HP Forum Archive 16

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For the Sudoku crowd Message #1 Posted by Eric Smith on 1 July 2006, 2:08 a.m. http://xkcd.com/c74.html

Re: For the Sudoku crowd Message #2 Posted by Ed Look on 1 July 2006, 6:36 p.m., in response to message #1 by Eric Smith LOL!! I've got to show this one to my kids!! Good find!

Re: For the Sudoku crowd Message #3 Posted by Eric Smith on 2 July 2006, 1:27 a.m., in response to message #2 by Ed Look I'm still trying to come up with an optimal algorithm to solve it. I was going to use Alpha-Beta tree pruning, but I hear that Negascout is more efficient.

Re: For the Sudoku crowd Message #4 Posted by Howard Owen on 2 July 2006, 6:24 p.m., in response to message #3 by Eric Smith I personally favor the "random drunk's walk over a cliff" algorithm to solve binary sudoku. You have to pass the output through an altitude filter to get bits out, but it's quite effective. Regards, Howard

Re: For the Sudoku crowd Message #5 Posted by Etienne Victoria on 2 July 2006, 6:42 p.m., in response to message #3 by Eric Smith I just watched the World cup soccer game France vs. Brazil yesterday and got this Sudoku puzzle solved in 90 minutes (Sorry Luiz, Gerson & Nelson) :-) Can anyone beat this ? Etienne Edited: 2 July 2006, 7:46 p.m. after one or more responses were posted

Re: For the Sudoku crowd Message #6 Posted by Dave Shaffer on 2 July 2006, 7:15 p.m., in response to message #5 by Etienne Victoria "Can anyone beat this ?" Assuming you are not talking about the soccer match (!), how about "unary" sudoku: You have a single square, and you can put a zero in it (or not, if you need to think about it for a while).

O.T. C'est la vie... Message #7 Posted by Gerson W. Barbosa on 2 July 2006, 9:28 p.m., in response to message #5 by Etienne Victoria Quote: (Sorry Luiz, Gerson & Nelson) :-) Hello Etienne, I can't speak for Luiz & Nelson. Well, win some, lose some... as you say: c'est la vie... Best regards from Brazil, Gerson.

We are the Champions Message #8 Posted by Massimo Gnerucci (Italy) on 9 July 2006, 5:30 p.m., in response to message #5 by Etienne Victoria Quote: I just watched the World cup soccer game France vs. Brazil yesterday and got this Sudoku puzzle solved in 90 minutes (Sorry Luiz, Gerson & Nelson) :-) Can anyone beat this ? Yes, we just did it! 6-4 ;-) Sorry dear french friends... Greetings, Massimo

Forza Italia (was: Sudoku ;-) Message #9 Posted by Etienne Victoria on 9 July 2006, 6:04 p.m., in response to message #8 by Massimo Gnerucci (Italy) Congratulations! There is a typo in your post: we're not "french friends" but "french fries" now ;-) because we're fried... I think Italy definitely deserved to win, both for their global performance and for this last game!! See you in the rugby tournament next year, in South Africa in 4 years....and in this forum within the next days! I think I have to say...Forza Italia! Best Etienne Edited: 9 July 2006, 6:06 p.m.

Way off topic... Forza Italia (was: Sudoku ;-) Message #10 Posted by Massimo Gnerucci (Italy) on 10 July 2006, 4:01 a.m., in response to message #9 by Etienne Victoria Hello Etienne, Quote: I think Italy definitely deserved to win, both for their global performance and for this last game!! Well, you're a real sportsman! Chapeau! Quote: See you in the rugby tournament next year, Ouch! Quote: I think I have to say...Forza Italia! Well, not really... this slogan was robbed by a political party... Greetings, Massimo

Re: Way off topic... Forza Italia (was: Sudoku ;-) Message #11 Posted by Etienne Victoria on 10 July 2006, 4:09 a.m., in response to message #10 by Massimo Gnerucci (Italy) Oooops sorry! I forgot this aspect...I thought it just meant "Powerful Italy". Etienne Edited: 10 July 2006, 6:46 a.m. after one or more responses were posted

Re: Way off topic... Forza Italia (was: Sudoku ;-) Message #12 Posted by Frank Wales on 10 July 2006, 6:36 a.m., in response to message #11 by Etienne Victoria Bar Italia in London was festooned with 'Forza Azzuro' banners a couple of weeks ago, and they were giving out free whistles to a crowd outside in what seemed like a contest of volume with the Italian restaurant next door. Thankfully, the noise didn't spoil the taste of the coffee. I can't imagine how loud they would have been on Sunday night, though.

