Originally Posted by Oblarg (Post 1366769)

(After changing code whilst queued for the umpteenth time): "Who was it that said that you shouldn't have a programmer on your drive crew? Because they're horribly wrong."

Originally Posted by BBray_T1296 (Post 1369466)

We decided (jokingly of course) that both customary and SI units are garbage and invented our own measurement system all based on our largest 2" diameter pneumatic cylinder, which we named "Pneumasiah", and each type of unit was all called the same name: a Pneum

These units exchange to:
-1 Pneum (pressure) = 60 PSI (pressure the piston operates at)
-1 Pneum (length) = 24 3/8" (Measured stroke Pneumasiah)
-1 Pneum (time) = Time Pneumasiah takes to extend 1 Pneum(length) at 1 Pneum(pressure), not officially measured yet
-1 Pneum (mass) = Weight of Pneumasiah, not officially measured yet

Funny quote related:

"how fast does our robot accelerate?" "Oh, about 6 Pneums per Pneum squared"

Originally Posted by AlexanderTheOK (Post 1339997)

"I fixed the code!"

"how?"

"I deleted it."

Originally Posted by kmcclary (Post 1322378)

Welcome to the 2014 Build Season! Oh boy... It sure didn't take long this year for the comments to start flying... (Luckily, I work with several teams. To protect the guilty, I'm not saying at which one this happened. :-)

Scene: Kickoff Saturday 2014, back at the ranch that very afternoon.
The entire team was doing their traditional "group aloud reading of the new FIRST Game Manual", to review the game rules together...

We get to Rule G34, and all progress stops for about 10 minutes...

FIRST wrote:
"Rule G34 - COACHES may not touch BALLS.
Inadvertent or inconsequential contact will not be penalized.
Violation: FOUL"

The room suddenly goes silent. Internally I thought: "Oh crap... What were the manual writers thinking, phrasing it that way to high school students? Are we ever going to sneak past this one?"

... Not a chance, with this group...

Sure enough. It started with a few stifled snickers... Tension builds.
Suddenly, the entire team explodes with riotous laughter.

... "Yea, that's VERY foul all right..."
... "Of course you're not supposed to do that. Everybody knows that!"
Etc.

Finally, after everyone got a shot at the rule, I thought we were home free.
No such luck. They then all turned and stared directly toward their on-field coach... Oh oh... Round 2...

After a pregnant pause, the comments started flying again...
... "Hey Coach... We told you not to scratch yourself so much!"
... "He's so famous, FIRST even wrote in a rule against it this year!"
Etc...

Once THAT died down, Round 3 happened... A student then turned and asked the mentors:
... "Hey {mentors}... When handling your balls, what constitutes 'inconsequential contact' ?"
This started an entire sub-discussion among the students on "ball handling and underwear straightening etiquette" in and around school, the field, and elsewhere.

Chaos reigned for several more minutes.

One of the new female students near me looked around, totally bewildered at the pandemonium in the room. She then realized the gender of most of the commenters. With an "eye roll" expression on her face, she turned to another young female student on the team, sighed, and summed it up nicely:

... "Of course... There are waaay too many guys on this team..."

And that is when *I* lost it...

The only sensible thing the mentors could do was to keep quiet and wait it out. Eventually it died down. Decorum was restored, and we could continue with the manual reading session.

But from then on, things went more slowly. Every mention of "balls" was accompanied with at least a few stifled snickers, and sotto voce comments. Example: When talking about "retrieving your ball from the pedestal when lit", you can imagine the "loudly whispered" comments ("Ooooo...That sounds painful", "What a relief", "Hey, if you tried to light mine up, I'd retrieve them too..."..., etc.)

Needless to say, we finally ran out of time and gave up.
We had to ask everyone to read the rest of the rules at home.


Didn't any other team notice this one? What happened when your team encountered Rule G34?

- Keith

Originally Posted by Iaquinto.Joe (Post 1326149)

"No good sentence can start with 'just' unless you're talking about the law."

