Olympic Flame Arrive Kuala Lumpur

Finally, the Olympic flame had arrived KLIA (Kuala Lumpur International Airport) from Bangkok in 20th.April early morning. The Beijing Olympic torch relay will be started today (21st.April) 2:00pm from Dataran Merdeka until KLCC. The flame will also be carried to the top of Kuala Lumpur Tower before ending at KLCC. The Kuala Lumpur leg would properly take about 4 hrs to complete and about 80 selected runners will be involved in this 16.5km run, after the launching ceremony in Dataran Merdeka. Meanwhile most of the major road entrance will be temporary blocked until the event is successfully completed.

This time, only 21 cities outside China were given the privilege to host a leg of the Olympic torch relay and it is only the second time Malaysians will get to witness the historic event up close.
Malaysia last hosted a leg of the torch relay in 1964 when Japan became the first Asian country to host the Olympics.

Since the pro-Tibetan independence activists had disrupted the run in London and Paris, security has become an issue at each leg of the torch relay. In fact, the relay route was also been modified in San Francisco because of security concerns. Thus, Malaysia would also pay extra attention on the security to ensure smoothness of the torch relay. About 1,000 policemen would be in the torch run group to ensure that nothing untoward happens during the relay. The Special Action Squad will form a cordon around the torchbearers throughout the route.

Sudoku Challenge 2008 Asia Pacific Open

Now have you filled up yourself enough with Sudoku skills, tactics and experience? Want to test your talents and challenge other Sudoku's players? The chance is coming. Over $100,000 in cash and prizes are waiting for you.

According to www.sudoku.com.my , BRAND’S® Singapore will be hosting the inaugural BRAND’S® Asia Pacific Sudoku Challenge 2008. Sudoku experts from around the region are invited to put their skills to the test for a chance at the crowning glory of BRAND’S® Asia Pacific Sudoku Challenge 2008 Champion.

BRAND’S® Sudoku Challenge 2008 Asia Pacific will be held in Singapore on July 5 and the top prizes of the Challenge are:

• 1st prize winner - $10,000 cash prize, $300 BRAND’S® Hamper, Trophy and Certificate
  
• 2nd prize winner - $5,000 cash prize, $300 BRAND’S® Hamper, Trophy and Certificate
  
• 3rd prize winner - $2,500 cash prize, $300 BRAND’S® Hamper, Trophy and Certificate

To be eligible for BRAND’S® Sudoku Challenge 2008 Asia Pacific, participants must reside in the Asia Pacific region and have accomplished the following.

• Ranked Top 3 in a national-level Sudoku competition or be nominated by a National Sudoku or Puzzle association to represent your country.
  
• Has recognised expert ability to solve Sudoku puzzles e.g. Participation in the Math Olympiad, MENSA member, etc.
  
• A small registration fee of SG$10 applies to Challengers who have qualified for BRAND’S® Sudoku Challenge 2008 Asia Pacific Open. This fee will only be collected after eligibility has been confirmed. Payment must be received by May 25, 2008.
  

All applications must be received by May 25, 2008. Their Organising Committee will review all applications and eligibility given on a rolling basis. All decisions made by the BSC08 Organising Committee are final. Challengers will have to be physically present in Singapore for the Finals held on July 5 2008. Challengers will also need to present a photo ID at the event as proof of identification.

To take part, you may fill in and submit the registration form to " enquiries@imsg.sg " or fax it to +65 6479 3633. You can download the eligibility form from sudoku.com.my.

For more information about the BRAND’S® Asia Pacific Sudoku Challenge 2008, you may call +65 6479 3733 (Between the office hours of 9.30 am and 5.00 pm) or check out the website at http://www.stomp.com.sg/BRANDSSudokuChallenge08/ .

Sudoku Strategy

There are different levels of Sudoku offer from each publishers, basically from easy until extreme difficult. Not only that, you Sudoku skill also measure from how fast you solve the game. Thus, many publisher not only provide the games format, but also strategies on solving the puzzle.

Basically, the strategy is focused on a combination of three processes, Scanning, Marking Up, and Analyzing. The approach to analysis may vary according to the concepts and the representations on which it is based.


