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V-Cubes!

Leviticus

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Jan 6, 2008
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Perth, Western Australia
Mines been at Heathrow Airport for 21 hours. OMGGGGG just come already :(

I know, mine has been in New York since this morning. I could have driven up and gotten it is so close. Why won't they deliver it?!

Its been 25 hours now and hasnt left :eek:

what happens if no one is at home when they deliver it?

I havent had experience with DHL, but they either leave it at your door step (Good or bad which ever way you think about it), leave a note in your letter box saying they will deliever it again tomorrow or you can pick it up
 

cmhardw

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2003HARD01
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My cubes are in Wilmington, North Carolina. That's only a 2 hour drive away from me. So they should arrive tomorrow! Except I'll be out of town starting tomorrow :-(

That's ok, when I come back, I'll already know that they are here :-D

Chris
 

Kenny

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Joined
Jan 21, 2008
Messages
63
Location
Hungary
WCA
2008SCHM01
I got a shipping e-mail w/ a tracking number. I was one of the early orders, so I guess i should've been shipped. I dont' think anyone over order #300 has been shipped... or not in "my" shipment.
Well, ours (a bunch of us decided to place our order together so the shipping costs would get divided thus lower per capita) got here on Friday and it was order #329. We're from Hungary though.

As for the 7x7: it's simply awesome. Freaking awesome, yay, coolest thing ever :). It's a very good pastime solving it...:p. I can't tell about the 6x6 since I don't have one of those. The 5x5 is like very very neat, too. A friend of mine [he runs by the name "Zava" on this forum] has one and I got my average 20 seconds lower using his V-Cube :p.
 
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cmhardw

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By the way, do you have a name for those extra type of centers? What do you call them? I figure for the more normal ones, we can call them "outer X centers", "inner X centers", "outer + centers", and "inner + centers", (and I guess you have "outer and inner wings"), but what do you call the other ones?

Hey Mike,

We're calling those the "oblique" centers. They are by far the hardest thing about solving the bigger cubes blindfolded, in my opinion at least.

My definition of the types of pieces, for the 6x6x6 since it's the only one I've tried obviously, are the
1) corners
2) inner wings
3) outer wings
4) inner x-centers
5) outer x-centers
6) "clockwise" oblique centers
7) "counter-clockwise" oblique centers

The 7x7x7 has all the same pieces, but add to this
8) inner t-centers
9) outer t-centers
10) central edges (like on a 3x3x3)

Ok, so for oblique centers I tried 3 different things for each of my 3 different solves as to how to visualize them.

First solve I tried to think of them purely in the abstract sense. I imagined them as having coordinates in a matrix (in a 6x6 matrix, since each face has 36 stickers, or "entries"). This does not work well for the B and D faces, and I did DNF my first solve, mostly because of centers, so I don't recommend this method.

Second solve I tried to think of them as numbers of layers away from the corners. The notation I will be using was mentioned before on the speedsolving yahoo group, but if a better one is developed I don't mind switching.

The layers, as seen from left to right (L and R) are:
L l1 l2 r2 r1 R

for a 7x7x7 it would be
L l1 l2 m r2 r1 R

So anyway the oblique center at [U l2 b1] is my "A" piece for the "clockwise oblique centers". This is because, as seen from the outer x-center oribt (the piece at [U l1 b1]) I would have to rotate clockwise one piece (inside the 2x2 grid of each of the different kinds of x-centers) to get to it.

But look at the definition of the piece I gave you [U l2 b1] that means, from the corner at UBL I would count over 2 slices to the right (placing me on the l2 slice) and one slice toward me (placing me at b1). You do the same on other faces.

I DNF'd my second solve too, also partially due to centers, and I don't recommend this second method either.

Ok, the solve I got I pictured the oblique centers completely visually. I liked this method so much that it is what I will use in the future. Although I define the oblique centers in 2 groups, clockwise and clockwise groups of them, when solving I picture them visually.

