pic: Game hint

[Bill Moore]

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

I don't know if anyone has mentioned this yet......

but, Joe pulled off the canceled championship hoax in 2003.

So, I wouldn't put it past him for it to be a hoax, and if it is in fact real, the mischievousness of FIRST by sending it to someone known for a hoax is awesome.... perhaps Dave's doing?

Adam,

Agreed, Joe has either pulled off (or has tried to pull off) a number of hoaxes on this website. He has reached the point where he needs collaborators to accomplish these.

First, it is posted in "Extra Discussion" rather than in a real forum. Joe knows better than to post his hoaxes in a real forum. Also, why of all people was Joe (a noted prankster) the very first to receive this misdelivery?

Second, all the initial collaborators seem suspiciously close to Joe or to his team. Perhaps a case of "You lie, and I'll swear to it." But the circle of folks claiming to receive the phantom FIRST Email Blast has grown beyond Joe's influence. Either the Blast is real, or we have folks jumping on a "Me Too!" bandwagon.

The PDF document appears to come from the FIRST website. I doubt that Joe would take a chance by spoofing the FIRST site, so he would need some inside help to upload the document. NOTE: The document author is not fully named, it only lists the name "kpilotte", which was assumed to be Kate Pilotte. It is not difficult to change the "author" of a document, and lack of a full name brings this document into question.

But, to further cloud the question, the board that Joe has photographed, and the board on the PDF document are not the same. (Or some Photoshopping has taken place.) The "quality mark" on Joe's board is positioned slightly different than the one in the PDF photo. You also have to wonder why three fonts are used on the circuit board; one for the URL, one for the component layout, but the final part of the copyright text (FIRST") is in a slightly larger font than the beginning part. It would seem that when putting a copyright symbol onto a board design they would know who holds the rights.

Finally, Dave loves to see these things mushroom, and he will gleefully post his most devilish laugh as he watches all the lemmings rush over the cliff!

[EricH]

Originally Posted by Bill Moore

Adam,

Agreed, Joe has either pulled off (or has tried to pull off) a number of hoaxes on this website. He has reached the point where he needs collaborators to accomplish these.

First, it is posted in "Extra Discussion" rather than in a real forum. Joe knows better than to post his hoaxes in a real forum. Also, why of all people was Joe (a noted prankster) the very first to receive this misdelivery?

Second, all the initial collaborators seem suspiciously close to Joe or to his team. Perhaps a case of "You lie, and I'll swear to it." But the circle of folks claiming to receive the phantom FIRST Email Blast has grown beyond Joe's influence. Either the Blast is real, or we have folks jumping on a "Me Too!" bandwagon.

The PDF document appears to come from the FIRST website. I doubt that Joe would take a chance by spoofing the FIRST site, so he would need some inside help to upload the document. NOTE: The document author is not fully named, it only lists the name "kpilotte", which was assumed to be Kate Pilotte. It is not difficult to change the "author" of a document, and lack of a full name brings this document into question.

But, to further cloud the question, the board that Joe has photographed, and the board on the PDF document are not the same. (Or some Photoshopping has taken place.) The "quality mark" on Joe's board is positioned slightly different than the one in the PDF photo. You also have to wonder why three fonts are used on the circuit board; one for the URL, one for the component layout, but the final part of the copyright text (FIRST") is in a slightly larger font than the beginning part. It would seem that when putting a copyright symbol onto a board design they would know who holds the rights.

Finally, Dave loves to see these things mushroom, and he will gleefully post his most devilish laugh as he watches all the lemmings rush over the cliff!

As far as I know, Joe has only tried to post one hoax. That one succeeded. The reason it is in "Extra Discussion" is because it was posted as a picture. Picture threads open in "Extra Discussion".
"Initial collaborators": I was suspicious at first. Then I started taking a closer look. I also have not seen the actual board. Part of the reason I'm thinking this is real is because of the too-large circle of recipients.
Joe has been known to fake the FIRST site, but this is far too real.
When have you known an Inventor drawing, say, and a part come out exactly identical? Two pictures of the same person?

And Joe is smart. He knows that some of us know where he lives (or can easily find out), and thus would have to keep the evidence.

[IndySam]

Originally Posted by Bill Moore

Adam,

But, to further cloud the question, the board that Joe has photographed, and the board on the PDF document are not the same. (Or some Photoshopping has taken place.) The "quality mark" on Joe's board is positioned slightly different than the one in the PDF photo. You also have to wonder why three fonts are used on the circuit board; one for the URL, one for the component layout, but the final part of the copyright text (FIRST") is in a slightly larger font than the beginning part. It would seem that when putting a copyright symbol onto a board design they would know who holds the rights.

I think you are really stretching on this one. The quality mark will be different on every board and the difference in font size is not remarkable. Also Diversified systems using a different font for their URl would also be no big thing.