Re: We are the Champions Message #13 Posted by Gerson W. Barbosa on 9 July 2006, 7:23 p.m., in response to message #8 by Massimo Gnerucci (Italy) Ciao Massimo, Congratulazioni Tetracampeoni! Qui a casa mia abbiamo tutti fatto il tifo per l'Azzurra. Stasera mangieremo una bella pizza. Ne ho già ordinato una in Pizzeria Baggio. Nessuna intenzione di ricordare USA '94: Baggio è soltanto la mia pizzeria preferita :-) Gerson --------------- Here we have supported Squadra Azzura (sorry Les Bleus!). I've just ordered a Pizza from Baggio Pizzeria (nothing to do with the USA '94 Final: Baggio just happens to be my preferred pizzeria :-)

Re: We are the Champions Message #14 Posted by Etienne Victoria on 9 July 2006, 7:29 p.m., in response to message #13 by Gerson W. Barbosa Well... I must confess I also ate pizza & gelati... Cheers. Etienne

Re: We are the Champions Message #15 Posted by Gerson W. Barbosa on 9 July 2006, 8:06 p.m., in response to message #14 by Etienne Victoria Hello Etienne, It seems you're a good sport! Congratulations to France. Being number 2 is also nice. Congratulations to Germany and Portugal as well (Not always winning is not that bad. Losing without a fight is pretty worse...). Best regards, Gerson.

Re: We are the Champions Message #16 Posted by Etienne Victoria on 10 July 2006, 4:06 a.m., in response to message #15 by Gerson W. Barbosa Hello Gerson, I love Italy! Just walking in the streets of Bologna is a delight for me. It's a pleasure to compete friendly with the people that built such a country. But my favorite Italian is definitely a beautiful lady - and also Hp calculator addict! She even has her own website here. Greetings to Brazil! Etienne

Re: For the Sudoku crowd Message #17 Posted by Paul Dale on 4 July 2006, 5:39 p.m., in response to message #1 by Eric Smith Come one everyone, the problem as stated is over specified. I can halve the number of solved squares and the problem is still tractable :-)

Re: For the Sudoku crowd Message #18 Posted by ECL on 5 July 2006, 12:39 a.m., in response to message #17 by Paul Dale I noticed on the 'About' page: http://xkcd.com/about.html that Randall is working at the same NASA center that I'm currently at. Perhaps I'll say hello. On a side note, most of the fellows I work with still use HPs. Mostly 48GXs'. ECL

Re: For the Sudoku crowd -- Hexadecimal Sudoku? Message #19 Posted by Paul Brogger on 10 July 2006, 5:54 p.m., in response to message #1 by Eric Smith Has anyone put up any base-16 Sudoku? + - - - - + - - - - + - - - - + - - - - + | 1 | 9 3 | 5 | E | | 2 | | 6 | F | | | 4 | B | D | | 7 8 | A | C | 0 | + - - - - + - - - - + - - - - + - - - - + | 9 3 | | | | | | | | | | A | | | | | 4 | | | | + - - - - + - - - - + - - - - + - - - - + | 5 | | | | | B | | | | | 6 | | | | | C | | | | + - - - - + - - - - + - - - - + - - - - + | 0 | | | | | D | | | | | E | | | | | F | | | | + - - - - + - - - - + - - - - + - - - - + . . . etc.

Re: For the Sudoku crowd -- Hexadecimal Sudoku? Message #20 Posted by Howard Owen on 10 July 2006, 6:59 p.m., in response to message #19 by Paul Brogger Um, how do you get a sudoku when you aren't dealing with a square number of digits? Remember that '0' doesn't appear in decimal sudoku. I guess adding 0 for hexadecimal sudoku to get a 4x4 grid would be acceptable. But being picky (and mangling the nomenclature,) wouldn't heptadecimal (or heptadekimal, or septuadecimal) be the right base for a "four-square sudoku?" Regards, Howard

Re: For the Sudoku crowd -- Hexadecimal Sudoku? Message #21 Posted by Paul Brogger on 10 July 2006, 7:15 p.m., in response to message #20 by Howard Owen I think you just need nine symbols for a three-by-three puzzle, and they started with '1' rather than '0'. For a four-by-four puzzle, one could use the sixteen symbols '1'-'G', or (more familiar to some programmers, at least) '0'-'F'. I guess I'm not very picky . . . Hey, Wikipedia has a good article, with variations. Look! And another twist: how about three-by-three-by-three ("three cubed"?) Sudoku? (Might be hard to do on paper -- you'd need nine sheets and an ability to visualize the spatial relationships.) Edited: 10 July 2006, 7:33 p.m.

Re: For the Sudoku crowd -- Hexadecimal Sudoku? Message #22 Posted by Frank Wales on 10 July 2006, 8:56 p.m., in response to message #19 by Paul Brogger Quote: Has anyone put up any base-16 Sudoku? They certainly have; the Daily Mail's been doing them for months, but they just call them "Horrific Sudoku". Here's today's. Many more here.

Interesting Sudoku Variations Message #23 Posted by Valentin Albillo on 11 July 2006, 4:11 a.m., in response to message #19 by Paul Brogger Have a look at this very interesting link (includes further references): Sudoku Variations Best regards from V.

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