Macky's site for speedcubers, blindfold cubers, and cube-addicts...
News Archive
August, 2007
08/25: I placed second in the Caltech Summer 2007 tourament with an average of 13.51 in the final round, after Ryan Patricio, who averaged 13.47. Yes, this is the first Caltech tournament that I participated in and didn't win, but I also set some great times: 12.97 average (NR) in the first round, which raises my rank to fourth in the world, and four single-solve personal records (all sub-12 (11.88, 11.84, 11.60, 11.49), all non-lucky, with one opposite cross (11.88?) and one rare ZBLL(11.60?)). I placed third in 3x3 blindfolded and 2x2 speedsolve. Congratulations to all the winners, and especially to Ryan for his very consistent finish.
Full Results.
08/17: I saw a copy of the Guinness 2008. The puzzle page has been overtaken by Sudoku and Scrabble...no Rubik's Cube in sight. They still need to send me three certificates, but whatever.
08/12: The site is back up! Sorry for the inconvenience. I changed to a new server. The next time you can't access the site, please use the internet archive.
July, 2007
07/09: I'd like to see someone who doesn't know how to solve a cube learn to solve it blindfolded. Would some brave soul please give it a try? It really shouldn't be too hard. You'd be the only person in the world who can say, "I can solve a Rubik's Cube, but only blindfolded" (ok, of course you can use the blindfold method with you eyes open, but you know what I mean).
07/07: QWERTY sucks. I've switched to Dvorak, and I suggest you do the same. And when you have children, have them learn Dvorak from the beginning!
07/06: I'll be in France doing a homestay from 7/11 until 8/5. If you e-mail be during this time, I prabably won't be able to reply at all or will reply very late (you can always try, though). Sorry for the inconvenience.
June, 2007
06/15: Lucas Garron developed my F2Lc+LLCO idea (now called MGLS for Makisumi-Garron Last Slot) and, along with Fridrich F2L and PLL, can average sub-20. His description of the method, with algorithms, can be found here.
06/14: Attended an unofficial screening of CubeFreak, the documentary, at First Avenue Middle School, Arcadia. Yes, it's completed, but apprently it's not the final version.
06/12: Added a second example solve to the blindfold cubing guide. Also added an example to illustrate the cycle reduction rule. The PDF version is NOT updated.
12/26: Holiday greetings! Since a few weeks ago, Cubefreak has been getting 300 unique visitors almost every day (it used to be 200 in November). Thanks for visiting, everyone!
11/21: Site's back up. I have some time to kill for a few days, and I feel like working on this site a bit. So, a question to you all: what should I add/edit to make it better?
Answer to smakisumi at gmail or on the chatterbox. Thanks.
11/11: I placed first in the Caltech Fall 2006 Competition with an average of 13.34 (AsR) in the final round. I also set the following personal competition records: 3x3 single solve 12.04 (AsR), 4x4 single solve 59.xx. I placed first in 4x4. I came in 4th in blindfold, but I solved all three solves with times around 2:40. Full Results.
Thanks to the organizers from the Caltech Cube Club!
Also, thanks to Cubesmith for helping me repare my revenge. Maze Cube is such a beast.
October, 2006
10/31: Harris Chan won the Negative Time Solving Contest 2006 (Unofficial) with a time of -59 minutes 47.02 seconds, followed by Ravi Fernando (-59 minutes 46.40 seconds) and Toby Mao (-59 minutes 45.43 seconds). We had a record high of 33 participants in the 3x3 speedsolve category. Thanks to everyone for participating! Be sure to check the list of times to be submitted to speedcubing.com. E-mail me to add/edit your entry.
10/24: Negative Time Solving Contest 2006 is Saturday night/Sunday morning (2 am on October 29), so don't forget! For now, just take a chill pill. I'll be back with the scramble soon enough, ok? Oh, and just because I want to waste your time, I'll tell you that I put up an unlinked page. Guess the address.
10/06: Juggling/Cubing performance at Poly Battle of the Bands.
September, 2006
09/27: Juggling/Cubing demonstration at Poly Lower School library.
09/04: Switched to w3counter. Reorganized Speedcubing Tips with added emphasis on looking ahead. Can anyone suggest a good site describing 3-look or 4-look last layer?
August, 2006
08/30: Apparently, I'm in Ripley's Believe It or Not! (ISBN-13 9781893951129) "King of Cubes: Believe it or not, 14-year-old Shotaro Makisumi, of Japan, can solve a "3 x 3 x 3" Rubik's cube puzzle in a mere 13.72 seconds." And there's a picture of me. Thanks to Peter for the info. [update] 13.27 was my fastest solve at Caltech Winter 2005 at Exploratorium, and that's also where the picture was taken. Assuming Peter meant 13.27, since Ripley's don't say they list world records, this is accurate information! Can anyone confirm this?
