also, pro users can go back and play the puzzles they never completed, and bump their rankings up, which gives them a decided advantage

but they could sooner or later turn that from a one time fee, to a membership that you have to pay every so often

you could always ask dr god about it :)

ooh! a hard today

shooooooooooooot

snap. in a year or so when i finish putting in all the little 1s ...

Dr_God, are you still around? I have a troubleshooting thing to share

I'm assuming you want to talk about the inadvertent refresh?

Yep ;) Losts 40 min of work on an archive puzzle

Very sorry about that. My fault.

n/p, as long as you saw it

haha, nice timing, right as i had the same prob

andy, that's because the new puzzle just showed up and we all refreshed to it

ooh! my checkpoints are back :) i love you, dr god

... but only as a friend

dr g, is this pro thing ever going to be moved from a one time fee, to a subscription type deal?

You won't love me for long. Just wait until you try and use the checkpoints. ;)

lol ok i won't

raggedyandy3478-
I have no plans to, but that's not to say I haven't thought about it.

aight, ty for the answer

moe, u out there, or is he stuck doing CS again?

Lots of changes, Dr_God :)

I love the possibilities to do puzzles I missed.

Dr_God - you might want to check the rankings - how did I pass PocketMole by so many points?

hey andy, im here

Never mind - I guess he didn't have every puzzle like I thought

thats 2027 class is the 10 lecture

yeh, i am going to take the 2 o'clock bc that put my earliest class at noon

haha, i wish i had that choice

its gonna be great

leave it to CS to be stupid and be only at 9

ya i loved it last semester

earliest class being at noon that is

moe, just as a tip, dont try to save as a checkpoint

Oh, that's annoying

was it just me, or was that really easy?

yeh, i caught part of the conversation

*all done*

still working it

i don't mean to brag :) i'm just proud of myself i finished so fast. yay me! off to bed i go

good luck everybody :D

so, no more checkpoints unless you go pro?

correct

stinks

done

hehehe, hey everyone, if you wanna use a "checkpoint" anyways, you can always hit the printscreen button and paste it to a blank .jpg...

nothing dr. g can do to stop that

thx moe

and done

done, too

and done

you stilll working andy?

yup, talking to somebody at the same time

ahh

good night everyone

for a hard, this one really wasn't that tough

hey andy, bring your laptop to physics, ill explain in the morning

registration?

and ill always bring it

yeah, at 11:45

see ya

cya

done

Done A bit difficult today Notably becasue the start combination looked so foreign

started strong and have stalled now.

i'm with you

i'll have to sleep on it and try it in the morning

g'night all y'all

1s and 6s are the stall

How on earth did Carderoux manage to get 5 points since yesterday? The ranking is fishy

pro can play previous games

Thanks That is actually fair

What the heck!!! I clicked "Save As Checkpoint" and it pops up a come on for the pro acct with no way to get back to my half done game!!!

Weak.

quite. it shouldnt screw you like that.

Im done...

should just hide the button or mark it disabled.

Doesn't make one want to shell out money, that's for sure.

It should at least warn you and let you get it back

i agree

click on no thanks i;ll upgrade laer to get back to your game

What benefits do you get for being a pro other than letting you have an icon and a flag?

but mine won\t actually save it so i quit playing

Best thing to do is print it off.. work on it and then once solved put it in

sokething wrong with the system today - when I click 'save as check point' the grid reverts to start over. lucky i had only input a few numbers

yeah...dirty trick.

Isnt the system Anne.. you have to be a pro to be able to use 'save as' now

I don't see the "no thanks" button. it must be running off the bottom of the frame. (I have my text zoomed in)

perhaps i'll try my luck at babble and come back later

this site will lose regular users now that they can't save progress

Oh well, too late now as I already tried doing the back button and lost it.

were are the 'pro ' rules shown ?

I don't have the patience to start over. Bed time. Goodnight all.

go to help at top right, then click on upgrading to pro in left column at bottom

it tells you the stuff you get for upgrading, anne

yay done. not so bad.

I'm done... I spose when I'm away next week my rankings will drop cos I won't be here...

Such is life...lol

Cya all.... have fun

happened to me deb.. just for a long weekend!

Not now you can catch up on puzzles you missed

can you???

Yep, check out the Archives section ( Pro/paid up users only )

yes

Yes, isn't it great! :)

YAY!!!! I'll be busy today :-)

Dr God uploaded the changed yesterday, got alot of stick coz non pro users can no longer save state, says he's gonna change the ranking system as well

so WTF?

morning all, is it easy hard or hard hard?

easyish!

did everyone know these entire chat logs are saved along with the archived puzzles?

i just done save as check point and it cleared it all?

anyone seen websudoku.com? there are millions of free sudoku puzzles there. i always play the 'evil' rated ones for good practice

bubbles, the switch was flipped so now you have to pay for a pro account to save your progress

thats crap!!! ahhhhhhh

ya, could be a warning of some sort

that's what i hate too. no warning, no info at all an then those changes overnight. GAH think this would be my last day at ironsudoku

well, most everyone knows now

the warning is in the form of the chat window :)

the save as checkpoint should be taken off for all those that aren't pro

And what about those who need to go away and leave the puzzle for a while, in order to do some work or something?

Oh no, they already have. Bah.

I believe Bubbles was referring to the button. Since the feature has already been removed, they shouldn't still have the button there to give you a false sense of security.

Yes, I understand that now. I'm not very happy about it either. Some warning might have been nice.

it preserves the work I've done, not sure why others are having problems

(meaning it doesn't erase my puzzle)

I agree, MaW. How do they expect to win over users when they treat them like that?

I'm now tempted to upgrade to Pro, but also reluctant because I disapprove of suddenly withdrawing a feature from the free version. Sure they need money to run the site, but...

meh

honestly, there was no draw for the paid accounts whatsoever before

$15 for a chat icon is pretty steep

Checkpoints are a good feature... I would have got a Pro account had they been a Pro feature from the start

I just don't like it when sites move features from free versions into paid versions, would prefer them to make the paid version so cool nobody can resist upgrading

I suppose.. but for the newcomer, what's the difference

Well yes, it's just us who feel put out

I don't feel put out - in fact, I was surprised before at how little added functionality the paid accounts gave

now things work as I expected they eventually would all along

yup

It would be nice to have a warning that 'saving a checkpoint' just clears all your hard work

Good news everyone: Iron Sudoku still has checkpoints for non-pro players!
Bad new everyone: Iron Sudoku's checkpoint for non-pro players occur after you finish the puzzle.
</sarcasm>

again, I'm not getting the problem that it clears my work

ok, what's the hack?

Still, on the bright side I did today's puzzle without guessing

Possibly because of the lack of availability of checkpoints to facilitate guessing

somewhat annoying the removal of checkpoints from non-pro players - that was, for me at least, what made playing this sudoku somewhat enjoyable for the harder puzzles - I could be careful when I made a checkpoint and keep making real progress.

now I have to go through it all from the beginning when I make a mistake - exactly like you have to (generally) on paper - very annoying, I'll give it one try tonight but may just stop playing entirely

agreed

playing devils adocate here but Dr_God has to keep the site up and running so I don't blame him for making all but basic feature 'pro'. The price of becoming pro is very small really.

that's true as well. I can understand why they did it, and didn't mean to say he shouldn't have... Having said that, I still find it anoying, if only for selfish reasons. ;)

I know what you mean Sencer :-) wasn't having a go at anyone LOL

I dont even think its annoying - it would be annoying if the price of going pro wasn't such a minimal amount ... but very little comes for free in this life ..!

Like you say nothing comes for free except the Sudoku, I understand your frustration though Sencer as you have had certain facilities fror free and they have been stripped.

finished but this may be one of my last times - too bad, I've enjoyed playing sudoku here

I suppose it's ended up like a "trial version" of software where you get so many days free - but after those days you still get some functionality. I agree that these things should have been publicised better though!

morning all :)

mrning sherb

I like the changes... being able to play archived games is good...

its wonderful!

gives me a chance to make up for when I didn't have time to play...

well at least it forced me to solve it without trial and error

test to see if I have a flag

no flag. hmmm

ahh there it is

congrats on going Pro, tuco :)

thanks

Hey GingerUK, long time no type at

hI lIMER, HOW YOU DOING?

oops caps lock moment, sorry!!

crap! save checkpoint just wipes the board! lost my game..i was so far done too! :(

bad news Nasher... only Pros can use the checkpoints now...

Finished! I suppose the disappearance of saves makes me go back to the good habit of solving it on paper. =)

well done Vega!! :)

Thanks =) I also seem to guess less when I do it on paper, so that helps!

just working my way through the archived puzzles...

does beg the question why in FFox you should be rewarded with a reset board.. remove the buttons if you want just leave my board intact please.

I like the feature for doing missed puzzles but it doesn't seems to add to your rankings!!!!!

Recalculated at midnight?

hmmm... it's usually instant....

will check after tomorrows puzzle to see if it's worth doing the others!

maybe I think it's instant because I check after each puzzle BUT that could be the points from the day before!!! condusing LOL

For a while, I thought just logging in gave you the days points - I checked the ranking before and after I finished - no change after completion. Then I spotted the "calculated at midnight" on the rankings page, I think.

