Month: June 2012

Blog Posts

16 June 2012 Show: Maz Jobrani was gypped two points in LFitB round

 

During the Lightning Fill-in-the-Blank (LFinB) round for the 16 June 2012 show, Maz Jobrani had answered six questions correctly (as confirmed by Peter saying yes, correct or right six times and by the six dings). Unfortunately, Carl only noted that Maz Jobrani had five correct answers for 10 more points for a total of 13 points. If you check out the show’s transcript for the LFitB round, you will notice that there are six “(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)” listed for Maz’s portion of the round. Due to the miscount of correct answers, Maz Jobrani ended up being second rather than tying with Amy Dickinson, who also had and was credited for 6 correct answers, for first place. Until Peter and/or Carl officially correct the record, the stats page will show the current official scores and rankings. Once the record has been corrected, I will update …

Blog Posts

10 June 2012 Sprint: Data Access Code Completed

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Over the past couple of days, I have been working on completing all of the PHP code required to query the WWDTM Stats Page database. Tonight, at the end of my two week sprint, I have reached that all important milestone and have successfully written a test to make sure it works. Warning: this following contains a fair amount of programming talk. If you are not a programmer, please ignore the rest of this post ;) The current version of the WWDTM Stats Page code has grown into a real mess and has become more and more difficult to add new features. The primary goal with version 2.0 is to write almost everything from scratch using proper class objects and breaking up code into manageable modules. First, I also decided to move to the newer PEAR::MDB2 database access API from the older PEAR::DB package. …

Blog Posts

Sneak Peek: Database Design for Version 2.0

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For all of the Wait Wait fans out there that also are into database designs, you are in for a small treat. Below is an EER diagram of the recently updated database used to house the statistics and other information for the Stats Page. You can view the diagram in its full-sized glory by clicking on this link. My goal is to get the database data and tables as normalized as possible by way of mapping tables. As you can see from the “ww_showpnlmap” table that I have fields for recording: how many points each panelist had, how many points each panelist had before and how many questions the panelists answered correctly during the Lightning Fill-in-the-Blank round. I don’t have data for every single show or panelist at this point. Right now, there is one additional mapping table that I will need to create …

Blog Posts

Launching the wwdt.me Blog!

‎Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me! Fans, I would like to announce a new blog dedicated to the ongoing development of the WWDTM Stats Page. Also, I have started working on a new version of the Stats Page that will incorporate some of the most requested features, including: the locations that each show is recorded at, Bluff the Listener information and breaking down panelist points. Please come check out the new blog at http://wwdt.me/blog and feel free to post any comments, questions or feature requests.

Blog Posts

Kicking Off Development of WWDTM Stats Version 2.0

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First and foremost, I would like to welcome you to the new wwdt.me blog! I have started this blog as a means to announce that the design and development of version 2.0 of the Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! Stats Page has started. This blog will also provide some insights into what will go into the new version and maybe a few peeks behind the curtains. I don’t have any set milestones or timelines for the development and launch of the new version; but, I hope to have something like an alpha version ready by July 26th. What’s so special about July 26th? Well, let’s just say that I’ll be in Chicago that day ;) N.B.: Please note that this blog, like the new version of the WWDTM Stats Page, is still under some development. Not all of the design elements have been finalized and …