Merry Christmas

100,000 hits to my Rubik's Solution page!

My beginner solution to the Rubik's Cube has just reached 100,000 hits!

When I posted this page early last year I never expect it to be so popular. I'm glad it has been and I'm very happy to have been helping new cubers around the world. Thanks to everyone who has visited my cube page and especially those who've sent me emails.

BTW, if you've learnt my beginner solution and you are ready for something more advanced, make sure to visit Dan's CubeStation, Joël's cube page, Lars' CubeZone and speedcubing.com.

Exploding cube!

Spell with Flickr

How cool is this!! Go to spell with flickr and type in your name or your favourite word and watch what happens.

... and here's another one...

The images above are not full-size. I had to take a screenshot and reduce them down so they'd fit within the width of one blog entry column. To see the full image and the links for the location of each letter, click on each word above.

Kitties need cuddles!

I saw this article in SMH about making sure your kitty gets cuddles when you're away. Actually, the article is about housesitters, but the first few paragraphs are about kitties needing proper cuddles while you're away. Fuzzy.

Optical illusions

Check out these optical illusions. At first very cool, and then very weird. You'll see what I mean...

Cow tipping myth debunked

Scientists at the University of British Columbia in Canada have investigated the physics of cow tipping and concluded that the force required to actually tip a cow means it's pretty unlikely that anyone could ever really do this.

Here's the maths...

Force = (m g cosθ b)/(a + b)

Where:
m = mass of the cow = 682 kgs
g = gravitational force = 9.81 m/s^2
θ = angle of the lever = 66 degrees
a = length of the lever above the centre of mass = 0.79m
b = length of the lever below the centre of mass = 0.79m

So,

Force = (682 x 9.81 x cos66^o x 0.79)/(0.79 + 0.79) = 1360N

1360 newtons of force requires 2.07 people to exert it, if you assume that each person weighs 67kgs and can push their own bodyweight.

Powered by Purple

It's purple...



It's pointless...



And it's cool.

Awesome Rubik's Cube photo

I was browsing the website of a speedcubing friend, Joël van Noort, and saw this awesome arty photo of a Rubik's Cube. I thought to myself "that arty cube photo is so cool, I want to put it on my site too!"

So, I went to the source of the Rubik's Cube photo (Toni Blay) and asked permission to use it (which was granted). The photo is so cool that I wanted to use it in more than just one blog entry, so I've purpled it and used it as the new main image in my banner graphic. Pretty cool hey?

Arty Rubik's Cube photo by Toni Blay

Are you sure that isn't a Bornean Bay Cat?

I saw news reports today about the discovery of a possible new mammal species. If true, this is quite remarkable.

New species are discovered all the time, but they are generally tiny little creepy crawlies or microbes that are of little interest to anyone other than the scientists who discover them. The discovery of a new furry mammal, on the other hand, is a whole different story.

As soon as I saw a picture of this as yet unclassified mammal, the obvious question which comes to mind is: Are you sure it isn't a Bornean Bay Cat (Catopuma badia) or an undiscovered subspecies of the Bornean Bay Cat? My reasons for asking this question are due to the following similarities between the two creatures:

• both found in Borneo
• both are mammals
• both are similar sizes
• both have reddish-brown fur
• the new creature has been described as 'probably a carnivore'
  
• both have small ears, pointed snout, long tail (compare this picture of the Bay Cat and this picture of the 'new' species)
• the new creature looks like a cat
  
• both are extremely rare

I've read several news reports and none have mentioned the Bornean Bay Cat. I'm surprised by this because it's an obvious first guess!

Update 7/12/2005: Here are some links to news stories about the new discovery: World Wildlife Fund, Cryptomundo and Cryptomundo again.

New best single solve and average on the 5x5x5

Yesterday I got a new best single solve time on the 5x5x5, and a new best average.

