ETHICS....OTHERWISE KNOWN AS PUZZLE AUCTIONS!!!!!

[Canuck]

Ha,ha, made you look!  I dare anyone to start a comment on this rather contentious issue, in fact I double dare anyone!!

[Johan Heyns]

Boet

It is simple.


Treat people and ideas and property like you would like to be treated yourself.
The moment you turn around and kick / bite the hand that fed you, you are buggered.
If you have nothing to say, don't say it, same for when you have a lot to say, still don't say it.
If it does not itch, don't scratch.
Do not fix something that is not broken.

[Canuck]

I'm so tempted to jump all over that but........not yet, I'd like to hear from others first

[Roby]

John, you really do want me to fly to Nova Scotia with a fork for your eye.  Ok, it is on.  Time to bump things up a notch.  You can discuss if my actions are "ethical" as I am on my way up there.

Sigh !!!! Actually, I am kind of lazy, and it is cold there this time of year.  I am also in the middle of a project.  Do you think it would be too much of an imposition if I just mailed you the fork and had you insert it in your own eye.

[Canuck]

No more 'bear' to poke so you're my next logical target

[akbar24601]

You can pick your FRIENDS,

You can pick your NOSE,

BUT, you can't pick your FRIENDS NOSE!!! 

[Canuck]

Well here's how I see it;

It is simple.


Treat people and ideas and property like you would like to be treated yourself.
The moment you turn around and kick / bite the hand that fed you, you are buggered.
If you have nothing to say, don't say it, same for when you have a lot to say, still don't say it.
If it does not itch, don't scratch.
Do not fix something that is not broken.

Oh...and what Steve said

[STP]

When it comes to ethics, I think I will stick to wrestling in the mud with an engineer...er something like that.   

[Canuck]

Scott, your 'Unhappy Childhood' avatar is calling out to me.........of all of Stewart's puzzles that one has the most meaning to me, I can almost envision someone asking him that question at one of his craft's tables back in Lincoln, MA so long ago.....priceless!

Here's a pic of one I made many moons ago, the customer who ordered this puzzle insisted it be made similar to Stewart's original....

[attachment deleted by admin]

[STP]

That is a really cool puzzle indeed.  Did I send you the note card I made for the batch of puzzles I made a while back?  I gathered up all the stats on the puzzle, and always found that amazing.

What woods did you make yours from?

[Canuck]

I had started a file when we first talked about collaborating on some 'Unhappy Childhood' puzzles, but if you can send me the stats card that would be great, in fact why don't you just post it here....the 'Unhappy Childhood' I made was walnut and cherry for the pieces and the box was made with cherry and walnut slipfeathers.  I had made three, one that Eric auctioned off in his very first auction, (which I tried to win back, but bowed out at $100.00 bucks!  Believe it or not it ended up goin' for $888.00!) second one of course went to the collector who commissioned it, and the third I sold locally at a mall kiosk for $50.00!!!  keep in mind this is all pre-Cubicdissection days, I'd have to charge at least $75.00 for them now

[STP]

Here is the write-up that I made a while back.  I will just cut and past the text here, and e-mail you the notecard I made (notecard won't be very legibile if posted here).

The Unhappy Childhood puzzle was designed by Mr. Stewart T. Coffin around 1983. As the story is told, the name of the puzzle came about at Mr Coffin;’s frst craft show at the DeCordova Museum in 1970.  A  man who had spent quite a long time looking over Mr Coffin’s large and varied display of puzzles eventually whimsically quieried Mr Coffin if he had had an unhappy childhood…  Years later, after some development and refinement of the concept for this puzzle, the name “Unhappy Childhood” became appropriate for this puzzle!

  There are many ways in which 5 cubes can be joined to make pentomino pieces.  However, if the flat pieces, those which have an axis of symmetry, and those which fit inside a 2x2x2 box are excluded, there are only 10 pentomino pieces are left.  These are the 10 pieces for the Unhappy Childhood puzzle.

 These 10 pieces assemble into a 5x5x2 stack 19,264 different ways (without checkering), according to a computer analysis conducted by Mike Beeler.  Further, there are 512 different ways that the 5x5x2 strack of cubes can be checkered.  511 of the checkering patterns have one or more solutions, and one does not have a solution.  Of the 511 patterns with solutions, 510 of them have multiple solutions, and one pattern has a unique solution. 

  True to Mr Coffin’s thorough analysis, the 10 selected pentominoes have been checkered in the single pattern with a unique solution!

  This reproduction of Mr Coffin’s puzzle includes pieces made of Gabon Ebony & Holly, with a box made of Bloodwood, Gabon Ebony, & Holly.  The solution to the puzzle is shown on the back of this card.

[Canuck]

Thanks Scott, that just puts a big smile on my face reading that again!!!!

It really reminds me why I started making puzzles in the first place...classic Stewart Coffin!!!

[MarkMc]

It is interesting to note that the Unhappy Childhood puzzle makes a 2x4x5 checkered stack only 5 ways, and only one way if the two pieces having a plane of symmetry are omitted.  Likewise the pieces will make a 2x3x5 checkered stack 15 ways.

[Roby]

God, you have to love any puzzle with the foresight to be assembled in different ways.