I just borrowed my dad's camera, I'll make some videos now.

I'm a bit excited!

Sorry to double post, but

I just got my first sub-20!! 19.81! I'm happy!

Ah, thanks for clearing that up.

On another point, are there any videos of you, I've never seen any.[/quote]

True that, the only one I've ever seen of Johannes is his snake vid.

Oh, and how do you pronounce ur name, Johannes? I'm not good with foreign names

(whoa, quote in a quote in a quote! SUPER QUOTE!)

Ah, thanks for clearing that up.

On another point, are there any videos of you, I've never seen any.[/quote]

True that, the only one I've ever seen of Johannes is his snake vid.

Oh, and how do you pronounce ur name, Johannes? I'm not good with foreign names

(whoa, quote in a quote in a quote! SUPER QUOTE!)[/quote]
Had to be quoted, from my understanding, I think it is, Jo-Han-As?

Ah, thanks for clearing that up.

On another point, are there any videos of you, I've never seen any.[/quote]

True that, the only one I've ever seen of Johannes is his snake vid.

Oh, and how do you pronounce ur name, Johannes? I'm not good with foreign names

(whoa, quote in a quote in a quote! SUPER QUOTE!)[/quote]
Had to be quoted, from my understanding, I think it is, Jo-Han-As?[/quote]

Thats what I am thinking. Or Yo-han-as, kindof like Johan Sebastian Bach.

Eh, it's Jo-han-nes. Almost all words (there aren't many exceptions) in Finnish are pronounced exactly the same way they are written.

Eh, it's Jo-han-nes. Almost all words (there aren't many exceptions) in Finnish are pronounced exactly the same way they are written.[/quote]
Ymmärrän!

Eh, it's Jo-han-nes. Almost all words (there aren't many exceptions) in Finnish are pronounced exactly the same way they are written.[/quote]
Ymmärrän![/quote]

Care to translate? I don't speak random...

Is it Finnish?

w00t! Finally got a sub-50 solve on the 3x3x3.

Not as good as everyone else but man, that felt great. Wasn't even a lucky case, either.

Eh, it's Jo-han-nes. Almost all words (there aren't many exceptions) in Finnish are pronounced exactly the same way they are written.[/quote]
Ymmärrän![/quote]

Care to translate? I don't speak random...

Is it Finnish?[/quote]

I understand(in Finnish)

I got a 21.xx yesterday, with a POP!

Eh, it's Jo-han-nes. Almost all words (there aren't many exceptions) in Finnish are pronounced exactly the same way they are written.[/quote]
Ymmärrän![/quote]

Care to translate? I don't speak random...

Is it Finnish?[/quote]

I understand(in Finnish)

I got a 21.xx yesterday, with a POP![/quote]

Nice! Anything fast with a pop is insane! Have you ever seen that Toby Mao vid where he pops and still gets sub 20?

I haven't seen a video of Toby Mao popping and getting sub-20, but I have seen one of Macky.

http://chrono.org/puzzles/MackyPop.wmv

Maybe it was Macky then, I don't really remember...

I would check the video, but I am on dial up right now... I HATE DIAL UP.

dial up does stink. Thats why we got comcast a couple of years ago. only a couple of problems w/ dsl. like if a cable gets loose your going to go nuts trying to fix it(hard to find). And my mom's a computer whiz. she built ours! so a normal person would probibly chuck their router out the window

I got a sub-23 average for the first time today. It was 22.983. What's weird is that the solves were sort of clustered around the 21 and 26 second mark, so if I can stop getting bad solves I should get an average of about 21 seconds. It's easier to say that then to do it, though!

Dude, I know what you mean. When I got my 23 second average I got a few 25's, and maybe a 27. I didn't think the average would be very good at all, but that is not what my computer said...

How long have you been cubing?

Casual speedcubing + working corner for about two years, serious speedcubing + Fridrich since January ('07).

