Breandan Vallance won the World Rubik’s Cube Championship 2009 with an average of 10.74 seconds. Erik Akkersdijk finished second (11.52) and Tomasz Zolnowski finished third (11.64).

World records:

Dan Cohen 4×4 36.46 (single), Yumu Tabuchi Rubik’s Cube One-handed 16.90 (average), Michal Halczuk 7×7 3:43.15 (single), Piotr Michal Padlewski Square-1 10.96 (single), Bálint Bodor Megaminx 57.94 (single).

Asian records:

Yumu Tabuchi Rubik’s Cube Fewest moves 29 (single), 4×4 blindfolded 8:41.85 (single), Ryosuke Mondo 5×5 blindfolded 26:30.00 (single).

European records:

Erik Akkersdijk 4×4 39.43 (single), Michal Halczuk 7×7 4:01.23 (average), Piotr Michal Padlewski Square-1 15.21 (average), Rafal Guzewicz 5×5 blindfolded 15:43.00 (single).

North American records:

Dan Cohen 4×4 46.94 (average), Megaminx 1:20.34 (single) 1:27.30 (average), Timothy Sun Rubik’s Cube with feet 58.38 (single).

South American records:

Pedro Santos Guimarães 4×4 53.30 (single) 1:07.85 (average), Rubik’s Cube One-handed 18.27 (single), Megaminx 1:35.77 (average), 4×4 blindfolded 13:09.00 (single), Renan Mondini Cerpe 2×2 3.33 (single).

While our very own Durben Joun Virtucio won 2nd Place in the 4×4 Event, beating World Record Holder Erik Akkerdijk!

Megatrade Hall, 5th Level, Bldg. B, SM Megamall October 18, 2009, 10am-9pm, Sunday Entrance Fee: P80.00

It’s going to be a huge Komiks Typhoon at the Komikon 2009 and it’s all for a good cause! According to the official site:

Ondoy has left a lot of fellow artists with almost nothing – their homes submerged in flood water. There’s Melvin Calingo, Carlo Vergara, Gilbert Monsanto, Jay David Ramos who lost everything. Rico Rival, Danny Acuña, Jun Lofamia, Clem Rivera, Noly Zamora and Steve Gan.

Gerry Alanguilan brought to us his idea to help.

Mr. Alanguilan will be auctioning original artworks at the KOMIKON 2009. All proceeds shall be distributed to the artists affected by Ondoy.

CALLING ARTISTS…

We encourage other artists who have artworks or other items they would like to auction during the event, please email us at komikon@gmail.com and let us know if you wish to contribute to this cause.

DONATIONS…

We shall be accepting donations in cash or kind as well at the KOMIKON table if anyone is able and willing to help our fellow artists.

We hope that everyone who will attend KOMIKON 2009 will participate in this cause!

So what are you waiting for? Gear up for one smashing helluva time while helping out our fellow countrymen. See you there!

For more details, please visit http://www.komikon.org or http://komikon.deviantart.com

Tell me what you think!

In light of my previous post regarding the new Rubik’s Cube Average World Record made by Polish cuber Tomasz Zolnowski, the World Cube Association (WCA) posted new regulations addressing  the problems encountered during the Polish Open 2009.

Dear Respected Community,

There has recently been some contention regarding a 10.07 second WR average in the 3×3x3 speedsolve competition by Tomasz Zolnowski.
http://www.worldcubeassociation.org/res … 2005ZOLN01

After reviewing the evidence and speaking to the parties involved, the WCA has reached the following conclusion:

-There is no question whether or not Zolnowski’s timer stoppages were intentional. The WCA finds no reason to believe the timer stoppages were intentional and in ill spirits of the competition. The WCA believes the timer stoppages were unintentional, and competitor Zolnowski conducted himself in a manner that was not compromising to the integrity of the competition.

-Video evidence from the Polish Open 2009 of the world record average is not conclusive and does not provide enough evidence to say with any deductive certainty that the timers were stopped by the competitor’s forearms after the solving phase had begun. The WCA acknowledges there have been faults with the timers in terms of premature stoppage of the timing process.

-Tomasz Zolnowski’s 10.07 average will stand as the new world record. We caution all competitors to be extremely vigilant regarding starting the solving phase while utilizing the current timers. In addition, the WCA is in the process of designing a new timer that will hopefully alleviate some of these concerns.

