What did you do this weekend? It's ok to be sorrowful for the refugees, it's ok to glue yourself to the TV and try to feel their pain as long as you have lessons learned. For those thinking about riding out a Cat 5 'cane look at Biloxi!
I had plans already, ATL on Saturday w/Dade, we saw some of the most amazing things! I saw Gene Simmons, The Master Chief and Sean of the Dead. We saw 10 foot tall Jack Skellington and more stormtroopers than you could shake a stick at. Where? Dragoncon! Some of you will go that seems so immature... then in the same breath you'll want to go the Ren Fest! Same thing only with Urak-Hai and Jedi! It was great! We saw so many inspiring costumes and more.
During our visit we took a small robotics course from a Battlebot builder, where we first learned the math and science behind levers and pneumatics (2 hours) and then we applied it and built pneumatic powered catapults! the room divided into 8 teams. Dade was fascinated by the math even so we decided to stay we joined up with Evil and Matt both fighting robot builders themselves and started building.
There were 8 teams total and the teacher built one too. The objective was to use pneumatics to catapult a ping pong ball as far as possible. We were issued "kits" that had the parts we were allowed to use. We started by thinking of throwing the ball with a lever we would counterweight the lever for added oomph! Our neighbors also decided this was the best idea as well. In no time they had a working model and we were barely on the base. We decided if we do the same thing we would expect similar results, so scrap it and start over. I tossed in the idea of a 4 bar linkage.(I'm no stranger either based on the Halloween props I've built) but decided without my PC for the calcs it would be to hard to do the math. We started to do a traditional lever throw when I had the idea of a striker. We suspended the ball in the air and used the lever to strike it thus propelling it further than a throw. By this time we were barely started with the pivot point and our neighbors were launching the ball all the way across the room. None of the other cats were doing that good. Another hour in we had it all in a ready to test state so we asked for air, they gave us a pump, we triggered the valve and poof... it went all of 6 inches. We were devastated. I was flabbergasted I was sure it should fire faster than this and so were the robot guys. It was almost contest time at this point. We asked the teacher for a consult since we were done and we were sure we had failed. He looked at our rig and realized that the valve was 90% closed and the check valve was installed backwards! Up to now everyone was sure the orange team, our neighbors were the winners no doubt, but after this little change in out air rig, we did one more test fire. Let me say that room went silent, we have no idea how far the ball was going to go because it hit the ceiling then a light fixture and bounced back to where it started! NOW THAT's MORE LIKE IT!
Next we all packed up and went down to a ballroom to have the competition. I had no idea this was going to happen but lo and behold there were 150+ people and a TV crew there to film it! After intros and all they started with the white team and there rig went about 2 feet and so one went the contest, most people there were disappointed until the orange team threw their ball a good 15-20 feet. We somehow ended up last. Our first throw went a good 25-30 sliced wide right and it went high! Twice as high as any other cat! This brought huge applause, Dade was beaming. The next throw just as far but into the audience and someone caught it! ug! The final throw... we bounced it off the chandelier in the ballroom! This brought the house down! We were the winners hands down, but the teacher still had his rig. He had done... a striker as well! with a 4 bar linkage! and some chain and gear thing we didn't even have in our kit?!?! Not Fair! His rig beat us... Barely! only by a couple of feet. It was close, and if we had time to adjust the kick angle I think we could have bested him.
All in all the trip was outstanding... I can not wait for the next one!
:: 9/6/2005 3:46:35 PM http://newsmax.com/archives/articles/2005/9/4/151327.shtml This is required reading folks... IN THIS DAY AND AGE THE MEDIA BLAMES EVERYTHING ON THE PRESIDENT THEY CAN AND THE N.O. DISASTER IS NO EXCEPTION! Someone with the balls to tell it like it is has spoken and you might be surprised to read it! I seriously encourage you to hear the other side of the story not being mentioned in the press and decide for yourself. I personaly hear these reports that race had something to do with a slow response, and think to myself how would that conversation go? "well.... they are all black so let's wait 24 more hours before we go..." B.S. there is no way that anything close to that happened! At any rate please read this and decide for yourself.
:: 9/6/2005 3:46:35 PM