Happy birthday to Chris the Cynic

[chris the cynic]

Holy christ that looks like a nightmare. Mind you, I used to solve rubik's cubes by smashing them apart and reassembling them, so I'm probably not the target audience.

I'm not sure that the target audience exists anymore actually.

Remember what I said about non mass produced one costing ten times as much? Well a few years ago people would line up to pay that (because they didn't have many options), but now there are so many choices in mass produced puzzles that I'm getting the impression people would rather get their ten mass produced puzzles instead. Or all of the people from the old days have disappeared off the face of the earth.

Either way, things don't look promising.

Damn I wish I'd been productive two or three years ago. Or earlier. (I've been trying to do this kind of thing on and off for a decade, but I'd just end up succumbing to depression and getting nothing done.)

Whoa That's pretty awesome. I doesn't come with instructions on how to solve it by chance does it? I'd love one but I'm hopeless at solving them, I just like making the patterns.

Well I've been solving it more or less how I'd solve a 3x3x3, with a few modifications here and there. I was going to point you to a webpage by someone whose solution to the cube was the same as my own but who is better at explaining, but it appears to have disappeared from the internet. An earlier text only version can be located, but I assure you that the pretty pictures would make it much easier to understand.

Anyway, I could draw up a solution, probably, but I have a feeling that you haven't looked at the price.

If I'm wrong, if you really are actually interested in buying one ... do it. By all means. If you don't like assembling and putting on stickers pm me and I'll do that part for you while writing up your solution.

[Massaca]

Heh, I looked at the prices, all of them. The Glass and Stainless Steel ones sound very desirable but at approx. $1000 and $1350 respectively, it's a bit much

Anyway, I'm seriously thinking about buying one for Christmas, but I need to save up a bit, er, a lot.
I don't want to de-rail your B-day thread but how much extra would it cost me for you to get it ready?

[chris the cynic]

Heh, I looked at the prices, all of them. The Glass and Stainless Steel ones sound very desirable but at approx. $1000 and $1350 respectively, it's a bit much

If I actually thought anyone would want to buy one of those I would have taken the time to calculate a profit margin as a percentage instead of a flat rate. As is if someone buys one for $1350 I make the same amount as if they buy it for $300. I should probably point out that it has only been tested in "Black Strong & Flexible." How it works in that should apply just as well to any "X strong & flexible" but might not apply to anything else.

Anyway, I'm seriously thinking about buying one for Christmas, but I need to save up a bit, er, a lot.
I don't want to de-rail your B-day thread but how much extra would it cost me for you to get it ready?

That's a good question, and one that I haven't really figured out.

Parts are easy to figure out. Screws, springs, stickers and shipping everything to me costs around 22 dollars if I remember correctly. You'd have to pay that or thereabout anyway (depending on how shipping to you compared to shipping to me.)

Labor is harder to figure.

I wish that there were some objective way to figure out the cost of the work. It is a lot of work, though how much might depend on the material. In particular, a smoother material might mean less work. ("X Strong & Flexible" materials are notorious for being difficult with stickers requiring you to either prep the puzzle somehow or apply superglue to the individual stickers to make them stick. This is something I did not realize until after I tried to put stickers on my puzzle the first time. There was much profanity.)

On the one hand, I don't want to over charge. On the other hand, I don't want to undervalue the labor. It's a lot easier to see how it would work if I didn't care about fairness. If I thought you were an idoit to be exploited I'd say something like $150, if I thought I was a worthless person who didn't deserve compensation I'd say something like $10. Trying to figure out what price is fair is proving somewhat more difficult for me.