!>http://bottiger.com/download/hXvZQ!

Do you know this puzzle? The idea is that you must place all the cubes in the container so that one of each color is showing on all 4 sides. A very simple problem, but since every dice can be rotated in 24 different ways (yes, not six), there are @24^4 = 331776@ different possibilities. Admittedly, the permutation of the dice doesn't matter (reduces the number with a factor of @4! = 24@), and the orientation of all the dice together doesn't matter either (there's no up/down/left/right) which means we can reduce the number by another factor of @4@.

This means there are approximately @(24^4)/(4!*4) = 3456@ ways to put the cubes inside the box. This may be reduced a bit further, but I think it's a good approximation.

Well, after giving up on it last night I decided to try let my computer solve it, and because @331776@ isn't _that_ big a simple brute force was enough.

I wrote my little solver in ruby, and it took me a couple of hours to get it right -- or rather, almost right. But what _*really*_ puzzles me is the solutions. They are correct, but I would expect at least @4!*4@ since I'm just doing a plain brute force which would see all the different permutations (@4!@) and rotations (@4@) as different solutions. But how many did I find? Not @4!*4@, not @4!@, not @4@ but <strong>8</strong>. Why 8? I have no idea, but they work :) (hey! if you have _any_ idea, _please_ "contact me":/contact)

"The script I used can be found here if anyone wants it.":http://bottiger.com/paste/1imwZmlNAEcgqWuZRrsd

At last, try to read what "this store has to say about the puzzle.":http://www.frik-n-frak.com/Color-Cubes-Wooden-Brain-Teaser_p_60-1290.html

bq. Of the 365 possible combinations, only ONE of them is right! This one will drive you batty!

huh? *365*, where did 365 come from? I guess he means 3456 or I missed something really obvious :)