and this one was too quick, 3 mins

done

Done

!!!!!

Done

go

done. g'night.

hi all

easy enough

not bad at all

back up to date

okay time for today's

start

in the middle.. it's hard !

done. uffffff. complicated !

thank you, ty, ty for a puzzle i could FINALLY do without pullling out my hair and crying to y'all.

and all caught up, have a good day all

holy cow. Did it without greenies or reddies.

i'm doing 103, june 21 - it's hard as a rock

done - with 1 guess

hi all

all right, that WAS easy :)

grendel dropped from the elite group?

Done!! That was easy. No guesses.

Difficulty rating 18.

drwho - the today's one ?

18 whats?

Yes, you could solve it with the cross hatch technique alone.

drwho, can you check 91, june 9th ?

The rating is an arbitrary number, the higher numbers indicate harder puzzles. The toughest I have seen is the March 28th puzzle, it rates a 72.

is that something automated clculating the number?

I will check June 9th, but it could take a few minutes.

The rating is generated by a program I wrote to solve Sudoku puzzles.

aah, fancy

not in ruby is it?

The computer rates the June 9th puzzle a 21. It required cross hatch scanning and some subset analysis to solve

Douglas, was that a question for me?

yep

you're center of attention :-)

If you are looking for the program, its not available anywhere except directly from me.

Also, you need Linux to run it, I am not a Windows GUI programmer.

If you don't have a Linux machine (or dual boot your Windows box) you can install Cygwin on your Windows machine and run Linux as a Windows application.

drwho thanks, seems like the june 9th is harder than 21.. ;)

I'll have to try it by hand. I don't always agree with the computer rating either.

I have been inspired to take on the March 28 puzzle by your program's analysis, drwho.

If you hear me crying in a hour, you'll know why.

Use the little green numbers, Twin.

I live for little green numbers. ;)

The computer indicates that what-if analysis is required for the March 28th puzzle.

Forcing chain?

What if analysis means you try a possibility and work it until you find a contradiction and then you can rule out that possiblity.

In other words make a guess and then prove it wrong.

then that's still guessing

Yes, but the program does not assume that the solution is unique and so it only rules out possiblities, it doesn't assume it has found the solution if the guess works.

If the program tries 2 distinct possiblities and they both work, it quits and tells me that the solution is not unique.

hello everybody

easy. goodbye

Easy peasy ..

I just saw someone that looks just like you in Babble, torgone.......

My evil twin, Timmy ..

you're the cuter twin

all done.... bye bye

bye mamabear

hey yall

or not...

hello torie ;)

hi bunny

hi im danny is ne 1 from swindon?

is that a no?

or does no 1 tlk round here

I just figured out what "ne 1" means. nope, not from swindon.

oh right hi

sorry about writing like that...habit

sorry, I don't speak text message or whatever that is. :-)

dont worry its ok

anyway im off il might speak to you another time

adios

easiest easy ever? (here)

go

done

hi all

that was rediculousely easy!

go

done