Older cubers discussions

I see three pieces of work to move this forward:
1) Add consent to the user profile page, assuming the WCA approve.
2) Include YOB to the database export for those who have consented. Note: My over-40's script could be modified to use the official YOB at this point.
3) Add age rankings to WCADB.NET and/or worldcubeassociation.org. This is the biggest piece of work.

That sounds great! Unfortunately, changing the schema of the database export has a tendency to break things for people using the darn CSV export (see https://github.com/cubing/wca-workbook-assistant/pull/115 for an example of this), so we'll have to be careful about how we roll that out.

I might be able to help on the first couple of items once I have the WCA website running locally. Looking at my calendar and todo list, it'll probably be a few weeks / months before I find the time!

Awesome. I could also see adding a consent checkbox to our sign up page (something that might make sense to do ASAP, so as to catch the maximum number of users). Getting vagrant going locally can be a bit of a pain, please feel free to shoot me or software@ an email if you have any questions.
 

I never managed to solve a cube until last year when I decided to learn. I had a cube way way back, but it was more or less something that just moved around the house without anyone ever making any progress. I never encountered anyone that could solve one back in the day and didn't even know that the 4x4 and bigger cubes existed until I saw it on youtube. Our local library (hmmm, remember them? ;)) may have had a copy of the solution somewhere, but I would fully expect it to be an archaic solution by modern standards. Probably why they use a corner-first method in that book like I recall in the movie Let the Right One In (cool film, BTW, the original version anyway.)

Back in the day, anyone that could solve a cube would have been considered a learned savant! I get the feeling that the older you are the more amazed your peers will be about this hobby.
 
It must be the same auction I saw a few hours ago, it was like 19-20 euros including shipping to Spain so I passed, I'll wait for the one (Moyu?) that will be released sooner or later (this year?).

There have been a couple today. I was beaten on the first. I didn't really want a boxed one as I'd worry about damaging it. I did consider waiting for the new ones but they might not be out until after my last competition of the year.

I never managed to solve a cube until last year when I decided to learn. I had a cube way way back, but it was more or less something that just moved around the house without anyone ever making any progress. I never encountered anyone that could solve one back in the day and didn't even know that the 4x4 and bigger cubes existed until I saw it on youtube. Our local library (hmmm, remember them? ;)) may have had a copy of the solution somewhere, but I would fully expect it to be an archaic solution by modern standards. Probably why they use a corner-first method in that book like I recall in the movie Let the Right One In (cool film, BTW, the original version anyway.)

Back in the day, anyone that could solve a cube would have been considered a learned savant! I get the feeling that the older you are the more amazed your peers will be about this hobby.
I never knew anyone who could solve either. We all had cubes but never got past a side. You would hear stories about someone's brother's mate who did 2 sides once.
 
I never managed to solve a cube until last year when I decided to learn. I had a cube way way back, but it was more or less something that just moved around the house without anyone ever making any progress. I never encountered anyone that could solve one back in the day and didn't even know that the 4x4 and bigger cubes existed until I saw it on youtube. Our local library (hmmm, remember them? ;)) may have had a copy of the solution somewhere, but I would fully expect it to be an archaic solution by modern standards. Probably why they use a corner-first method in that book like I recall in the movie Let the Right One In (cool film, BTW, the original version anyway.)

Back in the day, anyone that could solve a cube would have been considered a learned savant! I get the feeling that the older you are the more amazed your peers will be about this hobby.
I used Layer-by-layer to solve the cube back in the 80s. Not sure where I got the method from, maybe a friend. I still have a paper sheet where I wrote by hand the algs and instructions to solve the last layer, which basically were beginner's method. I remember that I even had a LL skip once (I have not had one since I started to speedsolve in 2013 but I had one back then) and I was even timing myself so that was my all time record (until I beat it in 2013) of 48 seconds. My normal times were around 1:20. Now, seeing that solution I remember I must have seen it somewhere at the time but, oh man, what a terribly complex solution by current standards...
 

Oh fond, fond memories Ben. I remember this solution document so well since I owned one. I also remember the book called called "You Can Do The Cube" that had an adjacent edge flip alg I used from the publication if the book (~82?) until 2010.

I was lucky to be bought one of these new fangled puzzles by my Aunt when they were released in UK. 1981? I still remember surreal things such as a playground in a primary school full of children not running but all you could hear was 'clack, clack' and motionless kids.

Myself and a group of close friends were completely hooked and through collective sharing of knowledge and friends of friends learned how to solve it within 6 months. There was a lot of Niklas and Sune spamming but we felt accomplished all the same :)

I never forgot an alg in all those years (only know 6 or so) and could always solve if needed, even if years apart and in ~2001 got into solving again and wanted to get faster. I tried to mod a few old Rubik brand but the resurgence had not taken place yet and the resources were poor and though I wanted to learn Friddich the lac of resources and too much work made me lose interest

In 2010, Six years ago my wife bought me a stocking filler, guess what it was. She now wishes she hadn't.... :)
 
Finally first PB with X-man: 1:36.66 single, will try to push for sub1:50 a12 this month.
All the recent 2x2 practice is showing also, 4.65 a12 today, 11 CLL & 1 EG-1 used.

