The Layer by Layer Podcast

[brododragon]

OK, so far the bell has been rung for the sail of a sail boat, what could that be?

Andrew was trying to get Kit to say "Sail", but he said "Snail", which still rung the bell

He then said "Close enough" and ended the podcast, leading me to believe that he meant the sail on a sail boat.

Haven't listened to the podcast, but definently sounds like a cubing podcast based on this conversation.

 

[AlphaCuber is awesome]

Haven't listened to the podcast, but definently sounds like a cubing podcast based on this conversation.

It is a cubing podcast obstensively

 

[ProStar]

Haven't listened to the podcast, but definently sounds like a cubing podcast based on this conversation.

It's not really a cubing podcast, they just talk about related subjects sometimes. Other topics include the sickos who eat the cream right out of the Oreo!

 

[ColorfulPockets]

New episode soon! (As in, we’re hopefully recording tomorrow)

(Posting here because I’m using this as an excuse to figure out how these forum things work)

 

[ProStar]

New episode soon! (As in, we’re hopefully recording tomorrow)

(Posting here because I’m using this as an excuse to figure out how these forum things work)

Yay! Also, you already figured out how to remove the tapatalk signature, usually people never figure that out

 

[Mikel]

I've been listening since the first episode. Feet is gone! *Insert crab rave*

Has University of Iowa Cube as Avatar, but has never been to an Iowa comp?

 

[ProStar]

Has University of Iowa Cube as Avatar, but has never been to an Iowa comp?

"Shhhhhh..... Irrelevant" - Kit Clement

 

[gruuby]

Has University of Iowa Cube as Avatar, but has never been to an Iowa comp?

I'm from iowa but live in Texas and am a huge Iowa fan

 

[Mikel]

I'm from iowa but live in Texas and am a huge Iowa fan

I'm sorry for you. Go clones.

 

[gruuby]

I'm sorry for you. Go clones.

I'm sorry for your football losses

 

[ColorfulPockets]

New episode!

33: “Nice,” but Stupid — Layer By Layer — Overcast

overcast.fm

 

[gruuby]

haha sans

 

[ProStar]

I did the unnamed but cool event, don't look at my solution if you haven't done it

Spoiler: 3FM Dice Roll

14 Rolls, 50 Moves

Scramble: L2 B' U F2 B2 L F D' R' U2 D2 L2 F R2 B U2 F2 U2 R2 F

U2 F2 L' D // 1st Roll

B' D2 R2 F' D' F // 2nd Roll

// 3rd Roll

D F' L' F L2 // 4th Roll

D' L' // 5th Roll

D F' // 6th Roll

R F' // 7th Roll

R' F B R' // 8th Roll

B' L B R B' L' // 9th Roll

D2 R // 10th Roll

L' F2 L2 // 11th Roll

F L2 F R' L D' // 12th Roll

L2 D' F2 L2 // 13th Roll

D L2 F2 L2 // 14th Roll


Here's what my steps were:

U2 F2 L' D B' // 2x2x2

D2 R2 // 2x2x3

F' D' F // EO But Not

D F' L' F L2 D' L' D F' R F' R' F // L2P

B R' B' L B R B' L' // CLL

D2 R L' F2 L2 // M-Slice [Cancelled into ELL]

F L2 F R' L D' L2 D' F2 L2 D L2 F2 L2 // ELL

I used the same rolls and scrambles in Andrew's Doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/19YuG1BmWpYQn_2NCsJRE34FZ9rVp_Ign0QN3yByd1Hw/edit

 

[ColorfulPockets]

I did the unnamed but cool event, don't look at my solution if you haven't done it

Spoiler: 3FM Dice Roll

14 Rolls, 50 Moves

Scramble: L2 B' U F2 B2 L F D' R' U2 D2 L2 F R2 B U2 F2 U2 R2 F

U2 F2 L' D // 1st Roll

B' D2 R2 F' D' F // 2nd Roll

// 3rd Roll

D F' L' F L2 // 4th Roll

D' L' // 5th Roll

D F' // 6th Roll

R F' // 7th Roll

R' F B R' // 8th Roll

B' L B R B' L' // 9th Roll

D2 R // 10th Roll

L' F2 L2 // 11th Roll

F L2 F R' L D' // 12th Roll

L2 D' F2 L2 // 13th Roll

D L2 F2 L2 // 14th Roll


Here's what my steps were:

