Message #1149

From: Nan Ma <mananself@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [MC4D] intro from a new member
Date: Fri, 10 Sep 2010 00:42:19 -0000

Hi Brandon,

Thanks for your warm welcome. It’s great to see you here.

I’ve solved 3^4 only once. That was not fast at all. I’m still in the learning phase and not comfortable to compete yet. I’m struggling about the notations like 2C, 3C, etc. Maybe I will join the next competition. Thank you for introducing the challenge to me.

Talking about California, I went to San Diego few months ago to have an interview with UCSD. But I didn’t know you at that time. I was closed to coming to UCSD. But eventually things worked out in Berkeley. I will definitely have other chances to meet you in the future.

Nan (schuma)

— In 4D_Cubing@yahoogroups.com, Brandon Enright <bmenrigh@…> wrote:
>
> —–BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE—–
> Hash: SHA1
>
> On Thu, 09 Sep 2010 18:42:04 -0000
> "Nan Ma" <mananself@…> wrote:
>
> > Hello everyone. My name is Nan Ma and I use the username "schuma" in
> > some places. Yesterday I solved the 3x3x3x3 and was invited to this
> > group by Melinda. Thank you, Melinda!
> >
> > I am 30 yrs old. I am originally from China. Currently I am in Boston
> > MA, but will move to Berkeley CA at the end of Sept. I will be a
> > post-doc there, doing research in the area of information theory.
> >
> > Although I’m new for 4D cubing, I have some experience in 3D cubing.
> > I’ve solved all 299 puzzles on Gelatinbrain’s applet page
> > <http://users.skynet.be/gelatinbrain/Applets/Magic%20Polyhedra/index.htm<br> > > > . I recommend that place to all of you. Hope you guys won’t say that
> > 3D puzzles are trivial. I’ve recognized another Gelatinbrain solver
> > Brandon Enright in this group. Nice to see you here, Brandon.
> >
> > My basic strategy is to categorize pieces into several groups, like,
> > edge pieces, corner pieces, etc. Then I construct 3-cycle algorithms
> > using commutators and save them as macros. Then I solve a group of
> > pieces first, and then solve another group. This method is kind of
> > systematic, but it leads to a large number of moves.
> >
> > Nan
> >
>
>
> Hey schuma, welcome to the group! I was hoping to see you here. I
> wish there was more overlap between the different twisty puzzle
> groups. Your conquest of Gelatinbrain’s puzzles was a real
> tour-de-force so I look forward to seeing what you can do with the more
> exotic polytopes available in MC4D 4.0.
>
> You solve very quickly with macros, maybe you should think about
> practicing the 3^4 a couple more times and then joining the
> Hyperspeedcube Challenge on the 18th:
>
> https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AjSunS8HRVh4dDA1cEEwZ0owYmR0dnVTRWFweGNFcFE&hl=en&authkey=CNing-8J&pli=1#gid=0
>
> Good luck with your move, Melinda’s in the Bay Area too. As a native
> Californian I’m pleased to have one of the best living here. Perhaps I
> will have stop telling people that you’re actually just a puzzle solving
> AI running in a secret government installation in the basement of a
> Boston University lab ;-)
>
> Finally, I think your "Rubik’s Square" program is of some interest to
> this group:
>
> http://sourceforge.net/projects/rubikssquare/
>
>
> Best,
>
> Brandon
>
> —–BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE—–
> Version: GnuPG v2.0.16 (GNU/Linux)
>
> iEYEARECAAYFAkyJQkoACgkQqaGPzAsl94LisgCdHg+XEcjMWkv1LyBu06fJmCAa
> rgoAnjrKgbMcSAHl4empZi/s+tLRHOYh
> =weXD
> —–END PGP SIGNATURE—–
>