The New Sudoku Players' Forum

[simes]

Pappocom, I was surprised to read that you supply newspapers with puzzles for free. I guess I assumed you made (or supplemented) a living from supplying them.

Is it a hobby? Or do you hope to drive up interest and sales of your program?

Just wondered!

[Pappocom]

Is it a hobby? Or do you hope to drive up interest and sales of your program?

Both, really.

On the altruistic side, I believe the puzzle deserves to be better known, around the world. I'm a puzzle fan. Further, I'm retired, and extra income - though nice - is not vital. Also, I'm proud of my puzzles and my program.

On the other hand, people won't buy the program if they don't know about Sudoku.

- Wayne

[Guest]

There must be some money to be made.
Some company's made an entire magazine called 'Su-doku Selection' which goes on sale on Thursday. From the promotional bumph it looks better value than The Times book and contains a few different puzzles too.

[causbrite]

Is this magazine UK or US or elsewhere? Who is publishing it? Is it a one off or reular? More info please Newsagent

[Guest]

UK only at the moment, by H Bauer Publishing Ltd - same people who supply Take a Puzzle and Take a Crossword.
According to the stuff i've got, it appears to be monthly. The first issue's on sale tomorrow and the second one's out 9th June.
Hope that helps. Looks like a conveniently small handbag-sized magazine with a green cover.

[RFB]

Is it a hobby? Or do you hope to drive up interest and sales of your program?

Both, really.

On the altruistic side, I believe the puzzle deserves to be better known, around the world. I'm a puzzle fan. Further, I'm retired, and extra income - though nice - is not vital. Also, I'm proud of my puzzles and my program.

On the other hand, people won't buy the program if they don't know about Sudoku.

- Wayne

Well the appearance of the puzzles in papers has encouraged me to hand over my $14.95+VAT so it is working.
Most British daily papers now seem to have a suduko puzzle so they are certainly becoming well known - I missed the feature that BBC Breakfast TV was planning for this morning on the craze.

I know Wayne trys to keep his puzzle generation techniques secret but I wonder how long it will be before someone publishes a set of puzzles generated by the program and claims them as their own work.
Can you claim copyright on a machine generated set of numbers?
Are the programs puzzles 'different' from hand generated puzzles or those from another program in an identifiable way?

[Guest]

I don't know too much about the history of Sudoku, but could this be in the same category as the guy who invented the spreadsheet and decided not to patent it because it was too valuable to mankind??