Slashdot Mirror
They Killed Ken!
kwings writes "SF Gate (via the AP) is reporting that your pal, Ken Jennings has been beaten after his 75th(!) game. I fully expect Mr. Trebek to hold a wake, or to keep calling the champion 'Ken' for the rest of the season. :) Since they're only up to airing game 41, it will be an interesting few months (or 34 shows)."
[/required]
Man...the guy/gal that was smart enough to beat ken....Im willing to bet that they will go undefeated for....eternity.
Momma told me that sigs are for the devil
heh, i wonder how much he ended up with
What's up with this? Why not just start posting all the endings for upcoming movies?
"I'll take 'The Rapists for 500, Trebek!"
I think it'd be cool if the host actually knew all the stuff when interacting with the contestants.
Had you RTFA you would have noticed that they don't disclose whether he lost, but only that he's no longer on the show.
Probably raised enough money for that *ahem* operation.
You better watch out, there may be dogs about . .
You know, my local radio station's morning guys were reporting that he had lost on like... day 15 of his streak. They obviously were accounting for the pre-taping and all, but I'm glad to see he keeps going.
Jeopardy just won't be as fun to watch after he's gone. Ken's converted Jeopardy from an interesting game-show to a serious spectator sport in my house. It just won't be the same.
Interesting, I never new that their last name was Jenning.
Glad I don't watch this show or I would be pissed...
So, do you think that they took all the topics that he was weak on, loaded the board with them, and screwed him? Sounds likely to me. I don't know, however, because I don't watch TV...
Trebek is such a fruit.
:)
Sorry, couldn't help myself.
While we're reporting complete gossip, have there been any alien landings recently? The Demise of KenJen has been predicted every other episode since he began - this is nothing new.
- How to please a woman
- Things to do outside
- Post 1970's pop culture
in all seriousness, i think his run has been great...obviously it's helped jeopardy's ratings...heck, jeopardy has even made it onto my TIVO season pass list, so i can follow the exploits of Ken Jennigs each day...
"Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true." - Homer Simpson
Could you at least put the subject of the article somewhere in the description?
Sure, I agree with RTFA, if I can determine it is worthwhile...
Utah is currently in mourning, and salt lake city has ground to a standstill.
Are you saying he just gave up? If he's no longer on the show then he must have lost. Slashdot fucked up huge on this one. Thanks for letting me know. I've been watching Ken since his first appearance and have been obsessed with this guy. Now I know that in 30 shows he's gone. What's the point now? FUCKERS!
Support the First Amendment. Read at -1
"Swords for 200"...
"Yeah, i'll take Ape tit"
"Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true." - Homer Simpson
This is the first time I had to RTFA just to find out what the fsck it was about.
After taxes that will be approx. $380,661. His agent, who mysteriously appeared overnight and has not had a chance to speak directly with Mr. Jennings, reports that the impromptu star will be regaining the $1 indirectly through endorsements for life insurance and denture adhesives.
After the endorsements have been completed he will be closeted in the mountains practicing by playing the Jeopardy computer and board games (which he still had to buy himself) until the Tournament of Champions is held. He will also be preparing a few choice remarks for Sean Connery in Mr. Jennings upcoming appearance on SNLs "Celebrity Jeopardy".
Jeopardy rules essentially state that if a contestant leaks the results of a match before it has aired, that they forfeit their winnings. While this story may be true, someone's head will roll for it.
Good thing there was no karma on the line here.
Some info here.
The summer of Jeopardy Guy
Free XBox, PS2
...was a Macaque Monkey who had been trained to press a button during an experiment in cocaine addiction.
Remember when someone "hacked" CBS's website and learned that Gervase was the winner? The next 2 weeks were boring, as we all knew the rest of the game was a foregone conclusion - until Gervase got voted off, and we all realized we'd been had.
Ken's winning streak has been fantastic for Jeopardy's ratings (up 35% from the same time last season, last I heard). This could be just another ploy to try and drive the ratings up even further.
Come on, guys. We're notorious skeptics here on Slashdot. Don't believe everything you read.
Like woodworking? Build your own picture frames.
but the majority of people outside the US are unlikely to have any idea what this is all about.
Jaj
He didn't really lose - they just brought in someone from overseas who agreed to win less money. :-)
[Insert pithy quote here]
Assuming this speculation is true, the real question is "how".
I mean, I'm sure even Ken would/will/did get tired of playing sooner or later. 75 games sounds like a nice round number to stop on; he set the single-game score record with something right around 75,000, as I recall (maybe even 75k even?).
So, it'll be interesting (to me) to see if he more or less quit on purpose - either just not coming back by choice, or obviously throwing the game to lose.
Xentax
You shouldn't verb words.
I presume he will be in the Tournament of Champion... but hasn't he already won? He'd be the only one there!
(Note - "Champion" singlular intentional)
The problem with socialism is that they always run out of other people's money. - Margaret Thatcher
Alex Trebek was seen torching the SFGate offices, screaming obsenities and cursing their poor reporting ethics!
I just happened to look at the front page and now it's ruined for me. Thanks a ton guys. At least put a little more...ambiguous title on it and hold the spoiler for inside the article so that I can choose whether to click on it or not.
Thanks again.