I am hoping they will calculate the rankings at midnight and if they do include the archives I am definintely doing them as I can't even get on the leader board because I joined late

Yep - click on "rankings" above - next to the Rankings heading it says "(Rankings are updated every night at 12:00 midnight CT)"

same here moozey, I also missed 4 puzzles when I was away for the weekend, just done 2 of them so it should help but I dropped of the firsr rankings during that weekend.

maybe i should read more Lamancha!!!

all in the small print!

sooo, I shouldn't click on "save as checkpoint" then?

It would seem not...

that's a bit lame

Thats me - all previous ones done - see you all tomorrow

hey nerdmom

hellooooo

ya gunna answer nerdmom

hey pusso

hey

anyone?????

blah

a

hellooooooooo

tyrus

whats popin

*dribble*

fashizl my nizzle

no more checkpoints. I guess won't be playin much anymore

same here

before you leave give me head please

I can add ventilation to your skull with a drill if you like

ok

but first give me head

are you a chick

you're that desperate, eh?

ya and that horney

so you've decided to try your luck on a sudoku site?

horney /and/ clueless!

no

yeah well take your smut elsewhere it is putting me off my lunch

im just a jokin

bye

so many 1s

too many 6s

tell me about it, driving me nuts

I've only placed 16 numbers so far today

well I had placed a few and went drastically wrong, so I shall start again

i solve it

to save a checkpoint, I have to pay now?

how did caderoux and hurshey jump so far ahead in the points?

once you pay, you can play the archives

finally sucked it up + went pro.
:)

i guess everyone really is in it for the $$ eventually, eh?

i don't have 15 bucks to throw around

i can't believe i have to pay to save a checkpoint now

well it isn't free to host the site.. not like 15 bucks is that much to ask for

i guess i would have rather it been that way from the beginning.. now it feels like bait & switch

i agree about the save as checkpoint..

i think thats one of the few downfalls about joining a new site...unfortunately, things kinda change as you go + as it grows...
i agree though, that is one aspect that i would have liked to stay a freebie.

True, but it was the deciding factor for me to go pro. Before that, I didn't see too much benefit.

between that and the archives.. it was a no brainer for me

same here gwen!
that, and last night i learned that you can play archived games if you are pro

it's kind of a shame, though. because the rankings will be a little skewed, but i think they mentioned yesterday that the rankings would be updated soon as a result

Perhaps rankings are only meaningful to those at the very top! I'm just happy to be able to solve these things!

So could you play one difficult puzzle in the past over and over?!

I think you can only play those in the archives that you have not already solved.

no.. only once.. but you can go back and complete any puzzles you hadn't done before

off to do some real work.. good luck, all.

what the heck? Why are the archive puzzles closed? I just turned pro and I can't solve the archives. I did one but now I can't do anymore.

tuco - that happened to me at first, but the problem went away after I refreshed...

hmmm

I logged out and restarted my browser but no luck. Time to dump my cookies and cache.

that was it. I had to delete the ironsudoku cookie and clear my cache.

:)

OWIE!!
just bit the inside of my lip!
punctured in 2 places....
*WAH!!*

awwww! :'( you ok?

OW!! ...must have been concentrating really hard :(

im a trooper...
but i can already feel it getting puffy + swollen, which means im just gonna bite it 10 more times today!

:'( hate it when I do that. poor you

hmm, save checkpoint erases all my squares. this is bad.

dplass, non-pro members don't have the checkpoint feature anymore, sorry to tell you : (

that sucks

oh well, i guess i quit. have a nice life.

sorry to hear that, dplass. hope you reconsider and come back

: )

you too, dplass...

thats a change Dr God should make -- if "save as checkpoint" is an option only for Pro users, then non-Pro users shouldnt even be able to see the button + end up erasing their work, when they think theyre saving it

good point, evanadine - tell him!

maybe you should send a suggestion to Dr G, evanadine... if he did that, it would save some grief...

it didn't erase mine - just took me to a screen saying it's for pro users only, I clicked on no thanks and it took me back to my puzzle

bandm -- what browser are you on?
when i hit the button, it just erased all my work

firefox

I think it depends on the cache...

I

did it erase your work, evanadine? I'm firefox too

I'm also on firefox and it erased my work

are you talking about 'save as' or 'return to' checkpoint buttons?

erased all my work....

im on explorer

save as

my 'save as' seems to be working fine (so far....)

staal and migrod - try clearing out your cache...

thats cause youre Pro, babbler ;)

must be something to do with clearing cache, evandine. oh hang on, if you're not Pro, youwon't have access to that feature anymore

well so are you, aren't you, evanadine?

as of this morning, AFTER it wiped out my work!

oh I see, hehe sorry

nope, clearing cache didn't work

cookies?

ahh....i'm not pro...

Dr God just made the change yesterday to make that a Pro feature. i think he just didnt get around to removing the button...

go oooooon, upgrade you guys! you know you want to ;D

we should be on commission from Dr G...

lol! yeah we should! :D

just sent Doc God a message.
:)

Since when did you have to be a member to save checkpoints??

... since last night. sorry. :(

upgrade and join us!

: D

no fair!

:'( sorry. but Dr G has to pay his rent too

go ooooooooon!! join us!

: D

well i have to pay rent as well, and it's a hard to sell when i can just print the puzzle like i do sometimes anyway for free......maybe i'll stick to babble until they start charging for that too

well there is that. as far as I know, this sudoku is the only one around that has a checkpoint feature, so I suppose it's only reasonable that Dr G made something on it. Plus it's a one-off fee, nothing astronomical.

and then there's people like me who brighten your day no end!!

: D

=) Babbler

hehe

still, why tease me with a free save as checkpoint feature for over a month?

Evanadine just wrote to Dr G about that, Hates. That's a good point

I agree that it sucks that he made the checkpoint a pro feature - but there are so many other good tihngs about this sudoku over some of the other sites that I guess I can't complain about $15 - it's a lifetime deal. It will save me lots of money in the long run not buying the books

(it only stopped working last night, as far as I know)

exactly right, dino. plus I'm here! what could be better??

Yeah, last night. HE was here working on it late into the evening. Apparently it changed aroaund 5pmCT

: D

(I'm in a good mood today - I had some sleep! yayyyy!)

I have a babbling baby looking SO CUTE on the floor right now. Gotta get my time in while she's happy

You and me, both! A whole 6 hours straight!

mine was broken, 4 hrs plus 4 hrs. but that's good enough for me :D

plus if pros can do old puzzles, that's kind of cheating. part of what keeps me coming here is seeing if i can slowly crawl up the list hoping other people missed days, haha

lol ! yeah I was hoping for that too, Hates. Now I have to rethink things! LOL

that's capitalism for you, Hates... ;)

Well, talk to DR_God about making another list that doesn't include the archives. That should be an easy enough DB change

without the archives, there wouldn't be a list...

No, I mean hav a list that includes all puzzles completed and have a list that only includes puzzles that were done in the 24 hours allotted before the new one

So, like last night, I went back and did a puzzle in the archives that affected my ranking - but it was from April 8. Have one list that includes my score with April 8th and one that doesn't. It's a flag in a DB - easy to do

drop him a line, he can only say no, dino

Oh, I don't care either way. I will jump up the list by doing archives ;)

My daughter is trying to sit up - MAN, I love this staying at home thing.

awwww, cute!!! : D

hi all

hi : )

I don't get it... how come some people rankings for village elder went up several points in the last couple days?

ok, I sent him a comment

change in the game, cheb

Dr_God changed it so only pro users have the check point and they can go back and do archived puzzles they missed

That's why there are so many more pro users now

Oh hi there lack of checkpoint :p

you would think that Dr_God would make that clear in the upgrade to pro page

I thought he did. I saw it when I upgraded last night

Or not tempt us poor plebians with a "SAVE TO CHECKPOINT"

that page, https://www.epigroove.com/ironsudoku/ doesn't give me any indication of why it would be a good idea to upgrade

Oh wait, I have a Print Screen button. Oopsies

Oh, well, he may not have gotten to all the extra pages yet. When I clicked on UPgrade on this page last night it said it

Here's a bug: I'm not a pro user, but I still have the 'save checkpoint' button. When I click on it, it CLEARS THE BOARD. Uh, that's very bad.

Ouch

yeah, thats bad... use the contact link at the bottom to send him a message

Yeah, folks have mentioned that. Last night there was a spontaneous refresh of the screen when the new board showed up. He is still working out some annoyances

i clicked "save as checkpoint", was prompted to sign up for a pro account, completed the signup process (paying the 14.95), then returned to find that my board had been cleared anyway :P

What a nice show of gratitude that is

stop such chatter! God knows all, and does this to test you :P

Well, I sent in a bug report. I'm sure it will be ironed out in the next couple of days.

testing my new avatar...

nice!

scott mclellan just resigned. woo hoo!!!!

yay, looks good :)

very nice

cute, marci...

south park marci?

I guess I'll pay when the bugs are fixed and the "Cream of the crop" ranking algorithm is fixed. Not to mention - this so called "hard" puzzle was a joke.

