My Most Recent Waste of Life and Time

[Midehv]

Welcome to my thread where I brag about what a big couch fucking loser I am.

TL;DR Version

Scroll to the bottom and watch my video of me solving the Rubik's Cube. This particular solve is 28.56 seconds. Not my best but I can't seem to get a better one on camera, I get all tensed up when its running. My personal best right now stands at 21.93 seconds. The first part of the video is me scrambling the cube. I like to show the scramble so people don't get the notion that I placed the cube in a favorable starting fashion while off camera. The second part is the standard 15 second inspection period that you get in a cube competition. The final part is obviously the solve. I think I jumped the gun on the start a bit but oh well.

The I've gotten nothing better to do right now than read your bull shit about the Rubik's Cube version

My mother likes to hit up the clearance section at Target to find stocking stuffers each Christmas. This last Christmas, she came across a pile of shit one dollar Rubik's cube. For the first several days the thing just sat on the coffee table being used occasionally during commercial breaks. Eventually my OCD took over and I couldn't stand looking at an unsolved cube. I had no desire to learn to solve it, I just wanted it solved. After googling, youtubing, reading and about an hour of time, it was solved. Addiction getting the better of me, I decided I wanted to be able to solve the cube without having to be in front of a computer. I spent plenty of time practicing and memorizing the algorithms needed to get through the cube and before long, could solve the cube without any assistance; very slowly. Addiction continuing to fuck my life and not being satisfied yet, I wanted to be faster. HUNDREDS of hours, sore as fuck fingers and 3 Rubik's Cubes later, I can typically solve the cube in an average of 32 seconds, which is by no means as fast as some people that you can see on youtube, but I'm pretty fucking proud of it. So fuck off. Just an FYI the fastest time recorded in an actual competition is 7.08 with the fastest 3 of 5 average (how they score you in competition) being 9.21 seconds.

Now I could lie and say I figured out how to solve the cube on my own. Obviously I didn't. And I would argue that if you've met someone that can solve a Rubik's cube, neither did they. Not saying its an easy feat, its still very difficult to learn to solve, I'm just not badass enough to have figured it out on my own. And despite what Johnson and many other people think, there is not a single move you can repeat over and over and the cube will solve itself. Since there are 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 (that's quintillion by the way) possible starting permutations of a solvable Rubik's cube (that number actually goes up to over 519 quintillion if you randomly assemble a cube, only 1 in 12 of which will be solvable), its pretty unlikely that a single god move will solve any given cube. There are however, algorithms that when performed will achieve a desired effect, i.e. changing the permutation of two cubies while not disrupting their position, or position and permuting a cubie without disrupting already solved cubies. To bare minimally solve a cube, you would need to memorize about 8 algorithms (see below), and more importantly, spot patterns and know when to use them. I currently have somewhere around 100 algorithms tucked in my cranium, though I will only call upon about 9 or 10 of them during any given solve.

Now if you seriously are bored as fuck and have nothing better to do, read on about how I specifically solve the cube, otherwise just watch the damn video.

The method you'll see me use is a personal variation of the Ortega Method which is based on Minh Thai's winning solution. I've then tweaked it a bit further to my own personal liking. Its not how I initially learned to solve the cube but for now it produces my best times. To put it in a sub-category, its a corners-first method; as opposed to an edges first or layer by layer solve. If you consider a 3x3x3 cube, there are 27 smaller cubies in said cube. The very core doesn't actually exist as a cubie in a Rubik's cube and obviously doesn't need to be solved. Of the remaining 26 cubies, 6 are center cubies (have one color) which are obviously the center of each face and don't actually rotate and also don't need to be solved (red will always oppose orange, blue oppose green ect., and this cannot be changed for obvious mechanical reasons). Of those remaining 20 cubies that actually need to be solved, 8 are corners (three colors) and 12 are edges (two colors). A corners-first method will position and permute all 8 corners before working on the edges. The difference between position and permute being that it is entirely possible for a cubie to be in it's right “spot” but be twisted or flipped wrong. In my particular method, I permute white corners on one side so that the white face of all 4 is oriented out while not worrying about correct position, and then do similar with the 4 corners involving yellow. Based on the improper positioning of all 8 corners at this point will determine one of many possible algorithms that will correctly position all 8 corners in an average of 8 moves. From there I correctly position and permute three white and three yellow edges in any order I see fit. I leave the fourth ones out because the fourth in both layers need to be simultaneously permuted as permuting one alone will destroy the other if it is solved. After completing the fourth edges in white and yellow, I have two completely solved layers and only 4 unsolved cubies, less if I'm lucky. The remaining middle layer is solved using a series of algorithms based on what pops up in the middle layer.

To give you an idea of other solve methods, some will take it layer by layer. Position and permute white edges first, followed by white corners. Then position and permute the 4 non-center pieces in the middle layer one at a time. Finally position yellow corners, permute yellow corners, position yellow edges and end by permuting yellow edges. This method is often called the vanilla method. It makes the most sense visually and best suits beginners. Its not fast and not efficient on moves, but can be done utilizing only about 8 algorithms. It also doesn't require that you know extra algorithms that may or may not need to be used depending on how the cubies pop up. Each solve in this method will present the same way.

That about wraps up my bull shit rant on the Rubik's Cube. To date, this “skill” has not scored me any extra pussy than I'm currently getting. In fact I think it's cost me some. Sabrina hates the fucking cube. Enjoy the vid.

The Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsl3bCB-GVo

If I can manage to get a better time caught on camera, Ill post it here.

[evanesca]

I can't stand an unsolved cube either... can only do it in like 1m30sec probably... never actually counted...

[Akzariel]

B, I've met 4 men in my life who have extraordinary talent and ability, but who waste it all away by living a life where their talents go unrecognized and undeveloped. You sir are one of them.

[Midehv]

So I decided to take on the biggest cube that my software, Gabbasoft, can generate. Which is a 20 x 20 x 20 cube.
Total solve time was 6 hours 4 minutes and 21 seconds and total moves were 6152.

Computer scrambled cube:



White core solved: 1 hour 9 minutes, 883 moves



Yelow core solved: 1 hour 7 minutes, 820 moves



Green core solved: 1 hour 5 minutes, 957 moves



Red core solved: 58 minutes, 1159 moves



Orange and Blue cores solved: 34 minutes, 932 moves



Four edges solved: 22 minutes, 371 moves



Eight edges solved: 24 minutes, 391 moves



Fully solved: 25 minutes, 636 moves



I wish I would have made a video of it but if you are curious, I pretty much solve it almost the same way that this guy does.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rpfz3m11bsk