08/15: New domain name, new host. Cubefreak.net. I haven't uploaded the videos yet. I won't be updating the infoseek account from now on.
08/13: I have a very sad news. I was at the bookstore last night and saw Guinness 2007. In addition to Leyan's 11.13 single record, it still had my 14.52 average (Anssi's record was set in March, 2006) and--this is outrageous--the most number of cubes solved in an hour at 42. Some of you may recall this article linked from speedcubing.com some time ago. I was too disgusted to remember what the "record holder's" name was, so I don't if this is the same dude. This is just too sad. I mean, if anyone gave just a bit of thought, the number makes no sense: 42/hour is a lot slower than the 24-hour marathon record of 2000 cubes several years ago by Jess Bond, which the Guinness accepted. wtf?
07/01: I'm off to Canada/USA Mathcamp 2006 in Tacoma, Washington for 5 weeks. I'll be back on August 6th.
07/01: CUBEFREAK should be up soon. I think you'll be able to buy Cubefreak T-shirts. =) The documentary is now in the process of editing!
June, 2006
06/06: Everyone should check out this Rubik's Cube Simulator by Ryan Heise. Pretty much the greatest applet ever. [edit] Average of 10 is now working.
06/06: Freedom. 666.
May, 2006
05/13: I won the face-off round today for Math Day at the Beach 2006, which ranks me now in 4th place. Yay.
05/13: What happened here? Oh, AP's.
April, 2006
04/15: I placed first in the Caltech Spring 2006 Competition with an average of 14.34 in the final round, but I only won by a small margin. I also got killed in the second round, placing fourth with an average of 16.10. Check the full results at speedcubing.com for more details. Congrats to Ryan for that 20.09 one-handed. Wow, you're a beast. Just go for that sub-20 now. =)
With 3 sub-15 cubers in competition, is Southern California the cubing capital of the world? Thanks Daniel Lo and the Caltech Cube Club!
March, 2006
03/24: Cube/juggling demonstration at Field Elementary School in Pasadena.
03/21: I'm 16.
03/18: For CSULB Juggling Club: Any silicone-based, non-petroleum lubricant will work. The one I use right now is a SNAP silicone spray that I bought at OSH. Here's a guide on lubrication.
03/18: Cube/juggling demonstration at Math Day at the Beach in CSULB. I tied for 4th overall and placed 1st among sophomores. Congrats to Tedrick and North Hollywood for winning...again!
02/17: I'm abandoning IE. If you are annoyed by the misplaced menu bar, get Firefox.
02/12: Cleaned up menu by changing li to dt. a:hover is now with black background and orange border on the right. Updated FAQ and Speedcubing to include a link to Leyan's guide.
02/06: Leyan and I were recognized by Mayor Bogaard and the Pasadena City Council for our record-breaking Rubik's Cube solving skills.
01/14: I placed first in Caltech Winter 2006 Tournament with an average of 14.91 in the final round. I also placed second in blindfold and third in one-handed and 4x4x4. Congrats to Leyan for the new world record and his win in blindfold! Full results can be found at speedcubing.com. In case anyone is wondering, my 4x4x4 DNF was a POP at the very last second in a solve with double parity that would have been 1:10. I was just being stupid on the fourth solve, and Frank was just too good. =)
As always, thanks to Tyson Mao and the Caltech crew.
12/07: New Revenge Average: 1:19.xx. Individual Times: (67.81) 72.39 72.81 78.53 88.44 76.43 85.03 78.29 (93.58) 72.51 77.45, 88.28. I should be able to do sub-75 once my revenge is softer.
November, 2005
11/13: Cubefreak now has 90000 visitors.
11/10: Cubefreak had its busiest day yet with 739 visitors, and the busiest week yet with 2172 visitors. Thanks!
11/06: I placed 3rd in the final round of 3x3x3 speedsolve at Rubik's World Championship 2005 in Orlando, Florida with an average of 16.07. Congratulations to Jean and Edouard, 1st and 2nd place, and all other winners and finalists!
10/22: Ryan Patricio broke the 3x3x3 one-handed world records with an amazing new single time of 22.05 seconds and mean of 26.73 seconds. Ryan pwns. =)
10/16: Jean Pons broke the 3x3x3 speedsolve world record with a new time of 11.75 seconds. Many congratulations to Jean and also to Ron for winning Dutch Open 2005!
