Hi,
Nice idea, and implemented well too.
There are several online dictionaries, the most obvious of course being
dictionary.com, but I don't know how easy it would be to get the data
from. Another dictionary that may be useful is wikitory (
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Main_Page ), which can be made to output
in xml form (see http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Special:Export ).
Good luck with the project.
I wonder if it would be possible to use the bbc news pictures to make an
odd one out thing ... :)
Duncan
Nick Crossland wrote:
OK, since my first idea, of mapping traffic data -> Google maps has
been done already now, here's something a bit different:
http://www.nickcrossland.co.uk/missingwordsround
It's a prototype for an online version of the 'Missing Word' Round
from 'Have I Got News For You'. It takes 100 most recent headlines
from the BBC Backstage RSS news feed, updated every 15 minutes. The
missing words are selected semi-randomly by the server, so may not
have quite the comic potential of the TV version. PHP isn't renowned
for its sense of humour.
The feeds are filtered for certain keywords, since death, murder and
destruction aren't really that funny. The odd one may still slip
through...
Because it is based on an RSS feed, there's the potential for 'guest
publications' - just like the show. That is, assuming 'Knitting
Machine World', 'Sea Shell Quarterly' or 'Centre Parting Monthly'
publish an RSS version of their headlines!
To-Do
# Track user sessions, so that you don't get repeat headlines
# Add 'funniness voting' to previous user guesses. Can then give the
'funniest' answers on the homepage, or show them more prominently on
the answers page
# Find a better way of analysing the headlines so 'better/funnier'
words can be blanked out (if anyone knows of an API or free source of
a dictionary, to work out whether the words are nouns, adjectives, etc
that would be very helpful!)
# Include more RSS feeds, perhaps giving users a choice of which one
# Give credit if you are close to the answer, rather than having to
get it exactly
~nick~
