where all da playas at??

wher y'all att????

You're the first to chat, maybe? =)

somewhere

Yes, I see that.

Morning all

hi

I am, however, glad that so many are pimping Sodoku at this hour.

Hiya Jo, Mab, a & Vega

Hi Debs!

hey debs

Depends which hour it is... It's 06:15 here...

am or pm?

Oh. Never mind me.

am

I'm in England

Groovy!

5:15pm here :) if i start digging i might meet you

Nothing like a Sudoku to begin morning with. *G*

OK... I'll grab a shovel...lol

You're in Melbourne/Sydney, a?

I'm flitting bewteen here and babble

nah, down in Hobart :)

Ahh.

where abouts are you?

Mmm, on the mainland.

US..Vegas?

Fin. That was a good one.

Well done Atnan....

Howdy to all the Aussies too (I'm up in Sydney).

Hi Atnan!

hey atnan

No howdy to me then!.... :-/

This is a horrible website. So incosiderate - it's going to take up 20 minutes of every day :p

Finished the game...

Tell me about it. Between Zone.com and here, it's not going to end.

A special howdy to Debs40ish :)

Cheers Nan... and a special Morning to you :)

It's 5.30 at night here :p

Which means I still have work to do. I'll probably catch you guys tomorrow. See ya.

Cya Nan... tc

Cheers Sydneysider. =)

I'm going to go off and babble for a bit so I'll catch you all later... Take care, be happy & smile...Lifes too short..Have fun cya again sometime (((hugs)))

cyas :)

Hooray, finished.

damn, that was fast

Could've been faster. =P But I spent quite a bit of time erasing and re-entering green numbers...

Done

Morning all! Ready for a new one, this looks promising.

Hey Sprite! I'm just going to bed, maybe I'll catch you tomorrow :)

Sleep well Krys! Was it fun?

I just popped in to print out the puzzle to bring to bed with me.. just finished hosting a dinner party. that was fun, yes!

'night, all

Even better :) Night Krys, enjoy the afterfeeling of the party and have fun puzzling.

uh oh - a hard one, the medium ones were challenging enough ;-)

i screwed up somewhere

Actually, this hard one is less hard than some of the medium :)
Too bad, a. Hope you find your way back.

ok, here we go

This was fun. Done for today with a little more confidence in myself. Looks like I do better with the Hard and Expert ones, lol.

do you have to guess with this one? bit stuck atm

I don't believe so.. but the possible deductions you can make are very limited

the only difference between guessing and deduction is whether you do it in your head...

hi guys!

Hey Everyone - Hi Alalnte - Has anyone learn all the techniques - like Naked Doubles etc - or does it come natural to you?

techniques? there are techniques?!

Oh boy - I got so frustrated I researched it

actually, there is a large difference between deduction and guessing

interesting, explain the difference then...

i.e., guesses are only right some of the time

http://www.writely.com/View.aspx?docid=bbfm2k
df5zzzv

lol I should too - I have no idea why x-wings and stuff are that people keep going on about!

That's a link list of all the techniques

And I don't know any yet!

yes, but deduction is just guessing in your head and checking which ones work, all in your head

peternl - sounds like your a freak! no offense

it won't let me load that page :(

grin - I've been called worse

take out the space

but don't bother - it's techo sukdoku jargon!

I suppose you are right in a way - but when I say "deduction", I mean obvious correct answers as opposed to correct answers derived by several iterations of checking

oh duh. it didn't copy the second line!

DooH!

ok. that disturbs me.
Simple colouring - Discontinuous x-cycle of length n
Turbot fish - Discontinuous x-cycle of length 5
x-wing - Continuous x-cycle of length 4
Swordfish of 222 formation - Continuous x-cycle of length 6

fair enough definition. I've solved some puzzles where the deduction went along the line of "there are two posibilities here, one implies this implies this implies this implies contradiction, so it must be the other" Is that deduction or guessing...

I told you!

*runs away from sprite level stuff*

the digits are chasing you!

anything I can't work out in my head I would call a guess :)

thank you!

how about instinct ;-) that gotta sutff with a logical mind

my mind can only look ahead so many steps without making pencil marks

even with pencil marks there are limits

look at naked triples

the program I wrote to solve these used guessing and backtracking - its amazing how few boards have to be looked at to find the answer, much much much simpler than many others games

*runs off to the grid with hopeless optimism and happily oblivious to complicatedness*

Not related - just cause they are fun to look at ;-)

I was under the impression that a sudoku that can only be solved by true guessing is one with multiple answers

which is a "bad" sudoku

Texel - sounds like number torture

number torture == math degree

peternl - did you try the other programs out there first? The ones that give you step by step completion

no no! I don't want to look at naked triples! Just give me naked Hayden and I'll be content!

why try other programs? What fun would that be?

Well - I think your approach is guesswork

It's fun to program a solution, and fun to do the solution yourself, it's hardly fun to use someone elses program to do a solution!

I'm a programmer ;-) I'm not using a tool.

