Puzzling

I love Sudoku. I have been doing them for about a year now. The “easy” ones are done in about 4 minutes. I can do most of the “moderate” ones in 8-10. Every once in a while I’ll try the “hard” level and spend about three quarters of an hour to get it done and then go do an easy one to build my confidence back up. I like the Miniclip interface. I also play on my Palm. The Palm only has one setting and it is about like the Miniclip moderate level. The Palm version also gives you hints if you get stuck and explains why a certain number goes there. I have not understood the swordfish rule yet but it tells me I can eliminate a number in a particular box because of it. I like Sudoku because I don’t like crossword puzzles. I would like to do crosswords but I have never completed one. My dad likes crossword puzzles. Their house is filled with crossword puzzles. I like numbers. I have been looking at how the Palm and Miniclip generates their puzzles. I believe the Palm fills the screen with a finished puzzle and then removes numbers in a pattern until it reaches the difficulty level that has been programmed into it. The Miniclip version looks much the same. I have a book at home of lots of puzzles and there is no pattern to the starting puzzle. I have tried to do the Super Sudoku puzzles that go up to twelve, but they are more challenging than what I am ready for.