Okay, what is "Jepeopardy" and who is Ken? Seriously guys this is obviously a local thing I'm totally amazed it ended up on the front page. I mean, I'm guessing it's a US thing, and seriously, who cares?
Al.The Daily ACK - Eclectic posts by yet another hacker
It should be noted that during the taping of this episode, Jennings said "Mr. Trebek, I don't believe my buzzer is working correctly."
The article doesn't mention. I imagine the winner will now gain some notoriety of his own, short of like Capt. Brown after allegedly shooting down the red baron, Lothar Von Richtoven.
My rights don't need management.
...how about a damned spoiler alert.....:-(
For spoiling the ending for us all. Nice job. Really appreciate it.
I would really have appreciated not having the content of this on the front page. This kind of ruins the intrigue of watching the show and wondering "I wonder if he'll win again tonight"
I'm not too impressed Michael for revealing this. It just isn't right for folks like me that actually like to watch the show.
What makes Ken so amusing? I don't have cable so I can't check it out for myself.
I like the idea of contestants (like Ken) taking Trebek's spot. Maybe just for a show or two. However, Trebek just reads the question and the answer, so there really isn't much required (other than presentation, rules monitoring, keeping things going, acting stuff, etc.).
Anyone know background information more on Ken too? Does he just ingest everything he reads...has no life...or just is super smart. I read about a kid that won the geography bee and he attributed it to his parent's rule of only educational video games. Something I would like for my own kids.
Mason-powered site for searching Utah Homes and foreclosures.
That was my sig. Ok, yes it was an advertisement. But hey, I built the site.
It's still a spoiler. It spoils all the remaining episodes until the 75th. All question of whether Ken will win or lose has been removed until his 75th episode.
Has it occurred to ANYONE at slashdot that this is a SPOILER I didn't exactly WANT TO SEE?
Put a god damn spoiler alert on the posting.
FUCK!
...and NO it is NOT because he has them all in front of him. :)
How could another season of the same guy winning over and over again possibly be interesting?
Software piracy is victimless theft.
Sorry, I guess information wants to annoy you..err..be free, I mean.
It would be cool if it didn't suck.
Gee.... thanks Slashdot! Guess there's no reason for me to watch jeopardy anymore. First you tell me that the Lone Gunmen are dead hours before the show aires and now this! Thanks for nothing.....
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I'm not really surprised that he was beaten. I would think that after 75 games of jeapardy with nothing but wins (not even really any close calls) one would get tired of it. I mean think of it, if they had taped them day after day in a row, it would still have been over two straight months of taping! Even an uber-nerd can only take so much geekiness.
It seems to me that he wasn't so much "beat" as he was "leaving while it still was fun".
Really....
He lost after winning 75 games. Anyone who understands genius realizes that he did not lose. He simply was bored and allowed someone else a shot.
Why do we revel more in an event once it has spectacle and celebrity attached than when it's competitive? Explain this and we explain Shaq, too.
Just blame Canada!
"It's too bad that stupidity isn't painful." - Anton LaVey
I AM NOT IN U.S., YOUR INSENSITIVE CLODS
I'm not in the UK but I've seen every episode of Blackadder...
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
Are you saying he just gave up? If he's no longer on the show then he must have lost
$2.5 mil is not bad for 75 days work. I'd gladly retire on that. He probably got bored and is working on his book "Beating Jeopardy for Dummies"
Slashdot fucked up huge on this one. Thanks for letting me know. I've been watching Ken since his first appearance and have been obsessed with this guy. Now I know that in 30 shows he's gone. What's the point now? FUCKERS!
What's the point? I think for many people, it's the fascination with how some person can know so much. While I agree it was pretty crappy for SFGate to run this story, I don't think knowing he's gone detracts too much from watching him several trounce his lowly opponents. You didn't expect him to be there forever, did you?
Support the First Amendment: Read at -1.
Re: your sig.
Seeing as the First Amendment guarantees you the right to speak, but doesn't require me to listen, I fail to get the meaning of your sig.
Beauty is in the eye of the beerholder.
Some explanation of this might be helpful for the majority of Slashdotters who aren't in the US. Jeopardy? Ken - Barbies's boyfriend?
Seriously,
/. is going to do is rerun posts on Fark.com, why bother.
/. will have photoshop contests. And nude women. ...hmmm...
:p
If all
Just put a link at the top of the page and be done with it.
Next thing you know,
Ok, I changed my mind! Keep posting like fark.
"...In your answer, ignore facts. Just go with what feels true..."
For some reason, the headline made me think of MST3K instead of South Park.
Go figure.
This is the song, written for the train chase.
This is the chase, Rocky and Ken!
He tried to kill me with a forklift!
Olé!
"Lawyers are for sucks."
- Doug McKenzie
Local thing? Are you saying that the US is a [i]proper[/i] subset of the world? Mod this guy down as a troll!
Thanks to a tipster, I broke this story on my site yesterday morning...AP and /. have no love for weblogs? ;). This morning, that same tipster has provided the Final Jeopardy question/answer which cost Ken his streak. If you don't mind the spoilers, click through to find out.
Maybe he just got Weird Al's song stuck in his head and couldn't concentrate.
I make a reasonable middle-class wage by going to work and not spamming blogs with scams.
Come on guys, I saw this on the local news this morning, hours before I checked Slashdot - so regarless of whether Slasdot posted the story, you were bound to find out about it sooner or later.
