greetz

hi

hello

Another medium, nice, lol. Morning all :)

darnit. i was so close to finishing yesterday's puzzle ...

g'mornin :)

hell all

*hello

sorry, i am a bit tired

this game is my crack

Lol, nice typo ;)

mine too

i agree

(typo)

did anybody get one yet?

yup

Several.

3 :/

4 ;)

i'll stop counting...

5

lol w00t

lmao

but i think I'll go to bed

g'night all... finish in the morning

wooters...woot off going on

sweet

good call on the woot

to bad they don't have more Sudoku's so I can play all night while i watch woot...

there are whole magazines full of them

but

I'd have to leave my computer

:O

lol

you can't do that

it's scare offline!

but these seem to be the best ones with chat

two browser windows

true

yeah, it's a nice interface too

usa today's interface is pretty cool too...but there hard ones take like 5 min...

And it's got all the cool ppl.

duh

naturally

:D

You mean I'm cool?!

1st woot gone

I've been waiting for this day my whole life!

what's with the w00ts?

firefox with reload every rocks for woot offs

hi all!

I forgot it was after ten and there was a new puzzle posted...

hello

10? where are you... CA?

yes! i got the 'o' in there

lol, good job andy!

yeah, SF

haha, ty

whoo, another sudoku player in SF!

Yeahhh Bay area

nothing better to do until the rain stops, stay inside and do puzzles

I will have you both know that I spent the day getting out of jury duty until August. My first time in SF in ten years.

yeah, i've been thinking about moving to portland. not as much rain.

you can take a boat there

at this rate

Yup yup, record rainy March turning into record rainy April

...turned into a lot of bitchy san franciscans

yeah, everyone's talking about how grumpy everyone is about the rain. i'm just about ready for some sun and some motorcycling weather1

!

i'm cycling every day, rain or no. i just keep telling myself thaht if i managed to ride year round in pittsburgh, i can do this

SF has made me soft

carefuly. have had two friends dump their bikes in the last few weeks - the 101 and GG Bridge

that is funny - it is record dry here

rubber side down, shiny side up

where are you, shortstop?

oklahoma

you are welcome to some of ours - I can't imagine anyone would object

hell, i'll even bring it there if you like

when will they put up a new item?

doneski

back to woot

robot vacuum

otter: what's the w00t?

Woo, otters!

robot vaccum.. coppershep beat me too i t@

this puzzle isn't exactly easy

but also not hard. hence the "medium" rating ;)

time for bed here in MPLS

I just figured I wasn't concentrating.. and the cat keeps playing with the touchscreen

I don't know - I got further a lot faster yesterday

i am shamed to admit i guessed on yesterday's puzzle

I did too but I had 80% of it before I had to guess

I managed to convince myself that guessing is really a form of proof by contradiction

sure, so did i -- didn't make it any less shameful for me

I think there is some of them that you just have to guess on

isn't that what a forcing chain is anyway?

I'm not really that up on the terminology :)

no, nishio.. something with a fancy name

no, i think the point of sudoku is there's always a way to eliminate possibilities -- the puzzles are designed that way

but I like it!

without looking ahead, that is

w00t! all done :)

done

Just got here.... morning all

hi debs1

Sorry evening, afternoon.. wotever... hiay :)

Hiya Krys...Ho'ws you?

hey debs

Done

pretty good. stressful day but good ending

Hiya Amdy

you?

Andy even

Nice relaxing one

haha

OK so far but then my days just starting...lol

ack! only thing stopping me today was an inability to see the obvious - done at last!

woot - blue tooth handset

hoohah! all done

typo...headset

later everyone!

krys, enjoy the rain

'night. keep dry. shiny side up!

Maybe i shouldn't be playing sudoku while doing my taxes?

haha, definitely not

especially not this late in the game

lol

but i'm eFiling.. that's prolly instant

lets hope

unless it's like "ok, now print this and mail it in"

lol yeh

i made no income

so it's kinda annoying

Done Easy today

yay done! g'night everyone.

Is pocketmole a Bot or just very fast. Always top of the list even when we start at 12

top of wot list?

