Bills Blog - You're going to want to look closely at the diagram

[pfreivald]

I'm not a pessimist. I'm a cynic. Pessimists hope for the worst. Cynics just expect the worst.

Optimistic cynicism FTW! You can never lose!

[Bill_B]

FYI, (from wiktionary)

Cynic (plural Cynics)
1. A member of a sect of ancient Greek philosophers who believed virtue to be the only good and self-control to be the only means of achieving virtue.

cynic (plural cynics)
1. A person who believes that all people are motivated by selfishness.
2. A person whose outlook is scornfully negative.

pessimist (plural pessimists)
1. Someone who given a choice of outcomes, believes the worst is more likely.

Is it cynical of me to let everyone else make their own assessment of my temperament in the belief that they will probably get it wrong? Or is it merely pessimistic?

[pfreivald]

Neither. It's optimistic of you to assume that anyone cares about your temperament.

[Craig Roys]

Do you look at it as half of the spectators WON'T be able to watch thier team compete, or do you look at as half of the spectators WILL be able to watch their team play...that will determine if your a pessimist or optimist.

[Taylor]

Originally Posted by Craig Roys

Do you look at it as half of the spectators WON'T be able to watch thier team compete, or do you look at as half of the spectators WILL be able to watch their team play...that will determine if your a pessimist or optimist.

According to that logic, Engineers would say there will be twice as many spectators as needed, and we all know that's not the case!

[David Brinza]

Originally Posted by Bill_B

The most depressing thing about this speculation is the widespread pessimism about the the proceedings. I know that pessimists have more pleasant surprises, but optimists are generally happier for longer times before being disappointed.

For instance, here's a possibility for you spectators in the dome: the large center projected TV screen (over Einstein?) may have selected matches from the fields in the pits. See? Ain't optimism grand?

I'm sure you all can think of some other things that may actually be fun about the prospects of the announced setup without expending a whole lot of effort at it.

Pessimism is expecting any video feed to the dome being the typical broadcast from FRC competitions: lots of "artsy" zoom-in shots of robots sitting still instead of broader view of action on the field.

Or is that being a realist??

[Bill_B]

Originally Posted by David Brinza

Pessimism is expecting any video feed to the dome being the typical broadcast from FRC competitions: lots of "artsy" zoom-in shots of robots sitting still instead of broader view of action on the field.

Or is that being a realist??

Zoom lenses are the bane of televised events. Directors and/or camera operators apparently feel they have to show them off and often. I get the impression, for instance, that the directors of televised fireworks displays are frustrated by having to sit in the equipment truck so they inflict useless and ineffective zoom shots of the displays to us at home.

Pessimism has me believing that the pit map won't be published online until I'm on the way to the airport and cannot use my dandy printer and editing stuff at home to make a useful copy of it for my pockets in St. Louis. What ever can be the holdup for that thing?

[thefro526]

Saw this link up on facebook, interpret it as you may, but it looks like half of the dome is being used for something.

http://www.firstlegoleague.org/uploa...me_PRINTED.pdf

[Bill_B]

FLL and FTC pit maps are now available. FLL route to the dome includes a look at the dome setup for Einstein and two FRC fields there. Yep, one end is laid out for something else.

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by Craig Roys

Do you look at it as half of the spectators WON'T be able to watch thier team compete, or do you look at as half of the spectators WILL be able to watch their team play...that will determine if your a pessimist or optimist.

Looks like we have 2 times as many spectators as needed... let's get those people into the pits learnin' how other teams build their bots.

[DCA Fan]

Originally Posted by thefro526

Saw this link up on facebook, interpret it as you may, but it looks like half of the dome is being used for something.

http://www.firstlegoleague.org/uploa...me_PRINTED.pdf

Looks like a concert stage layout on half the dome to me - my guess is the semi-circle being a projection screen, beneath it the stage area has two load in areas left and right?

[Bill_B]

Still no pit map for FRC. Pessimism seeming more and more justifiable.

[Joe Ross]

Originally Posted by Bill_B

Still no pit map for FRC. Pessimism seeming more and more justifiable.

From the April 6th Bill's blog:

Teams will be assigned a pit on Wednesday night.

[rees2001]

Originally Posted by Joe Ross

From the April 6th Bill's blog:

If I look at this picture (from Bill's Blog) I see at least a couple of teams will have an idea where our pits are.

[JesseK]

If you want real pessimism... load in tomorrow is going to be a nightmare.

St. Louis is forecast for rain tomorrow evening (for the moment...)

The map of the pits shows no 'prestaging' area for the Load-in "A" that teams can use between the outside world and the pits during load-in. This means that if you show up at 4:30 and it's raining ... you will probably not want to unload things at all at Load-in "A".

Load-in went so smoothly in Atlanta (in the 4 years I've gone) because we could get there early, pre-stage things into the main hallway at 3-4pm, and simply wait for the opening of doors to the pits. No rush, no pressure -- just get there, get in, and relax after a long trip.

So in a pessimists view, there will be a crowd at Load-in "B" (assuming they even let us pre-stage things inside) and long lines at Load-in "A".

Typically I like to execute according to a realistic view ... so two of us are flying in early (1pm) to figure out how things will roll. Yet regardless of how load-in pans out, I'm truly optimistic that the overall experience will be rewarding.