As you may have guessed from a lack of posts recently, I've decided to mothball the blog until the WSC and WPC is all over and done with. My focus is primarily writing sudoku, so there may be the occasional puzzle featured over at GM puzzles whenever I need a break.
See you all in the summer!
Showing posts with label Announcements. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Announcements. Show all posts
Monday, 5 May 2014
Wednesday, 8 January 2014
detuned radio: an update!
So I'm just taking the time to do a little thinking aloud, and update my dearest readers on what they can expect from me as a puzzle maker in the coming year (and beyond!)
Firstly, my main priorities for the next few months lie with the UKPA, and with several major upcoming projects. First on the list are the UK Sudoku Championships and UK puzzle Championships, as well as hopefully a bit of website work.
I remain committed to the daily league sudoku project, and this will mean that a good chunk of the puzzles on this blog will remain sudoku and variants. There may be a few other types, but I wouldn't count on it for now. I'd very much encourage anyone who thinks they might want to get involved, to get involved. These are the best sudoku puzzles you find anywhere in the world, and they are coming out one a day. It's something I am very proud of and I hope it'll keep going for as long as possible!
As time allows, I'd like to start organising contributions and putting together a book to sell. There are many things to sort out here, and this is something I certainly won't have any time for until much later this year at the earliest. You'll have noticed that I've stopped putting together PDF's for the daily league - this job is currently being undertaken by Christof Seeliger, and you can find these files on the facebook group.
Perhaps some of my dearest readers have been a little disappointed that for the last year this blog has almost exclusively dealt in sudoku and variants. However, I'm sure you are all more than aware that I am currently a "Contributing Puzzlemaster" over at the Art of Puzzles blog. From now on I intend to put a post on this blog linking to the relevant post whenever one of my contributions appears. Given my UKPA priorities, this will be sporadic for much of this year, but perhaps it'd be reasonable to expect something at least once every 2-3 weeks from me there.
Whilst talking about Grandmaster Puzzles, it'd be remiss of me not to mention their Patreon page. The idea here is basically a way to voluntarily provide financial support for a project via a kickstarter-esque mechanism.
I am toying with the idea of setting up my own Patreon page, and I'd like to get some kind of feedback on whether this would piss anyone off. Let me make this clear: detuned radio will remain free to view and free of any ads as long as I have a nice free platform like blogger that allows me to do so. Creating puzzles remains a wonderful distraction which is reward enough without beginning to think about any kind of money.
I'm not sure I'd like to promise any Patreon rewards (solutions? Nice PDF's?) for any theoretical patronage just yet, but it would be nice to give those of my dearest readers who might like to express their generosity the opportunity to discretely do so, without getting in the face of my equally dearest readers who don't. I'll probably try and discuss this a little more in the next few weeks if I get some positive noises.
Finally, this puzzle needs a home - and given something very similar appeared on GM puzzles yesterday - I can't think of a better place than here as reward for putting up with my ramblings. Perhaps this should have gone up on the 1st, but whatever. Enjoy!
Firstly, my main priorities for the next few months lie with the UKPA, and with several major upcoming projects. First on the list are the UK Sudoku Championships and UK puzzle Championships, as well as hopefully a bit of website work.
I remain committed to the daily league sudoku project, and this will mean that a good chunk of the puzzles on this blog will remain sudoku and variants. There may be a few other types, but I wouldn't count on it for now. I'd very much encourage anyone who thinks they might want to get involved, to get involved. These are the best sudoku puzzles you find anywhere in the world, and they are coming out one a day. It's something I am very proud of and I hope it'll keep going for as long as possible!
As time allows, I'd like to start organising contributions and putting together a book to sell. There are many things to sort out here, and this is something I certainly won't have any time for until much later this year at the earliest. You'll have noticed that I've stopped putting together PDF's for the daily league - this job is currently being undertaken by Christof Seeliger, and you can find these files on the facebook group.
Perhaps some of my dearest readers have been a little disappointed that for the last year this blog has almost exclusively dealt in sudoku and variants. However, I'm sure you are all more than aware that I am currently a "Contributing Puzzlemaster" over at the Art of Puzzles blog. From now on I intend to put a post on this blog linking to the relevant post whenever one of my contributions appears. Given my UKPA priorities, this will be sporadic for much of this year, but perhaps it'd be reasonable to expect something at least once every 2-3 weeks from me there.
Whilst talking about Grandmaster Puzzles, it'd be remiss of me not to mention their Patreon page. The idea here is basically a way to voluntarily provide financial support for a project via a kickstarter-esque mechanism.
