I want an automatic scrambling machine, not an automatic solving machine. Two cubes. While you're solving one, the other one is being scrambled. Cubers spend way more time scrambling than solving. Scrambling is the annoying part that needs automating.
I can solve the cube with the regular “easy” 3-layer approach, but I’d like to solve it faster.
The issue is that the techniques for fast solving require to learn many different patterns to get to the right solution fast.
I don’t know really how ppl that solve it fast accomplish getting to that level, but to me it would be amazing if i could just set the cube in know scrambled states that let me practice and memorize specific algorithms repeatedly until I learn them.
The problem is that I don’t know enough yet to distinguish which are those initial states, let alone setting the cube in that state, so something that could set it up for me to practice would be amazing
> I don’t know really how ppl that solve it fast accomplish getting to that level
Just like everything else in life, they do it really slow and with lots and lots and lots of errors at first, but (and this is where the magic happens) keep doing it, training hours a day or their entire week ends, for years.
I’m completely not in this space but your comment had me wondering: are there digital cube faces? That is, a real physical cube but with faces that can instantly be set to a given color?
They exist, but one of the problems is they're not particularly good cubes. While it might help you learn the basics, not being able to handle it like a speedcube means they're probably not going to help you get faster.
That being said, while looking up those links, I found out that, since I got out of the hobby, smart cubes have become a thing, and are made by real speedcube manufacturers.
This is an easier problem to solve. I'm not sure if you have to solve it first or if it can identify pieces on power up, but after that it's just tracking rotations, which can be done from the (fixed position) centres alone. But if an actual speedcube manufacturer can already fit those electronics in without comprising performance, I can't imagine it's that much harder to fit some addressable LEDs on some slip-ring-esque connections. Must just not be much of a market.
At least until a certain level, scrambling (according to a given "algorithm") is a good way to practice moves. It shouldn't take much longer than a solution either, you are not solving the cube in under 30 moves. And if you don't care about the scramble it's even faster. So I don't think the "way more time" is entirely accurate. It may feel like it though.
Yeah, it's just a software change to the existing machine. If you generate a target scrambled state it's literally the solver algorithm in reverse too.
It would be neat if it offered to scramble when you insert an already solved cube (demoed in the video), and maybe have options for the amount of randomness.
Is there an unbiased scrambling (or random generation) algorithm, or is it enough to just generate N random moves?
To answer my own question, competitive cubing uses unbiased randomization algorithms.[0] To minimize scrambling time, it could fairly generate a random configuration and then optimally scramble the cube in ~18 moves.[1]
TL;DR fair scrambling is exactly as fast (same throughout) as solving random cubes! Neat.
Funny enough, that (e: the shuffle function mentioned in original thread post, just realized my awkward comment placement) sounds like a very reasonable stretch goal/feature add-on, although I'm not sure this particular machine could shuffle quickly enough for speedcuber types.
... and your thinking is that because someone else mentioned a lawnmower, you should bring up that meme about Ellison, even though it's clearly nothing to do with the OP?
My friend was extra careful and sent it to a PO box kind thing, with a fake name and throwaway email just in case. But he thinks that is overly paranoid: if the letter was intercepted (highly unlikely), there would be no legal consequences because there is no link between him and the purchase (therefore strictly speaking all that happened was that someone mailed him illegal drugs without his knowledge ;)).
It's a bad idea to send darkweb packages to a PO box, as the USPS will require a lower threshold of evidence to search the package. As it is they can't inspect your mail without a warrant, which is exceedingly rare for them to procure for a random package. Having it shipped to your home, although maybe somewhat nerve-wracking, is the simplest and most secure option in the United States (for now).
This is what my friends in the bodybuilding world have come to accept.
Yes packages get intercepted. But it isn’t the legal liability of an addressee for what is in some box that SOMEONE put in the mail. Otherwise it would be an amazing blackmail (nigh literally) tool to target any enemy.
Every jurisdiction has its own rules but in broad strokes: receiving a package containing drugs isn’t illegal, otherwise, anyone could send their enemy drugs.
To safely receive drugs through the mail, you do not do anything clever (like mailing them to an empty house) instead you behave in a way that gives you plausible deniability. And you do not do anything that would lead police to think you’re distributing.
Order small, personal use quantities to your name and your address and leave the package on your counter for a couple of days after it arrives. If the police show up, say you didn’t recognise the package and left it on the counter until you had time to return it to the post office.
Where you’re ordering from and to matters too. Ordering from the Netherlands into Australia almost guarantees the drugs will be found because all international mail is processed by Australia’s postal service and the Netherlands is an obvious source country. Order nationally to avoid processing.
Ultimately, it’s just like buying drugs on the street: be a nobody buying for personal use.
The biggest risk is that inevitably the seller will eventually get busted and your address will be in the seller’s records. If you’ve bought large quantities, the police will see you as a dealer and try to catch you in a sting. The best sellers do not keep records for this reason, but it’s something you won’t know until they get caught. If you buy personal use quantities, the police aren’t going to waste time on you, even if they have records of your orders.
> By open do you mean not centralised? I don't get the significance of big S social media. Functionally how would big S improve on group chats?
Social media has two functions: chat (within groups/topics/...) and discovery (of groups/topics/...). So unless we rely only on IRL discovery, we need a way to do discovery online.
Discovery is probably the main problem social media creates. Almost all of these problems solve themselves when you remove discovery. If someone in your friends group chat is spamming porn you just remove them. There's no need for the platform to intervene here, small groups of people can moderate their own friend groups.
Once you start algorithmically shoving content to people you have to start worrying about spam, trolling, politics, copyright, and all kinds of issues. The best discovery system is friends sharing chat invite links to other friends who are interested.
Yeah this is pretty much my sentiment. I want to discover I teresting stuff, main reason I'm on HN. But big S social media is a cancer on attention as far as I'm concerned, it serve no benefit to society.
The only times on the internet I've felt part of a community was on old web forums.
I used some of those similar web type services for discovery in the past but they became shit fast or shut down. HN is the nearest I can find that surfaces stuff I'm interested in. Social media might have stuff on it but I'm unwilling to waste my time trying to find it
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