My new best single solve time (5 mins 30.55 seconds) was the fastest solve of my first 5x5x5 average yesterday. As my times seemed to be going well I decided to do a few more solves and watch the rolling average. A couple of solves later and my average had dropped to 6 mins 28.87 seconds!

Here are the details:
Average: 388.87 (6 mins 28.87 seconds)
Fastest: 330.55s (5 mins 30.55 seconds)
Slowest: 444.17s (7 mins 24.17 seconds)
Individual times: 399.24, 436.53, 367.04, 372.11, 419.25, 361.76, 403.20, (330.55), 402.38, 350.91, (444.17), 376.27.

First 5x5x5 average: 392.73s

I've first solved the 5x5x5 cube about 2.5 years ago and, believe it or not, today is the first time I've ever done an average! Here are the details...

Average: 392.73s (6 mins 32.73 seconds)
Fastest: 330.55s (5 mins 30.55 seconds)
Slowest: 488.44s (8 mins 8.44 seconds)
Individual times: (488.44), 414.89, 399.24, 436.53, 367.04, 372.11, 419.25, 361.76, 403.20, (330.55), 402.38, 350.91

ActiveSync error codes

Read about this on Pocket PC Thoughts today. They had a link to a page which explained the meaning of ActiveSync error codes. Thought I'd better hang on to this because cryptic and unhelpful error message codes are rather annoying!

New best time on the 4x4x4: 160.28s

Got a new best time on the 4x4x4 yesterday: 160.28 seconds! :)

Corbets Tey School

A friend at work has set up a website for the PFA of the local school. He's trying to get the search engines to pick it up but hasn't had any luck yet. :(

So, I'm adding a link to the Corbets Tey School here in the hope that it makes it into the search engine and all the parents and friends can find it!

Does classical music help your gaming?

Some people are just too obsessed with arcade games. Pretty impressive nonetheless, and I love the selection of music.

BTW, I wonder what his final score was?

New best one-handed solve time: 79.87 seconds

I very rarely do one-handed solves, but since competing in this event at Worlds I've realised that it's more fun than it looks.

I don't use my regular speedsolving method for one-handed cubing because I can't remember the majority of the last layer algorithms when there's only one hand solving. I basically just use a beginner method. If I re-learnt all the 3-look LL algs one-handed then I'd probably be able to knock quite a bit off my one-handed average.

New personal best time: 20.68 seconds

So close to sub-20s! I really thought this time it was going to be it, but when I looked down at the timer I saw 20.68s.

Happy birthday Firefox!

Firefox web browser turns one year old this week. Happy birthday Firefox!

I'm still here

Sorry about the lack of posts over the past week or so. I've been at the Rubik's World Championships. I had a fantastic time and did a lot of cubing (obviously!) Will post properly about this later.

Happy Halloween

Average of 10: new personal best time (26.31s)

I got a new best average today. It was also my first average where all the solves were sub-30s! :) Here are the details:

Average: 26.31s
Fastest: 23.95s
Slowest: 29.61s
Individual times: (29.61), 25.52, 25.55, 24.34, 27.93, 28.55, 24.99, 27.98, 24.31, 24.45, 29.52, (23.95).

The other personal record I broke today is the number of consecutive sub-30s solves: 18

For scrambles and timing I used Doug Reed's iCube iPAQ cube timer on my iPAQ hx4705.

Xtreme card manipulation

We've all seen people do card manipulation tricks before, but have you ever seen Xtreme card manipulation?

Xtreme card manipulation involves manipulating the cards while underwater, in the wind and... while the cards are on fire!

New personal best time: 20.87 seconds

I was cubing on the train this evening. I set all my best times on the train. The two reasons I can think of for this are: (i) the bright white lights on the London tube are excellent for cubing; and (ii) the majority of my cubing practice is done while on train rides.

Anyway, I was cubing on the train this evening and I set a new best personal time (non-lucky): 20.87 seconds. I'm so close to getting a non-lucky sub-20s solve!