Oh, I just videotaped a 4.40 on the 8x2 Magic (aka Magic Balls). I feel like Matyas, since nobody else is sub-5.

Is it on youtube yet?

No, I haven't even edited the session video yet. It will be on youtube (and maybe strangepuzzle) eventually, though.

magic balls? Is this some custom form of the magic, or is it actually for commercial sale?

It was for commercial sale a while back, but it isn't any more and it's rare to find the puzzle on eBay. I think you can get them from shops like cube4you, though.

Some information can be found at Jaap's page: http://www.geocities.com/jaapsch/puzzles/magicsuper.htm. I use a faster and much more optimized solution, though.

Yesterday I got my first sub-30 average, it was 28.15!

Then today I woke up, and my second solve was 23.18. So I thought I'd take an average, I got 26.12!! All the solves were sub-30! I'm happy!!

The times: 23.18, 29.17, 24.69, (29.64), 24.10, 28.18, 25.66, 28.87, 27.68, 23.16, 26.53, (21.90)

Congrats man, getting sub 30 is awesome. It took me forever to get sub 26.

I think you have just made an achievement Zac

And again.
Single lucky solve 26.66 --> 25.23, almost nonlucky 28.28
avg 3/5 35.64 --> 34.51 (first sub-35 avg of any sort)
avg 10/12 37.57 -->35.60
avg of 100 42.55 --> 39.41

Time to seriously work on learning PLL.

Again!
lucky solve 25.23 --> 24.91
avg 3/5 34.51 --> 31.39
avg 10/12 35.60 --> 33.66
avg 100 39.41 --> 38.07

Wow, just suddenly started going faster. The avg of the second 50 in that hundred was 36.36, which was a very notably good time 2 days ago. At this rate I'll be sub-30 soon, can't wait.

On Thursday I went on a field trip, and on the bus I did my first sub-35 3x3x3-OH average (I think it was 34.844). I'm really happy about that.

Then on Friday I was being driven up to Boston, and on the ride I did a couple of 5x5x5 solves and broke my single-solve record by more than four seconds with a 2:13.87. Crazy.

I got 9.05 seconds on a 5x5 on gabbasoft. This is my best 5x5 time ever, seeing as I don't have a real 5x5 cube...

I might start using my old black cube for speed, it seems like it can go really fast, meaning I should have some new times soon!

9.05 seconds, wow thats beat the WR by like 1:40!

You should get a physical 5x5x5. You won't regret it.

I did a 1:09.40 on the 4x4x4 earlier today. That also beat my PR by about four seconds. Yeah improvement!

Well, I just got my first sub-40 solve. Yay for 39.86!

It wasn't a lucky solve of any skipped steps but, it was lucky in that... (Roux solve) I was able to see how to build my first block VERY quickly, and my second block fairly quickly. IMMEDIATELY recognized the corner setup for CMLL, three quick moves fixed the edges, another 4 quick moves put the left/right edges on the top layer in, and I immediately saw the ending middle-slice case.

That felt GREAT.

U B' U B2 F2 R' B U F' B' L D' B R' L2 B R' U2 D R' F2 R' L2 D' F'

White front and Green top for scramble.

Red face was bottom for Roux solve, and Blue face was on the left for my first block.

How did you get 9.05 sec? Lucky solve?

I think Speedy's time was 9:05, not 9.05.

I had a 13.75 OH solve a few days ago, it was crazy... Using Fridrich terms I skipped PLL.

Thats crazy! My cross takes about 13 seconds OH!

13.75 is awesome, even with a PLL skip. My best lucky 3x3x3 solve was 15.xx (two-handed), so... wow.

Today, I got a 20:29.532 on the 10x10x10 with my cage method. I'm getting a lot better at that method, although I still need a lot of improvement on the edges part. I'm surprised at the time, because I didn't think it would be that fast... Yikes.

q, how do you do the cage? I think you posted at one time you did the edges, then solved like a 3x3... This isn't really a cage method, rather a simplified reduction idea...