There is no algorithm, it's just a cumulation of points.

forget all that, votava, stay cos we're so fantabulous!! : D

let's all hug votava

disagree. village elders is a cumulation, not CotC

((( votava )))

ah - was just thinking wrong list

i have a separate user for CotC, which I only solve for "hard" and expert puzzles.

what's up? Yesterday I was able to save my checkpoints and now I'm not?

solving medium and easy just brings your CotC number down.

CotC is just the average of the difficulty of the puzzles you have completed * 1000 250 would mean you were perfect if there were an even balance of puzzle difficulties

it's me as a south park character, courtesy of http://www.vexatori.de/zib/spstudio.html

cool

dino, ie, it punishes you for solving easy ones. it's broke.

i think that the problem with the rating system is that there is no accounting for the number of days youve been a member/ number of puzzles solved

since there is a finite number of puzzles (one per day), a purely weight-based system doesn't work here like it does on other sites where you can solve thousands of puzzles in your own timeframe

i've been a member for a month and have solved the puzzle every day, it doesn't seem right that someone joining today and solving today's puzzle could have a higher rating than me

marci, I had the same problem. I've just been looking at the village elder rating, but now I'm peeved that I'm not keeping up :(

I understand what it is. I don't understand why it matters so much.

also you can't improve your village elder rating beyond a certain point -- someone who joined on day 1 will always have a rating higher than yours

unless you pay for pro

it doesn't really matter, i don't think many people are here for the ratings, but if you're going to track something, it should be tracked logically

haha, I just lost all my grid by clicking on an icon... oops

changing the label of the "rankings" link to "stupid meaningless numbers" would solve the problem as well :)

pro lets you go back and do the archives - increasing your villiage elder status

oh, i take back my comment then (just upgraded today -- haven't explored the features yet :)

the rankings become meaningless now that pro lets you do the archives too... we'll just have a lot of people with perfect scores

enh - sentt a msg to drg about a 3rd ranking - but that goes back to marci's problem of the day 1 people

the Cream of the Crop will still favour those who only do the Expert puzzles...

yup

again, that could be fixed by throwing in a reference to the puzzles you didn't complete

even if i go back and do every puzzle, someone who only solved 1 expert puzzle will have a higher CotC ranking than me, right?

yup - because you will head towards 250

basically, you kinda hafta pick one set of rankings, and go with it.
if you wanna be at the top of CotC, then you can only work the expert puzzles.
if you wanna be at the top of village elders, you have to finish every single puzzle every day.
being at the top of one set of rankings automatically makes you suffer in the other set.

depends... you also get a point for every puzzle completed...

thanks marcii

i think it makes more sense just to assign a point value to puzzles based on their difficulty. easy=1, medium=2, hard=4, expert=8 or something. then just add the points for the total number of puzzles completed. pro users have an advantage because they can go back and complete every puzzle.

haha, np tuco, looks good :)

hehe. I am tempted to start singing the Terrence and Philip song. hehehe

that is the village elders, marci

ah

right, sorry

=0

er =)

well... i nthe spirit of south park, "SCREW YOU GUYS, I'M GOING HOME"

(although actually i'm going to work which is not nearly as cool :)

ahh

is the checkpoint save not working for anybody else?

u have to pay for it now :(

serious?

looks that way

that kinda sucks, but oh well

Sorry, folks. Had to be done. No one was upgrading, so I had to make it a Pro-only feature.

Dr God -- not sure if you got the message i sent you, but since its a pro-only feature now, you may wanna remove the button off of the screen for the non-pros.
i did a bunch of work this morning + went to save it, and it erased all of my progress and i had to start over (after switching to pro!)

I just responded to you. ;)

Dr_God, there's no indication on the upgrade to pro page what might be gained...

I like that I will be able to go on a one-month road trip this summer and catch up whenever I get the chance. I feel bad for PocketMole who was at the top of the Village Elders list since the beginning.

i didnt get a message, it just cleared my puzzle with no explanation.

Clicking the checkpoint button doesn't clear the work, it just shows the ad on top of the puzzle board. If you click the "No thanks" button, it clears the message, and the puzzle board will be visible again.

clicking on a profile icon however does clear the puzzle, can you fix that?

But a lot of people are having this problem, so it appears to be bad design on my part for causing the confusion.

chebuctonian-
Good point. I forgot to put the "warning" message on the profile links. Thanks!

*sniffles* i didnt get the warning message.

fair deal, Dr G... but a lot of people have been complaining that they didn't get ny warning before they started to play that the checkpoint button is only for Pros now...

evanadine-
There is no warning message in your case. I just have to make the "No thanks" link a bit more obvious.

sherb-
Yeah. Bad design on my part I guess.

no it definitely erases the progress when you click it, i just filled in one square and clicked save progress - no warning or anything

I was surprised that such a big change happened without an email... I remember an email when you launced Beta Babble..

*confused*
why wouldnt i have gotten the message?
i wasnt a Pro at the time.

evanadine-
The message chebuctonian is talking about is the warning you get if you have unsaved work and you click any of the links that leave the page.

so, for non-Pro players, they get no warning that when they click the button their work gets wiped out?
that was the problem i had this morning. no warning, no ad, just bye-bye work.

Krys10-
I will be sending out the email in a little bit

evanadine-
Work is not wiped out when you click the "checkpoint" button.

it did when i clicked it this morning before i went pro.

See my earlier message (at 9:37 am) for the full explanation.

hey, it's not letting me play the archives

Dave-
Not letting you?

hit the play now button at the top

i click the play button and it takes me to the completed sudoku , won't let me play it normally

dave, I had to do "empty cache" on my web browser before it worked normally

ah, i'll try that, that may be it.

Refresh the page a little. Firefox has a very aggressive caching problem.

or you are trying to do one you already finished

I had the problem in Safari

<-- smart alec

:)

i understand your message (i think).
but im just letting you know that i didnt get that ad youre talking about.
i clicked the "save as" button and it erased my work.
maybe its because im using explorer, not firefox?

for previous players, it's the cache that's causing a lot of the problems...

evanadine-
When you say "erased my work", what do you mean exactly?

busy day today... Turned pro and finished all the archives....

yep, that fixed it, cleared cache and refresh... firefox sometimes annoys me. :)

i clicked the "save as" button, and every number i had filled in disappeared. just as if i had clicked the "start over" button (only there was no warning, like you get with the "start over" button)

So you saw an empty grid?

i hadnt yet gone pro at the time.

Just to verify March 19 - April 10th there were no puzzles right?

yep. the only numbers that were there, were the ones the are part of the game. the ones that are grayed in.

tuco-
Eh?

doh!!

I am an idiot

LOL

you're looking at the wrong month names :)

I got the months screwed up. hahahaha

(Dr_God stares at evanadine in utter confusion...)

dr god - i do my puzzles out of the page, and then fill in the answers, but i filled in one square, clicked save progress, and it cleared my answer and refreshed to the unanswered puzzle

I am acting like our president. I decider that March came after April

131313-
You're not the only one. I just can't for the life of me figure out why it's happening.

Same thing happened to me - I hit "Click to Save as Checkpoint" - voila - all the numbers I've entered are gone :(

sounds like 131313 has the same problem i had.

So no one is getting the "Upgrade Now" message?

i didnt

i am using FF 1.50.2 if that helps

No Upgrade Now message here

i think with this update, it'd be good to log out, clear cache, log back in, and see what happens then

nope

(groan...)

wait

wait

I am using same version of FF with no problems other than having to clear my cache and cookie

i cleared my cache and refreshed the page

then when i clicked save i got the upgrade msg

you use fasterfox?

firefox

Ahhh. Another evil side-effect of the caching.

and it returned to the puzzle w/the answer

yep

Good to know I'm not insane. ;)

dun-dun-DUNNNNN!!!!

(wishes that meant i was done-done DONE!)
hehe

fasterfox is an extension :) i'm thinking that was driving my caching problems on another site too

Oh you are insane Dr_God, You have to be to run this. LOL I am a programmer and I am insane.

oh, you are insane, this just isnt a good example :p

Dr_God - Thank you for allowing us to work puzzles from the archive that we missed for one reason or another :)

Yeah macuser, Now I can go on vacation and not worry about missing puzzles. Nice.

yeah - really nice feature :)

Yeah Dr. G... being able to work on puzzles in the archive is why I coughed up the fee. :-)

Did anyone see where Scott McLellan resigned?

