Doomed

[rsc]

I think something very bad is happening to me.

jwg has been a SuDoKu addict for a year(?) or so now, of which the principal effect on me has been to enable me to give him SuDoKu books as presents. Last Thanksgiving was rather amusing, in fact, as my brother had also become addicted, and my sister-in-law decided to see if she thought it was fun too (I may have this backwards, I can't remember any more), with the result that all three of them spent most of the weekend putting numbers in grids while I just sat there and read a book.

But I found myself looking over jwg's shoulder while he was doing one the other day, and thinking "Oh, doesn't that make that square a 7?" or words to that effect, and... well, he's in New York for the weekend, and yesterday I decided to give the Boston Globe puzzle a try -- and when I found I'd made a mistake I went and copied the numbers into a fresh grid and started over, and kept at it until I'd solved it.

Then when I attacked today's Globe I had to start over twice. This would have been a good time to say "screw this, it's more trouble than it's worth". But I didn't. I solved it the third time.

I think I'm hooked.

Comments

[madknits.livejournal.com]

They are addictive.

In the Boston Globe, they start out easiest on Monday, and get progressively harder through the week.

Enjoy!

[rsc.livejournal.com]

Like the daily crossword in the New York Times.

This evening while sitting in front of the fire (a fire! in June, for chrissake!) and more-or-less watching the Red Sox game (and the extended pregame show, since the start of the game was delayed nearly an hour), I copied out one of the ones ranked "medium" from John's book, and it seemed like it was about as hard as the one in Friday's Globe. Then I did one of the "hard" ones, and it was a good deal harder. In fact, this was the point where I might have been saved, because for a while I couldn't see my way forward; but I did solve it eventually, so I guess I'm really in trouble.

I don't think I'll attempt any of the ones rated "fiendish" quite yet.

[rsc.livejournal.com]

Oh, I knew they were available online. I don't think I'll go there, at least for now.

[jwg.livejournal.com]

Tiger, the latest version of Mac OS X supports widgets in and there are several Sudoku widgets available. One press of the middle mouse button and there it is. I stopped doing those a while ago.

[drevilmoo.livejournal.com]

GET OUT NOW! WHILE YOU STILL HAVE TIME! BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE!

Get Out Now! While You Still Can!

[trawnapanda.livejournal.com]

... pay attention! before it's too late!

read your own words: "my brother, my sister in law and jwg all sat around putting numbers into grids, while I sat there and read a book".

do you want to retain the ability and time to read? or do you want to spend your retirement putting numbers into grids?

Put Down The Pencil And The Puzzle Now. Walk Away Slowly. Get Out Now. Before It Is Too Late.

oh, yes, and to quote Nancy: Just Say No!

[pinkfish.livejournal.com]

I'm a great puzzle fan, but once I understand the general way to solve a puzzle, I no longer find it interesting.

Sudoku is just a formal version of "who owns the zebra?", which I wrote a program to solve a number of years back. It occurred to me that one might approach this using a Description Logic reasoner, but I didn't bother to do it. Good thing - My buddy Aditya from the University of Maryland already did it.

[xlerb.livejournal.com]

I liked “who owns the zebra?” problems; but I did them by writing out the constraint grid and ticking stuff off that way. Sudoku's a bit big for that. I might have mentioned the mildly enlightened backtracker I wrote on a train in the middle of the night in Connecticut while entirely too sleep-deprived, and still haven't finished debugging; that was… well, fun in a way, but I've since spoiled myself and learned that Knuth has a much better data structure for it.

[rsc.livejournal.com]

I'm a great puzzle fan, but once I understand the general way to solve a puzzle, I no longer find it interesting.

This may eventually happen to me. Or not, depending on how much time I feel like wasting.

I might have known that übergeeks like you and jdev would treat this as a problem demanding a programmatic solution.

[magid.livejournal.com]

I've found more strategies as I solved more puzzles, which has kept it from being so rote.

[trulygrateful.livejournal.com]

Only took me a few puzzles to get me hooked.

Once you get good enough at the standard 9x9 grid, try the 16x16 grid (yes, they DO exist). That's a challenge.

Hugs from Nueva York!

[keyne.livejournal.com]

I find that I go through hot and cold periods, so you may not be all that doomed. Right now I only bother to do sudoku during long, boring meetings (several other people bring handwork, and I'm unable to do handwork, so why not occupy 10-15% of my brain some other way?)

[rsc.livejournal.com]

And they're similarly handy for accompanying TV that only requires half of one's attention (if that), and when one doesn't quite feel like reading.

[chrishansenhome.livejournal.com]

HWMBO has been addicted for a while. I do them occasionally. I've found a freeware program called Simple Sudoku that helps out a bit on computer. There are probably loads of 'em. This one has lots of help and explanations available as well.

[spwebdesign.livejournal.com]

My condolences. I could never get into them, fortunately. I find them tedious and much prefer the inventiveness and wordplay of crosswords.