[Stuart]

remember in 1996 when you could get a top of the line video card with 8Mb of onboard ram . .

I think thats what were seeing now.

Ill explane why.
this year is my teams 2nd year. at the end of last year we looked at our drive system and said this was good but next year we want one thats just as fast but wont let people push us around. so thats what we did this year. as for next year who knows(weve already started talking about using small BB transmitions with fisher prices ).
and Im sure thats what every team does each year. sit down talk about what worked what didn't and improve.

now on to power. I personally believe that this nation(and the world for that matter) is coming to an energy problem. politics aside, predicted American Chinese and Indian energy needs will not be meet with current resources and current technology. we need to eather A) have a major oil/coal/something find in a neutral territory, B) have a major breakthrough in energy science(solar, fusion, something else), or C) become better users of what we are given.
because plans A and B are a luck of the draw thing I like plan C. and on that note I think that FIRST should implement some sort of energy efficiency in to feature games.