The Rankings

http://www.ironsudoku.com/rankings

i was just wondering when the lists were updated. pocketmole has the highest cumulative points - must've found the site right when it first opened

Maybe he/shes just quick and doesn't like to speak

WHo understands rankings anyway... they're a load of tosh

maybe they just swing by & type the puzzle into a program

That s was what I meant by a bot

it seems like there are a lot of us who play every day...

Wat kinda saddo would want to go to the trouble of doing that over a toopid game!

without using bots or cheats to solve

hopeless addicts are we.

Done and done

i guess the sites where people race for speed might be better for competitive types...

wtg Bari

MotiveForce I wrote you a note last two days but you had gone. Have you thought about using Amazon Webservices for your wiki. To make sure the name of song and artist is correct?

hmm

oh my! babble's meaty today...

At the end of the day it's a game.. as long as you have fun, doesn't matter whoelse is doing what or whose where on rankings..

i have used amzn webservices before (they're cool)... i'm not sure i know what you mean tho...

like to run as a bot and go through all the songs?

Use the webservices for a prelim search Then feed the result to your own search

It is easy to do Look at our site swophit.com and do a search

hmm, that's a cool idea

i think the only drawback would be if they are looking for music that is fairly underground (not on Amazon)

ur site's pretty cool... i don't speak french, but i think i get the idea of it :)

If there were no match at Amazon you would not be worse off than you are now

but if there was... what would i do?

just show them a link to the album you mean?

You could even make income from Amazon if people bought stuff via link

yeh that'd be sweet

every album page has a link to amazon

but it's just a link that searches for now

i'm gonna make a template so ppl can type like {{ASIN|01232012}} and get an exact link

Two things. Your UI is not obvious. If you made the front a more intuitive with picture of album etc then present the lyrics at the same time.

You don't need asins titles work very well

If you want some of our code you are welcome

sweet... if the titles work then all the links should be good right now

thanks for the offer :)

Sure Let me know

finally, after 2 screw ups and restarts, I am DONE!

I am having real trouble with this one for some reason

hmm... think it's safe to use webservices to try to grab pictures (of the albums) based on titles, or would that have a lot of false-positives?

ya, it screws w/ ya, i got yesterday's expert in 20 min, but this one took me an hour cuz of screwing up in different places

mot: i think that would have all too many false positives

I have this program called Clutter that looks up albums on amazon based on the MP3 tags

Play with our site to decide yourselves

it does ok - usually has 1 or 2 choices

nvm then, i just got shut down

swweet

i'm hoping someone makes a plugin that will use the MP3 tags to get lyrics from the site

If you want an account I can send you an invite Need email

i have done some pretty extensive stuff with Web Services before... the matches for books and DVDs were decent, but far from perfect

sean@lyricwiki.org

thanks :)

is there an English version of your site/

Yes Testing.swophit.com but a less up to date. You can get the idea there and return to French I will email you invite now

coolness

thx

i'm not sure i understand which part of the UI you were saying wasn't intuitive... the main page?

Yes the main page. Maybe have an entry page to the Wiki with a short explanation and the search facility

good idea... i'll work on that a bit tonight

Most people are not too familiar with Wikis just yet

really?

i'm outta touch lol

i go to a super=nerdy school

hey is Krys still here?

idk, mot: as nerdy as me and moe

We debated using Wiki for a FAQ and decided against it for the reason I mentioned. There is too much stuff for a novice

moe = stuck doing a CS project for probably the next 24 hrs, w/out a break

lol pwned.

any school ending in "Tech" is prolly similar

true

bstadil... you canadian?

No Danish

oh... is that language on the site Danish (or do you guys speak French?)

My son is French Mother is French rather he is US citizen

aight, im out, gnight and gl to all that havent finished yet

oh cool

nite andy

I finished finally

but I had to guess early - I don't know what I was missing

Had to stop and pay some attention to my kids. Back now... is it bad?

the top is easy :)

this one has far too many numbers on it though... there are like 81 of them!

LOL!

:D

Is but the good thing is they seem to reuse someof the numbers!

Reuse some of them... good tip :)

I am SO stuck. :(

me too!