I have done two sub-20s solves, but they were both lucky cases. One was a PLL skip and one had two F2L pairs solved after the cross. Definitely lucky cases.

First extended cross and new best lucky time

I got a new best lucky time today (17.16s). After I finished the cross, two of the F2L pairs had happily fallen into place. Basically, it was a double extended cross, but as I didn't see it during inspection and didn't work for it (it just happened!), this counts as a lucky solve.

I wish I had seen, and planned for, the double extended cross during inspection because the 17.16s would then be my actual new best single time. This would be very exciting because it's over 4 seconds faster than my current best time and it would be my first sub-20s non-lucky solve! Oh well. Will just have to keep working at it.

I did do a regular extended cross today as well. This was one I spotted during inspection and worked for (so it counts). It was a very fast solve for me: 21.69s. This was my fastest solve of the day and only 0.28s behind my current best time (21.41s).

Cubing success continues

I was cubing on the train this morning and I got a new personal best single time (21.41 seconds) and a new best average (26.80 seconds)!

The individual times for the average were: 24.76, 26.68, 27.85, 25.08, (32.66), 23.42, 25.89, (21.41), 29.28, 28.69, 26.13, 30.22

If only I could get these times in competition...

Very successful week of cubing

The past week has been one of my most successful cubing weeks ever. In the days leading up to the Dutch Open Rubik's Championships I broke three personal records:

• 3x3x3 best non-lucky single time: 21.72s
• 3x3x3 best lucky single time: 19.40s
• 3x3x3 average: 28.10s (individual times: 28.11, (26.12), 28.25, 29.60, (31.96), 29.78, 27.97, 26.51, 28.43, 28.38, 26.89, 27.12)
  

Then at the Dutch Open on Sunday I set 6 Australian records:

• 3x3x3 (single): 30.62s
• 3x3x3 (average): 34.77s
• Magic (single): 3.98s
  
• Magic (average): 4.33s
  
• Clock (single): 27.64s
• Clock (average): 34.96s
  

I'm pretty happy with my results, but it now means it will be much more difficult for me to set new records at the World Championships next month!

The other exciting thing about the Dutch Open is that I finally managed to convince Peter to compete in a Rubik's Competition! He competed in the Rubik's Magic event and got a very respectable 4.07s best single time and a 4.74s average. I'm hoping this will encourage him to learn more puzzles and compete in future cubing competitions. :)

Dutch Cube Day a success!

Just got back from the Dutch Rubik's Open. Had a fantastic time - The Netherlands is great! Also did quite well in the competition - set 6 new national records. Will post more later.

Full results are available from speedcubing.com.

Cats in sinks

"What is Cats in Sinks? It's obvious. It's about cats. And kittens. Who like sinks. And basins."

As anyone who lives with cats know, cats love sinks. Now there is a website dedicated to this phenomenon. Thousands and thousands of cats in sinks. Very cute.

Dutch Rubiks Open this weekend

The Dutch Rubiks Open is this weekend and I'm excited! It's going to be quite international as there will be competitors from 9 countries (Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France, United Kingdom, USA, Australia, Czech Republic and Norway) participating this weekend. Should be lots of fun. :)

I've registered to compete in three events: the 3x3x3 speedsolve, the Rubik's Clock and the Rubik's Magic. Peter is registered for the Rubik's Magic. This will be my third official Rubiks competition and Peter's first. Well, actually, this is the third official Rubik's competition that Peter has attended, but the first in which he is competing. :)

I was a bit concerned the other day when I wanted to do some Clock practice and couldn't find my Clock! I had thought it was in my puzzle box with my other puzzles, but it wasn't. Dearie Me! It's all okay now though because I found it in a drawer at work today. I'd taken it in to show someone and had forgotten to take it home again.

Cutest little blue character ever

I was just looking through Pocket PC Thoughts and saw an article about the Aqua Game Series. I didn't really read the article, but I did notice this adorable little guy. He's definitely one of cutest little blue characters ever!