And to be honest, I don't have the skills yet to do this. A newbie

no, me either, well, only my brain, which isnt getting me far at the moment ;-)

I did however find a tool (not using it), and it works really well - and can help you learn - tells you the next technique to use

I just prefer to beat my head against them until they yield

The other night I did this thing 4 times and the last friggen number didn't fit

indeed. My wife is better at them than me, so I can always ask her for help ;-)

I if wasn't drinking wine at the time - it might have helped ;-)

and I beat lickety to death in sudoku the other night... yah me!! go me!! and I had more wine than you!!

I could have jumped on the bike and worked it out ;-)

(Bowing) to mr president

thats one box done

eight to go ;-)

peternl - did you use any of those techniques?

probably, but I don'

don't know what they are called

use green number?

just self taught I'm afraid

someone ever tried the "medium"-ones which seems to be harder than this here

yes, I use the green numbers

You are human!

;-)

but only when there are only two (or sometimes three) places in a box where the number can go

until close to the end, then I tend to do all the possibilities in all the squares

hah

I just realized that this implementation does support pencil marks

yeah, took me two days (and several printouts) to work that out ;-)

I kept writing stuff on paper and hit Cntrl C

one box, one row, one column, that's progress...

lickety, I would have thought the pencil marks on your computer screen were enough!

yeah but the screen died - so I had to use paper

no wonder!

then the mouse and the pencil had a go at each other!

did the screen die of lead poisoning??

no - 'bad handwriting'

ha ha ha

fu4,42

hmm, a number in the center box would be nice

yes it would!

alllllmost thre

there*

is it because there's no number in the middle box that this is categorised as "hard"?

no, there is nothing special about the center box

if you take a puzzle and swap the left column of three boxes with the middle column of three boxes, it is the same puzzle

what officially makes them easy / hard then? is it literally the number of numbers you ahve to start with?

ooooh lickety - this page is written in proper English! http://angusj.com/sudoku/hints.php

I think it's not that easy. I think it is a combination of number of squares given and the amount of steps you have to think ahead to find a new number

Yeah - I've seen that one - it's the best! I've even downloaded the cool program from it - helps you learn

hey sprite :)

Ha Atalante :)
I must admit I do not use that many techniques, I just jump in and see what I can find. First the obvious ones, and then I try to reason things out. Guess I would be a lot faster if I'd learn techniques, but this is so much more fun ;)

I think so!

I pretty much just start by going thru the numbers, look for all the 1s, then all the 2s, then ... Then when I get to 9, I start again using the new filled in numbers to help. A couple passes like that will actually finish an easy puzzle.

does it work for this?

no ;-)

but it gets you started

exactly! That's when I went to the web for advanced tech

It is pretty straightforward logic, solving a sudoku. That's what I like about them. At least SOMETHING in my life is straightforward logic :D

its nice logic. it feels nicely *right* when you know you're going the right way

ok so the fact that i've only got 3 numbers so far is frustrating!

2nd time round though ;-)

Got to be off, my daughter wants me to go shopping for earrings with her. :)

bye sprite!!!

Have fun! sounds lovely

oh fun! byee!

hmmmm

it needs a progress indicator, so I can accurately guage just how fast I'm not progressing...

good one peterni!! I need that too!

if i had one it would never move!!!

I big red flashing indicator !!! YOU HAVE SCREWED UP in (x) boxes... that would help!!

mrpresident: it already does that

oh, I know guerro! I just need it to TELL me!!

hah

man, the whole middle box is green now :-(

I give up, I'm off to Mackers, maybe that'll help (yeah right ;-)

have a mc'fun time

yey!!!! finished!!!!

oh thank god finally

\o/

arrgh, I'm stuck like a... sticky thing... in a glue factory

yeah, me too. very slow moving...

i'm down to 2, and moving around lots of 4's and 5's

naked pent in column 6 just got me a 1 in the middle cube

I dont know what a naked pent is, but now that you mention it, there's only one green 1 in all of the center box, cool!

that was a joke it was the hidden 56 pair I couldn't see for concentrating on the 12347

ahh, yes, that is indeed what led me to it

its nice to have something black in the middle box finally

now stuck again, though

it's gotta collapse soon, though

you'd think...

ahh, a couple more in the middle box...

going

yeah, but its still putting up a fight

close

done

because there's no undo, I find myself just leaving the green ones so I don't have to backtrack to the beginning if I make a mistake It takes a while to fill them all in...

done

phh well, off to do something more productive like watch TV ;-) cya

done! woot!

groan.. stuck

done

Why doesn't this enable you to write in the corners? I need to do that...

Mark007 it does

read how to play

yes! finally a hard one :)

+5 points!

haxored: that was fast!

19 minutes is fast? O:-)

haha! genius? what me?

What can I say, I <3 sudoku

keeps my mind from going to mush

too late for me!

oh no :(

misspent youth :)

i <3 sudoku too!

ack the blank middle is giving me trouble

It was the last one I filled

i'm ready to start guessing any minute!

i think there is a technique I'm forgetting to apply

are there any websites on sudoku strategy

i saw one but its really simplistic i want ultra advanced techniques

Someone posted this a while back

http://www.writely.com/View.aspx?docid=bbfm2k
df5zzzv

wow

anyone finished already?

yup. night all

not very hard :-)

about 10 minutes

congrats

been doing it for 5 minutes and it seems pretty easy

did you see the large blank box in the middle?