@Logiqx Nice breakdoown of your puzzle times. The one that stands out for me is the <32 for OH. Thats very fast for >40. Do you have many different OH algs to 2H?

I'd estimate that 30% of my algs are different for OH, excluding basic differences in execution. 13 of my PLLs are different but I'd estimate that only 25% of my OLLs differ. I think 7 of my 28 COLL algs are different.
This made me check my own alg sets for OH, for PLL I count 9 different (E, H, Ra, Rb, F, T, V, Na & Y), OLL 8? hard to tell since I use many alternative OLLs for both 2H & OH ("OLLCP"), COLL 6/40 (2 U, 1 T, 2 Pi, 1 H). Oh and yes I'm a righty so everything is mirrored for me OH:ed.
 
I never solved it when I was young. My brother and I would do one face intuitively and that was it. My older brothers and cousin could solve apparently (I found out now) but I don't even remember. Guess my interest level was not high enough.

A guy my age at work used to compete and (he thinks) win contests with about 1:30 times. He went and watched a comp with me last year before I thought I would compete, and he kept saying how amazing it was and that maybe he forgot how fast he was. :) I was equally amazed at that point, just starting to get under 1:00 at the time.
 
I was lucky to be bought one of these new fangled puzzles by my Aunt when they were released in UK. 1981? I still remember surreal things such as a playground in a primary school full of children not running but all you could hear was 'clack, clack' and motionless kids.

Yes, 1981. :-) Today is actually the 35th anniversary of the day I wrote, at school, that I'd just got a Rubik's cube:

http://imgur.com/hvARe9u

I sadly didn't learn to solve it as a kid. I figured out how to solve one side, and extended that in a basic way to solving a couple of faces, but didn't have the patience or self-belief to learn to solve it fully until many years later.
 
After few months of usinig MFG skewb I've realized that it's too fast for me and hard to control. Next I've realized I can set up balls in it. 30 minutes passed and I remembered how to do it. Now it's harder and better for me. I rolled down my times to 10.48 ao100.
 
Also looks like the organisers have not done any filtering yet. Presumably those people will at some point be deregistered from the events they're not qualified for.
Ah. I hadn't noticed the qualification requirements for 6x6 and 7x7.

I just started practicing them again this week. I'll spend my time on 5x5 and 4x4 instead!

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk
 
I used Layer-by-layer to solve the cube back in the 80s. Not sure where I got the method from, maybe a friend. I still have a paper sheet where I wrote by hand the algs and instructions to solve the last layer, which basically were beginner's method. I remember that I even had a LL skip once (I have not had one since I started to speedsolve in 2013 but I had one back then) and I was even timing myself so that was my all time record (until I beat it in 2013) of 48 seconds. My normal times were around 1:20. Now, seeing that solution I remember I must have seen it somewhere at the time but, oh man, what a terribly complex solution by current standards...
I originally learnt in 1981 when they were first released in South Africa. About a week after I got my first cube I got hold of a single A4 typed out page with the solution. It is a simple beginners solution which uses Niklaus to permutate and orient the corners as a last step ... I still have the original page that I think I paid R1 (Zar) for back then which was a lot of money for me then as I think my total monthly allowance was around R6. Using this method back in 1981 my fastest time was around 1:30

Rubiks Cube Solution 1981 (Rescaled).jpg
 
This is my hardwritten "solution guide" (sorry, it's in Spanish) to the Rubik's Cube from 1987 :) By then I had spent at least 3 years hooked with the puzzle. I even had two cubes, the first one turned quite nicely but I have lost it since. The second one was an original Rubik that turned really bad. After many years lost it showed up at my parents house a couple years ago, missing some stickers and center caps and all sticky, so sadly I don't keep any of my original puzzles :(
rubik001.jpg rubik002.jpg
 
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It's my birthday imminently, so I've bought myself some toys from MartyWolfman's "thepuzzlestore.uk" shop.
A Yuxin mirrorblocks, which I've thought would be fun to solve unsighted ( Seppomania is nifty at this ), and a standard domino. I've wanted one of these for decades, but after the early eighties they seemed to stop making them, and despite looking out for them at car boot sales since the late 80's, I never saw one. Thankfully they are easily obtained now. I did try simulating one with a bandaged Revenge, but it's not the same.
And finally a great-looking novelty, the Eitan Cher Twist cube. I couldn't make up my mind which to go for, the 'standard cube' looking one, or the 'Fisher cube' type. I think the Fisher one actually behaves more like the normal cube, despite appearances. There's not much in it, so the 'standard cube' one got the vote. I just think it looks cool when solved.

Marty's shop seems to have an ever-increasing stock, though no 3x3x3 ghost cube, just the 2x2x2. That's another one I'm considering, and Oskar Van Deventers Mixup cube.
 
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HaHa! "...an original Rubik's cube..... it showed up at my parents house a couple years ago, missing some stickers and center caps and all sticky"
I have my first cube from 1980, and it has that 'sticky' thing going on, too. And a couple of missing stickers. I intend sympathetically restoring it (without destroying the patina of time!!) some day. It's definitely my first, as the second, third, fourth etc all ended up modified, in some way or another, and this one just looks worn, but un-modded.
 
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