Ordered cubesmith.com stickers

As all speedcubers know, the original stickers that come with the Rubik's cube are not very good. They wear out very quickly, especially the orange stickers. The orange stickers are almost falling off the cube after 2 weeks.

The answer to this problem is: www.cubesmith.com. Lots of cubers around the world have bought stickers from the Cubesmith and they all rave about how they are the best stickers ever. And that's not all. The Cubesmith also makes stickers for the 4x4x4 (Rubik's and Eastsheen), the 5x5x5 (Rubik's and Eastsheen), the Megaminx, the Square-1 and many more.

I've been meaning to order some cubesmith.com stickers for quite some time now and just haven't got around to doing it. However, with two competitions coming up (Dutch Open and Worlds), I really need to get some decent stickers, so I have finally placed an order!

Apparently you can still get books made of paper and ink

Yesterday I did something I haven't done in a very long time. I started reading an old fashioned style book. By "old fashioned" I mean a book that's made of paper and ink. Makes me feel like I'm back in the stone ages! ;)

Ever since I got my iPAQ hx4705 I declared that I would only read books in ebook form. However, there was one book for which I'd said I'd make an exception - Harry Potter 6. The reasons for the exception are:

(i) Peter and I have HP1-5 in old style books and it would be nice to continue the collection;
(ii) Peter also wants to read HP6 and is not yet convinced by ebooks; and
(iii) HP6 is not available in ebook form.

HP6 is a reasonably long book (over 600 pages) and it felt weird to be holding a physical book again. I'd definitely never go back to this form long term. In fact, lack of availability in ebook form would now pretty much be a reason for me to veto a book altogether!

Anyway, I'm now one chapter into HP6 and I'm already enjoying it more than HP5. I wasn't a huge fan of HP5. It definitely ranks bottom of my HP preference list.

Comment spam is lame

I've recently started getting a little comment spam on my blog. Nothing terribly offensive, just annoying (e.g. ads for insurance, online degrees, etc). I'm actually quite surprised that it's taken this long for the spam-bots to find me (I started this blog in August 2004).

Anyway, in an effort to combat this I've enabled Blogger's comment word verification. This means that when you post comments on my blog, you'll be be shown an image of a word and asked to type in this word to verify that you're a person and not a spam-bot. Sorry if this is a little bit annoying, but I'm sure it will be far less annoying than receiving comment spam!

Do you need a truck monkey?

Check out this crazy series of trunk monkey advertisements:

• Episode 1: Trunk Monkey handles road rage
• Episode 2: Trunk Monkey chases kids
  
• Episode 3: Trunk Monkey bribes cop
  
• Episode 4: Trunk Monkey theft retrieval system
  
• Episode 5: Trunk Monkey paediatric edition

The Kat's Whiskers

My friend Michiel sent me a link to the Kat's Whiskers the other day. How gorgeous is this kitty? I haven't read too much of this site yet because it was difficult to pull myself away from this lovely kitty. I did, however, make a brief stop to see the kittens. Adorable.

Now the teddy has a teddy t-shirt

Earlier this year I posted about Matthew Eastmond's gallery. My favourite pic is obviously the one with the teddy bear. You can now get a teddy bear wearing the teddy bear t-shirt! Very cute.

Commuter Ignores Lovable Bear

Cubing on the London Eye

As I wrote in my previous post, Peter and I rode the London Eye yesterday.

When 135 metres above the River Thames, what do most people do? They do things like take lots of photos and say 'oh, look at that!' and 'what a great view'. While I was very much enjoying the view, I thought it would be cool to do a solve or two. Remembering the photo that Dan Harris had posted of himself cubing in the Eye, I thought I'd better get one too. When mentioning this Peter, he reminded me that his digital camera had video capabilities, so we decided to video a solve as well.

Click here to download the video of me solving the cube on the London Eye (~13.7 mbs).