I am toying with the idea of setting up my own Patreon page, and I'd like to get some kind of feedback on whether this would piss anyone off. Let me make this clear: detuned radio will remain free to view and free of any ads as long as I have a nice free platform like blogger that allows me to do so. Creating puzzles remains a wonderful distraction which is reward enough without beginning to think about any kind of money.
I'm not sure I'd like to promise any Patreon rewards (solutions? Nice PDF's?) for any theoretical patronage just yet, but it would be nice to give those of my dearest readers who might like to express their generosity the opportunity to discretely do so, without getting in the face of my equally dearest readers who don't. I'll probably try and discuss this a little more in the next few weeks if I get some positive noises.
Finally, this puzzle needs a home - and given something very similar appeared on GM puzzles yesterday - I can't think of a better place than here as reward for putting up with my ramblings. Perhaps this should have gone up on the 1st, but whatever. Enjoy!
#279 Yajilin – rated mediumAll puzzles © Tom Collyer 2009-13.
Sunday, 28 April 2013
Tuesday, 25 September 2012
ChipIn for Children's Charities
With apologies to Grant for forgetting to publicise this on Friday, better late than never I hope!
Anyhow, I'd like to point all my dearest readers towards one of the oldest and best puzzle blogs, A Cleverly-Titled Logic Puzzle Blog. Grant is currently running a raffle style contest with some cool prizes, and heavily incentivising you to donate to three charities that are close to his heart whilst you solve. The more money you donate, the more raffle entries you get! And as an extra incentive, the more each of the three charities receives, the more giant-sized puzzling fun Grant will supply as he approaches his 600th (!!!) puzzle. He's currently at #569, see here for more details.
It's all in a good cause, and any contribution will be appreciated even more than you'll appreciate Grant's great puzzles. Which is quite a lot!
Anyhow, I'd like to point all my dearest readers towards one of the oldest and best puzzle blogs, A Cleverly-Titled Logic Puzzle Blog. Grant is currently running a raffle style contest with some cool prizes, and heavily incentivising you to donate to three charities that are close to his heart whilst you solve. The more money you donate, the more raffle entries you get! And as an extra incentive, the more each of the three charities receives, the more giant-sized puzzling fun Grant will supply as he approaches his 600th (!!!) puzzle. He's currently at #569, see here for more details.
It's all in a good cause, and any contribution will be appreciated even more than you'll appreciate Grant's great puzzles. Which is quite a lot!
Thursday, 17 May 2012
UKPA Beginners Contests
Well, I'm spamming this just about everywhere else I can think of. Anyway, if you've never done anything like this before now is the time to start!
The UKPA is pleased to announce a new monthly series of "Beginners Contests!"
These are contests open for a month, aimed at all those who find the myriad of puzzle contests a little intimidating. You can complete the contest in your own time, although if you are feeling competitive you are more than welcome to treat this as a sprint against the clock. The puzzles will be small, but not necessarily trivial to solve, and aim to get the less experienced solver more familiar with various puzzle styles within the framework of friendly competition.
Contest page: http://www.ukpuzzles.org/contests.php?contestid=26
Forum thread: http://forum.ukpuzzles.org/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=593
The UKPA is pleased to announce a new monthly series of "Beginners Contests!"
These are contests open for a month, aimed at all those who find the myriad of puzzle contests a little intimidating. You can complete the contest in your own time, although if you are feeling competitive you are more than welcome to treat this as a sprint against the clock. The puzzles will be small, but not necessarily trivial to solve, and aim to get the less experienced solver more familiar with various puzzle styles within the framework of friendly competition.
Contest page: http://www.ukpuzzles.org/contests.php?contestid=26
Forum thread: http://forum.ukpuzzles.org/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=593
Friday, 23 March 2012
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!
More details, and registration information here:
http://forum.ukpuzzles.org/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=541
Thursday, 9 February 2012
Blog opening soon!
Welcome, dearest reader, to the new home of detuned radio. This google blog account will be open for business very soon. What will happen to the Warwick blogs account is hard to say; so far as I'm still at Warwick, the answer will be nothing in terms of viewing the blog, but I think it's safe to say I'll lock the thing down so it becomes read-only.
After that I'm not sure. I think the blog will remain viewable, but because the puzzle image files are currently hosted on my personal web-space I don't think that will be of much use to anyone. Let's not kid ourselves about my blurbs most mediocre, dearest reader.
Anyhow, all is not lost as I think I'm able to transfer across all the posts, comments, tags and all to this shiny new blog. I dare say the formatting won't be quite right, and I'll need to spend an afternoon or something re-uploading images here but hopefully nothing will change. Exciting times ahead - enjoy!
