Re: [FRC Blog] 2014 Game Hint
 

I think we're missing something here. We've given many possible explanations for the numbers. What do you all think about the punctuation marks? The GDC doesn't usually take an obscure piece of data about the game, encrypt it, surround it with a bunch of useless crap that can be ignored, and then send it out to us as a hint. Every character in the hint is (usually) significant in some way.
I was thinking about the different uses for the two punctuation marks used ("/" & ","). Slashes are usually used to denote "or". I had an idea that this clue might present potential trade-offs we will face in the game. Slashes are also used for dates and other things (feel free to expand on this). Commas are used in lists. They're also used in coordinate systems (which would give us three terms if applied to these numbers). Are there any more obscure uses for these symbols that anyone knows of?

Re: [FRC Blog] 2014 Game Hint
 

Plus the quote about Tom Baker!!!! OMG we all have to build TARDIS-based robots!!! Best game ever!! lol

Re: [FRC Blog] 2014 Game Hint
 

08234 - Egg Harbor Township, NJ
00057 - Channel Islands National PK, CA
61126 - Rockford, IL
01963 - Wincanton, UK?
62326 - Colchester, IL
15806 - ????

Re: [FRC Blog] 2014 Game Hint
 

61126 - Rockford, IL

1963 - Year

http://www.rockfordillinois.com/chron7.htm

Re: [FRC Blog] 2014 Game Hint
 

Gates Rubber has a history with first giving out scholarships, etc...

Re: [FRC Blog] 2014 Game Hint
 

15806 is Zossen Germany. Looking on the wikipedia page:

"Between 1901 and 1904, Zossen adopted the use of different high-speed vehicles, such as electric locomotives and trams, for transportation to and from Berlin-Marienfelde. These vehicles were powered by an alternating current of 15kV and used a variable frequency. The power was transmitted by three vertical overhead lines."

Overdrive?

Re: [FRC Blog] 2014 Game Hint
 

So after reading all these possible versions of the hint's meaning I will say what I THINK it could involve after reading some of you guys have said.

Since I also love Doctor Who and Lunacy, I think the game is going to be space related. Secondly, like someone pointed out earlier, and I will not go back because I am too lazy to do so and find that person, the amount of feet on the ground in the picture. Levels of climbing. I believe this competition is going to be related to some climbing in space challenge. Ergo it will be messy, confusing really odd to accomplish.

Re: [FRC Blog] 2014 Game Hint
 

Hey Everyone -- my first post on CD!

Not sure if this occurred to anyone yet, but the hint seems to be structured as Morse Code. The "/" and "," separators are used to construct messages.

The first portion of the message becomes:

8234/57

10000000101010 / 111001

-. .. ... .. -.-. -. / ---...

The problem is, there are many potential groupings of letters.

Perhaps someone can run with this.

Re: [FRC Blog] 2014 Game Hint
 

8234 is a NI part number.

http://sine.ni.com/nips/cds/view/p/lang/en/nid/204722

Not sure how 57 fits in there, but so far we've got Gates and NI

Re: [FRC Blog] 2014 Game Hint
 

When I showed this to my dad, he said that he is positive that the red light on the right of the photo has to do with something.

Re: [FRC Blog] 2014 Game Hint
 

If two people come to this conclusion without, presumably, co-operation, maybe this is worth pursuing.

Re: [FRC Blog] 2014 Game Hint
 

Is there any rhyme or reason to the spaces you put in the morse code?

Edit - I originally asked how to get from the original number to the 1s and 0s, then realized...binary

Re: [FRC Blog] 2014 Game Hint
 

I used the Decimal-to-Binary translation feature in Google. There are a number of alternatives online.

Re: [FRC Blog] 2014 Game Hint
 

I assumed "1" = "dash" and "0" = "dot", but there is no reason why the complement might not also be true (which adds another layer of complexity).

The groupings of dashes and dots was from an early attempt to parse the sequence into separate characters.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morse_code

Re: [FRC Blog] 2014 Game Hint
 

Rockford is also called 'The Forest City', forest could = trees = tree climbing? Some type of climbing? Or it could tie into the green theme that was thrown around.
Also, and this is probably not connected, but when I googled '1963 robots' it came up with a page that said Iron Man was first drawn up in 1963. No idea how that would tie in though.