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

I recently bought a su doku puzzle book and i can't put it down. i don't know why but these little puzzles are gripping

Tell me about it. The Times brought out a book some time ago. According to Amazon, book two is due on June 6th, and book three is in the works, and will be available in September. Apparently, some other papers publish puzzles, but some of them are manufactured inexpertly, and have multiple solutions, or require guesswork. Not the real thing at all.

Curiously, Amazon are selling 'Used' copies. I'm not sure I'll bother, if someone has scribbled all over them already. (By the time I've finished the really fiendish ones, the page is a mess, not that it really matters)

There is work underway on an open source puzzle generator. I think I'll try my hand at something similar, or possibly join that project over at sourceforge. I need something to get my teeth into that isn't work, and will stop me spending money at the same time....

Very nice entry (once the solution is straightened out)...

Su doku hasn't caught on here in the states yet, so this was my first puzzle.

I do like the logic to it. I'm a puzzle afficionado.

I think I like finding the method to solving puzzles as much as the solutions themselves.

You gave a good description of various methods (I of course had to stop reading for a bit while I solved the puzzle after the first two methods you described before I could continue the entry.)

If you are up for something a little harder, see the peer review forum in A3819576 for a slightly harder one.
I can't post the solution to that one, because I don't have it. (although I could always solve it I suppose ) I also can't remember whether it was rated mild or difficult. I don't think it was 'fiendish'.
I had a bash at today's fiendish puzzle in the times, but I have not solved it yet (I usually do it on the bus on the way into work, but was a little hung-over this morning... )

So... is it still called "Su Doku" in the UK?

In the times, Yes. I beleive the telegraph calls it's su doku-like puzzles that too (although their puzzles are not perfect, some have involved guesswork, and atleast two have had multiple solutions).

Rumour has it that the Sun (a tabloid marketed to the other end of the scale than the Times) has started them. I'm not sure what difficulty level they set as I am yet to actually find the puzzle in a copy of the paper left behind in the shop. Perhaps they only do it weekly.

Todays (Friday 20th) Times puzzle, ranked as 'Fiendish' was mislabelled, I think. It took ten minutes on the bus this morning.

The Sun is going to carry them?

I may actually see it then. The local pub... British pub that is... (The bartender is British and they've made a theme of it... good ales ) sometimes gets some of the tabloids brought in by customers. A couple of the patrons make frequent trips there. One or two are pilots. So it's not uncommon for fairly recent copies of the Sun and the Mirror to float about there. (I'll admit it... I turn strait to page three when I see one ).

I'll have to start checking to see if they have su doku puzzles from now on.

Finally got a copy of today's Times. I can see why it might be labelled "fiendish" because finding the first few cells did take a while: much longer than usual. In fact, I would say finding the first 10 took a while and then it was plain sailing. There was certainly no extended logic required.

If you are talking about the May 20th 'Fiendish' puzzle, I didn't find that particularly fiendish. Yesterdays was somewhat harder.

For the really evil one, you need to try and find a copy of December 24th's puzzle from last year. As I mentioned in the article, it took me until March (ok, not all of that time, but inspiration was not forthcoming) to solve that.

The Su Doku program, which is a pay-for product (although several free software projects are underway) can generate 4x4(x4x4) puzzles, with numbers from 1-16 (or hexadecimal digits if you want). Now THOSE are fiendish...