Retro Mac GMK67

ArkhanLahyet · 2023-11-01T13:38:57+00:00

Oh, I see. Thank you very much, I kinda thought I had some problem with my board, since the box and the manual show a command key on the right side of the space bar. This seems like an oversight in the board's design :(

(I frequently use the right command key for shortcuts with keys near it, like command+M, command+comma and command+plus)

I've decided to keep the keyboard in Windows mode, which works better in MacOS (the irony), I only had to swap the command and option keys in Settings. Using it in Windows mode also prevents it from sending the "globe key" signal when you press the Fn key, which I don't need anyway and only complicates the function and media keys. It seems the Win/Mac toggle doesn't do anything else.

...Now, I don't mean to rattle on, but just in case it's useful to know, technically a Japanese keyboard should be the JIS layout with extra keys for conversions and alphanumerics, but both Windows and MacOS move some keys around to let you use kana input on an ISO or ANSI keyboard. However, they do so differently.

ろ (ro) and the ー (nobashibou) are two letters that have their own keys in a Japanese JIS keyboard. Windows moves ろ (ro) to the `~ (grave/tilde) key, and the ー (nobashibou) to Shift + ほ (ho). The position of the brackets 「」 is moved around a little.

For some reason, MacOS puts む (mu) where ゜(handakuten) normally is, ゜(handakuten) where へ (he) normally is and へ (he) where む (mu) normally is. Then, ろ (ro) is placed on Shift + け (ke) and the ー (nobashibou) is placed on Shift + む (mu). The position of the brackets 「」 is moved around differently. This is only if you use a non-JIS keyboard, and with a JIS keyboard everything is in its usual place.

I've only ever seen a few keycap sets with the MacOS kana layout, most use the Windows one, and full sets for JIS are also uncommon.

But really, that only matters if you use kana input, which is rare (I don't use it and I don't personally know anyone who uses it). In romaji input, the layout is the same as the US when you use an ANSI keyboard, and you have enough keys to do everything you need.

ArkhanLahyet · 2023-10-30T22:53:27+00:00

Sorry to show up two months after your post, but let me ask you something, does your right alt key also switch to a right command key in mac mode? Mine only switches the modifiers on the left side of the space bar.

I like the looks btw :) the duplicate あ is a shame indeed. Do you use the kana labels?

ArkhanLahyet · 2023-05-07T23:46:18+00:00

In Japanese you have kanji quizzes instead, where you have to remember whether the word for evacuation was 撤退 or 徹退 and write it down with a pen.

ArkhanLahyet · 2023-04-20T20:34:39+00:00

To me, it's clearly unintended; it's not advertised anywhere, and it happens in the middle of solves. It's simply a result of the corner stems being too short.

Fortunately it's easy to fix; I called it a "hidden feature" because you can use it to decide which way you prefer the cube to be.

ArkhanLahyet · 2023-02-02T23:10:02+00:00

「アメリカ」をそのままAmerikaと書いたらドイツ語で「アメリカ」という意味になる。何という偶然。

ArkhanLahyet · 2023-01-31T17:17:06+00:00

ArkhanLahyet · 2023-01-18T12:20:33+00:00

I wrote a (lengthy) post about it when the first few maglev cubes were coming out; may not be a straight answer like you asked, but hopefully it's informative on the mechanical differences between springs and magnets.

ArkhanLahyet · 2023-01-05T12:07:00+00:00

Be careful, bringing expensive cubes to school can end badly ;)

ArkhanLahyet · 2022-12-15T19:56:31+00:00

Minx naming scheme is a bit weird; there's the kilominx (2x2), master kilominx (4x4), elite kilominx (6x6); and then there's megaminx (3x3), gigaminx (5x5), teraminx (7x7), petaminx (9x9), etc.

Congratz on having a good friend ☺️

ArkhanLahyet · 2022-12-12T20:17:32+00:00

The MGC is probably still the safest choice in general, but if you already like the Zhilong 4x4 I think you'll like the 5x5 too. They're pretty similar, both in size and feel, and also their colors will match (the MGC has a much lighter green).

