Monthly Archives: January 2007

Sudoku Variations Galore

January 20, 2007
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Recently, a type of sudoku called “pandigital” sudoku was featured on Passion For Puzzles.  In pandigital sudoku, each of the nine rows form an equation which also provides clues for solving the puzzle.

As it turns out, the site that the puzzle was linked from includes a wealth of other sudoku variations including many mentioned here before.  It’s really not worth mentioning them all here, but I’ll give a few examples to whet your appetite:

  • Sudoku with unkown extra regions – Very interesting, but only one puzzle available.  Essentially, you don’t know exactly where the internal squares are.
  • Navigator Sudoku – Arrows in a square with a number point in a direction where that number can be found in an adjoining row or column.
  • Sudoku corrections – The grid is filled out, but there are errors.  Find and make corrections, but corrections can’t be made to adjoining squares.

Spot The Seven

January 18, 2007
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Through Digg, I found a blog called Spot The Seven where a new puzzle is posted daily.  The type of puzzle on Spot The Seven is a familiar one, showing up in children’s activity books and WPC qualifying tests alike.  You are shown two nearly identical pictures and challenged to find the seven differences.  I’m impressed that a new puzzle is posted daily, including puzzles appropriate for the day like a recent MLK puzzle.

Rubik’s Mp3 Player

January 18, 2007
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Rubik's mp3 playerOn CrunchGear, I found a story about a new interface design for mp3 players based on the Rubik’s Cube.  The interface, designed by Hee Yong of Yanko design, involves rotating different layers of the cube to perform different mp3 functions.  The story also makes a big deal about the fact that you have to solve the puzzle to turn the player off.  But, as is noted in the comments, it seems that only the horizontal layers rotate, so this is likely not a difficult task.

It’s hard to see this design having much more than novelty appeal, and it will likely never see production.  Still, it’s a fun idea.

MIT Puzzle Hunt

January 17, 2007
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The MIT Puzzle Hunt took place this past weekend, in which teams compete to solve 100 puzzles to win a prize.  For those of us who can’t participate, the puzzles are available online for our solving pleasure.  This year, the puzzles are truly evil.

New Puzzle at rustyredrock

January 13, 2007
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The puzzle at restyredrock.com was solved for $69 a day after I posted about it.  And there is a new puzzle up now.  Currently worth $1 to the solver.

2nd World Sudoku Championship

January 12, 2007
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Just a quick word: The World Sudoku Championship is coming up in late March. The US Sudoku team has information on how to join the team. If you’re interested you need to register before Jan. 15. Happy puzzling!

A Puzzle for Charity

January 10, 2007
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I recently came across a site called rustyredrock.com that features a “puzzle for charity.” The site’s puzzle page features a puzzle to be solved and offers a cash prize for solving it with an equivalent amount going to charity. The amount of money in the prize pool and the charity pool currently stands at $68 and goes up by a dollar every day. The current puzzle is some sort of cipher that must be solved (you must also provide a reason for your solution.)

It seems like there may be more puzzles coming after the current puzzle is solved. In any case, check it out while the prize is still being offered.

Wine Bottle Puzzle

January 8, 2007
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I’ve blogged in the past about puzzles and wine, so I was interested to see this wine bottle puzzle come up on Passion for Puzzles.  It’s a fun idea.  The puzzle is made to fit the top of a wine bottle.  In order to open the bottle, you need to first solve the puzzle.  Come to think of it… this might be a good way to keep people from getting into a new bottle when they’ve had a little too much already.

Brain Training

January 4, 2007
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The idea of “Brain Training” has developed a huge buzz recently. As is usually the case, there is a marketing engine behind the buzz and here, that engine is selling video games. Games like Brain Age claim to help older players ward off dementia. Exercising your brain regularly helps keep it fit… or so the claim goes.

This morning, I heard a little bit of a story on NPR about brain training. Later in the day, there was a post on Joystiq about it. The story mentions several studies and the conclusions are not as straight forward as video game sellers would like you to believe. First, it seems you’re never too young to start. Exercising your brain now will go a long way towards improving your mental health later in life. Second, physical health helps improve mental health. So, what we’re really looking for is a sound mind in a sound body. So your New Year’s resolutions should probably involve a membership in a gym along with solving a daily crossword puzzle.

Chess Puzzles

January 3, 2007
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ChessBase has put together a few puzzles for Christmas this year. They posted 1 per day from Christmas until New Year’s and all 8 are currently available. The puzzles all involve chess, but they’re impressively different. One puzzle involves a chess variation called losing chess and there are standard chess puzzles such as selfmate or helpmate.

Vanishing Point

January 2, 2007
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I’ve come across two posts recently concerning something called Vanishing Point.  It appears to be a new Alternate Reality Game from 4orty 2wo Entertainment.  One post suggests that the game is being used to promote Windows Vista.  This wouldn’t surprise me since Microsoft has had a working relationship with 42 for quite a while.  Not long ago, 42 created the game “I Love Bees” to market Halo 2 for Microsoft’s XBOX.

If you’re looking to get into the game (or just follow what’s happening) the best place to start seems to be the Vanishing Point wiki where many have already gathered to crack the puzzle.