Thank you, drwho!

go

You're welcome Denise....for what?

Your knowledge!

Did I help you solve yesterday's expert?

No, but any serious sudoku player knows that it takes a guess on yesterdays expert puzzle to solve the puzzle. It is not and cannot be solved entirely by logic and I appreciated your explanation.

See Andrew Stuart's solver at:
http://www.sudokuwiki.org/sudoku.htm
I haven't run yesterday's puzzle through it, but I'm pretty sure he has a technique that would have cracked yesterday's open. If he doesn't, then his solver will not be able to solve it. My solver can always solve them because I let it guess.

Done

Difficulty score 31. No green.

If I have to guess, sometimes I put the puzzle into a sudoku solver so I can see the steps to solving the puzzle. I really don't like to guess but expert puzzles seem to require a guess. I rarely use the solver because most experts can be figured out with one guess. Once in awhile I will be curious enouigh to want to see the logical steps to solving a puzzle but usually that is when there is more than one guess required.

http://www.sudokusolver.co.uk/

I do not exaggerate and I never guess. Unfortunately I couldn't go back and recreate the solve since I'm not a premium account holder. Yes I used other than pointing pairs too, but nothing extraordinary. There are on occasion multiple ways of attacking and it may be I found a unique road in. Usually you guys are way ahead of me. I think I'll enjoy my insignificant victory that much more now. When you get to be 66 yrs old if you survive that long you'll find sometimes it is the little things. The most disturbing thing about old age is how quickly people dismiss our input. I'm unique in the respect that I'm a writer, one who has learned to endure criticism, take the constructive and shed the rest without taking offense. Trust me, it's a learned skill.

Jack, if you haven't visited Andrew Stuart's site (URL 6 entries below) you might find it interesting. He started out to catalogue all the techniques and hasn't got a complete set yet!

I learned most of my sudoku skills on his site Dr. As a matter of fact I turned Gretchen onto it a few weeks ago, but thanks very much. I appreciate your input and hers too and always try to go back and read your posts.

Here's another good one: http://www.extremesudoku.info/sudoku.html

Thanks Jack. Back before I paid up, I was able to view the archives, but just not able to play them. I'm not sure if it still works that way, but it might.

Thanks for the tip.

Jack, were you a technical writer?

I was a lot of things but no, not a TW. I became a writer late in life. I ran a wholesale electrical distributorship and consulted on public construction projects,

Then you were a freelance writer?

I'm working on a historical novel about the petrochemical industry. Went back to college to study creative writing and journalism. Have a degree in business and an electronics background. It's complicated, LOL. Just have fun whatever you do brother. That's what's important.

Good luck with it. I'm off to the land of nod. Good night.

Peace out, J.

go

done with grens

Done with a red.

done with aplomb

Morning. Go.

Done. No Greens. EZPZ

left incomplete; off to comfort-eat chocolate biscuits and contemplate meaning of life. TTFN!

done

go

done

done, ng

start

pause

resume

done, no greens

Doing a puzzle from July 23

2009

Been out of the loop for about a year...

welcome back

and commence

Thanks, Sandbox74

terminate.. no greens..

I filled it up today in fits and starts..

d with g no guesses. Slow but steady.

finished ... no guesses ... nice puzzle

Thanks, Jackt. The funny thing is that when I go to the websites for explanations on certain techniques, they make perfect sense in the example they show, but when I get back to the puzzle I'm stuck on, it's never quite as clear. And you're right - some puzzles just click for some people. There was a hard not long ago that everyone complained about and I breezed through it but then there was one everyone said was super easy that I struggled with. I guess that's why they're called puzzles.

Done - no greens

begin

WOW Limer is back?? Welcome back!!!!!!!

Thanks Mamabear!

Like the TV show Rubicon, it's about simple pattern recognition, but it's also about solving in the most logical sequence of easily recognizable patterns. Repetition improves our automated responses to situations but it can also be a handicap to thinking outside the box. One mental roadblock I had struggled with was all about me: getting satisfaction from eliminating greens, written or memorized, as opposed to coming up with pure answers. Once I crossed over that hump, spotting hidden triples and quads and impossible chains became my goal more than the solve. It was all about finding the crack. The solve itself is anticlimactic. I'm content knowing I'll never be as good as kaosangel or as fast as the Dr, but I can def say I'm better than fifty percent of the twenty and thirty yr olds. Pretty shallow, huh? LOL!

Thought I was beginning but that wasn't so.

So beginning now. I think.

done ng

Go

Done with greens