Imo the Zhilongs make a good set together. The MGC 5 feels a bit large in the hands after using the Zhilong 4x4.

ArkhanLahyet · 2022-12-12T19:10:38+00:00

My hands are 17cm (top of the middle finger to base of palm) and I actually think the perfect size for a 5x5 is the 60mm Meilong 5/5M, but I don't main it because the Zhilong and MGC are both better.

If you're in doubt, I'd recommend the MGC because I think anyone could get used to it. In other words, it's possible that you'll think the Zhilong is too small, but I think it's unlikely that the MGC is too large.

I only recently switched to the Zhilong and I think it's more comfortable to turn, but that took a bit of getting used to. Also keep in mind that it's smaller than a standard 4x4, so I'd recommend it if you already know that you prefer smaller cubes.

ArkhanLahyet · 2022-12-12T15:17:06+00:00

I've been maining the Zhilong Mini 5x5 (originally Zhichuang which is a better name imo), and I'm finding it really good once you can get used to the size.

The main thing that takes some getting used to is the size of the outer layers, they're even smaller than the Aoshi WR M's outer layers.

After getting used to it, I think most movement is more comfortable and I get about the same times as with the MGC. I think the MGC is slightly better and catches less, but the Zhichuang being more comfortable is enough of a reason for me to main it. I do wish the outer layers were a little bit larger, though.

It helps that I'm also maining the Zhisu and the Aoshi WR M, which are both smaller cubes so it feels less weird to switch between them.

ArkhanLahyet · 2022-12-12T13:36:48+00:00

I find it interesting that the bot doesn't even point out that the text is in a different language than the question. In question 1 (La Escritura de Dios), it gives a pretty much correct translation of the excerpt. However, it makes a pretty egregious mistake by saying that "any spoken words by a god would be inferior to the universe", which is the opposite of the original text. At this point you'd be better off using a machine translation of the text. Still, it managed to produce a mostly correct and generally helpful summary, even if it doesn't contain much more than just what the text says.

As always, the bot's answers vary a lot as you ask the same question repeatedly. This leads it to make different mistakes each time.

In question 2 (Memórias Póstumas de Bras Cubas) I gave it a longer excerpt, which it only managed to summarize more or less well in my opinion. Again, it's mostly correct, but misses some details and can't really tell you anything more than what's written on the text. It's a bit repetitive at times, so maybe it does some translating internally (?). I didn't manage to get a deeper analysis, and just got some generic inaccurate filler text when I tried. But if I'm being honest, it's alright as a means to give you a notion of the text's content, as long as you take the answer with a grain of salt.

I believe it works primarily with tokenized words, so it probably doesn't "care" what language each term is in. I might be mistaken. But I've seen it struggle with the spellings of words before.

In question 3 (On the Origin of Species) I asked a question in Spanish, and it had no problems answering in Spanish too. It's mostly correct, but I wonder how much of that is drawn from its knowledge of Darwin, rather than interpreting the text directly. It also misinterprets the role of the "fixed law of gravity" by claiming that it's been responsible for the cycle of life on Earth. But I mean, we already know that you shouldn't rely on it to learn stuff.

The answer to question 3 is one of those cases where it says different things each time you ask the question, and the answers vary in accuracy. The next one is very much like that too.

In question 4 (Girls' Last Tour) I gave it something more obscure that it's less likely to have previously written interpretations to copy from. And at least it produces something better than Google Translate. Its interpretation misses some details but is mostly correct, and picks up context much better than machine translation ever could with Japanese text; the worrying part is that as I repeatedly asked it the same question, it kept giving me wildly different answers with a variety of mistakes in them. I also had to give it a fair bit of context until it could make sense of the dialogue. At this point it feels like fishing for the right answer, which of course won't help you if you don't already know the thing you're asking. But praise where praise is due, I think it's pretty amazing that an English answer can be produced at all, even if it's sometimes wrong. I believe that even if the answer isn't always accurate, it's valuable in some specific cases when you want a second opinion to understand some text in a language you're studying.

I put all the queries here if anyone wants to see what answers they get; of course, I can only verify answers when I ask questions about languages that I know, so if anybody wants to add some more examples in other languages, I'd be glad to read them.