[MrForbes]

Originally Posted by Bill Moore

Second, all the initial collaborators seem suspiciously close to Joe or to his team. Perhaps a case of "You lie, and I'll swear to it." But the circle of folks claiming to receive the phantom FIRST Email Blast has grown beyond Joe's influence. Either the Blast is real, or we have folks jumping on a "Me Too!" bandwagon.

I got the very legit looking email and I don't know Joe. Huh...

[artdutra04]

Originally Posted by Bill Moore

Adam,

Agreed, Joe has either pulled off (or has tried to pull off) a number of hoaxes on this website. He has reached the point where he needs collaborators to accomplish these.

First, it is posted in "Extra Discussion" rather than in a real forum. Joe knows better than to post his hoaxes in a real forum. Also, why of all people was Joe (a noted prankster) the very first to receive this misdelivery?

Second, all the initial collaborators seem suspiciously close to Joe or to his team. Perhaps a case of "You lie, and I'll swear to it." But the circle of folks claiming to receive the phantom FIRST Email Blast has grown beyond Joe's influence. Either the Blast is real, or we have folks jumping on a "Me Too!" bandwagon.

The PDF document appears to come from the FIRST website. I doubt that Joe would take a chance by spoofing the FIRST site, so he would need some inside help to upload the document. NOTE: The document author is not fully named, it only lists the name "kpilotte", which was assumed to be Kate Pilotte. It is not difficult to change the "author" of a document, and lack of a full name brings this document into question.

But, to further cloud the question, the board that Joe has photographed, and the board on the PDF document are not the same. (Or some Photoshopping has taken place.) The "quality mark" on Joe's board is positioned slightly different than the one in the PDF photo. You also have to wonder why three fonts are used on the circuit board; one for the URL, one for the component layout, but the final part of the copyright text (FIRST") is in a slightly larger font than the beginning part. It would seem that when putting a copyright symbol onto a board design they would know who holds the rights.

Finally, Dave loves to see these things mushroom, and he will gleefully post his most devilish laugh as he watches all the lemmings rush over the cliff!

Statistically, the bigger in scope a hoax becomes (specifically in the number of people required to carry it out), the harder and harder it becomes to successfully pull it off. This rabbit hole just goes too deep, and involves too much, to be a simple hoax.

1. Extra Discussion is the defacto place where all threads started about photos from CD-Media are located.

2. Unless someone hacked FIRST's TIMS system, how would you be able to spoof a FIRST Email Blast to every team?

3. The "Author" on Word/PDF documents is usually the person's username. Since her email address is the same name, this is the most likely scenario.

4. One was an initial prototype board (PDF image) and the other (the one teams receive) is the final version.

5. We may not be lemmings running over a cliff, but we certainly must make Dave's day with these threads. If I was on the GDC, I know I would find anything involving a game hint in a thread to be really amusing.

[MrForbes]

Originally Posted by artdutra04

If I was on the GDC, I know I would find anything involving a game hint in a thread to be really amusing.

If I were on the GDC, I'd be quite pleased to see so many people so interested in the least little scrap of information about the game!

(and it would be a big bonus if the hint inspired some of those people to play around with robot programming and design concepts over their winter break)

[JaneYoung]

Originally Posted by squirrel

(and it would be a big bonus if the hint inspired some of those people to play around with robot programming and design concepts over their winter break)

I like this line of thinking. It is awesome.

Also, unless I've overlooked something from Joe's posts, there isn't anything that says keep it, don't take it apart (robotics, remember? - that's what you guys do).

Would it be helpful to have hoax thoughts in one thread and hint thoughts in another? Or just keep us all one big happy family?

[MrForbes]

Originally Posted by JaneYoung

I like this line of thinking. It is awesome.

thanks! I think that any game hints are a great way to get everyone thinking about this stuff, and having a nice highly technical one is that much better.

The big white connector could be used to connect power to the board, or used for programming, or who knows?

If you get the board, you could figure it out pretty easily by tracing the circuitry to the PIC and see what the function of the pins is.

[IndySam]

OK EE guys, what is the white thing labeled PB1?

[lukevanoort]

Originally Posted by IndySam

OK EE guys, what is the white thing labeled PB1?

Pushbutton 1?

[EricH]

Originally Posted by IndySam

OK EE guys, what is the white thing labeled PB1?

Doesn't need to be an EE--read the manual (which is now up at the site), that's the "learning" button.

[MrForbes]

The white connector is most likely for programming the PIC. Seems power comes from the 10 pin header connector.

Yes, S1 is the sensor.

[IndySam]

Originally Posted by IndySam

OK EE guys, what is the white thing labeled PB1?

Thanks

[Branden Ghena]

Which part actually receives the IR signals, is it the piece labeled S1?

[vivek16]

@tawnos23 yeah it is. that big sphere/cube looking thing