Scanning
Scanning is performed at the outset and throughout the solution. Scans need be performed only once between analyses. Scanning consists of two techniques:

• Cross-hatching: The scanning of rows to identify which line in a region may contain a certain numeral by a process of elimination. The process is repeated with the columns. It is important to perform this process systematically, checking all of the digits 1–9.
• Counting 1–9 in regions, rows, and columns to identify missing numerals. Counting based upon the last numeral discovered may speed up the search. It also can be the case, particularly in tougher puzzles, that the best way to ascertain the value of a cell is to count in reverse—that is, by scanning the cell's region, row, and column for values it cannot be, in order to see what remains.
  Advanced solvers look for "contingencies" while scanning, narrowing a numeral's location within a row, column, or region to two or three cells. When those cells lie within the same row and region, they can be used for elimination during cross-hatching and counting. Puzzles solved by scanning alone without requiring the detection of contingencies are classified as "easy"; more difficult puzzles are not readily solved by basic scanning alone.

Marking up
Scanning stops when no further numerals can be discovered, making it necessary to engage in logical analysis. One method to guide the analysis is to mark candidate numerals in the blank cells.

• Subscript notation
  In subscript notation, the candidate numerals are written in subscript in the cells. Because puzzles printed in a newspaper are too small to accommodate more than a few subscript digits of normal handwriting, solvers may create a larger copy of the puzzle. Using two colours, or mixing pencil and pen marks can be helpful.
  
• Dot notation
  The dot notation uses a pattern of dots in each square, where the dot position indicates a number from 1 to 9. The dot notation can be used on the original puzzle. Dexterity is required in placing the dots, since misplaced dots or inadvertent marks lead to confusion and may not be easily erased.
  Another technique is to mark the numerals that a cell cannot be. The cell starts empty and as more constraints become known, it slowly fills until only one mark is missing. Assuming no mistakes are made and the marks can be overwritten with the value of a cell, there is no longer a need for any erasures.

Analysis
The two main approaches to analysis are "candidate elimination" and "what-if".

• Candidate elimination
  In "candidate elimination", progress is made by successively eliminating candidate numerals to leave one choice for a given cell. After each answer is found, another scan may be performed—usually checking to see the effect on contingencies. In general, if entering a numeral prevents completion of other empty cells, then the numeral can be eliminated as a candidate.
  One method of candidate elimination works by identifying "matched cell groups". For instance, if precisely two cells within a scope (a particular row, column, or region) contain the same two candidate numerals (p,q), or if precisely three cells within a scope contain the same three candidate numerals (p,q,r), these cells are said to be matched. The placement of those candidate numerals anywhere else within the same scope would make a solution impossible, allowing the numbers to be eliminated as candidates from those other cells.
  
• What-if
  In the "what-if" approach (also called "guess-and-check", "bifurcation", "backtracking" and "Ariadne's thread"), a cell with two candidate numerals is selected, and a guess is made. The results are followed until a duplication is found or a cell is left without a candidate, in which case the alternative must have been the solution. For each cell's candidate, the question is posed: 'will entering a particular numeral prevent completion of the other placements of that numeral?' If 'yes', then that candidate can be eliminated. If the "what-if" exercises show that either candidate is possible, then another pair should be tried. Alternatively, if the "what-if" exercises for both candidates imply an identical result, then that result is known. The what-if approach requires a pencil and eraser or a good layout memory.
  There are three kind of conflicts, which can appear during puzzle solving:
  1. Basic conflicts - there are only N-1 different candidates in N cell in the area
  2. Fish conflicts - when eliminating number from N rows/columns, it will disappear also from N+1 columns/rows.
  3. Unique conflicts - this pattern means multiple solutions, all numbers in the pattern exist exactly two times in every area, row and column. If there is only one candidate in the cell, any virtual candidate can be added.
  Encountering any of those would indicate that the puzzle is not uniquely solvable. Encountering any of them as a consequence of "what-if" indicates that an untried alternative is correct.

To get more skills and tactics, you may refer to below webpages:

- http://www.sudokudragon.com/sudokustrategy.htm

- http://www.scanraid.com/Strategy_Families

- http://www.sudokuessentials.com/sudoku-strategy.html

- http://www.sudoku9981.com/sudoku-solving/

- http://sudoku.com.au/sudokutips.aspx

Sudoku

What is Sudoku ?
According to definition given by wikipedia, Sudoku is " a logic-based number placement puzzle. The name Sudoku(数独) is short for "数字は独身に限る" which is read, "Sūji wa dokushin ni kagiru", meaning "the numbers must be single", or "the numbers must occur only once". The name is a trademark of puzzle publisher Nikoli Co. Ltd. in Japan. Other Japanese publishers refer to the puzzle as Number Place, the original U.S. title, or as "Nanpure"(ナンプレ) for short. Some publishers spell the title as "Su Doku".