X-wing for teh win!

yesssss!! it took me a little more than 10 minutes (lol) but it did get done...

that wasn't so hard

Tim...what are you doing?!?!

g'morning all

WOOHOO!

Finally

I had never read anything about those strategies like naked triplets and swing and whatever those things are called before, but those really opened my eyes.

so if you stare at the numbers long enough, will you eventually figure out how to play this darn game?

most definitely

bjorn - where can i go to find out about that stuff?

ok, busy busy

sure are pretty numbers

Try here: http://www.writely.com/View.aspx?docid=bbfm2k
df5zzzv

(careful, the chat may create a new-line so you have to rejoin those into a single line for the URL to work) It's alot of reading... :) I recommend the first one to begin with, the rest seems more advanced, most of it. More theory

and what a pretty orange fan. ok back to staring.

thanks!

this is tough

how do u finish this without guessing?

i found an X-wing and I now I don't know what to do with it :)

Gotta love the x-wings

need these to be more difficult

www.websudoku.com

chu: :(

i'm stuck again

thanks haxored!

no guessing required thuryn

there's a strategy guide at http://www.sudokudragon.com/sudokustrategy.ht
m

info holy grail

thanks chu!

rrrrrgggghhhhh

greetings, babble friends... and others...

hi hurshy

hey mac

WOOHOO

practicing on websudoku.com really helps.

smaller, mac - how goes it?

I'm just getting started... had to to some housework first :/

ahhh.

hursh,

you're done?

WOW, this is my first game. congrats!

oh, yes, well smaller, as i said, it helps to practice

i had never done sudoku at all before this week

hi guys : )

lola!

hi lola

hurshy!

hi mac : )

with yellow feathers in her hair...

...and her dress cut down to there. Not bloody likely in this weather, lol! : D

lol

you done with this, too, lola/

nooooo, just started! Well done to you though! : )

are you done, hurshy?

yes, 22 mins

WTG! hurshy! Congrats!

if sudoku is japanese, we should get belts in different colors as we improve, like with karate.

:) thank you.

great idea hurshy. Except I may strangle myself with mine : /

I have a 1st degree brown belt in karate, but it doesn't help me here :/

Any other places where I can play Sudoku online? Preferably where you can list candidates for each cell like here...

lol mac AND lola

www.websudoku.com! billions of puzzles!

you can't put in ALL the numbers there - only up to five per box, i think

i haven't tried that feature there.

i have no belt in karate, btw, mac

Thanks hurshy :)

is ther a way to restart the puzzle? if you've saved a little?

not yet ashling, you just have to clear each box individually

oh all right, thanks

stuck! ;D

the only way I'm surviving at all is to fill each square in with green and red notations and work from there

yeah that's what i did

so figure out what will and won't work for each square... long process

what's the diff between green and red?

green: possible number red: impossible number, although nothing to stop you from using them the other way round

true, just green go and red no for me

ah

i just put in possibles and ignore the rest :)

it's more work that way but helps when I'm flustered and I usually only do it on a certain row or a certain block

otherwise it's usually just the possibilities

yeah

finally i solved it

arrr

wheeee! I've just subscribed!

its all downhill from here

Congrats, Atalante! Now it's official... you're addicted ;)

I know! and a few days ago I couldn't remotely cope with sudoku - quick addiction!

yay! well done ata...now add me as a friend! : D

*whispers* how do I do that?

go to 'who's online' and you'll see the link : )

woot! done!

: )

hi sharp925

d'you spose it would be impertinent to add dr_g as a friend

hmm, no outcry, no exclamation, no joy in mudville...?

hurshy! WOOT! (sorry, was faffing with my iTunes!) : )

...and...um...I did! lol : D

i have so much trouble with itunes

and thank you lola :)

why do you have trouble with itunes?

i can't get into the store a lot of the time, even though i have a constant internet connection

and then even if i can get in the store, i can't get it to let me buy anything

hmm

sounds weird

it IS weird. maybe my computer just isn't strong enough to handle it.

what kind of computer do you have?

IBM, about 5 years old.

I haven't used the store yet, but so far I'm enjoying iTunes : )

that might have something to do with it

oh, lola, i can listen to things i've uploaded from CD

but i don't want to buy a new computer just for that!!

wwd, do you know, is it a processor issue, memory, what? is there a way i can improve my computer rather than buy a new one?

no, but if you buy a new computer it will make your all around computer experience better. (especially if you buy a mac :) )

no, but if you buy a new computer it will make your all around computer experience better. (especially if you buy a mac :) )

oh...

well, you could buy mor RAM

i am otherwise quite satisfied with my all around computer experience.

i demand little from the poor machine.

it would probably speed your computer up

but you have an old processor, so a new one would also speed things up

RAM is probably the easiest thing to do

please, i used to use DOS, i think things are lovely fast on this.

ok

if your computer is old you should reinstall windows

how much does more RAM cost

that's not necessarily true

oh we did have new windows installed over the summer

RAM isn't that expensive

ok nm then

we had to in order to make our wireless card work

go here http://www.crucial.com/systemscanner/

that makes sense

it will tell you what you need

well i did it

i am not totally sure i did it right

and...

!!!