Did not even finish the top, like MotiveForce just said. I am left with only squares with at least 2 possibilities.

i just started so havent marked in the possibilities et

Don't even have to mark them to see I do not know enough ;)

lol

I think all the initial marking is a mistake. It should be a last resort not something one does initially. It is way boring as well

some how i found yesterdays easier than this

me too

I agree, hardly use the greens and reds. But I must admit, right now I don't use much of the black either.

hahaha nice

It's not ;P

I think that ones Solution style does not always correspond with the "officail" difficulty rating. My selfmade style seems better at Hard and I often have more problems with the "easier" ones

Same here. I could solve yesterday's fairly easily. I am getting nowhere with this one.

w00t done, later all

sprite, I had a hard time with this one too - I ended up guessing at one really early and it paid off for me

I just got going. Overlooked one certain one the whole time. Now that I have it, I can fill in top and bottom boxes and am only left with the middle part.

Without guessing :)

I know I was overlooking something - I must have - but darned if I know what it was

With me it was the 5 in the bottom right box.

finished!

gj!

I don't recall that being one of the first ones I filled in...

off to babble now bye!

Top 3 rows have some easy to fill in squares. Once you have those, the 5 in the bottom right box becomes clear. After that, all seems easy. Almost done now.

Done!

"It's a great thing to realize you still have the ability to surprise yourself. Makes you wonder what else you can do that you've forgotten about..."

good morning!

i've put one number in and i'm stuck

Hey, i'm new to this. How's the puzzle today??

horrible!

It's that bad?

it is for me!

it's ok. not too easy but also not very hard

Alright, i'm gonna give it a try!

i've just finished, but i had to have one guess along the way

i can go and do my jobs now!

see you tomorrow

Ok, wish me luck!

you need lots of luck for this one!

Thanks, i've got about 6 filled in so far.

Ok, i'm stuck. Anybody have any hints for the newcomer??

you do not need guessing, try fill in the top three rows

Alright, thanks!

good luck with it!

Ok, i have to go take a break for supper cause it's 6:00 here in Japan but i''ll be back!

wow - didn't have to guess once - about time, I've been relying on those checkpoints for the last few puzzles.

done! without guess. (i rarely need guesses anyway)

How can you possibly do this without guessing??

hi everyone!

So how come this is harder than yesterday's really evil puzzle?

Seemed pretty straightforward - no guesses, no saves

Shame people have to guess at all. You should have your ranking points halved each time you use restart or a checkpoint.

Done it at last! And no guesses, but only because after my guesses went wrong I spotted the 'right way' so I suppose that does count as guesses...

I agree Adolf

Hmm no, because I also use checkpoints to guard against mistakes of the mouse (or forgetting the shift key)

YAY done!

not bad for a Medium.. takes a bit of plodding but very doable :)

OVER AND OUT OF HERE1

I also use checkpoints to guard against mouse mistakes, i am forever forgetting the shift key and lose all my greenies

which is easily rectified I suppose but it is annoying

wohoo! done. nice and easy....

compared to yesterday anyway.

hi all

hi & good luck all

hi all

It was nice to have an easy one, the others recently were a bit tough

have a great night all, I hope you have fun

2 difficult!!!!

woo

and no restarts needed :D

just tricky enough to be fun

later al

all*

heya ll wuts up is this a hard one today?

+2 points :)

I like what moe492 said earlier. It's just tricky enough to still be fun

hi haxored

Hey People

goofie lil puzzle

This is hard.

no guess work

no tricks

not hard

just intuitive

if not here than there

real simple

Yes Hard. I can't think today.

:)

I have had trouble with easy

and solve an expert in 2 min

:)

Wow.

just matter of time and day

relax

no worries

walk away for 5

come back andfinish it

We had to do a Sudoku puzzle in class last period..

I just copied off of my friend.

no cheating!!!!

it's easy

I'm in school right now.

it's just about posssiblities

a box may have 9 or fewer choices

:)

how hard is that

I know.

I stink at Sudoku puzzles though.

Wow, that's was easy...finished in 12 minutes!

I just restarted.

fill the parts in GREEN :)

than start troubleshooting green

start with left three large squares

up and down

... E Z

yea pretty easy, the mediums are always hit and miss. Some are easy, some are hard...

have all my possiblies entered. why isn't anything popping out at me?

hmm

ah - think i'm almost done

got it!

I'm more baffled by this one than I was on yesterday's.

oooooo... I think I found somethin

DONE!!!!!! WHOO HOO!!!!

hi everyone

uurgg...

my board is coverd in little green numbers

HOLY COW, 33 greens

hi

back for another try. this one doesnt look so bad.

