in the clue. The second way is the hidden meaning. This can be a double definition, an anagram, homophone, or words backwards. There are eight main types of clues in cryptic crosswords. There are several types of wordplay used in cryptics. One

1070-443: A definition at the beginning or end of the clue and wordplay, which provides a way to manufacture the word indicated by the definition, and which may not parse logically. Cryptics usually give the length of their answers in parentheses after the clue, which is especially useful with multi-word answers. Certain signs indicate different forms of wordplay. Solving cryptics is harder to learn than standard crosswords, as learning to interpret

1177-487: A double-sided disc. Philips and Sony decided that it was in their best interests to end the format war, and on September 15, 1995 agreed to unify with companies backing the Super Density Disc to release a single format, with technologies from both. After other compromises between MMCD and SD, the group of computer companies won the day, and a single format was agreed upon. The computer companies also collaborated with

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1284-763: A dual-layer DVD up to 8.5 GB. Variants can store up to a maximum of 17.08 GB. Prerecorded DVDs are mass-produced using molding machines that physically stamp data onto the DVD. Such discs are a form of DVD-ROM because data can only be read and not written or erased. Blank recordable DVD discs ( DVD-R and DVD+R ) can be recorded once using a DVD recorder and then function as a DVD-ROM. Rewritable DVDs ( DVD-RW , DVD+RW , and DVD-RAM ) can be recorded and erased many times. DVDs are used in DVD-Video consumer digital video format and less commonly in DVD-Audio consumer digital audio format, as well as for authoring DVD discs written in

1391-413: A fair and exact definition of the answer, while at the same time being deliberately misleading. Another type of wordplay used in cryptics is the use of homophones . For example, the clue "A few, we hear, add up (3)" is the clue for SUM . The straight definition is "add up", meaning "totalize". The solver must guess that "we hear" indicates a homophone , and so a homophone of a synonym of "A few" ("some")

1498-414: A five-letter word. Most American-style crosswords do not provide this information. Some crossword designers have started including a metapuzzle, or "meta" for short, a second puzzle within the completed puzzle. After the player has correctly solved the crossword puzzle in the usual fashion, the solution forms the basis of a second puzzle. The designer usually includes a hint to the metapuzzle. For instance,

1605-555: A frequent start point is locating where 'Q' and 'U' must appear. In a diagramless crossword, often called a diagramless for short or, in the UK, a skeleton crossword or carte blanche, the grid offers overall dimensions, but the locations of most of the clue numbers and shaded squares are unspecified. A solver must deduce not only the answers to individual clues, but how to fit together partially built-up clumps of answers into larger clumps with properly set shaded squares. Some of these puzzles follow

1712-488: A given answer. Most desirable are clues that are clean but deceptive, with a smooth surface reading (that is, the resulting clue looks as natural a phrase as possible). The Usenet newsgroup rec.puzzles.crosswords has a number of clueing competitions where contestants all submit clues for the same word and a judge picks the best one. In principle, each cryptic clue is usually sufficient to define its answer uniquely, so it should be possible to answer each clue without use of

1819-482: A noticeable pause in A/V playback on earlier DVD players , the length of which varies between hardware. A printed message explaining that the layer-transition pause was not a malfunction became standard on DVD keep cases . During mastering, a studio could make the transition less obvious by timing it to occur just before a camera angle change or other abrupt shift, an early example being the DVD release of Toy Story . Later in

1926-440: A number referenced by the clue lists. For example, the answer to a clue labeled "17 Down" is entered with the first letter in the cell numbered "17", proceeding down from there. Numbers are almost never repeated; numbered cells are numbered consecutively, usually from left to right across each row, starting with the top row and proceeding downward. Some Japanese crosswords are numbered from top to bottom down each column, starting with

2033-459: A past participle (altered, broken, jumbled) or indeed any phrase giving a similar meaning." Embedded words are another common trick in cryptics. The clue "Bigotry aside, I'd take him (9)" is solved by APARTHEID . The straight definition is "bigotry", and the wordplay explains itself, indicated by the word "take" (since one word "takes" another): "aside" means APART and I'd is simply ID, so APART and ID "take" HE (which is, in cryptic crossword usage,

2140-585: A perfectly good synonym for "him"). The answer could be elucidated as APART(HE)ID. Another common clue type is the "hidden clue" or "container", where the answer is hidden in the text of the clue itself. For example, "Made a dug-out, buried, and passed away (4)" is solved by DEAD . The answer is written in the clue: "maDE A Dug-out". "Buried" indicates that the answer is embedded within the clue. There are numerous other forms of wordplay found in cryptic clues. Backwards words can be indicated by words like "climbing", "retreating", or "ascending" (depending on whether it

