i'm not in the mood for an expert, waa

stuck already...started well

Holy wow that was annoying. Multiple of instances of guessing on this one x_X

Good, another expert.

how ya doing sprite? havent seen you on here in a while

I have been here, but it is kinda tough to run into eachother here, lol. We spend too little time. I am doing fairly well. And you?

haha, true, good, except my school just lost in American football 2night

wasnt fun, we had the lead and it slipped right out from under us

Argh, that's bad. Being so close and then loosing :(

I think I just hit a brick wall.

im talking to too many people on IMs to get to this

This one sure needs concentration.

But it is solvable. Have fun :)

i will, gnight/morn

wow difficult indeed

is there any point in starting? or should i just give up now?

there is always ppoint in starting -- but you will need all the greens

ok i'll give it a go!

goof luck with it linda

:-) good

thanks

anyone has the script to insert all greens ?

i wish

ok, so greens everywhere, so i suppose it's down to guessing...

Here is the "Green Script"

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);

Instruct
ions for use: copy the block of text above, paste into the URL window of your web browser and hit return. Voila! Green-number autofill!

never used it myself though, this is from Krys10

done! only had to make one guess so not as bad as i thought

thanks MrOoijer, i added this to my profile description

i am unable to solve diagrams with all that greens - useless

WOW another expert so soon cool!

hi all

hi all

phew not too bad then

Whoo!

2 easy for expert

It feels more like a high tier hard puzzle. I thought I found the defining characteristics for an expert puzzle. Perhaps I need to broaden the list.

Well I think that was pretty difficult, there were at least three x-chains or y-chains or xy-chains (I get a bit confused by the terminology) that had to be spotted, so as to do it without guessing.

I am not an expert so this puzzle is very difficult I think. I am a beginner

Do u want me same clues for solving this puzzle, or not?

I solve:))))

Most of the Expert level puzzles here are not completely hintable by Simple Sudoku, but are analyzable by Sudo Cue. This one was fully solvable by Simple Sudoku, but had a large combination of colors, multiple colors, XY-wing, X-Wing etc in combination. Probably deserves the Expert rating. It is actually unusual to find one here which requires X-Wing. Something about the generator used here doesn't make many of those.

aw cad, you're so eloquent

that's what i love about you

thx

yw

good morning :)

morning mabbity mabber

well would you look at that -- i actually got to use an x-wing. that's the first time ever that i've explicitly used that strategy

and good morning!

i still haven't the faintest idea what x-wing is

I just ran this puzzle through sudoku susser for comparison - it used three XY-Wing, an X-wing, an XYZ-wing, and a forcing chain, along with the usual basic techniques of naked and hidden pairs, intersections, etc. This is also consistent with other expert puzzles we've had. Forcing chains are usually what separates the "hard" from the "expert" puzzles

do you know how hidden pairs work?

note to self: look up x-wing

i probably do, skizzy, but don't know the names of things

skizzy - a hidden pair is when a pair of numbers is only possible in two squares (although other possibilities are currently there too). Since those two numbers can only be in those two squares, the other possibilities can be eliminated

have you read the guides and just have a hard time understanding them? cuz i find them confusing most of the time, too

HE knows krys, he's finding out if i know

ah, sorry, butting in

haha, thanks krys10, but i know what they are. i was just going to try to use them as a basis for explaining x-wings

go for it! I'm still figuring out x-wings too.

well skizzy, i find that mostly since the guides ARE confusing, and since i can generally just use my noodle (and the annoying occasional forcing chain), i haven't really tried that hard to learn those things

hmmm, i guess conceptually hidden pairs and x-wings aren't the same, but they fall into the same bucket in my head

you have buckets in your head? woweeeee

the idea is that if you have 2 rows, for example, with 1s in the same 2 places...

go on

if the 1 in the top left was correct, then the 1s in the bottom left and top right couldn't, so the 1 in the bottom right would also be correct

natch

conversely, if it was the top right, then it forces the answers for the other 3 in a similar way

there seem to be so many subtleties that are learned just by experience....