10/13: New best average: 13.42. I don't take very many averages any more, but it's nice to know that I can get times close to this whenever I do. But the again, reproducing times like these in competition will be very difficult. Other than the motivation they provide, I no longer see much point to unofficial averages at this level. *sigh*
10/09: Cubefreak now has 80000 visitors.
10/06: New best average: 13.74. Times: 13.88, 11.64, 14.25, 12.39, 15.72, 14.36, 15.00, (15.83), 13.14, 14.91, (11.59), 12.11.
September, 2005
09/06: New school year. I'm a sophomore now, which means more work and less time for updating this site. I have noticed that the Menu bar hides a part of the main text in Firefox. This problem will not be fixed until I have very free weekend. I apologize for the inconvenience.
August, 2005
08/31: I solved a cube blindfolded at Levitt Pavilion in Pasadena. Easy scramble. CP: (158423); EP: (1 11 9 3)(2 7 12)(4 10 8); EO: 1 2 5 10; CO: (146 ccw)(78)
08/25: Check out the cube demo (2x2x2 - 9x9x9) from GabbaSoft. Great graphic!
08/25: Cubefreak now has 70000 visitors.
08/24: I've received information that the new book Guinness World Records 2006 lists my 12.11 seconds as the fastest record for 3x3x3 speedsolve. Check out the website of World Cube Association for all official times.
08/16: New layout! No more frames! CSS is awesome.
08/15: Chris Hunt uploaded videos from the Caltech Dallas tournament.
08/13: I won the Caltech Dallas tournament 2005. Full results are up on www.speedcubing.com. I also set a new WR for 3x3x3 blindfolded at 2:18.58. With the 20.04 solve in the final round of 3x3x3 speedsolve, my streak of 101 sub-20 solves in official tournaments came to an end. This is a record I am particularly proud of! As always, much thanks to the Caltech Cube Club and the organizer Tyson Mao.
08/11: New best average: 13.80
08/10: New best average of 100: 15.15
July, 2005
07/02: I'm off to Canada/USA Mathcamp 2005 in Portland, Oregon for 5 weeks. I'll be back on August 7th.
June, 2005
06/29: Cubefreak now has 60000 visitors.
06/25: Wow. Cubefreak had 616 visitors today, mostly from speedcubing.com. I'm sure a lot of people searched for my Japanese name after the TV program aired in Japan, but this site unfortunately doesn't come up yet on google. It would have been interesting if it did. [edit] I meant under search for my name in Japanese.
06/25: I was on a Japanese documentary by NTV called 「記憶のチカラII」 ("Power of Memory II"). There is a link to a clip of my appearance on www.speedcubing.com (but not for very long).
06/14: Check out the version 2 (first version) of A 3-Cycle Guide to 3x3x3 Blindfold Cubing, my long-overdue blindfold cubing guide. I have not yet written the sections on memorization and example solve. Whatever is not clear now should be explained by the example solve. Please e-mail me if you have any suggestions or comments.
06/06: Juggling+Cubing at ARML (American Regions Math League). Thanks to Tedrick Leung for the file!
May, 2005
05/30: A big thank you to Ian Winokur for organizing the Horrace Mann Spring tournament 2005! I really enjoyed meeting all the cubers. The results of the tournament are posted on www.speedcubing.com. I broke four World Records in this tournament: 2x2x2 single 4.13, average 6.29, 3x3x3 one-handed single 23.76, mean 27.56. I really was not supposed to break the one-handed records...consider it a fluke.
05/22: New news layout.
05/06: Cubefreak now has 50000 visitors!
05/04: New 3x3x3 Non-lucky Single Record: 9.89. UWR for...a day?!?
04/16: The full results of the Caltech Spring tournament 2005 are up on www.speedcubing.com. Congratulations to Leyan Lo for his new blindfold WR, and to Will Arnold for his feet WR!
01/21: Thanks to Adam Zamora for his stickers. I used them on the cube I used at Exploratorium!
01/16: Back from SF. Thanks to Tyson and the Caltech Cube Club for organizing the Caltech Winter tournament 2005. Like always, you guys did a fantastic job! You can read my thoughts on the competition on my Xanga (1/16/05 entry). Results have been uploaded to www.speedcubing.com. Check out Hanson So's site for pictures and videos from the competition. Also, San Francisco Chronicle wrote an article on the competition. Check the Caltech Cube Club Forum for Tournament Worksheet (thanks to Mark P) and scrambles. Congrats to Frank Morris, Mirek Goljan, and Leyan Lo. I'm tired!
