Complexity: What is the most complicated thing ever?

Do you think a Rubik’s cube is the most complicated mechanical puzzle ever invented? You have no idea how complicated mechanical puzzles can be.

A Standard 3x3x3 Rubik’s cube can have 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 combinations, but only 1 solution.

To put this into perspective, if we have one Rubik’s cube for each possible combination, then all the cubes will cover the whole surface of 275 earth-sized planets. and among all of them, only 1 cube will be in perfectly solved state.

But for some people, this was not complicated enough. they created 4x4x4 cubes, and also 5x5x5 cubes.

A 4x4x4 cube has 7401196841564901869874093974498574336000000000 combinations. If you have that many teaspoons of sugar, it will fill a sphere the size of the solar system 3.5 times over.

a 5x5x5 Rubik’s cube has 282870942277741856536180333107150328293127731985672134721536000000000000000 combinations, this is close to number of atoms in the known universe. and yet, people can solve it within few minutes.

So, some people though it was not complicated enough, they created this monster:

Say hello to 11x11x11 cube.

Is it world’s most complicated cube? Nope. The largest cube ever made is 17x17x17. Having a total combination of 66.9 * 10^1053. This number is so huge it’s digits can not even be written in here.

Yet, someone solved this thing in 7.5 hours.

Are Rubik’s cubes are the most complicated puzzle ever? Nope! Lets meet Minxes.

Minxes are like Rubik’s cube, but with more than 6 sides. Having more sides also makes them more complicated.

This is a 3x3x3 MEGAMINX. It has 12 faces and total 50 moving parts, whereas the Rubik’s cube has only 6 faces and 20 moving parts.

A 3x3x3 MEGAMINX

has 100669616553523347122516032313645505168688116411019768627200000000000 combinations, i.e. 1000 billion billion (yes there are two billions) more times than a 4x4x4 rubics cube.

The world record for fastest MEGAMINX solving is 37.58 seconds.

Still not complex enough? meet the GIGAMINX, with a 5x5x5 structure, the Teraminx with 7x7x7 structure and the Examinx, with 9x9x9 structure.

And this is how it looks when scrambled.

The combinations possible with a EXAMINX is not worth calculating…

But wait.

Someone has made a YOTAMINX, a minx with 15x15x15 structure.

Not sure if anyone was able to solve it or not.

And for people with nerve of steel, here is a TUTTAMINX with 32 faces and 150 movable parts.

If you scramble this, it looks like this:

After seeing all these, if you think a puzzle can not be more complicated than a Tuttaminx, you are wrong!

Multiple Minxes can be fused together to form a combined minx. Here is a triple fused Petaminx.

These puzzles have no practical use for mortals. Although in Hell, they may ask you to solve one.

 There are Shape shifting puzzles with non-linear movements as well, like the "GHOST CUBE".

This is how it looks when scrambled, Goodbye brain.

Due to each piece being of a different shape, this puzzle is notoriously difficult to solve. Unlike a Rubik’s cube the movements of the pieces are restricted due to their shape, so it’s very difficult to mathematically calculate the number of possible moves with this one.

R.I.P brain.!!

China Aims to Wash VPNs Out of Its Hair

China this week announced new measures to further restrict its citizens' access to the Internet.

The 14-month campaign appears designed to crack down on the use of Web platforms and services unapproved by the government, and on virtual private networks, which can used to access those platforms and services covertly.
While China's Internet network access services market is facing many development opportunities, there are signs of "disorderly development" that show the urgent need for regulation, the country's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology explained in a notice posted to a government website.
The coming "clean-up" of China's network access services will standardize the market, strengthen network information security management, and promote the healthy and orderly development of the country's Internet industry, the ministry noted.
In order to operate legally, Internet service providers, VPN providers, data centers and content delivery networks will have to obtain a license from the government and adhere to strict limitations.

Great Firewall

The clean-up also places severe new restrictions on cross-border business activities. It requires that government approval be obtained to create or lease lines, including VPN channels, to perform cross-border business activities.
Those restrictions essentially will block any Chinese citizen from using a VPN -- basically, hiding their IP address and rerouting their connections to servers outside their country -- in order to access websites the government doesn't want them to see.
China is famous for controlling the information its citizens can see on the Internet with its "Great Firewall," which screens Internet traffic between China and the outside world. Any requests to see information Beijing deems inappropriate are sent to an Internet graveyard.
Among the 171 of the world's top 1,000 websites the Great Firewall blocks are Google, Facebook and Twitter, according to Greatfire.org, a censorship monitoring service. VPNs offer a way to get through the firewall, which is why the government wants to block them.
China also has taken a more proactive approach to dealing with websites that it doesn't like. It crafted a Great Cannon, which it uses to launch DDoS attacks on domains critical of Beijing