so no matter what, those 1s in those two rows are the only possibilities within those two *columns*, so you can eliminate all other 1s from those two columns

that makes sense

i don't think i have a set up like that right now, maybe i need to eliminate a few more greens

i sometimes use something that's sort of the opposite of that. if i have pairs that line up, then i know that they can't be (say) 3, 4, 4, 3, because then the sudoku would not have a unique solution

i had to do what amounted to random guessing, but probably could've been solved more methodically with one of them xyz-lambda-double-backflip-twist moves

one of them has to go somewhere else

only after that did i get to the point where i had an x-wing

lol is this sudoku or gymnastics

whoops, made a mistake, hafta start over

yeah, exactly. i made that term up, in case it wasn't obvious, because i find the advanced strategy names pretty incomprehensible

methinks based on what i'm hearing and time constraints, i will now employ a silly forcing chain

I give skizzy a 10 for that move, although he might have tacked on a double sowcow.

silly forcing! i think that should be the name for an advanced strategy

i believe it's spelt salchow

I've not needed to use the term until just now; hardly seemed worth looking up...

i haven't looked it up but i think i've seen it written out on the tv screen whilst watching figure skating, and i have a semi-photographic memory

no tv

i know

dictionary agrees

(with hurshy)

dictionaries usually do agree with me, and then my husband says, well, they are only descriptive, not prescriptive

so very true

interestingly, many children have eidetic memory but lose it as they mature. I

he's even more linguistically snobbish than me

looking up eidetic...

i've witnessed it

relating to or denoting mental images having unusual vividness and detail, as if actually visible.

i mean, that would make sense, because it's hard to live life that way

that makes perfect sense

as an infant all you can do is take in all sensory data and you have no way to differentiate what is important and what isn't

but then, yes, it's not usually very adaptive to maintain that - it's generally better to know what is important!

what was expert about this game ? One 50:50 guess on one square and it all fell into place.

this forcing chain did not get me anywhere, i must try another

that'd be it, anne dear

i think the "expert" part is that it's supposed to be solvable without 50/50 guesses

works for me ! lol

i've vestiges of eidetic memory myself. expect most people do.

well, eidetic memory is just one way of describing PTSD, yes?

ooh, interesting point

that's why i said before that people couldn't really live life that way -- even if they weren't reliving traumatic experiences, it's just too confusing

PTSD is about involuntary imagery

yes, i was concurring with your skizzypoint

krys10, maybe the dictionary definition of eidetic wasn't very descriptive, but it seemed to be implying the same sort of thing

it does, really, that's a great insight, skizzy

hmm, i'm not so sure: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eidetic_memory

eidetic is more of a voluntary thing, "photographic memory"

still i bet the connection you saw could be useful

but i think my observation holds for small children, and it's why you can't really say that they have photographic memory in the same way that some adults do

I'd rather have eidetic memory than PTSD

play a few games of concentration with a 5-year-old -- quite illustrative of the concept.

my semi-photographic memory seems to be involuntary, i wonder if it is somehow related to my anxiety and depression ;)

just one thing makes me forget...

red, red wine... stay close to me... don't let me be alone...

do the three corners of an XY-wing have to be at a right angle? or do they just have to be buddies in pairs?

(i think i found one)

hurshy?

ah yes, mab did not listen to music in the 90's

it's a song mab, was listening to it, and used it for humorous effect

in reality, have never had any alcohol other than dipping wafer in communion wine

aha

an impossibility at last

ah. i was pretty classical in the 90s, not yet jazz-infuenced. You know beethoven, albinoni, sinatra....

well this is... reggae rock? UB40

oh hurshy, wine can be so lovely - so many different tastes.

at the risk of sounding like spock - which i wouldn't mind - fascinating, perhaps, but highly unnecessary

and done. forcing chains may be unsatisfying, but they sure do work.

the mind must have scope for the imagination, to paraphrase Anne of Green Gables, which requires many strictly unnecessary behaviors.

well mab, you've seen how zany i can be WITHOUT imbibing, so i don't know that i want to get any zanier. my imagination is quite fertile as it is.

good point, however, one needn't drink to the point of inebriation, my shabbat kiddush experience notwithstanding.

oh, but that reminds me, isn't jewish wine supposed to be awful?

that's what frasier and niles said...

not any more. it used to be very sweet, but now one finds very good kosher wines.

ah. well... i need to get back to babble now

byeeeeeee. well done on sudoku.

