2006 Game Documents

[JohnBoucher]

Any idea if the documents are being pre-released this year? It worked well in the past. I hope that they are still not working on them

[Ryan Foley]

Here you go
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...&postcount=484

Enjoy!

PS: technically they arent done working on the documents until the last team update

[tfedullo]

thats odd, they usually release encrypted documents early, they are useful when you go to a kickoff site that doesn't have Internet access

[Bharat Nain]

FIRST probably will put them up some time this week. My guess would be Wednesday or Thursday.

[dhitchco]

Another workaround for pre-receiving "locked" PDF files of the 2006 game rules might be to have one team member bring a laptop PC with a wireless card to your local kickoff venue and then downloading the documents while at the kickoff event; assuming that your kickoff venue has Wi-Fi access.

That way, you could go to Kinko's on the way from the kickoff back to your school and print-out the rules at a copy center, etc.

But, YES, I do suspect that FIRST will upload "locked" PDF files at least one or two days prior to this saturday's kickoff event. Just don't know exactly when.....


OR.....just stop at Kinko's after the kickoff and immediately download and print the rules at their facility....a few minutes/hours over six weeks of build period won't matter.......ha, ha.

[jdhawg]

If I recall correctly, the reason they released the 'locked' files early was to keep the file server from melting into a smoldering pile of goo when 1000+ teams had several people try to get the files all at the same time.

[Elgin Clock]

Originally Posted by JohnBoucher

Any idea if the documents are being pre-released this year? It worked well in the past. I hope that they are still not working on them

Originally Posted by Gurdian

I emailed them about that. They said that portions of the manual will be posted on the 4th. Game portions will be posted after kick-off.

Well if no one else is gonna admit a wrong by the group, I will.

That said, I'm guessing because all of the talk of attempting to crack the PDF's last year (yes, it was here on CD in these forums by a small group of individuals), FIRST said no to making the game portion available this year early.

Just another case of a small group of people ruining it for the masses.

Maybe next year they will release it early, and people won't talk about cracking it, and it won't be an issue.

I won't be holding my breath waiting for that though.

I will happily download the game portion of the manual on Sunday morning before our team's kickoff meeting to avoid mass server slowness.

[Stu Bloom]

While I agree the "cracking" discussions were WAY out of line, I doubt that would influence FIRST. Last year the encrypted documents were not released until "approximately 6:00 pm EST on Thursday,".

I'm still keeping my fingers crossed ... and hoping for a bit earlier this year.

[Billfred]

Originally Posted by Elgin Clock

Well if no one else is gonna admit a wrong by the group, I will.

That said, I'm guessing because all of the talk of attempting to crack the PDF's last year (yes, it was here on CD in these forums by a small group of individuals), FIRST said no to making the game portion available this year early.

Just another case of a small group of people ruining it for the masses.

Maybe next year they will release it early, and people won't talk about cracking it, and it won't be an issue.

I won't be holding my breath waiting for that though.

I will happily download the game portion of the manual on Sunday morning before our team's kickoff meeting to avoid mass server slowness.

I wasn't on CD during the 2004 season (scary, isn't it?), but wasn't there talk about cracking the manual then?

Someone will always bring it up, either out of being naive or being dumb. But with three days before Kickoff, three things come to mind:
a) Why bother? Three days, and you can get it without all the effort and guilt.
b) In order to crack the manual before Kickoff, you would need some black-magic, CIA-type computers (assuming one were to use a brute-force method). I'm sure your parents/school/sponsors would love the power bill that comes from running that much crunching power.
c) The DMCA prohibits circumventing "measures that prevent unauthorized access to a copyrighted work" (source, page three at the bottom). Do you really feel like tangling with federal law just to get a short time advantage on a game for an extracurricular activity?

That said, I think FIRST will release the manual tonight or tomorrow. (Too much travel on Friday, I figure.)

[1075master]

ok since everyone likes the idea of getting documents early how about. U CAN'T GET THEM BY HACKING. We thought of that 2 years ago and our head programer greg inozempzev( one of the creators of open first) explained that to crack the code would take weeks!!! theres only what 3 days until launch.. if ur teams good enough waiting 3 days won't hurt!

[aaeamdar]

Originally Posted by 1075master

ok since everyone likes the idea of getting documents early how about. U CAN'T GET THEM BY HACKING. We thought of that 2 years ago and our head programer greg inozempzev( one of the creators of open first) explained that to crack the code would take weeks!!! theres only what 3 days until launch.. if ur teams good enough waiting 3 days won't hurt!

No one here is suggesting cracking or hacking here. It was only talked about in the sense of, "It happened last year, it was dumb."

Do HTML-like things work here, and if so what is the syntax? I don't wanna destroy the topic, just a link would be great or a simple "no".

Also, what exactly is the website it will be posted on?

Thanks

[Peter Matteson]

Here is where they should go:
http://www.usfirst.org/robotics/doc_updt.htm

However last year's stuff is still there.

I have to say going to the live kickoff like I did with a laptop the last couple of years was nice so we could read the rules on the way home. That is why they do this, because they didn't want to print up all the material for the teams going to the kick-off like they did up to 03.

[Stu Bloom]

Sent: Wednesday, January 04, 2006 12:37 PM
Subject: Early release of encrypted game information


Due to new information, edits and last minute changes, our plan to encrypt any of this season's game information has been delayed a bit. We still hope to have it available prior to the kickoff event.

Sorry for any inconvenience. Thank you for your patience.

~ FRC Team Support

In past years it has been posted on the FRC Documents and Updates page. I would expect that to remain the same.

I am sure there will be an email blast from FIRST, or you could just check the DOCs page once ina while ...

[savage301]

I emailed FIRST about the release and got a reply today that said that they don't have a date yet and to look for a email blast coming soon about the docs.

[Adam Richards]

Originally Posted by 1075master

ok since everyone likes the idea of getting documents early how about. U CAN'T GET THEM BY HACKING. We thought of that 2 years ago and our head programer greg inozempzev( one of the creators of open first) explained that to crack the code would take weeks!!! theres only what 3 days until launch.. if ur teams good enough waiting 3 days won't hurt!

In the sense of educational information, I'd actually like to contradict your statement.

The software to decrypt PDF files does exist, though it does take awhile. At the most, it would take 8 days to guarantee a successful crack on one Pentium 4 3.00GHz computer if you attacked the password through brute forcing the encryption algorithm (which is limited to 40-bits because of US export regulations, so its not uncrackable). Software does exist that splits up the workload on this, and you could extend it to several computers, reducing it to a day, or even a mere hour if you had the resources to do it with.

Note: I never have and never will condone doing these actions, as the software that does exist is ONLY to be used for PDF files that YOU CREATED. Breaking into unautorized files is highly illegal, and can land you in serious prison time for doing so. Also, it isn't in the spirit of GP to hack such files, for several reasons, such as: from the amount of time it took the Game Design Committee to design the rules, to the fact that you'd be cheating all the other teams who decide to play by the rules.

Brandon/GDC: If you'd rather this post be deleted, just PM me, and I'll take it down.