Quote:
Originally Posted by Tottanka
I really dont thing that it ill do any harm.
Blake mentioned beeing carefull of having one too big sponser. What abaut NASA and GM, they have far more support to FIRST than MICROSOFT currently has.
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And there are other FRC regionals that explicitly have a corporate moniker or two in their names (BAE, GM), so the "Microsoft Seattle Regional" is hardly breaking new ground. But... the adage Reagan made famous is worth remembering: "Trust, but verify".
I doubt BAE or GM recently announced any robotics products like MSRS or have an interest in seeing robotics products like MSRS take root in students' habits. So, I am rather complacent about seeing them listed as big sponsors. I tend to think they are investing on the entire economy and in future (post-college) good will.
On the other hand, with the recent announcement of MSRS, I wonder a bit if Microsoft polishing its corporate image, is simply doing a good thing by inspiring students, is starting a stealth marketing campaign, or all of the above? Is GM? Is BAE? Is Autodesk? Tough call to make. Let's watch actions and not marketing announcements. Let's also keep FIRST HQ informed about our desires (an assumption that I make) for staying properly aloof from any and all sponsorships that might create too much entanglement.
For FIRST FRC, at least, I would love to have MSRS, Intellitek,s C18, and homebrew Java (or FORTRAN, or FORTH or whatever) all be ways that I am allowed to program either next generation Parallax CPUs, SPARC CPUs, Intel/AMD CPUs or Terks, that are running BSD variants, Linux variants, OS X, Vista, or VxWorks OS's. Etc.
Currently though, my ears (and those of many of us) properly perk up when I hear about signs of an 800 pound gorilla visiting my neighborhood. I do not want to open an FRC KOP and rulebook, and find out that MSRS, Intel, and Vista are the only tools I get to use for my computing. Fool me once (in other markets) shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
Blake
PS: On the other hand, I'm not too thrilled about the limitations of the Parallax PICs and C18/EasyC that we (FRC & FTC) are limited to using now; but at least I am comforted by knowing that the students who master them should be able to confidently move on to tackle other tough problems; and that they are very unlikely to myopically develop a sense that the Parallax/Intellitek/C way to do things, is the only way to do them.
Instead, as they move through life they are almost guaranteed to come to view the Parallax/Intellitek combo as one of the many, many diverse ways they learned to skin the proverbial cat. That broadening of one's horizons is one of the good things about staying a little bit outside the herd, no matter how seductive the herd's "benefits" might appear. In many ways, doing that teaches students to be a "developer" rather than a "user".