Whoo.

Done

dang. got busy today and forgot to play. Broke my string of over 30 puzzles in a row.

go

9 filled, going green - will ty manual...

done, but used 5 guesses in a row - apparently my early ones were ok, cuz later i was able to backtrack on force-mistakes... i couldnt see any single force-break point... yuk! just blind faith...

I'm stuck at 12 solved, with nowhere to go...

Sounds pretty tough. Here goes nothing........

certainly the most frustrating one in a long time

I've only got 8 and stuck

ahhhh... messed up twice. It took an hour and 12 minutes to solve :(

martom - maybe you've found a new 'friend"

Do you know - I was thinking the same!!!!!!!!!!

im pretty sure you can get to 9 before fading-to-black, but im in a fog right now... gnight and gluck...

I can't go through that again - it nearly drove me insane

done

Damn - I've got 9 can't count now

that didn't take more than a restart and lots of reloads ;)

I thought I was playing these puzzles to keep me sane.

hint, start with 4-5-6 ;)

night

Ok, There is just one "hard" step in the solving of this one, at least for me. But finding that took an eternity. But after You find it, it's just clicking them away...

This seems to be going pretty easy. I must have made a mistake

Well, it was going easy.........

hi all

hi peternl - we've got a good one today

hmm, this is quite tricky

ok, I give up for now

I am very upset today I try but I don't have any hope about solving it:(

Alright, my wife's off to work, my son's off to school, back to more important things: sudoku!

DONE! Triple force string.

ohhhhh an expert...can't wait. I'll just get some food down my throat and settled down for some fun

go

I finally got thru July 31 with a quad force string. I hate guessing.

Jesus.... I'm in trouble! I havent done any since 7th August 06!!!!!!!!!!

Hi Kellie - You must not be addicted like me.

Hi ya.... I'm a waste of space!! obviously I've lost my touch!! How dare I say that I love Sudoku!!!

No waste. Welcome back! Now you get to catch up...

Thank you... I've definately got my work cut out for me....

If you can breeze thru today's puzzle you won't have any trouble catching up.

ha I looked at todays and thought better of it! I've started with the 07/08/06! its an easy one hee hee

i got sidetracked....so 9 filled in and resorted to greenies

1 down.... 188 to go!!!

well done Kellie

tyty

Moozey, I thought you'd be done by now.

:( have to green

think you need to know some advance stuff yul cos I am struggling

i think we'll manage together

I'm sure we will, so how is life with you any visits to Barcelona recently?

haven't been there for ages... time to book a slot :)

sounds like a plan, I've only managed a couple of trips to Sweden, hoping to go again soon

I wish to go there

I love it but I have a friend living there. I went about a month ago and it started to snow...the first this winter for gothenburg. I was very pleased...i love snow

I saw picks of Reykjavik's underground and it was amazing!

No, Stockholm :D

not been to Iceland but it looks pretty cool too

ahhh not been to Stockholm either only travelled around the south west

well, I'm going to have to take a break at 12 filled in. good luck all!

bye hokie

took an hour with a green. good challenge!

thinkI need to do some work and come back to this tonight...I like a toughie to get the old grey cells working. Have fun!

bye Moozey

starting over. apparently I had a problem w/ my greens.

starting over again. it was going way too well to be true.

yikes, it's shockingly easy to get the solution to any puzzle

surely that bit of javascript's been passed around before

but why do it if you can get the solution?

What's your point?

people that use use an autofil cheat

it's just going to be really hard to ignore the temptation to look when i'm stuck on a difficult one

okay one use

i use autofill a lot because i don't want to lose my place when i'm multitasking

i need to ween myself off it, i think

for me, there's no temptation for that. if I'm stuck, I just come back to it another time. it's not a cheating issue, I just don't see the point. if I'm not going to complete it, why waste my time on it?

It is satisfying to do it onesself, rather than cheat. To cheat is unsatisfying, so why bother?

yep NO CHEAT aids.

not to say I haven't ever used a super-duper hurshey clue, but it's been a while & you do still have to work for those. :)

I multi task all the time

And by the way, "wean" has an 'a' in it.

well, if we're getting nitpicky on the spelling, "oneself" is one "s". ;)

lol

:P

But this a braincell game, so use them.

hi all

damn it, I had to start over again

it's not easy

the expert levels here... are nasty

yep, that's what makes it fun

and hair pulling

Difficulty score 71.

exactly :)(

drwho - I don't remember a single one of your scores as high..!