2247-475: A press release stating that they would only accept a single format. The group voted to boycott both formats unless the two camps agreed on a single, converged standard. They recruited Lou Gerstner , president of IBM, to pressure the executives of the warring factions. In one significant compromise, the MMCD and SD groups agreed to adopt proposal SD 9, which specified that both layers of the dual-layered disc be read from

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2354-552: A puzzle might have 1-across clued as "Central character in The Lord of the Rings" = FRODO , with 17-down clued as "Precious object for 1-Across" = RING . When an answer is composed of multiple or hyphenated words, some crosswords (especially in Britain) indicate the structure of the answer. For example, "(3,5)" after a clue indicates that the answer is composed of a three-letter word followed by

2461-449: A safety margin. DVD drives limit reading speed to 16× (constant angular velocity), which means 9280 rotations per minute. Early-generation drives released before the mid-2000s have lower limits. DVD recordable and rewritable discs can be read and written using either constant angular velocity (CAV), constant linear velocity (CLV), Partial constant angular velocity (P-CAV) or Zoned Constant Linear Velocity (Z-CLV or ZCLV). Due to

2568-420: A special AVCHD format to hold high definition material (often in conjunction with AVCHD format camcorders ). DVDs containing other types of information may be referred to as DVD data discs. The Oxford English Dictionary comments that, "In 1995, rival manufacturers of the product initially named digital video disc agreed that, in order to emphasize the flexibility of the format for multimedia applications,

2675-477: A standard 15×15-square "weekday-size" puzzle) that share some relationship, type of pun, or other element in common. As an example, the New York Times crossword of April 26, 2005 by Sarah Keller, edited by Will Shortz , featured five themed entries ending in the different parts of a tree: SQUAREROOT , TABLELEAF , WARDROBETRUNK , BRAINSTEM , and BANKBRANCH . The above is an example of a category theme, where

2782-545: A standard definition CRT TV or an HD flat panel TV with a DVD mechanism under the CRT or on the back of the flat panel, and VCR/DVD combos were also available for purchase. For consumers, DVD soon replaced VHS as the favored choice for home movie releases. In 2001, DVD players outsold VCRs for the first time in the United States. At that time, one in four American households owned a DVD player. By 2007, about 80% of Americans owned

2889-432: A storage capacity of 4.7 GB (4.38 GiB ) for a single-layered, single-sided disc and 8.5 GB (7.92 GiB) for a dual-layered, single-sided disc. The DVD specification ended up similar to Toshiba and Matsushita's Super Density Disc, except for the dual-layer option. MMCD was single-sided and optionally dual-layer, whereas SD was two half-thickness, single-layer discs which were pressed separately and then glued together to form

2996-433: A valid clue for AUNTS but not UNCLE , while "More joyful" could clue HAPPIER but not HAPPIEST . Capitalization of answer letters is conventionally ignored; crossword puzzles are typically filled in, and their answer sheets published, in all caps . This ensures a proper name can have its initial capital letter checked with a non-capitalizable letter in the intersecting clue. Some clue examples: The constraints of

3103-399: A very difficult crossword of 15 × 15 size on an oversize grid on a stage at the front of the tournament room. The competitors in this round wear noise-blocking headphones so that a team of commentators can remark upon the action for the spectators. The solvers hold a sheet of clues and write their answers on the grid with a dry-erase marker for all to see. Accuracy and speed are important as

3210-424: A weekday-size Thursday puzzle. This has led U.S. solvers to use the day of the week as a shorthand when describing how hard a puzzle is: e.g. an easy puzzle may be referred to as a "Monday" or a "Tuesday", a medium-difficulty puzzle as a "Wednesday", and a truly difficult puzzle as a "Saturday". Typically clues appear outside the grid, divided into an across list and a down list; the first cell of each entry contains

3317-843: Is "or": "FIGHT OR FLIGHT". Since September 2015, the Wall Street Journal Friday crossword has featured a crossword contest metapuzzle, with the prize of a WSJ mug going to a reader randomly chosen from among those submitting the correct answer. Some puzzle grids contain more than one correct answer for the same set of clues. These are called Schrödinger or quantum puzzles, alluding to the Schrödinger's Cat thought experiment in quantum physics . Schrödinger puzzles have frequently been published in venues including Fireball Crosswords and The American Values Club Crosswords , and at least ten have appeared in The New York Times since

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3424-523: Is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan . The medium can store any kind of digital data and has been widely used to store video programs (watched using DVD players ), software and other computer files. DVDs offer significantly higher storage capacity than compact discs (CD) while having the same dimensions. A standard single-layer DVD can store up to 4.7 GB of data,

3531-420: Is an across clue or a down clue) or by directional indicators such as "going North" (meaning upwards) or "West" (right-to-left); letters can be replaced or removed with indicators such as "nothing rather than excellence" (meaning replace E in a word with O); the letter I can be indicated by "me" or "one;" the letter O can be indicated by "nought", "nothing", "zero", or "a ring" (since it visually resembles one);

