2009 March | Swampy's Weblog

31Mar/090

Sudoku Tips Site Launches

Sudoku tips on the internet are a dime a dozen. The problem is finding good sudoku tips that will really tell you how to solve a sudoku. There are lots of internet sudoku sites. You can find sudoku grids, sudoku rules, printable sudoku puzzles. There are even online sudoku solvers.

With all this noise there is truly a place for every sudoku fan. No matter what your level of expertise you can find a resource that offers the exact sudoku strategies you need, even if you specialize in killer sudoku or fiendish sudoku or whatever hair-raising name they have attached to puzzles at your comfort level. Here are some of the gradations of sudoku puzzles I've come across.

Moderate sudoku
Hard sudoku
Genius sudoku
Killer sudoku
Monster sudoku

When it comes to solving sudoku puzzles one is confronted with

sudoku rules
sudoku strategies
sudoku triples
how to solve a sudoku
solve sudoku online
sudoku logic

Its enough to cross your eyes and make your head ache. So, there's a new blog devoted to the sudoku game. The name of the blog is Sudoku Playground, although I expect they'll change that soon. I certainly would! The url is epleasures.startlogic.com/sudoku. One more resource where you can learn how to solve sudoku quickly. If your hooked on sudoku like I am, keep an eye on it. It could develop into a pretty good resource.

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30Mar/090

Skype Application for Iphone

: Image via Wikipedia

Today, Skype announced the release of a new iphone app that will let users make calls whenever they have access to a wireless network. This begins to fulfill the promise of a truly agile mobile phone.

This was one of the most anticipated features of the iphone and it was talked about long before the iphone appeared. The idea was that the phone would always be aware of what networks were available to it and would be able to place a call using the cheapest alternative available to it. If a wireless network was available it would use VOIP. Nowadays, smart phones are always aware of their network neighborhood, but they still place their calls using the cellular network.

I'm personally convinced that this state of affairs has nothing whatsoever to do with technology. Portable VOIP phones have been available for at least two years, so how hard can it be to add a VOIP capability to a standard mobile phone? The problem with VOIP is that nobody has really figured out how to make money from it. Vonage has made a good start, but they are in effect charging you again for bandwidth you have already paid for if you use it at home. The cable companies solved the problem by using a VLAN on the same network that provides your internet access. Nobody, however, has come up with a way of charging the casual wi-fi user for their phone calls made using some protocol like Skype.

I use a Blackberry Bold myself. To the best of my knowledge there is no Skype application available for that. While the phone does detect and connect with wireless networks, I suspect some of the programs use the 3g network no matter what. I'm almost always connected to some wi-fi network, either at home or at work, and yet I still seem to consume an awful lot of billable bandwidth. This pisses me off somewhat. Why should I be forced to pay 3g prices for service when I have already paid for cable internet. To make things worse, in my area it is the same providor offering both services. Bitch, bitch, bitch.

My crackberry is wonderful. I really love it. Just can't help feeling that I'm paying twice for something when I use it for anything besides a phone.

Welcome to the Dollhouse Six Weeks In

202px-eliza_dushku_by_david_shankbone_crop So far, I really like it. The story is coming along well. Eliza is great as Echo. Probably I would describe myself as interested. That means I try not to miss it, but I'm not yet in love with it the way I was with Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

My biggest regret is that I knew too much about the show before it ever started. I find myself wishing that I had started out totally naive, knowing only that Eliza Dushku was doing a new action show and that Joss Whedon was directing. That would have been enough to snag me.

Knowing as much as I did has meant that a lot of the ways in which the nature and reality of the dollhouse are being revealed are totally invisible to me. There is all kinds of cinematic craft going on and I'm missing it because I already know the answers that are being hinted at.

One hint I may have picked up on is that the Dollhouse may be a slow attempt at taking over the world. Apparently, there are dollhouses all over the world, not just the one in LA so this seems like part of a world wide plan. It may turn out to be simply big corporations trying to impose a world where the rich do what they want and the rest are perfect slaves. On the other hand, it could be aliens or demons. Probably even the creators of the show haven't decided yet.

Last thought: has anyone wondered about the pods the dolls sleep in? Pods are what the seeds were called in Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Is this coincidence or a foreshadowing of the ultimate purpose of the dolls? Why are the pods arranged in groups of five? Something else I've wondered about is whether the dolls sleeping in pods is intended to trigger a recollection of vampires sleeping in the earth? Is there a possible signifcance to that? Probably Joss Whedon doesn't even know at this point. He's mostly just making it up as he goes along, searching for what works.