Update

[zotmeister]

I have a stop-gap email address set up - I actually may end up using it as my primary even after I switch ISPs. It's on my profile page, natch.

For the time being, it looks like I'll be abusing LiveJournal's own Scrapbook feature in order to get my puzzle images back up, but it definitely feels like a kludge and will likely be reworked once I encounter a better option. I also have to recreate the scaled-up puzzle images one at a time, so this will take awhile. On the plus side, it has given me the opportunity to revisit the scaling method; I'm now using a hybrid (I wish I'd thought of that sooner) that should keep both the retro-pixel feel and soft egdes without being so blurry on non-CRT displays (such as on paper...). I'm also tagging the puzzles by type as I go. As I'm typing this, only Puzzle 1 is done - tell me what you think of the new style (it's not too late for me to change it...).

ObTeaser: Consider a 3x3 Sudoku grid with the minimum number of givens needed to make it uniquely solvable (which would be 2). Now strip it of its regions, so we are left with a 3x3 Latin Square with givens matching the Sudoku in corresponding cells. That Latin Square will be uniquely solvable if and only if... Finish that sentence. - ZM

Comments

[cyrebjr.livejournal.com]

the two clues are in different rows and columns. (Naturally, there couldn't be a unique solution in the original puzzle without different digits.)

[zotmeister]

You got it. The proof is surprisingly simple: Any 3x3 Latin Square is uniquely solvable with two unaligned givens (you only need one case and transforms will generate all others), and would have two solutions with aligned givens, with the Sudoku regions needed to pick one.

Also, icon love♥ - ZM

[cyrebjr.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I made it myself.

I don't suppose I could convince you to commission me for an ambigram, could I? It can be much bigger, of course.

[zotmeister]

That sort of epicness would have to wait. However, I can friend you - something I clearly should have done years ago. - ZM