3638-438: Is appropriately 21 x 21 squares, the size of regulation Sunday puzzles in newspapers. Tournament judges score the solved puzzles on accuracy and speed, and the puzzles are scanned and ranked. Judges typically include many of the nation's most prolific and/or well known crossword constructors and editors. After these seven rounds, the top three solvers in the top three divisions progress to the final round, which consists of solving

3745-419: Is available in two formats, General (650 nm) and Authoring (635 nm), where Authoring discs may be recorded with CSS encrypted video content but General discs may not. Dual-layer recording (occasionally called double-layer recording) allows DVD-R and DVD+R discs to store nearly double the data of a single-layer disc—8.5 and 4.7 gigabyte capacities, respectively. The additional capacity comes at

3852-462: Is blank, and the other contains data. Each disc is 0.6 mm thick, and are glued together to form a DVD disc. The gluing process must be done carefully to make the disc as flat as possible to avoid both birefringence and "disc tilt", which is when the disc is not perfectly flat, preventing it from being read. Some specifications for mechanical, physical and optical characteristics of DVD optical discs can be downloaded as freely available standards from

3959-519: Is blowing down the street." "What is it you're so keen about?" "The Cross-Word Puzzle. Hurry, please, that's a good boy." In The New Yorker 's inaugural issue, from 1925, the "Jottings About Town" section observed, "Judging from the number of solvers in the subway and 'L' trains, the crossword puzzle bids fair to become a fad with New Yorkers." Also in 1925, the New York Public Library reported that "The latest craze to strike libraries

4066-406: Is figuring out how to integrate the list of words together within the grid so that all intersections of words are valid. Fill-in crosswords may often have longer word length than regular crosswords to make the crossword easier to solve, and symmetry is often disregarded. Fitting together several long words is easier than fitting together several short words because there are fewer possibilities for how

4173-450: Is lost. Numerous factors affect longevity: composition and quality of the media (recording and substrate layers), humidity and light storage conditions, the quality of the initial recording (which is sometimes a matter of mutual compatibility of media and recorder), etc. According to NIST , "[a] temperature of 64.4 °F (18 °C) and 40% RH [Relative Humidity] would be considered suitable for long-term storage. A lower temperature and RH

4280-492: Is measureable, which means that future data losses caused by deteriorating media can be predicted well in advance by measuring the rate of correctable data errors. Support of measuring the disc quality varies among optical drive vendors and models. DVD-Video is a standard for distributing video/audio content on DVD media. The format went on sale in Japan on November 1, 1996, in the United States on March 24, 1997, to line up with

4387-568: Is recommended for extended-term storage." As with CDs, the information and data storage will begin to degrade over time with most standard DVDs lasting up to 30 years depending on the type of environment they are stored and whether they are full with data. According to the Optical Storage Technology Association (OSTA), "Manufacturers claim lifespans ranging from 30 to 100 years for DVD, DVD-R and DVD+R discs and up to 30 years for DVD-RW, DVD+RW and DVD-RAM." According to

American Crossword Puzzle Tournament - Misplaced Pages Continue

4494-410: Is straightforward definition substitution using parts of a word. For example, in one puzzle by Mel Taub, the answer IMPORTANT is given the clue "To bring worker into the country may prove significant". The explanation is that to import means "to bring into the country", the "worker" is a worker ant , and "significant" means important . Here, "significant" is the straight definition (appearing here at

4601-923: Is that the grid should have 180-degree rotational symmetry , so that its pattern appears the same if the paper is turned upside down. Most puzzle designs also require that all white cells be orthogonally contiguous (that is, connected in one mass through shared sides, to form a single polyomino ). Substantial variants from the usual forms exist. Two of the common ones are barred crosswords, which use bold lines between squares (instead of shaded squares) to separate answers, and circular designs, with answers entered either radially or in concentric circles. "Free form" crosswords ("criss-cross" puzzles), which have simple, asymmetric designs, are often seen on school worksheets, children's menus, and other entertainment for children. Grids forming shapes other than squares are also occasionally used. Puzzles are often one of several standard sizes. For example, many weekday newspaper puzzles (such as

4708-418: Is the answer. Other words relating to sound or hearing can be used to signal the presence of a homophone clue (e.g., "aloud", "audibly", "in conversation", etc.). The double meaning is commonly used as another form of wordplay. For example, "Cat's tongue (7)" is solved by PERSIAN , since this is a type of cat, as well as a tongue, or language. This is the only type of cryptic clue without wordplay—both parts of

4815-488: Is the crossword puzzle", and complained that when "the puzzle 'fans' swarm to the dictionaries and encyclopedias so as to drive away readers and students who need these books in their daily work, can there be any doubt of the Library's duty to protect its legitimate readers?" The first book of crossword puzzles was published by Simon & Schuster in 1924, after a suggestion from co-founder Richard Simon's aunt. The publisher