After that I'm not sure. I think the blog will remain viewable, but because the puzzle image files are currently hosted on my personal web-space I don't think that will be of much use to anyone. Let's not kid ourselves about my blurbs most mediocre, dearest reader.
Anyhow, all is not lost as I think I'm able to transfer across all the posts, comments, tags and all to this shiny new blog. I dare say the formatting won't be quite right, and I'll need to spend an afternoon or something re-uploading images here but hopefully nothing will change. Exciting times ahead - enjoy!
Thursday, 7 July 2011
LMI July Puzzle Test
http://logicmastersindia.com/M201107P1/
This one is courtesy of yours truly. All I can say is this: if you like this blog, you should love this contest. I’m confident there should be something in this for everyone, from absolute beginners to seasoned puzzling champions alike.
Also, Friday Puzzles will be on time this week. Honest!
This one is courtesy of yours truly. All I can say is this: if you like this blog, you should love this contest. I’m confident there should be something in this for everyone, from absolute beginners to seasoned puzzling champions alike.
Also, Friday Puzzles will be on time this week. Honest!
Monday, 1 November 2010
UK Puzzle Association Sudoku Championship
As promised, here is some information regarding this event that I’ve been tirelessly working at for about 6 months. Honest!
Here’s a forum discussion thread: http://forum.ukpuzzles.org/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=61
And here’s a link to the instruction booklet: http://www.ukpuzzles.org/downloads.php
We don’t quite have the web interface live. The registration process is going to be handled via the forums, so if you wish to compete then you’ll have to sign up. Because this isn’t quite done, if you have already registered, you will probably have to go and change some of your account settings (e.g. your name and your nationality) in the next few days.
That’s about it for now – more coming soon!
Here’s a forum discussion thread: http://forum.ukpuzzles.org/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=61
And here’s a link to the instruction booklet: http://www.ukpuzzles.org/downloads.php
We don’t quite have the web interface live. The registration process is going to be handled via the forums, so if you wish to compete then you’ll have to sign up. Because this isn’t quite done, if you have already registered, you will probably have to go and change some of your account settings (e.g. your name and your nationality) in the next few days.
That’s about it for now – more coming soon!
Thursday, 15 July 2010
We're Gonna Groove
‘Fraid it’s not an early Friday puzzles entry, instead I have a couple of puzzle related announcements to make to all you friends, Romans and puzzle fans.
First up. The UK Puzzle Association is proud to announce its new (albeit still under construction) website, http://www.ukpuzzles.org. The UKPA will be the representative body for the UK to the World Puzzle Federation. What this means in practice is exciting new times for all British based puzzlers, with lots of projects in the pipeline. There’s already a discussion forum, with top notch puzzles, as well as probably the best Sudoku competition this side of a WSC to come. Although I might be slightly biased on that last point!
Secondly, a little pointer towards another promising looking Sudoku competition at the weekend, hosted by LMI and written by two-time World Champion Jan Mrozowski. Read all about it here and the competition page is here.
Finally, my partner in PhD-ing crime, Mr. Robert Tang has in his spare time been helping to organise the annual Sydney University Mathematics Society Puzzle hunt. This sort of thing is no doubt inspired by the (probably) world famous MIT Mystery Hunt, so if that’s the sort of thing to float your boat then you should mosey on straight down here
That is all. I’d better go write me a Friday puzzle!
First up. The UK Puzzle Association is proud to announce its new (albeit still under construction) website, http://www.ukpuzzles.org. The UKPA will be the representative body for the UK to the World Puzzle Federation. What this means in practice is exciting new times for all British based puzzlers, with lots of projects in the pipeline. There’s already a discussion forum, with top notch puzzles, as well as probably the best Sudoku competition this side of a WSC to come. Although I might be slightly biased on that last point!
Secondly, a little pointer towards another promising looking Sudoku competition at the weekend, hosted by LMI and written by two-time World Champion Jan Mrozowski. Read all about it here and the competition page is here.
Finally, my partner in PhD-ing crime, Mr. Robert Tang has in his spare time been helping to organise the annual Sydney University Mathematics Society Puzzle hunt. This sort of thing is no doubt inspired by the (probably) world famous MIT Mystery Hunt, so if that’s the sort of thing to float your boat then you should mosey on straight down here
That is all. I’d better go write me a Friday puzzle!
Monday, 25 January 2010
Friday Puzzles to return!
After a little break over Christmas and the new year, I’m pleased to announce that my Friday Puzzles will be returning!