Me just after solving the cube on the London Eye

Riding the London Eye

Peter and I and a friend went on the London eye this afternoon. Despite having lived in London for over 9 months, this is the first time Peter or I had been on it.

The London Eye is currently the largest observation wheel in the world and stands at 135 metres (443 feet). 1,700 tonnes of steels was used in the construction of the Eye, and it has 32 capsules which can carry 15,000 passengers per day.

Here are some of Peter's photos.

The London Eye


London city, looking in the direction of Charing Cross station


London city, looking in the direction of the Houses of Parliament

Domino stacking world records

Check out this picture of several hundred dominoes all stacked on a single standing vertical domino! And if you think that's amazing, have a look at this domino stack!!

Unskilled and unaware

One of the many blogs I subscribe to is that of the Annals of Improbable Research. In case you don't already know about this highly amusing organisation, then take a look at their tagline:

"News about research that first makes people LAUGH, and then makes them THINK."

Anyway, I was reading a recent blog entry which referred to something they posted last May: Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments.

As discussed in this news article, the gist of the study can really be summed up by the following:

"Overall, the results showed that incompetence is even worse than it appears to be, and forms a sort of unholy trinity of cluelessness. The incompetent don't perform up to speed; don't recognise their lack of competence; and don't even recognise the competence of other people."

Hmmm. Interesting.

Average of 10: new personal best time (28.40s)

I broke my average of 10 record last Wednesday. Here are the details:

Average: 28.40s
Fastest: 22.64s
Slowest: 32.60
Individual times: 29.08, (22.64), 25.66, 32.46, 26.87, 28.99, 28.88, 27.72, 27.23, 25.84, (32.60), 31.28. Note that 9 of the 12 solves were sub-30s! Woo hoo!

For scrambles and timing I used Doug Reed's iCube iPAQ cube timer on my iPAQ hx4705.

Mona Lisa Rubik's Cube

Mona Lisa as you've never seen her before... through the medium of Rubik's Cubes! Pretty cool, huh?

Crazy cat keychain

When looking at the Crazy Cat Lady action figure online, I came across a crazy cat keychain. I love the description on the website:

"We don't know what they were thinking when they made the Crazy Cat Keychain. When you press the kitty's belly, it doesn't just go "meow." Instead, it sounds like some truly insane individual pretending to be a cat."

She blocked me

Check out this flash animation. Very funny!

Average of 10: new personal best time (29.08s)

I broke my average of 10 record last night at the Camden Lock puzzle meeting.

Here are the details of the average:

Average: 29.08s
Fastest: 25.80s
Slowest: 34.07s
Individual times: (25.80), 30.08, 32.41, 29.13, 26.21, 28.65, 28.08, 27.96, (34.07), 28.94, 30.68, 28.67.

For scrambles and timing I used Doug Reed's iCube iPAQ cube timer on my iPAQ hx4705.

Camden Lock puzzle meeting

Tonight I went to the monthly puzzle meeting at Lockside Lounge bar at Camden Lock. I'd been meaning to get along to one of these puzzle gatherings all year, but hadn't yet made it to one. When I heard that the theme for this month's meeting was Rubik's Cubes I knew that I just had to go!

The monthly puzzle meetings are organised by the nice people at Villages Games. Villages Games is lovely little puzzle store in Camden Lock. They sell lots of different types of puzzles, and also board games, books about puzzles, cards and card games, etc. If you're into puzzles and in London then you should definitely visit this shop.

Most of the speedcubers from the UK speedcubing weekend came to Camden tonight too. The only one we were missing was Duncan! We had a little friendly competition during the evening. Obviously Dan won (18.xx average). I was pretty happy coming second with a 30.xx average. Paul came third with a 34.xx average. Paul did some really fast solves during the competition, but he also did some very not-so-fast solves which really killed his average.

