Bobbing Software

Make the computer guess your word.

Download Reverse Hangman. (Requires Java.)

Think of a word for Reverse Hangman to guess.

Click on the word's length.

When Reverse Hangman guesses a letter, you click on every position where that letter occurs. (Careful! Doing this quickly is harder than it seems!)

faceHappy

Change your "opponent" anytime--even during a game--by clicking on the picture.

faceSad

Reverse Hangman counts wrong guesses, but it doesn't actually draw a hangman picture.

Can I change my word in the middle of the game?

That's pretty devious, but why not? (If you can think of another word that fits all the hints so far.)

What if I click on the wrong letter?

Click again to clear it.

What if I click "No more H's", and there was another H?

Sorry, no undo yet. You can "Play Again" if you let the computer win by filling every square with the current letter.

Why use Web Start? Wouldn't Flash be better?

Maybe yes. Flash is already installed on most browsers, and it would have been easy to build a much more enticing interface in Flash. However, it would have been trickier to implement the meat behind the "Poindexter" and "Einstein" algorithms.

And once Java Web Start installs the substantial download required for Einstein's dictionary attack, it stays on the client machine. Flash downloads may or may not be cached. [Is this right? What control do users have over Flash caching?]

Why use Java Web Start? Wouldn't JSP be better?

Maybe yes. A server-side implementation would avoid the initial download and run on any browser. On the other hand, the server would be busy building and sending every "card" of every game of every client.

Thank-you Wesley for the idea of having the computer do the guessing.

Look-and-feel courtesy of Karsten Lentzsch at JGoodies.

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