20 mins with a 10x10??? Mine took two hours!

And yes my 5x5 time was 9 minutes, not 9 seconds... I wasn't thinking when I posted that...

@Ken: Wow, you have really improved with Roux. Glad I showed it to you

My basic method is:
1. Group up 9 edges and store 8 of them on the U and D layers.
2. Group up remaining 3 edges with reduction methods.
3. Solve edges and corners like a 3x3x3.
4. Solve all centers with commutators.

The first 3 steps are basically reduction steps (though a bit faster since centers are irrelevant), and then the last step is done in a cage-like manner, except that I think I use different commutators than Per and Johannes do. Anyway, since the centers part is most of the solve (about 3/4 of the time taken on a 10x10x10) I'm spending more time doing cage-like stuff than reduction-like stuff (even though more steps are reduction-style), so it's a lot closer to a full cage method than what I've been doing.

Anyway, if someone would provide me with a good way to do the edges and corners on large (> 5x5x5) cubes with a cage-style approach, I'd probably switch to full cage, but for now it's faster for me to use the stuff I'm used to.



I love big cubes. I'm pretty fast with the mouse too (I have lots of practice from Minesweeper, Solitaire, and online games), and I've known how to solve the 5x5x5 reasonably fast for more than a year.

I'm going to attempt a 20x20x20 at some point, but I need a good three-hour chunk of time...

Three hours of time? Ha, the world records is 4 hours, if I'm not mistaken... I have taken a half an hour, and I'm about halfway done the first center.

The world record seems to be 1:48:12.171 (Joe Allen). I estimate that if I go at the same speed I've been going at on the 10x10x10 it will take something near two hours, and then I give myself some extra time to make sure I have enough.

41:16, for my first 6x6x6 solve (764) moves (i didn't do double turns, and sometimes made a turn just to see the cubies on the other side.

@q: oops, that is the record for the 20x20, isn't it? I haven't really been thinking lately...

@Joe: Nice job! I did the six only a week ago, it is a fun little puzzle! Wait until you get into bigger cubes, they are fun!

Does anyone know if you can use laptops on plane flights? I'm flying to California (from New York) on Thursday and that would be a great time to do a 20x20x20...

I'm not so sure. I know you used to, but now they are scared you will use the electronics on the inside to create a bomb... I would call the airport and see what they tell you.

Today, I worked out 6x6 and 7x7 using knowledge from 5x5 and a bit of luck on getting the last 2 centers. Then I figured out how to commute center pieces and did an 8x8 a few minutes faster than either the 6 or the 7. I'm confident I can do any size cube now, given enough time. Also solved my megaminx for the first time, using 3x3 knowledge. 4 puzzles in a day, not bad! Square-1 and some even bigger cubes are next.

edit: solved a 9x9 too!

Congrats man!

Today I am pretty sure I got a 25 second Roux solve. Last night I got a sub 40 average, with a PB of 28 seconds. All of this was using Roux method, altered so that I have a LL to solve instead of all edges at the end.

I also got a 23.91 second average using Fridrich, second fastest ever!

Aslong as you have a flight safe mode on it, and only use it during cruise, it's fine.

I feel like I'm spamming this thread, but it just keeps on coming.
3x3 single 24.91 -> 23.45 (several more sub-25 today)
3x3 avg 3/5 30.38 -> 28.69 (first sub-30 "avg"!)
3x3 avg 10/12 32.92 -> 31.80
3x3 avg 100 36.23 -> 33.87

The 100 avg is maybe the most exciting. I've had good runs in the past, but today it was consistent almost the whole way through. RA was almost never over 35, mostly under 34.

Keep it up! You'll be sub 30 in no time!!!

Just got a 17.70 3x3 average, a 1:34 4x4 PB and a 3:28 5x5 PB.