**FIRST EMAIL**/FRC Game Hint #3

[alicen]

Originally Posted by meaubry

"My only problem is that I couldn't see the use of magnetic game pieces" -

joshsmithers - the year tetras were the game pieces, FIRST used magnets strong enough to hold them up inside the end giant scoring tetras - at the start of the match.

What if they had these strong little magnets attached to the top of the "fish" - such that when a team hung their hook (opposing magnet) in the fishing hole/zone, the 2 magnets would be attracted and attach themselves together - allowing the team to "reel in" their catch!

Anyways, that's how I envision being able to "catch" fish in the game that I described.

Mike

then the question becomes: how do you get the fish off? the fish would have a much sleeker shape, and so making it difficult to get them off the strong magnet that you've proposed without some form of outside help

[Gary Dillard]

Doing a google search on Dave Lavery tetra, in addition to all the FIRST stuff I found this:

"... an aquatic toxicologist at Tetra Tech Inc., an environmental consulting ... in the Antarctic," said Dave Lavery, NASA's telerobotics program manager. ..."

Hmmmmmmmmmmm..........

[joshsmithers]

What if they had these strong little magnets attached to the top of the "fish" - such that when a team hung their hook (opposing magnet) in the fishing hole/zone, the 2 magnets would be attracted and attach themselves together - allowing the team to "reel in" their catch!

Anyways, that's how I envision being able to "catch" fish in the game that I described. Maybe we have to make "floppie fish" - anyone remember "floppies"!

Mike

well, using quite a good bit of many types of metals on the robots, the fish would often stick to the robot in undesirable places, get stuck in the drivetrains, and maybe/possibly cause radio problems. it is an interesting concept and game idea however, and is a realistic possibility.

Originally Posted by alicen

then the question becomes: how do you get the fish off? the fish would have a much sleeker shape, and so making it difficult to get them off the strong magnet that you've proposed without some form of outside help

that would be the challenge, then, wouldn't it?

[ALIBI]

Originally Posted by alicen

then the question becomes: how do you get the fish off? the fish would have a much sleeker shape, and so making it difficult to get them off the strong magnet that you've proposed without some form of outside help

Sounds like something a human player could do?


Magnet idea aside, snaging (hurdling, a snag is a hurdle) fish (tetra) could be released mechanically. Usually when one goes fishing, they are blindly looking for fish. Could the fish be in a big pond (obviously dry) in the middle of the field with raised platforms around it? That would mean that we would have to pick up something lower than the base of the robot, which I believe has never been done before and catching the fish would be random.

[MiniNerd24]

Ok off topic here. I read the hint every way that I could and it still didn't make sense. But, I had one of my friends read it (with the whole WTF kind of voice)
and it sounded like a newspaper clipping. I don't know if this helps but there you go.

[DMetalKong]

Originally Posted by Kevin Sevcik

I think it's a problem on FIRST's end. Their webpage says they're using RC4 encryption, but Adobe tells me it's actually AES which isn't supported by some versions of Preview, nor Ghostscript, nor most linux viewers. So if the official documents are encrypted the same as this one, there's going to be some people that won't be able to easily view them. I'll at least be annoyed since I'll have to click through acrobat 5 times to save each file unencrypted instead of running a batch file through ghostscript.

If it truly is AES instead of RC4, could the RC4 be another part of the hint? Another name for it is ARCFOUR, maybe there are four arcs on the field that we have to race around

[Laaba 80]

Originally Posted by GaryVoshol

150 replies, and I'm surprised no one has come up with this. The Vet takes care of the gerbils between matches, of course.

Seriously, whoever noticed the wording "Games Hint" may be on to something. That corresponds with Dave's "For the two" signature.

Edit - where did "Games Hint" appear? On the FIRST site (which only has #2 up) it says "Game".

Hopefully you find this...... On the Email blasts i think it only lists game hint no s, not positive though. If you go do the decryption test you get a screen of all 3 game hints. The first hint however (IR reciever) doesnt have an S making me think that the IR will tell your robot what it needs to do to score. The last 2 hints are listed as gameS hints (Emphasis mine). Notice the S??

[comphappy]

I can conferm that there is no 's'
On the note of the 4 thing, there are 4 channels of O for the IR.
Also Evince Doucument view default viewer for most Linux distros works fine. If you are not able to download and programs on the computere you are using, you can still install Acrobat Reader on a flash drive and use it that way.

[Laaba 80]

Originally Posted by comphappy

I can conferm that there is no 's'

No S in the Email blast? because there definately is one in the decryption test.
Joey

[ahecht]

Originally Posted by SSMike

Thanks Mark, I forgot.

On Kyle's question: I did it but there are about 47,000 of them so if anyone wants to take a look, go ahead.

Here's the link: http://wordsmith.org/anagram/anagram...dv&a=n&l=n&q=n

Here is the best anagram I could come up with:

Flattering turds thrive

[Xavier Brandall]

I think that it's definately an Anagram of some kind. A program could be written to come up with every possible letter combination, then cross-referenced with Microsoft Word to check for real words, but this would be impractical as the competition is so close.

Another question, if it is an anagram, is if "FIRST" is mereley "FIRST", or if it is expanded to "For Inspiration and Recognition of Standards Technology", which would add a new level of insanity to the anagram. If it is an anagram, then it's far more practical just to wait for the kick-off.

[tseres]

you mean "For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology" lol....about the fishing stuff and all the races...i really can't see the GDC do something like that....i'm thinking of a more rack 'n roll style game again, maybe with goal posts around the field, different objects rather than tubes, and the ir tells you where to score in autonomous mode or something..

[artdutra04]

Originally Posted by ahecht

Here is the best anagram I could come up with:

Flattering turds thrive

Spoiler for Another similar anagram:

Another anagram from the game hint that's similar to that one is "the first traveling turd".

It would have been better if this was Game Hint #2.

[Arefin Bari]

FIRST has never supplied us with cardboard boxes. An email was sent out listing what will be in the KOP and the following items are in the KOP.

2 cardboard boxes
36" x 4" x 9"
12" x 16"

[EricH]

Originally Posted by Arefin Bari

FIRST has never supplied us with cardboard boxes. An email was sent out listing what will be in the KOP and the following items are in the KOP.

2 cardboard boxes
36" x 4" x 9"
12" x 16"

Arefin, those boxes are outer wrapping like the totes. The long one would be Kitbot. I'm not sure about the other.