Re: **FIRST EMAIL**/FRC Game Hint #2
 

Sigh...did you read the thread? We've already come up with those, other than the time one. (And yes, the coordinates are the statue's location.)

Hmm...What happened at 5:48 AM on 12/7/1900? Anyone know? I don't.

And I understand reading 500+ posts does take a while. I think pages one and two have the coordinates mapped. (As a side note, they've also been placed in the Antarctic and in Greenland, and mapped on Mars.)

Re: **FIRST EMAIL**/FRC Game Hint #2
 

A few million people woke up, and found nothing major in the headlines.

This is a thumbnail view from an online microfilm archive of the New York Times of 7 December, 1900. I don't want to pay money to read the entire thing online, when I could just go to the library tomorrow and read it (or one of the local newspapers) on their microfilm machines for free.

Re: **FIRST EMAIL**/FRC Game Hint #2
 

Actually, if I've figured anything out, it's that the coodinates do NOT correspond to the location of the statue, which is located further east - within the trees. The object that has appeared in the imagery is likely two or four people that were simply standing there - it's definitely NOT the statue (or the "quad" lamppost that was also talked about).

Beyond that, I'm pretty much sold on the 3rd number being a compass bearing, since it lines up pretty well with the grid the streets around there follow. Clearly, the idea is to stand somewhere in the Square (not 100% sure of where), look in that direction (towards Boylston St), and see something meaningful.

Oh, and the real name of the restaurant being mentioned at length is the "Globe Bar & Cafe" (vs. "Globe Bar & Grill", or "Globe Cafe).

Also, it seems like it's a strong hint that perhaps floating-point math will be an issue.

Re: **FIRST EMAIL**/FRC Game Hint #2
 

Does anyone in Boston have a GPS unit or what?

Re: **FIRST EMAIL**/FRC Game Hint #2
 

Nobody has gone out there with a GPS set - or at least nobody has reported HERE about having done so - so what we have is whatever web sites give us (which can be inaccurate, and don't necessarily agree 100%).

For what it's worth, I pieced together part of a USGS topo quadrangle (data taken off Terraserver; I have attached a small portion here), and used the tick marks to estimate where the location is (marked in purple). Then I calculated where the spot across the street would be (marked in blue), using the bearing. It comes out about 100 ft east of the dominant location we've seen here. As far as I can tell, there's nothing special there (does anybody know better?), and across the street at that point there's just a Wendy's and a Burger King.

Because that location was so meaningless, and maybe that source isn't any better, I'm inclined to accept the "standard" location we've seen here anyway. The view from there has several interesting items:

1) Tortoise and Hare statues, which I have finally figured out are right in front of my next item.
2) Fountain/pool (coupled with the hint that water might be involved, this seems meaningful).
3) Dual obelisks (looks like a goal post).
4) Globe Bar and Cafe, across the street - although as best as I can tell, the line-of-sight through the obelisks really points to the place next door (to the west of it).

That's my bottom line, at this point. :]

Re: **FIRST EMAIL**/FRC Game Hint #2
 

Who said anything about a human player? I was talking about Karthik!

It would be cool to have the emcee inside a gamepiece. Imagine the play by play commentary!

Re: **FIRST EMAIL**/FRC Game Hint #2
 

Sorry, I don't have a GPS unit, but I do have a camera and the gumption to dare Copley Square on New Years Eve afternoon. Unfortunately I forgot to bring a parking spot but I managed to stop at a No Stopping Any Time zone (behind a police car!) and take a picture. They are setting up for ice sculptures all over CS and especially in the All Important (42.349905, -71.076072) spot.

The photo is from St. James Avenue, facing generally northwest, between Trinity Church (on the right) and John Hancock Tower (behind to the left). The crosswalk sign is for the Trinity Place crosswalks. Boston Public Library is under the crosswalk sign. Old South Church is the building in the center with the tower. The locus point is to the right of the trailer full of ice, within the fenced in area.

I don't know what they were doing within the fenced in area. They should have (by this time ~2 pm) have had the makings of an ice sculpture. The blueish tower near the right side of Old South Church and the left of the man taking the picture at the foot of Trinity Church's steps I believe is a temporary light tower.

Optimizer: I'm basing the GPS location on Google maps, only because of their sponsorship with FIRST and they allow numbers for location. Though, oddly, Microsoft's maps.live.com has a clearer aerial view, and the four "bird's eye" views too. (I'm assuming that link works.)

The only true location would be by on-site GPS. (Presumably the FIRST Hinters would be using the same GPS points and thus have the same error.) You are right that the Globe Bar and Cafe is not centered on the dual obelisks. They do have a website! (Their menu font needs a bit of tweaking.)

There is nothing in the plaza in front of Trinity Church. The Tortoise and Hare statues are towards Boylston St. Maybe this is the game of Nothing -- sounds very Existentialist (or, for you young 'uns, very Seinfeldish).

