Stop Build Time

[dtengineering]

I'm kind of surprised that I've seen little reference to this post on Frank's blog, concerning a shift from stop build DAY (at midnight, local time) to a stop build TIME (at midnight, New Hampshire time). http://www.firstinspires.org/robotic...teins-and-more

For years running a team on the West Coast, I regarded our "extra" three hours of build time as a reward for getting up early for kickoff. None of this "get up, have breakfast, a leisurely drive to the kickoff venue, a coffee, and then a nice 10:00am start to the show" that the East Coast teams get, but rather a drag your $@#$@#$@# out of bed on a soggy Saturday so you can start work on a project.

Every minute of that "extra" build time was bought by beginning our sleep deprivation experiment a day earlier than those who live in the same time zone as the Center of the Universe.

I'm sure Hawaii teams have even less kind thoughts considering the scheduling of kickoff.

Really, it didn't make much practical difference. After getting up early to watch kickoff, we were tired and ready to go home by 2:30 or 3:00. The next day we were back on local time, and our build was conducted on local time. But it was at least nice to think that we were getting some advantage for getting up early to watch the broadcast.

The announcement was made in August. I missed it at the time. I don't expect it to be changed, and quite frankly... it doesn't make that much of a practical difference, either way.

But it makes a symbolic difference. The world kind of had to revolve around New Hampshire for kickoff, but it doesn't have to do so for ship day. We work on a local schedule, we mostly enter tournaments on local schedules... we should ship on a local schedule. I hope this gets changed back next year.

</rant>

Jason