I just like that I don't have to go to other sites to play - i can pick up a missed puzzle when I have time

Yes Tuco... yippee!!! pass the champers

also a nice incentive for new people who come to the site to have a whole archive of puzzles to work on

woo hoo!!!!

i know some people were complaining about that with the rankings though...now Pros automatically have the ability to get a higher Village Elders ranking.

i just see that as a good reason to go pro.
:)

throw the rapepublicans out in November and have Bush and Cheney in the slammer by the end of 07 woo hoooo!!!!!

that is the last of my political post on this site. I promise.

it's such a nominal cost to sign up for Pro - don't really understand why anyone would hestitate to do so

if you can afford isp, you can afford the $15 lifetime

tuco... a man after me own heart. arghh. don't stop!

well, I imagine there may be kids to whom $15 is a lot of money

right, dinoshadow

Naw. This is a friendly site. I don't want to start problems. But Darleen, why is your avatar male?

so, don;t buy sodas at the vending machine for a week - I work at a title 1 HS and kids always have money

tuco -- eye-candy.
;)

tuco... did you see those ABS?! sheer admiration my friend,

I wish the puzzles were harder

Yeah.. evanadine knows me from babble... hee hee

ooohhhh. Okay.

title 1 == poor

OH PLEASE 131313 I can't even do these!!!

back to work. cya

true, but you can't take a kid from his soda :)

this one took 10 minutes

by tuco

131313 show off

which is twice as long as normal

dang.
ive been chipping away all day at this one!

it took me about 15... I'm finding the easy rated one from day one harder than todays...

not trying to show off

STOP IT!!! 13 you're killing me!

shurrup 131313 ;D

done

maybe you need to read up on solving techniques?

oh good. make me feel even worse.

well I'm in the middle of chores too, which is why I haven't finished yet...... ; )

gotta go for now - bbl

maybe I should quit reading the posts instead ;-)

yeah, that kinda uses up a lot of time, darleen ; )

distractions will knock you out of flow... and not knowing solving techniques will really slow you down too

I only know twins. clueless about everything else

every time i try to learn the solving techniques, they confuse me...
i just need to learn how to churn my logic a little faster.
;)

me too, evanadine - my poor (tired) does not want to compute when I try learn

hehe *brain

what i did was i downloaded a program that had a bunch of sudoku puzzles and it showed you hints, and from that i learned how to figure out how to filter candidates etc and helped me sharpen my solving skills

poor tired brain LOL

best way is to find a super hard sudoku somewhere, and then go to a step-by-step online solver, and watch each step in its logic to understand how it's working

twins and triplets are usually enough...

yeah, that helped me a bunch. there's a great program called "sudoku susser" for teh mac. it was the breakthrough for me after trying to learn fancy patterns from websites

tell me about triplets, sherb? I get so far with the logic then it all whooshes over my head

look for simple sudoku, thats what i used

i mainly find twins, triplets, and pointing pairs work for me... and occasional box-line reduction

I think simple sudoku is not Mac..

maybe not

same principle as twins... if you have three squares where only the same three numbers can go, those numbers can't go anywhere else in the same column, row or box...

I used an online solver at scanraid.com

here;s a good summary of solving techniques: http://www.angusj.com/sudoku/hints.php

You used an online solver? What's the point then?

I managed this one in about 15 minutes...

to learn strategy, not to solve these

it's a step by step logical solver, so you can learn some more advanced techniques

The only way to learn strategy is to read the strategy and then apply them to your own solution.

I found I was guessing a lot and knew there was a better way.. turns out I was missing a pattern called "row-box intersection" and Sudoku Susser helped me catch that

Oh I see...there may be some point to that

Reading the strategy sites didn't help me...

needed more pictures

everyone learns in different ways...

yeah, it's easier to understand in the context of an actual sudoku being solved

In a proper Sudoku you NEVER need to guess.

yes, but we're all at different stages of enlightenment :)

i've yet to understand swordfish

and chaining seems to be too tedious

I would suggest using software that only computes combinations for you, but doesn't do any solving. It's a huge help in seeing the big picture

thanks sherb (got called away) : )

Dr._God, is there a way you can see how many people are using the alternate designs on the tiles? If no one's using them, would it be possible to change the input method so one can type a number rather than all the clicking?

My sense from the comments is that everybody seems to be using the number tiles anyway..

lots of folks use the green/red numbers

Krys10-
There are design issues that benefit greatly from using images instead of text fields.

kay

filling in green numbers takes forever this way, so it's an incentive for me to get good enough to not need them!

Krys10-
And up until yesterday, not too many people had upgraded, so no one could even use the alternative tile sets. ;)

where do you find those?

dr_god can you add total points to the rankings system?

my_account (save your checkpoint first)

Krys10-
I don't see how the current system is any slower than typing the numbers in. You either have to click the square and then click a number or you click the square and type a number. Same speed required IMO.

That's what "Village Elders" is

ah - i like the numbers

DG - if I can enter numbers by holding down the shift key and typing "23456" it's much faster. Also I have tendonitis problems so the touchpad is harder for me to use (my issue, though - I should be using a nice big mouse instead of using a touchpad in bed)

Krys10-
Ahh. You're referring to being able to enter more than one subscript at a time. That's a different issue. I initially had it so that you could, but found that the majority of the time, you only enter one, so it made sense to switch it t othat.

actually, I'd appreciate something along those lines too, Krys10 (RSI sufferer over here) : )

well, I would love a reconsider... :)

I enrter a lot - still learning

Krys10-
Do you enter multiple subscripts at one time in a box more often that entering one at a time?

the way I fill out teh puzzles, yes.. sometimes I fill out all the possible "1"s in a box, then the "2"s etc

but sometimes I scan and count to see what numbers are possible for a particular box

the 1-9 grid sometimes blocks the part of the puzzle I need to see, so it takes a few rounds

it makes more sense to enter all the possibilities for a box at the same time...

I will go through and do the obvious and then start entering subscripts - cleaning them up as something else become obvious

hi krys10. Hope you figure out the subscript stuff and then you can explain it to me. I'm just checking out the puzzle for tonight. I'll do it while I watch the game. Peep

hold down your shift key, peep

yeha - the blocking is obnoxious, so I try to remember them all up front

gaaaaaah had to start over - was talking too much and made a huge mistake somewhere

Hi mom! I can help you with subscripts if you want - I thought you had figured out the green numbers though. There's a few feature that allows Pro users to do puzzles from past days - it got added yesterday. Go Sox!

Go Sox? Uh oh. I hope you are referring to the red variety. ;)

awwwww - mom. While I hold my 6 month old daughter on my lap. Some day soon she'll be playing this, too, I am sure ;)

I'm a third generation Red Sox fan, thank you very much..

Phew

I'm a first generation red sox fan. I grew up in New york and both my brothers and Dad will not discuss baseball with me this year! Johnny who?

Dr God you took away the save checkpoint from the regular user?!

ok, it stretched it funny to resize, but there she is

gotta go baby wrangle - later!

Mom, you oughta read Moneyball - Emily gave it to me for Xmas. Dino, what a cutie she is!

You mean Johnny "No more cool hair" Damon.

thanks!

*sigh* I liked Johnny Damon.

he needed the hair cut.

Don't make me ban you from the site, peep! :)

Oops. Sorry. Wrong profile. :)

The professor is my alter-ego

I like a lot of guys scruffy-looking (including my husband) but I do like Johnny Damon better clean-cut

I hope Manny stays but the hair....

it's been fun chatting with all you fine folks - I gotta go start my day.

Adios, Krys10

bye Krys :)

Why do I always burn my tounge on my coffee?

you have no patience

cos you haven't woken up yet, Bari... you need some coffee... :)

lol

Arghhhhh...my safari just quit. Even though I saved all my work it is gone....i will need to start again later I'm demoralized

Gah! We can't save anymore?

is there any keyboard shortcuts on IronSudoku?

peep - you need to upgrade to Pro for that checkpoint feature

go ooooooooon! upgrade

you know you want to

: D

I used to be able to save it.. my computer has been acting weird lately.

fserb, Shift click for green numbers, alt click for red

peep, yeah, they took that feature away from us free people.

I'll be back tonight. Nice chatting.

*grumble grumble*

BariSaxPat, I know those 2. I wish there were a way to press the number or shift+number to change it....

what do you mean? You can shift click on a green number to un-greenify it.

i know. But I would like to click on a square and shift+3 to green it (instead of click on the 3)

ah

well, nothing I know of like that.

np

Okay, I upgraded to pro, but I don't seem to be able to play the archive puzzles

When I pick one, it brings up the puzzle with all the numbers filled in

are you sure you've picked one you haven't arleady completed?

bjwebb - clear your cache and refresh...

non cashe refresh is ctrl-shift F5 iirc

Clearing the cache worked -- thanks!

hey i cant figure this out

can any other un- pro players not save there check point?

whats a cache?

bex - Dr G has made some changes... you have to go Pro now to use the checkpoint...

thanks sherb:)

whats a cache?

dont no sorry

k

anmo - just try refreshing if you're having problems... :)

how

start over?

anmo - there's a button at the top of your browser which refreshes...

i joined just days ago so i don't know much about this web sight

thatnks

sherb did you finish

anmo - I've doing archived puzzles at the moment... I finished today's puzzle this morning...

hi sherb! we're both archiving I think :P

hi Atalante!! it's a bit like Everest... why did you do all the archived puzzles? ... because they were there...

up our points ;o)

yes lol! And because I should be packing, and working, and everythign else! sudoku is therefore necessary

LOL

LOL

it's a bit spooky going back to March 24th...

does 'save as checkpoint' clear the puzzle for anyone else?

gtg in 5 minutes can you save he puzzle? i don't have pro

ya it did that to me 2

mw - some changes have been made... you have to go Pro to use the checkpoint now...

k

i don't have a credit card though

im only

16

me either im 14

have the button disabled rather than wiping out our hard work might be a good idea. *mutter*

could you ask an adult to do it for you?

mwpeterson-
Clear your browser's cache.

im in school

how

gtg

anmo - maybe you should be doing some school work... :)

im in luch

see ya

oh. okay... see ya... :)

*mutter* :)

this really sucks that you can't save your checkpoint

Gotta make money some how ;)

Amen, dino. ;)

you could pay the fee, bz...

really sucks really. now i can't save it at home and play at work. i can't save it for later.. and what... am i supposed to solve it at once from now on ?