The guy was bound to loose sometime, you couldn't be terribly surprised by that! At least we can continue enjoying his run until it ends... it's not like we know what questions bring him down.
CNN did post a good disclaimer, though:
Editor's Note: CNN picked this story up from The Associated Press, which gives details below. We have no idea as to the status of Ken Jennings' run. If you'd prefer to not know anything, stop reading now.http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/TV/09/09/tv.jeop ardy.ap/
Perhaps the ./ editors should take their cue, just out of fairness.
Check my journal for gmail invites!
Everyone should RTFA here - big time. This whole thing is based on something that showed up on this 'TV Week' website, and the company is not confirming the story...
My blog
Both foxnews and drudgereport have these currently on their front page headlines.. I saw it there first.
Don't worry, He'll be back tomorrow.
Uh, Slashdot is primarily for Americans. Read the FAQ within the past, oh, 4 years?
Nevermind, I just saw looked at your UID.
RTFFAQ
The record for most appearances on a game show is 75 and Ken didn't want to beat it "just for the sake of beating it". Just like when he intentionally drew with the daily winnings record of $52000. He just equalled the record and walked away.
-- My funny sig is in my other pants
Funny how comments like this always seem to be anonymous.
/. as my home page, so of course as soon as I launched my browser and saw the article I was a little miffed. I am not pleased, but I have to say that I will continue to watch, to see if he breaks any other records, and because I like to try to answer the questions myself. And there is a very small part of me that thinks, perhaps, that this is a joke, and he gets knocked out sooner than 75 days.
Fact is, geeks and nerds love Jeopardy. Ken is a geek, too, so we feel a sort of kinship, and most of us are rooting for him to soak Jeopardy for all it's worth. I personally hate Trebek, since he's a complete asshole (off the set), but I love the show.
I am sorely disappointed that there was no spoiler warning. I have
You tell me I have a right to speak but I don't have the right to tell you what you don't want to hear?
Sounds like a pretty narrow view of the first amendment.
----
Besides which, did you think he was going to play forever? Did you think that it wouldn't be on the news when he lost?
My father is a blogger.
The local radio station here is reporting that this is a hoax and that Mr. Jennings streak goes on.
Thanks, but I still don't know who Rosebud is.
Sorry, I'm eating up karma cause I'm pissed at /.
Hi! Here's an idea: If you don't like America and don't want to read about American things...don't.
I know it's a terribly radical concept, but one has the ability to "click" on the "back button" as soon as one discovers that the topic in question is one of the dreaded "American" topics. Then, you are saved from needing to post snotty comments that make you look like a complete jackass. Of course, I'm sure you were forced to both read and post in this thread. You had no choice. Hello international audience, welcome to "the Internet."
http://xkcd.com/386/
Ha ! c'mon Micheal, you had to know that when you posted the spoiler you would get blasted for pulling a Lone Gunmen.
Do you even remember chrisd's famous title "The Lone Gunmen Are Dead" ? I smell a deliberate spoiler. By the way, Rosebud was his sled.
Thanks for ruining my mom's day (she's a big fan and will undoubtedly hear about it).
"Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech."--Benjamin Franklin
While I generally agree with you, this particular one doesn't really bother me, as it was inevitable.
There was no end to the season, thus dashing our hopes for a perfect run, etc. Ken was/is going to lose eventually. So I know that the inevitable happened. Oh well.
Hot Damn! It's the Soggy Bottom Boys!
They should advertise the losing show in advance. I predict that viewership for that show will be comparable with the superbowl.
The Truth About Slashdot
If people are interested enough for Ken Jennings to be news for nerds then they are interested enough to not want it spoiled.
Take this off the main page or modify it immediately.
Idiot.
Lasers Controlled Games!
Um... you can't really be that dumb, can you?
What difference does writing the code have to do with the questions? He doesn't come up with the questions/answers, and no amount of knowledge of the software system used to present those questions is going to give him an advantage.
Besides, I seriously doubt he writes the code used on Jeopardy itself. I am sure they have rules about contestants not having any ties to the show.
You didn't expect him to be there forever, did you?
Of course not, but thats why people watch. It's thats the suspense that draws you in. He could lose anyday. Thats partially why so many more people have started watching Jeopardy since Jennings came on.
I for one welcome our new Jeopordy overlord.
Everyone should stop complaining on how /. spoiled Jeopardy for them.
What do you want them to say in the article "**SPOILER** dealiing with Jeopardy"?
Come on...you could even guess that yourself.
Well, technically I am one here.
/. postings nowadays.
I have not the slightest clue what you are talking about. It's a game show, that's what I understood so far.
But what the hell is this show about?
Seems I have to move to the U.S. for some weeks each year to be able to understand
The article might be funny for you, but I would like to see at least 1 sentence regarding the backround to give foreigners a chance to get the whole picture without milking google for ages.
Thanks, but I still don't know who Rosebud is.
In the sequel to Citizen Kane, we learn that "Rosebud" was merely the third-to-last word. The man's penultimate word was "Henri", leading one to suspect that the pairing of the two names suggested a liason of some sort.
By the end of the sequel, we learn that his last word was "moutard", and that he was ordering his last meal: Roast beef on rye with mustard.