Kitty!

oh... i thought you meant the computer scan... hehe

i did mean the computer scan

oh

he

it asked me for my type of IBM

and i said thinkcentre

right

and then it wanted to know what specific model

you can find all that information in you control panel

and mine appears to say it's an M 8199

oh, where in control panel

Arg. This one *is* hard. :(

not sure.... i am on a mac :)

i am a sys-admin at work, but i really dont' like PC's that much

Control Panel -> System

Control Panel -> System

glad you like my kitty, grey

k.

Sorry, I mean "I think."

ok, then there are 5 tabs

My computer is freaking out at the AJAX chat. A tad on the slow side. :)

(My computer, I mean. Not the AJAX.)

i have 384 MB of RAM

but i don't see any model number

i have a 2.2 GHz celeron processor.

are these numbers very low?

it might tell you in the BIOS, but you have to turn the computer off for that

well anyway i picked A 8199, since that was the only letter that had those numbers.

and it told me to buy a $58 RAM thingy.

you can also download cpuZ and that will tell you

my goodness.

they really should not make so many different models of thigns

ha... then they wouldn't make so much money... which is what it is generally all about for them

Hello number maniacs!!!! How come yesterday's took me 20 minutes and this one is impossible?????????????? Or is it me?

It's not just you!

taking me awhile too :)

i'm having trouble too

oh, it's all you mama :)

hi all, hiya hurshy

oh good, helen! i can make you a friend too.

i thought we were friends :)

now i have 6.

oh, of course helen, but i meant, in the my friends tab.

i see i have no friends cause i'm not a pro :(

it is why i went pro!

:)

hi mama and hellen! : )

i'm considering it - after all, i seem to be spending a great deal of time here

hi lola

dr_g needs to eat!

i want to make an official announcement

*waits with baited breath*

It's me, hurshy????? *mamabear has bottom lip out really far*

hi lola & helenkeller!

hi mama

ANNOUNCEMENT: the difficulty level of the puzzle has nothing to do with how hard an individual person finds an individual puzzle. sometimes things just click and sometimes they don't. the fault, dear brutus, is not in our algorithm, but in our neurons.

announcement? pray tell, hurshy!!!

so, you see, i was just teasin' before, mama :)

My neurons must be very poor, then.

BUT practice definitely helps!

haha i was thinking the same thing Aelis

I'm stuck. :(

oh, a fellow cat!

yup.... she's a calico with a personality very close to a dog!

i have 2 others besides the one in my icon.

i have never seen so many new babblers in one day!!

oh urs is too spoiled for us to have others.... she use to live with two dogs but after 3 years without them. she doesn't like dogs anymore either.

My mother has a chronic fear of cats. D:

aelis - probably bc the media are biassed against cats.

That may be the case.

biased? that looks better... not sure which is right

I think I need to go adjust my neurons....brb

this ones hard!

Yup, it's biased.

Once you have it partially saved, is there a way to clear the whole thing without going to each square individually, does anyone know?

nope, you have to manually go to each square at that point

nope, you have to manually go to each square at that point

no, mama, not yet, dr_g is working on it

can you refresh?

refresh takes you to last save

ty aelis

No problem. .-.

If I refresh, it still keeps what I had saved. My computer kept losing the connection, so I started saving alot, but now I think I have to just start over.

have any of you people finished this one yet?

yes, i have mama

yup! : )

i think anj is coming

okee dokee then

Hurshy, stop looking at the Babble log! lol : )

Hey babe! (((xx))) : )

Hiya (((xx0)) : )

uh-oh! hard... : (

How is the Babble grid today?

You'd be so proud of all my iTunes babe! : )

Have you tidied them up then?

babble is 143 mama, a smidge tough but not too bad.

Mama, it's ok but not a gimme : /

why can't i look at all the logs, anj?

and why couldn't you let them think i was psychic?

I am the Penn & Teller of Babble : D

Yup! And added loads of stuff...got the wildhearts and the CJ you did for me on there now : )

i am the siegfried and roy of domestic short-haired cats

Woot! Get listening - I need my usual Last.fm neighbours back : /

anj - you last.fm too? my username is 7878ponce what's yours?

mine's apocalypseaelis. o_o

although nobody has asked it, I have boldly decided to put it out anyway.

I'm Soundhog

I've got like, two friends. And all I listen to is movie soundtracks and classical composers.

wats last.fm?

it's like a music community that records what music you and others listen to...sort of.

i listen to it for the radios

neat way to get streaming radio, no commercials

why would u want something recording what you listen to?

i just subscribed for $3 for one month but.. i'm not seeing much of a point to it

it recommends similar artists and songs

so you can discover new music

oh, it costs money, sorry that counts me out, i am a college kid, i dont have money

to find other people who listen to similar music, to discover similar artists, to know what you're listening to (statistics)

it's free

but by paying you get a few more features like listening to many songs you've marked as you like

Teh SUBSCRIPTION version costs, but you can get a free membership. :D

i'm not seeing much of a point in paying honestly.. i likely won't do it again

i might check it out later then

You get a pony if you subscribe.

YES!!!! I finished!

and you get to see who's stalking you -- i mean looked at your profile

haha

wtg mzhokie! any suggestions on how to get it done?

