Greetings Teams:
Four days and counting!
First, we want to give the official hint to teams concerning this year's game, so here it is:
"Vmax = 10 ft/sec
Yes, there are two paths you can go by
But in the long run
There's still time to change the road you're on."
This should be enough to get you all started!
Secondly, we have some important news for participants regarding the 2004 Robotics Competition Manual.
As a first step in moving to an online manual system for 2005, the 2004 manual will only be made available online in the form of '.pdf' files; which means there will not be a printed manual or CD in this year's Kit of Parts.
To accommodate timely distribution of the manual, here is our plan:
Encrypted copies of the first eight sections of the manual will be posted on the FIRST website at 5:00pm EST on Thursday, January 8th. Instructions for handling these files appear at the bottom of this message.
Anyone may download these files starting at that time. The decryption password, which will allow you to open these files, will be announced at Kickoff.
Teams are encouraged to download these encrypted versions ahead of time to help alleviate downloading delays on the 10th. The non-encrypted versions will be posted at noon on Saturday January 10th. There is no difference in the content of the encrypted and
non-encrypted versions.
Individuals traveling to a Kickoff site that wish to have a manual to read for their ride home are encouraged to bring a portable computer with these files saved on the hard-drive.
In order to be sure that you have the capability to decrypt the files at the appropriate time, a test file is currently posted on the FIRST website -- see the instructions below.
(Note that if you wish to get yourself a binder and/or tabs, there are a total of twelve sections to this years manual)
FYI, the method used to encrypt these files is secure. It is called 128-bit RC4 encoding, and is a current standard considered by the US Government as completely secure for short (weeks) periods of time.
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INSTRUCTIONS FOR DOWNLOADING (and TESTING) ENCRYPTED MANUAL:
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-- Users may download these files beginning at 5:00pm on January 8th. The files will not be readable until the decryption password is released at kickoff on Saturday.
-- Adobe Acrobat Reader Version 5 or 6 will be required to decrypt these files. If you do not have it, you may download it for free at
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html
-- Kickoff attendees who want a manual to read on the way home are encouraged to bring a computer with these 8 files and Acrobat Reader installed.
-- To ensure that you have everything necessary to decrypt these files, a test file is currently available at
http://www2.usfirst.org/2004/comp/2004DecryptTest.pdf
You may download this file now and decrypt it with the following case-sensitive password (without the quotes): "2004DecryptTest" Acrobat will prompt you for the password when you try to open the file.
If you get to see the message "Congratulations! You have successfully decrypted the test file", then you have successfully decrypted the file and have everything you need for Saturday.
-- Non-encrypted copies of each section of the manual will be posted on the FIRST website at noon on Saturday January 10th.
Let the game begin!