expert... then hard... then expert,... terrific!

just the way i like it

got all 6's

tough... I'm stuck...

same, trying to do it w/out greens is quite tough

filled every box with green and it's not going anywhere....

only found 13 numbers....

u have one more than me

that's encouraging :)

blimey, I appear to have 16.

well u are far ahead of the pack

This is one of the juiciest we've had in a while. Usually I'm done by now.

same

HELLO! :D

hi : )

25 minutes - that took far too long

now I have 14

you've finished, orb? :' (

18...

there we go!, done

I am stuck on 12 right now

wow, raggedy, I take my hat off to you. I'm still stuck at my 16.

ty babbler, i imagine u could kick my but in babble though! im Juice207 over there, just started w/in the last week, good luck to all! im gonna play a bit of babble and then head off to bed

hehe, I'll race you in babble sometime then, raggedy. ; ) have fun!

yay, that's my 5 points. (I guessed!) : ) laters, everybody.

phew... tough one. done.

oh, boy.. an "expert" when i'm sick. :-/

very tough... still stuck w/ 19...

What the hell! It just reset on me! AAAARGH!

wow that sucks

ooooh, that's gonna leave a mark

poor sickie moedog... may be a little slower on the uptake tonight :)

probably

if anyone needs any phlegm, i have plenty and i'm willing to share.

eewwwwww!

heh heh heh

sigh. i am clearly not an expert.

this one is really hard

is it deceptively straightforward at the beginning? I am not stuck yet but I just started

well maybe I am missing something but it is pretty slow going - been at it like 30 minutes and only have about 15 numbers

guess i need to try to grok the more advanced techniques a little better...

moe, you use a mac?

not usually, no

there must be a similar program out there, but i used something called Sudoku Susser to help me learn nifty advanced tricks... you can enter in any puzzle or use theirs, and it will highlight various patterns or give you hints. Helped me tons when I started doing these.

hmm

I meant, there's probably a PC program that does the same

but I like the interface on this one program I found...

Krys10, that is awesome

or maybe it runs on windows too :)

oh! it does: http://www.madoverlord.com/projects/sudoku.t

http://www.madoverlord.com/projects/sudoku.t

I'm going to try it out on this puzzle as soon as I finish

I used it on puzzles *after* I guessed, to figure out how to do it without guessing.

that script sprite shared last night for greening in the numbers is a huge help too. Anyone figure out who wrote it?

I missed that

javascript:for (i=1; i<=9; i++) {for (j=1; j<=9; j++) {if (grid[i][j].value == '') {ClearTinySquares(i,j);}}}for (i=1; i<=9; i++) {for (j=1; j<=9; j++) {if (grid[i][j].value != '') {var tmp_value = grid[i][j].value;for (k=1; k<=9; k++) {for (l=1; l<=9; l++) {if (grid[k][l].value == '') {if ((Math.ceil(i/3) == Math.ceil(k/3) && Math.ceil(j/3) == Math.ceil(l/3)) || i == k || j == l) {grid[k][l]['mini'][tmp_value] = -1;}}}}}}}for (i=1; i<=9; i++) { for (j=1; j<=9; j++) { if (grid[i][j].value == '') { for (k=1; k<=9; k++) { if (grid[i][j]['mini'][k] != -1) grid[i][j]['mini'][k] = 1; }}}}for (i=1; i<=9; i++) {for (j=1; j<=9; j++) {if (grid[i][j].value == '') {for (k=1; k<=9; k++) {if (grid[i][j]['mini'][k] != 1) grid[i][j]['mini'][k] = 0;}}}}PopulatePuzzle(grid);void(0);

paste that into the URL bar of your browser

that is awesome too

full of good tidbits tonight. but no sorbet :(

lol

wow! That is ultra handy! Helps with my restart!

That was easy for an Expert puzzle!

hmph

Took me two tries

a-ha! I just used a new advanced trick. I forget what it's called, though... if you have a rectangle where three corners have possibilities A and B, the fourth corner cannot contain either A or B because that would lead to a two-solution puzzle.

was that the 7-2 you did that on?

a-yup

hmmm... so that works as there can only be one solution to the puzzle?

...and the rest of it falls into place like rolling down a hill. Me and my mixed metaphors are off! Good night.

I presume (!) that Dr. God has chosen a puzzle generator that can only create puzzles that have unique solutions. So you are using that fact to eliminate the possibility of having a rectangle with A and B in all four corners.

very cool technique!

Is that an X-wing?

no, it's called Unique Rectangles on this site: http://www.scanraid.com/AdvanStrategies.htm#U
R

yeah, too bad Dr. God doesn't believe in puzzles that can be solved without guessing

This one can be solved without guessing. I used pinned squares, naked pairs, triples and maybe a quad, row/block and column/block intersections, and the unique rectangles trick. But I had to guess on a lot of puzzles before I had all those tricks in my arsenal. :)

that unique rectangles did it for me. Sweet trick.