The return has been inspired by two things. The first of which is a sudoku competition, created by Thomas Snyder. There is an awful lot that you could say about Thomas Snyder, but I think the thing that strikes me about him most is that if he doesn’t like something, he may well moan vociferously about it, but he’ll also offer his own take on how things could be fixed. His sudoku cup was, in part, his personal reaction to the fiasco in Zilina.
The second source of inspiration is the upcoming UK WSC qualifier, which I’d like to point my interested British readers to here. I’ve not entered yet; I’ll leave that until the last week as I don’t like waiting for ages and ages to see whether I’ve screwed up or not but in my experience the advertising for it is absolutely piss poor and generally not in the interests of picking the strongest possible UK team.
On the other hand, that’s a criticism I’ve laid at these online qualifiers the past couple of years anyway. Part of that criticism lies at the actual test itself – its collection of vanilla variants still hot from the Puzzler Media generator, coupled with a couple of Vladimir Portugalov’s safer variants, doesn’t really make for the best indicator of the sort of skill set required to excel at WSC on-site solving of more and zestier variants. Especially when the test is online only! There hasn’t been a UK WSC qualifier that hasn’t involved technical hitches either on the part of solvers, or on the part of Puzzler not being sure about cheats yet. Additionally, last year in Zilina, the two people who had qualified by virtue of their test performance were the 5th and 6th best performing of the 6 people representing the UK. Just sayin’.
On a personal note, I’ll add that in most countries where there is an offline national sudoku competition, the winner qualifies for the national team. That sounds pretty reasonable to me…
Anyhow, in response to this, I thought I’d like to improve upon their efforts. As such, in the coming weeks you can expect to see some of the variants you’d see on a UK WSC qualifier – so think a couple of classics, a couple of diagonals, a couple of odd/evens, a couple of killers – and then perhaps a couple Portugalov variants too. These will be better both in quality than the qualifier, and in principle because since there’s nothing at stake, there’s no point in cheating[*]. You (I couldn’t possibly; I’m natural partisan to this argument) might even contend that hypothetically, those who excel at my hand authored puzzles are better prepared for what will be thrown at them in Philadelphia than those who have learned the nuances of the generator.
Anyhow, even if you think all of the above is bollocks, then at least enjoy my puzzles, and I’ll be glad to have helped prepare those who intend to enter the UK qualifier in my own small little way.
[*] This implicitly challenges Puzzler’s assertion that there is no point in cheating simply because “standards are high”.
The return has been inspired by two things. The first of which is a sudoku competition, created by Thomas Snyder. There is an awful lot that you could say about Thomas Snyder, but I think the thing that strikes me about him most is that if he doesn’t like something, he may well moan vociferously about it, but he’ll also offer his own take on how things could be fixed. His sudoku cup was, in part, his personal reaction to the fiasco in Zilina.
The second source of inspiration is the upcoming UK WSC qualifier, which I’d like to point my interested British readers to here. I’ve not entered yet; I’ll leave that until the last week as I don’t like waiting for ages and ages to see whether I’ve screwed up or not but in my experience the advertising for it is absolutely piss poor and generally not in the interests of picking the strongest possible UK team.
On the other hand, that’s a criticism I’ve laid at these online qualifiers the past couple of years anyway. Part of that criticism lies at the actual test itself – its collection of vanilla variants still hot from the Puzzler Media generator, coupled with a couple of Vladimir Portugalov’s safer variants, doesn’t really make for the best indicator of the sort of skill set required to excel at WSC on-site solving of more and zestier variants. Especially when the test is online only! There hasn’t been a UK WSC qualifier that hasn’t involved technical hitches either on the part of solvers, or on the part of Puzzler not being sure about cheats yet. Additionally, last year in Zilina, the two people who had qualified by virtue of their test performance were the 5th and 6th best performing of the 6 people representing the UK. Just sayin’.
On a personal note, I’ll add that in most countries where there is an offline national sudoku competition, the winner qualifies for the national team. That sounds pretty reasonable to me…
Anyhow, in response to this, I thought I’d like to improve upon their efforts. As such, in the coming weeks you can expect to see some of the variants you’d see on a UK WSC qualifier – so think a couple of classics, a couple of diagonals, a couple of odd/evens, a couple of killers – and then perhaps a couple Portugalov variants too. These will be better both in quality than the qualifier, and in principle because since there’s nothing at stake, there’s no point in cheating[*]. You (I couldn’t possibly; I’m natural partisan to this argument) might even contend that hypothetically, those who excel at my hand authored puzzles are better prepared for what will be thrown at them in Philadelphia than those who have learned the nuances of the generator.