There are at least 2 others that were higher. I think the highest was 77.

done

Successfully, I presume?

python, i find the interface here really hard on my hands, so much extra clicking to enter in numbers rather than typing. that's one reason i use the script to autofill on some puzzles.

how do you get difficulty points like 71?

printing this one out to take a crack at it in pencil

one box with a two number choice decides it all. So use your braincells, not an autofill

Speed?

if typing hurts your fingers stop, shut your computer down and take hammer to the computer. (cheater)

excuses

lol, Python... chill out would you :)

I wrote a program to analyze the puzzles. It ranks difficulty in a way that probably best approximates speed.

make your brain hurt, thats the game.

Finished, but it took two guesses

I think Python Taz believe this is a game designed to kill brain cell, weed out the weak and sickly.

finally found an opening!

starting over

che was it my clue

just a pair actually, but it let me fill in a couple more - we'll see how far that goes

yeppers

at this level, I'd be surprised if that's all it took to break open this puppy

This puzzle -never- "breaks open"

hehehe... we'll see :)

dr who don't forget it'll make you pull your eyes out

Yup, the eyes are the first to go.

But I need to hang on to all the weak and sickly brain cells...that's all I have left.

roflmao

Another piece of the anatomy in peril...

i am a blind girl today

finally!

Go.

someday I will learn how to do these experts with out brute force...but todays puzzle is way to hard for me

but done with 2 guesses

I take some comfort that it's not just me.

I agree with you copper

Ok... now give me an easy to get my confidence back up after that humbling experience.

well it seems to start off deceptively easy ...

... thus lulling you into a false sense of security.

and then it goes in for the kill

Crushing your hopes and aspirations...

...leading to thoughts of suicide.

Sure has crushed mine. And if I make a guess, I don't have a checkpoint.

take a screen shot, unike - click print screen and then paste in word

Don't get the idea that we are implying that this one is hard.

I've resorted to CTRL-ALT-PRTSC for multiple checkpoints.

I tried pasting it into Word, and all I got was a bunch of horizontal bars, on many pages, each with one number. Is there a better way to do a screen shot than to highlight the board and press ctrl-C?

press print screen and paste it in paint

Hold Control and Alt and press your "Print Screen" key, which is located at the top, to the right of the F keys.

just click the print screen button, no need to highlight anc copy - should be near the top of your keyboard

Then, paste into Word, Paint, Photoshop, whatever.

Okay. Thanks for the tip.

I'm starting over. This is insane.

Well, my guess seems to have legs. Haven't gotten an impass yet.

Where's my elder sign? I think this puzzle is costing me sanity points.

My guess was wrong. And I have so much to restore.

Welcome to the party :)

This puzzle might be smarter than me. =)

Perhaps you should considering upgrading to 'pro'!

...It is. argh.

I've considered it. I may. But I'm a real cheapskate. I grew up reading Scrooge McDuck comics and it rubbed off on me.

finally done... held my breath on my last guess thinking it would fall apart.. but when it held through I breathed a sigh of relief

Is this actually solvable?

Well, I'll be. The correct guess petered out much faster than the wrong guess did.

It's solvable, if you allow yourself to guess.

no guessing, just shear determination ;)

I thought the whole point of sudoku is that you don't have to guess.

forcing

In theory, there is no known set of techniques guarenteed to solve every possible Sudoku puzzle.

Did your scoring program solve it?

that's a fallacy... like a lot of tougher logic puzzles.. you sometimes need to make an educated guess.. thus when your hypothesis does not work out, you have logically eliminated an option

Some puzzle designers limit the difficulty of their puzzles to a certain set of solving techniques.

My scoring program solved it by guessing, the difficulty score is 71.

yeah, all the sudoku I've ever done have been ones you can solve without guessing

so i assumed that was an inherent part of the game

That was my understanding too. Then along came IronSudoku!

well, if this one can only be done by guessing, screw it :-P

I'm going to the archives.

It may be possible by using a more advanced technique than I have mastered.

om my word i solved it!

Om... om... om.

Meditation is the key :)

If you wish to transcend the obstacles, that is. :)

And her name is Sarah Bellum. Mine is more like Bedlam.

I have always wondered if Sarah has any nieces or nephews.

to be Aunty Bellum?

;)

Clever. A pun spread among two people.

I don't know, but my Auntie Diluvian does. :)

Can they tread water?

That one was a bit of an Auntie Climax.