"We need more weight." I mean, how often can you say that?

Originally Posted by Tinmint1 (Post 1370145)

We put 15 extra lbs on our robot.
At the weighing station my team started high fiving each other because the robot was over 100lbs finally the team behind us just shook their heads.

Originally Posted by The Doctor (Post 1374434)

Wasn't this thread started in 2006??

Originally Posted by Jherbie53 on 02-23-2006, 05:57 PM (Post 459524)

I'm wondering what some of the more interesting "quotes" or phrases said this year. It doesn't matter who said them, a student, a teacher, or a mentor. One of mine this year was "Ball chunk colorer person". That was said when someone asked why i was coloring a ball with a sharpie.

Originally Posted by John Retkowski (Post 1374411)

Quote Maria a junior

Maria: yeah I measured it. It's 1/2 of 3/4

Gain (a senior): *sigh*..... it doesn't work that way Maria....


We ended up putting 1/2 of 3/4 on one of our buttons. And then we threw it in the bucket that we offer people buttons out of at events. And then we forgot about it.

Originally Posted by Amo10 (Post 1366372)

"I could fit like 10 dead bodies in this" (the bag and tag bag)

Originally Posted by BBray_T1296 (Post 1369466)

We decided (jokingly of course) that both customary and SI units are garbage and invented our own measurement system all based on our largest 2" diameter pneumatic cylinder, which we named "Pneumasiah", and each type of unit was all called the same name: a Pneum

These units exchange to:
-1 Pneum (pressure) = 60 PSI (pressure the piston operates at)
-1 Pneum (length) = 24 3/8" (Measured stroke Pneumasiah)
-1 Pneum (time) = Time Pneumasiah takes to extend 1 Pneum(length) at 1 Pneum(pressure), not officially measured yet
-1 Pneum (mass) = Weight of Pneumasiah, not officially measured yet

Funny quote related:

"how fast does our robot accelerate?" "Oh, about 6 Pneums per Pneum squared"

Originally Posted by Oblarg (Post 1377050)

I'm pretty sure we have one of those exact cylinders lying around (it's completely useless, of course, but at some point in the past someone figured that if we were going to get a free cylinder we might as well get a big one). We just call it the "BFC." If nothing else, it makes a good demonstration piece for preseason training.

Originally Posted by adammiller3122 (Post 1377194)

My team has one of those cylinders. My mentor couldn't think of a need for a cylinder for that year and we had a free one, so we got a HUGE cylinder. When it is fully out, it is taller than our tallest member! :ahh:

Originally Posted by BBray_T1296 (Post 1377199)

That is how we got ours! In 2011 we were originally not going to use pneumatics, so as a joke our teacher got the 3 largest cylinders he could with the Bimba voucher. We thought he was crazy and the cylinders would never be used.

Originally Posted by The Doctor (Post 1374434)

Wasn't this thread started in 2006??

Originally Posted by Oblarg (Post 1377245)

Ours dates from 2007, I think. It was briefly used in 2008 on a very large arm design, until it was realized that the amount of air required to actuate the thing was completely ridiculous.

Originally Posted by JagCode (Post 1377624)

Our programming department has a weird fascination with communism that isn't easily explained. Needless to say, this happened during Build.

Builder 1: "Okay, who is playing the Soviet Anthem?"
Builder 2: "I think it's the programming team."

They both turn around to see us wearing various iconic communist clothing. I was in a full Red Guard outfit, and the rest of us wore things ranging from Ushankas to T-Shirts sporting Hammers and Sickles. We all had our Little Red Books out and we were just glaring at those two.

The Program-letariat Revolution has just begun, friends.

Originally Posted by evanperryg (Post 1358722)

(
(whenever we needed to make something) "Let's just 3d print it"

Originally Posted by Amo10 (Post 1366372)

"I could fit like 10 dead bodies in this" (the bag and tag bag)

Originally Posted by Mr. Lindner

"Thanks, guys! You couldn't have done it without me!"