h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Su Doku - A3819576
Author: Caveman, Insanely Evil Unix Sysadmin - U30753

I've pretty much ran out of ideas, and not a lot came forward in the writing workshop, so here is 'Su Doku' for your addictive-puzzling pleasure.

If one of the community artists would like to possibly create alternatives to the ugly tables, I'd be grateful (although please don't move any numbers for artistic reasons). The grid should be similar to a crossword, except there are no black squares, the coloured squares in the tables should really be thicker lines between the adjacent cells.

Note also that there is a second entry with the full solution to the simple example. More complicated puzzles can be found in your local bookstore, and in the Times and, I beleive, the Telegraph. Other newspapers carrying Su Doku appear to be the New Zealand Herald, the Honk Kong Standard, and the Bratislavan Uj Szo.

The Honk Kong Standard ...?

I appologise, I have a cold.

I love this kind of thing!! It works on a similar idea as the old logic puzzles where you use a grid to work out a solution as to who had the tomato sandwich last Wednesday or who is weraing blue socks!

I noticed one typo

"You can repeat the same trick with the 9's by looing at the middle three columns."

looing = looking

Great entry

Mort

Love it.

AS far as I can tell, this entry is ready for the edited guide as it stands now. Just a matter of waiting the requisite week, during which time someone pamy point out that I'm wrong. (But I don't think so.)

NBY

The article is no longer looing. (Although I am, as I am getting over the flu - Best not to think about that )

I could go on for hours regarding the various different strategies to solve these irritating puzzles, but I could be here all day.

Besides, some of the techniques I've developed in my quest for the answer of the Friday 'Fiendish' puzzle (the puzzles get progressively harder in the times during the week) are very difficult to describe.

Last week, I proudly announced to the office that I had completed the Su Doku from Friday, December 24th 2004. There are six of us in the office who do Su Doku, but nobody had solved this particular one (and, conincedentally, nobody had bought the Monday December 27th copy of The Times (if there was one) to find out what the wretched answer was.

You know you're addicted when it takes three months to solve the zarking things.


Is there a better way to produce the table than they way I did it? It would be far better as an image, assuming that browsers can handle it. It looks OK to me in Mozilla and Konqueror. I don't have Internet Explorer to check it with, although the guide's system seems to be very good at generating cross-platform html, unlike certain sites I could mention.

I'm using IE, and the tables look great. I don't think there's any reason to change them.

I'm not much of a number person -- but this is ADDICTING!!!!!

I don't know if I should thank you or b!tch-slap you

Good job!

Another thing I have just noticed is that you have linked to a category page (games and puzzles)

As they are often swapping these c pages about the link will be changed in subbing.

You could use the search to form a link (something as a sub I often do) see the box on this page A1285328 and replace the word 'film' with

wordgames+puzzles

It is a long and clumsy looking link but will do a similar job to the c page.

or leave it up to the sub/italics to decide on another link.

I always like to have the choice for my own entries so thought I should mention it

Secondly - I refuse to start one of these otherwise as I will end up as obsessed as you!! Well maybe later I will have a go at one




Starts counting the days...

Nice Entry.

The Euler reference is a bit incongruous - a precise date of birth, but no evidence to support his invention. I'd say he doesn't add anything unless you include such a justification of the game's origins, but if you want to keep Old Len, you might like to link this : A346295

Thought-provoking that you tried using WW just like it says on the tin, only nobody noticed. 3 days is a bit optimistic for that Forum, more's the pity.

Any gurus around? Are we going to have problems with non-approved GuideML in these (rather neat) tables?

I've tried to find more details on Euler's link with the puzzle, but nothing really worth talking about has turned up. I'll dig around some more, but if nothing does turn up, I'll just leave it at that.

Thanks for the Euler link. I followed it any my brain rebooted.

As Su Doku is definitely not mathematics-based, I may just delete Euler from the whole thing.

> I don't know if I should thank you or b!tch-slap you

While you make up your mind, here's a slightly harder one for anyone I've inadvertantly addicted...

