I got an email today about a web site dedicated to pentominoes.  Currently, the site is running a competition for readers to solve a pentomino sudoku.  It is similar to a standard sudoku, but the grid is made up of pentominoes and the numbers in each pentomino sum to 22.  Enjoy!

Here’s a fun little story about a man who put together a 24,000 piece jigsaw puzzle.  According to the article, the puzzle took him 537 hours over 179 days to complete.  There’s a nice picture of the completed puzzle with the article.

There’s an article in the Times Online about an art installation going in at the Stanmore Underground station in northwest London.  The installation is part of an Art On The Underground project that is sponsoring installations in a number of stations around London.  What’s interesting about the Stanmore station is that it focuses on crossword puzzles.

Serena Korda, the artist behind the installation, chose crossword puzzles as a theme because the Stanmore station is near where code breaking computer were housed during World War II.  Solving a Times crossword puzzle in less than 12 minutes was a requirement to join the codebreakers at Bletchley Park.  The installation was also inspired by information leaflets handed out in the underground during World War II.  These leaflets featured a crossword on the back.

Along with installation, there are a number of crossword puzzles themed around Stanmore.  The installation itself provides clues for the puzzles.  The installation is called The Answer Lies at the End of the Line.  And, apparently, this is also true for any who can’t solve the puzzles.

Imangi is a new word puzzle game for the iPhone.  At its most basic level, the game involves finding words in a grid, however in Imangi you have the option of altering the grid by rotating the letters in individual rows and columns.  The idea is to maximize your score.

Imangi Studios is interested in getting feedback on the game from puzzle lovers.  So drop in and let them know what you think.

It’s still a few months away, but publicity has already started for the Sudoku National Championship in Philly on October 24-25.  The championship will include guest appearances by Will Shortz and Maki Kaji, credited as “the man who gave sudoku its name.”  (The creator of sudoku is actually American Howard Garns.)

It looks like they learned a lot in the first go around and have made a number of improvements for this years competition.  Most notable are help determining which level you belong in and a prize structure that awards more to the third place winner in the advanced level than the first place winner in the intermediate level.

The blog The Most Beautiful Things has a post today about the most beautiful puzzle type.  The writer concludes that the most beautiful type is the variety cryptic crssword–a cryptic crossword with an interesting twist.  This is described as the “holy grail” of puzzle types.  There are a lot of great links in the post to variety cryptic crosswords which, as the post notes, can be hard to come by.

There’s a nice video on the Britannica Blog about a new digital puzzle.  The puzzle is four blocks with a grid of LEDs on top.  The LEDs light up in specific patterns and the object is to arrange the blocks so that all of the edges match up properly.  The puzzle is timed and can also tell when it has been correctly solved.

Black Ink is a nice little app that I stumbled upon for Mac users who love crosswords.  The basic idea is that it is a unified interface for a number of free crossword puzzles available on the internet.  Black Ink will download the puzzles automatically and save them so that you can play them all in one place.  There is a cost for this app ($24.95), but you can also download a free 30 day trial version.

Found through MacApper.

Just a quick note.  The blog GeekDad in the Wired blog network had a post today that featured a puzzle.  The puzzle was a timer puzzle similar to many that you may have seen before.  How do you measure out 9 minutes with a 4 minute egg timer and a 7 minute egg timer?  The more exciting aspect of this post is the suggestion that “Puzzle of the Week” may become a regular column on GeekDad.