I'm a subscriber - like the options you get. Plus it helps the site develop

hi arcuradio, see you visited ; )

I just had to use the notations to get me through

this is such a tough one

That and sometimes walking away when it's a blur!

so right about now, i should walk away

pixies fan too eh? ( ^ :

how do you make notes?

If you hold the shift down you can put green notes and the alt gives you red notes

I'm walking away...... going to go babble for a while....see ya later!

ahh awesome

i have only been trying to do this for 3 days, and have yet to get one done correctly

thanks

yup! You'll see lots of South African rock that you may not have heard on there too : )

'bye mama : )

my puzzle looks like it had chicken pox

wow, just got it done

had to guess a few times...which probably isn't the way it is suppose to be done

i'm doing an "evil" over at web sudoku that i swear is changing numbers on me when i'm not looking

hurshy, lol!

Anj, how you doing babe? : )

Still on my first attempt... It's a bit of a brute tho' How about you?

finished awhile ago babe : )

seriously, this evil one, i think it's not solvable. i am so careful and yet i get contradictions every time.

aargh! Just realised I goofed early in attempt #1 so it's a clear down and restart for me : D

Okay, new guy.

anyone done and want to help me with my evil?

wow. this is a tough one...

10 minutes and found only one "easy pick"

This is one where the easy picks are hard to find - go for the hard doubles first.

blah

SaintNick of txd?

Yup - Unlogikal?

ya

Nice to see ya bro.

yea likewise, this is a toughie heh

That's true...

i have little red notes everywhere

I have little green notes everywhere.

green is too hard to see on my powerbook unless i turn brightness up :-P battery killer

I've just begun

Never thought of it that way - I'm on a Compaq laptop.

so far i have the top left and right boxes full

i cant figure out the 1 and 7 in the top left

I have the top right full, that's about it

me 2

me 2

kyle, i have a powerbook and i see the green just fine

top right, top row, 3rd column, and stuck.

Save, run with a guess as far as you can, and then try again, I presume?

ah just finished the top row ;)

u just explained my exact situation Diane

same here now

i need the 1 and the 7 in the top left, or the 2 and then 8 in the middle right box

middle box? that empty ^^

middle box? that empty ^^

yep, me 2

he he, my middle box is also empty

ya my middle box is empty

same

ditto

The 2/8's in the middle right box pair up nicely. They have to be together so they eliminate other possibilities in other related rows.

don't understand Nick

likewise the 6/8 in the bottom right

Exactly

yep, the 6/8 for me too

that too

so how to handle the 1/7; 2/8/ 6/8?

woot!

neone have suggestions? cuz that is throwing me for a loop!

Yay! Go Anj! : ) xx

guess we're on our own, raggedy

congrats anj

the trouble is, dear folks, we can't see our puzzle if we are done, and my memory isn't THAT good...

told you you'd finish before I found my next number, Anj. :'( waaaaaaaahh!

man this sucks now lol

ill say

it's that damn middle box

I'm willing to compare notes, if that's kosher here

Big. Empty. Middle. Box.

Sure... I've got the third column done...

lol

I wish there was a way to replay or back up VCR style.

everyone got 6 or 8 for 7th column bottom two?

Ok, top r box - 2 boxes, both with 1 & 7

y, kyle

7 on left, 1 on right of top right box

Yes, Kyle. Same here.

ok, only two i have in that box.. just making sure

so, SN, middle row of top r box is 918?

Hmmm... we're out of sync.

man this is tuff

that's not what i got

Top Right = Top to bottom: 791, 456, 283

ya

i got that

same here

same as nick here

OOOPs- meant top LEFT

me too

I'm in sync with the others on top r

top left box?

which ones do you need?

y

so i don't give anything away

Top Left = 234, 9?8, ?65

same as nick

mid row - 918, bottom 765?

im right w/ SN on that too

FINISHED! WOO HOO!

If it's any help, the first column I completed was the left hand one on the right hand set of boxes

how did u get the 6 and 8 down low?

me, too, anj

that's where I'm stuck too raggedyandy

i'm tempted to take a guess on that one

i'm going to write down what i have and take a guess and see if helps lol

i took a guess somewhere yesterday, and lets just say i learned my lesson

I'm already on guess.... :'(

I'm confusing myself now. I'm gonna shut up. My first was column #3 from left

/me puts data into Sudoku Companion

i'll guess in that one

raggedy, that was the key for me - I only put them as subscript until the rest of the bottom lines made more sense

well i have every single box marked w/ all green and red, and still cant figure any of it out

how do you solve this WITHOUT guessing?

hexx, you can. I try to limit it to one guess, or I get lost in a fug.

ya i try not to guess, kills the point of the game

Guessing rapidly leads to a locked puzzle.

yea, i'm only guessing because i don't have all day to do this

I think the 'logic' comes in recognising that you've made a bad guess before you go too much further...