For the upcoming world championships in Dusseldorf, Germany, timer stoppages at 0.06 seconds and greater will likely be considered accidental stoppages by the competitor as opposed to a timer malfunction, and an extra attempt will not be awarded unless there is evidence to suggest that the competitor did not contribute to the timer stoppage.

The competitor may provide evidence in consultation with a board member. One such example, would be to show that the timer can be stopped with only one hand.

Any concerns or questions regarding this decision may be addressed to me in person at the upcoming world championships. I would also like to hold an open forum where the community can discuss aspects for the new WCA dedicated timer.

Regards,

Tyson Mao

Board Member 
United States of America 
World Cube Association

And to summarize the new ruling, according the TheJoker of the philippinecubersassociation.org:

0.06 secs and above will be a COMPETITOR’s ERROR… resulting to a DNF… also 0.00 secs  is a COMPETITOR’s ERROR and it is also a DNF… 

but now… 0.01 (rare), 0.02 and 0.03 (as before), and new 0.04 and 0.05… will be awarded a new solve… and considered as a TIMER MALFUNCTION…

the new 0.04 and 0.05 will be enforced at WC2009…

Tell me what you think!

If you thought that speedcubing is a harmless, sissy little sport for nerds, think again!

Didik Danardono, a speedcuber from Indonesia, just can’t enough of his beloved Rubik’s Cube. He practices all day long and anytime he can get this hands on the world’s most popular toy. May it be inside the shower, under his bed, and even inside his car’s trunk! No, I’m just kidding!

Apparently, they ran out of places to play with his precious cube that he took some friends out to the streets. Now, now, this may look like a scene from Step Up to the Streets movie but it seriously looks more like Revenge of the Nerds! Cool idea though. Not.

Somewhere in Didik Danardono’s complex network of interconnected neurons inside his head we commonly refer to as a brain, inspiration struck! Why not use the countdown timer of the traffic light to time your solve while actually solving it in the middle of the highway?! Pretty neat idea huh?!

The Indonesian Police did not find it funny though. See the next clip!

His friend Chuck, a speedsolving.com forum member, posted this picture below at the Indonesian Open 2009. According to him, “he was given a special award for teaching the most people to solve Rubik’s Cube in my country. He had taught more than 100 cubers face-by face (without video tutorial).”

Good job DD Crow!

Check out his YouTube Channel ddcrow for more videos.

Tell me what you think!

Tomasz Zolnowski, a speedcuber from Poland, broke his own World Record Average in solving the Rubik’s Cube in just 10.07 seconds.  This astonishing feat was accomplished during the Polish Open 2009 in Pabianice, Poland.  Beating his own record by just 56 milliseconds and winning the recently concluded Wroclaw Open with a best time of 9.63 seconds and an average of 11.96 seconds, he is leading the pack along with world record holder Erik Akkersdijk in the world of speedcubing.

Taken from Erik’s YouTube account frk17 , here’s the complete video description:

10.80
[timer malfunction]
(12.08)
9.77
(8.68)
[timer malfunction]
9.65
Tomasz Zolnowski doing the 10.07 world record average during the Polish Open 2009 in Pabianice Poland.

I filmed with Arnaud’s cell phone.
Congrats Zaba! You are an inspiration.

This video also caused quite a buzz over at the speedcubing.com forums regarding the “faulty timer” and the inconvenience it caused. Read all about it here.

So what do you think? Was it faulty timers? Accidentally touching the pads? Or it doesn’t matter at all since that average is crazy?! Tell me what you think!

After a month’s worth of rain poured in just 8 hours: more than 100 people are dead, four dozen souls are still missing, thousands stranded and millions are heart-broken. I’m happy that our family got away from the event relatively unscathed but the majority of Metro Manila thinks otherwise.

It’s time for you to help.

You can donate to the Philippine Red Cross through SMS: text RED[space]AMOUNT to 2899 (Globe) or 4483 (Smart)

TXTPower is also accepting donations for Ondoy typhoon victims via SmartMoney 5577514418667103, GCash 09179751092 and Paypal.

This year, this blog was nominated at the Philippine Blog Awards for the Best Hobby & Recreation Blog category. Yes, just one nomination and I didn’t even get to be a Finalist. Well, I have to admit I wasn’t being my usual blogger self these past two turbulent weeks and I sort of forgot that I had to consistently keep the quality just to have a fighting chance to be on the short list.