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
I read in my local newspaper (it was prob an AP story too), the Ottawa Citizen, last week that if it were revealed when Jennings lost (e.g. the audience knows ahead of time), there are clauses in the Jeopardy contract that states the winner will not collect the reward.
This begs the question, is his +- $2 million fortune in Jeopardy? And what are his after tax winnings?
Don't tell me how Titanic ends; I haven't seen it yet.
Uh, Slashdot is primarily for Americans
Thanks for the info - I've often wondered why reading this site felt like swimming through a sea of retards and now I know why.
I didn't even know what it was about until I clicked on it, and read halfway down the fucking comments.
If the story had said "Ken has left the gameshow Jeopardy after 75 appearances" in the damn story submission, then fine. But it didn't. It left the majority of the readership reading at that time clueless as to what it was about. I mean, it was posted at around 5am US time, sheesh. Why post it then, why not post it at a time when Americans will be up and browsing Slashdot at work?
Check this out (it's the FAQ): http://slashdot.org/faq/editorial.shtml#ed850
I don't complain when The Register posts articles about british television shows. And if I did, I would expect people to laugh at me.
Heisenberg might have been here.
From the episode where Cliff made it onto Jeopardy
Alex: "And the categories are, `Civil servants' `Stamps from around the world', `Mothers and sons', `Beer', `Bar trivia' and 'Celibacy'?
Nope. 60 Minutes had a special on Jeopardy a few days ago, and they showed how the questions are picked. There's a panel of 7 people who decide whether or not questions are too hard or too easy, and they base the questions actually given to the contestants by majority vote. It's nowhere near random.
.
Then again, the only reason I was watching 60 Minutes was for the clip on the Porn Industry just before it. That and Leslie Stahl's hot body. .
"No beer until you finish your tequila!" -Leela's Dad
At least, I know that's very true when I last wrote accountancy software - I had an amount of access to time&billing info for branches of certain large accountancy firms that would leave the partners going insane if even their average employees, let alone external organisations, had a hand on them. But, fact is, the IT dept. (or whoever the systems stuff is outsourced to) always has access to more data than anyone else - consider the sensitivity of data the sysadmin at your local firm can get hold of via the magical root.
Whether he writes code for Jeopardy itself is quite irrelevant. He is in the loop of people who are involved in such projects, he could probably get hold of random databases via appropriate contacts, and he'd have a lot more opportunity to conspire with any level of the show's production team than your average Joe.
Even in the event that he is totally Kosher, this guy's ability can still be whittled down to having access to many similar (if perhaps not identical) large databases of trivia questions. I was once in the national finals of a quiz in the UK. The quiz was called BrainBox, it was sponsored by some general knowledge quiz writer of some sort, and you know the best thing? It was clear that all questions came from their range of quiz books. So, having rather a damn good memory, I memorised the answers to a significant proportion of the n thousand "question database" - and hey presto, 100% correct. Alas it was a team effort, and only 1 of my other teammates made the effort to do similar, so we didn't win.
So, in two separate sets of circumstances, I've demonstrated the ability to do what I describe. I'm not "that dumb" at all, sorry.
Nothing personal intended, but I would not use anybody's weblog for the basis of a story. I would confirm it somewhere else, first. Believe it or not, not everything you read on a blog is true.
This is totally a spoiler and Slashdot shouldn't have included the number of games he won.
Why can't I moderate something "Wrong" or at least "Grossly Misinformed"?
You're a software engineer, and an amiable geek. Surely, you read Slashdot. ;)
A big thank you to the editors for posting this story front page! I mean could they have been anymore stupid?
The time of the post on your website says "posted September 089, 2004 at 09:36 am." The oldest story I can find using Google's news service is The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Online which does indeed give you credit. (and Google says the story is 12 hours old.)
Every news article after that (9 hours old or newer) cites the TV Week article, and the TV Week article only cites "sources."
Usually the writer of a particular article will have his name and e-mail address or telephone number. You should contact them and demonstrate that TV Week got the information from you and didn't give you credit for it. I've found them for the most part to be pretty agreeable.
What?
In other news, Ken is now planning to start a new business that sends emails to people, telling them how to MAKE MONEY FAST!!!111 :)
quidquid latine dictum sit altum videtur.
This is just a matter of common courtesy. Of course trying to find that on the internet is pretty difficult.
The king of Europeland is named Ken, don't worry guys, he's still alive.
Nicole Kidman and the kids are dead
Bruce Willis is dead
Rosebud is his sled
Goddam spoilers on the front page...
There is another big problem: the phrase isn't recorded until 1937, in Eric Partridge's Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English. Mr Partridge suggested it had been in use since the 1890s, but nobody has found an example in print. This is surprising.
:)
Not necessarily. Given a slow rate of propagation of certain elements of slang or speech from 1890-1937, I'm not surprised that no writer used it in a work until Partridge's dictionary. Certainly you wouldn't see it in a scientific journal, and the odds of it appearing in a novel are slim if the phrase didn't spread much outside of certain circles. It's important to remember that the concept of a meme becoming widespread in a short time is due in part to a globalized media infrastructure (specifically the Internet) allowing rapid dissemination of information; though even that is a relatively recent phenomenon (q.v. "All Your Base" taking about six months to actually gain in popularity, versus the Star Wars kid becoming popular almost overnight). The ultimate point being that slang words like "bob's your uncle" from Britain and "yinz" from Pittsburgh, PA, USA did not spread in usage because they did not get carried out of those areas often enough, sometimes staying within a very narrow area (I live in Erie, PA now, about 100 miles north of my birthplace of Pittsburgh, and have yet to hear "yinz" used by anyone who's not a Pitts. native). (big disclaimer: I'm a software engineer, not an etymologist; though I did take my fair share of English courses in school, and having a healthy interest in language in general.)