I got it yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

I got it yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Darn it - I've got to go and enjoy sunlight before it disappears behind the snowy hills.

hahaha

lol! I just found me a number! I think I deserve a break! :D

ne of the 3 sets of numbers that we have been stuck on all dya?

haha... guessing still gets me stuck either way

figures

that was tough. you gotta take a pen and write down all possibilities for each number in each square and that you get it very easily

that was tough. you gotta take a pen and write down all possibilities for each number in each square and that you get it very easily

Norman: You can do the same with the green/red system

yeah, but excel works better for me. btw: why are my messages shown doubled?

yeah, but excel works better for me. btw: why are my messages shown doubled?

i think Norman is talking about actually filling it out and seeing if that guess works out in the end, as opposed to just looking at possibilities

ah.

well, it's well established by the looks of this that I'm no good at these things

done it

blimey! middle boxes left to complete! but have I gone wrong (again??)

contestant - it's not an easy one : /

contestant, i have yet to finish one in the last 3 days

yea this one is rough

Babs, the middle left box was the last one I completed : )

ok, first box: 234 / 9?8 / ?65

i want the top left, middle right, and bottom right boxes

I'm doing pretty well. I started five minutes ago and got 8 squares

please don't give answers or hints

haha i finished yeterdays easy

Yeah Diane geez

contestant, this is one of the hardest grids I've played in a while.

agreed

i'm using Sudoku Companion

wats that?

what's that?

it let's me lock tiles for easy going back

OS X sudoku application

they have a "Sudoku of the Day" too, so I do two of these things a day

whered u get it?(im on OS X)

bada bum bada bum. this game should have a timer

It has a 24 hour timer...

verek.com

aarrggh! I have 4 numbers left to find: 2,8,2,8. But what goes where???

thats a time limit. i'd like a timer

to see how long it takes me to finish

;)

is there a way to check if the solution you've guessed is correct, or do you have to wait til midnight?

finished on paper..... let's see what the screen says....

You will know when you're done because it gives you points

Babs, that's this one all over - a mix of 2,4,7 & 8 that all can go in at least two places... : ?

okay

whats the price of this sudoku companion?

i had to guess today : /

$8 i think

$9

I got it on MacZot.com with 4 other applications for $15 a week ago

Me to - the bottom of my first column, but it all worked out : )

there's another app i like more called MacSudoku but it's like $12

was that in the surprise package?

yup

Hmm, I had a column but had to guess a box i think...

woot!! :D:D:D

*resisting temptation*

(only took me most of today) :'/

yay! Well done babs! : )

congrats, babs!

i added you to my friends, btw :)

is this :'/ to indicate crying?

im pretty sure everyone is stuck where i am but, am i missing one move or what

bc it looks like a thermometer to me :)

this is bloody freakin impossible

hursh, it's a wry smile in my book. a tear just adds to it.

WTG Babs : )

i think we all screwed up

:/ wry smile, :'/, wry smile + fever, got it. :)

ty ty ty! :D:D:D my poor brain :(

if you're stuck like i am, i think there's no way around it

nevermind, it's possible

just got it

Kyle was that a finish?

yup

i had to guess though :(

congrats!

congrats!

i guessed, got stuck, went back, flipped my answer and it worked out that way

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

I did that too.

the one i guessed on was the 6/8 in the bottom right box

Kyle that's what I did at the end - had to go back 6 entries and flip them : ) Worked tho' wtg!

granted i also used another program to do my game, it allows me to undo which helped keep things straight during my guess, i really don't like the web interface on here, too limiting to what i'm used to

paper seems easier than this interface lol. great idea though

I guessed the 1, 7 in the top left box

yeah...it would be nice if the interface had some sort of scratchpad ability. USAToday has that, it helps.

Babbler that was actually easy to figure out

I didn't have the right numbers to figure it out.

I had a world of nothingness

ah i can't remember exactly how i got it, but it worked itself out without guessing there

heh

darn - down to last 2 and it doesn't work out

bah, i hate that

This seriously only took me about 20 minutes.

Sorry guys

i call BS on that

someone else said he found today's easier than yesterday.

hmmmmm

THAT i don't believe

yup, that's what he said

kyle - it may not be BS - i did it in 22 minutes, and my friends will back me up that i wouldn't lie! :) i didn't guess, and i didn't even use the little numbers. however, the evils over on websudoku are keeping me humbled.

blah

blah humbug

one q: is bottom row, middle # 4?

bottom row, which box from the left?

5th

not 4

I'm off to bed guys, goodnight : )

I think that's hwere I got screwed up :(

:(

night lola

is there a way to clear the whole screen?

not that i know of

there should be an option to start over, eh?

y

from here on out i'll be doing it on paper or in Sudoku Companion

just makes life easier for me

dr_god is working on a clear option

hopefully Dr_God will make an export/import in one of the standard formats or implement undo and some of the other features from the better computer-assisted solvers

where can i find information on some of the standard formats?

Night Lola : )

http://shrinkster.com/d4b

boy, when they say evil...

ok, i'm officially stuck...

i have to learn new tricks... :-)

quote from wife "you're not even playing, you're just watching other people playing - that's just pitiful"

lol

:-)

sudoko is now officially a four-letter word in this house, and comes right after geocaching in the dictionary

websudoku - evil - 8,116,662,931 - 12 minutes, required no advanced techniques - wtf?

the first one i tried i had no prob, caderoux, but then some of the others...