01/14: I will be competing in the Caltech Winter tournament 2005 held at the Exploratorium, San Francisco, CA, on Saturday, 1/15. Also, for those of you in the Bay Area, Mike Grimsley, Toby Mao, and I will be doing a live interview on KRON-4 on Saturday morning (8:30 or 8:50 AM).
01/01: More work has been done on the Pyramorphix-to-be: sanded and with corner tiles. Turning quite well. =)
01/01/: Happy New Year 2005! Happy 25th birthday to Rubik's Cube.
10/31: I think you all beat me this time: 17.75 (not negative). Stackmat turned off and so I started at 1:00:08, 8 sec after the time changed. (darn...)
10/18: Just to clarify: I'm never really as fast as I was in the tournament on 4x4x4!
10/16:
Caltech Fall 2004 Cube Tournament Results:
3x3x3 Speedsolve: I won with an average of 15.28 seconds in the final round, followed by Brent Morgan and Leyan Lo. In the second round, I set a world record for average of 5 (14.52). My overall average (of 13 solves) was 14.76.
3x3x3 One-handed: I won with an mean of 39.25 seconds in the final round, followed by YinJia Qiu and Rishi "Harold" Kumar. Hats off to Rishi, who placed first in the first round with a best time of 34.32 seconds. We can expect lots from you! =D
3x3x3 Blindfolded: I won with a best time of 3:10.54 (WR), followed by Leyan Lo with a best time of 6:19.33.
4x4x4 Speedsolve: I won with a mean of 1:16.39 in the final round (O,n,n), followed by YinJia Qiu and Bill McGaugh.
Rubik's Magic: Kenneth Brandon won with a best time of 1.90, followed by Kevin Brandon with a best of 1.96.
Rubik's Master Magic:Sunil Pedapudi won with a best time of 5.16, followed by Kevin Brandon and Kenneth Brandon.
Much thanks to Tyson Mao and the Caltech crew* for organizing the tournament! (Tyson Mao, Leyan Lo, Jack Lee, Shelley Chang, Mark Polinkovsky =D, and Mithun Diwakar)
10/10: New 3x3x3 One-handed Average: 33.72. Details. 6 more days till Caltech Fall...and I'm still really inconsistent.
10/09: New Fastest 3x3x3 One-handed Single Solve: 27.22
10/07: New 3x3x3 One-handed Average: 37.36. Details
10/04: Cubefreak now has 20000 visitors! Thanks, everyone, for visiting Cubefreak!
08/27: Here's a video of me solving 3 consecutive cubes in 46.61 seconds. Enjoy.
08/??: Cubefreak now has 15000 visitors! Thanks, everyone, for visiting Cubefreak! (and congrats to Sunil, who beat me at pressing F5.)
08/16: My first sub-15 on Stackmat: 14.68. Details.
08/14: Thanks to Tyson (and Trevor, who was racing me without knowing it was me =D), there's aother 12.xx video!. Title is "[Tyson's] Friend Who Has Been Cubing for Two Years Against Trevor Holland."
08/13: Added about 30 new cube terms to the Glossary. I have about 50 more to add.... oh and by the way, why is everyone using .tk now? =P
08/06: Uploaded pics of the 10.07 solve to the bottom of the Competitions Page. Thanks to Eileen for sending me these! (Also added my thoughts on US National, taken straight from my Xanga. =D)
08/04: I won the August 4th Informal Tournament (or Animal Planet informal tournament) with an average of 15.69 seconds. My fastest solve was 10.07. It's a shame it was a PLL-skip.... Tyson Mao came in second with an average of 21.87. Leyan Lo came in third. I also did a 3:22 blindfold solve on camera, so hopefully I can get that up here somehow. Check out the bottom of the Competition Page.
July, 2004
07/30: The Poll was going insane, so I deleted it. Tyson was the most popular with 260 some votes. USA had about 160 votes, and no other country had more than 15 votes. Hmm, it's so fishy....
07/27: Added a whole mess of stuff to the blindfold cubing page. Well, it's very unorganized....
07/23: Here are some pictures of my first serious attempt at building a fully-functional 2x2x4. Thanks to Ton for his awesome site!
07/22: In the speedcubing main page you will now find an applet showing the exact way (as exact as I can remember) the 12.11 solve was done, with some explanation. Yay! Ok, It's 2:52 AM so I'm gonna go to sleep now. No more updates. =P
07/22: At the bottom of the blindfold page, you'll now find an example 3x3x3 blindfold solve. Yay!