Yeah, this is all massively off-topic, but hey. It could come up on Jeopardy some day, and then you'll be sorry for modding it down!
"Why Subscribe?" Good question...
So now when do we find out he had this grin on his face for a second prior to losing leading to the investigation that he had the questions in advance and the fix was in, ala Quiz Show....
I wouldn't call TV Week the most credible news source in the world; however, I think the more interesting part of this is that it appears TV Week blatantly ripped off the info from this guys blog (while one news source gave him credit, and didn't at all state it as fact). Then the AP and a few other news outlets picked it up from TV Week and it spread like wildfire.
I think TV Week should be called out on this one, because clearly their source is the blog, and the blog's source is a named informer; however, they way their article is written, they make it appear that the source went directly to them. This is good for them, because it makes it look like they have people "on the inside" that are willing to give them information.
When the NY Times can have a plagiarizer on their staff for a long time without knowing it, I do not think I would put such actions behind a much less credible periodical as TV Week.
What?
Subject: Companies and Corporations. The Answer: This company has a workforce of 17000 people, whose average working year is only 4 months long.
I thought about it a while, and am thinking it could be some seasonal work. I was thinking it might be a sports league, but most seasons are longer than 4 months and/or employ scouts, etc. year round.
Any ideas?
it will be an interesting few months (or 34 shows).
:P
No it won't -- at least, not now.
What does it mean to wake out of a dream
and be wearing someone else's shorts?
BNL, Born on a Pirate Ship (1998)
Alex spread this rumour to get me out of his show.
love,
Ken
Well.. this just killed the next month of Jeopardy watching for me.
$2.5 mil is not bad for 75 days work.
I think they actually film 3 or 5 episodes a day (usually Mondays and Tuesdays), so it could have been in as few as 15 days.
-- derby
This jackass replied solely to pose a bunch of rhetorical questions that had already been asked and answered by numerous Slashdotters before this joker came online. Who's the fucking moron who modded this bullshit "informative"??? WHERE'S THE INFORMATION?!?!?
Get the freakin' spoiler off the main page! You have summarily killed my enjoyment of Jeopardy for the next few months. Asses! --*Rob
Rosebud is a toboggan. Even if you know the spoiler it doesn't really explain much b/c you'd have to watch the movie to put it into any context.
Surely you must mean Barry White.
And here's why:
1) Even if Slashdot didn't report on it, other news sites have already reported it.
2) Even if Slashdot had a "WARNING: Spoiler re: Jeopardy" you could limit the story contents to two possibilities: He loses or the Jeopardy set ignites spontaneously.
3) Since interest in him is now mainstream americana, you'd hear about it at the water cooler from someone at work who likes to be the first to break the pop culture/gossip stories or from a family member/friend that does the same.
4) Even if Slashdot DIDN'T post the story, there'd be a group of trolls posting spoilers about the day he loses at +1 over and over to get the info out.
News like this could be prevented if Jeopardy just shot an episode a day and sent it out nightly. Of course, that'd drive up costs.
On the bright side you'll probably never see a spoiler like this again as the odds of someone coming close to his streak are pretty low.
I agree, but I don't trust any source without a lot of confirmation. And in this case just because the "official" media also reports it doesn't make it so ... because they, in fact, got it off of this guy's blog.
Secession is the right of all sentient beings.
Im offended that you WATCH jeopardy as a national sport.
I mean DAMN, get a life!
NO SIG
Al Qaeda has ninjas!
If you did this on the game show forum I regularly post at, you'd get banned on the spot.
It's bad enough that I regularly have to avoid three or four of my daily game show website visits once it hits about 5 or 6 in the evening (otherwise I see the results posted somewhere).
Now SLASHDOT is spoiling the results of a game show A MONTH AND A HALF AHEAD OF AIRTIME?!
Thanks a damn lot. You know, there are actually people who have watched every single win of his. There are those of us who want to be genuinely surprised when he is defeated. You don't tell the ending to the big hit movie, and if you do, it's buried in the posts under a related subject. WHY would you tell everyone about this ON THE FRONT PAGE?
Hilarious prediction of Ken's Future
AP and /. have no love for weblogs? ;).
Well, considering people can say anything they want on weblogs, whether it's libel(or is it slander?) or just completely false, no, I don't.
*hugz* to character assasination!
I mean, it was posted at around 5am US time, sheesh. Why post it then, why not post it at a time when Americans will be up and browsing Slashdot at work?
Yes. It is commonly known that no American ever gets to work by 5am. Also, no American would ever browse slashdot from home. I'm sorry it took you a few minutes to be able to tell what the story was about. I am an American who doesn't happen to watch Jeopardy! and so I didn't know what it was about either. However, it only took me about 4 comments to figure it out. I'm still not sure why you compounded your wasted time reading the thread with wasted time commenting about it, specifically about the fact that it is America-related.
http://xkcd.com/386/
Well, considering people can say anything they want on weblogs, whether it's libel(or is it slander?) or just completely false, no, I don't.
