First has released the encryption test at http://www.usfirst.org/community/frc/content.aspx?id=11570. This is probably a hint that the manual is coming.
I posted before trying it and I found 2 interesting things.
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Only the mirror worked.
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Only the fish is listed as a game hint.
True…it didnt go as the FIRST site said it would…
Incidentally, FIRST claims it won’t work with Mac’s Preview; that’s not the case (at least with OS X v10.5.5)
Also, yeah. Only the mirror worked.
Um is it just me or do the motors on the flowchart in picture 1536 not look like CIMs. Yes they’re black, but it looks like the leads are coming out of the sides, as well as a different face plate. Not sure, maybe it’s just me.
This has been covered in the thread that was created when that chart was first released.
The consensus was that motor is the first thing that looks like it could be used on a FRC robot when you look for DC motors in google images.
I am using 10.5.6 and was able to view the test file in Preview just fine as well. I downloaded Adobe Reader anyway just in case.
Where did you find this? I must not have enough coffee in me yet, because I can’t find it on the FIRST site.
I believe he is talking about the diagram that came with the early shipment of the control system, seen at http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/32057 and http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/32056.
But not the other parts
So i just did the math… If we knew the password was 15 characters long, there are 768909704948766668552634368 possible combinations (assuming no special characters or spaces)
Using a brute force attack at an average rate of 7717 combinations/second this would take
99638422307731847680787 Seconds
1660640371795530794679 Minutes
27677339529925513244 Hours
1153222480413563051 Days
3168193627509788 Years
316819362750978 Decades … You get the point
So assuming my 1.6 x2 Ghz laptop can do 7717 combinations/second
to do it in 1 Day (24 hours) we would need
360382025129238453 Ghz of processing power. Or 112619382852887016 Newer computers
Seems fairly encrypted to me.
FIRST still hasn’t figured out how to not put pictures of the KOP on links that are viewable by all.
And that’s if its 15 characters. It could be allot more.
What was the passcode last year? It was some variation of ‘drive straight, turn left’, right?
Hunh?
What was the passcode last year? It was some variation of ‘drive straight, turn left’, right?
Yeah, it was a string of words like that. BTW, does anyone know if the previous years were like that as well? If they were, I might have a go at the manual with a dictionary attack
A. No, it hasn’t always been a string of words
B. It’s probably best to keep your decryption plans to yourself as people on these forums are liable to jump on you for it 
--something about it not being in the spirit of FIRST
2008: Drive!Straight?turn!LEFT!?
2007: 7sBg8H4x2f3R9C3tm5
2006: S1x240JrTBmsqf95DL06FdsTM33H
2005: 3XTr1pl3play2oo5
2004: FEma2X5E10vEir
Have fun finding any of those in a dictionary, or someone’s rainbow tables. As Bochek said, it’s also not able to be brute forced.
Just like the game hints, FIRST knows they are dealing with 40,000 high school students. With the encryption key, the give just enough so that some people think they can figure it out, but in reality, there isn’t any chance, just like the game hint.
They’ve had problems in the past with people finding things on their website that aren’t password protected, I’d imagine that’s where these came from.
Some year I predict the password will be something simple like “HaHa”.
Bochek, how would having 40,000 students on their own computers doing parts of the total change your calculations on solving the password? Personally, it would be the exercise of how to solve the puzzle and not the actual answer that would be more enjoyable, and in the spirit of FIRST.