I am surprised that I'm the only one (in the Boston area, for those out-of-town wiseguys) that does site visits. Maybe they purposely posted the Hint after all the college students went home for break so no one would actually go to the site. I couldn't find the quote I wanted but I guess Mark Twain can say it no other way....
______________________
A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way. -Mark Twain

Re: **FIRST EMAIL**/FRC Game Hint #2
 

December 7, 1900 (Wikipedia) - Max Planck, in his house at Grunewald, on the outskirts of Berlin, discovers the law of black body emission.

Squinting at artdutra04's NYT front page, I see it was at approximately 11:48 in the morning (Berlin local time). It was a Friday. Go ahead, prove me wrong. :)

(Actually, artdutra04, if you want the news of December 7, 1900, you have to look at the next day's paper.)
_________________________
It is not the possession of truth, but the success which attends the seeking after it, that enriches the seeker and brings happiness to him. -Max Planck

Re: **FIRST EMAIL**/FRC Game Hint #2
 

O.K. Now my brief two cents of input.

1) GPS coordinates and compass bearing plus Hint 1 - are they re-introducing the IR tracking beacons?
The GPS location may not be the Statue of John Copley, but lets follow that train of thought for a moment.
2) He is standing on a pedestal in the middle of an open area. Maybe we can expect a pedestal in the middle of the playing field.
3) Looking up John S Copley in Wikipedia - one can find his paintings. For the late 1700s the colors are stunningly brilliant. I expect illuminated targets of several colors.
4) Reading Wikipedia, I followed the link "The Defeat of the Floating Batteries at Gibraltar, September 1782" and read about that. It appears the British developed the innovative "hot potato" to destroy the barriers. I don't know about any burning hot objects, but "hot potato" would be a good contest name. (Have a game piece the opposing team(s) don't want)
5) I think Hint 1 is pretty much self contained. FRC will allow teams to use a TV remote along with their playstation controller. The one exception would be the use of "standard" IR signals as part of the playing field. These "standard" signals would match a particular remote control included in everyone's kits. Thus teams could train their bots to the standard playing field signals.
6)Too bad the compass bearings aren't pointing to McDonalds and BurgerKing The contest would be flame broiled vs. fried.
7) I much like the idea of December 7th 1900 being the discovery of black body radiation. That seems to fit with the IR controller.
8) I doubt water will ever be used since owners of large open buildings rarely like the idea of water running around their floors as teams debug their bot's water handling capabilities. Water also wreaks havoc with electronic circuits.


EJ:)

Re: **FIRST EMAIL**/FRC Game Hint #2
 

My apologies if this has been covered (long thread, I did search this thread for beacon and didn't find any talking about Beacon Hill). The location and direction point towards a section of Boston known as Beacon Hill. At one time the hill did have a beacon on top of it. The wiki for Beacon Hill says that it was mostly torn down to fill in Back Bay to allow for more land for development. Could the game be either assembling a hill or taking down a hill or moving around game pieces to fill in holes/gaps the robots have to go over, i.e. building land bridges?

Re: **FIRST EMAIL**/FRC Game Hint #2
 

I think the game hint is very simple and all of us are way over analyzing it. It probably has something simple to do with something on the co ordinates/bearing. Note: I am not saying that we should not brainstorm and analyze but this is what gives GDC their laughs I guess. :yikes:

Re: **FIRST EMAIL**/FRC Game Hint #2
 

A Wendy's you say? How very peculiar...

Anyone remember the name of the FIRST competition in 2003? :)
http://www.reuters.com/article/domes...50374220071218

But there couldn't be a possible link there... now could there? ;)

Re: **FIRST EMAIL**/FRC Game Hint #2
 

Well, here's a thought -
could the field/field element(s) be relatively simple and become more complicated with options/opportunities presented for teams to take advantage of or not.

Rack 'n' Roll was like that in several areas, in my opinion. Lots of levels of involvement during design/build and during the competition among the alliances.

This is neither here nor there but all the spires around the area of Copley Square would invite a great ring toss or stacking game. (I know, this has been suggested. :))

Re: **FIRST EMAIL**/FRC Game Hint #2
 

[Homer Simpson]Mmmm.... Wendy's and a Burger King[/Homer]

C'mon, I'm tracking down a possibility that if you mix up the letters in "black body" it comes out to an obscure 14th century (infra)red-haired poet Abby L. Dock that wrote sonnets about a tortoise and a hare playing in water, on a Friday morning. C'mon, ask your English teacher about her! If he/she denies it, then you know it's a conspiracy! It all fits, I tells ya!

But I'd rather have a Whopper.

Re: **FIRST EMAIL**/FRC Game Hint #2
 

Anything is possible. Let's say we know that the game object is a ball like 2006. Even then, the most we can do is brain storm robot ideas but not much more than that because we are not certain of anything. Besides, the real key to even thinking of a good robot design is in the rules book. This will never be seen until after kickoff.

If I had to guess, an object around those co ordinates represents the game object or the field and it is something relatively simple. I have not kept up with this thread or the game hint mostly because this year I do not feel the need to decrypt the game hint. But I hope all of you are having fun :D