4922-478: Is the explanation provided in a DVD Forum Primer from 2000 and in the DVD Forum 's mission statement, which the purpose is to promote broad acceptance of DVD products on technology, across entertainment, and other industries. Because DVDs became highly popular for the distribution of movies in the 2000s, the term DVD became popularly used in English as a noun to describe specifically a full-length movie released on

5029-497: The 69th Academy Awards that day; in Canada, Central America, and Indonesia later in 1997; and in Europe, Australia, and Africa in 1998. DVD-Video became the dominant form of home video distribution in Japan when it first went on sale on November 1, 1996, but it shared the market for home video distribution in the United States for several years; it was June 15, 2003, when weekly DVD-Video in

5136-562: The COVID-19 pandemic , the 2020 tournament was canceled. In April 2021, the 43rd tournament was held virtually. Anyone can participate, although registration is limited. Participants compete as members of at least two divisions, with prizes awarded based on division. All participants are members of Division A and a regional division; those 25 years old or younger, or at least 50, are also members of an age division. Membership in Divisions B–E and

5243-552: The ISO website. There are also equivalent European Computer Manufacturers Association (Ecma) standards for some of these specifications, such as Ecma-267 for DVD-ROMs. Also, the DVD+RW Alliance publishes competing recordable DVD specifications such as DVD+R, DVD+R DL, DVD+RW or DVD+RW DL . These DVD formats are also ISO standards. Some DVD specifications (e.g. for DVD-Video) are not publicly available and can be obtained only from

5350-566: The Marriott in Stamford, Connecticut , but owing to increasing popularity, in 2008 it moved to the larger Marriott Brooklyn Bridge in Brooklyn , New York . In 2015, the tournament returned to Stamford. The tournament traditionally begins Friday evening with social games and a wine-and-cheese reception. More games are played on Saturday evening, many of them adaptations of television game shows . Due to

5457-607: The Optical Storage Technology Association (OSTA) on the use of their implementation of the ISO-13346 file system (known as Universal Disk Format ) for use on the new DVDs. The format's details were finalized on December 8, 1995. In November 1995, Samsung announced it would start mass-producing DVDs by September 1996. The format launched on November 1, 1996, in Japan, mostly with music video releases. The first major releases from Warner Home Video arrived on December 20, 1996, with four titles being available. The format's release in

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5564-521: The format war of 2006–2008 . A dual layer HD DVD can store up to 30 GB and a dual layer Blu-ray disc can hold up to 50 GB. However, unlike previous format changes, e.g., vinyl to Compact Disc or VHS videotape to DVD, initially there was no immediate indication that production of the standard DVD will gradually wind down, as at the beginning of the 2010s they still dominated, with around 75% of video sales and approximately one billion DVD player sales worldwide as of April 2011. In fact, experts claimed that

5671-546: The "word-cross" name to "cross-word". Crossword puzzles became a regular weekly feature in the New York World , and spread to other newspapers; the Pittsburgh Press , for example, was publishing them at least as early as 1916 and The Boston Globe by 1917. By the 1920s, the crossword phenomenon was starting to attract notice. In October 1922, newspapers published a comic strip by Clare Briggs entitled "Movie of

5778-525: The 1970s from the Latin roots crucis and verbum . Crossword grids such as those appearing in most North American newspapers and magazines consist mainly of solid regions of uninterrupted white squares, separated more sparsely by shaded squares. Every letter is "checked" (i.e. is part of both an "across" word and a "down" word) and usually each answer must contain at least three letters. In such puzzles shaded squares are typically limited to about one-sixth of

5885-423: The 2005 tournament. The DVD release includes video from the final round of the 2006 tournament. Shortz credits the film as the main reason for the dramatically increased attendance (an increase of 200 contestants) at the 2007 event, which necessitated the subsequent move to Brooklyn. Dr. Fill , a computer program, was an unofficial competitor from 2012 to 2021. In 2021, Dr. Fill outscored all human competitors for

5992-474: The American New York Times crossword puzzle ) are 15×15 squares, while weekend puzzles may be 21×21, 23×23, or 25×25. The New York Times puzzles also set a common pattern for American crosswords by increasing in difficulty throughout the week: their Monday puzzles are the easiest and the puzzles get harder each day until Saturday. Their larger Sunday puzzle is about the same level of difficulty as

6099-527: The American-style grid (in which every letter is checked) often require a fair number of answers not to be dictionary words. As a result, the following ways to clue abbreviations and other non-words, although they can be found in "straight" British crosswords, are much more common in American ones: Many American crossword puzzles feature a "theme" consisting of a number of long entries (generally three to five in

