Tag: Web Development

Blog Posts

Working on Wait Wait Stats Page Versions 3.3.0 and 3.4.0

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For the past month, I have been working on making a number of changes and updates to the Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me! Stats Page to make working on the site’s code a bit easier to manage. The changes won’t change the user experience of the Stats Page in any meaningful way; though, it does optimize how the panelist charts pull the required data and when it is rendered. Although the update will not include any new features (more on that in a bit), the version bump a few, significant behind-the-scenes updates. The biggest updates come from updating the code framework, Silex, to the latest and greatest version, optimizing the code that generates the HTML code, and finally, breaking some of the larger code blocks into separate modules for more efficient code review and fixes. Version 3.3.0 of the Stats Page should go live sometime during …

Blog Posts

New Graphs Are Now Here on the Wait Wait Stats Page

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In the previous Stats Page update blog post, I mentioned that the next version of the Stats Page will include changes to the panelist graphs to improve how they look and to make them more interactive. Below is a current example of the two graphs that are currently generated for each of the panelists, one showing the breakdown of the panelist’s scores and the other showing the panelist’s scores over time. The charting library used to generate the graphs have some serious limitations, including poor font rendering and the graphs are static (a scheduled job generates the graph image files on a regular basis). The other problem with the graph showing a panelist’s score over time is it becomes harder to read as more data points are added. To solve all of the problem with the current graphs, I went back to the drawing …

Blog Posts

Host and Scorekeeper Updates on Wait Wait Stats Page

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I have updated the Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! Stats Page with a couple of minor changes that correct how some of the hosts and scorekeepers are displayed. Originally, the code would highlight the listed host and/or scorekeeper if the host was not Peter Sagal and the scorekeeper was not Carl Kasell. That code needed to be changed to reflect that Dan Coffey was the original host of the show prior to its reboot, where Peter Sagal took over hosting duties. Also, with Bill Kurtis becoming the official judge and scorekeeper of the show after Carl Kasell becoming “Scorekeeper Emeritus,” the code also needed to reflect that change. The code also had to handle the fact that Bill Kurtis was a guest judge and scorekeeper for a period of time before becoming the official judge and scorekeeper. So, to handle some of those exceptions …

Blog Posts

Progress Update on Wait Wait Stats Page Version 3.0 Development

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Over the past week, I have been working on adding a few small touches and fixing a few lingering bugs on the soon-to-be-released Wait Wait Stats Page Version 3.0. One of the small touches that I added was to the graph displaying each panelists’s point spread. The graph now includes the count of number of times a panelist has scored that amount above the corresponding score. Below is what the graph looks like for Alonzo Bodden: You will also notice that I have also included the score for each panelist appearance listed below the graph when you view the detailed panelist stats and what position the panelist finished. The other new addition to the each of the show details are arrows next to each host, scorekeeper, panelist and guest that links to their respective details page. I still have a bit clean-up left to …

Blog Posts

Previewing Wait Wait Stats Page Version 3.0

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Update: I have finished re-writing the code that generates the panelist score breakdown graph and it will be deployed along with the new Stats Page. If you follow me on Twitter (@questionlp), you may have seen my recent tweets about a new version of the Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! Stats Page, including two sneak peek screenshots. For over a year, I have been dabbling with new design options for the Wait Wait Stats Page, as well as fighting with the original code to add a few new features that have been requested over the years. In the past two months or so, I finally sat down and started sketching out a new design and working in earnest on wireframes and prototypes. It was one of my New Year’s resolutions to get a new version of the site coded and published. Looking at the …

Archived Blog Post

Plans for Wait Wait Statistics Site

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A bit over three years ago, I published the initial version of the Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! Statistics site. Since the site went live, I have made some changes and bug fixes over the years, but the general functionality hasn’t really changed. Another Wait Wait fan has taken some of the published statistics and ran and posted some analysis. In the post, the fan mentioned the lack of any notes on which panelist had the correct bluff and which one bluffed well enough to fool the listener, as well as displaying the points breakdown for the Lightning Fill-in-the-Blank round. I have some good news and some bad news: I have collected a good number of which panelist had the correct bluff, but not for all shows nor do have I collected which panelist’s bluff was chosen. I also have the points breakdown for …