For a while.

oy!

No, my Auntie Climax is a mountain climber in Tibet.

is she Auntie Social?

Alright. UNCLE!

My dad's brother was the man from U.N.C.L.E.

these jokes are old..... Auntie Quated actually

o . o

sorry.... I never could resist a good pun fest!

this is the best chat I've had on IS in a long while!

Auntie Male was always a bit strange

GOL - groaning out loud ;)

I once had a crush on Ms. Ann Thrope.

In fact, she was voted Miss Andry by NOW.

But she didn't like me.

GOL GOL

What's the matter, Doctor, couldn't you stand her at the full moon? Didn't you like ann thrope?

paws to think about that one

Pun like that have been known to make people howl.

Don't confuse lycanthopy with misanthropy.

Yeah, to do so would be sheer lunacy.

I fear we may have descended to 2/3 of a pun here...

P. U.

Yuckadoo. :)

Rats. My second guess went a long way and then got a contradiction. I'm zero for two.

go

You're in for a long game, Bunny.

I hope not...

You really from Azerbaijan?

*pokes bunny* allo!

No, just to lazy to fill in a profile. Near Ft. Worth, TX.

Howdy Eva!

working from the BFs house today -- how are you?

Enjoying some peace, all the kids are over the flu and back in school.

oh yay, glad theyre better!

finito!!!

My guessing is very bad. zero for 3.

It's alot easier if you upgrade, can save your checkpoints.

I'm almost convinced.

It's only 15 bucks for a lifetime of fun ..

This is fun only in the sense that heroin is fun.

My alternate guess also was wrong. I must have made some mistake way back. I need to do something else this morning. Bye yal. Have fun. Even if only in the heroin sense. ;-(

Bye

done

(with one well placed guess)

Off to be "wifely" for a bit, ya'll take care.

done at last

Holy cow got it on my 2nd try (guessing of course)

go

Got it! Third times the charm.

wow...internet is very sluggish today

I think I wait until tomorrow, maybe it will clear up

Enough for now. I'm zero for at least 4. Snack time. TTFN.

done

finally, after 3 starts & numerous hubby interrputions, doorbell & phone - SIGH

is there a Sam here? I know there's an Ana.

Hey, you went pro, Leigh!

yeah, stupid expert puzzles are too hard for me, i need the archives on expert days.

Ha nice

Environmental trespass to cattle?

cattle chattel.

not to be confused with chatter, as in "sudoku chatter"

This ain't no chattelbox!

lol

your mom is a chattelbox

lol

Would cow tipping be a tresspass to cattle?

depends on if the cow was damaged

does mental distress count?

What if it starts giving sour milk?

The cow's or the tipper's?

that was kinda painful

finally!

she's an officious intermeddler

Poor Leigh's car.

kind of like YOUR MOM

jeeze, people, you're slipping

Andy isn't here to keep us on task.

damn him and his illness.

theeeeere we go.

ooooooooooh snap

katie got called out again

Poor Katie!

What?

someone is not on prof. lansing's good side.

Oh wait...

looks like

she got called out for being absent all the time a couple days ago

you know those words are outdated because MS word does not recognize them

MS Word doesn't recognize "cromulent" either. Stupid program.

Yeah but MS word also doesn't recognize etoppel

You're not New Jersey!

your mom's new jersey

I hate this puzzle

I wish it a slow and painful death

i gave up on it and went to the archives over lunch

Yayayayayayay got it!

Happy dance!

woot!

took about 4 bazillion guesses.

yay, finished my easy puzzle!

back to babble.

yay leigh

eww a hidden quad

hiding very well from me, I might ad

*add

thought you were off to bed :P

am out of bed again, can't sleep

sounds familiar!

lol :)

Got the sweetest valentines card from my love, and I left him one on his pillow :)
Not everything is doomed and gloomy, is it!

awwww! how lovely!

*valentine's

done!

humbug

wow

I am getting absolutely nowhere with this one, I feel like I am without a brain

I did have to make an educated guess once

guess that might be my problem. Lack of education :)

well, vaguely educated guess :P

I'm making headway. Slowly. Haven't had to guess yet.

I hate guessing. But I get really stuck sometimes, like now, so I am sure there are more techniques than what I use.

oo-er, an expert! *rubs hands together*

yay hurshy, join the nonsleeping club!

