It has been brought to my attention that the video I created about our trip to Milwaukee is pretty useless if you don’t know how the points are scored.
And here is the FIRST Kick Off Video – It’s just plain fun to watch:
FIRST Robotics – Video
Here is the first video that I have ever created! It’s footage from the FIRST Robotics Challenge Competition in Milwaukee that I attended.
Everyone Kills Hitler on Their First Trip
This is a funny short story involving time travel and internet forums (and Hitler):
International Association of Time Travelers: Members’ Forum Subforum: Europe – Twentieth Century – Second World War
Page 263
(h/t to JWZ for this one)
FIRST Robotics Challenge Regional Meet – Day 3
Day three photos here. We did better, but not well enough to make it into the top 8. No one was really surprised.
Man the final matches were fun to watch.
I shot about three hours of video and probably 300 photos. Most of the photos are up but it will be a while before I edit the video.
All in all it was a great time. I highly recommend attending the Minnesota Regional March 27th – 29th. It’s FREE to get in.
If you can only make it one day, make it Saturday. The finals are the most exciting matches.
FIRST Robotics Challenge Regional Meet – Day 2
Day two photos. We did better on day two, but still had some trouble.
Stephanie rocking the buttons. (Most teams handed out buttons to promote themselves.)
One team’s safety message.
We had a team social at the Discovery Museum on the waterfront. We had full run of the exhibits. It’s a pretty nice museum.
Warning, Do Not ???
This warning label is under each window on the bus that we are riding on.
I can’t for the life of me figure out what I am not supposed to do.
Any ideas?
FIRST Robotics Challenge Regional Meet – Day 1
I’m currently at the FIRST Robotics Regional playoffs in Milwaukee with Southwest High School’s team 2129 Ultraviolet. (See: Robots! and Robot Shipped and More Photos for more information.)
Here are a few of the photos in the gallery from day one. Click on any of them to see the gallery.
These are all the robots in their shipping crates waiting in the pits for the teams to arrive. Ours is the purple one.
This is a long shot of the arena.
Here is team 2129 working on the robot.
We are having a lot of fun even though we have not been doing so well. But we think we have found most of the bugs and hope to do better tomorrow.
More DMCA Abuse
This time it’s a totally bogus claim by the Air Force!
It’s cyber war! Lawyers representing the Air Force’s elite electronic warriors have sent YouTube a DMCA takedown notice demanding the removal of the 30-second spot the Air Force created to promote its nascent Cyber Command. We’d uploaded the video to share with THREAT LEVEL readers.
…
U.S. Government works aren’t even copyrightable. YouTube doesn’t know that — presumably because it has no lawyers — and it’s taken down the video. A spokeswoman said in an e-mail that the Google-owned service has no choice but to comply with DMCA notices. That’s not quite right, though. YouTube has no legal obligation to remove non-infringing content.
…
Kurt Opsahl at EFF notes that, notwithstanding Pikster’s sworn statement, the Air Force website promoting the video contains this language in its privacy policy: “Information presented on the Air Force Recruiting website is considered public information and may be distributed or copied.”
Go read all of Kevin Poulsen’s Wired column about it.
(and another h/t to BoingBoing)
Another reason to move to Montana
I think I love Governor Brian Schweitzer. Listen to him on NPR going off about the REAL ID act.
(h/t to BoingBoing)
FIRST Robotics on Hack-a-day
Will over at Hack-a-day went to the Kansas City FIRST Robotics Challenge Regional Competition and really liked what he saw.
Team 2129 is heading to the Milwaukee Regionals next weekend. It’s going to be a blast!
The Minnesota Regionals will be held March 27th – 29th at Williams Arena and it’s FREE to get in.
Come and check it out – it’s going to be a great time!