Puzzled 2: 2018

Saturday, November 10, 2018

Qubami Sticker Mod

Today I transformed a Stickerless colored plastic cube into a Qubami. More specifically, into my Qubami. Years ago I bought a Qubami from Kelvin Stott. It was a unique puzzle that had 3 colors, 3 symbols, and was one of a kind. You could solve it by color, solve it by symbol, or solve it with 3 colors and 3 symbols in every row and every column on every side. I read today that it could also be solved with every color on every row and column, and every symbol on every row and column. My original Qubami story.

Some time between then and now our house was broken into and some of my puzzles were stolen, including the Qubami. I haven't thought much about it since. I don't know what got me to thinking about it this morning, but I decided to find a picture of my old Qubami if I could. Found it in my Google Photos page.

I have some cube stickers in my desk that I have had for years. I have a Sharpie pen. I picked out 3 colors, put the symbols on them, and applied them to one of the 20 $2.25 cubes that I bought at speedcubeshop.com a few months ago. First I thoroughly scrambled the cube so the stickerless cube solution would not be a solution to the Qubami stickers. It is not as pretty as the original puzzle, but it works! I have my Qubami back.

Wednesday, July 4, 2018

Dobrá Voda Forest

The 7 of us recently went on a walk to and through the local forest. It was great! Well, it was great in spite of the ticks or whatever those little bugs we got were. They looked kind of like ticks but none of them attached so I'm not sure. We got them all off while they were still crawling around.

Tuesday, July 3, 2018

Cubing With The CZ Kiddos

All three kiddos have joined in the cubing fun this summer. I remember when I taught Roark how to solve a cube and Roriana had fun exploring on her own with patterns. Here I am teaching 7-year old Annie how to solve the cube and Alex and David enjoy exploring patterns. Alex is also getting into solving a little as he has learned UFDG, which I will explain shortly. Even David can put a short scramble on the cube and get it back to solved.

I have made a page about our cubing and included it in the menu bar. Go to page.

Monday, July 2, 2018

Trees, Rocks, and a Park

We have been here a little over a week now. A couple days ago I left the house for the first time. The kiddos wanted to take me on a walk to the climbing tree.

Eventually we made our way to the rocks nearby.

After playing on the rocks we went back to the trees where we were greeted by a friendly little dog. We also ran around in the field and saw a fun tree.

Can you see the child in the tree in the picture above?

Finally we walked to the park.

Rubik's Cube Books

I got my first Rubik's Cube in the early nineteen eighties. The only way I could solve it was to take it apart and put it back together solved. Until, that is, I got some little books that explained sequences of moves that could be used to put pieces where you want them without messing up what was already in place.

The Simple Solution To Rubik's Cube
by James G. Nourse
Notes on Rubik's Magic Cube
by David Singmaster
Solve That Crazy, Mixed-up Cube Puzzle
by Don Frederick.

I think I put together my own strategy using bits and pieces gleaned from all three books. Eventually I lost interest and forgot how to complete the cube, forgot I had those books, and lost track of the cubes.

Mark Jeays' Working Corner Method

http://jeays.net/rubiks.htm

In 2007 my interest in Rubik's Cube was rekindled when I watched the movie The Pursuit of Happyness. Marae found my 1980s cube for me and I tried to solve it. Huh-uh. I could do part of it, but not the last layer. Looking online I found various tutorials. Mark Jeays included YouTube videos with his Solution 2. This method worked for me and although I no longer use it in its entirety, nor could I, as I have forgotten the yellow edges sequences, I still find the basic working corner technique helpful, and use a slightly modified version of his corner twisting technique at times.

In the summer of 2014 we packed 30 or so puzzles and flew to visit Raymond and Fam in the Czech Republic. Breann, who had learned this method and no other, made some comment about bubururu or something like that, and it piqued my curiosity. What were those algorithms, and how similar are they to the EPS technique I use now when using a working corner? So I looked them up. Actually, the three algorithms were for dealing with the two last edges solved, which either needed to be swapped, or flipped, or swapped and flipped. The swapper is very similar to the one I have learned and used since, but I actually like it better in one sense, with a slight modification.

To swap UR and FR without flipping:

U' R U' R' U' R U' R' U'

To swap and flip UR and FR:

F' U' F U' F' U' F U2

To flip UR and FR:

F' U F U' R U' R' U

Will I actually learn and use these? Probably not. But I like them. :)

There is a slightly different implementation of the Working Corner Method. Arnaud van Galen calls it the Keyhole Method. I like his demonstration better than the one I originally learned. It just dawned on me why he is able to get away with doing it the way he does. He goes ahead and finishes the F2L before going to the last layer, unlike the way Jeays uses the working corner (keyhole) to also get the last layer. Since I no longer use the working corner to get the last layer, I should implement Arnaud's technique.

Jasmine's Scalable Method

http://peter.stillhq.com/jasmine/rubikscubesolution.html

This was the next method I learned. For awhile the idea of speed cubing appealed to me. This promised to be a good beginner's method for those that wanted to go on to faster method's later. Now that I know what I know, I wouldn't recommend this method if your goal is to be able to consistently solve the cube in less than 30 seconds. Rubik's Speedsolver Champion Leyan Lo presents a beginner's method that I like the looks of although I've never learned it. I have recently watched Arnaud van Galen's complete beginner's method video series and recommend them. Gilles Roux presents a beginners' method that is very close to one of my favorite ways of solving the cube. The simplicity and comprehensibility make this method a good place to start if you want to understand the Rubik's Cube. Also, if you are interested in speedcubing you should check out this YouTube video.

After trying for months to get under a minute with both Jasmine's Method and the Corner's First Method—and failing, I finally decided to quit trying and just enjoy cubing at a nice slow pace.

Don't get me wrong. Jasmine's Method has its merits. The sequences for orienting the last layer edges and corners, and permuting the last layer edges are still in my arsenal of useful algorithms.

Adam Cheyer's Corners First Method

Philip Marshall's Ultimate Solution

http://helm.lu/cube/MarshallPhilipp/
After learning to solve the cube corners first, what is next? An Edges First Method! This was a very difficult tutorial to follow, but once I got it, it was my favorite way to solve the cube for awhile. It uses only a few algorithms, and when you are finished solving the cube you feel like you've solved the puzzle, not just used memorized sequences to unscramble it.

Gilles Roux presents a beginners' method that could be used to solve the cube edges first. The simplicity and comprehensibility make this method a good place to start if you want to understand the Rubik's Cube. His technique is much easier to follow than Marshall's.