6206-460: The DVD Book assigns them distinct disc types. DVD-14 has no analogous 8 cm type. The comparative data for 8 cm discs is provided further down. HP initially developed recordable DVD media from the need to store data for backup and transport. DVD recordables are now also used for consumer audio and video recording. Three formats were developed: DVD-R / RW , DVD+R / RW (plus), and DVD-RAM . DVD-R

6313-643: The DVD Format/Logo Licensing Corporation (DVD FLLC) for a fee of US$ 5000. Every subscriber must sign a non-disclosure agreement as certain information on the DVD Books is proprietary and confidential. Borrowing from the LaserDisc format, the DVD standard includes DVD-10 discs (Type B in ISO) with two recorded data layers such that only one layer is accessible from either side of the disc. This doubles

6420-500: The DVD would remain the dominant medium for at least another five years as Blu-ray technology was still in its introductory phase, write and read speeds being poor and necessary hardware being expensive and not readily available. Consumers initially were also slow to adopt Blu-ray due to the cost. By 2009, 85% of stores were selling Blu-ray Discs. A high-definition television and appropriate connection cables are also required to take advantage of Blu-ray disc. Some analysts suggested that

6527-510: The Italian magazine Il Secolo Illustrato della Domenica . It was designed by Giuseppe Airoldi and titled " Per passare il tempo " ("To pass the time"). Airoldi's puzzle was a four-by-four grid with no shaded squares; it included horizontal and vertical clues. Crosswords in England during the 19th century were of an elementary kind, apparently derived from the word square , a group of words arranged so

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6634-505: The Rookie Division is based on the participant's past or present tournament status. For the purposes of prizes contestants compete simultaneously in all divisions for which they are eligible, with no more than one cash prize per contestant. The 11 regional divisions include ten U.S. divisions and a "Foreign" division for the rest of the world. Geographically, three of the 10 U.S. divisions – West, Midwest, and South – span most of

6741-456: The U.S. was delayed multiple times, from August 1996, to October 1996, November 1996, before finally settling on early 1997. Players began to be produced domestically that winter, with March 24, 1997, as the U.S. launch date of the format proper in seven test markets. Approximately 32 titles were available on launch day, mainly from the Warner Bros. , MGM , and New Line libraries, with

6848-456: The United States rentals began outnumbering weekly VHS cassette rentals. DVD-Video is still the dominant form of home video distribution worldwide except for in Japan where it was surpassed by Blu-ray Disc when Blu-ray first went on sale in Japan on March 31, 2006. The purpose of CSS is twofold: In 2006, two new formats called HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc were released as the successor to DVD. HD DVD competed unsuccessfully with Blu-ray Disc in

6955-411: The answer is a number or year. There are also numerical fill-in crosswords. An acrostic is a type of word puzzle, in eponymous acrostic form, that typically consists of two parts. The first is a set of lettered clues, each of which has numbered blanks representing the letters of the answer. The second part is a long series of numbered blanks and spaces, representing a quotation or other text, into which

7062-407: The answers for the clues fit. In most forms of the puzzle, the first letters of each correct clue answer, read in order from clue A on down the list, will spell out the author of the quote and the title of the work it is taken from; this can be used as an additional solving aid. The arroword is a variant of a crossword that does not have as many black squares as a true crossword, but has arrows inside

7169-559: The biggest obstacle to replacing DVD was due to its installed base; a large majority of consumers were satisfied with DVDs. DVDs started to face competition from video on demand services around 2015. With increasing numbers of homes having high speed Internet connections, many people had the option to either rent or buy video from an online service, and view it by streaming it directly from that service's servers, meaning they no longer need any form of permanent storage media for video at all. By 2017, digital streaming services had overtaken

7276-479: The clue are a straight definition. Cryptics often include anagrams , as well. For example, in "Slipped a disc – it's cruel (8)" an anagram is indicated by "slipped", with the definition to aim for being "cruel". Ignoring all punctuation, "a disc – it's" produces "SADISTIC". Colin Dexter advised that "Usually the indicator will be an adjective (drunk, fancy, unusual, and so on); an adverb (badly, excitedly, unexpectedly);

7383-446: The clues in the puzzle are straight clues, with the remainder being one of the other types described below. Crossword clues are generally consistent with the solutions. For instance, clues and their solutions should always agree in tense, number, and degree. If a clue is in the past tense, so is the answer: thus "Traveled on horseback" would be a valid clue for the solution RODE , but not for RIDE . Similarly, "Family members" would be

7490-476: The competitors are ranked by fewest mistakes, then time. The winner of this round is declared the U.S. crossword tournament champion. The top three competitors in the B and C divisions also compete on the same puzzle, though with different sets of clues, for their division titles. As of 2024, there are six multiple winners: Dan Feyer (9 tournaments), Tyler Hinman (7), Jon Delfin (7), Douglas Hoylman (6), David Rosen (4), and Trip Payne (3). Three women have won