07/21: Added some Additional Tricks for F2L at the bottom of the F2L page. There are a couple of the nice ones that I have no idea where I got them from. m(_ _)m
07/21: Wrote the outline (and the algorithm used) to solve a 2x2x4 (actually, any 2x2x2n) blindfolded in the blindfold page (well, obviously). Yes, you still need to know the basic to use this info. (Basic means read Olly's page.) m(_ _)m
07/13: NPR interviewed me about Rubik's Cube. Yeah, I know, I said first->second->last layer and not Fridrich, but I really didn't want to explain F2L. =D
07/11: Here's an article in Pasadena Star News on the US National.
07/11: I placed first at US National Championship 2004 with 17.26 average for the final. Jon Morris won the title of US Champion, and Brent Morgan came in third. Chris Hardwick won the 4x4x4, 5x5x5, and 3x3x3 one-handed with the best time of 25.95 (!), 1:15.54 average, and 2:53.36 each. I won the 3x3x3 blindfold with the best time of 3:36.85. Although I had no sub-14 times, all my solves for 3x3x3 were sub-18! yay! Chris broke the official world record for 3x3x3 one-handed (25.95) and 4x4x4 (1:12.85). You can find the full results in the file section of the Caltech Cube Forum. It was nice seeing you all!
07/07: Done with the OLL print page. Yeah, I have to work on PLL.... [edit:]I'm done with PLL pics.
07/07: Made the pics for missing OLLs.... OK, so now I'll work on PLL.
07/04: Fourth of July. I finally decided to disassemble and assemble my broken Eastsheen 4x4x4....
07/02: Here are some pics of the Stackmat Timer I won at Caltech 2004 Winter Tournament. Thanks Tyson!
07/01: I just noticed, Cubefreak has been open for 1 year now! yay!
07/01: The OLL page now lists Ron's and Peter's codes as well as JSCC's. Now I'll work on PLL.
June, 2004
06/30: Started making some examples for cross. Not much help as of right now....
06/27: Much thanks to Ron, Cubefreak had a record visiter of 158 per day on 06/25.
06/25: Cubefreak now has 10000+ Access! Thanks, everyone, for visiting Cubefreak, and congrats to the 10k getter! (I was 10006.... a little too late. =P)
06/23: Here are some pictures of Rubik's Deluxe. Thanks to David Salvia for kindly sending it to me.
06/18: Which country do you think will win WCC2004? Vote for your favorite.... looks like Tyson might win. =D
06/15: There seems to be a rush of yellows at UWR.... lol. If someone gets 10000, e-mail or IM me with the screenshot. I'll make a video of any cube-related stuff you request.... Of course, it's gotta be reasonable. =D
06/13: New Best Average: 15.271. See UWR for detail.
06/09: Cubefreak now has 9000+ Access! Thanks, everyone, for visiting Cubefreak!
06/07: Finally finished making the F2L page. Thanks to Master Katsu for the cube gifs.... (the page looks so much like yours)
05/26: I made a couple of small updates around the sites. Nothing major, but felt bad just annoucing 1000n getters, that's all. no really, it is. (^^;;
05/21: Cubefreak now has 8000+ Access! Thanks, everyone, for visiting Cubefreak!
05/08: Cubefreak now has 7000+ Access! Thanks, everyone, for visiting Cubefreak! (congrats to Joseph, the 7000 getter ^^)
04/22: Cubefreak now has 6000+ Access! Thanks, everyone, for visiting Cubefreak! (...and, congrats to Sunil, the 6000 getter ^^)
04/04: Cubefreak now has 5000+ Access! Thanks, everyone, for visiting Cubefreak!
04/04/04: Yeah so, 15.62 is kind of my new best average. I think it was all adrenalin...and also the cube. I found that cube in Ms. Chin's desk w/o stickers, and put on stickers on the day of the competition. Anyways...here are some useful links on the competition. (wow this looks a lot like my xanga entries...)
03/18/04: Got a .tk sub domain for Cubefreak: http://cubefreak.tk/. Yep, it's cool! And here's my xanga: e2718281828's Xanga. Enjoy!! Also, added a chatter box. So if you ever feel like leaving small messages, go ahead and use that. :D OK, that's about it.
03/07/04: Added pictures to OLL Page. Now videos. ^^;;
03/01/04: Cubefreak now has 4000+ Access! Thanks, everyone, for visiting Cubefreak!
12/31/03: Changed the link colors and added a pull-down menu in the Glossary page.
12/30/03: Made a Cube Log (under construction)recording my times from when I first achieved sub-20. I will replace the Recent Times with this in about a week or so.
12/13/03: New Best Average: 16.0 (achieved 4 times during average of 100)
