Practicube.com cube practice website

[Cubiquitous]

I would like to introduce practicube.com, a new speed cube practice website.

One of my main goals in making this site is to provide some new ways to recognize and recall OLL algorithms. I have come up with a handful of names and images to help with this. I don't have an image for every OLL case, and I am very open to suggestions.

Another goal was to make the site mobile friendly, using responsive design. The practice timer can be activated with the space bar, but for phones and tablets a large button allows you to start and stop the timer. The timer allows you to track times for different cubes or puzzles separately, and it also provides some overall stats for all of your cubes.

Please note that this is a pet project I work on in my spare time, and it is currently untested on Internet Explorer. The site will always require a modern HTML5 browser, so IE 8 and earlier will never be supported.

 

[Stefan]

It claims it's "the speed cube practice website". What happened to all the others? Also, do you have permission for using that notation picture?

Edit: Also, clicking "Practice" doesn't do anything for me except putting "#practice" at the end of the URL (using Chrome (which is ironic cause it works in Firefox and there it tells me "Please try updating, or use Google Chrome.")).

 

[Cubiquitous]

Thanks for the feedback, I have reworded the heading on the home page. I did not intend to leave the notation resource up. Eventually, it will be replaced by something animated and interactive, and there will be no need for an entire page. But since I was called out on it so quickly, I have linked to an outside resource instead.

 

[Cubiquitous]

I got that bug in Chrome fixed. Thanks again. Your Firefox would need to be updated to support certain HTML5 features; you will also find that the OLL page does not have the diagrams, which require the HTML5 canvas. I will be using the canvas for the animated notation diagrams as well, so there is pretty much no point in providing a cookie fallback for the HTML5 local storage used by the practice timer.

 

[legoanimate98]

it doesn't seem much better than the place you copied it from.

http://badmephisto.com/oll.php

 

[Stefan]

Your Firefox would need to be updated to support certain HTML5 features; you will also find that the OLL page does not have the diagrams

I have Firefox 25.0, the newest stable. The OLL page looks fine to me.
Could be the NoScript extension, though I did "turn it off" ("Allow Scripts Globally").

And I confirm, timer works in my Chrome now.

 

[Cubiquitous]

I did indeed use algorithms from badmephisto.com. I like the way the triggers are highlighted. But there are some differences among my algorithms and groupings, not to mention that practicube is a client side application (not a webpage) that allows for easy sorting of the OLL cases. While learning them, I was motivated by the shortcomings of the available resources. In particular, being able to sort the OLL cases by the number of cubies oriented up is indispensable and not found elsewhere. Also, badmephisto.com is unusable on my iPad and iPhone. I am not claiming that I invented the Rubik's cube; I am trying to improve how people can learn. It is kind of lost on seasoned veterans. I get that. I did think this discussion might be more constructive.

Stefan, I will try to look into it. But you get that message if there is no native JSON parsing or if local storage can't be accessed, but an updated Firefox should have both.

 

[Cubiquitous]

I have just updated my notation page, and I added popovers for the notation in the scramble. The scramble is abbreviated such that R2 L2 would just be M2, etc. The popover is a quick reference for people who aren't used to that. I will be adding the popovers to all of the algorithms as well.



I am considering adding a login feature that will allow you keep all of your times in one place, as opposed to the browser's storage. I am also considering adding a facebook feature that let's you post your times.

 

[Lazy Einstein]

OLL Practice is great. I like how you organized Bad Mephisto's OLL algs to show which OLL alg creates which from a solved cube. It will be very useful in practicing. Facebook feature would be neat.

Ideas:

1. Badmephisto's site should be sourced with links provided to the original source content.

2. I have seen so many sites with one or two preferred algs for PLL. You should find several other tried and tested alternatives and provide them as well. Don't make a wiki or anything but it is always nice to have several to try to see which works best for you. Maybe provided video links too.

(i.e J(a) perm F2 L' U' Rw U2 Lw' U R' U' R2 Sa967St's J (a) perm & E perm z U2 R2 F (R U R' U')x3 F' R2 U2 z' just to name a few)

Good start so far.

 

[BillyRain]

Great idea with the OLL images!!!

Please make a separate list with just the 2-Look OLL algs. This would be massively helpful for my students!

Billy

 

[Cubiquitous]

There is already a tab for 2-look OLL, unless I am misunderstanding...

 

[Cubiquitous]

2. I have seen so many sites with one or two preferred algs for PLL. You should find several other tried and tested alternatives and provide them as well...

Thanks for the input. I am certainly open to adding these things you've suggested. I also am happy to treat this as an open source effort, and acknowledge and link to discussions here. I have no need for the site to advertise or make money. It's just there to be helpful, same as anything here.

Edit: I don't mean open source as in code. I just mean, it's open for people to contribute ideas.

 

[BillyRain]

There is already a tab for 2-look OLL, unless I am misunderstanding...

Apologies! Didn't spot that

 

[Cubiquitous]

No problem. I think I need to change the 2-look pll to have the same tabs (and work on the tab's appearance). I am glad you like the idea of the oll images. I am interested to know which ones work or don't work for you.

Update: I just added a name an image for 33 and 43, Chairman of the bored (He'd rather be cubing). It looks like a guy sitting on a chair.

BOLO: I am looking for a good image for 21, Chameleon. And maybe something to do with bats for 28 and 29.

 

[Cubiquitous]

The scramble is abbreviated such that R2 L2 would just be M2, etc...

This might interest some people. R2 L2 cannot actually be shortened to M2. It is really M2 x2. To be able to shorten it to just M2, everything that comes after it must be rotated by x2. For example:

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

is shortened to

M D2 R D2 B L R F B U' F2 D S2 D L' D' L2 U S2 R2 U2 D

If you perform both scrambles on separate cubes and then return the second to its original orientation (do x rotation), you can see it is the same as the original scramble. In this example, it saved you three rotations. Some scrambles cannot be shortened, but most are shortened by 1-3 rotations, some are shortened even more. This is not a huge time saver for a single scramble. But suppose it saves you one second 25 times per day or if you are faster 0.25 seconds 100 times per day (same math), then it adds up to over two and a half hours in a year.

 

[Cubiquitous]

Badmephisto's site should be sourced with links provided to the original source content...
(i.e J(a) perm F2 L' U' Rw U2 Lw' U R' U' R2 Sa967St's J (a) perm & E perm z U2 R2 F (R U R' U')x3 F' R2 U2 z' just to name a few...

I put up links on the main page to badmephisto's site and a few others.

I added the algorithms you suggested. Thanks again for the input. I liked the J(a) algorithm you provided so much that it is now listed first.

 

[Cubiquitous]

I have added notation popovers for all algorithms and four new images.

 

[Lazy Einstein]

Not sure if it is just my computer but the OLL practice isn't working right. The images are not showing; same with the algs.
The OLL and PLL tabs work fine however.

 

[Cubiquitous]

Thanks for letting me know. I somehow forgot about that section when adding the notation popovers. The algorithms should show up now.

I didn't find a problem with the images, although some of the cases don't have images yet. If none of them are showing, could you tell me what browser/OS you are using? Thanks.

 

[Phillip1847]

Just saying, U/D is E and F/B is S.
I really like what you did with the OLLs as someone said earlier, makes it much easier to practice.
As said, more alternate algs for PLL would be nice, such as U-perms from the back, french G-perms and A(b) as the inverse of A(a).