Category: Archive

I wrote up a brief essay that outlines my method of creating a good puzzle geocache.

Stuck on a puzzle that requires you to become a codebreaker? The Secret Code Breaker can help. The site provides a number of free codebreaking tools that I’ve found far more useful in some circumstances than many other online tools.

One of the most useful ones is the Monoalphabetic Substitution Cipher Solver – while there are many cryptogram solvers available on the web already, this one has the ability to solve cryptograms when the spaces are removed.

KenKen, which began appearing in The New York Times in February, is a new numerical logic puzzle from Japan. The name means loosely “cleverness squared.”

KenKen shares some properties with sudoku. Each is a pure logic challenge in which numbers are filled in the squares of a grid. Unlike sudoku, though, in which the numbers act solely as symbols (letters or pictures would work as well), KenKen requires arithmetic.

The rules are simple: Fill the grid with digits so as not to repeat a digit within any row or column, and so the digits within each heavily outlined box (called a cage) go together using the arithmetic operation shown to make the target number indicated.

Wired Magazine has entered the puzzle publishing game with its May 2009 issue. If you don’t have a copy of the magazine, you can download all of the puzzles online.

If you like both cars and puzzles, you’ll like the Car Talk Puzzler. Heck, even if you don’t like cars, you’ll still like the Puzzler. The puzzles fall into four categories: automotive, semi-automotive, non-automotive, and boooooooooooGUS!

Apparently, puzzles can prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s Disease. This is a good thing for me, since I have a history of that disease in my family!

There is a wonderful library of tools useful in cracking classical ciphers available at rumkin.com. This is typically the first place I go when trying to solve a puzzle that involves cracking a cipher.

Directed by New York Times Crossword Puzzle Editor Will Shortz, the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament is the nation’s oldest and largest crossword competition. Solvers tackle eight original crosswords created and edited specially for this event. Scoring is based on accuracy and speed. Prizes are awarded in more than 20 categories, including a $5,000 grand prize. Evening games, guest speakers, and a wine and cheese reception allow solvers to meet each other in a relaxed and entertaining atmosphere.

I’ve started a geocaching bookmark list called Puzzles Worth Solving. These puzzles represent what I feel is the best investment of your time for the biggest amount of satisfaction.

If you enjoy wordplay (and, frankly, who doesn’t?), then you’ll love the National Puzzlers League. The NPL is a self-described eclectic crowd who enjoy all forms of wordplay and are continuing the traditions of “The World’s Oldest Puzzlers’ Organization”.