7597-435: The country. The remaining seven divisions are in the northeastern United States, with three of the seven located in the state of New York . In 2024 a "Pairs" division was added in which pairs of individuals work collaboratively to solve the same puzzles solved by the individual participants. Scoring and other rules are the same. Pairs participants are not included in the various geographic and age divisions. The main part of

7704-418: The daily New York Times puzzle by Ben Tausig had four squares which led to correct answers reading both across and down if solvers entered either "M" or "F". The puzzle's theme, GENDERFLUID , was revealed at 37 across in the center of the puzzle: "Having a variable identity, as suggested by four squares in this puzzle." In cryptic crosswords, the clues are puzzles in themselves. A typical clue contains both

7811-475: The developers of the DVD format and eventually the first company to actually release a DVD-based console. Game consoles such as the PlayStation 2 , Xbox , and Xbox 360 use DVDs as their source medium for games and other software. Contemporary games for Windows were also distributed on DVD. Early DVDs were mastered using DLT tape, but using DVD-R DL or +R DL eventually became common. TV DVD combos , combining

7918-466: The different types of cryptic clues can take some practice. In Great Britain and throughout much of the Commonwealth , cryptics of varying degrees of difficulty are featured in many newspapers. The first crosswords with strictly cryptic clues appeared in the 1920s, pioneered by Edward Powys Mathers. He established the principle of cryptic crossword clues. Cryptic crossword clues consist typically of

8025-443: The editor, this might be represented either with a question mark at the end of the clue or with a modifier such as "maybe" or "perhaps". In more difficult puzzles, the indicator may be omitted, increasing ambiguity between a literal meaning and a wordplay meaning. Examples: Any type of puzzle may contain cross-references , where the answer to one clue forms part of another clue, in which it is referred to by number and direction. E.g.,

8132-432: The end of the clue), "to bring worker into the country" is the wordplay definition, and "may prove" serves to link the two. Note that in a cryptic clue, there is almost always only one answer that fits both the definition and the wordplay, so that when one sees the answer, one knows that it is the right answer—although it can sometimes be a challenge to figure out why it is the right answer. A good cryptic clue should provide

8239-469: The first time. The MEmoRiaL Award "for lifetime achievement in crossword construction", named in honor of Merl Reagle , has been presented at the tournament since 2016. Crossword Crosswords commonly appear in newspapers and magazines . The earliest crosswords that resemble their modern form were popularized by the New York World in the 1910s. Many variants of crosswords are popular around

8346-889: The format's life, larger data buffers and faster optical pickups in DVD players made layer transitions effectively invisible regardless of mastering. Dual-layer DVDs are recorded using Opposite Track Path (OTP). The DVD Book also permits an additional disc type called DVD-14: a hybrid double-sided disc with one dual-layer side, one single-layer side, and a total nominal capacity of 12.3 GB. DVD-14 has no counterpart in ISO. Both of these additional disc types are extremely rare due to their complicated and expensive manufacturing. For this reason, some DVDs that were initially issued as double-sided discs were later pressed as two-disc sets. Note : The above sections regarding disc types pertain to 12 cm discs. The same disc types exist for 8 cm discs: ISO standards still regard these discs as Types A–D, while

8453-442: The format; for example the sentence to "watch a DVD" describes watching a movie on DVD. Released in 1987, CD Video used analog video encoding on optical discs matching the established standard 120 mm (4.7 in) size of audio CDs. Video CD (VCD) became one of the first formats for distributing digitally encoded films in this format, in 1993. In the same year, two new optical disc storage formats were being developed. One

8560-611: The grid, with clues preceding the arrows. It has been called the most popular word puzzle in many European countries , and is often called the Scandinavian crossword, as it is believed to have originated in Sweden. The phrase "cross word puzzle" was first written in 1862 by Our Young Folks in the United States. Crossword-like puzzles, for example Double Diamond Puzzles, appeared in the magazine St. Nicholas , published since 1873. Another crossword puzzle appeared on September 14, 1890, in

8667-628: The grid. In practice, the use of checks is an important aid to the solver. These are common crossword variants that vary more from a regular crossword than just an unusual grid shape or unusual clues; these crossword variants may be based on different solving principles and require a different solving skill set. Cipher crosswords were invented in Germany in the 19th century. Published under various trade names (including Code Breakers, Code Crackers, and Kaidoku), and not to be confused with cryptic crosswords (ciphertext puzzles are commonly known as cryptograms ),

8774-456: The ground up. By the beginning of the 2020s, sales of DVD had dropped 86% with respect to the peak of DVD sales around 2005, while on-demand sales and, overall, subscription streaming of TV shows and movies grew by over 1,200%. At its peak, DVD sales represented almost two thirds of video market in the US; approximately 15 years later, around 2020, they fell to only 10% of the market. By 2022, there