As opposed to Slashdot, where people can say anything they want, whether it's libel (or is it slander?) or just completely false.
That's right, Ken--You lost. And let me tell you what you didn't win: a twenty colume set of the Encyclopedia International, a case of Turtle Wax, and a yeard's supply of Rice-A-Roni, the San Francisco Treat. But that's not all. You also made yourself look like a jerk in front of millions of people. You brought shame and disgrace to your family name for generations to come. You don't get to come back tomorrow. You don't even get a lousy copy of our home game. You're a complete loser!
...and that's all there is to it.
A: Cowboy Neal, Hemos, and the Pope...
Q: Who are three people who have never been in my kitchen?
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dman123 forever!
Filtering out the -1s and 0s since 1999.
Did anyone really think Ken was gonna never lose? Give me a break!
Also, it never occurred to me that geeks and nerds love Jeopardy!, I thought they (apparently) loved sci-fi...
Scott
©20014 angrykeyboarder & Elmer Fudd. All Wights Wesewved
Will I for one hope this story turns out to be false. I have been watching Ken play for the last 20 shows. While it will be nice to see him continue for many more, it sucks knowing that on the 75th show he will lose.
/. I can't say I didn't expect somthing like this.
I think standard spoiler methods should have applied here. Perhaps a "Has Ken Jennings met his match!?! Spoilers inside!"
However with the current state of
Apple free since 1990!
He lost, but you still wont know when, because youre not going to be counting! Why complain about this being posted? You knew he was going to lose eventually. Now if youre going to count all remaining 34 shows, then youre going to be disappointed, but if youre normal, then you will not keep track, and you will still be shocked the day he goes down. BTW, who'd they bring on to beat him? Stephen Hawking and Ben Stein?
YOU BASTARDS!
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Anytime you see someone advertising "free ipods" or "free flat screen tv's" they are advertising a pyramid scheme. And every pyramid scheme has one thing in common: SOMEONE GETS RIPPED OFF. Most likely, that someone will be you.
This is the final Jeopardy question that ended Ken's streak.
Topic: Life, the Universe, and Everything
Answer: 42
Unfortunatly a freak power outtage stopped the answer from being displayed once they gave their answers but afterwards an odd robot came out and told everyone that they were all simpletons and they along with the show were incredibly dreary and pointless and they all got the question wrong anyway but it didn't really matter because Life, the Universe, and Everything don't matter. The robot then talked to Mr. Jennings for a couple minutes after which Mr. Jennings announced in a depressed sounding voice that he didn't really see any point in going on so he was retiring from the show. A spacecraft then landed and an alien then came out and called Mr. Jennings a nerd then flew away.
Well there ya have it, the end of Ken Jenning's streak.
I stole this Sig
I think the book he's writing is "Beating Dummies on Jeopardy"
Anything Can Happen, but...
I'm not sure this question sounds legit - it's too vague, in the sense that there seems to be more than one good answer for it. There are a lot of seasonal industries, and there appear (on minimal research) to be several groups that fit the description, though I'm not sure how many of them are "companies."
I haven't watched Jeopardy in many years, but I seem to recall the answers were not very ambiguous.
Of course, after all those years...
I mainly thought that it wasn't worthy of being posted here ... it isn't like it is a new series of $scifi_show ... just a gameshow. If you are interested in it, you can find out easily, or watch in blissful unawareness ... it was like have a giant spoiler as a story!
No idea who Ken Jennings is.
Had to read the comments to figure out what show you were on about. Isn't jeopardy the one where you have to phrase your answer in the form of a question?
A: What is the captial of Georgia?
Thats correct, however we would also have accepted
A: What is a hot spot for lesbians?
Geeks and Nerds love anything that shows either 1) extreme intelligence or 2) tremendous knowledge of truly useless information. Jeopardy satisfies both of these.
...the answer was 42!
And the oscar for the least original stupid joke goes to...
"If I have been able to see so far, It is because I went out and bought a damn binoculars" - Ze da Esquina
Christ, people, I'm usually the first person to mock the tin foil hat brigade, but don't any of you guys know that the man is employed to write systems for the very quizzes that he's answering questions on? Could that possibly (rather than him being some hero genius to ambition-failing nerds everywhere) explain his winning streak? Isn't this a more reasonable explanation for his fantastic performance than "well, suddenly, this genius just appeared"? Or are dreams nicer to hold on to?
I know you're probably trolling, but: I also have written computer software for a quiz, in my case an Internet pay-to-play one. You don't see me making a fortune off it. Why? Because if I did, I would be scrutinised very closely to ensure I wasn't cheating. If you're right about this contestant (being British, I'd never heard of him until this story -- which I only clicked on because I couldn't work out what it was about), then I doubt he's doing anything even remotely dishonest. In fact, I doubt there is anything dishonest that he could hope to get away with -- someone will almost certainly audit any work he does that ever deals with a live question (or should that be answer?) database.
I strongly doubt he has a chance to see the questions for the show before it goes live. I would imagine that they are treated as highly confidential, and only entered into the database shortly before the show is filmed, probably only 1 or 2 people other than the question researchers having seen them before this happens. Knowing that a contestant works in a situation where he might have access, they would take extra precautions, probably having an independent auditor on site to make sure procedures are followed correctly. They have to; if any of the other contestants accused him of cheating and they couldn't refute any such claims, it would cost them a lot of money. In fact, it would destroy the credibility of the production company. It would probably be the end of Jeopardy, if that happened.