U2 F2 L' D B' // 2x2x2

D2 R2 // 2x2x3

F' D' F // EO But Not

D F' L' F L2 D' L' D F' R F' R' F // L2P

B R' B' L B R B' L' // CLL

D2 R L' F2 L2 // M-Slice [Cancelled into ELL]

F L2 F R' L D' L2 D' F2 L2 D L2 F2 L2 // ELL

I used the same rolls and scrambles in Andrew's Doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/19YuG1BmWpYQn_2NCsJRE34FZ9rVp_Ign0QN3yByd1Hw/edit

Nicely done! Kit and I have been working on refining this event a bit, hopefully we’ll have some cool updates to make it more interesting next episode

 

[BenChristman1]

Spoiler: 3x3 w/ Face Results

Generated By csTimer on 2020-06-11 (solving from 2020-06-11 14:52:19 to 2020-06-11 15:01:43)
avg of 5: 1:10.708

Time List:
1. (DNF(1:39.636)) D B' L2 B2 L2 U2 B' U2 F2 D2 U2 F U2 R' U R U L2 R2 F @2020-06-11 14:52:19
2. 1:13.304 B2 D' L2 U2 R2 U' F2 D F2 U L' R D L2 B' F' U L B L @2020-06-11 14:56:51
3. (59.648) L2 D2 R' F2 L' D2 R' B2 D2 B2 U2 R' B D' F D2 R U F' U2 B' @2020-06-11 14:58:36
4. 1:01.267 L2 D L' F D B2 R' B D' B R2 B' U2 B U2 L2 U2 F' B' D2 @2020-06-11 15:00:19
5. 1:17.553 R U2 F2 R2 B' U2 L2 F' U2 F D2 R2 U B' D' F U' L B2 R' D2 @2020-06-11 15:01:43

Spoiler: 3x3 w/ Dice Results (Have I come up with a name???)

21 rolls
56 moves
13 minutes, 12.62 seconds
I just did a normal CFOP solve since I'm too lazy to do any sort of FMC.

Spoiler: Rolls Solution

1. L F'
2. B L D' F D
3. U L'
4. U L U2 L
5. U L'
6. U
7. B
8. U' B' F U2
9. F' U2 R
10. U R'
11. U'
12. R U
13. R2 U
14. R B U2
15. B' F' U' F U'
16. F' U F
17. U F R' F' R
18. R2 U' F B'
19. R2 F'
20. B U' R2
21. U

Spoiler: Actual Moves Solution

L F' B L D' F D // Cross
U L' U L U2 L U L' // F2L 1
U B U' B' F U2 F' // F2L 2
U2 R U R' U' R U R2 // F2L 3 (cancel into 4th pair)
U R B U2 B' // F2L 4
F' U' F U' F' U F U F R' F' R // OLL
R2 U' F B' R2 F' B U' R2 U // PLL

 

[xyzzy]

(I'll ramble on and on about scrambles if you let me. (please don't let me))

Spoiler: big cube solvers and random-state scrambles

The solving algorithm used in the 555 solver is indeed reduction, but it's more like domino redux (orienting pieces and placing them into specific orbits) than like the speedsolving redux (solving centres then doing edge pairing). I and a few other people have been exploring other computer big cube methods, but the domino-like approach seems to be solidly in the lead in terms of move count. Unfortunately, large lookup tables (= high disk/RAM usage and long initialisation times) seem to be unavoidable, and even with the large lookup tables, it's not very fast.

In terms of speed or low memory usage, the centres-then-edges reduction method is probably better, but it'd also take 10-30 more moves.

Spoiler: subpixels

Boy do I have some Opinions about subpixels, completely unrelated to cubing. In fact, it's pretty much also unrelated to what Andrew said except for involving subpixels. Please disregard unless you're exactly the same type of nerd that I am. (I wrote a wall of text about font rendering here, then deleted it because it was way too off-topic.)

More relevant to what Andrew was actually talking about, maybe that's something like how 2D video games might require your positions to be accurate to less than a display pixel to do certain things? (I don't play video games much, but I watch speedruns sometimes and absorb the ideas through osmosis.) That seems to be more related to how the game engine might internally store locations as (e.g.) floating-point or fixed-point numbers, but they need to be rounded to integers to display a sprite on the screen. I don't think subpixel cursor movement is a thing in general.