8881-451: The late 1980s. The daily New York Times puzzle for November 5, 1996, by Jeremiah Farrell , had a clue for 39 across that read "Lead story in tomorrow's newspaper, with 43 Across (!)." The answer for 43 across was ELECTED; depending on the outcome of that day's Presidential Election , the answer for 39 across would have been correct with either CLINTON or BOBDOLE , as would each of the corresponding down answers. On September 1, 2016,

8988-426: The leftmost column and proceeding right. American-style crossword clues, called straight or quick clues by those more familiar with cryptic puzzles, are often simple definitions of the answers. Often, a straight clue is not in itself sufficient to distinguish between several possible answers, either because multiple synonymous answers may fit or because the clue itself is a homonym (e.g., "Lead" as in to be ahead in

9095-476: The letter X might be clued as "a cross", or "ten" (as in the Roman numeral ), or "an illiterate's signature", or "sounds like your old flame" (homophone for "ex"). "Senselessness" is solved by "e", because "e" is what remains after removing (less) "ness" from "sense". With the different types of wordplay and definition possibilities, the composer of a cryptic puzzle is presented with many different possible ways to clue

9202-485: The letters read alike vertically and horizontally, and printed in children's puzzle books and various periodicals. On December 21, 1913, Arthur Wynne , a journalist born in Liverpool , England, published a "word-cross" puzzle in the New York World that embodied most of the features of the modern genre. This puzzle is frequently cited as the first crossword puzzle, and Wynne as the inventor. An illustrator later reversed

9309-447: The long words intersect together. These types of crosswords are also used to demonstrate artificial intelligence abilities, such as finding solutions to the puzzle based on a set of determined constraints . A cross-figure or crossnumber is the numerical analogy of a crossword, in which the solutions to the clues are numbers instead of words. Clues are usually arithmetical expressions, but can also be general knowledge clues to which

9416-428: The notable inclusion of the 1996 film Twister . However, the launch was planned for the following day (March 25), leading to a distribution change with retailers and studios to prevent similar violations of breaking the street date . The nationwide rollout for the format happened on August 22, 1997. DTS announced in late 1997 that they would be coming onto the format. The sound system company revealed details in

9523-451: The original film recordings. Shows that were made between the early 1980s and the early 2000s were generally shot on film, then transferred to video tape, and then edited natively in either NTSC or PAL; this makes high-definition transfers impossible, as these SD standards were baked into the final cuts of the episodes. Star Trek: The Next Generation was the only such show that had a Blu-ray release, as prints were re-scanned and edited from

9630-399: The preferred abbreviation DVD would be understood to denote digital versatile disc." The OED also states that in 1995, "The companies said the official name of the format will simply be DVD. Toshiba had been using the name 'digital video disc', but that was switched to 'digital versatile disc' after computer companies complained that it left out their applications." "Digital versatile disc"

9737-408: The puzzle Eight Isn't Enough by Matt Gaffney gives the clue "This week's contest answer is a three-word phrase whose second word is 'or'." The crossword solution includes the entries "BROUGHT TO NAUGHT", "MIGHT MAKES RIGHT", "CAUGHT A STRAIGHT", and "HEIGHT AND WEIGHT", which are all three-word phrases with two words ending in -ght. The solution to the meta is a similar phrase in which the middle word

9844-412: The sales of DVDs and Blu-rays for the first time. Until the end of the 2010s, manufacturers continued to release standard DVD titles as of 2020 , and the format remained the preferred one for the release of older television programs and films. Shows that were shot and edited entirely on film, such as Star Trek: The Original Series , could not be released in high definition without being re-scanned from

9951-456: The same letter. All resultant entries must be valid words. Usually, at least one number's letter is given at the outset. English-language cipher crosswords are nearly always pangrammatic (all letters of the alphabet appear in the solution). As these puzzles are closer to codes than quizzes, they require a different skillset; many basic cryptographic techniques, such as determining likely vowels, are key to solving these. Given their pangrammaticity,

10058-414: The same side—instead of proposal SD 10, which would have created a two-sided disc that users would have to turn over. Philips/Sony strongly insisted on the source code, EFMPlus , that Kees Schouhamer Immink had designed for the MMCD, because it makes it possible to apply the existing CD servo technology. Its drawback was a loss from 5 to 4.7 Gbyte of capacity. As a result, the DVD specification provided

10165-663: The slightly lower data density of dual layer DVDs (4.25 GB instead of 4.7 GB per layer), the required rotation speed is around 10% faster for the same data rate, which means that the same angular speed rating equals a 10% higher physical angular rotation speed. For that reason, the increase of reading speeds of dual layer media has stagnated at 12× ( constant angular velocity ) for half-height optical drives released since around 2005, and slim type optical drives are only able to record dual layer media at 6× (constant angular velocity), while reading speeds of 8× are still supported by such. The quality and data integrity of optical media

