May 18, 2005

• I'm currently taking a break from one I got from the (uk) times online. It's a tough one.
• Ick. Not my kind of game at all. I'm all for logic, but I think I prefer to use it for programming when I decide to use it. That or reducing people to tears by tearing down their assumptions, but usually the former.
• I started doing these a couple of weeks ago. It's a nice brain exercise. It's definitely growing in popularity on the web right now: I heard about it on Livejournal last week, and the next day it was on Mefi.
• The aim is to place a number between one and nine in the empty "cells" contained inside a nine-by-nine grid. Each row and column as well as each smaller, three-by-three subsidiary grid - these are indicated by slightly bolder lines - must contain the numbers one to nine, without omission or repetition As fun as that sounds, I think I'll stick to drinking transmission fluid, punctuated by the occasional whack in the head with a hammer.
• Don't forget Sudoku Fun - why, it's a new puzzle every day! (though you can get there from that Yahoo directory.) I'll leave out the debate over whether this should be described as "fun" or "masochism"... I'm sure some of the other monkeys will get around to it. I think I probably prefer the program at Sudoku.com, though - levels of difficulty, and various solving tools. Less self-flagellation and brain ache if you're a beginner.
• I've been playing this one for a little while (more simple than the Sudoku.com one but free!). Damn thing nearly sabotaged an art history paper.
• I'm glad that there are people that enjoy doing this sort of thing. I just hope they stay away from me.
• Found this a couple of months ago. (Thought I saw it here, but I guess not.) Totally hooked on it though. The daily one in the Times of London is pretty tough - some of them downright evil! Sure is a good way to pass the time though.
• I've been going to these sites since I saw it on Mefi. Quite fun. Yes, I know very simple programs can be written to solve the damn things, but that doesn't mean they're not fun. Quite good for a half hour break from writing thousands of words.
• no patience
• Mrs Dotcom introduced me to (the considerably simpler and more unfortunately named) Tsunami puzzles a while back. I've been doing them on trains/planes etc with a sense of considerable embarrassment at wasting my time doing something so geeky, so I'm very relieved that something even more geeky has come along!
• Fad. But one that I'm currently unable to put down. I look foward to seeing C-list celebs talk about how much they loved those little number puzzles on BBC2's "I love 2005" sometime next decade...
• These have been in pencil puzzles magazines for years. Like five or ten years, if not longer. I don't get people acting like it's new, nor the ones acting like it's a fad. It's a permanent staple of pencil puzzling that won't ever go away. That being said, they're about as much fun as word searches. Fun at first, but you develop a search algorithm that'll always solve one. After that, it gets monotonous quickly.