I am stuck and about to guess, I thnk

hi all. how's the puzzle today?

puzzling

haha

hi blueskies!

hey scribble! how's it going?

fine. but im stuck at the moment.

i'm sure it won't take me long to get stuck either! :)

im having a little luck with the 4s and 9s. hows your colic baby? (taht was you, right?)

*that

hey dinoshadow. how's the baby today?

nope dinoshadow

oh sorry. :)

np

i'm liking the 4's and 9's too...... so far.....

yeah, i think that part is the easiest, i just hope it stays that way.

how do u guys start off

4s and 9s

u do wht with 4's and nines

have you read "how to play"?

i get the concept.. but not by grouping numbers

umm what do you mean grouping numbers? im saying try to find where the 4s and 9s go first cause they are the easiest to find.

unless someone talks me out of it, im about to guess.

ooh nevermind i had a stroke of luck w/ the 6s!!

hey scribble have you got your 7s?

Don't guess!!! Keep looking at the long lines and then the boxes.......Guessing will only get you back to return to checkpoint

no i dont have my 7s yet why?

i agree...except for yesterday when it was guess or throw the monitor lol!!

ok i wont guess,cookie. btw, cool screen name!!

7's got me on a roll here...

thx ill try the 7s.

i like the name scribble, too

aww thx.

thanks for the 7's hint, blueskies!

blueskies...how did you find the 7s??

np..is it working?

cripes..um i think i started bottom right?

well, it is helping to narrow down the choices

ok i still dont see it.

i wish there was a way to save more than one checkpoint....i can't remember wher i got the first seven but after that it fell into place.......

well thx anyways. ill keep looking.

I save different checkpoints along the solving process

ok........All done! Good luck to you. Is anyone in northern California? I hear that it is still raining up there

scribble you're a regular!

i know. im addicted. and i like talkin to you guys. why is it bad?

This one wasn't so bad. I didn't have to use any little green numbers.

scribble be stuck.

hi all

hi!

cookie - sunyn today in SF

Yep it's beautiful

Nice and warm down the Peninsula too

Evening all : )

hola!

hi anj

Hi scribble, Hursh : ) How's this one shaping up??

oh THIS is fine

Hi all : )

but i'm babbling

im havin a hard time...

are the t's hard or am i blind to them? i have 18 to go and 6 of them are T's

Hi Lo : ) Hursh, the Ts tend to tangle up in each other : /

did you finish babble Anj?

it doesn't help that i've only got one 4 letter word left to find... and 5 8's...

sounds like babble is hard today.

it's really fun, scribble...until the last 26...when you're not using the list...

Lo, yes, the Us were my last letter. It wasn't a 'hard' grid. Just some of the words weren't obvious...

oh! So I was hanging around for nothing??

scribble, this grid looks harder than yesterday's... : /

ugh. how many words?

268

ooh thats alot. i dont think im up to it today. but ill check it out. did you all finish yesterdays sudoku?

yup

yup

i tried 3 times but it foiled me. but today im back with a vengeance. i can stay up later too b/c no school tomorrow.

thanks babe : /

That 'yup' was for yesterday's sodoku grid Lo : ) I thought you were on a clue-frenzy roll tho' : D

?

oh nevermind

LOL scribble...several conversation threads running at once here : )

so i see.... how confusing.

ok this might be bad, but im just plugging in random numbers.

yesterday's was a treat!

Hi Art : ) It wasn't bad, was it...

hi artlady! i thought it was quite hard.

Ah, guess I got lucky then. Just started this one.

ugh i messed up. *return to checkpoint*

are you guys having any luck with any numbers?

I'm eliminating pairs in the same line at the moment

maybe i should plug in some green and red #s...

having browser problems...verrrryy slow right now

i had that problem yesterday. :(

OK, it's not as bad as it first looked : )

really? it was kind of the opposite for me.

scribble, are you using the subscripts?

what are subscripts?

OK. I'm healed up from my last experience. Will try another one...Wish me luck.

is that like the red and green numbers?

Hi Harp : )

Scribble, yes. I just use the green ones and put in what can go in each square

done!

