pic: Sneaky at Gen Con
 

Re: pic: Sneaky at Gen Con
 

Well, the simplest excuse if you got caught is your robot runs on Mt Dew as a power source... Of course, you should keep on moving past the person who caught you before they realize that's going to be impossible, as any fusion with Mt Dew would result in a sticky mess.

Re: pic: Sneaky at Gen Con
 

Running off the pressure from the CO2 ;)

Re: pic: Sneaky at Gen Con
 

I am a bit surprised that you would post a picture of your team breaking the rules. This is not what FIRST is about. How do you expect others to trust you and your team when you flaunt the rules???? :confused:

Re: pic: Sneaky at Gen Con
 

What happened to all the gold, that looks more like silver to me... or am I just seeing things?

Re: pic: Sneaky at Gen Con
 

I suppose people tend to applaud those who deny coercive monopolies their power over prices. Much like sneaking candy into a movie theater, sure it's against the rules, but even the staff don't tend to care.

Re: pic: Sneaky at Gen Con
 

The issue is, as FIRST students and mentors, should we be following rules and setting examples or should we publicly show up those that make the rules?

Re: pic: Sneaky at Gen Con
 

In generalities, yes. we should be the first to set examples.

Re: pic: Sneaky at Gen Con
 

In his defense, it is a rather funny picture. If it weren't funny then I'm sure he wouldn't have told anyone about it. FIRST participants are expected to be the ones to not break rules, but even some rules have to be broken. Just ask yourself this Steve, if you were broke high school student and craving something to drink, would you walk in with a can of pop or finish it outside before you get in? I'm sure you would finish it before you got in, but what about a 12-pack? You MIGHT not be able to finish that before you got inside. I know I wouldn't.

(Disclaimer: That was not intended to be serious, just comical. Everyone needs a bit of comical relief.)

Re: pic: Sneaky at Gen Con
 

I always snuck in drinks during the Championship because I don't want to pay 3 dollars for a drink, or whatever ridiculous price they charge. "Breaking the rules" vs. being ripped off big time for a drink - I don't really see it as a big issue. You had to buy it from somewhere so it's not like Pepsi is losing out. Besides, these guys weren't even actually entering the exhibit halls for the convention - they were just putting on a demonstration outside to spread the word of FIRST.

Anyway, it was really cool to see many Indiana FIRST teams demoing at Gen Con this year. I went to check it all out and saw teams 45, 393, 1501, and 829 showing off their FRC and VEX robots. I wasn't there to see this, but supposedly the Mythbuster guys showed up later on to check out their demo and signed some stuff.

A few pictures from the demo:





And lastly, a pretty cool video of 1501 shooting balls

Re: pic: Sneaky at Gen Con
 

The quote doesn't quite fit but the general sentiment does.

Whether or not the prices are exorbant is not the debate, they're still breaking rules and openly admitting to it, look at the title "Sneaky at Gen Con". To be honest I would have probably done similar, but I wouldn't tell everyone about it so publically, we're supposed to be setting examples, not showing off disobedience. I don't care really that the rules were broken, it does kind of bother me to see that fact flaunted about in a "Look what we did!" manner though.

Re: pic: Sneaky at Gen Con
 

Chill out, its barely breaking a rule.

First, Its not a FIRST rule that's being broken, so its not that big of a deal.

Second, It's not illegal.

Third, there are no consequences besides getting your drink taken away. If there were consequences like being kicked out or dq'ed then I'd understand better the big deal, but all they'll do is take away your cans and drink them in the back room.

Re: pic: Sneaky at Gen Con
 

So what you are saying is that if its only a little penalty then it is OK as long as you are not caught. If I were to use the Nothing-But-DeWalt solution on our robot and used 6 Fisher Price motors then that would be OK as long as I didn't get caught. No one can see the motor inside the case so it is OK. The only penalty that I face is that if caught I would have to change out the motor before my next match. No big deal so I guess that makes it OK.

Are these really the standards of most FIRST participants? Maybe I will post a poll to see.

Re: pic: Sneaky at Gen Con
 

Fine, I don't think bringing a drink into a place that says no drinks is a big deal, but I understand how you think it is.

Re: pic: Sneaky at Gen Con
 

lol this is ridiculous. Steve, you're basically saying that breaking a rule in any sense is the same. Which I can understand I guess, but there are varying degrees and levels here. Have you ever drove over the speed limit? Even just a bit? If so, you've broken a rule. Yet nearly everyone has done that at some point or another.

My point is, there are many rules that exist. And everyone has broken a rule at some point in their life. Even intentionally, and a lot of times it's not a big deal. Bringing a drink into a convention center to avoid paying outrageous prices is one of those rules that, in my opinion, isn't a very important one. In a robot competition, following rules to the T is obviously necessary, but that just isn't the case for every single other aspect of life.

And these guys weren't even attending the convention! The chance that they would actually buy something is slim to none. I think we might be a little stir crazy, build season is still a few months away. Let's chill out and not jump all over 1501 for doing this or even make a big deal out of it for that matter. We should be praising them for doing this demo, not bashing them.