Rubik's Cube

[odin_dax]

I solved the bloody thing last night for the first time after following some instructions on YouTube. However, after trying to repeat the challenge again, I failed several times, forced to start over every time, for a total of five wasted hours (not straight through - but time can fly learning how to solve that thing). After the fifteenth failure, I took a hammer and smashed the damn thing to pieces. It happily rests at the bottom of my trash basket, soon to be tossed.

~fin.

[odin_dax]

It's not that hard. I can solve it under a minute.

No doubts. Practice makes perfect. Will Smith can do it in under a minute as well. I solved it once, that was enough.

[Veteran]

Sorry to bump a stale thread, but this one caught my eye, and I figured for my first post I'd bore you youngsters with some useless Rubik's trivia from my past. :)

I first learned to solve the cube back during its original US craze, around 1981 or so. I was in 7th or 8th grade I think, and everybody had them, it was a huge fad thing. We used to practice and compete, which is kinda geeky I guess now that I think about it. IIRC my best time was around 47 seconds, I do know it was well under a minute. That might seem fast, but lots of us were that fast back then, and the world record is like 11 seconds or something ridiculous that even I can't imagine being possible.

I got bored and left it alone for 25+ years, then picked one up again a year or so ago and was hooked again. :) Surprisingly enough, I could still remember -- after 25 years -- how to solve 2/3 of the cube. The final layer, which is the most complex, with the most variations, was too much for me to so I had to resort to online solutions to jog my memory. Now I have one on both my desk at home and at work, and use it as a stress reliever or to entertain my kids' friends, who can't believe I know how to solve it. I don't try for speed anymore, but can solve one easily in 2-3 minutes, sometimes less. It's also useful to win bets -- I was in a small Mexican/Salvadoran restaurant recently and the owner was fiddling with a cube behind the bar. I half-jokingly offered to solve it in exchange for a free meal, which he took me up on. :)

One thing I've noticed is that the cubes today are built nothing like they were back then. Quality sucks now, they feel flimsier and the stickers come off very quickly. Pretty much like everything else I guess, they don't make 'em like they used to. I wish I could find my old ones...

[odin_dax]

Indeed, they do feel flimsy. The one I smashed was sitting around for over ten years. It was probably medium quality. I'm just amazed at how much they cost nowadays! Wow! But the stickers on my cube were actually pretty good.

[headcase]

I was actually looking for a Rubix Cube a few months back. Turns out they were like ?30+. The hell?

[.VX]

Are you sure you're looking in the right places? Here they're ~$2 for a crap quality one.

[Th0r]

I had a plastic one last year that broke. It was so crappy you couldn't actually get the things to match up...