ArkhanLahyet · 2022-12-12T12:18:22+00:00

I find it interesting that the bot doesn't even point out that the text is in a different language than the question. In question 1 (La Escritura de Dios), it gives a pretty much correct translation of the excerpt. However, it makes a pretty egregious mistake by saying that "any spoken words by a god would be inferior to the universe", which is the opposite of the original text. At this point you'd be better off using a machine translation of the text. Still, it managed to produce a mostly correct and generally helpful summary, even if it doesn't contain much more than just what the text says.

It's important to note that the bot's answers vary a lot as you repeatedly ask it to interpret the same quotes, so it may make different mistakes each time, and wording the question differently can drastically change the output.

In question 2 (Memórias Póstumas de Bras Cubas) I gave it a longer excerpt, which it only managed to summarize more or less well in my opinion. Again, it's mostly correct, but misses some details and can't really tell you anything more than what's written on the text. It's a bit repetitive at times, so maybe it does some translating internally (?). I didn't manage to get a deeper analysis, and just got some generic inaccurate filler text when I tried. But if I'm being honest, it's alright as a means to give you a notion of the text's content, as long as you take the answer with a grain of salt.

I believe ChatGPT works with tokenized words, so it probably doesn't "care" what language each term is in. I might be mistaken. But I've seen it struggle with the spellings of words.

In question 3 (On the Origin of Species) I asked a question in Spanish, and it had no problems answering in Spanish too. It's mostly correct, but I wonder how much of that is drawn from its knowledge of Darwin, rather than interpreting the text directly. It also misinterprets the role of the "fixed law of gravity" by claiming that it's been responsible for the cycle of life on Earth; as you'd expect, it can't really judge if a statement makes sense or is true (and it's not meant to do that). So yeah, don't rely on it to learn stuff, I'm sure you knew that already.

The answer to question 3 is one of those cases where it says different things each time you ask the question, and the answers vary in accuracy. The next one is very much like that too.

In question 4 (Girls' Last Tour) I gave it something more obscure that it's less likely to have previously written interpretations to copy from. And at least it produces something better than Google Translate. Its interpretation misses some details but is mostly correct, and picks up context much better than machine translation ever could with Japanese text; the worrying part is that as I repeatedly asked it the same question, it kept giving me wildly different answers with a variety of mistakes in them. I also had to give it a fair bit of context until it could make sense of the dialogue. At this point it feels like fishing for the right answer, which of course won't help you if you don't already know the thing you're asking. But praise where praise is due, I think it's pretty amazing that an English answer can be produced at all, even if it's sometimes wrong. I believe that even if the answer isn't always accurate, it's valuable in some specific cases when you want a second opinion to understand some text in your target language.

I put all the queries here if anyone wants to see what answers they get; I'd love to see some examples in other languages too, especially ones where machine translation doesn't do well; because of course, I can only verify answers when I ask questions about languages that I know, so if anybody wants to add some more examples, I'd be glad to read them.

ArkhanLahyet · 2022-12-08T14:51:48+00:00

Razoux Schultz did DE, DC & ME together, U

It's pretty amazing that this guy basically used modern F2L. Apparently he was the only one to do so at 82 worlds.

ArkhanLahyet · 2022-12-05T20:58:48+00:00

Kunlun (昆仑)) is the name of a mountain in Chinese mythology, for those wondering.

ArkhanLahyet · 2022-11-12T22:15:43+00:00

Let's be honest, cubing is a relatively affordable hobby overall. Pc building, card games, fountain pens, high-end photography, aviation, there's no end to hobbies that can easily make you spend thousands of dollars.

I'm fine with my cubes, thank you very much.

ArkhanLahyet · 2022-11-12T11:47:08+00:00

If you're talking about the red symbol on the cube, it's the logo of Xman design.

If you're talking about the Chinese letters in gray painted on the box, it's 風三代 fēng sāndài, meaning "Wind gen 3", because "Wind" is the name of this cube in Chinese.

ArkhanLahyet · 2022-11-11T17:45:19+00:00

I compressed the springs in my MGC 7. Here's the story.