Spoiler: difference between capped stickerless/black puzzles

Kit mentioned that the black-plastic versions of the Gan X/XS/etc. have unified piece caps, so you can't just make a stickerless-black puzzle out of it. I think the Valk Elite does this too; the promotional pictures suggest that the black-plastic version has unified piece caps.

This is only tangentially related, but I really dislike the stickerless Valk Elite (which I've mentioned before here), partly because of the capped design (which I haven't mentioned before). The Valk Elite's corner caps aren't held in very firmly, so they can get slightly dislodged and catch on other pieces mid-turn. (This happens especially often when I'm trying to do eido U2s and I'm not pushing the layer perfectly perpendicular to the axis.) I'm not sure if this is specifically because the stickerless version uses split caps, though, and perhaps the black-plastic version with unified caps also has this same problem.

What is more relevant is that while the corner caps of the (stickerless) Valk Elite can be pried off easily (exactly because they aren't held in firmly), the edge caps are nigh impossible to get out. There's barely any seam to use to push the caps out. Even if the black version used split caps, it would still be very difficult to make a stickerless-black version.

Spoiler: 3BLD scrambles for normal solving + extra rambling about scrambles

I've been doing this for years now. When I post my scrambles/times, every so often I get asked about it, as if doing this is strange or abnormal or something. Maybe after this LBL episode this practice will be somewhat normalised.

Wouldn't it be funny if someone were to use 3BLD scrambles for 444? Ha ha, who'd fall for that

One interesting difference between csTimer's 3BLD scrambles and official TNoodle 3BLD scrambles is that in the latter, the wide moves at the end are guaranteed to never cancel with the end of the "base" scramble, while this isn't the case with csTimer (where cancellations are common). This doesn't affect random-state-ness of the scrambles. Speaking of which, csTimer's FMC scrambles do guarantee that the base scramble won't cancel moves with the R' U' F prefix and suffix… but this is enforced by filtering the scrambles, which makes the distribution non-uniform. I'm pretty sure the cubers.io scrambles have this problem as well. OTOH, @Mike Hughey mentioned that he took care to handle this correctly for the weekly comps here. (Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find the post where Mike mentioned this.)

Spoiler: bonus note

>super intelligent, super knowledgeable
yes please feed my ego more

Really though, it's not like I'm good at programming or anything. I like the theory more than the practice (that's why I majored in pure maths, duh), and to whatever extent I bother writing code, it's only to put the theory to the test.

edit:

Spoiler: 333 with dice

Seems like a fun idea; might try it later.

10 rolls, 46 moves. (Didn't time, but probably 15-20 minutes.)
F2 U2 L' D F
B2 D F2 B D' R F'
R2 F' U F2
U' L' U L D'
L' U' L2 F D
F' D' L' U'
F'
U F' U'
F2 U' B L B' R2 B L'
B' R2 U2 F

Annotated:
F2 U2 L' D // almost 222
F B2 D F2 B D' // p223
R F' R2 F' U F2 U' // almost F2L-1
L' U L D' L' U' // corner comm to finish F2L
L2 F D F' D' L' // EO with fururf
U' F' U F' U' F2 // EP+1 with Sune
U' B L B' R2 B L' B' R2 U2 F // corner comm, AUF

Almost got to do a whole comm in the penultimate set, which certainly helped.

 

[I'm A Cuber]

I think a better version of 3x3 with dice is to use a 1x1 instead of dice

 

[ProStar]

I think a better version of 3x3 with dice is to use a 1x1 instead of dice

Oh, we can get that guy that made like 100 1x1s to sponsor this at a competition!

 

[NevEr_QeyX]

Hmm,
Bell 1: Sail from sail boat
Bell 2: Sail in reference to QiYi Sail
Bell 3: ~Weilong, which sounds like whaling or whale if you nix the ong part
Ergo the bell is rung for things found in the book Moby Dick, obviously.
Alternatively it could just literally be general ocean-y things.

@Kit Clement
@ColorfulPockets

 

[ProStar]

Hmm,
Bell 1: Sail from sail boat
Bell 2: Sail in reference to QiYi Sail
Bell 3: ~Weilong, which sounds like whaling or whale if you nix the ong part
Ergo the bell is rung for things found in the book Moby Dick, obviously.
Alternatively it could just literally be general ocean-y things.

@Kit Clement
@ColorfulPockets

And the first one Kit said "snail" instead, which could ring the ocean-y bell