easier than yesterday's easy...

Done, an easy one, no guessing, surprised it was called a hard one.

yeah, I'd have counted that as medium, not hard. I needed greens, but there were loads of pairs - no advanced techniques needed at all.

Done. I tried hard to do it without greens but I just couldn't keep all of the the pairs in my head.

start

Difficulty score 23. A hidden pair in the center block is the key.

start

got it with a green. Now to tackle the day!

done

congrats, phil. Took me longer.

Trying to resist greens. Having trouble with 8's and 5's

Well, gave in to greens in order to get on with the day.

go!

yup 5s and 8s are the problems today

done... with a litle green help at the end

Go.

Unike, you still there?

Yes.

you often mention virtual crosshatching in your messages, and i was wondering if you could clarify what those are - I'm sure I'm using them...

Virtual crosshatching is when you know that a number goes in one of two or three cells, but you don't know which. However, that knowledge blocks a line in another block... something like that.

"Here's the 2 in the first column, here's the 2 in the third column, the 2 in the second column must go here or here, and the 2 in that row means it must go here"

like that?

No, thats ordinary crosshatching.

ok, i read more carefully and i get it

thanks

it's kind of like a combination of intersections and crosshatching...

Yes, if you are using greens, it's called intersection.

or if you aren't using greens and have a really good memory :)

Recently I've become aware of virtual missing digit also. If you were using greens it would be an intersection followed by a lone green... really easy. But without greens you think of it differently.

lone green meaning there's only one option for a square?

someday maybe I'll get over my laziness and stop using greens!

Yes. With greens, it's the easiest thing to see. Without, you can easily miss them.

i've seen that called a pinned square in some sudoku sources

I call them loners.

oh no wait, a pinned square is when it's the only, say, 6 in a column or in a row or in a block

i was just going through the archives after a weekend away - the medium from last thursday is giving me trouble.

Without greens, my technique for finding loners is like this: "This row needs a 3, 4, 7, 8. This cell is blocked to 3,7,8. Therefore it must be 3."

yeah, that sounds like the dialogue in my head too

Mistake... 4.

You should at least do the easies without greens. It's good practice for the paper sudokus.

i bet. i was trying to make that my policy for a while but i fell off somewhere

I always get the easies and mediums, no green. A few times I will get a hard. But I get pretty well stuck on the experts even with greens.

And without greens I look for what I call "L"s. That's when a single cell is able to block all remaining cells but one in a block. The shape of the empty cells in a block is often an "L", but not always.

i saw you mention that a few weeks ago - I look for those too, although I call them "stripping off" for some reason

ok, i finished that medium i was struggling with - it was, as usual, that I had missed an intersection. Nice chatting, have a good day!

Bye.

15. Going green.

tsk tsk, I'm at 25 without green, and I think it just opened up :)

That's wonderfu.

Right away with greens I'm seeing pairs.

Done.

4/8,4/8,4/8 is the key :)

Okay, that reduces down to 1/2, right? ;)

Actually a pair along one of the center rows solved for the 4/8 conjugate triple, which in turn solved the big long 5/8 chain, which broke it open. So there's your solution, lol.

You could see all that without greens?

I have a photographic memory

That helps.

and OCD.

What's OCD?

And I really like math, logic, and in general things with numbers.

I'm obsessive compulsive

Better than obsessive obsessive obsessive obsessive obsesessive....

Well, I'm not one of the nutty ones that wash their hands all the time or anything like that.

Done. Really really easy with greens.

go

done, with greens. it was easy with greens, just wish i could have done without them

start

Hey Sykotic - that's a great idea to note when you start. Otherwise you don't know how long it takes - there's no built in timer like some other sites

I'm not the first. Check the logs and people say start and go all through.

well I'm new to this! getting hooked pretty fast tho.

Yeah, its a great way to get a mental workout at some point during the day

done, no greens. I did have to restart a few times cause my checkpoint trial ran out. Still, not that bad, the easy yesterday had me more stumped

No greens, only naked pairs. So it was easy

Not too bad for a hard. Fun one. :D

start

go

hey ellen

Hi Helen even sorry sticky buttons

hiya herinfern

Finished Babble?

not yet, you?

done and done last night then the pc fitted on m

great! i have like 20 left, a little tired today, taking it in bits & pieces

I am a masochistic i like the massive grids

too many of those lately, that 500+, what a killer!

That was great. i nearly finished it with out a list but i ran out of thim

time sorry

done

fun one