My bad again. NOW try. ;)

hurshy-

Yes

Lola, are you still there??

ok i thought so.

so i still dont really get how the rankings work

Hi harp, good luck

Then I look for patterns within boxes and lines. For instance, if two squares in a box can only have two numbers, and those squares are in a line either vertically or horizontally, then you can eliminate those numbers from other squares on the same line and reduce your options. Make sense?

can anyone tell me how the cream of the crop thing works?

...maybe that should have said 'elsewhere on the same line' : /

Spargy, i've heard that it's weighted towards completing the harder grids. Other than that, no idea.

i wish they would explain it better

anj...is that the x-wing strategy?

and sparqy has a Q :)

lol

seeya everyone

bye sparqy with a Q!!!

Scribble, no idea. I just go with what works for my mindset

lol

bye Spargy

sorry...i have a very limited mindset.

this one's cleaning up nicely...

LOL

Hi artlady & Anj :)

Hi macuser : )

hi mac (I have to manually refresh on this computer. what a drag!)

hi macuser and bongo!

what a bother, artlady!

hiya scribble! how's it going?

perfectly normal. im stuck. (as usual)

lol, keep at it - it'll get better the more you do it

done!

YAY BUCKWHEAT!!!*^*^*^**^*^FIREWORKS^*^*^*^*^*^*^
*

that wasn't bad.

Congrats, buckwheat!

well, I'm off to check out the Babble puzzle. Good luck!

congrats and bye artlady :)

Sup Buckweet

macuser - if you're done w/ babble you can come play the guess what hurshy is missing game :)

sure, just a sec

wow its about to rain....i hear thunder....

hark do you? hark do you? ...I have a toddler : /

i dont understand...

sorry, my 'odd' sense of humour. It's a song my 4 year old sings...'I hear thunder, I hear thunder, Hark, don't you?...' Of course it's MUCH cuter when she does it, lol : D

oh....does it scare her?

we live in such a flat place that storms blow over too quickly to get thunder...so I'm not sure.

...wait 'til you get to Bristol : /

did you see that babs needs your help?

ahhh, thats got to be nice. a storm here sticks around for a while and then usually doubles back.

Yup, i've answered. It's just a .far file issue. I get the same problem

...whoops, meant .jar file

scribbler, we used to get amazing storms where I lived in South Africa and I miss them like crazy now : (

whoa lots of lightning...ive got to turn the computer off.
Bye guys... cool...south africa rocks...

she's just asked you about deleting something anj

bye scribble

bye scribble

hello!

It's the Jar file. It's buried deep in the docs & settings folder

hi wac : )

hi

how goes it?!

=3

: > )

that good huh :)

I got it!!!!!

that was hard

today should be declared a holiday

im finally on the ranking!!!! [no, honestly... sorry guys, i'm not that conceited

I'm confused???

will someone tell me what the middle square is

mac, here, i forgot to give you your brownies!

lol, thanks hurshy! I love brownies :)

my husband made them from scratch :)

yummy! he's a keeper!

woo hoo! done with no guessing! getting better!

The only way my husband cooks is having the microwave beep

Hiya everyone

oh that's so wierd. I guessed at about the first 5, and solved it.

Nailed That Puppy!

Rank Me, Baby!

tasha hi!!!!!!!

nevermind you are gone....*tear*

good grief my brain must be mush tonite...i can't even get this one started...that's what i get for poring over the taxes for the last 4 days, numbers all look like enemies >:(

yay done

(on paper, on the train)

YAY!!!!!!!

*^*^*^*^*^*^*FIREWORKS^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*

thank you, thank you

wow that's 2 days in a row. (gasps)

happy birthday. i might finish one before i die...

my birthday was in december

but 2 days in a row is unexpected - last week i coudln't get two easies in a row

oh sorry i missed it. happy late birthday.

i want to try an easy puzzle!

maybe i can finish an easy...

I returned to yesterday's puzzle (was it only yesterday?), which was ranked hard or expert, not sure, and which I couldn't solve in time on here..

it wad expert.

*was

I was somewhat heartened, though also irritated, to find that SadMan Sudoku had to use "trial and error"--none of all its logical techniques were sufficient

Simple Sudoku came to the same point and couldn't give me any more hints

I did learn about the X-Wing and Swordfish, though

:)

whats SadMan Sudoku and Simple Sudoku?

and i couldnt understand the x-wing or swordfish an SudokuHints

*on

Both are sudoku programs

http://www.sadmansoftware.com/sudoku/

http://angusj.com/sudoku/

SadMan's isn't free

though it has a trial period

thanks

I'm still not sure I completely understand the X-Wing and Swordfish but I have some grasp of them now

i kind of got it, but when i looked at the example, i drew a blank.