Nonetheless, I still would like to thank a few people who made this blog a joy to write:

• to my brother, Ralph, who literally bugged me to start a blog. He really believed that I shouldn’t waste my love for writing and I’m glad I listened.
• to my good friend MJ, for being one of my biggest fans! (and for nominating me as well!)
• to my Mom for patiently waiting me to finish every time.
• to the Philippine Cubers Association for letting me lurk on every competition and not kicking me out of the venue.
• to all the Pinoy Cubers whom I got some of the puzzles I feature from time-to-time.
• YouTube cubers: badmephisto, frk17, ErikLimeback, Pestvic, Thrawst and more for providing kick-ass tutorials to the noobs that we are.
• to the rest of my family who doesn’t even know and read what I’m writing about. =P
• the Philippine Blog Awards 2009 organizers, for their tireless efforts of uplifting the Pinoy blogging community.
• the actual Finalists who made it this year, I salute you guys!
• And of course,to all my readers. Yes, to the three of you reading this right now. Thank you!

I must say I had a pretty good run this year and I sincerely hope I can be a much better writer for you guys (and gals). Reading back from my very first posts, I must say, I’m gearing towards the right direction of making bigger and better write-ups. I may not be as funny as hell as those other guys, nor the best in taking the most breath-taking photos but I’m aiming to grab those awards next year! So watch out!

Once again, kudos to all the Filipino bloggers and see you again next season! A better and hopefully a year more of posts from a cuber’s point-of-view.

Thank you!

]]> http://iamryanm.wordpress.com/2009/09/24/the-closenot-really-but-no-cigar-speech/feed/ 1 iamryanm The Philippine Blog Awards http://iamryanm.wordpress.com/2009/09/23/komiks-yaring-pinoy-exhibit-at-the-sm-fairview/ http://iamryanm.wordpress.com/2009/09/23/komiks-yaring-pinoy-exhibit-at-the-sm-fairview/#comments Wed, 23 Sep 2009 15:30:19 +0000 iamryanm http://iamryanm.wordpress.com/?p=1269 "KOMIKS: YARING PINOY" exhibit by PICCA (Phil. Intl. Cartoon Comics and Animation) which will run from September 21-28. They featured works from a wide range of art from editorials, mainstream comics, manga-style comics, original works, classics and even indie comics! ]]>

Wow! What a great day I had yesterday! I just passed by the new Annex building at SM Fairview and here’s what I found!

It’s the “KOMIKS: YARING PINOY” exhibit by PICCA (Phil. Intl. Cartoon Comics and Animation) which will run from September 21-28.  They featured works from a wide range of art from editorials, mainstream comics, manga-style comics, original works, classics and even indie comics!

Works by the great Larry Alcala (Slice of Life) , Larry Alcala (Superman, Elmer) , Leinil Yu (X-Men, Wolverine) and many more! So make sure you check out their website here and see  what Filipino talent is all about!

Here’s a taste of some amazing art from our own countrymen and please don’t judge their work based on the crappy resolution of my phone. See them for yourself!

Check out http://www.piccafest.com/ for more info!

Tell me what you think!

Wow! At last, I can finally feature this very peculiar cube that’s just patiently waiting on my desk this past few days. Recurrent afternoon rain has been hampering the scheduled photo shoot for this lovely puzzle and when I realized it’s dry outside, I couldn’t wait to post this baby here.

I recently got this Void Cube from a good friend of mine at the Rubik’s Cube Philippine Open 2009 for only about 250 bucks. I got it for a pretty good price since I’ve been with business with Giuliano Cayetano, the fastest Megaminx solver in the Philippines, for quite sometime now. A Void Cube from Lan Lan toys cost about 270-300 bucks here in the Philippines, available in two colors: black and white. Of course, with my poor recognition on a white cube, I got the black one.

The stickers are PET, which means it will eventually fade and peel with time.  So better have replacement stickers if you plan to play with this for a long time. It was also poorly stickered. Yes, It was spot-on for the placement, however, there were bubbles on them and some had ‘tears’ already.

The inside mechanism of the Void Cube is also pre-lubricated with an unknown liquid. Upon closer inspection, I could fairly say that it is oil-based and smells much like lubricating oil. So if you plan to spray it with any Silicone-based lubricant, please make sure that you clean out all the ‘mystery oil‘ inside the cube to avoid any untoward chemical reactions. You wouldn’t want to mix super glue inside your cube do you?