I'm done

my god...that's a first

an expert that didn't require a guess. yeah, the unique rectangle did the trick

too tough for my current state of mind. :) g'night, all...

hope you feel better!

whats the rectangle trick

done - didn't need to use anything very fancy however - just persistance and things started to fall pretty quickly into place

I do make extensive use of subscripts - I put in every single possibility - and as soon as I determine where something belongs, I clean up the subscripts so that at any point in time they show what I know about each square - that did the trick very well here

morning everyone

ok I have learned something tonight about the forced rectangle

I mean the unique rectangle

Congrats :)

I'm definitely missing something here

It's the sun we're missing :)

actually it's quite sunny here

I must be to far west :)

maybe

hmm I think I've made a mistake

yup definitely made a mistake. Damn.

yes! done it

My Krackk Call worked. Time to buy some crac,... I mean, crack some Unique Triangles.

well at least the 6s are easy LOL

4s too!

just starting on them right now

i'm stuck on the 1s 2s 3s 5s 7s 8s and 9s. :-)

I needed one guess this one. Didn't find the unique rectangle :-(

ROFLMAO

not that bad or perhaps I was just lucky it all managed to fall in place quite quickly

I just wish work wouldn't get in the way of sudoku

you got it without guessing?

I got to the stage where I thought it is either this number or that and yes I guessed, fortunately correctly

way to go! i'm supposed to be sleeping right now, but sudoku is preventing it!

compared to 28th March one this was a walk in the park!

ty jdog

Did it, but I guessed once...

This one is fun!

YAY done!!!

Good afternoon all

I can see now that it can be done without guessing

Can't they all?

maybe, if one knows all the tricks

Well, that's what I meant. Not that I can, because I cannot :) But a good sudoku doesn't require any guesses, I believe.

So today i learned a new trick:-)

Good! This one seems to be pretty straightforward, I haven't gotten to the part where it will become 'expert', apparently.

finished... one slightly tricky spot (I had to double-check I had my logic right), the rest would qualify as 'easy' I think. Nowhere near 'expert'.

penny: you're an expert then :)

So far I agree, but I haven't finished yet.

Douglas, thanks but nowhere near :) I've had 'medium's mess with my brain on plenty of occasions)

I have had 'easies' that I had to start over twice :)

lol, Sprite. I know what you mean.. one lapse of concentration and they're *all* buggers ;)

Somehow I always am too careless with the easy ones, I think, because I usually find them harder than the hard ones :)

Wow, I wish I never read the bit about unique rectangls, it made my head spin

Now you made me curious! :D Can you explain?

MrOoijer mentioned unique rectangles, and I'd never heard of them, so I read <http://www.brainbashers.com/sudokuuniquerect
angles.asp>. Ouch.

Looks interesting indeed.

I would never have been able to solve it if I'd read that first, lol!

I'd never considered a strategy based on a Sudoku *having to be* unique...

LOL!

actually i knew the trick, but slightly different and this time i overlooked it.

oops lunch time is over

Gotta go folks, see you around :)

Bye :)

hi all

that was expert? wow. I'm obviouslygetting better at this LOL!

Peter told me to look at the URL of what he posted, and now I lost my almost finished puzzel....oops

Now I am done

hello experts

hi yul

i dunno if i qualify as an expert but i'll say hi anyways lol

just curious.... anyone still working on todays... how long is it taking u so far?

it's an easy expert

I was lost, then I looked at the "mentioned unique rectangles" <http://www.brainbashers.com/sudokuuniquerect

angles.asp> I'm a little slow, but then I could see the next move. Thanks for all the help!

if i have a a column with <25>, <57> and <27> as potentials, can I exlude 2,5 and 7 from the other cells in the connected blocks?

Yes, bigshow

man, I'm so far in now, I don't want to screw this one up

tempted to drop the 15 bucks and go pro so I can save

bigshow, i've been debating the same thing the past few days

plus, you get to play the archives, I'm happy with the money spent

I took the plung for paying and have not regretted it.

same here

morning all. Thought I'd add my 2 cents worth. $15 is nothing. It's a lifetime subscription fee and if you play every day it's only fair to the rest of us, not to mention Dr God who's footing the bill for the server. It's not cheap, folks. And besides, you can play all the games you missed in the archives.

nice icon!