Hursh, I have problems with the medium ones on that site : /

i have been doing tons this week anj...

okay, so I lied. I didn't go to bed : / You got mail Anj.

it would seem that within a site they should be consistently rated - I keep Simple Sudoko generating at Expert only and it always requires at least X-Wing, Swordfish or Colors.

i have no idea what those terms are - i have not read any strategy thingies, i just use my little noodle

my noodle has improved a lot this week but still clearly has some learning to do

just names for the patterns/techniques you're already using

Me too, just my brain and a little imagination...

Me too, just my brain and a little imagination...

*scuttles off to read mail*

hola!

No-one here but us chickens 8 )

hi wac : )

im not a chicken lol

replied babe : )

*scuttles off again*

how goes it

i am no chicken, i am a turkey

No! You're a pretty red hurshy bird! ; )

i can be a red turkey - a rhode island red - i grew up there and it's the state bird

am basing my turkey-ness on frustration with evil sudoku

that could be an interesting experience. ..

what time is it CT?

LOL! What time is it by you hursh?

ah, heh. The timer on the chat is CT...

are you sure?

one hour later than chat, 7:22

dammit i thought i solved it and 2 numbers conflict.... how do i do figure out which ones are wrong?

yes, chat log timer on US central time

it's only 5:22 here

ok, where's the sense in that?

are you in IN, wac?

it's Sunday here already : )

never been there

where are you, wac?

happy sunday, lola

yah, here too :)

good old utah

well, yet again, the difficult one was much easlier than those mediums - i think i've only been here about 10 minutes

well that's why then, you're on mountain time

true story

helen, try some evils on websudoku, some of them are truly reprehensible

babble took much longer - aoudad

where you at hurshy?

lol hurshy - k, will check it out

I'm not even going to bother at Babble this late.

helen, you either have preternaturally fast fingers or I ma suffering time dilation in an amazing compressed space : /

but carla, i just gave you a head start!!! wasted much time on that

anj, no, i don't have fast fingers at all, what do you mean?

how many words today>

aoudad

wac, i am in connecticut

143

I mean ?

lol helen

sweet hurshy

i'm going to use it in a sentence now: my foghorn says "aoudad" (helen uses deep stage voice)

10 mins is lightspeed compared to my dog0leg brain : /

lolololol

anj - once you get a few , the rest just fall in place (everything in this puzzle hinges on a single quadrant - at least it did for me)

that's a new word for me - gotta play with it ~~~~ AOUDAD

it makes me think of baobab

they're probably related, second cousins or something

solved!

Helen, me too, but I then spend ages pondering the next move. I make Boris Spassky look impetuous!! : /

i guessed the middle field.. the 3rd (out of 3) guess was the right one...

Anj, LOL! : D

lol anj

have a great evening (day) everyone, see ya later

AHA

i don't think these ones could ever be as hard as the evils on websudoku, bc of the red and green numbers. if it were really hard those would be immensely helpful.

'bye hellen : )

too many '4's, too many 8's' ... /me going carzy

What are the advantages of signing up? (instead of playing free)

Hurshy, I shall one day attempt one of those evil ones with just a cup of tea, pencil, paper and a baseball bat for company } )

anj...baseball bat? lola - i think you better protect anj from himself...

in fact take away his cup of tea too, that could also be dangerous

and a pencil... hm...

you better stick with online, it's safer

doing the evils is helpful, i am figuring out more tricky tricks

oh, harp, well, you get to make yourself a friends list, have your icon and all like on babble, you can use different tiles if you want instead of numbers...

okiedokey hurshy will do

but if we start having icon themes HERE in addition to on babble, i may not be able to handle the strain

maybe we should have a secret pact, no themes. or always use yesterday's theme? or tomorrow's?

gotta run. . be back later

no themes, just individual expression

themes are fun but so are not-themes

i can't believe the avg solution time for evils is 16 minutes

Hursh, are you saying i'm up for rubber wallpaper and the anorak that does up at the back??

*looks around, whistles*

neat sidestep : D

*bows*

did you see how many new babblers there were today?

i am amused by the ones that sign their names at the end of every post

What? -stubie

lol

What?! -stubie

ok, here is what i think. i think some people start an evil, print it out, hit pause, do it on paper, and then just put it in, so that it takes no time at all, and thus bring the average way low. (LOL stubie!)

I'd be happy to finish one, anyway. anyhow. I can't finish them on paper either.......ah well.

Same. I haven't finished a puzzle since I started here.

same here

oh, well, here are some ideas:

get the ones you can see easily first

then put red numbers everywhere

Why red vs. green?

and if you get stuck and have to guess

use green to mark a trail and see if it works

i have all the green and red numbers EVERYWHERE and still cant figure it out

why is hurshy using haiku?

am i?

not a bad idea, hurshy. I might try it. Not today. I'm already too enmeshed.

see don't use greens at first, wait until you want to mark a trail, raggedy.

interesting

and practice, practice, practice. i have improved vastly in just a week, doing tons of these on www.websudoku.com

of course, some people have... jobs and stuff... i'm on spring break, which helps

a job is just something to do in between sudoku puzzles ;)

Raggedy, i've found that overuse of the subscripts leads to mass confusion and a brain meltdown...

*pants and finishes*

yay ashling!

good job

woot!