So for example on any given face, when looking at all of the clockwise- and counterclockwise-oblique centers you will see that there are 8 of them per face. Let's say we are looking at all the oblique centers on the U face.

They, all 8, are at:
[U l2 b1]; [U r2 b1] (all on the b1 slice)
[U l1 b2]; [U l1 f2] (all on the l1 slice)
[U f1 l2]; [U f1 r2] (all on the f1 slice)
[U r1 f2]; [U r1 b2] (all on the r1 slice)

Ok, notice that they come in pairs of 2 on each of the b1, l1, f1, and r1 slices. When solving I think of them by these pairs. First I decide which of those 4 pairs it cycles to - basically just think does it cycle to the "top" of the face, the "left" of the face, the "right" of the face, or the "bottom" of the face. Then, upon deciding that you have to visualize which of the 2 pieces is interchangeable with your buffer. To do this I imagine how I would move my buffer to that pair of pieces. I think with more practice that I would eventually work to just memorize which piece is the "clockwise-oblique" and which is the "counter-clockwise-oblique" for each pair, but for a first solve this is how I did it. It works very quickly, very easily, and that is the only solve of the 3 I solved successfully.

So when you are working on those oblique centers, that's how I recommend to do it.

Good luck to all those trying it! When I get back from my trip I guess I'll have to settle for trying to outsolve you guys. And no I didn't say fastest time. I think I will surely be one of the slower people to memorize this cube. However, I think using BH gives me a *huge* advantage in move count during the solving phase. So all my time lost having a slower memo will (hopefully) be gained during the solving phase.

Good luck everybody, I hope to join the fun when I get back from my trip!
 
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Tim Reynolds

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My cubes are in Wilmington, North Carolina. That's only a 2 hour drive away from me. So they should arrive tomorrow! Except I'll be out of town starting tomorrow :-(

That's ok, when I come back, I'll already know that they are here :-D

Chris

What a coincidence, mine are in Wilmington too! Except, Wilmington, OH. And they're not there anymore. Whatever, same thing basically :p
I too am going out of town tomorrow. I'm leaving for the airport at 8:15 AM and the DHL place (half hour away) opens at 7...but my parents aren't exactly of the opinion that going to pick them up would make sense or other stuff like that. Oh well, I'll have my V-cubes Saturday night...
 

Mike Hughey

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Mine have left Wilmington, too. But mine doesn't say which state. I had originally assumed Wilmington, Delaware. Funny how many Wilmingtons there are out there.

Chris, thanks for the info. Oblique centers makes perfect sense. (I'm not entirely sure how to distinguish between clockwise and counterclockwise, though - I guess I'd assume clockwise would mean the ones for which the pieces are slightly clockwise of middle, so the top one would be slightly to the right of middle. Not sure if I'm matching you with that definition, but it works for me.)

I think I can see the oblique commutators pretty well in my head without having to reference much of anything. It probably goes with the fact that I can naturally see + centers so well. But maybe I'm wrong - we'll see how it goes when I'm actually solving. I've already figured out how to store all the memorization, and it should work pretty well. I've got enough storage space with my Roman Rooms to handle a 3 7x7x7 multi. :) The good news about that is that I should be able to try 3 7x7x7's in the same day without getting too confused. (Although I'll probably never have enough time in a day to do 3.) Realistically, I'm going to try to do one per night until I get one right. Could be a while.
 

blah

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Dec 30, 2007
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(I'm not entirely sure how to distinguish between clockwise and counterclockwise, though - I guess I'd assume clockwise would mean the ones for which the pieces are slightly clockwise of middle, so the top one would be slightly to the right of middle. Not sure if I'm matching you with that definition, but it works for me.)

Chris said somewhere in his post that clockwise oblique centers meant the ones slightly counterclockwise of the middle actually. He mentioned Ul2b1 was clockwise oblique center "A".

So now you both have different definitions for clockwise and counterclockwise oblique centers :p Can we have a short standardized name for them 'cause I hate typing "clockwise oblique centers". How about o+ centers and o- centers? :p
 
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