I meant the cost of the server isn't cheap. The subscription fee IS. And thanks dinoshadow. Yup. Paul Walkers abs are iindeed awesome!

wombat

well foo. how did that get there?

enh - servers are cheap, but that's beside the point.. the time to program this was not easy..

bandwidth is what isn't cheap

Well, lets see... servers (the actual cpu's) might be cheap but the bandwidth ... thanks sulihin... took the words right outta my mouth

yeah - with babble andthis and his otyher sites'

hi

uh-oh, haven't seen an "Expert" here before

it's the 3rd or 4th one and I've only solved one of 'em. dang.

hi Gujubean24

hello baby girl you are an idiot

i know u are

back at you

i just playen

babygirl doesn't even know how to play this game

you liar

haha

hey sarah you are a fraud!!!

so what if i can't play i can learn

yeah right

hmmm initial weak spot is the 6's

you can't even spell the simplest words

talking you you sarah elizabeth ault

Marlee Petal be nice

so how old are the other people in this chatroom

I am 15

besides you sarah

im 17 teen\

how old are you spellacked

HELLO???!!!!

babygirl you scared them away!!!!

43

wow

sorry, trying to solve the puzzle, not read the chat

ha ha gujubean24

where do you likve

i meant live

i know i am tryin to solve during my computer class

aargh, blew it somewhere. Later

There is a unique rectangle here that will allow you to solve using just logic (no guessing) - sweet

Who rates these things? I did this one very quickly with no guessing but often get stuck on the "meium" puzzles.

rather "medium"

I'm guessing a computer program which uses a point system for the different types of techniques it must use to solve.

unique rectangle??

http://www.scanraid.com/AdvanStrategies.htm#U
R

hi all

that was not "expert" in my opinion

done. whew.

cool

it helped me understand unique rectangles better, so I'm happy :)

that took way too much effort

all yall who breezed trough it just hush, yhear? :P

*through

i'm working on it without using my beloved possibles ... ahh it takes me back ;)

yup, it'd make some feel better to hush, but here a lot can be had just by scanning

possibles = checkpoints + guesses?

hey BUffy

yo amess!

Yep, that's the first time I've used that technique and the whole thing unfolded from there.

sorry - i was referring to the little green numbers you can use to mark the possibles numbers in a square

I'm going to have to remember to try that one on future puzzles....

whatcha doin today, ames?

hoping that I get called not to come into work..

so tell me btwrt...what's the bad word

lol what are the odds of that?

well being that 8 people are scheduled, and unless were are drowning in pt's, we dont' need that many, and I put my name on the calendar for the day off or low census we call it

well then. maybe you'll get to be lazy. me and sarah are going for a late lunch i think around 3:30

i dunno where yet. i just know i'm tired of eating at ruby tuesday's and applebees ;)

lol

so what's up with you

I'm stuck. Ugh

i think this one is pretty easy

Well, I'm missing something

ha found it, unique rectangle. This would be a pain to do with trial and error

I guess I ought to find out what that technique is (and if I know it under a different name).

I see 3 possible unique rectangles. I need more work with them to determine which one is the right one to tackle.

http://www.scanraid.com/AdvanStrategies.htm#U
R

Ah, I see one..

yep, make sure you make the Right choice

And done!

I had never seen that rule before.

done! woot!

I think the strategy I used is called a chain of sudoku.

David, those are new to me too. I find the expert ones really rough, especially compared to the ones on websudoku. someone sent a link to those strategies a while back, and I recently had time to read it. It's early, but I think they're very helpful hints

woot nailed

just upgraded!

yay

staring

;)

done

easy!

congrats, kraszan

gah. I've had way too much mountain dew and i can't concentrate. i am definitely missing something here.

hello

how old are you

23

laugh mirrin - you sound like my husband with the mtn dew

you?

i dont usually drink much pop, so I can definitely feel the effects

that was expert ? that was to easy

i'm 16

i'm 16

hello again

arsenal is pathetic

i won though. good bye

hello all!

Hello, everyone,

Hello, everyone, I'm new to this site. How do you save a completed puzzle if you're not a pro?

hi jrs - you get a message when you finish telling you that you've solved the puzzle - you don't need to save it. (The site will track how many puzzles you've solved over time)

Thank you, poreid. I guess it was too good to be true that I solved it correctly. Oh, well, back to the drawing board. (Sigh!)

a little guess work to finish that one today but i did aftr 7ish hours

some people have said this was easy, but I'm stuck - am reading about seom new techniques on a site someone mentioned below - it is a good site. Maybe will figure out the answer yet...

man, that was way easy compared to some of the 'easys'!

go

I didn't find it easy until I learned the first of the unique rectangles rules.

enh, I don't know if I am stuck or just not seeing something - probably just not seeing it

uh - finally

darned near an hour - that's not good, next time i have to try doing it with my eyes open

=)

David, let me know if you are still around. I have a question

Nevermind, I see it!

grrrrr stuck again

at least two possibilities for every square. :/

"unique rectangles"