It was definitely a fun night and I plan to go to more of the Camden Lock puzzle meetings, even when they are not cube themed! :)

Crazy Cat Lady action figure

How awesome is this? It's the Crazy Cat Lady Action Figure! Peter is a big fan of Accoutrements' Action Figure series and has made several purchases from this range, including the Jesus action figure, the Shakespeare action figure and the Librarian action figure (with push-button shushing action!).

When I saw the Crazy Cat Lady Action Figure I knew I just had to buy her. Have a look at Stupid.com for some more excellent pictures of the Crazy Cat Lady and her kitties.

Crazy Cat Lady action figure

Blue Cat's Graphics

I switched to Firefox as my primary browser earlier this year when IE corrupted on my machine.

Firefox is skinnable, which is very cool. I was particularly excited when I found this kitty theme. I knew that Firefox was obviously the browser for me!

The Firefox kitty theme was created by Blue Cat's Graphics. There's other cool stuff at Blue Cat's Graphics, including desktop themes and Windows icons. My favourites are the Firefox kitty themes.

Puzzling World

I came across Puzzling World a while ago when Googling puzzle sites. It was not quite what I expected, but looks kinda cool anyway.

Puzzling World is in Wanaka, New Zealand. It has a variety of puzzles and mazes, including a maze which is two storeys high and has 1.5 kilometres of passages (for my American friends, 1.5 kms is a little under 1 mile).

I've never been to New Zealand*, but if I do I shall try to make it to Wanaka so I can visit Puzzling World. If there were ever a New Zealand Rubik's Championship, this would be a great venue for it.

(* This is not entirely true, I have actually been to Auckland International Airport several times on the way to other locations. This doesn't really count though. All I saw was the inside of the airport while changing planes.)

FedEx kittens

Five little kitties were accidentally FedExed from South Carolina to Vermont. The poor little kitties spent two days in a hot stuffy box! Amazingly, they arrived in Vermont alive and are actually doing fine.

According to the news article, the person who FedExed the kitties was just careless. Apparently he had sealed up the package without properly checking what was inside.

Everyone who knows kitties knows that they like to hide in boxes. Hopefully these kitties will protest loudly next time they are packaged in a box!

Happy birthday to me!

New personal best time: 22.23 seconds

I'm on a roll! I just broke my personal best time for a non-lucky single solve: 22.23 seconds! I also got a new best lucky solve: 21.48 seconds.

Getting closer to a sub-20s solve... one day it will happen...

Average of 10: new personal best time

In the past day I've broken my average of 10 personal best 3 times! The most exciting part is that yesterday I got my first sub-30s average ever!

Over the past month or so, my frequency of sub-30s solves has been increasing quite rapidly. At the beginning of July I recorded 100 solves over the course of a weekend, and only one of those 100 solves was sub-30s. Now I pretty much always have at least 1-2 sub-30s solves per average, often more. Now I actually really do believe that I can become a regular sub-30 solver one day! :)

Here are the details of the average:

Average: 29.56s
Fastest: 26.31s
Slowest: 36.94s
Individual times: 30.36, 32.15, (36.94), 28.72, 26.81, 31.63, 30.24, 29.06, 28.84, (26.31), 26.64, 31.13.

For scrambles and timing I used Doug Reed's iCube iPAQ cube timer on my iPAQ hx4705.

Posh Spice claims to have never read a book. Ever.

Posh Spice says that she has never read a book. Ever. I'd believe it if she said she hasn't read a book since she had kids, or hasn't read a book since she joined the Spice Girls, but hasn't read a book ever? How is this possible? Did she not graduate from high school? That's a not a rhetorical question, BTW, I actually don't know the answer, but I assume it's yes. And what about primary school? Surely she read at least one book? How did she pass English (assuming she did pass English) if she didn't read books??

I just don't believe it. I know we're talking about Posh Spice here, but c'mon, no one is that lame!

Looking for your leopard?

These guys are weird, but they certainly do love kittens. Here's story about a kitten who's leopard has become lost again. Apparently because his leopard's navigation skills are "totally crap".