My Rubik’s cube is sitting on my desk, to my immediate left, as it always does. I’ve been trying to solve it, developing algorithms, for months. I’m doing pretty well, but I’m by no means close to solving it. I’m sure hundreds of thousands of geeks around the world can echo this sentiment. That Ernő Rubik could design a puzzle so simple, and so goddamn difficult to solve, is his legacy. And what a legacy. There are 4.33 x 10*19 permutations in a standard Rubik’s cube! If you wanna split hairs, that’s exactly 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 permutations! And ONE of them is correct. For crap’s sake, Ernő. Calm down.
Anyway, today’s Rubik’s birthday. Dude turns 66 today, and I don’t want to hear about you forgetting to pay your respects to the master of all things not unpuzzling. I bet he gets a totally uninspired Rubik’s cube-themed cake every year. He’s probably so tired of that.
Anyway, take a moment to revere Rubik and watch another robot solve a cube. This one’s really, really creepy. Also, it appears to hail from Tron.
That’s one I hadn’t seen before. But I have one that is faster – a completely random cube in around 10 seconds.
And it’s built from LEGO !!!
No way! That’s creepy and a little awesome.
Anyway, happy b-day, Ernő.