Although the cube was already pre-lubed, it was still not smooth enough and locks up a lot. The tension (though the mechanism has no springs) on all the sides are pretty uneven. For example: the Gray side is smoother and turns faster than the Black side, directly opposite it. Now that I mentioned a Gray face, it’s time for you to know that it has a sort-of whacked out color scheme. It does not follow the Standard BOY Scheme, nor the Japanese Color Scheme. It has a Gray, Very Dark Gray , and Apple Green faces which makes the puzzle more confusing.

Most YouTube videos will tell you that the Lan Lan Toys bootleg is just the same as the original Gentosha Toys incarnation. I beg to differ, though I don’t own the original version, (which costs 700 bucks more) it really shows on sample solves that it turns so much better. Nonetheless, after breaking-in, sanding and lubrication, here are the results:

PROS:

• moderately smooth
• reacts just fine to Silicone
• cheaper than the original

CONS:

• no cutting corner ability
• stickers suck (and don’t get me started on the color scheme)
• locks up a lot

It feels like I’m using an over-sized original 2×2 Pocket cube with the very same feel.  Uneven tension, crappy stickers and ZERO cutting corner. It might be from the design of the internal mechanism but it is definitely not an excuse. And since the main mechanism is like an over-grown 2×2 internal mech., you might get a ‘Parity’ problem evert three or so solves which adds to the frustration factor.

VERDICT:

Just like my original 2×2 Rubik’s Cube review, I also do not recommend this cube for speedcubing at all.Try out the Gentosha brand first and  borrow your friend’s Lan Lan version. I bet it will be so much better in terms of stickers, turning smoothness and quality. However, if you’re just into collecting these cool-looking puzzles like me, then it might do.

Very awful for speedcubing but proportionally very cool cube in terms of aesthetics.

YouTube user BADMEPHISTO is asking for our help!

Watch his most recent video for more details:

As you can see, he is definitely right. About a year ago, when I just got my very first store-bought cube, Pogobat’s video was on the top of the search list. With around 9 million views at that time, I thought his video was the best in YouTube! Darn, was I wrong!

12 Million views for a method that stinks? Really?!

I tried solving my cube using his method and I think I solved it in about 30 minutes. Don’t get me wrong, you might be thinking something like “You solved it in 30 minutes from a YouTube video, what are you complaining about?”.

Well, it was the only time I solved the cube the following hour. It was very confusing and not to mention, very fast. It might be a very slow tutorial if I would watch the video now at an inconsistent 20 seconds average. But from a beginner’s point of view, it would be very frustrating. I did everything I can: printed out the algorithms on his video description, downloaded the video and uploaded it unto my iPod. After a week of trying out his method, frustration started setting in and I felt that there was a much faster or at least  a simpler way to solve a Rubik’s Cube.

The usual comments on Pogobat's Video.

I found several tutorials from various YouTube cubers such as Thrawst, Rob Heiss, Rowe Hessler, PestVic and so many more. It took me a few more days to realize that most cubers offering these kind of tutorials are either rushing to explain their method or has a simpler method but is weakly explained. It was then that I discovered BADMEPHISTO’s channel.

He explains methods and techniques without a single hint of haste nor inadequacy. He got his beginner’s method down  and it is very evident in his videos that he is concerned about what his viewers might be thinking. His explanations are very clear and gives very good, easy-to-follow examples of solving the most famous toy in the world.

Aside from being a very good teacher, his method is the easiest to learn and makes the transition to a faster method like the Fridrich F2L surprisingly much, much simpler. Most of the tutorials do not take this into account and just teaches you ‘their‘ method of solving the cube.

As a testament on how easy and fast is it to learn his method, I’ve been teaching a lot of people how to solve the Rubik’s Cube using badmeph’s instructions. I would usually give them a copy of the algorithms he uses with simple illustrations just like his video for reference. Then, I would just teach them how to read the notation like R, R’, f and so on. Surprisingly, it usually just takes them around 20 minutes to learn the Layer-by- Layer Method. Yes, it’s only 10 minutes faster but without the FRUSTRATION than my first tutorial with Pogobat’s video.

Now, what I ask of you guys is to help him with his plight of at least making it to the top 3 search results by either rating his video or actually learning his method and sharing the link with others.

Again, please check out this link and rate the video. Now, we begin our quest for better tutorials! ‘Till next time!

Badmephisto’s Website

Badmephisto’s YouTube Channel