hi all

very easy

too easy.

Done

1st time here. Hope to stick around!!

hello all!

welcome Ed, hf.
Hi all

boards

go

done

hi all

done

Who said today's was easy? Sorry, but not for me without resorting to greens early.

this is the hardest easy I've ever seen

Finished

done.

go

done

Go

doners!

was it easy for you or not?

I agree it was a bit tricky, I liked this one though.

congrats, btw :)

ok, will give it a try then. Started earlier today, but life got in the way.

I got hung up for quite a bit and then it quickly fell into place. Good luck! Byeeee

bye

Done. Had to think a little more than usual for an "easy"

am making progress, but have to think ahead more than usual with an easy

I just got home from a week of skiing, so thinking is not real easy for me yet.

:)
hope you had fun!

Oh yeah! Montana was great!

wonderful! Nothing like a great vacation to relax and get ready for normal life again ;)

That's right. But I do hate dealing with airports.

yeah, I can imagine. Waste of time and energy.

There's just too many people trying to get thru security. Then there is no place for all of these people to sit while they wait, since everyone is supposed to get there 2 hours before their flight.

exactly, and then you arrive at your destination and it all starts over, until you finally manage to retrieve your luggage (or not)

Yesterday's puzzle was a good one. I'm working pretty hard on it without much progress.

I got stuck at 24 filled in and couldn't solve it without guessing. If you can solve it, I would really like to know how to beat the litlle bugger without guessing!

OK, if I get it I will let you know.

I'd really appreciate that! My email is in my profile, just leave out the spaces.

OK, but it doesn't look too promising right now.

lol, too bad, but at least I am not the only one having trouble with it!

nailed today's, though. Good luck with yesterday's, hope you can beat it!

I'm slowing down with only 14 filled. But I don't give up easily. Going with the greens now to see if it helps.

Yesterday needs a... highly non-obvious maneuver to open up the puzzle. I don't know why it's a medium.

sprite - Instead of me telling you how to solve it, you may need to tell me how to get to 24 filled....

Thanks for the heads up, Orange.

I found it rather akin to the hard or expert puzzles that seem easy until you hit a certain point, and then you have to do something really weird to keep going.

Well, it's obvious that it's not obvious.

It is a really ugly move

meow

ma hah

Start marking greens, then focus on the 1's on the far right and the very bottom. You will see it eventually.

OK, thanks for the tip.

hey orange

Morning :)

how are you this beautiful sunday morning?

Well rested, certainly, but the weather outside is a bit gloomy.

what up

that sucks. it's unusually warm, sunny and beautiful here in MA

Not here. It snowed a little on Friday, and the clouds are still hanging around.

Not even a spot of sun.

oh it was a mess here on Friday. Started out snowing a little, then icy rain, then rain and well... you know what happens then.

Ah yeah, we had a few days of that in January, it pretty much shut the city down.

a few off days from work, then?

We usually have a mild winter out here, so this has been weird.

the weather everywhere has been "weird" this year

Well, off from college. But yeah, we missed almost a week of class.

orange!!!! i love you. marry me?

er...

hehe, i'll let you be... seems like you have an admirer. :-P

I wonder what I did now, lol

i think she figured the puzzle out... due to your tip

Ah, perhaps.

which was the key to solving it... yeserdays, I mean

Am I right, Shyzzy?

Yeah. It is also not a "medium" maneuver.

Unless there was another way of finding it, and I ended up doing the hard way. I suppose that's always possible.

then i did too... because that is how I solved it

Well I know that sometimes I use funky moves on easy and medium puzzle just because I see them, even though they aren't really necessary to solve it.

I've found with most puzzles... on here, other sites, printed material, etc. that by looking over the puzzle before you start... you usually see something that might help you solve it quicker, than just by "diving in"

exactly

i wish i would have seen that post before I posted my "essay"

lol

Sorry, got up to refill my coffee cup.

it's ok... i'm doing some archives

Yeah, I botched Dec. 30 last night.

