Author: Adventures in Cubing

first timed 2×2 (27 seconds)

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Having spent the last couple months consumed by 3×3 cubes, I just grabbed a 2×2 to break up the monotony. As expected, it didn’t take long to become comfortable with it. After all, a 2×2 cube is simply a 3×3 cube without the edges. After about 20 minutes for practice, I recorded this 27-second solve:

Pure Beginner’s Method adapted to a 2×2. The OLL was a little clunky, and I’m sure there are some more efficient algorithms. The PLL was a snap.

The music is Umphrey’s McGee playing, appropriately, “2×2” (from their December 30, 2010 concert). The full show can be downloaded here.

The cube is a V-Cube 2. It seems to lock up a bunch, especially when compared to the better 3×3’s I own. But it’s certainly smooth enough to serve as a fun distraction.

can you copyright/trademark a color combination?

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For once my hobby intersects with my day job. (Yes, I’m a laywer. Not an IP lawyer per se, but I certainly deal with IP issues and work with a handful of really great IP lawyers.) Seven Towns is the exclusive licensee of IP associated with the Rubik’s Cube. That gives them the ability to enforce their IP rights as though they’re the actual owner of the IP. Although I can’t find the primary source, it seems that Seven Towns recently complained to Dayan (a leading manufacturer of competing speed cubes) that Dayan’s cubes infringe copyrights held in the original Rubik’s Cube. (See here and here and here.) The legal premise appears to be that a copyright exists in the original Rubik’s Cube’s color combination of (a) the white face opposite the yellow face, (b) blue opposite green, and (c) red opposite orange.

<EDIT>It actually appears that the claims are more likely based in trademark/trade dress, based on registered trademarks such as these, which describe the mark as:

THE MARK CONSISTS OF A BLACK CUBE HAVING NINE COLOR PATCHES ON EACH OF ITS SIX FACES WITH THE COLOR PATCHES ON EACH FACE BEING THE SAME AND CONSISTS OF THE COLORS RED, WHITE, BLUE, GREEN, YELLOW, AND ORANGE. THE DRAWING IS LINED FOR THE COLORS.

The “drawing is lined” language appears to refer to the sketches with shading for each color. In other words, it appears that the marks are self-limited not just to a black cube and the six colors, but those six colors arranged in the particular configuration with which we are familiar.</EDIT> Continue reading →

first on-camera solve

Adventures in Cubing4 Comments

So, I’ve been at this cubing thing for about a couple days now, having started Thanksgiving morning. What compelled me to give it a go is a bit of a mystery. But, if I had to, I suppose I’d blame the confluence of (1) the sudden surfacing of a cube from the back of a drawer, (2) an extra couple days off work, and (3) a fair bit of escapism (from the craziness that becomes Thanksgiving get-togethers). I’ve always enjoyed intellectual challenges, and this struck me as the challenge par excellence. No longer the owner of one of those spongy pre-adolescent brains that absorbs languages in the blink of an eye, I figured my hardened post-college, post-law school, post-kids brain could benefit from some unusual exercise.

I assumed there would be dozens of good tutorials on the internet. Dozens the net does indeed boast, but most aren’t that great. Frustrated, I finally stumbled onto a fantastic set of youtube videos by RobH0629. It took a couple hours of viewing and practicing to get down the basics and to scribble the algorithms into a cheat sheet that “made them my own.” Then, after a detour to help cook the bird, I managed this first on-camera solve — in a mere six-minutes! (Don’t worry: I sped up the video).

(tune: String Cheese Incident covering Weather Report’s “Birdland” on 9.5.03, with John Medeski guesting on keys; cube: OEM Rubik’s-brand 3×3)

As I write this post a couple months later, I scoff at six minutes. But, gee, did I feel proud of myself that day!

REVISIONIST HISTORY: Although I posted this after my inaugural post, I’ve pre-dated it to keep things chronological.