UK Puzzle Association

If the solving time is still in red writing, it hasn't yet been passed to the server - if you leave the applet before the writing turns white, your time won't be recorded. Know from experience

Berni - can I request a change to the Tapa applet?

it would be extremely useful to be able to place a 'cross' through the clue squares - otherwise it's very hard to check the solution.

Thanks for your time
Ronald

Dickoon - I lost access to the relevant puzzle but I think the squares you mentioned are the same as Nils explained... sorry. If you have a screenshot I will explain further. Not sure why C4 is listed twice in my walkthrough, I hope that's not a coordinate error. [Edit: it is, it should read uhh DEF...

I labelled the columns 1-9 and the rows A-I Usually in a hard Doppelstar, the hard part is placing the first star. So, concentrate on squares you can cross I will list squares that you can cross through without explanation, in a reasonable order, split by reasoning. Hopefully they are correct coordi...

Cool! Good to see a nice theory in practice

If a spambot decides to start answering your question randomly (or worse - gets a human mark somewhere to unwittingly provide it the correct answer), then it looks like you'll still get a nasty spam hit rate. But if it doesn't - then, all's well

hehe congratulations Steve! welcome to the addicts!!

wow that's amazing, thanks! It's still fun to figure them out without instructions

hehe you may have posted the wrong link but I saw that originally dickoon, great time! (oh no I see you mean the sidebar, hurray!) Also that's a lot of browser tabs! I had a nightmare on the Kakuro today... solved it bar 2 cells, then hit the wrong key, browser changed to another page, had to go bac...

Dickoon: yes, I agree something odd is going on. The Japanese Sums of 17 Feb is a good example to test because 1) nobody above the median got a fehlversuch 2) the fehlversuch penalty worked out to be more than 5 mins meaning the fehlversuch penalty has no effect on the median Here the "Technisc...

I think you can trademark a name, assuming certain conditions, and you have to apply for a trademark of the word you want to use - which has to not otherwise be used in the context of puzzles and the trademark is considered by a jury and as such has to be paid for. You have automatic (free) copyrigh...

Surely just changing the name wouldn't affect the copyright though. Either it's a KenKen or it's not because the rules are different I might be wrong about this but I think the name 'KenKen' is trademarked. I don't think you can copyright the concept of a puzzle? Although perhaps you can copyright ...

I don't know if anyone replied to this privately, but I'm sure that the UKPA would appreciate the opportunity to try out some puzzles.

I most likely won't be there, but try e-mailing your suggestion/puzzles to Alan: chairman@ukpuzzles.org

Thanks!!
Ronald

sounds like a problem with Java in IE. try updating IE and updating Java, and restarting?

and misko and Uhu and flooser and Semax do well at sudoku. but i was picking all-rounders who often play close to midnight

hmm, making the puzzle bigger seemed to make a big difference. I'm at the top of the list!

Or, perhaps... Hausigel, uvo, pwahs, Calavera etc are late today.

Cute puzzle, thanks! Very interesting method, recommended

Croco Puzzle has been hurting my eyes in recent days. Some of the puzzles come up simply too small - I can't see the puzzle, never mind any notation marks that I want to make (e.g. "8-9"). Any tips? Increasing the browser zoom doesn't seem to affect the size of the applet. Not having much ...

Agreed - I often work weekends and don't have time to play Sat/Sun. Sometimes I am ready to play late on Sunday but there is not enough time to fit it in.

It strikes me that this would all be much better in a wiki environment!

Don't really agree at all - it's better to have a discussion like this with an active editor (admittedly it requires someone to take charge) rather than anyone being able to change and overwrite good work.

Assuming that the parallel/perpendicular rule is not stated, can you make a diagonal Masyu that is unique, i.e. that doesn't have an alternative solution with parallel/perpendicular lines? Presumably it's possible to follow all the other rules and come up with a loop with lines at 45 degree diagonal...

sounds fun, thanks!

berni - your website is really excellent and this loyalty and growth is enviable and a credit to your hard work.
I'm sure croco-puzzle will continue to grow and I hope you get some reward for this!!

By the consensus definition, anything with third constraint is a sudoku variant...? Kropki doesn't apply third constraint to all cells, so isn't a sudoku variant by that definition, if we accept that. Kropki sudoku does apply third constraint to all cells, so is a sudoku variant Kropki itself is so ...

Is 397 players (so far on the Hashi) a record?

Our illustrious leader Alan O'Donnell was on Radio 5 this afternoon, talking about the news that Google Goggles will now solve sudokus they see...! (i.e. cheating just became extremely simple)

Link:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0070lvr - 11th January 2011 edition
He's introduced around 27:40