Thursday, July 14, 2005

Sudoku: Now With More DQ

I enjoyed today's Sudoku puzzle so much that I intended to mention it again. I've also received a bunch of e-mails cursing me for putting up that link, because it is totally, ridiculously addictive.

Then I got an e-mail from long-time DQ reader Scott Gould:
I noticed that you linked to the USA Today version of Sudoku. My father, Wayne Gould, is regarded as the "populariser" of Sudoku, at least in its current sweep over the western world. I'd be remiss if I didn't at least point you to his game at www.sudoku.com -- if you feel like some tougher puzzles, give it a try.

That was so cool I felt like bursting into song or something. Well, except I can't stand people who do that.

Here's part of the Wikipedia entry (available in its entirety at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudoku):
In 1997, retired Hong Kong judge Wayne Gould, 59, a New Zealander, was enticed by seeing a partly completed puzzle in a Japanese bookshop. He went on to develop a computer program that spontaneously produces puzzles; this took over six years. He promoted the puzzle to The Times in Britain, which launched it on 12 November 2004. Three days later The Daily Mail began to publish the puzzle under the name "Codenumber". Nationwide News Pty Ltd began publishing the puzzle in The Daily Telegraph on 20 May 2005; five puzzles with solutions were printed that day. The puzzles by Pappocom, Wayne Gould's software house, have been printed daily ever since. The immense popularity of Sudoku in British newspapers and internationally has led to it being dubbed in the world media in 2005 variously as "the Rubik's cube of the 21st century" or the "fastest growing puzzle in the world".

That made my day.

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