Dude, pay $15 once and play wherever you want

$15 for a lifetime of entertainment (or until it wears off on ya) isn't a bad deal

it's amen, done, true. but i'm not the only one who's saying that

i think a lot of people came on here to play for free, so paying for something that you used to get for free just doesn't seem fair

how much in english pounds god

trev-
There are conversion links on the upgrade page.

If the exchange rate is still in the toilet, prolly not more than UK$10

hmmm so when did this pay thing start, today?

you can still play for free

actually its 15 dollars for a lifetime of until the website closes whichever happens first

yeah, but you can't save it, so that sucks

You can still play for free and it is still better than the other free sites out there. You just can't save

oh well

if you want to save a check point the old fashioned way use a pencil and paper

web sudoku doesn't allow you the subscripts and that's what makes it hard to play

Are people actually complaining about $15 for a LIFETIME of access?

then you save $15

or print it

yes, yes we are

it's a good site... why begrudge the guy who runs it $15... he needs the money to design new tortures, er I mean games, for us... :D

what is the lifetime of a website...is it always going to be around

*shrug* I was upset to have to pay it, but it IS worth it. As always - if the deal seems too good to be true, then it probably is.

wow, that's unfortunate.

People get used to too many free things ont he web and forget that the time, space and maintanence required aren't free

skoal, who cares if it's only around for 2 years. $15 for two years is still a bargain. this is the best sudoku game there is.

Even if it's only around for another year, a year of enteratinment for $15 is peanuts

Can I turn the chat off?

exactly, dinoshadow, everyone wants everything for free. it's a shame. pay for things you like so you can support them. $15 lifetime isn't asking much.

:)

Yes - that ballon in the top right

jedediah... I can't believe you said that... the chat's the best bit!!!

folks, I'm not a frequent here, and I'm going to continue to play for free [mostly because I never get very far :-( and don't use the checkpoint feature], but really $15US is what you would pay for a single Sudoku book here in the States, so asking for that, for an UNLIMITED [over the lifetime of the site] number of games seems like a good trade for the Pro features. And if you don't want the pro features, it's still free!!!

/me laughs. I just don't want to read everyone complaining about a measly $15

well said eidosabi

$15 is really not a big deal. I paied for Flickr's Pro member since I regarded Flickr provided more "most" required service. but IronSudoku does not.

Exactly, eidosabi - but as you play more, you will learn the strategies. Someone posted this link earlier and it is a GREAT resource for the basics: http://www.angusj.com/sudoku/hints.php

geez, can't a girl complain? $15 is a lot to some of us

of course you can Lilac

hence, i plan to continue to play free until IronSudoku is never free.

Do you have a cell phone? Do you have ISP access at home? Do you have cable? Do you have direct TV? Those are all luxuries. I fyou can afford those (About $200/mo) then you can afford a $15 one-time fee

i'm in college, i don't have money

Don't go out for beer one night

Lilac - you may not like the fee, Lilac, but you can hardly say it's unfair...

i'm not trying to start a fight, I'm just complaining

No cell phone, no cable, no direct TV. I only have ISP because I'm a student and MUST have it.

I know =) And sometimes just complaining is necessary

thank you

:)

and i don't go out for beer!

too busy studying...and doing sudoku

@Lilac - neither do I

mmm, beer

still stuck on March 24th... and it's an Easy... :(

hi. haven't tried sudoku before. is there a site where i can try easy puzzles to get started? don't want to buy a pro account just yet. gotta see if i like the game first ;)

websudoku has lots of puzzles

no doubt there are tons of sudoku resources online, free to access.

testing

i usually do easy or medium puzzles on websudoku for practice when i've finished the daily here. The interface gets annoying compared to here though :)

there is also this one: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/section/0,,23509
,00.html

the interface here is by far the best on the net

From what I have seen, I agree

I'm a developer/designer and the other sites annoy me big time... there are a few problems here (the selection box hiding parts of the puzzle

but for the most part, it's well designed

gotta go baby wrangle - later

...checkpoints are now a "pro" feature? That sucks.

time to eat... later all :)

I was considering getting a pro account before he did that. :-P

keyamo, you think he should be doing this for free?

Well taking a feature away is pretty uncool.

Dr_G has to earn a living just like the rest of us. How can $15 be a big deal for daily entertainment?

that is the one feature it made sense to take away to get people to pay - very smart

When you have no credit card, and are opposed to pay pall?

it's not like he's asking for money every time you play. I think the one off payment is very reasonable.

paypal*

if you are opposed to paypal, then I'm afraid that's your own problem

nah, i have pay pal issues, too - they want too much information for my tastes

still your problem. it is a method of payment and you choose not to use it

bari, it must be pretty frustrating to have the internet but not use paypal...

not really. This is the only thing I'd really use it for.

Atalante, actually it's Dr_G's problem. If I had a different method of payment he would be getting more money. I'm sure there are others in the same situation.

give hm a suggestion of another

what other method of payment would you like?

anybody finish today's "hard" before chatting?

Check/Money Order?

no and chatting made me have to start over ;)

bari, maybe he will email you that info

you expect him to do all the crap associated with that? and risk the mail losing cheques? or having cheques bounce? what about foreigners? we couldn't pay that way

well, I would LIKE him to come to my dorm and let me pay in cash.

Sorry, Bari. I don't make house calls. ;)

What's the problem with PayPal?

lol

Damn

hi Dr God : )

hi Dr_G :)

Hola

so far dino now you can save checkpoint. :P i think i had better keep concentrate on sudoku

not if you keep check pointing and don't find the error til it is too late ;)

I think I have to take a snap shot to save my checkpt..

I missed a subscript, so I was way off

poor man checkpoint...

=)

as long as make no guess, keep checkpoint wont always disappoint you, will it?

oropen another window and keep working in there. then you've got the original to come back to

jerome, good idea :P

I just move the window to another virtual desktop

yes, if you make a mistake early on and don't know it

atalante.. good idea too :)

yay for new icons! :)

The site is becoming much prettier now that everyone is upgrading and choosing icons. :)

it's true, it DOES brighten it up

agree

though i am still grey..

:P

ahhhh that was the reason behind everythign! prettiness!

Doc, you planning to change the rankings system?

dr god - if you DID decide to do a monthly subscription, would it only affect those who joined after you put it in place, or would it affect those who had already signed on?

if i may be so bold ;)

Current Pro users would have to be grandfathered.

it said $15 lifetime

yay :D

sellout-
Yes

... now i can spend all day doing the puzzles i missed before

I just haven't figured out a new system yet

Ahh, I see

Very nice icon, sellout. ;)

Hahah, Cubs fan?

ah the vines of wrigely...

Yep. Stupid Ohman last night. :\

Yeah no kidding

He looked good before that walk though, finally

white sox won

That guy Saito was unbelievable for LA

i always wondered why there are white sox AND red sox

Hi, I'm Gabby12 and I am new to this website.

because when you pitch on a massively injured/operated ankle, your sox turn red

Hello achates.

hey

gabby12, the phase you are looking for is "I'm Gabby12 and I'm addicted to Sudoku"

lol bari

Thanks I really am addicted to SUDOKUs!!!

now everyone in unison "Hi gabby"

Hi gabby

How long have you been doing Sudokus?

that's it, i'm going to start referring to my time here as 'my meetings', and then people will think i'm doing something important

I don't remember, I'll have to ask my sponsor

i've been on the wagon for ... 3 or 4 weeks now

LOL btwrt! :-)

you could call it your Sudoku Anonymous meeting

True.

nobody call me, i'm at SA

Okey dokey!!

no word from your sponsor, bari?

no, he says he's at an SA meeting and can't talk.

whatever that means

lol

LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!

sudokuholics anonymous?

Hello Sulihin.

hiya

Hi everyone!!! What a grid! I just put in all my possibles..... hmmm.... think I'm going to work on finding the 1's first!!!! LOL

mama, i see we meet again.
;)

yes, the 1s are by far the easiest

since there are so many

Well I think the 3s are.

hey mama!

Hey Evandine

Hey Mama

i'm coming up with a plan in which we all have sudokuholic pins so we can recognize each other in public

Nice

dr god, you should have a cafe press store or something

Who's dr. god?

he runs this joint

think of him as the 'head sponsor'

our fearless leader

Why do you call him that?

because it's his site

gabby - if you haven't yet, you should check out babble (link at the bottom of the page). he created that site as well.

Okay

this leads us to a great philosophical question: What does God have a Doctorate in?

theology?

I dont think so

Intelligent Design?

