Friday Puzzles #150

Well it's the last Friday of Lent, and writing as I have been - from waaay back in the past - this week's puzzle suddenly seems something of an anti-climax. The theme isn't quite perfect and it's not a hugely challenging puzzle either. Mind you, I've never been one for milestones in terms of week numbers, so perhaps I'll do something better for the three year thing coming up. Enjoy!

EDIT: No, nothing's broken with the puzzle this time round, but I have to raise two points.  First blogger have decided to suck harder than a Texan trying to retrieve a golfball stuck in a hosepipe and have apparently ballsed up the commenting "feature".  Ever since google decided to change its privacy policy, all sorts of shitty little bugs have been rearing their ugly heads with the service.  Even before that, they couldn't get something simple like putting time-stamps on the comments in the correct time zone.  I can only hope the reason for the current comment downtime is they are fixing this.

Anyhow, blogger may provide they provide a free service, but so do many others without causing me the need to rant.  And where better to rant than into the vast vacuums of tinternet.

Second point.  Lent doesn't end on Good Friday (thanks pub quiz at The Pilgrim) and so this leaves me in something of a pickle for next week.  I'll think of something, I'm sure.

    #181 Nurikabe – rated easy

All puzzles © Tom Collyer 2009-12.

UK Open Sudoku and Puzzle Tournament 28-29 April 2012

No, it's not a bonus Friday puzzle I'm afraid.  This is for the benefit of the 22.5% of the traffic this blog has attracted in its current incarnation, heralding as it does from the UK.

The wonderfully fabulous UKPA is having a two day puzzling event in Manchester at the end of April.  If you enjoy the puzzles on this blog, then you will love what's on offer at this event.

Even more, if you've ever trawled your way through one of my horrible long championship reports and thought that you'd like to have a go, then this will give you a good idea of what it's all about: getting together a good crowd of like-minded puzzling enthusiasts and together enjoying a quality set of puzzles.  You can look forward to puzzles from the following sources:

• Thomas Snyder
• Deb Mohanty
• Palmer Mebane
• Puzzler Media
• Grant Fikes
• David Millar
• Laurence May/Vexus (Navigrid etc)
• Clarity Media
• Tawan Sunathvanichkul (UK puzzle cruise)
• Vladimir Portugalov
• Rishi Puri
• Andrey Bogdanov
• Gareth Moore
• Possibly even the odd puzzle from me!

Anyhow, I'd thorough encourage people to get involved.  If you are thinking that it might not be for you, I can only say that it's definitely worth a try.  You never know, you might even surprise yourself!

More details, and registration information here:
http://forum.ukpuzzles.org/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=541

Friday Puzzles #149

There's something visually very wrong with this Masyu puzzle, compared to my normal fare.  And I suppose a V counts as a 5, even if you rotate it to a C or an N.  Or that other thing.  Anyhow, fairly plain sailing, but watch your step.  Enjoy!

    #180 Masyu – rated medium

All puzzles © Tom Collyer 2009-12.

Friday Puzzles #148

The theme is running onwards, although perhaps a little more weakly this week.  There are lots of 4-boxes I suppose!  Still, I think this one is pretty cute, if you've not seen the tricks before.  Enjoy!

    #179 Ripple Effect – rated medium

All puzzles © Tom Collyer 2009-12.

Friday Puzzles #147

Three is the magic number, and although maybe this week's Heyawake puzzle might seem a little same-y to my dearest readers with a longer memory, I think finally perfecting the theme is worth the post.  Enjoy!

    #178 Heyawake – rated hard

All puzzles © Tom Collyer 2009-12.

Friday Puzzles #146

Onwards with the theme, and we'll have ourselves a lovely Sudoku variant.  The rules are as follows: 1-8 go into each row/column/box, with two 2's in each.  Moreover, the cells containing the 2's are disjoint (so don't touch at either an edge or a vertex).  Think Sudoku crossed with Star Battle then.

I am quite pleased with how this one turned out, given that I started this on something of a whim.  Enjoy!

EDIT (14:18, 2/3/2012): fixing non-uniqueness.

    #177 Twodoku – rated medium

Previous non-unique version (see comment from rob):

All puzzles © Tom Collyer 2009-12.