Power to the people!

I was completely stuck for bloggery today, so Ned applied to the chatroom for inspiration. The suggestions were "Bundebangle" from Simon (an unlikely subject that has been done before by others) and "conflagration" from MMM (likewise, from the blog about her days as a the Brownie from hell). So no obvious help there.

But it did remind me of my day job. The puzzles for our site (if I was the slightest bit au fait with technology I would have added three links by now for the various individuals mentioned) are computer generated, but as we all know, computers are stupid and only obey orders. They lack the power of discrimination. For example, all our crosswords, once created, are completed by humans to ensure the clues and answers are sufficiently varied. A puzzle where the clues are predominantly anagrams will be rejected, as is one which contains very similar words, such as 'school' and 'scholar'. Just as people get words, phrases or tunes (or 'earworms' - thanks Henry!) stuck in their heads, so does the company database. Every batch of puzzles it generates seems to have a theme, despite its theoretical randomness, which appears more than coincidental.

Perhaps these machines are more human than is safe ...