I think its in technology or something

God is a sysadmin?

humanities

that's the one, dave

Probably

propaganda

No

spin, at least

You can get a PhD in propaganda?

only if you spell it PhropaganDa

yeah, Spin MD

*groan....*

I don't get it

(spin doctor)

do not meddle in the afraids of sysadmins, for they are subtle and quick to anger

wow, haven't heard the spin doctors in years

*affairs, sorry

that's why I always cjoose a chair near the power points

*whew*
finished!

*choose

i finished this one precisely 12 hours and 20 minutes ago

geek - you have a great sn :)

ty

I have blues traveler stuck in my head

i'm guessing you play bari, pat?

i'm not much of a chatter - but I have opinions going to waste here

I did, I used this sn a while ago and can't be bothered to think of anything new. I mostly play tenor now.

cool, i play alto and sop

ooh opinions

my hubby used to play the bari sax. i never got to hear :(

nice. I really like the sound of sopranos, but I think it would be really hard to get a good sound.

i used to play alto, but i'm more of a clarinetist

Sorry I was gone. What are you talking about?

it's actually not bad, but it depends on the style of music... I play in church, so soprano works well for that

hard to get a fat jazz sound though

good morning!

What are you talkin about

lol gabby, you can scroll down to read it :)

gabby12: SCROLL DOWN TO WHERE YOU LAST TALKED...

jeez.

Yeah, I've got pretty good tone on tenor and bari, but my equipment is not so great

;)

I sing soprano..... in 2 choirs. Does that count?

sure, why not?

that's pretty sweet

singers, bah ;)

sniff......

ooh i sing soprano too - but i haven't been in a choir in some time. i miss it.

I also sing soprano

me too

we should start a band!

err

sing both

Its quite fun

HA, Dave! I am forming a soprano gang.... and we're coming after you!

the umm ... sudokuholics band

I like it!

need a cooler name than that though

i dunno, does it sound a little too much like a raging mob?

Oh, hi evanadine!!!!! Sorry - I got taken away....

mama, that actually scares me... please add some altos at least :)

I'm an alto, but also play piano, clarinet, and (alto) recorder. I once played alto sax in a summer band program, but was asked to stop. :(

like "The Raging sudokuholics"

lol

Aww

:( I played alto during a short time when I was trying to get into the jazz band in high school.

"raging" makes any band name cooler

too true

I agree

Me too

but would it be kinda false advertising, to name a brand of sapronos that?

sorry about my bad sp

true

well, then again, "The Raging Doors" is kinda weird. So is "The Raging Rolling Stones"

nothing saying that you couldn't be raging sopranos! :D

true

lol, prolly why they didn't name themselves that

The Raging Soprano Sudokuholics... in concert... at the dome.....

"Raging Creedence Clearwater Revival"

some of that might not be bad.

Raging Monkees .... Raging Beach Boys.... Raging Chad & Jeremy.... LOL

Raging Chimpanzees

Raging Osmonds

hahahahaha

LOL

Raging SSs

raging blondie

gives those teeth a whole new look

lol

Raging Hormones

Eww

Raging Ramones.

"I'm a little bit country" "I'm a little bit DEATH METAL! AHHHHHHRRRG!"

sorry for sp

Only one puzzle till I'm all caught up

lol

haha

So close

wow sellout, i'm still on my first catch-up puzzle

I finally finished todays SUDOKU

good job, gabby :)

Well, I've had a Pro account for a few weeks now

Thanks

go gabby!

where did the checkpoint thingy go? I just lost everything trying to get back from the Pro offer...

oh ok :) i just joined today

Haha yea, I had a head start :)

you have to have pro to use checkpoints now

uh oh, it took away your changes?

well that counts me out

join the club geek!

yep

GeekTragedy-
Did you click the "No thanks" link?

for one game a day? it's way too expensive

aww :(

I think ther eare many websites that have sudokus cause if you goon google type in Sudokus you can find about 5 pages filled with webdites.

good luck to you

i really like this interface, that's why i joined ;) the people are great, as well

Hi Jes

hey do you have to have completed a minimim number of puzzles to make it on the cream of the crop list?

hi

True

i'm a web designer, so, i always want to help out my colleagues

yeah, that's why I stayed when i stumbled on it :-)

you also get all the archives as a pro

You design web pages?

yep - but not quite as nice as this one ;) onward and upward!

archives? playable games?

It's only $14.95 for LIFE, not per day!

yeah!

same here, I stayed here because it was the best interface and concept for a site

What?

anyone? -- do you have to have completed a minimim number of puzzles to make it on the cream of the crop list?

yeah - you can go back and play the puzzles back to the beginning of the site

lol i'm not that young anymore...

LOL, Geek!

i don't think so - but the rankings don't update until the next day

lol geek!

LOL Geek

it's good value if the site stays up

thanks btwrt

yeah

yeah
\

still doesn't make sense tho but oh well

maybe i can't do math

this site is relatively new, but babble has been around for a long time, so i don't think it's going anywhere ;)

GeekTragedy-
The site's not goin' anywhere. ;)

sth81 yes you do ... I had an account that did one puzzle and does not show up on the rank.

oh

yeah its fun

hi dr god

i learned years ago, after surviving 4 ISPs going under, not to pay too far ahead for net services lol

Dr_God: I just clicked on "Save as checkpoint" and it erased everything I had done. :(

Christopher: do you know what the minimum is then?

no

just that it is more than one. =)

thedave-
Clear your browser's cache

there should be a $5 per annum choice too

=)

lol

lol

and more than 2

sth81-
Three puzzles is the minimum

ah

mamabear - you done 'em all yet?

Aww man

thanks Dr God!

thanks

Checkpoints is a member feature now?

Did you do it

is everyone dead or alive?

have fun, it was nice meeting you all

dudes I am making no headway on today's puzzle :(

niice meeting you.bye

Aww

geek u not staying?

nice meeting you. bye : )

Geek?

sth81 - i noticed there were a lot of pairs, like of 1,6's - when i eliminated the 1s and 6s from the other squares, things started to move a bit

heh

Yeah

that's where i'm stuck

no fear, i have 11 more hours

okay

;)

I will tprobably be here at 7:00

sorry for sp

=)

Hello

Anyone here?

hehe my typing is so atrocious right now

but yet, you spelled atrocious correctly, lol

i'm learning Dvorak and i have to backspace a lot as a result

lol

how's it going, you notice any improvement yet?

yeah it's more comfortable

hi

just slowwww

i mean compared to my previous qwerty speed

yeah, it may take awhile to speed back up

when I get my mac I'm going to switch

tho it's not too bad givin that i only started last friday

have you tried switching before?

yeah, but windows stuff gets in the way... old shortcuts change and things like that, so when I get mac I'm going to switch since all the keystrokes will be different anyway

this sucks because you can't save your checkpoint anymore.

lol yeah

passwords are what get me

hmm, that would be true, whole different pattern...

i can type so fast with the traditional setup, i doubt i'll ever switch - i'm sure it would just frustrate me

heh it's fun to remap your brain tho

i bet :) I can't wait to switch, I'm tired of my hands hurting

I haven't lost much qwerty speed either, which is good

You bet

it's supposed to be better for your hands? i'm pretty ignorant about it

I tried switching once

yeah it's supposed to be better ergonomically

much better, your hands move lest often, keeping your wrists straighter

so less RSI, carpal tunnel etc

true

have you ever read 'cheaper by the dozen' - the ACTUAL story - which was about the man who came up with the original keyboard layout?

and common words become so much smoother

i love typing the now

thethethethethethethethethe

lol

Is Dr.God still here?

:p

Yep

LOL

((((((BABBLER)))))))

and no i haven't read the book, is it good?

:p =) :p

it's very interesting. he had a dozen children.

egad

cool

((((MAMABEAR))))) hehe : D

he partially tested out the keyboard on them, to see what key structure used the least hand movements

I know this prince who had 880 children

It's a good story - an easy read and quite funny in parts. Bathing efficiently is interesting.

obviously, with technology now, this could be improved

heh

They said that that is the amount is 4 decades

but it's pretty amazing what he was able to do at the time. he made his kids do all kinds of crazy things, like bury 1,000 pencils in a coffin and then dig them up. very strange.

by ORIGINAL layout do you mean qwerty?

yes, sorry ;)

huh?

oh np just checking

ok

sth81 - what's this improvement on typing you're talking about?

hey, Dr God -- i dunno if anyone else is having this problem...
now that ive gone Pro, im trying to go back + play some of the puzzles ive missed.
but when i click on "play this puzzle" it fills in all the answers for me!

I giggl I wiggle I live in a hole. Hey whack me Im a mole.

evan, you have to clear cache and then refresh the page

Dvorak!

LOL!! nice one evanadine!! wish mine did that! : D

heh, yeah, but i dont think im getting credit for it!

good way to cheat :)

aww man

Dvorak? I'll google it, (thought he was just a composer, lol!) thanks : )

bad way to be a cheater

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvorak_Simplifie
d_Keyboard

=(

have you guys been playing the davinci code quest on google?

DONE!!! Either I am finally getting better at this, or this was a fairly Easy Hard...

what is that, evanadine?