(you can make up your own grid for this one)

. . 3 . . . 1 . .
8 . . 5 . 3 . . 4
. 2 . 9 . 6 . 3 .
. 6 . . 9 . . 7 .
4 . 9 . . . 2 . 1
. 1 . . 2 . . 4 .
. 5 . 2 . 1 . 9 .
9 . . 4 . 7 . . 8
. . 4 . . . 7 . .

(The dots are the empty squares, and I'm sure that the proportional font used by the guide isn't going to help, but I'm sure you can work it out)...

Enjoy.

I changed the 'C' link to a link similar in structure to yours. It seems to work.

I still think the tables are ugly, but I can't think of (don't know of) a better way to make sure that columns line up, other than an image. Making an image is easy enough, but without the ability to upload them, I guess I have to leave it to the community artists.

Assorted minor edits. Added stuff about solving by elimination, and expanded further on 'advanced techniques'. I haven't spell-checked the new stuff yet, and won't get another chance until I get home tonight.

Anyone solved the 'mild' puzzle above?

Jim

Heehee - not yet. I sent the article & new puzzle to my boyfriend at work, and he hasn't done it, either! He's also a sysadmin, but can't lure his company away from MS. He minored in math in school, but it doesn't seem to be helping him any!

Well, I think I said that math doesn't help you much. It's all about logic, and working through each square until you discover the one number that can go there, either by eliminating all of the other numbers, or by some other means which you will have to develop yourselves.

Today's puzzle in the times was rated 'difficult'. I managed to mess up the paper and had to resort to another sheet of paper. It was nasty, but otherwise straightforward.

I see the times have decided to public 'Su Doku book 2' in May (according to amazon.co.uk). By your use of the word 'minored' I am assuming you are in the USA, so I'm afraid that Su Doku the book is not yet available in the USA, however you can order it from amazon.co.uk and other places. Alternatively, if you examine my home page on h2g2 I'm sure you can figure out how to email me, and I can mail you puzzles, should you find that you can't get them elsewhere.

Go on, admit it, you're addicted already.

Yes! I am! LOL! And Tom is inflicting it on his co-workers!

I've already got Amazon.co.uk bookmarked; I get my Irish Lace pattern books there.

See you at your space!

Good Entry

I'm sure I've seen these puzzles before - though I couldn't have named them.

I seem to have started a revolution somewhere near California (although my appoligies to those concerned, my US geography isn't want it used to be (it used to be chemistry)).

It seems that Su Duko is going to spread like a highly infectious pathogen over there.

It could be worse. Atleast it might stop them sending me data files that consist of a mix of SI and imperial units. But that is another rant best saved for another time.

We've been in PR for nearly a week, so if the editors are pleased, we have not very long to make final changes. Please comment now on anything you'd like fixed/mangled/changed/explained before it's too late. (Hah! I'm hopeful...)

Regards,
jim

> I'm sure I've seen these puzzles before - though I couldn't have named them.


Hmm.. Were you in Switzerland back in the 18th Century in a past life? The puzzle may have originated there, created as a mathematical diversion by Euler. It is possible that they continued to appear in various places other than Japan until the recent explosion in popularity.

I did put a reference to Euler into the original article, but it got removed, mainly because it doesn't add much to the article and isn't a particularly interesting factoid in itself without more detail, which I don't have. There is a minimal entry on Euler that hasn't been edited about in the guide somewhere, and an edited entry on Eulers famous equasion, A346295 (You could use search, but I just tried searching for 'Euler' and the guide finds nothing, which is rather odd.

Actually Search currently doesn't find 'Su Doku', 'Douglas Adams', or even 'The', which to me suggests that the search function is b0rken.

Good entry, as pointed out above

Before it does get picked, have a check of your punctuation. You've missed quite a few full stops and in a couple of places put two in by mistake. Also, 'Japanese' should be capitalised.

Nice job

Various t's dotted and i's crossed, and the capital of Japan rediscovered. I'll give it another read through when I've sobered up. We just came second at Skittles again down at the local BT Social Club.

I'm relieved to note that the Times has already created a 'Su Doku Book 2' to go with it's first book on the subject. I hope to have all of the fiendish puzzles in book 1 completed by June 6th. Pan Books (publishers of the original guide, of course) are also producing a Su Doku book of 192 pages, for release on July 1st. Looks like June will be seriously busy.

Regards,
Jim