Went all the way through it and ended up with one big chain that led to an impossbility every time.

you know i've had this account for almost a year and I forgot about it... i've actually been buying "printed" books and doing them... i've finished them all and then I went looking for printables off line and "remembered" my account on here...

then I felt so... dumb...

hehe

ooh, i hate that

dec. 30 was pretty difficult if i remember correctly

I have a book of puzzles that I used to take with me, but I think it's getting dusty in my room now.

i'm working on jan 23. right now... i have almost a whole year of puzzles to do

the thing with the printed books is, the spines... they never stay intact and then all the pages start falling out

I just bought my account a few weeks ago, but I've worked all through Jan. and Feb now.

the spiral bounds are no better either

Working on December

<-- Sudoku addict

I joined last March. I found this site by freak accident and loved it and well the price... for life was great... so I was sold. Besides. I was pregnant at the time and limitted on things that I could do... so... I fell in love with sudoku, thanks to my m.i.l

ditto

I would probably pay for it even if it was monthly, heh, I like it here.

my husband laughs at me... and my addiction. it's quite funny. he comes home from work and I either have a book that I'm doing them in... or I'm on the laptop..

no, I wouldn't pay monthly for something like this... I mean don't get me wrong... I love it here but ... I'd probably be a freebie player...

Well, if it was reasonable.

I probably wouldn't pay $15 a month for sudoku.

I think it's a novel idea though, socialized sudoku.

there is another "free" site I found when I bought one of the other books. I am not sure if it's up now because when I've tried to go there... I think it's down. but it's worth a shot. sudokupuzzler.com

yeah it is

I used to do 'em on a site that generated random puzzles from some algorithm, but I got bored when I could solve the "evil" ones really fast most of the time.

they've got timed puzzles ... so they're more of a challenge. I do them from time to time

hmm, I'll check it out

yeah I know... those type of puzzles... they take the fun out of sudoku

Gah I'm a dope. Staring at this puzzle for 10 minutes and the answer was right there in cross-cutting 9's. lol

the dec. 30?

Nah, different one.

and here we go..... again

Good morning :)

is easy easy or is it medium hard easy? or expert easy hard... or....

Super easy. All cross cuts.

cool

OK, time to try Dec. 30 again.

Let's see where this goes today. hah

gl orange

If I can't do it, I resolve to stop doing sudoku and finish my homework.

never say never orange

ooh, that's a pretty big rgamble

I should be doing my homework anyway. Usually I have it done by Sunday, but I've been feeling lazy this weekend.

we all go through that from time to time

right now, i'm "supposed" to be doing laundry.

I should probably do that too

my excuse... can't right now... the neighbors are doing theres. They just had a baby and I know what that's like...

I have no experience in that field.

my daughter's 7 months old now --- teething, cranky, and likes to get into things..

she's napping, so right now it's "me" time

Always good to have a bit of that from time to time

yeah, you have to... otherwise you may go insane

Alright, so far this puzzle is unfolding exactly as it did last night, and it's making me nervous.

my kids are grown... yes.... you do.... insane....

I don't like the way that sounds, orange

hmm... that could mean one of two things orange...

Gosh, everyone's older than me.

hey mamabear... any good teething remedies?

I am double-checking every move I make this time around.

If I reach an impossibility, then the puzzle is not solvable. lol

haha... nice try! :-P

Ok something's different now. I filled in a bunch of cells that were in the evil impossible chain from last time.

teething.... teething.... lemme think

Not sure what move I made the mistake on before, but I think I got it right this time.

quite possibly...

we'll see

Heh I was about to type that.

Eliminated where the unique rectangle was too.

I must have really mangled this thing yesterday.

ok. all green. another possible yuck

Done!

ppppffffftttttt

congrats! Orange... see nothing is "impossible"

I feel like Sargeant Schultz.... I see nothing!

Oh I can think of one thing, but it has nothing to do with sudoku.

Did this one without greenies. Makes me feel a little better after the last couple.

Aye, we've had some tricky ones recently.

no greenies? I'm feeling very inadequate....

think I'll come back to this later after I go get my brain recharged or something.

yeah taking a break... sometimes helps mamabear

woo hoo... getting alot of the archives complete today!

Dec. 23 has me at a standstill right now.

you said that about the 30th... and you completed it... take a break then come back

start some of that laundry

;-P

I don't want to.

twas just a suggestion...

I'm not in the proper mental state right now.

Which probably sounds weird, but I have a, um, condition.

haha

with laundry?

Sometimes I have trouble doing normal things.

I have OCD.

oh... well then... that makes sense

there is nothing wrong with that

sorry for laughing I thought you were trying to be funny :-(

It's ok.

are you self-medicating or receiving treatment?

