May 07, 2004

Rubik's Cube "We turn the Cube and it twists us." Erno Rubik
  • This is a good collection of links (barring the Wiki "We-ain't-got-it-yet" one). [square banana] Does anyone recall any Rubik spinoffs? I remember playing with one that was twisty flat piece. Darned if I can recall what it's called now. What I like best about a Rubik's Cube: That mechanical cranking sound when you twist it.
  • Is the long one called Rubik's snake? Long ago when Rubik was new, a friend of a friend of mine turned up in the pub one night with a prototype of an icosahedronal version (or was it a dodecahedron?). Never saw it again. It was rather fragile, so maybe it didn't work - or perhaps the obvious patent issues were insurmountable - or maybe he accidentally created a higher-dimensional hole in space and fell through (like this , perhaps.
  • I hate mathematical fiction, Plegmund: it's all formula stuff. [Runs cowering for the door.]
  • You mean it appeals to the lowest common denominator? [Tumbleweed rolls past in the eerie silence that follows]
  • Awesome collection of links. This post is going into my folder of I-have-nothing-to-do sites. I will love it and pet it and call it George... Alnedra: Twisty flat piece? Did you mean something like this or this?
  • Y'know any toy that's ultimately a mathematical exercise is only accurately described by the word "evil". Eeeeeevil! Eeeeeeeevil I tells ya! *pulls out corner square, rearranges*
  • That last link is a fantastic article about Rubik from 1986.
  • man, i do pretty well with a rubik's cube. i can solve five sides but no matter how hard i try i can never get the sixth. sorry, that's my rubik's cube joke. tune in next april for my april fool's day joke. just as good.
  • "We turn the Cube and it twists us." Was anyone else reminded of Silence of the Lambs with this quote?
  • i was reminded of Yakov Smirnoff. "In Soviet Russia, cube twists you!"
  • oh! oh! middleclassstool, that's the one! The Rubik's magic thingy! I had to join up these circles by twisting the flat pieces! Or something.
  • Yeah, I think there were pictures on both sides, and you had to either link the rings on one side or separate them on the other, or something like that. I had one long ago, and never could get the stupid thing to work (toy's fault, not mine). But I want the DIY cube kit. I'm gonna print a big 'nanner for each side.
  • I had a Rubik's cube once with fruits rather than solid blocks of cube. I recall bananas, cherries and apples were part of it. Pineapples too.
  • Some threads read just as well from the bottom up. And this is one of them. /reading as the cube twists
  • That video won't load for me. However, I was not aware of this thread previously. I can't remember the name of that snake thing (was it The Snake?), but I do remember the Pyramid and the Missing Link. I don't remember being able to do either of those, but I could solve the Rubik's Cube. In fact, someone had it at a Christmas Party I went to this past year and I solved it. Does anyone remember Rubik's Revenge? It was exactly the same as the Rubik's Cube, but was four by four. It was a bitch. I got four sides once. Once.
  • Awesome.