Wishing a great 2010, filled with lots of puzzles and prosperity, to Eric and all the forum members!

... in the monkey house at the Bronx Zoo, which is where I...

[MARS]

... space alien from MARS, who had come to the bar in order to...

Hi Eric,

I am and I'd be willing to help you out - but I cannot see any facility by which I'd invite you - what, if any, instructions are you seeing?

Johan,

I've made this puzzle before, from LiveCube. In Bernhard's photo, look at the group in the lower right. The four 1x2x2 blocks visible on the left of that group constitute a single piece.

Regards,
Rob

Hi Marco,

I'm not sure which pieces are included in the set you bought. You might want to compare them to the piece illustrations on Ishino's page:
http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~rh5k-isn/Puzzle/6PieceBurr/
and once you've figured out their "standard" IDs, try some of the puzzles he lists, provided you've got the proper pieces.
You might also want to look at my webpage devoted to the six piece burr, and try some of the puzzles in the catalogue I put up:
http://robspuzzlepage.com/interlocking.htm
Although, I've used Jurg von Kaenel's numbering scheme, not Ishino's.

Have fun!
Rob

The cake is a lie!!!
(It had to be said...)

Agree, though, that Portal is a great puzzle. It's the first computer game I have purchased, installed, and played in many years. And the install was not easy - it hates antivirus and zonealarm. Still worth the effort IMHO.

There are many amusing videos about Portal, available on YouTube - I particularly like the monologues of the insane AI:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgP4kT5-9Cc

Also try "A Day in the Life of a Turret"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uz5cl131KTk
(warning: some profanity)

And remember, "If at first you don't succeed.... you fail."

Rob

Some of you may have noticed that the website for Bits & Pieces, purveyor of inexpensive (sometimes very nice, sometimes shoddily made) puzzles, has been down for a while. Despite the variability in quality, I've always appreciated them as one of the few mass-market sources for reasonably priced mechanical puzzles.

Over at the PuzzleWorld forums, George Bell posted a link to a blog entry by Ernie Schell at Direct Commerce Systems and Services, about the shutdown of BlueSky Brands.
http://directcommercesystems.blogspot.com/2008/03/bluesky-brands-shuts-down.html

Looks like B&P is defunct.
Check out the comments about the management. What a shame.

Hi John,

Thanks for the warm welcome - glad to be here! I really appreciate Eric's efforts in creating his site and this forum, and your and the other artists' participation in this endeavor to make great custom puzzles available to a broad audience of collectors. I am looking forward to see how this all evolves!