No, It's not severe. Most people have it a lot worse.

right, that is why i was asking. my bestfriend in highschool had it.. but not severely

so i am a little more understanding about the condition

It comes and goes. Sometimes I'll just start doing something over and over again, and I can't stop.

And other times I can function just fine.

well, as long as it doesn't really interfere with your life to the point that you're unhappy... then I don't see a reason to get treatment

i used to get like that when i was younger... when i got mad, i mean really mad... i'd clean. so you could always tell when i was pissed off

it was kind of like anger management therapy.

I can usually control it by avoiding certain things

like "triggers"

Though I also tend to avoid people, because it's rather embarrassing when someone asks you why you're doing such-and-such over and over again for no apparent reason.

that's not a real way to live. you need to have human interaction. people are just... well... people. they sometimes ask stupid questions...

you shouldn't alienate yourself because of something that you have not control/or little control over

I don't think most people can understand.

you have a point there.

do your parents know about your ocd? or have you been able to hide it from them?

No, my parents don't know.

As I said, I can mostly control it when I'm around people, but I've been caught once or twice, just not by them.

is this something that developed rather quickly or have you always been like this?

hmm... I guess it's been about a year now.

is this like a coping mechanism... for nervousness or stress?

Since I've been conscious of it, at least. I've always led a rather solitary life, so it's not much of a surprise if nobody ever noticed me doing something funny.

so you were like an outcast?

I guess.

I was homeschooled from grade 6 on.

if i am prying, getting too personal or making you uncomfortable please tell me

Nah it's alright.

ok

I've accepted it to the point that I can talk about it, but I still don't really want people to know.

But this is the Internet, so I guess the social situation is a little more comfortable.

I understand completely...

yeah, i'm not looking at you, you're not looking at me... you don't feel like you're being judged (regardless if you are or not) and for some reason talking to other people is therapeutic

Right.

at least that is what it's like for me

I can be "me" on the Internet.

i don't like talking to people (that i don't know... i.e party, social setting) unless i know them

RIGHT!

the internet has been great to me, ever since I discovered it. I've met some fascnating, wonderful, people and discovered who I was without all of the uncomfortability of actual social interactions.

is that even a word?

It's a word in the sense that it has a clear meaning to it.

I've gotten away with a couple of those in papers for English courses.

but as in found in the dictionary, or used in every day conversation... is another story

it's uncomfortableness :)

now that sounds more made up than what i said :-P

thanks skizzy ;-P

noooooo prob

Whew, finally solved it.

Guess I'll go try to do something productive.

wtg!

Thanks and goodbye

later orange. have a good day

just finished up November

Difficulty score 25. There is a lot of symmetry. Watch for it, it will help.

go

done

OH!!!!!!

Oh?

OH!!!!

oh my

5 always was a good number

yeah, it killed me too

dun du dun dun

I'm working on Dec. 15

have fun, Orange! ....til next time!

Whew.

Hey Orange, when I found a few uninterrupted minutes, I solved yesterday's puzzle without any problems. I used greens to help identify more of what could not go in a cell than what could. Beyond that, it was mostly just crosshatching. Several people seemed to get to 24 cells filled in before hitting a snag, at which point you suggested looking closely at the 1's. By the time I had 24 filled, I had all 9 of the 1's solved. One note: I tried at first using autofill for the greens I got nowhere. When I went back and did it manually it was much easier to see the solution.

I never use reds, so maybe you found another route.

Sudoku is like math. There are different ways to manipulate it, but as long as you use legal rules, you'll always get the right answer.

I didn't use reds either. I just used the greens in one cell to help me see what was not possible in another. This happened three or four time in this puzzle.

Well, sounds like you essentially used greens to function as reds. I can't use reds because my alt key is broken, but I never saw much of a need for them anyway.

It's always good to see another unique way of solving things.

Maybe that's why it was a medium.

The technique I used (and suggested to others) was definitely not something one should have to use on a medium.

glad I'm not the only one that had trouble yesterday

But I got the 1s quickly also

I really hate having to guess, even more so on a "medium". What this showed me was that autofill can prevent me from seeing some rather basic steps that lead to a solution. I have stated this here before, and I just had to relearn the lesson myself.

question....does one have to be on line throughout the whole puzzel...I mean can you work it off line then before you actually finish it, get back on line?

what is autofill?