Yes. I forgot where it was

heh yeah most people have only heard of the composer

mama bear - it seemed pretty easy, for a hard, to me. usually the hards take me the better part of the day, on and off

y r u ignoring me.=( Psyche =)

davinci - yes - todays' was not that great

evandine, I was going to, but it's flash 8 and I can't be bothered to open up firefox in Wine every day

if you just google "davinci code quest" you should be able to find it

Hi cad!

mb: hey - you done all of 'em yet?

whattsamatta, gabby12?

Done, later ya'll

nope. still need 19.

thanks sth81! I type (too) fast on a qwerty and I'm not doing myself any favours. This looks interesting. : )

you were supposed to do some for me!

bye bari

you were supposed to send me your password ;-)

heh yeah give it a try!

the crow flies at midnite

here's some info on the two layouts...though it also contends that dvorak being faster is a myth: http://wwwpub.utdallas.edu/~liebowit/keys1.ht
ml

the snow falls in moscow

it's really much more comfortable

the bus stops at corners

flowers bloom in spring

sh** rolls downhill

so does rain

Hey Dr_God - can we get our own flags for New Orleans (folks in this part of the world)?

WHAT are you guy's on about?

LOL

*guys

oh...checkpoints are now a premium...gasp

lol mama and babbler

lol

Caderoux - were you affected by the hurricane?

My moms doing the hokey pokey around the house.

who wasn't?

Its weird

Did you hear that the guy who created the hokey pokey passed away recently?

i'm in florida - they say the hurricane season will be even worse this year. frightening.

gasp

they say it'll keep getting worse until about 2013-2014...

Finally got a moment to concentrate and finished! woooo!

and then things will cool again and go back to normal

since i just moved here, i'm a lot more worried about hurricanes than the locals ;)

The undertaker had a terrible time getting him in the casket. He put the right leg in..... well, then you know the rest of the story.

i used to live in michigan so - needless to say - i didn't pay attention to them before

yeah, i grew up in gulf shores (coast of alabama)... when you grow up with hurricanes, you tend to not be afraid

lol mama, i had a feeling ...

though they are always dangerous

natural disasters are such a mess - people always want to be repaid, somehow, and it cannot always be done

thanks, btwrt, I didn't think anyone was paying attention!

i was just sure if i said 'no i didn't hear about it', that i would get trapped in a joke ;)

I was impatient - didn't wait for anyone to ask!

it's like when somebody tells you, 'did you know the word gullible isn't in the dictionary?'

and woe to the person who says, 'really?'

mamabear - I'm watching Coronation St now, and getting dinner ready. See you later if you're not here when I come back! (((( hugs )))) : D

really?

okee doke, Babbler... ((((squeezy hugs)))))))

oh no perry, you have brought the woe down upon yourself ...

and pass the woe to Perry

;-)

A priest, a rabbi and preacher walk into a bar.....

really?

Yes.

Really

did they get hurt?

The bartender looks at them and says "is this some kind of joke?" (joke compliments of Torgone)

ha, nice

tee hee

Gotta get back to work.... later, ya'all.

bye mamabear

i. have. no. ones.

me either

somebody stole all of mine too...

just pretend high numbers are worth more

hehe

Done and done.

1's were difficult to find.

!!!

good job, jed!

Our main problem (levee breach induced flooding) in New Orleans was caused by design failure by federal employees, so in that sense it was not actually a natural disaster - but my question was whether we could get our own flag didn't have a particular agenda other than annoyance about seeing the flag all the time, given my waning allegiance to Washington

Did find an option which works for me, though.

i think it'd be kinda neat to get an idea of what parts of the country people are from, if we had localized flags like that. however, i'm sure a lot of people would want more anonimity

I'd kind of like that too

I'd like a California flag...

timezone would be really cool

yeah, that would ;)

some kind of time-dependant icon which showed what time of day it was in that user's local time (breakfast, lunch, dinner, sleep time, etc.).

you know what would be really cool?...

I always hate it when users say that!! ;-)

... do go on

lol

i think some ONES would be cool ;)

yeah, but here we get to be the user :)

but their point values are so low ...

wow, chat's are more interesting with all the icons...

ok, some SIXES!

w00t!

I can't see today's puzzle until tomorrow, but I think the ones drop out only near the end

...

Yeah I like it with the icons

whatchu got there, orb?

oh f... - i just entered some numbers and then clicked the chat-lot and now all my numbers are gone :-(

*chat-log

:(

I think Dr. G's broken me...I must have checkpoints...I must! (tries to resist reaching for the credit card)

*hands Perry said credit card* ; D

wow, thanks for your credit card Babbler! (happily registers)

umm - gee, you're welcome (I think) :s

wow Babbler, are you financing ALL the new pro users?

well, I was only being encouraging.... and I was just considering pom-poms.... but somehow Perry got my credit card by accident. Looks like a free-for-all-frenzy now! On me! LOL

i'd rather have a credit card than pom-poms, any day

(not really - I'm not paying for the world, just to clarify things!) :D

Is anyone else like me and fills in all the red and green boxes first before playing?

that would give me a headache :)

i do only the greens

well, it did give me a headache, so i wrote something that does it automatically

but yes, i fill in all the greens first :)

I use reds, but for the purpose of a green (red looks clearer on my laptop screen)

citizen - you rock

if you enter the following code into your browser bar, all the red and green spaces will be filled out for you:

javascript:for (i=1; i<=9; i++) {for (j=1; j<=9; j++) {if (master_grid[i][j].value != '') {var tmp_value = master_grid[i][j].value;for (k=1; k<=9; k++) {for (l=1; l<=9; l++) {if (master_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 (master_grid[i][j].value == '') { for (k=1; k<=9; k++) { if (grid[i][j]['mini'][k] != -1) grid[i][j]['mini'][k] = 1; }}}}PopulatePuzzle(grid);void(0);

you should make that a greasemonkey script that adds a button to do it

that's amazing, citizen :) it's christmas!

I have a 49 in the village elders rankings so i promise this will not mess with your browser or anything

citizen - very cool

gotta love ajax sites :)

now, how do you remove red ones? i forget

alt-#

I'll have to logout to try it

citizen - can you change this code - not that you have to - but could it be modified to only fill in the greens?

sure, give me a second

have to use that with firefox? didn't do anything in ie

I was going to say the same thing Perry

firefox only i guess then

is it based on just the original numbers or does it take into acct the ones you've filled in?

yes - too much red

it seems to only take into account the original numbers

yes - I don't like to green up until later

Interesting - you can't really have two tabs logged in as different users...

hw

*hm

I'm going to have to print this out and take it to my meeting

it's a work in progress

Dr. G wins...

aww perry, so cute

don't let them catch you at it sth81...

hehe it's ok, it'll look like I'm intently taking notes

ugh...that red/green filler works for me now with firefox, but it's pretty "massive" - I usually just do the greens

i'm of two minds about it. it's nice to have it filled in - no mistakes -

but usually as i fill in the greens, i solve some of the puzzle, and i have a better idea of what is where. having it fill it in for me - i feel like i don't *know* the puzzle so well

it's so nice to have the option, tho :D yay for citizen!

yeah, same here...harder to spot things that eliminate numbers in other boxes

i'm working on one that just does the greens

thanks citizen ;-)

thx much :)

see, you can tell I'm old...I still put noses in my smilies

lol

haha, so true!

that's a whole extra key to press!

noses are old skool

i need a key to make big anime-sized eyes for my smilies

you youn whipper-snappers, always in a rush, no time for noses... lol

B)

bigger!

8)

not that 37 is really old, lol - just the noses are

yeah 8) is the closest i can get, i spose ... for now ... muah ha ha

>_< 0_0 <---anime style kind of

those are good!

>_< ... i like that

<(**<) (>**<) (>**)> Kirby dance (sort of!)

haha nice

:D

;)

see perry, you're not old. there's no nose on kirby, is there?

argh...must fit in a nose...must....

i assume the * are eyebrows

lol

I forgot what's supposed to be used for eyes, lol...so those sort of worked

i like it :) also it makes him rounder, which is necessary

ok, for goodness sake, that took a long time. Ok, I made the one that only fills out green squares:

javascript:for (i=1; i<=9; i++) {for (j=1; j<=9; j++) {if (master_grid[i][j].value != '') {var tmp_value = master_grid[i][j].value;for (k=1; k<=9; k++) {for (l=1; l<=9; l++) {if (master_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 (master_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 (master_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);

w00t!

wow, that was quick! (to me, at least) Go Citizen!

Put that in your browser's location bar and smoke it!

hehehe

lol

well look at that...greens!

how?

Feel free to share with anyone you want

thank you citizen

How do you get it to work Citizen?

Stef - copy that code that citizen511 posted and paste it into the address bar, then hit enter. That's assuming you're using firefox - I don't think it works with IE.

Tried that - didn't work - must be doing something wrong :(

you're using firefox?

yep

replace the whole address - don't leave the original address

and make sure you didn't clip something off at the end, or add a space or such

yay! Works now! Top marks citizen. Thamks Perry :)

no problem

EEK! that is SO COOL! citizen511, may i kiss you now?

caff! *horrified* you're married!