And wondered WHY they dont do something (like make spectators sign an NDA) or similar to avoid this. Surely this will hurt the ratings that they have been bragging about getting since Mr. Jennings started to slay the competition
q =&hl=en&lr=lang_en&ie=UTF-8&safe=off&selm=6992ae43 .0408262203.3273f194%40posting.google.com
:)
Here is where I saw it:
http://tinyurl.com/5vqwm
or:
http://www.google.com/groups?q=g:thl1702264755d&d
So? I watch American Idol, what of it?
Nerds work on projects dickhead.
TV is substitute passion for fools who refuse to exert enough curiousity to have their own. whole goddamn world, and you watch 'jepordy'.
I wonder if Newton would have watched "Friends'. LOL
anonymous because i don't have enough time to login - i've gotta catch 'days of our lives'.
They only began taping the new season in August. They managed to tape 38 shows already?
WOWOWOW!! :P
Dirty minds DO think alike!
(checkout my poor excuse for a joke 2/3 posts down hill)
"If I have been able to see so far, It is because I went out and bought a damn binoculars" - Ze da Esquina
I swear there is a conspiracy going around making Americans look stupid.
We aired Baywatch. A show about a beach full of drama, where millions of people drown everyday at the same beach.
We aired Southpark. Enough said.
We aired who wants to be a millionaire. The contestants are absolutely no comparison to Jeopardy contestants.
We aired A-Team. No one can hit a target from 5 feet even though they were all vietnam vets.
Don't forget about the reunion shows, the champions return shows, and the Celebrity shows.
He'll be back, as he actually increased the ratings.
Guess he has to finally leave his $50,000-a-day job to go back to his old boring lousy software engineer job.
75 * 50000 = $3,750,000
Well, 3.8 million dollars isn't bad...
But whoever beats Ken has to be even smarter and thus will be on Jeapordy for more than 75 days...
That is minutes and seconds; though those symbols are usually used in measuring directions - i.e. degrees, minutes ('), and seconds (").
Like pi? Try 10,000 digits.
And in other news, the "Planet of the Apes" is Earth, Bruce Willis is a ghost, John Shooter is just a figment of Johnny Depp's imagination, much like Tyler Durden was a figment of Ed Norton's imagination. Actually, Norton's played a few roles in which a mind-job occurs, such as "Primal Fear", where his character gets away with murder by convincing everyone (including the viewer) that he has multiple personaly disorder. Even his own lawyer, Richard Gere, doesn't find out until after he's already helped his client get off the hook.
This is fun! What other movies can we do?
Like woodworking? Build your own picture frames.
She's a DUDE!
/. editors the endings to all the -new- movies? It might cure them of their spoilerism.
There, Michael, now I've spoiled one for YOU.
Hey, what if people started sending the
The latest Slashdot meme.
One of the most common methods of payment for syndication is through barter. Networks syndicating a given show will supply some portion of the commercial time during the show (or, on occasion, at completely different times) in exchange for the right to air the show.
Sony Pictures can then hold on to this time until very close (within hours, if need be) to air-time. Think of the ratings for the show in which Ken falls. Wouldn't you want your commercial to air during that historic event?
I would imagine that they are treated as highly confidential, and only entered into the database shortly before the show is filmed, probably only 1 or 2 people other than the question researchers having seen them before this happens.
Very unlikely. Think of the logistics of it. Even if they were only "entered into the database shortly before the show is filmed," where are they entered from? Notes and papers in front of them? The questions must be created and researched well in advance, to ensure they are (above all else) correct. Remember on Millionaire, when the question was, "What does the '.com' in internet addresses mean?" The contestant correctly guessed "Commercial," but the answer the host had (and that was programmed into the computer) was "Company." They sent the guy home, then later realized they were wrong, and apologized.
Also, Alex must see the questions well in advance, so he can have a chance to practice the pronounciation. He reads the questions from notes in front of him, not directly off of the monitors.
And finally, while this may just be the way the show is edited, it appears that Alex often even begins reading the question a fraction of a second before they are displayed on the board, which is a hint that he has them in front of him, on notecards. These notecards must be printed up before the show, presumeably well in advance, to avoid such screw-ups like running out of notecards or printer ink. Also, note that 5 shows are taped a day. That's an awful lot of questions to enter into "the database" right before taping starts on that day.
"All right, smartypants, how do you think they do it then?", you're probably asking right about now. Well, I can only speculate, but I would guess that they have a team of 3 or 4 full-time staff members, each of whom probably have very diverse specializations (i.e., there's probably a math/science guy/gal, a history/geography guy/gal, an English literature/art history guy/gal, etc.), who sit around all day, coming up with these questions, thoroughly researching the answers, making sure the spellings are correct, and entering them into a large database, tagged with keywords for categories. This database likely has thousands upon thousands of questions, so even if you were able to gain access to it, the sheer volume of information would be impossible to memorize, without actually becoming an expert on the topic, in which case you don't really need to cheat in the first place!