Doni - I think you have to be online.

dave - There is a javascript around that can be entered to give you all of the greens. Do you understand what we mean by greens?

sure. I understand what you said earlier too. I enter greens selectively at first. I can spot pairs at times and avoid entering some greens. (rather than using reds)

There is another one that actually solves the puzzle, but I think that is wrong to use.

What would the point be in that?

Dave - Here is the javascript. Enter it in the address line of your browser after you have begun the puzzle: javascript:for (i=1; i<=9; i++) {for (j=1; j<=9; j++) {if (grid[i][j].value == '') {ClearTinySquares(i,j);}}}for (i=1; i<=9; i++) {for (j=1; j<=9; j++) {if (grid[i][j].value != '') {var tmp_value = grid[i][j].value;for (k=1; k<=9; k++) {for (l=1; l<=9; l++) {if (grid[k][l].value == '') {if ((Math.ceil(i/3) == Math.ceil(k/3) && Math.ceil(j/3) == Math.ceil(l/3)) || i == k || j == l) {grid[k][l]['mini'][tmp_value] = -1;}}}}}}}for (i=1; i<=9; i++) { for (j=1; j<=9; j++) { if (grid[i][j].value == '') { for (k=1; k<=9; k++) { if (grid[i][j]['mini'][k] != -1) grid[i][j]['mini'][k] = 1; }}}}for (i=1; i<=9; i++) {for (j=1; j<=9; j++) {if (grid[i][j].value == '') {for (k=1; k<=9; k++) {if (grid[i][j]['mini'][k] != 1) grid[i][j]['mini'][k] = 0;}}}}PopulatePuzzle(grid);void(0);

thnx, but I think I'll stick to entering them myself, for the reason we agree.

guess? I used a dual xwing to solve yesterday's.

I don't guess. Ever.

I would have had to guess since I've never understood the xwing solution, even tho I've looked at the solution on scanraid several times.

Maybe I'm just too old to learn new tricks.......

There was an xwing on the far right that isolated the proper cells on the bottom to create another xwing along the bottom boxes that isolated two cells on the lower left, that opened the puzzle.

That's what I used to solve yesterday's.

A nasty move that I hope never to need to use again.

and that was on a "medium"?

Hey, if it works for you, great. I didn't need it for this puzzle. I'm sure there have been times when I had to guess that the xwing would have provided a solution. I will continue to try to understand what scanraid is trying to teach me. I'm just a slow learner.

Like I said, it's not something I expect to have to use on a medium, but I was stuck, and that's what I eventually saw.

dave - Check out scanraid.com for an explanation of xwing and other advanced strategies for solving puzzles.

xwings actually show up fairly often; though it's rare that you actually require them to solve, they usually speed things up a bit.

it's a useful technique to know how to do, but that one could probably do just fine without.

Yes, I have scanraid in my "favorites" but don't seem to get there very often

I used the "guardian" strategy from scanraid for the first time earlier today

This was probably a good puzzle to use xwing on for practice. If I get time tomorrow I will go back and try to figure it out. Now, "guardian" is not one I've heard of before.

go

It's used for breaking chains.

Just read scanraid. Y'know I've used the x-wing a few times but didn't know it wasa a formal strategy. I just kinda reasoned it out

The guardian was hard for me to see, because I've never had to use it before

But I was stuck on a chain on Dec. 15 and after staring at it for a while and figuring out which cells depended on which other cells, I managed to eliminate one candidate and start filling in the chain.

And it worked. Puzzle solved, no guesses :)

I always feel good after doing an expert.

Orange, Dave - I have enjoyed this, but I'm going to have to let you two keep discussing this without me. I got in last night at 1:00 AM after a week of skiing in Montana and the sleep monster is calling me. Goodnight.

I'm probably hitting the sack as well as soon as I finish this one.

Have a nice rest.

Spread - you're killing me. I never got to the slopes this year

I should be working instead of playing here. at this rate I'll never hit the hay.

night spread

My first time in three years. The knees and thighs aren't what they used to be, but I can still point 'em downhill better than my 17 year old son. And he really hates that. :)

It'll remind him of Mark Twain's saying

?

"The older I got, the wiser my Father became" or something to that effect

I thought of this one, but I don't know who wrote it: "Old age and treachery will win out every time over youth and exubreance"

works for me!

I'm gone. Goodnight.

done