Actually, it was the XY-Wing I had to use to eliminate one possibility (and that still didn't do me any good) but I learned about the others in the process

When I have a better grasp I'll try to explain it

please do so, cause it might be helpful if i could understand it.

Okay, say you have two rows in which a number is possible in only two cells...

like 2 cells in each row?

right, that's what I'm trying to say

ok continue please...

and those two cells in each row line up with each other, forming a box or X...

like the 7s in row 1 and 6 in this puzzle?

Erk, sorry, I can't see it now... umm...

its ok i dont think thats the same anyways, but i understand what you said so far.

If you call the cells in one row 1A and 1B, and the cells in the other row 2A and 2B, then 1A and 2A would share column A, and 1B and 2B would share column B

Make sense?

yes very much.

Okay, now, 1A and 1B can't both have our candidate number, and the same for 2A and 2B

1A and 2B, or 1B and 2A, can

yes...

So you know that either way, columns A and B both will have our candidate number in them, right?

right. but how do you use that to eliminate?

Okay, if that candidate number shows up as a possibility anywhere else in column A or B, you now know that is NOT possible those places

OH!!! thank you so much!!!! i finally get it!! wow that will help so much.

:D

im so happy now....but whats the swordfish?

It might actually be more useful to think of as a teeter-totter: either one end is gonna be up and one down, or vice-versa

Ooh boy, the Swordfish

what is it harder to explain?

Umm, yeah, I'm still working on that one

oh ok. well youve been a huge help so far, and im sure it will be a little easier to finish now. thx again!

You know how triplets relate to pairs..

nope im already lost.

Okay, if you have two cells with only the same two candidates in a row/column/box, you can eliminate those candidates from all the other cells

Right?

And for triplets you need three cells with three total possibilites; they don't all have to appear in each one..

eliminate from all other cells in that row/column/box? ok. but i still dont get the triplets thing.

Yeah, if you have two cells with only the same two possibilites, using those possibilities anywhere else will in that group will prevent you from solving those two

If you know you have to have 1 3 and 7 in a box/row/column, you can't have 1 3 or 7 anywhere else in that box/row/column or you can't solve the puzzle

ok. now i totally get the x-wing, and i totally get the pairs swordfish.

If you have three cells in a group with, say, the possibilities 1,2,3 and 1,3 and 1,2, then you also can't use those anywhere else, as you have only three total cells that those three numbers have to fill

We haven't gotten to the Swordfish just yet :)

are you kidding? :/

Thinking about the difference between twins and triplets may help you make the jump to the difference between the X-Wing and Swordfish

Or we could come back to that later :)

It's still a mind-bender for me

i think we should try that later....im getting confuzzled.

if its hard for you and you are a pro, then think how hard it would be for a newbie like me.

The most useful thing is really the twins/pairs rule, then the triplets rule

Make sure you understand those

And the X-Wing certainly won't hurt :)

I'm not really a pro, though I have certainly spent way too much time playing in the last few weeks

hurshy is a pro, I think

hey David take a break...check out my sudoku music video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ih9qRyb5vIk

i got the x-wing and pairs but still a little messed up on triplets.

Mr. Sudoku....Hi!!

Hey Scribble

You're a regular...x wing eh...I gotta try that

x-wing is easy..... if the right person explains it.

That's your video, MisterSudoku?

It's pretty funny :D

Just think about triplets this way, scribble: twins are only two possibilities in only two cells, while triplets are only three (total) possibilities in only three cells.

will you be here when the new puzzle opens in an hour?

I need to get some sleep..

Thanks David

If you like it...and you fell like it...send it to a sudoku playing friend

Thanks!

bye David. thank you soooo much!!! see ya later.

Well, I really don't know many players, but I might mention it on here a few times :)

You're welcome, scribble

Good night, y'all

night.

well, looks like ill have to try my luck with the next one....stumped yet again.

hurshey, do you not sleep? it seems like you're on 24/7 on either babble or sudoku.

good bye all.

8 more minutes!