Just as about half the thread has deduced, this is a hoax. If you want real info from FIRST please see
http://www.usfirst.org/robotics/CMPannouncement.htm (no hoax this time)
Just has T Hoffman deduced, the @ sign allows to the link to look like it is from FIRST's site. Everything before the @ sign is ignored, and only the stuff after it is shown. The whole link is
http://www.usfirst.org@1070434604/chevents.htm.
IE 6 seems to have a problem with the way I encoded the IP address (1070434604). Any other browser displays it fine, but IE 6 displays a page not found.
I included a "more information link", which clearly stated that this was a hoax. However, if you couldn't view the page in the first place, you definetly couldn't see the the hoax page.
The hoax page was hosted on a linux server sitting about 6 feet from me, hosted on our DSL connection. This server also happens to host a mirror of the beachbot's team webpage, which is unfortunate, because they were not involved in the hoax at all. Neither were any members of team 73, my current team.
Just like Jason said, don't trust anything that you see in the rumor mill.
I was going to delete the page, but it seems people still want to see it. If you only have IE 6, I suggest downloading
opera or
mozilla