motris (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} motris) wrote,@ 2008-03-30 11:49:00 |
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World Soduku Champion
So there have been a couple times that the misuse of language has inspired a puzzle and this entry will represent another such case.
Paint-by-Sudoku, a renaming of the Paint By Numbers/Nonogram puzzle type, had little to do with sudoku. I created two versions that actually involved sudoku, with my favorite being Paint-by-Number Place. While I created my Battleship Sudoku before another company released a piece of software with the same name that are just Battleship puzzles, my version actually involves solving both puzzle types and is a correct application of the first definition of sudoku, before the apparent secondary definition of sudoku: "buy me, I must be good". If you haven't already preordered it, you'll soon see Battleship Sudoku in B&N stores as its official release date is Tuesday.
Well, something that always perturbs me, particularly with press reporters, is the difficulty of spelling/saying the word "sudoku". When I get an email requesting a "sudoko interview" in the subject, I'll return it as "sudoko [sic] interview" without further comment on the unfortunate mistake. It may seem a bit obnoxious on my part, but somehow it rarely gets corrected by the time they publish. But the problem is not limited to the press; even my publisher, when printing my advance checks, was paying me for "Battleship Soduko", a title I don't recall writing.
The problem is not just when writing the word, sudoku is also apparently quite a hard word to say. In fact, its interesting that the ways people mispell the word are not the ways they mispronounce the word. The most common errors on both ends are with o's and u's so I'll focus on them. If the correct spelling is sudoku (1,1,1), I'm most used to seeing sudoko (1,1,-1) and soduko (-1,-1,-1). If the correct pronunciation is "sue-doh-kew" (1,1,1), I'm most used to hearing "sue-dew-kew" (1,-1,1) or "so-dew-kew" (-1,-1,1). When written, the last letter is the most common error. When spoken, everyone tends to get that last sound right but butchers something else.
This analysis is silly, but it suggests to me that there are probably 7 undiscovered puzzles with similar names that I am also considered by most to be the world champion of. Here is my attempt to create one such puzzle.
-------------------------
Soduku is not the puzzle first invented by Howard Garns even if he is sometimes credited with it. Soduku is a creation of mine. If you say it fast, you might think I said "So, Dooku." This is on purpose, so this puzzle must be a Star (Wars) Battle variant.
In each of the square grids below, you will position jedi such that there is 1 jedi in each row/column/bold region (in the 9x9 puzzle, you will place 2 jedi in each row/column/bold region). Jedi have incredible powers, so no two jedi can be placed in adjacent squares, even diagonally.
When the universe is at peace, this situation should remind you of a typical star (wars) battle puzzle, but these jedi are under assault from a bunch of battle droids sent by the evil Count Dooku. Arrows outside the grid represent incoming laser blasts from these droids. These blasts must not be allowed to hit any of the jedi. To protect themselves and to destroy the droids, the jedi have lightsabers that can reflect the blasts. These lightsabers must point to a vertically or horizontally adjacent square from each jedi and cannot overlap in the same square. All diagonally fired lasers from the droids will be reflected at least once to eventually hit another droid firing from somewhere else. If a number is on an arrow, that number represents the number of light sabers the laser contacts before leaving the grid to hit another droid. There are some droids that do not fire diagonal blasts, but instead aim directly at a jedi by firing a vertical/horizontal shot. To protect himself, this jedi must point his lightsaber directly back at that droid. Finally, all jedi are critical to this battle - each lightsaber must be hit by at least one laser blast. The example below will show you all of these rules in action.
These puzzles are all solvable by logic, even if the rules are a bit crazy. Until next time, when you could potentially see puzzles like sodoku (which would obviously have an epidemiological focus) or suduku (which challenges you to identify sentences written in legalese versus sentences in Yoda-speak).