Aww, I missed hurshy

hello

hello

'ello

this doesn't feel like an expert so far...

good :)

it stopped being easy

:)

yup, same here

hello david mitchell, i have to go eat lunch but as you were sad to miss me thought i would say hello :)

finally

good for you, chebuctorian

it only took 5 "guesses" or scenarios on Paint (hah, low-tech crappy tool, but I hate paper)

chebuc - i like to mark my "guesses" aka forcing chains using the red on here

it works nicely

it's stupid really, I took some guesses that didn't eliminate any other possibilities... it would have been waaaay smarter to start with one of the corners (with fewer possibilities)

why do you hate paper? too many paper cuts?

hurshy-- hmm, that sounds really smart actually

anyone who's still going, i started a forcing chain in r8c8, and it led me to an impossibility, and then i was able to finish.

yul: a techie attitude + too much work to set up the grid... hurshy's solution sounds better

hahaha, hurshy - that's exactly the one that let me finish

you don't have a printer?

i don't have a printer at the moment - mine's broken and they took the dorm one away for the summer :(

that's bad :(

I don't have a printer either... they're not really transportable things

i mean i can send things to other printers on campus but then i have to go get them.

i can't use red on my mac so i print out puzzles (some times)

macs are so anti-communist

:)

my is too new

my is moo stew

is it? i like moo stew

when my sister says "moo stew" to her dog, it makes the dog lick her (my sister's) lips incessantly. it is gross.

lol

but, sadly, i must away now. over the river and through the woods....

good bye

(to grandmother's house i go)

i wish i had a grandma

i think hurshy is yoda

hey there

hi

anyone can help me with proper english here? i'm not sure about some phrases and the overall tone of my english in my cover letter.

here's the suspect sentence: "I would appreciate the opportunity to discuss this post with you at a date that suits you best."

you joking, bzikovski, i can't spell all together :) as long as you mean well, it's fine :)

i'm not joking.. i already asked for help here :) .. i think it should be "on a date", shoulnt it ?

ok, but i can help very little with proper english :)

aight.. where you from ?

i live in london but i am russian

i live in london but i am russian

i live in london but i am russian

sorry, return is too sensitive

'return' is my computer's button

yes, he/she talk about a date ...

...talks about what kind of date?

...talks about what kind of date?

oh return return... i better stop chatting all together... good bye everybody

talk about a date to discuss the post :))

bye yul

i see... thanks, abstract17fr

whine whine this is so hard... I was cruising for while there, then abrupt halt

me no expert... me go back to babble... get some clues... finish up there...

aw, man, last time I was working on an expert, a storm knocked the electricity out right near the end...dare i start?

finally! i had to have a dinner with a beer to finish this one

Sheesh. Last night? No idea how to do the puzzle. Today? 10 minutes (with greenies). Weird.

go

done

i've been trying to do this during big brother commercials, among other things & am wondering what's taking me so long - i saw the large E & assumed it was easy - & it's not, it's expert, now i have to actually think :/

you'll get it, helen

done

ty eye :)

brava

still, all in all - this one was much easier than the most recent 'hard' - i couldn't do that one-first time ever! tx eye

off to babble

have fun - seeya around

Hello Rosanna here, first time. Love these. I think i'm addicted

Ha

Nailed that puppy

Hi

Rank me, baby

1

No green or red

Cue theme music.

Hey, Stephanie

How's Arkansas?

Great! The weather has finally cooled off some and the humidity is down.

Limer ... oh limer.

You only took two minutes to reply, Stephanie, but Limer's gone.

Oh well. I am having a tough time with this grid!

Finally!!

so, I'm new to ironsudoku. what're people talking about when they say red and green?

ibroadrunr - try holding down the shift or alt keys when selecting a square

ah. that's lovely. thanks

yay, done.