Nice timesaver - thanks

SHH, don't tell

shh...it's our secret...we can sell it to pay for our accounts...

citizen - excellent

hahahahaha, perry

maybe even hold Dr. G hostage...we control the grid. we control the horizontal. we control the vertical. (Outer Limits flashback...sorry)

i'll work on a way to make it also take into consideration what you already have entered into the board... right now it only takes into consideration initial values

ROFL perry!!

do not attempt to adjust your set!

hmm. there are so many US flags on here, i was tempted to pick a totally random country to get a diff flag but ... in all conscience, i couldn't. d'oh

Your USA Pride shines through, obviously

heh..

hey hax :)

Hi there

pride - so THAT'S the sick feeling in the pit of my stomach ... ;)

LOL

... or is it too much tuna fish

little of column A, little of column B

i always see cars with PRIDE in big letters over an american flag, and you have to know that those are the same people who in other contexts think pride is a deadly sin

mmm gotta register for checkpoints now?

and what exactly does it mean to be proud? I'd be interested in hearing people's opinions.... =)

yep... resistance is futile, you will be assimilated

looks like it - be registering for lttle green flags next

as in American Pride...that is

the checkpoints got me to register, lol

hint - try creating the jscript as a bookmark, makes it easier to run

I appreciate Dr. God wants/needs to make money, but I'm not a fan of taking away functionality that was always presnet

I agree, but I was already registered, so it doesn't matter so much to me O:-)

mm *remembers the yummy column b*

like i said earlier - i like to help out a colleague :) the opportunities are dry enough for web designers, and dr god does such an excellent job

Hax, did you see Citzen's scripts? Little assistants that fill in reds/greens...

for firefox, that is - not IE

perry - i thought you were going to keep them secret in order to sell them!

well yeah - I'm trying to initiate our first sale!

Perry, no. I didn't

see, look - he's hooked! reel him in!

we should have figured out what to charge, first

Ozzie - i'm having difficulty creating the jscript as a bookmark. How did you do it?

Heh

I won't pay for helpers :)

;-)

if you scroll down, hax, you'll find it in the chat log

create new bookmark - go to properties - paste script into the url - click OK - click on bookmark

there's one that fills in red and green, and one that just fills in green

Thanks :)

if you don't use it before you start, though, you'll get some extras - it only works off the base numbers, not ones you filled in already

no problem

argh...I accidentally clicked the bookmark instead of right-clicking it, and hadn't saved checkmarks recently lol

websudoku is much better

better?

i think so, anyhow

What's your criteria. I'm curious

you can pick really hard puzzles and it times you

Gotcha

i'm very competitive, so I'm always trying to beat my times, etc.

i like the interface here so well - this is my first pick, and then i use websudoku if one puzzle wasn't enough

nice. good idea

sometimes one puzzle is all i have the time for - except today when i am shamelessly hanging about for hours

yes, i like the interface here, but 1 per day isn't sufficient

lol, yeah, I'm hella bored at work today!

is it beer thirty yet?

lol

only 1 hr to go!

half past a freckle, over here

on the monkey's a$$?

i cannot disclose that information

hehehe

where is everyone located??? I'm in PA

FL

UK

some people have it listed in their profile, if you click their little person icon

i'm thinking everyone else went to websudoku? LOL

Ozzie, where in the UK?

Norfolk

I'm better at these with a pen and paper

Scotland (nice flag huh?)

i like it!

nice crop circle

Ta - i've got gazillions of them

not that i believe in any of that stuff :)

nah - but pretty amazing pictures though

Some people have an awful lot of spare time. Must be fun.

I think I'm going to have to guess now - shame about the checkpoints...

i wonder if the crop circles are still happening? maybe nintendo and sudoku have given those people more to do??? LOL

It was a very sly move by the big cheese :(

There will be more come summer

seriously? that's so awesome!

good times

yep - may have to register...good crowd here - always helpful

Here's a new one

I liked the other one better

ah, nice

guess I should've read Dr. God's e-mail before trying to save a checkpoint.

hi all and gl!

Did he send you an email??? I didn't get one and wasted 20 mins. Then i upgraded.

yeah, I got an e-mail around 12:30 ET, but didn't have time to read it then & forgot about it til the grid kept erasing!

Its a bummer. I wouldn't have gotten through todays without a checkpoint.

great. I was just going to give it a few minutes before I have to do some other things.

just caught on to what you guys were talking about..when did they change the checkpoint system to an upgrade?

today

today

jinx

ugh...should be interesting trying to get through this then....

stef, what is your flag (excuse my ignorance)? I figured "jinx" & "bummer" were american slang.

I would click on your little person to see, but I'm afraid my grid will erase again.

Scotland

Golf...whisky...penicillin....rubber...Scotla
nd!

I am a disgrace to my ancestors!!!

It rains a lot :(

rained here most of the morning

Do you have roots here?

Well, my ancestors are all Irish or Scottish, but they came over like 300 years ago.

Well - that was a good guess - straight out...:)

Where abouts are you Carla?

North Carolina, but I'm from the mountains of Southwestern Virginia/Northeast Tennessee.

D'you like it? Whats the scenery like?

Ha

Nailed that Puppy!

Rank me, Baby!

I don't need no stinkin' checkpoint!

Well, I'm in Charlotte, which is not really a big city, but bigger than I'd like. Scenery's okay here - nice & green, still a few trees, but I prefer the mountains.

lol good job limer :)

Hardcore Limer...doin it Old School...

alright, I got some work work done...time for more sudoku ;-)

I'm stuck in Glasgow. I'd love to move out to the mountains but work gets in the way <sob>

Perry went pro!!! No more woe!!!

hey mama - yeah, I missed my checkpoints too much

Aww they took away checkpoints :(
oh well, ill live

The guys that run the soccer place we play at are from Glasgow. Love to hear them talk!

for those that missed it, check the chat log for some scripts from citizen - one fills in all the reds/greens and the other fills in just the greens. You have to be using firefox for it to work, though, and should use it before you fill in any numbers, as it bases off the original numbers, not those you've filled in.

ooh yeah, that scottish accent *shivers*

I'm attempting the no checkpoint finish, but I keep talking! will probably have to go pro later today.

Pro bonus - You get the chance to do previous puzzles. There aren't that many though.

always good for the days you miss though. I never make it in every day.

I think I've done most of them. I got to this site pretty early, I think.

true, perry. I miss the weekends a lot.

Me too but i went on holiday over easter and missed 5 in a row. Catching up as we type

do you still get points for the archived ones?

yep

eventually pro users will all have the same score. lol.

True

exactly what I was thinking.

oooh...finally got a one, hehe

that's it...i'm upgrading..........stupid thing just erased!! all that work for nothing! :(

Doc's gonna change the rankings system, so I guess it won't remain that way

Whats he going to do sellout?

hurshy and I better enjoy our time at the top, then

yeah for real :)

It's lonely at the top, cad.... highly overrated!

He mentioned that he's still trying to think of a new system.

I think it needs attention ...doing easier puzzles lowerds your ranking. That can't be right!

I like having so many icons to look at in the chat now, it looks so much less impersonal.

We'll end up with themed days like on Babble :)

Yeah, I agree. Not sure how to handle it though, especially since everyone's doing the same puzzles and each only has one possible solution. Unlike Babble, where you can work for hours and still only get part of the puzzle (and part of the points).

Done! That one find started a domino effect ;-)

*^*^*^*^FIREWORKS**^*^*^*^*^* for Perry!!!!!

good job perry :)

an archived puzzle, or today's puzzle?

* applause *

<(**<) (>**<) (>**)> Kirby dance!

Today's, lol. Had to take some time off to work. Thanks all :-)

But I don't want this to turn into babble where there are hints aplenty.

I've been enjoying the fact that the chat here is not all about sudoku!

Eek...just looked at the archives and there are 27 puzzles I've missed.

Babble sucks your life. This is much more time-limited so clues aren't needed.

and mmmmm 2 hour nap - that felt so good! Time to take kiddo and dawg on a walk

yeah, I quit Babble after this site opened. more contained.

I've never been into Babble.

I liked it at first, but it's not my thing. I like logic puzzles and numbers better than searching for words.

yeah, I don't really get the babble hints (not that I haven't used them), because you can look up most words on the a2z or other dictionary things.

ditto, sellout. Wait until Dr_God opens a Kakuro site!

I love word games, but I'm staying away from babble because I know I'd spend too much time on it. At least with this I know I won't be at it all day, lol.

I hope he does, that would be great.

ditto

apparently he's taken out a domain name for it, so it's in the works, maybe...

i don't know kakuro.

Haha...IronKakuro?

also called cross-sums in the US

haven't tried that myself - that's the one where the rows/columns/boxes have to total to a certain number, right?

Yep

yeah. actually involved a little arithmetic as well as logic

* Goes on a search to find out what "kakuro" is *

sort of... but no boxes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kakuro

Look out! It's porn, you've been tricked! (just kidding ;-)

(3x3 boxes, that is)

Haha

my kingdom for a 1...

look for a 9 instead

look for a 9 instead

how big is your kingdom? is it nice?

does it have puppies?