数独 Friday

March 31, 2006 9:57 AM

It's Friday, waste some time: Iron Sudoku, a daily sudoku challenge from the makers of Babble. (Free) registration required.
posted by sellout (15 comments total)

And for the competitive sudoker, user rankings start tomorrow.
posted by sellout at 9:58 AM on March 31, 2006

I like Brainy Puzzle: it has a nice interface and is pretty challenging. You are timed and upon finishing can compare your time to all other solvers (I'd love to know how people finish a puzzle in a minute and a half!). The puzzle changes daily and seems to be updated at around 7:00 p.m. Pacific time.
posted by Turtles all the way down at 10:23 AM on March 31, 2006

One puzzle at a time? Bah... I needed more than that for my addiction. :)

Actually, I got bored with SudoKu puzzles after I wrote a puzzle solver in php. Spending 25 minutes of a feindish one in the Times seems pointless when your PC can do it in a tenth of a second.
posted by twine42 at 10:24 AM on March 31, 2006

Well, there goes my day.

Twine42: write up a sudoku generator and pit it against your solver. Did you do a brute force solve?
posted by boo_radley at 10:28 AM on March 31, 2006

Hell no... I found a brute force solver on the net that took nearly half an hour to solve a difficult puzzle.

No, I wrote it so it did it in pretty much the same way that I do (ie, not optomised! :) ) and runs through taking numbers from cells based on some pretty basic logic. I wrote about half the code I was planning to, but did a run to check it's progress and found it was already intelligent enough to manage it. It's really quite humbling.

I wrote a little more about it here (disclaimer for the hard of thinking: Self-link) but I've since found out that it can can do the harder ones too about 75% of the time. One day I'll actually finish it.
posted by twine42 at 10:35 AM on March 31, 2006

I like that there's only one puzzle a day. It's a methadone clinic for Sudoku addicts.
posted by teg at 11:05 AM on March 31, 2006

Is it just me or sudoku becoming a lot more popular all of a sudden? I hear it mentioned all the time now, and I almost never heard of it before.

It seems incredibly boring to me.
posted by delmoi at 11:27 AM on March 31, 2006

Spending 25 minutes of a feindish one in the Times seems pointless when your PC can do it in a tenth of a second.

Yeah, and playing chess is pointless now that computers can do it faster, right? Right?
posted by spock at 11:44 AM on March 31, 2006

It seems incredibly boring to me.

It's a lot like sex, in that it depends how you do it. I like the ones that can be figured out logically (no forking "scenarios" needed to solve) where each number you solve allows you another crumb to detect the next one. Also, fans should check out Krazy Dad's Index of Sudoku Strategies.
posted by spock at 11:59 AM on March 31, 2006

Nice interface, but only one puzzle per day? PSHAW!

www.websudoku.com

play as many as you like
posted by C.Batt at 12:20 PM on March 31, 2006

websodoku is an enabler!
posted by grubi at 12:39 PM on March 31, 2006

It won't let me make an account; it rejects all my e-mail addresses as invalid. Hmph.
posted by litlnemo at 1:57 PM on March 31, 2006

Looks like fun, but the signup won't accept any email address that I enter as valid. I actually bothered to try and contact the admin which was wildly successful. After writing a nice little paragraph detailing my computer and browser, it wouldn't let me submit it because, of course, I need to supply a valid email address.

Websudoku it is!
posted by Orrorin at 1:58 PM on March 31, 2006

Sorry about that, litlnemo. I was messin' with stuff. Try again now. - Dr_God (Iron Sudoku Overlord)
posted by jtibbetts at 1:59 PM on March 31, 2006

Thanks, I'll try again.
posted by litlnemo at 2:16 PM on March 31, 2006