The objective is to fill a 9×9 grid so that each column, each row, and each of the nine 3×3 boxes (also called blocks or regions) contains the digits from 1 to 9 only one time each. The puzzle setter provides a partially completed grid.

Completed Sudoku puzzles are a type of Latin square, with an additional constraint on the contents of individual regions. Leonhard Euler is sometimes incorrectly cited as the source of the puzzle, based on his work with Latin squares.

The modern puzzle was invented by an American architect, Howard Garns, in 1979 and published by Dell Magazines under the name "Number Place". It became popular in Japan in 1986, after it was published by Nikoli and given the name Sudoku, meaning single number. It became an international hit in 2005."

Some History Background about Sudoku.
Number puzzles first appeared in newspapers in the late 19th century, when French puzzle setters began experimenting with removing numbers from magic squares. Le Siècle, a Paris-based daily, published a partially completed 9×9 magic square with 3×3 sub-squares in 1892. It was not a Sudoku because it contained double-digit numbers and required arithmetic rather than logic to solve, but it shared key characteristics: each row, column and sub-square added up to the same number.

Within three years Le Siècle's rival, La France, refined the puzzle so that it was almost a modern Sudoku. It simplified the 9×9 magic square puzzle so that each row and column contained only the numbers 1–9, but did not mark the sub-squares. Although they are unmarked, each 3×3 sub-square does indeed comprise the numbers 1–9. However, the puzzle cannot be considered the first Sudoku because, under modern rules, it has two solutions. The puzzle setter ensured a unique solution by requiring 1–9 to appear in both diagonals.

These weekly puzzles were a feature of newspaper titles including L'Echo de Paris for about a decade but disappeared about the time of the First World War.

According to Will Shortz, the modern Sudoku was most likely designed anonymously by Howard Garns, a 74-year-old retired architect and freelance puzzle constructor from Indiana, and first published in 1979 by Dell Magazines as Number Place (the earliest known examples of modern Sudoku). Garns's name was always present on the list of contributors in issues of Dell Pencil Puzzles and Word Games that included Number Place, and was always absent from issues that did not. He died in 1989 before getting a chance to see his creation as a worldwide phenomenon.It is unclear if Garns was familiar with any of the French newspapers listed above.
The puzzle was introduced in Japan by Nikoli in the paper Monthly Nikolist in April 1984 as Suuji wa dokushin ni kagiru (数字は独身に限る, Suuji wa dokushin ni kagiru?), which can be translated as "the digits must be single" or "the digits are limited to one occurrence." At a later date, the name was abbreviated to Sudoku by Maki Kaji (鍜治 真起, Kaji Maki?), taking only the first kanji of compound words to form a shorter version. In 1986, Nikoli introduced two innovations: the number of givens was restricted to no more than 32, and puzzles became "symmetrical" (meaning the givens were distributed in rotationally symmetric cells). Knowing that British newspapers have a long history of publishing crosswords and other puzzles, he promoted Sudoku to The Times in Britain, which launched it on 12 November 2004 (calling it Su Doku).

The rapid rise of Sudoku in Britain from relative obscurity to a front-page feature in national newspapers attracted commentary in the media and parody (such as when The Guardian's G2 section advertised itself as the first newspaper supplement with a Sudoku grid on every page). Recognizing the different psychological appeals of easy and difficult puzzles, The Times introduced both side by side on 20 June 2005. From July 2005, Channel 4 included a daily Sudoku game in their Teletext service. On 2 August, the BBC's programme guide Radio Times featured a weekly Super Sudoku.

Even the Greeks owe the publication of their first Sudoku magazine to British influence. It was at Heathrow airport in the summer of 2005 that a Greek computer magazine publisher first laid eyes on a British Sudoku magazine and - realizing the opportunity - proceeded to purchase the necessary software and quickly launch the first local Sudoku magazine that became an instant success.

In the United States, the first newspaper to publish a Sudoku puzzle by Wayne Gould was The Conway Daily Sun (New Hampshire), in 2004.