Anyhow, even if you think all of the above is bollocks, then at least enjoy my puzzles, and I’ll be glad to have helped prepare those who intend to enter the UK qualifier in my own small little way.
[*] This implicitly challenges Puzzler’s assertion that there is no point in cheating simply because “standards are high”.
Wednesday, 23 December 2009
I Might Be Wrong
And so as one mind-numbingly large mass sweeps out the last remnants of the approximately planar elliptically shaped space in the heavens above, with the other even more mind-numbingly massive – er – mass squiggling about somewhere in the middle, the year fades away with a festivity induced stupor; a stupor one might add that has consequences that aspire to be swept away as once more the point of something resembling periodicity is reached. All that might tell you that for the next coming weeks, Friday Puzzles is going to be on hold.
Although, I might be wrong. Well, not about Friday Puzzles being on hold, because it is. The subtle implication in using the words “on hold” however suggests that it might be back in the new year, but at this point I’m not sure that it will – or at least that it’ll be back in a hurry.
Now this is not because I’ve suddenly become massively disillusioned with puzzles, or even writing them. That said, I can’t claim to be the most varied, nor prolific, nor even author of the highest quality puzzles out there – not be a long shot on all three counts – but they are pretty decent and I’m sure people enjoy them. Indeed, according to Google analytics which I set up at the end of September, I have had 854 visits (albeit a few of those will have been me) from places that range as far as Los Angeles, Lima, New York, Vancouver, Rio de Janeiro, Tokyo, London, Sofia, Berlin, Shanghai, Melbourne, Delhi – and – Kenilworth (it must be said at this point that I’m still a little befuddled by being referred to by Google via the search terms “girl from glamorgan barrel organ”). There is then, some worth to what I have been doing over the past year.
No, the reason for the pause is just the need for a break. Burning yourself out, and especially burning yourself out whilst chasing arbitrarily self-imposed deadlines, doesn’t make much sense to me. Not that there is much concrete evidence of this immediately apparent to my own eyes, it’s more just a feeling I’ve got of impending staleness. How terrifying!
Despite the self-indulgent nature then, of my series, I am in danger of making this post a little too self-indulgent for its own good. Puzzles will appear on this blog in the future, and I hope that they do so in the Friday Puzzles format – but perhaps not for a while, and perhaps not before I try my hand at a more traditional use for a blog (did I say I STILL hate that ugly ugly word) – that of writing. Although, to end on a suitably sardonic note, many blogs out there on the interweb wouldn’t know writing if it came up to them, engaged them in a duel and then lopped off their heads.
Adios, a merry Christmas to you all, and a happy new year!
Although, I might be wrong. Well, not about Friday Puzzles being on hold, because it is. The subtle implication in using the words “on hold” however suggests that it might be back in the new year, but at this point I’m not sure that it will – or at least that it’ll be back in a hurry.
Now this is not because I’ve suddenly become massively disillusioned with puzzles, or even writing them. That said, I can’t claim to be the most varied, nor prolific, nor even author of the highest quality puzzles out there – not be a long shot on all three counts – but they are pretty decent and I’m sure people enjoy them. Indeed, according to Google analytics which I set up at the end of September, I have had 854 visits (albeit a few of those will have been me) from places that range as far as Los Angeles, Lima, New York, Vancouver, Rio de Janeiro, Tokyo, London, Sofia, Berlin, Shanghai, Melbourne, Delhi – and – Kenilworth (it must be said at this point that I’m still a little befuddled by being referred to by Google via the search terms “girl from glamorgan barrel organ”). There is then, some worth to what I have been doing over the past year.
No, the reason for the pause is just the need for a break. Burning yourself out, and especially burning yourself out whilst chasing arbitrarily self-imposed deadlines, doesn’t make much sense to me. Not that there is much concrete evidence of this immediately apparent to my own eyes, it’s more just a feeling I’ve got of impending staleness. How terrifying!
Despite the self-indulgent nature then, of my series, I am in danger of making this post a little too self-indulgent for its own good. Puzzles will appear on this blog in the future, and I hope that they do so in the Friday Puzzles format – but perhaps not for a while, and perhaps not before I try my hand at a more traditional use for a blog (did I say I STILL hate that ugly ugly word) – that of writing. Although, to end on a suitably sardonic note, many blogs out there on the interweb wouldn’t know writing if it came up to them, engaged them in a duel and then lopped off their heads.
Adios, a merry Christmas to you all, and a happy new year!
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