10272-425: The theme elements are all members of the same set. Other types of themes include: The themed crossword puzzle was invented in 1958 by Harold T. Bers , an advertising executive and frequent contributor to The New York Times crossword. The Simon & Schuster Crossword Puzzle Series has published many unusual themed crosswords. "Rosetta Stone", by Sam Bellotto Jr., incorporates a Caesar cipher cryptogram as

10379-417: The theme; the key to breaking the cipher is the answer to 1 across. Another unusual theme requires the solver to use the answer to a clue as another clue. The answer to that clue is the real solution. Many puzzles feature clues involving wordplay which are to be taken metaphorically or in some sense other than their literal meaning, requiring some form of lateral thinking . Depending on the puzzle creator or

10486-416: The total nominal capacity of a DVD-10 disc to 9.4 GB (8.75 GiB), but each side is locked to 4.7 GB. Like DVD-5 discs, DVD-10 discs are defined as single-layer (SL) discs. DVD hardware accesses the additional layer (layer 1) by refocusing the laser through an otherwise normally-placed, semitransparent first layer (layer 0). This laser refocus—and the subsequent time needed to reacquire laser tracking—can cause

10593-563: The total. Crossword grids elsewhere, such as in Britain, South Africa , India and Australia, have a lattice -like structure, with a higher percentage of shaded squares (around 25%), leaving about half the letters in an answer unchecked. For example, if the top row has an answer running all the way across, there will often be no across answers in the second row. Another tradition in puzzle design (in North America, India, and Britain particularly)

10700-536: The tournament consists of seven rounds, each featuring a puzzle that all competitors solve. There are three rounds in the late morning and three in the early afternoon on Saturday, and the seventh round is on Sunday. Puzzles vary in size and difficulty from round to round. The puzzles are commissioned by Shortz from the top constructors in crosswords, with the fifth puzzle the hardest of the first six. The two three-round sessions consist of puzzles with 15, 17 and 19 squares in each row and column respectively. The Sunday puzzle

10807-399: The tournament: Nancy Schuster in 1978, Miriam Raphael in 1979, and Ellen Ripstein in 2001. 22 of the 76 (29%) second- and third-place finishers have been female. The 2006 documentary Wordplay , directed by Patrick Creadon , focuses on Will Shortz and the 2005 American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. It includes interviews with many of the top competitors and climaxes with the final round of

10914-435: The traditional symmetry rule, others have left-right mirror symmetry, and others have greater levels of symmetry or outlines suggesting other shapes. If the symmetry of the grid is given, the solver can use it to his/her advantage. A fill-in crossword (also known as crusadex or cruzadex) features a grid and the full list of words to be entered in that grid, but does not give explicit clues for where each word goes. The challenge

11021-430: The ubiquitous VHS tape as the primary consumer video distribution format. Immediately following the formal adoption of a unified standard for DVD, two of the four leading video game console companies ( Sega and The 3DO Company ) said they already had plans to design a gaming console with DVDs as the source medium. Sony stated at the time that they had no plans to use DVD in their gaming systems, despite being one of

11128-519: The world, including cryptic crosswords and many language-specific variants. Crossword construction in modern times usually involves the use of software. Constructors choose a theme (except for themeless puzzles), place the theme answers in a grid which is usually symmetric, fill in the rest of the grid, and then write clues. A person who constructs or solves crosswords is called a "cruciverbalist". There are only about 200 cruciverbalists globally. The word "cruciverbalist" appears to have been coined in

11235-413: Was an increased demand of high definition media, where Ultra HD Blu-ray and regular Blu-ray formats made up for almost half of the US market while sales of physical media continued to shrink in favor of streaming services. Longevity of a storage medium is measured by how long the data remains readable, assuming compatible devices exist that can read it: that is, how long the disc can be stored until data

11342-626: Was initially skeptical that the book would succeed, and only printed a small run at first. The book was promoted with an included pencil, and "This odd-looking book with a pencil attached to it" was an instant hit, leading crossword puzzles to become a craze of 1924. To help promote its books, Simon & Schuster also founded the Amateur Cross Word Puzzle League of America, which began the process of developing standards for puzzle design. DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc )

11449-847: Was the Multimedia Compact Disc (MMCD), backed by Philips and Sony (developers of the CD and CD-i ), and the other was the Super Density (SD) disc, supported by Toshiba , Time Warner , Matsushita Electric , Hitachi , Mitsubishi Electric , Pioneer , Thomson , and JVC . By the time of the press launches for both formats in January 1995, the MMCD nomenclature had been dropped, and Philips and Sony were referring to their format as Digital Video Disc (DVD). On May 3, 1995, an ad hoc , industry technical group formed from five computer companies (IBM, Apple, Compaq , Hewlett-Packard , and Microsoft) issued

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