Re: 2009 decryption test
 

Ok ladies & gents, back on topic. I'm glad everyone is taking the chance to make sure they will hit the ground running with the manual on Saturday!

Re: 2009 decryption test
 

Yeah. That's where they came from.

Re: 2009 decryption test
 

You won't repost them. Obviously, you believe these photos contain information that you're not yet meant to see or you wouldn't express concern about them "fixing it," and so it's best if you think twice before posting information like this again.

Re: 2009 decryption test
 

There's something about this post that bothers me. It's either lacking in G or P, it's hard to say which.

Re: 2009 decryption test
 

The post Madison quoted was about photos which he found on the FIRST snooping around the FIRST site. If these pictures were meant to be found the poster would not have been worried about FIRST fixing it. By not wanting the FIRST site fixed it would appear the poster is hoping to continue to take advantage of the flaw and gain access to information before the rest of us.

Does that seem GP to you?

As a moderator of this forum it's Madison's "job" to address issues like this. I don't see how her post is lacking G or P.

Re: 2009 decryption test
 

I thought that her post was rather strongly worded. I was referring specifically to how she said it, not the issue itself.

Re: 2009 decryption test
 

She is right. It was rather un GP of me. Here is the link so FIRST can fix it.

http://www2.usfirst.org/2009comp/

sorry about it. I get exited and get carried away sometimes. No hard feelings i hope?

Re: 2009 decryption test
 

You don't have to be so apologetic, there is (in my opinion) some merit in the discussion on whether or not you should post those pictures.
Having the CD-Consensus-Machine steamroll all over that discussion doesn't automatically mean you were so wrong you should start apologizing.

Let's try and be a bit more open folks.. you know.. democracy and what not... :rolleyes:

-Leav


p.s.
Written from Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex :)

Re: 2009 decryption test
 

If that link was the source of all the confrontation in this thread, then wow. Just wow.

Seriously, people. Take a step back from your keyboard.

Step outside,

breathe in fresh air,

go skiing or snowboarding,

or do something not about FIRST for the next few days.

So you found the FIRST Mirror server. With the encrypted game manual. And a few screen shots from past scoring software.

There's nothing there that could possibly give you an advantage.

So what if a few weeks ago there was a few images that might be of the KoP. The keyword there is might. What's to say those aren't purposely fake photos given that FIRST might know people will try to search through the document tree in the days before Kickoff.

And even if you did find a photo of a sprocket. Who cares? What advantage does a photo of a sprocket give you?

Seriously, this thread makes it seem like such a huge leak occurred, but in reality there's nothing much there.

BTW, FIRST, you can prevent this in the future. Since it looks like you are running an Apache server, use a .htaccess file to block viewing of the document tree. Put this file in the root directory on your FTP server. By doing this, the settings get inherited to all sub directories, so every sub-directory past, present, and future will automagically be protected from viewing available files in a directory, while all content files will still be 100% accessible if you know the exact URL (such as from a hyperlink on usfirst.org or an Email Blast).

Re: 2009 decryption test
 

If FIRST HQ is dumb/lazy/incompetent enough to continually leave information related to the game/KOP/etc on a public webpage, then they probably deserve for it to be found and posted on CD.

Just my $0.02.

Re: 2009 decryption test
 

I agree. We don't know what FIRST is up to. If someone finds something and posts it to CD isn't that negating any advantage they might gain? Even if it turns out to be real and possibly significant, is a team willing to bet their training time and team budget on that information?

Rumors are great for thought exercises, but I'm not committing to a design until after I see the volunteers pushing plywood robots on the kickoff stage and I understand the official game.

Re: 2009 decryption test
 

FWTW, it appears that FIRST has at least fixed the photos issue...

Re: 2009 decryption test
 

You'll find that many of my posts are strongly worded.

Keen -- no hard feelings at all. While what you've stumbled across may not contain any significantly valuable information now, there's no assurance that it won't in the future.

It appears as if FIRST has taken steps to correct their oversight. Each year, they get better at understanding how to protect their information, but they're not perfect yet. When we run across things like this -- things we're reasonably sure we're not yet supposed to see -- we can help them to make things better by giving them a head's up.

We all know that teams have different resources, budgets, facilities and skillsets, so I think that our expectation that we all start on equal ground when it comes to strategy development and design is one of FRC's greatest assets. I'm just trying to keep the dream alive, y'all. :)

Re: 2009 decryption test
 

Didn't you do some more math concerning that, Forest?
care to give us some mroe figures?

Re: 2009 decryption test
 

You aren't very fun at parties are you?