*hits Start Over button

it's only 7 PM here sprite :)

There's a hidden quad in here somewhere that opens up several cells. I won't spoil it for you though ;)

so? You are SUPPOSED to be nonsleeping then!

yep.

thanks Orange :)

sorry about the hurshy joke back on babble, hursh - bad timing if I ever had it!

oh, no, i liked it.

i'm doing fine.

Done!

you're one hell of a strong lady :)
Can't be easy though.

YAY Orange!

babbling breeds toughness

ouch

and persistance... and a totally useless but vaste knowledge of words... and friendships :)

ywis!

*wonders where her inia has left her etui*

it was my decision, sprite, so, it's not really surprising that i'm doing better with it than he is.

hi limer :)

on etna of course!

Hey Hurshy

Your typing beautifully tonight

gack.

lol

sorry, getting frustrated with this one.

ah, of course, right next to the anoa

I feel for you, artlady.

*hugs hurshy* That certainly makes a difference, I can see that!

this is quite the chat we've got going here, very hopping for sudoku

It _is_ solvable without guessing. Just not easily :)

cabin fever

Yeah, listen to her

*takes a sneaky peek into Orange's brain*

hursh, what is 'hopping'?

ewwww

I'm not used to finishing sudoku before other people!

I had to reset once, but I changed my approach and found several hidden pairs/triples that opened up a lot of cells. After that it was mostly systematic elimination.

hopping is... active

i'm feeling a little nervous right now

ah... like the movement *gets image of easter bunny*

ignore it

my husband is on the phone with the pastor from church - well, i've been going to chapel here at school, so it's more his pastor - and i don't mind him talking to him about everything but i hope he doesn't be like, oh, come for counseling, cause, i don't want that.

if you don't want that, you will say NO.

i mean obviously i can say no. but then he might think badly of me for not being willing to try.

well tough if he thinks badly of you. the pastor ain't going to be a big person in your life!

I can imagine that that is very unpleasant. Still, I know for sure that you have been willing to try for a long time, you are not the quitting type. So let him think badly - you know better.

Plus, you can say that you have sought your own counseling in a venue you are comfy with (just don't say it's the sudoku/babble crowd) and you are sure

Plus, hi Hurshy!!!! Hugs.

we are a great crowd :)

so great I'm going to leave you all and try and sleep :) see you in babble in the morning!

sleep well, Ata, sweet dreams :) *hug*

thanks folks. sorry i keep cutting out, i get emails and have to reply...

bye ata :)

hi bookwyrm

Hey, hurshy. I think I haven't been on much since last summer! School year's kept me busy.

having fun with school?

or stressful busy?

Bookwyrmish, I think I might know you. Do you know Tam?

Fun busy, trying to keep up with the internet world, stressful dealing with my autistic son's school program. Today I have a snow dismissal and hope that I get tomorrow off.

Wolfrick, I don't think so. I'm from the middle of nowhere PA in the school year, and Maine in the summers.

darn, now I found a hidden quad and now it does not clear up any other tiles.

I'm having to restart. This one's tough

lol sprite

Sorry, my friend who goes by Bookwyrm lives in Ohio.

Ah! Wolfrick, Bookwyrm was already taken when I tried to get it for a yahoo id, that's why I went to "ish"--tell your friend he/she has a great name!

grabbing my ankles on this one.

:)

oh my - an opening!

does that help?

and I was not grabbing my ankles when I saw that opening

What, an opening or ankle grabbing?

#%^)

i was inquiring as to the effectiveness of ankle grabbing

effective when trying to releve stress.

I can affirm that one hidden quad makes a real difference

man oh man

I am really taking this one up the wazoo

grabbing ankles again?

that must be painful

what with all the corners

ouch

Paper cut

I got a lot further, but not to the realm of totally solved sudoku

12 numbers... grrr

I just love the comments when there is a tough puzzle. We all get kinda lame when it's too easy.....

yeah, the tough ones are fun

and complaining about them is fun too :)

I'm new here... please tell me there's not a level harder than "Expert".

yeah, there's killer

No such luck

nope

wait, that's today's puzzle

lol

not officially

some experts are easier than others, tho

Maybe we should say "not yet"

it makes me feel SO much better as a newbie to see you folks having trouble too

Still working on it?

hey Orange :)
Yes, found the quad and lots of steps from there, but hit another brick wall.

sigh.

Well, if it's decided to add a harder level, I propose the label "Demonic" and nominate this puzzle to be elevated to that rank.

ack again!

second that

There's several hidden triples involving those pesky 2'3 and 3's

just decided to clear it. I think I had an error somewhere. Oh well, work will just wait...