WTG ashling!

this is the one that has been the hardest. of all the ones i've made :P

though i find them easier to do on paper

Hey Torgone.

Heya Anj dude!

mmmkay. done.

but had to try long trains before finding contradictions...

Hmmm

Yay totony!

now that i'm dead, of to bed I go. ho ho ho.. damn . 2 am already...

2am, wow that's far....only 3:25pm here

moxSapphyre it's not far, just late ;-)

Doing okay right now.

gotago, by all...

true, late...but I meant in terms of time zones...very far from me

my guess, totony is in Europe and moxSapphyre is in Alaska. Am I close?

pretty close. I'm actually in hawaii. I would guess totony is in euro also

HI was my second guess. So far my first guess has always been wrong today. Why change now?

lol

only 20 squares to go. I think that's my best so far

Is anyone willing to tell me the top 3 top things I should be doing to solve this thing?

I got some tips from wikipedia, believe it or not!

use red/green numbers to work out a possible solution

I had a hard time reading some of the tips on wikipedia...they look like they make sense but kinda complicated

I'll checkout wikipedia - thanks

Feeling accomplished at 37 to go.

Feeling accomplished at 37 to go.

*sigh*

ten to go.

well, now we know where the term "evil genius" comes from. if you can do evil sudoku puzzles, you're a genius

mox... took me a while, I finally had to walk away and come back. numbers were blurring and I was checking the same combinations over and over again

hurshy... do you do the sudoku on USAToday's site?

three to go......

two to go

one to go........

should I do it?

no, mzhokie, i have not tried that, i have been using websudoku.com where there are billions of puzzles

capture the screen first, harp, i keep forgetting to do that

that way you could help people if you want

HEEEEELP

I didn't care for websudoku .... not as easy to notations

usatoday just has one puzzle a day like here

DID IT DID IT DID IT DID IT DID IT DID IT.........
I got 5 points, is that good?

wtg harpjane

heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelp

10 for the next level of difficulty

is it possible to be stuck?

not sure I want to see the next level of difficulty

ive been staring for hours

it is possible to be stuck bc you're human, but not possible to be ACTUALLY stuck

hexx, I have been known to start from scratch when I get really stuck

i started this morning and i was on a roll

but ive came back to my PC 5 times trying to solve

got yesterday's puzzle like a piece of cake

I'm not sure we should give clues on these. It would be so easy to do it wrong!

well, but, harp, if you're done...

does it get harder everyday? :/

no hexx, the difficulty level varies

good

well, it was hard. I just finished it, but I used an offline program that I find a bit easier.

OK. here's a clue. The very middle number, in the middle square, is 2.

no lie?

Oh, and I upgraded!

I hope not

she's right

crap

Ya - I just finished too

I think Im done. a whole lotta red numbers...time to redo it in black

hey, proharp

well I'm sure I'll see some of you folk tomorrow... going to watch more basketball. Later and good luck to those still solving!

man...not much to do once you finish the puzz. 4 more hours till the next one

mox... have you tried Babble?

babble? is that the link at the top of the page?

yup... that can be addictive too

whoa...babble looks like fuunnnn 8D

WOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOO

ABOUT TIME!!!!!!!

:D

still cant get it

im giving up for the night

the hint someone threw helped me finish it, but I'm wondering what i'm missing that makes me stuck at a certain point--any tips/strategies for what to look for?

I dunno - I notice that I'll get off track somehow, somewhere, and then the whole damned puzzle is screwed up.

Right now. I'm screwed up.

5 pts? I thought a hard puzzle was 10?

st. nick: a lot of times I do better if I clear everything & start from scratch.

Is there an easy way to clear the whole thing at once?

expert is 10

Yeah, was stuck without the hint, and solved it with the hint. I figure there *has* to be a way to do it with pure logic (without guessing) and couldn't do this one.

I think he said the Clear All was coming soon.

I'd like to be able to backtrack incrementally.

yeah.. i think we need an 'undo' button

I got the expert one the other day easier than today's & the last few mediums.

It's funny - empty rows are easier than near full ones. More potentials I guess.

St. - Just save every once in a while (instead of after every number like I do) & you can go back.

i tend to fill up all the empties with all the possibilites, and end up confusing myself just because there are so many potentials

I hate/love the "DUH!" moments when you see an easy one.

finally done!

good luck to everyone else trying ;)

yay! finished.

why hello!

for those of you who have recently finished. . . is this one actually hard?

ok have just joined and want to check the icon which is meant to be my dog

whoo hoo im a computor genius!!

yep, pretty sure that's a dog ;)

lol ok time to change my babble icon to the same thing (chocolate theme todayand she is always stealing any she can find)

you have to have pro to have a picture don't you?

well i've managed to complete this 'hard' one but not the last 'medium' level....

but i'm new to sudoku anyway.. this is only my 3rd time playing, ever

You da man Jonathan

i'm feeling slightly stuck

Everything but the last two squares. I hate/love this game.

Where. Where. Where. Did I go wrong?

you'll get it man

it's not too hard

Simple

finished

phew... finally finished

Nailed that puppy!

crap

damn. once again, looks like i have to guess.

:/

ready

wohoo

Bleh.

had to guess, but made it at that last minute

Thuryn Congrats Down to the wire