As each show is prepared, the categories are chosen, and questions that match keywords associated with the episode's chosen categories ("Religion," "Potent Potables," etc.) are randomly chosen from the database, and the database entries are tagged with a timestamp, indicating the last time they were used on an episode, to prevent the same questions from appearing multiple times in back-to-back episodes. Questions that have been used more than a certain number of times are automatically purged from the database.
That's just my guess.
Like woodworking? Build your own picture frames.
You ever stop to think that maybe they didn't get it from him? Wow, what a concept, it's not like this guy was the only one at the studio.
Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
Where does LOTR fit in to this?
Scott
©20014 angrykeyboarder & Elmer Fudd. All Wights Wesewved
Get a life
Actually, BBC America shows the UK version of "Weakest Link" here in the US. And it isn't so weird, except that the "football" questions don't seem to make any sense ;-).
We are the 198 proof..
You insist there was some way to cover the story without spoilers. There wasn't. What were they supposed to write? "We've got news about Ken Jennings on Jeopardy. Don't read further if you don't want to know." You'd know immediately: He lost. Granted, you wouldn't know when, or on what question -- but the important point can't be hidden.
This isn't like a movie, where a spoiler could be any number of things (e.g., main character dies, antagonist is revealed to be protagonist's father, etc.). If there's any news about Jennings that could possibly involve spoilers, then you know immediately: He lost. There's no way to effectively obscure it.
3) Things That Are Fairly Obscure Knowledge Or At Least Were Until The Movie Came Out But At Least I Still Know More About Tom Bombadill Than The General Public.
"People were beginning to think the game was rigged."
OK, you lost me there. But actually LOTR was well known long before the movie. Everyone I knew was reading the books when I was in school (1970's).
Maybe I should have said Star Wars or Star Trek, instead. My point being that it seems to be a law that if you;'re a geek/nerd (into computers) that you also must be into Sci-Fi/Fantasy.
I'm the former, but not the latter.
Scott
©20014 angrykeyboarder & Elmer Fudd. All Wights Wesewved
all we have in this life is our joy, when we are dead there will be nothing left
the day will come when we have all died
do your best to not steal the joy from others
Nice try, but you fail it.
Let's link every word
to the same url!
Lameness filter, you are bad. Why are you making me put this meaningless text into the bottom? I will pretend it's my signature.
Spoon not. Fork, or fork not. There is no spoon.
Maybe I'm an oddball, but I enjoy Jeopardy by trying to answer the questions, too. So Ken Jennings gets beaten at 75? Had/has to happen sooner or later. Whenever, he did an amazing thing and I enjoyed playing along, getting some that he missed! I knew Joseph Conrad and Apocalypse Now and Ken didn't!
"What is...fuck I'm smart?"
Wasn't the question "What is 6 x 9 ?"
Because humans didn't come from Earth originally the answer was stuffed up in Arthers (sp?) head. It wasn't the right question. And 6*9 is 54 anyway.
egomania (n) - Obsessive preoccupation with the self.
See: kottke.org
I love weblogs. I really do. What I find utterly hilarious, though, is the A-list bloggers, like Mr. Kottke here, who seem to eschew traditional media at every possible chance while simultaneously fawning for every affection from said media.
Yeah, it's perfectly conceivable that Kottke.org broke this Incredibly! Important! Urgent! Breaking! News! Story! It's also possible that someone else in the studio audience alerted our friends at AP, TV Week, etc. or that even - gasp, horror! - actual journalists who follow this sort of thing were doing their jobs. I certainly remember hearing something about this Ken Jennings fellow before Kottke.org "reported" on his winning streak.
It's also just as easily imaginable that you, Jason Kottke, gift to the Jeopardy watching hordes, are the sole source of information on the trials of Ken Jennings and we are all deeply in debt to you and you alone. May we repent now and maybe even start a DropCash campaign to somehow right this egregious wrong.
My other computer is your Windows box
Perhaps they 'leaked' this rumor to keep interest fresh in Ken Jennings.
If they did, it worked.
Seriously, there are forums to discuss TV shows. This is just as bad as the morning radio jocks talking about the Bachelor or whatever. Next topic please.
I'm not in the U.S. and I do care. As much as you feel the U.S. is not the world, neither are you.
What the fuck does that mean?
Your post sums things up pretty well. It reminded me of the following explanation of movie ratings (for which I claim no credit BTW):
Rated G: Nobody gets the girl
Rated PG: The good guy gets the girl
Rated R: The bad guy gets the girl
Rated X: Everybody gets the girl
Rated XXX: Everybody gets the girl, including her mother and their cocker spaniel
I wish I lived in America. In some countries you're not allowed to demonstrate against the people in charge.
http://cryptome.org/nyc-days.htm
The first amendment is very pertinent. Either you have freedom of speech or you don't. What good is the first amendment if "societal norms" prevent you from speaking?
Second of all, given all the media attention given to Jeopardy, it would be foolish to think there would be no media attention when Ken stopped being on the show. He's the biggest game show prize winner ever. If you seriously wanted to be surprised, you would have to do more than censor Slashdot.
So, according to GGP, I'm allowed freedom of speech, but not if it offends his world view. I should have common courtesy for people I've never met and have no idea what would offend them.
Plus, if I get it wrong, GGP calls me a "FUCKER".
I still think he's a hypocrite. Either there's freedom of speech or there isn't. If you don't like my message, change the channel.
My father is a blogger.