[Forecast: Things are heating up]
Soduku #1
1 jedi per row/column/region
[Forecast: Dangerous rays]
Soduku #2
2 jedi per row/column/region
So there have been a couple times that the misuse of language has inspired a puzzle and this entry will represent another such case.
Paint-by-Sudoku, a renaming of the Paint By Numbers/Nonogram puzzle type, had little to do with sudoku. I created two versions that actually involved sudoku, with my favorite being Paint-by-Number Place. While I created my Battleship Sudoku before another company released a piece of software with the same name that are just Battleship puzzles, my version actually involves solving both puzzle types and is a correct application of the first definition of sudoku, before the apparent secondary definition of sudoku: "buy me, I must be good". If you haven't already preordered it, you'll soon see Battleship Sudoku in B&N stores as its official release date is Tuesday.
Well, something that always perturbs me, particularly with press reporters, is the difficulty of spelling/saying the word "sudoku". When I get an email requesting a "sudoko interview" in the subject, I'll return it as "sudoko [sic] interview" without further comment on the unfortunate mistake. It may seem a bit obnoxious on my part, but somehow it rarely gets corrected by the time they publish. But the problem is not limited to the press; even my publisher, when printing my advance checks, was paying me for "Battleship Soduko", a title I don't recall writing.
The problem is not just when writing the word, sudoku is also apparently quite a hard word to say. In fact, its interesting that the ways people mispell the word are not the ways they mispronounce the word. The most common errors on both ends are with o's and u's so I'll focus on them. If the correct spelling is sudoku (1,1,1), I'm most used to seeing sudoko (1,1,-1) and soduko (-1,-1,-1). If the correct pronunciation is "sue-doh-kew" (1,1,1), I'm most used to hearing "sue-dew-kew" (1,-1,1) or "so-dew-kew" (-1,-1,1). When written, the last letter is the most common error. When spoken, everyone tends to get that last sound right but butchers something else.
This analysis is silly, but it suggests to me that there are probably 7 undiscovered puzzles with similar names that I am also considered by most to be the world champion of. Here is my attempt to create one such puzzle.
-------------------------
Soduku is not the puzzle first invented by Howard Garns even if he is sometimes credited with it. Soduku is a creation of mine. If you say it fast, you might think I said "So, Dooku." This is on purpose, so this puzzle must be a Star (Wars) Battle variant.
In each of the square grids below, you will position jedi such that there is 1 jedi in each row/column/bold region (in the 9x9 puzzle, you will place 2 jedi in each row/column/bold region). Jedi have incredible powers, so no two jedi can be placed in adjacent squares, even diagonally.
When the universe is at peace, this situation should remind you of a typical star (wars) battle puzzle, but these jedi are under assault from a bunch of battle droids sent by the evil Count Dooku. Arrows outside the grid represent incoming laser blasts from these droids. These blasts must not be allowed to hit any of the jedi. To protect themselves and to destroy the droids, the jedi have lightsabers that can reflect the blasts. These lightsabers must point to a vertically or horizontally adjacent square from each jedi and cannot overlap in the same square. All diagonally fired lasers from the droids will be reflected at least once to eventually hit another droid firing from somewhere else. If a number is on an arrow, that number represents the number of light sabers the laser contacts before leaving the grid to hit another droid. There are some droids that do not fire diagonal blasts, but instead aim directly at a jedi by firing a vertical/horizontal shot. To protect himself, this jedi must point his lightsaber directly back at that droid. Finally, all jedi are critical to this battle - each lightsaber must be hit by at least one laser blast. The example below will show you all of these rules in action.
These puzzles are all solvable by logic, even if the rules are a bit crazy. Until next time, when you could potentially see puzzles like sodoku (which would obviously have an epidemiological focus) or suduku (which challenges you to identify sentences written in legalese versus sentences in Yoda-speak).
[Forecast: Things are heating up]
Soduku #1
1 jedi per row/column/region
[Forecast: Dangerous rays]
Soduku #2
2 jedi per row/column/region
