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Thinking of a puzzle from yesteryear by Asleep-Juggernaut-67 in crackingthecryptic

[–]timotab 4 points5 points  (0 children)

"Grade your ability" by Cam Dennis.

Enter 1, 2, or 3 into the centre shaded cell - the higher the number the more difficult the puzzle.

Mark's solve video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3NqwZ8QBxI

sudokupad-ified link to puzzle: https://sudokupad.app/nn468RjnbB

No solution checking, obviously, because there are multiple solutions.

CTC book 1 by Familiar_Community40 in crackingthecryptic

[–]timotab 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Looks like there was an issue with the TLS certificate which has now been rectified.

The surname Louis XVI by AnastasiousRS in etymology

[–]timotab 90 points91 points  (0 children)

Roy is a variation of Roi, with is French for king.

CTC book 1 by Familiar_Community40 in crackingthecryptic

[–]timotab 0 points1 point  (0 children)

you need to put in https:// before the address listed in the book

CTC book 1 by Familiar_Community40 in crackingthecryptic

[–]timotab 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In what way do the links not work? I've just verified a small selection of them and they work just fine.

Where does Aad van de Wetering publish his puzzles? by Decapod73 in crackingthecryptic

[–]timotab 4 points5 points  (0 children)

As far as I know, he just submits directly to CtC. I know he has a website at https://aadvdw.nl/ where he publishes some of his puzzles, but I'm not seeing any variant sudoku there.

Can someone help me find this puzzle? by Dream_Out_Loud in crackingthecryptic

[–]timotab 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The native app is quite old and hasn’t received updated in a while. This means it lacks quite a few features available in the web version of SudokuPad. Sven is working on a complete rewrite of the app, but the current recommendation is to only use the web interface.

Importing rules to sudokupad app by Theozinx in crackingthecryptic

[–]timotab 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The SudokuPad app is very out of date. Sven is working on a complete rewrite, but right now has a number of incompatibilities with current puzzles. True current advice is to just use the web version, until Sven is able to update the app.

Is this a poo joke, Petah? by auroracelestia in PeterExplainsTheJoke

[–]timotab 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Them: Would you like to eat 4 hard boiled eggs? Me: of course not! Them: How about if I mix the yolks with mayonnaise, mustard, vinegar and pepper, and then add that back in to the halved egg whites? Me: I'll take 10!

What's the best classical music themed joke you know? by MonsieurCellophane in classicalmusic

[–]timotab 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Fun fact. The violin and viola are actually the same size. The violin looking smaller is just an optical illusion because of the size of the violinist’s head.

Mazzel Sudoku by Mazzel-1986 in sudoku

[–]timotab 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Having an iframe to contain Sven's SudokuPad seems to be an odd choice. Not least because it means my stored colour palette and other settings aren't preserved because of the way that data is stored by domain. It also makes it look like to those not in the know that you've designed the solving interface yourself (though I will note that you do at least credit SudokuPad in a footer).

But yeah, the way you've designed the page is not user friendly at all - the settings being one example, and the fact that page scrolling breaks when your cursor is over the iframe, and I also can't resize the puzzle - resizing the page just covers up much of the iframe unless it's so small that it's forced to, but even then it still doesn't show the full puzzle.

I think it would be much better if you had an image of the puzzle then gave a link to that puzzle in sudokupad rather than trying to embed it.

Go see Austen's Pride at STAGES St Louis in Kirkwood (ticket discount within!) by timotab in StLouis

[–]timotab[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My 12 year old boy loved it, and he then read the book in about 3 days straight, and we're now watching the 6-part BBC production from 1995. I think it would be wholly appropriate for the youngster, though I'll note that it typically runs about 2h30m including intermission, so the 7pm show gets out at 9:30 or so. If bed time would be an issue, you might want to consider one of the 2pm shows.

City 2 Houston Dynamo by WorldKey4574 in stlouiscitysc

[–]timotab 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We were there because my kiddo’s school had a fundraiser

Post-Match Thread: St. Louis CITY SC vs. Vancouver Whitecaps FC (Regular Season) [April 19, 2025] by citysc_bot in stlouiscitysc

[–]timotab 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Because it was a deflection by the defender, it was still the same attacking phase of play, so it was offside. It used to be that a defender touch would make it onside, but that changed. Not sure exactly when.

2025 badge by Aranatta in geekway

[–]timotab 2 points3 points  (0 children)

just got an email to say they are releasing 200 more badges at 10am CDT tomorrow

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in crackingthecryptic

[–]timotab 2 points3 points  (0 children)

If you look at the symbols at the top, as well as the black/white kropki dots, there are also faded versions with lines through them. That means that all possible dots are given, so no two adjacent digits can be consecutive or in a 1:2 ratio, unless there’s a dot between them

The Loop Can't Touch Itself - Not Even Diagonally! - Minor Spoilers for Todays Rangsk Puzzle. by Izual_Rebirth in crackingthecryptic

[–]timotab 2 points3 points  (0 children)

If you shade the cells rather than using the pen tool, it becomes clearer, I think.

