Category Archives: sudopedia.org
Sue de Coq
I had a lot of fun implementing this ancient solving technique in SudoCue. Most players have already forgotten about it. However, it is a technique that provides a pattern-based alternative for otherwise difficult to spot ALS moves. Having studied the technical ins and outs, it proves to be a solving technique that could easily be expanded in several directions. Unfortunately, many players do not think in terms of constraint sets, and they have difficulty understanding the concepts or recognize its beauty. I wrote a good article about Sue De Coq in Sudopedia and on the Eureka forum. Maybe it needs time to sink in.
Other techniques I’ve implemented are Skyscraper and 2-String Kite. These are pattern-based alternatives for certain Turbot Fish moves, originally introduced by Havard. It took me less than a day to implement both these techniques, which tells enough about their simplicity.
In SumoCue, I implemented Law of Leftovers a while ago, but this technique is now finally out in an official release. I also added a Jigsaw pattern selector, so the players using SumoCue for the daily jigsaw competition at www.sudoku.org.uk can simply pick a pattern, rather than drawing it manually.
Sudopedia is maturing
Since the beginning of this month I have been writing a lot of articles in Sudopedia. And I finally received help by other people helping me complete this Opus Magnum. Now that I’ve raised attention on different forums, the visitors are coming. Corrections are made, and several new subjects are added. Many of the results of the ultimate fish guide on the Players forum are now also defined in Sudopedia. On my own forum, I’ve changed the bbcode parser to recognize wiki style links and point them to the Sudopedia topics.
Some other stuff that I’ve been working on lately:
Created a FishFinder program to create and test fish patterns. Most fish diagrams in Sudopedia are made with this program.
Started a Samurai contest on www.sudocue.net. My CluelessMaker can now also create these Samurai puzzles.
Uploaded a Mambo front-end on www.sudokuvault.com. I like to try different things. WordPress is OK, but there are many nice features in Mambo.
Added miniBB forums to www.hanidoku.com and www.sudokuplaats.nl. This is a very light forum that is easy to run from a frame. Not as heavy as phpbb.
Uploaded hundreds of puzzles, so that I have months or years of daily puzzles. My weekly puzzles are still uploaded manually, as well as the Daily Nightmare. A new daily feature is the One-Trick Pony. An SSTS puzzle with a single advanced step.
My PayPal account is not working due to credit card problems. Need to fix this soon. People are complaining that they cannot donate…
Readers?
Was surprised to see how many people are reading my daily entries here. OK, needed to tidy it up a bit, and translated the most recent posts in English. Blogging is a dangerous activity. Before you know it, everybody is looking over your shoulder.
Finished the Scanning article in www.Sudopedia.org. May need some revisions, but at least it is a consistent story now. Still no cowriters.
I have isolated the 400.000 Sudokus in my Access database that can be classified as ‘easy’. I will run a special program today, that performs a solving speed test on these sudokus. This is something I found out recently. It is not only the requirement of solving techniques, but also the solving speed that determines the difficulty of a sudoku. For the lower grades, this is the most important benchmark. A whole series of sub-grades can be worked out.
But not for me. I have to keep up my reputation, so I will always supply sudokus that are a tad more difficult than the rest of them. This solving speed test will help me pick out the nice ones.
Sudopedia authors missing
I still have to write the bulk of the articles myself in Sudopedia. My appeals on the major Sudoku forums did not work. Probably another case of the not-invented-here syndrome.
If neccessary, I will write the whole damn thing myself, but then I will change the license and keep it copyrighted.
So now I’ve done it again
Just registered the domain sudopedia.org. Too good to be true.
 I set up a mediawiki installation and configured it, so articles can be submitted. It was, of course, this blog that gave me the idea.
 I posted attention messages on the busiest 3 forums, so let’s see what happens. This could make writing a solving manual on www.sudocue.net completely obsolete.
Yes!