From hoey@aic.nrl.navy.mil Thu Aug 26 10:31:05 1993 Return-Path: Received: from Sun0.AIC.NRL.Navy.Mil by life.ai.mit.edu (4.1/AI-4.10) for /com/archive/cube-lovers id AA11231; Thu, 26 Aug 93 10:31:05 EDT Received: by Sun0.AIC.NRL.Navy.Mil (4.1/SMI-4.0) id AA21721; Thu, 26 Aug 93 10:30:57 EDT Date: Thu, 26 Aug 93 10:30:57 EDT From: hoey@aic.nrl.navy.mil (Dan Hoey) Message-Id: <9308261430.AA21721@Sun0.AIC.NRL.Navy.Mil> To: Alan@lcs.mit.edu, cube-lovers@ai.mit.edu Subject: Tartan reborn (Re: Tools lost in the mists of time...) In-Reply-To: <25Aug1993.204955.Alan@LCS.MIT.EDU> Organization: Navy Center for Applied Research in AI Alan Bawden mentioned the joy of rediscovering his lost cube-solving techniques. This happened to me about three years ago for an unusual reason. I've become active in science fiction fandom, and fans determine where the World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) is held each year by running miniature political campaigns. A friend of mine was bidding for Glasgow, and she asked if I had any `plaid things'. I told her I had a plaid Rubik's cube, and a political strategy was born. The plaid cube is of course the Tartan, which Jim Saxe and I discovered and described in this group on 16 February 1981 (see archives). I blanked some old cubes, and figured out how to use spray paint to efficiently create Tartan cubes. I produced a half dozen or so, and they make good conversation pieces at conventions. Unfortunately, I seem to be the only convention-going science fiction fan who can *solve* a Tartan (with the possible exception of Phil Servita who as I recall figured out an effective method but wearied in its execution). So I would see a scrambled Tartan at a convention party, and fix it, and put it down, and five minutes later it would be scrambled again. I quickly found out how rusty I was, and through the enforced practice I've gotten about as good as I was a decade ago. But some of the Glasgow promoters took Tartan cubes over to the UK, and those cubes just never get solved. I sent them instructions for solving it, but I don't know if any of them have figured out the instructions. Well, eventually they told me they really wanted something mere mortals could deal with, and I painted some pieces of wood plaid that they could use for doorstops. I was surprised, though, to find that to make a plaid pattern going around a corner, if you only have four colors of paint, it seems the *only* thing you can do is use a coloring locally identical to the Tartan. As for the cubes in the UK, I expect to get there in 1995. For it seems the clever ploy worked, and the fans voted to have the 1995 Worldcon in Glasgow. I'm sure they owe it all to the Tartan. Sure. Dan Hoey Hoey@AIC.NRL.Navy.Mil