The world's first live TV Sudoku show, Sudoku Live, was a puzzle contest first broadcast on 1 July 2005 on Sky One. It was presented by Carol Vorderman. Nine teams of nine players (with one celebrity in each team) representing geographical regions competed to solve a puzzle. Each player had a hand-held device for entering numbers corresponding to answers for four cells. Phil Kollin of Winchelsea, England was the series grand prize winner taking home over £23,000 over a series of games. The audience at home was in a separate interactive competition, which was won by Hannah Withey of Cheshire.

Later in 2005, the BBC launched SUDO-Q, a game show that combines Sudoku with general knowledge. However, it uses only 4x4 and 6x6 puzzles.

Sudoku software is now also very popular on PCs, websites, and mobile phones. It comes with many distributions of Linux. It has also been released on portable video game handhelds such as the Nintendo DS, PlayStation Portable, the Game Boy Advance, and even on several iPod models. One of the most popular video games featuring Sudoku is Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day!. Critically and commercially well received, it generated particular praise for its Sudoku implementation and sold more than 8 million copies worldwide. Due to its popularity, Nintendo made a second Brain Age game titled Brain Age2, which has over 100 new sudoku puzzles and other activities.

Here are some websites which provide high quality of free Sudoku Games online:-
- http://www.websudoku.com/
- http://www.sudoku.org.uk/
- http://www.sudokuslam.com/
- http://www.sudoku-topical.com/sudoku-online.html
- http://www.sudokuonline.co.uk/

27th Hong Kong Film Awards Results

Yes, today is 13th.April 2008. A lot of events were happening today. Celine Dion's Live Concert in Kuala Lumpur, PIKOM PC Fair in KLCC and other region in Malaysia, and yes... The 27th. Hong Kong Film Awards. It was just successfully completed just now, 10 minutes ago.

Here's the results:-

The Best Film : The Warlords 投名狀

The Best Director : 陳可辛（投名狀）

Peter Chan Ho Sun (The Warlords)

The Best Actor : 李連杰（投名狀）
Jet Li (The Warlords)

The Best Actress : 斯琴高娃（姨媽的后現代生活）
Si Qin Gao Wa (The Postmodern Life Of My Aunt)

Congratulation to all the winners!!!


Related Post:
- 27th Hong Kong Film Awards (香港电影金像奖)

Kenny G Live in Genting Malaysia

After Super Diva, Celine Dion's live concert in Kuala Lumpur by this weekend, 13th.April, who will be the next?

If you really enjoy those big show like Celine's concert, I suppose you won't miss the Kenny G Live Concert in Genting Highland. The show is held at Arena of Stars in Genting Highland on 26th.April 2008 (Saturday). It is a two hours show start from 9:00pm, and seats are sold in 5 categories. The most expensive RM650 is for VIP seats, where you are close to Kenny. And its follow by RM490, RM350, RM230 and the cheapest RM120. Quite expensive isn't it? Well, you got option here. If you are eGenting member, you could get a special price rate for each categories of ticket you wanna buy. The most expensive VIP seat is only RM617, instead of RM650. Or, you may consider through redemption from your Genting Points. Complicated? ok, I'd put down the link of the Ticket Price here if you want more details information.

Here's the Link :
http://www.genting.com.my/en/live_ent/2008/kennyg/ticket.htm

And the Link for the Seats Floor Plan :
http://www.genting.com.my/en/live_ent/2008/kennyg/images/fplan.gif


About Kenny G
The formal name of Kenny G is Kenny Gorelick. He is currently married to Lyndie Benson, with two children. Kenny was born in Seattle, Washington. And we all know that he is a well known and successful instrumentalist, especailly in saxophone. Kenny started his career when he was 20 years old (1976) as a musician when acquired his first professional job in Barry White's Love Unlimited Orchestra. Yes, he was playing saxophone soloist.

After that, Kenny had signed with Arista Records as a solo artist in 1982, after label president Clive Davis heard his rendition of ABBA's "Dancing Queen". His studio albums had achieved platinum status in the United States.

In 1997, Guinness Book of World Records had inserted his name for playing the longest note ever recorded on a saxophone. He held an E-flat for forty five minutes and 12 seconds.

According to Kenny, music is his first love.

