@Kyeh
That’d be every “connected” device that manufacturers abandon after rollout, no? My last timers and wireless wall switch are “not smart” and “offline” for a good reason. An update (or lack thereof) won’t brick them!
These have been around for several years. I played around with it for a short while and kids only showed a fleeting interest. It didn’t take long for them to figure I was cheating since I had to keep looking at the screen. My niece was the only one who could memorize the algorithm to solve it manually, which was impressive for a preteen, at least to me.
@kuoh it’s a good way to strengthen a devious mind.
Also, i think my algorithm to bicycle my way home from grade school was more complicated than the one for the standard (3x3) cube: Past the public library, cross the railroad tracks, past the grain mills, past the steel foundry, past the Baptist church, watch for the loose dogs and be ready to pedal faster, past the hospital, … Look both ways at stop signs, don’t get hit by a car, …
My son is into cubing. It’s a hobby that’s really grown a lot over the last several years. This product exists to appeal to cubing noobs who want to learn cubing and track their times. That said, this product is held in low regard by speed cubers.
Incidentally, the world record for the 3x3x3 single was just broken over the weekend by Yiheng Wang with 3.08 seconds. That kid is incredible.
@Limewater That 3.08 isn’t even on the WCA website yet. That makes me think there might be some question about it. I have absolutely no reason to believe Yiheng Wang did anything wrong, but he did previously pioneer a technique that was retroactively ruled illegal. But that’s getting into subtleties intended to shave a couple of tenths of a second off a time.
@chienfou Oh yeah, it was a big deal.
In cubing, the cuber uses a self-timer. He or she keeps his hands on the timer, pulls them off to perform the solve, then returns them to the timer to stop time. This is all handled automatically by the timer.
The technique in question was to slide the hands forward off the timer instead of lifting them, thereby keeping contact slightly longer. That’s what I mean when I said subtle.
But, particularly for singles, getting a lucky scramble is the much bigger factor.
There’s a great video on Youtube of a guy getting the world record single for Skewb, another cube puzzle. It was a lucky scramble and when he finishes there’s a look on his face like, “What? That’s it?”
For reference, everyone in the competition gets the same scrambles and they are not known to the solver ahead of time.
What’s next? Suggestions please.
How about a bluetooth shovel?
@blaineg
With a built-in altimeter so you know how deep the hole you’ve done is.
If you think this is actually a good idea: https://home.woot.com/offers/the-original-rubiks-cube-connectedx-bluetooth-enabled-1
One day I may have to really make an effort to finish a Rubik’s Cube.
@yakkoTDI If you ever decide to bucket list that, the Beginners Method is easy enough to learn.
@mikey @yakkoTDI if you twist it just right, you can pop the pieces apart and then just reassemble. Fooled my brother that way for a bit
When I was a kid a bluetooth skateboard would’ve been cool!
How about a bluetooth pet rock.
@Kyeh
That’d be every “connected” device that manufacturers abandon after rollout, no? My last timers and wireless wall switch are “not smart” and “offline” for a good reason. An update (or lack thereof) won’t brick them!
@narfcake Hah - sadly true.
@Kyeh @narfcake And don’t forget all the pet bricks when updates don’t work directly…
These have been around for several years. I played around with it for a short while and kids only showed a fleeting interest. It didn’t take long for them to figure I was cheating since I had to keep looking at the screen. My niece was the only one who could memorize the algorithm to solve it manually, which was impressive for a preteen, at least to me.
KuoH
@kuoh it’s a good way to strengthen a devious mind.
Also, i think my algorithm to bicycle my way home from grade school was more complicated than the one for the standard (3x3) cube: Past the public library, cross the railroad tracks, past the grain mills, past the steel foundry, past the Baptist church, watch for the loose dogs and be ready to pedal faster, past the hospital, … Look both ways at stop signs, don’t get hit by a car, …
@kuoh @phendrick
That algorithm would have been more impressive if your parents moved from house to house randomly!
Filed very aggressively under “Why?”.
Needs a speaker.
@Pavlov and a flash light
@Pavlov @ybmuG Knives?
@blaineg @Pavlov the slots between segments could actually make very good knife sharpeners
@Pavlov and a power bank.
My son is into cubing. It’s a hobby that’s really grown a lot over the last several years. This product exists to appeal to cubing noobs who want to learn cubing and track their times. That said, this product is held in low regard by speed cubers.
Incidentally, the world record for the 3x3x3 single was just broken over the weekend by Yiheng Wang with 3.08 seconds. That kid is incredible.
@Limewater That 3.08 isn’t even on the WCA website yet. That makes me think there might be some question about it. I have absolutely no reason to believe Yiheng Wang did anything wrong, but he did previously pioneer a technique that was retroactively ruled illegal. But that’s getting into subtleties intended to shave a couple of tenths of a second off a time.
@Limewater
Which when you’re looking at 3 seconds total works out to be a roughly 3% improvement per 0.1 sec.
@chienfou Oh yeah, it was a big deal.
In cubing, the cuber uses a self-timer. He or she keeps his hands on the timer, pulls them off to perform the solve, then returns them to the timer to stop time. This is all handled automatically by the timer.
The technique in question was to slide the hands forward off the timer instead of lifting them, thereby keeping contact slightly longer. That’s what I mean when I said subtle.
But, particularly for singles, getting a lucky scramble is the much bigger factor.
There’s a great video on Youtube of a guy getting the world record single for Skewb, another cube puzzle. It was a lucky scramble and when he finishes there’s a look on his face like, “What? That’s it?”
For reference, everyone in the competition gets the same scrambles and they are not known to the solver ahead of time.
@Limewater
Hell, I couldn’t even randomly spin a cube that fast!
When they were new my brother and I got pretty good with them. But our “fast” times were sub-minute, nothing like the speed demons.
There’s a model for everyone.
@blaineg My son has a 1x1. The parity algorithms for it are particularly tricky.