What do you mean by "quads" and "triple"?

I can only see quads in boxes with 4 left and triples in boxes with 3 left, lol

It took me a while to finally see them, but the lack of concrete 2's and 3's is key for solving this one.

thanks for the tip!

Almost all of the 2's and 3's will be the LAST numbers you fill in.

Which is where I am, for what it's worth.

i'm just forcing it. it's not worth it. not today.

Find one and it will lead to many ;)

diforcing it, hursh? *argh*

oh sprite!

I know *bows head in shame*
It's 2 am here, I should sleep.

lol

Me ====> Brick Wall

at least we can have a great picknick at that wall

aha

pick axe in hand...

my forcing chain has led to an impossibility.

chip chip chip

don't you even think of spriting me on sudoku, hursh! I don't like the sound of that aha...

lol

here it goes

WHAT? Only 5 points? You should give me 15 at least for this b@st@rd!

night all, I go try and sleep again - basking in the glory of having beaten this nasty expert ;)

night sprite

nite sprite

we bow to your greatness...;-)

i'm done too.

congrats!

see you another snow day, then. I'm putting my little one to bed.

Ha

Nailed that puppy!

Rank me, baby

LOTS of green,, and loose hair

nix theme muzak

grrrr

right there with ya

weeee...I made it out of Newbies

congrats

Thanks

fi. nally.

I can't believe I'm this stubborn, and this puzzle is this hard.

I can't believe that I finished this one. That was unbelievably hard!

how long did it take to finish?

yay! i finally finished... after many tries.

this is ridiculous

it's no longer a thinking game it's a guessing one

I have to say that I'm not happy this puzzle isn't solvable by logic.

thank you very much Wolfrick, someone agrees

what in the world?!?!?!?

which puzzle

I haven't even finished a square!!!!

i gave up when i found out it wasn't possible to solve without guessing.

sudoku is not for guessing.

I haven't seen any proof that this cannot be solved with logic. Some people apparently have solved it with logic.

who?

I've tried it and eventually you come to a dead end

OrangeSlice for one.

oh, really? everyone i saw talking about it had to guess. But i haven't been here all day, just popping in from time to time.

Even if everyone has to guess, that is no proof that logic cannot solve it.

this is true. but it is enough of an indication that I probably can't solve it without guessing for me to give up and go do an easy in the archives <g>

well i'm not giving up, even if i have to guess and start all over

A good argument can be made that guessing is a form of logic. It is the last resort for any computer program that solves Sudoku puzzles.

I play sudoku for fun. It is not fun for me to guess on sudoku. Therefore, going to the archives and doing an easy is logical. :-D

good argument! give you props for that

but then, I am not a computer program.

alright, wrong guess. Now i have to start over!

DDG, if you did a checkpoint before your guess, you could go back there. (You can take a screen shot as a poor man

...as a poor man'

...as a poor man's checkpoint).

i haven't upgraded to pro so i can't save a check point

the ' and <Enter> keys are too close together!

You can take a screen shot <Ctl> <Print Scrn> and then paste into the Paint program.

cool

well i ahve it on a piece of paper

sometimes after I've saved a checkpoint and I see that I'm going to need another(cause I don't always know what I'm doing) I'll go back and load the same game on another page or two. That way if I screw up and need to go back to my first checkpoint, I can without starting over.

good idea, doni

this is ridiculous

start

oh no! i got down to 4 boxes left before i found a conflict with my guess :(

that sux

i was all, "why is everyone complaining? it only took me one guess, i'm so great.... CRAP!"

yeah

i still think its ridiculous but ive got nothing better to do

i found a great guess ... i hope it doesn't lead me down the same path

well....just wait and see

if it's a 3 instead of a 2 in the bottom right hand corner, it's the same path!

nope, wasn't that one. i started in the lower middle section

good luck then :)

im just all over..anything i can get i appreciate

damn

11 squares to go, found my conflict

you'd think by law of averages we should be guessing right more often

done

hmmm... really, dahduke?

easy expert today. Easier then easy

dahduke = yanking our chain

well that's great dahduke. rub it in

how did you do it?

Dahduke, I think you are the first to claim today's was easy.

not crosshatching

nothing there

Difficulty: HardSaturday, February 3, 2007

this is too much

Oh, you're not talking about today's?

ok, done, but it took a few guesses (and some time earlier today)