27th Hong Kong Film Awards (香港电影金像奖)

The 27th. Hong Kong Film Awards (香港电影金像奖) will be held in Hong Kong Cultural Centre on 13th.April 2008, Sunday evening. This year, the Film Development Fund had financially supported HK$3,080,200 to run this event. On the presentation ceremony day, Malaysian also can watch this program in live through Astro's "Wah Lai Toi".

The nomination list of 19 categories of awards were already announced by 2nd.Feb 2008. Personally, I'm more concern on the 4 major categories. There are best film, best director, best actor and best actress categories.

Best Film.

The 5 nominated movies are :-

• The Warlords ( 投名狀 )


• Protege ( 門徒 )


• The Postmodern Life of My Aunt ( 姨媽的后現代生活 )


• Mad Detective ( 神探 )


• Eye in The Sky ( 跟蹤 )

I'd already watched all these movies, except "The Postmodern Life of My Aunt". So, if without considering TPLMA, the rest 4 of its are very strong too. Each of it has their very potential essentials to win the award. Honestly, I love all of its. But, if really need to filter out, I will keep The Warlords and Protege. The Warlords is about the sentimental of three brotherhoods, and a lot of marvelous battlefield scene. It managed to hook your feeling from the starting where Jet Li was the last survival in a crucial war, then swearing brotherhood with Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro, until three of them were ruined by killing each others. It's a very entertained, fascinated and dramatically movie. On another hand, Protege, which was also acting by Andy Lau, together with Daniel Wu and Louis Koo is about probing on drug world in Hong Kong. A very realistic and socialistic movie. It was a very sincere fully Hong Kong made movie since Infernal Affairs (无间道).

Finally, if I must have to choose one from these two, I would say The Warlords. I can't find a concrete reason why it's not Protege. Hmmm... might be the only reason is I don't like the Protege's ending where Daniel Wu had finally turned into drug addiction. Ohh...yah, don't look down "The Postmodern Life of My Aunt" also, even though I didn't watch it. It had managed to make a successful record in the 43rd. Golden Horse Awards in Taiwan.

Best Director

The 5 nominated directors are :-

• Peter Chan Ho Sun (The Warlords)


• Derek Yee Tung Sing (Protege)


• Ann Hui On Wah (The Postmodern Life Of My Aunt)


• Johnnie To Kei Fung & Wai Ka Fai (Mad Detective)


• Yau Nai Hoi (Eye In The Sky).

Among the 6 directors (Remark: Johnnie To and Wai will share in one nomination), Yau is the newest and less experience compare to the rest. He was formally specialist in writing script, and was promoted by Johnnie To to direct his first movie, Eye In The Sky. Yes, Eye In The Sky is his first movie, and it is nominated. This nomination is already reasonable for him to celebrate. I do not say Eye In The Sky is not good, if it's not good, he won't be nominated. But to against the rest 5 famous and brilliant directors, I think it is too heavy for him.

Personally, I think Derek Yee is holding the highest chance. (Again, my comparison is excluded Ann Hui, because I still haven't have a chance to watch The Postmodern Life of My Aunt).

Best Actor

The 5 nominated actors are :-

• 郭富城（C+偵探）Aaron Kwok (The Detective)


• 李連杰（投名狀）Jet Li (The Warlords)


• 劉德華（投名狀）Andy Lau Tak Wah (The Warlords)


• 劉青雲（神探）Lau Ching Wan (Mad Detective)


• 任達華（跟蹤）Simon Yam (Eye In The Sky)

Hard to choose!! Basically, Andy Lau, Lau CW and Simon Yam were playing well in their own movie. However, personally, I like Simon Yam most on his performance in Eye In The Sky. If you haven't watch the movie, I highly recommand you to watch the DVD, stay tuned with Simon Yam performance.

Best Actress

The 5 nominated actress are:-

• 毛舜筠（老港正傳）Teresa Mo Shun Kwan (Mr. Cinema)


• 張靜初（門徒）Zhang Jing Chu (Protege)


• 斯琴高娃（姨媽的后現代生活）Si Qin Gao Wa (The Postmodern Life Of My Aunt)


• 劉若英（綁架）Rene Liu (Kidnap)


• 蔡卓妍（戲王之王）Charlene Choi (Simply Actors)

Again hard to choose!!! Actually don't know how to choose.... kekeke... Coz most of their works, I didn't have a chance to watch. Hmmm.... I must find these movies and watch it as soon as possible.

If you have any comments on it, please welcome to post it here ^^