going green...

i thought i had sorted out two x-wings - but now ive screwed up - damn...

Done

hmm.. lots of little green numbers...

no duhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

lol

it wouldn't be so bad, if they all weren't trying to talk to me at the same time!

whups - brb

done - but had to guess twice... yuk.

done

That's odd. I didn't have to guess, but I was totally expecting to. It wasn't too bad.

hell i screwed the pooch the first time!!!!!!!!!!!! DUHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

needed greens, but no guesses

pff this one was really hard

easy ...

start

Finally!

did it - finally. 2 lucky greens

go

done

1 green

my compu network just crushed when I finished placing the last number!!! shall I do it again?

the answer is: don't be ludicrous

Yul, same thing happened to me. It was not the network, it was the Iron Sudoku server.

start

fin

doh

Go.

Difficulty score 28. Not too bad. A little slow getting started.

I'll say it's slow. I've found only one by block or line crosshatch so far.

21 filled. Going green...

alright, I've had to restart 2x now. I hate the mediums. don't mind the experts or hards.

Greens don't help. Now what?

Spreadeagle, have you located the 6 in the upper right hand block?

Yes

I'm on a roll now. I suppose I'll get stuck after 21 cells.

Have you got all the 9s filled in?

All 6's and all 9's.

All 9s, 7s, 6s

Look at the 4s.

Or the 8s.

OK, just eliminated a couple of 3s

go

It's mostly cross-hatching, but there are a couple of tricky ones.

I'm rolling now.

I've got all the 6, 7 9s - don't see any leads on the 4s or 8s. But I'm down to four possible 2s. I've seen you all talk about "uniqueness rectangles" - is that what I'm seeing? How do you use that?

No.

You can probably solve it from here by cross-hatching alone.

Look at BranBashers.com to learn about unique rectangles. They are neat and occur rather often.

Thanks - I was just going to ask where I can learn what these terms mean. I've been ignoring chat because I have no idea what you were talking about most of the time!

Done. Just had to get rid of a couple of 3s to break it open.

Mistake. That's BrainBashers.com

BranBashers are for people with constipation.

Other links to learn terminology and techniques:
http://www.scanraid.com/sudoku.ht
m
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudoku
http://
www.pauls-pc-repair.com/sudoku/sudoku.html

Darn. I've got only 14 filled and I'm stuck.

done. too much green for my liking, but i will take it

There we go. All 6, 7, 9 done.

Going green.

Have you located the 8 in the center block?

Yes.

Greens haven't helped at all.

Have you found the 2 in the center-right block?

Not yet.

Look closely, it might jump out at you.

In fact you should be able to fill in all the 2s.

Hasn't jumped yet.

Ooh, I just used a unique rectangle to eliminate a 3 from the lower right block, showing me where a 3 must be elsewhere which gave me the 2 Dr. Who just mentioned! I feel like a real Sudoku player now. :-)

K. no need for unique rectangles on any puzzle here except possibly an Expert.

However, whatever works for you is what's right.

Well, maybe I made a mistake earlier. I'll keep going - getting a lot now - and see where it goes. There's likely more than one way to get from point A to point B.

Oh, just realized I mistyped earlier - not a unique rectangle, an x-wing. Sorry about that! What I have been calling things in my head doesn't match the standard terminology, and I got confused.

That helps.

As with unique rectangles, the X-wing technique is only really needed on some of the Experts here.

But don't hesitate to use it when you see it!

its the 1s and 5s that are giving me the most trouble

The 1s and 5s are the last to fall.

Oh, stupid me. I missed a pair.

Things pumping now.

Based on analysis of a majority of the puzzles published here, I am fairly certain pairs are only required on some Hard and Expert puzzles.

Done. Really? I just couldn't find another crosshatch or intersection. But the pair opened it up.

Well don't ignore it just because it might not be required. Use whatever you can see.

I am fairly certain that Easy means the puzzle can be solved by cross-hatching and maybe a missing digit scan or 2.

Medium means that you will need to use region intersection analysis, or virtual cross-hatching.

Hard means you will need to use naked or hidden pairs, triples or quads.

Expert means that more advanced techniques are required.

I am not sure if Experts are restricted to any particular set of advanced techniques.

I seem to be missing some of those medium techniques or something then, because the mediums are always where I struggle, whereas I tend to zip through easy/hard/expert :D

Yeah, same here.

What I call region intersection analysis can also be called virtual cross-hatching. I have illustrations of it at:
http://www.pauls-pc-repair.com/sudoku/sud
oku.html#techniques

i dont know what all these techniques are. i just look at it a lot!

Unfortunately, I haven't mastered web design yet, and the site works best with IE, not so good with Firefox.

I hate when I'm trying a technique and mess up, because half the time I'm trying it by eventually setting a square with two possible choices to one value, and since it failed, it basically gives me the other value

Discovery by failure annoys me, because I feel like I haven't validly found the answer

That x-wing mentioned relating to the lower right block was what opened it up for me. :)

Done. used greeenies. one bad guess. returned to checkpoint for correct guess and all fell into place.

go

no green, but not super fast.

Done, I hate mediums, that one was a pain.

Me too

I meant me too as in I hate mediums. Not me too as in done

done

hey everybody im new can someone tell me the very middle number

??????

people won't give that sort of information because it would spoil it for everyone else

sorry

Finally! don't know why it took me so long....

Actually, on occasion people have been known to hand out a number to someone who is asking -- but it's not common, and generally you get better replies without the line saying just "??????" because that's not exactly friendly Internet banter. :)

That being said, I'm in the archives and can't quickly look at the front to share a number. :)

go

woohoo!! Finally upgraded to pro. Starting on archinves.

nice. I'm still thinking about it. I'm sure I will one day just not today.

Your sure didn't write much in your profile, Rodeo.

took me a long while to decide, but I finally had to.

Unlike, I was in such a hurry to do another puzzle I did not do anything with my profile besides add a pic

I sprung for the upgrade on my birthday.

nice gift to yourself. i am getting a nice refund from the IRS so I figured I could splurge on this

off to fix profile. 1st archive done. I LOVE this game!

It's been well worth it. I'm so glad I upgraded. Very happy. :D

hmmmm. stuck. Work was a pain at the moment. now I'm stuck in two places.

ah. a 3!

done

I just did the "easy" of January 18, no greens. Feeling good.

I'm on November 8th 2006's expert, and very slowly eliminating greens with some techniques, but it's slow, slow pickins

I need practice spotting loners and line crosshatches. So the easies, no green, are good for me.

I love when I get one with no greens - it's a good feeling. :D

I love the no green feeling. Feels exactly like the desert I live in.

go

and done

okay, okay, so i got caught up in 'survivor' there for a while in the middle :)