Message #15

I recently was invited to join your prestigious group after <br> solving the Magic Cube 4D, and may I say it's quite an honour.  I <br> have attached a copy of my log file so you can watch my (not very <br> streamlined) solution if you care to do so.<br>
I was asked to write a little blurb about myself to let you know <br> who I am, so here it is!  Please do forgive me as brevity is not my <br> strong suit.

My name is Daniel Hayes and I presently live in Lawrence, KS USA <br> where I attend college at KU, The University of Kansas, where I am a <br> sophmore.  I was born 3/1/83 making me 19 at the time of this writing <br> (and the time of the solving).  During the school year I do not work, <br> but I am a double major in Astronomy and Physics.  Which alludes very <br> much to my hobbies as well.  Astronomy is a great pleasure for me and <br> I always love stargazing.  Apart from that I tinker alot with <br> computer hardware (overclocking and cooling are my favorite in that <br> area).  I still don't know exactly what I want to do, but I think I <br> would enjoy being a professor at a college, or a high level High <br> School teacher of some sort.  <br>
As for my thoughts and experience with the puzzle, that's a very <br> interesting story.  I picked up a book last year (my Freshman year) <br> entitled &#95;Surfing Through Hyperspace&#58; Understanding Higher Universes <br> in Six Easy Lessons&#95; by Clifford A. Pickover.  I have been interested <br> in higher dimensional theory ever since 4th grade when I read the <br> book &#95;The Boy Who Reversed Himself&#95; by William Sleator, and have read <br> several other texts on the subject.  This particular book though made <br> a reference to 4-dimensional rubik's cubes as a way of understanding <br> further just how a hypercube would be stacked up on itself.  So I <br> thought to myself that I should learn to solve a Rubik's Cube because <br> I'm a reasonably intelligent young man who never has done that <br> before.  So I did, and I proceeded to play with it for about 8 months <br> (my average time is around 45 seconds now).  But I wanted a new <br> challenge, so I tried the 4x4x4 and the 5x5x5 with little problems, <br> the theory is after all the same, and on the whole not that difficult <br> to apply.  So one night I was looking for cube theory on the internet <br> and found the Magic Cube 4D web site, and remembered why I wanted to <br> learn to solve a magic cube in the first place.  So I downloaded it <br> and worked at it for a while, I think my total time was probably <br> close to 2-3 hours spread across a few days.  An interesting thing <br> was, I learned the 3x3x3 cube using a layer by layer method, so I was <br> unfamiliar with exactly how to use Mr. Nelson's solution.  But after <br> working at it, it not only increased my understanding of the regular <br> 3x3x3 cube, but as promised greatly enhanced my understanding of 4D <br> interactions.  And it's an excellent program in general.  I am now <br> working on a layer by layer method to solve it though, to try to get <br> that least moves record!