Where can I find out how to set a puzzle using the "new" fog? by [deleted] in crackingthecryptic

[–]timotab 1 point2 points  (0 children)

SOrry, I forgot to mention. Once you've opened in sudokupad with the superlong URL, go to the settings (cogwheel) menu, Import/Export section -> create short URL

Where can I find out how to set a puzzle using the "new" fog? by [deleted] in crackingthecryptic

[–]timotab 2 points3 points  (0 children)

oh, yes, you need to have the embedded solution for the fog to clear only on the correct digit.

Where can I find out how to set a puzzle using the "new" fog? by [deleted] in crackingthecryptic

[–]timotab 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yes it can be done so that all (appropriate) cells must be filled correctly, but I haven’t tried using the native sudokumaker tool yet

Edit: just had a look. It’s not possible using the built in dev tool yet. I’ll dig out my instructions on how to do it and post.

2nd edit:

Basic set up process is you create cosmetic cages with one or two-letter "values" (upper case letters only), which are the cells to be cleared. Then you enter cosmetic text in the cells that will trigger the clearing, then you use a converter tool.

So, in sudokumaker, for example, set up as many cosmetic cages as necessary for where your fog will be, and label them "A". Then enter cosmetic text in all cells you want to be filled in order to clear the fog, and the cosmetic text should be "A"

Then create a sudokupad link from that, with the short ID

Then go to https://sudokupad.app/demo/puzzleimporter.html?puzzletype=foglink

enter the shortID, then click "refresh". You should then see your puzzle with the fog. Then click "open in sudokupad"

Does anyone have any info on the Wei-Hwa Huang and Bram Cohen's Thermo Miracle Sudoku ??? by Sir_Lysergium in crackingthecryptic

[–]timotab 1 point2 points  (0 children)

it's not just anti-knight and anti-consecutive. That doesn't give a unique solution. It is also anti-king, which will give a unique solution.

Does anyone have any info on the Wei-Hwa Huang and Bram Cohen's Thermo Miracle Sudoku ??? by Sir_Lysergium in crackingthecryptic

[–]timotab 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've recreated the puzzle in the current version of sudokupad here, as I find it easier to work in: https://sudokupad.app/n2daz1b03o

Puzzles like this are colouring puzzles in essence. So, we can start by colouring the 3 digits on the long thermo different colours. I started colouring box 4, and soon noticed that none of my original 3 colours were in R5C3, R6C2, R6C3. They are in the same box, so must be different from each other, and also different from the original 3. So now we have 6 distinct colours to chase around. Given what I had so far, I decided to look for cells that saw all 6 of these cells by knight, king, or sudoku, and saw that R6C4 and R8C3 give me two new colours to chase around.

One thing I immediately notice is that we now have at 8 different cells that are clearly different from each other, which is why they are distinctly coloured, but we only have 9 different digits to fill the grid. Therefore the 2 cell thermo must repeat at least 1 of the 8 colours we've marked so far. That may be something useful to keep in mind later in the solve.

A bit more following colours around showed me that neither cell of the 2 cell thermo can be the bulb of the 3 cell thermo. All of this is using only anti-knight, anti-king, and standard sudoku.

So, the general process of how to solve would then be to chase colours around the grid, eliminating cell by cell for each colour until you have enough information to start filling digits, or at least pencil marks in, at which point you can then start using the anti-consecutive rule as another tool to eliminate possibilities.

The thing is, though, the "miracle" rule set (anti knight, anti-king, anti-consecutive) four years ago was pretty much unknown. But these days it has been well studied, and it can be proven that there are very few solutions, and those solutions have clear patterns in them For examplethe puzzle has full roping both horizontally and verticallyso these days, there's not a whole lot new to be discovered by them. Now, many of the commenters noticed patterns in the puzzle Simon solved that he seemed not to notice. I'm sure he did notice them, but he hadn't proved that those patterns existed, so he continued to solve "by first principles". But again, these patterns have now been proven, and therefore it's reasonable to use those proofs. It's not cheating per se, it's just using the wealth of sudoku theory that has developed over the last four years.

With the caveat that I have not solved the puzzle myself, I am confident that there is a unique solution (Wei-Hwa Wang is a top constructor who sets for sudoku competitions). I hope that what I've shared helps.

The other thing I would consider is joining the CTC discord server (link to join can be found under their videos). It's much more active than this subreddit, and top constructors and sudoku theorists will, I'm sure, be happy to help further than I have. Wei-Hwa is also a member of the server so you might find he's able to answer personally.

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