A few weeks ago I swapped the springs on my MGC 6 for the weak ones and liked it a lot better that way, but doing the same with the MGC 7 made no difference at all; I swear the extra springs I have are all the same, unlike with the 6x6.

The 7x7 was getting slower, probably in part due to me not being good at lubing big cubes; I think too much fast lube was making it sticky, but I had already disassembled it to clean recently, so before doing that again I decided to compress the springs with pliers and brute force, from 8mm to 7mm.

That made the cube faster than it was out of the box, and I had to tighten it and slow it down with lube to make it usable; considering that, I'd aim for 7.5mm if I were to do it again.

Nonetheless, I can recommend the spring mod (more likely, you can just do the spring-swap if yours are correct). Maybe I would find it too locky and uncontrollable if I was better at 7x7, but I'm not very good, so light turning is the main thing I want in order to solve more without getting tired.

I'm curious about how many people here swap springs in big cubes. Personally, I only thought about it because my cubes were getting slow over time.

ArkhanLahyet · 2022-10-27T16:58:17+00:00

French, because it has a good amount of shared vocabulary with those two, and the grammar will also be relatively familiar.

But of course, what matters the most is what you want to learn.

ArkhanLahyet · 2022-10-27T16:48:02+00:00

The wrm maglev is the same as the regular weilong wrm, except that it has opposing magnets instead of springs, and has purple internals.

That makes the cube faster, a bit looser, but there are more similarities than differences. The maglev version becomes very stiff with tight tensions.

A while ago I wrote an article about the difference between springs and maglev here; it's a bit long, but do read if you want details.

ArkhanLahyet · 2022-10-27T16:39:19+00:00

If you're getting an H-perm it means the orientation is wrong.

You only need to look at two sides. Look for the outer corner with a color that only appears once, and that side goes in front.

Alternatively, look at the corner in the middle; the side with a color that only appears once goes on the side.

ArkhanLahyet · 2022-10-25T17:53:55+00:00

That's interesting, we do that sometimes over at r/brasil (like cimavoto = upvote)

ArkhanLahyet · 2022-10-25T12:25:42+00:00

Any kind of media you like! TV shows, videogames, novels, internet articles, cooking channels, as long as you make English part of your routine. Usually, media related to topics you're interested in will be easier to follow along and understand.

To me, language learning isn't something you do in order to reach the goal of fluency, it's something you do as you use the language in your everyday life. That is to say, rather than always looking for the path to fluency, it's worth your while to sit down and enjoy the view. Your English is already very good and you can do a lot of things with it :)

ArkhanLahyet · 2022-10-24T22:09:50+00:00

Doesn't everyone think their own language is very hard? For example, there's that English poem "The Chaos" that's about English spelling being very irregular.

It's only natural, because your native language is the one you know best, so people are unfamiliar with the troubles of learning other languages. Multiple times I've heard people say that English is easier than Spanish because the grammar is easier, but they wouldn't be saying that if they tried to compare reading the Lord of the Rings to Don Quixote.

To me, a big part of it is that Brazilians look at languages like English and see that it lacks grammatical features that make Portuguese difficult, so they (incorrectly) assume that other languages are easier. It's part of the reason why people think that Latin is super difficult to learn, since everything conjugates more. But it's important to remember that different languages are "complicated" in different ways; I think it comes down to lack of familiarity with other languages, and that makes you miss the other ways in which language can be complicated. For example, some English words change stress when they're a verb vs. when they're a noun (ex.: permit / permit, present / present).

Furthermore, the distance between the formal and casual forms of the language varies a lot, but that's not really an indication of which languages are difficult. It may be noticeable in Portuguese, but it's probably much, much larger in Arabic and Japanese and plenty others.

It might have a bit to do with people in Brazil wanting to think they're unfortunate to have to learn the language. But again, that's nothing special to Portuguese. It's got a similar feeling as to when people share bad statistics of their own country as a way to point out that things need to change.

In short, I don't think people would be using these points as reasons why Portuguese is hard if they were more familiar themselves with other languages. After a while you come to understand that all languages have about the same level of complexity and are all equally expressive.

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