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More Junkyard Wars
A reader writes: "Junkyard Wars is quite possibly the only thing on TV that is cooler than Battlebots (I loved the one where they build a hang-glider).
Wired reports that TLC has taken registrations from potential teams, and is going to do another season."
Does anyone else get that sold-out feeling watching BattleBots? Its almost as the actual battle isn't good enough, they have to have WWF-like dramatics. :)
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I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
I've been reading too much CueCat stuff all over the Web, and just saw a Battlebot article. Sorry about that ....
A truly excellent pizza parlor is a delight unto the heavens. Treasure the sauce and the toppings!
Sounds rather like the Rambling Wreck parade at Georgia Tech, in which the mobile construction is graded by the originality of motive action and the soundness of construction (it finishes the parade route.)
"..don't you eat that yellow snow."
I hope the teams are fair, unlike the time where they had a team of engineers vs a team of retired military officers.
i mean really, who do you think will make a better cannon?
(the team of officer's projectiles kept fusing to the inside of the barrel, eventually propelling the barrel, instead of the projectile)
-nbot
http://www.junkyard-wars.com/
anyone want to start a slashdot team on it?
maybe not... nothing would get done, only people talking about how to get linux to run on it.
-| My other ride is your mom |-
Goes by the name of Scrapheap Challenge, and it's presented by Robert Llewellyn, aka Kryten out of Red Dwarf. I've yet to see it but a friend (who lives in a house full of other engineers and architects) tells me it's a blast.
Matthew @ Bytemark Hosting
I would like to know what other people will think will be next?
I've seen cannons, floating cars, cranes, boats, planes, and tracter pulling.
What's next? Midget tossing machines? That would be the ULTIMATE fun machine to build in 10 hours or less! And What Is The Deal With ALL The Engines Starting!?! My 1986 licensed and street legal VW rabit doesn't always start and use it as a daily driver.
...of Red Green's sage advice: To achieve any great goal, one must bring along duct tape.
My favorite highlight of last season's Junkyard Wars was the all-terrain vehicle that had a cannon that shot a boat anchor to winch itself out of bogs. Slap THAT sucker on the front of your Battlebot and the Gold Nut is yours, hands down!
-Those who dance are considered insane by those who can't hear the music.
--
Don't forget the duct tape. It holds the universe together...
Double J. Strictly for the . . .
"However," replied the universe, "The fact has not created in me A sense of obligation."
At least not that I have ever seen.
= -=-=-=-=-=-=-
I found it in time for the last three or four shows. I would love to watch it again from the beginning to see what I missed. CBS is rerunning the whole Survivor saga so I don't know why TLC doesn't do the same for Junkyard Wars. If they are lacking the room they can please drop the Christopher Loser show. I want to see a boat made from a car, not a cabinet door made from chicken wire.
Also, this brings up an interesting tagent, why is it that no network seems to understand the value of continuity? How many times have you wanted to start watching a show, but felt it wasn't worth the bother since you had missed so much and wouldn't understand it? Why is it so damn rare that you ever see a marathon of one show running in the proper airdate sequence. I think right now down in Australia, one of the networks is running non-stop Simpsons episodes in this fashion.
I pray for the day that devices like TiVo and ReplayTV make it possible to truly have an entire channel dedicated to a certain show. I just pisses me off that even when such a device becomes practical, there is the little matter of it taking me ten years for all of the various episodes to show up on the air so I can record them.
I'll quit now before I get further off tangent. By the way, has anyone else notices that 90% of the work seems to be done in the last 15 minutes? It starts out and they are drawing on the board for an hours...so see breaks for lunch...by the time you get to the final hour there is like 50% completion on the project. A little careful editting and suddenly the damn thing is complete. I think it's a bit faked myself because a lot of the competitions end up being pretty close...which some of those contraptions are so horrid you would think the competition would be an absolute blowout.
- JoeShmoe
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
-- I wonder which will go down in history as the bigger failure: the War on Drugs or the War on Filesharing
There is a similar program in the UK. It has various videos on the site. The demolition machine was really cool. (Currently in 3rd series I think). Last week's was aerial bombing. (Airship vs radio controlled plane).
...will be able to see it on Prime. They screened the first two series and i've heard they have the next lined up. Of course south auckland is all like this anyway.
--Giving to trolls for the benefit of us all
Turn off your telly, get outside, build stuff yourself or with your friends, and have a good time. Television, opiate of the masses, someone said. Bloody time for the whole Mad Max bit I'd say. Fo(king good show though.
"Normal is a cycle on a washing machine" -John P. McAfee
(To the tune of "When Bad Meets Evil" off of the album "The Real Slim Shady")
/. posts at a tradeshow
/. DDoS attack
[intro]
[Taco]
I reckon you ain't familiar with these here parts
You know, there's a story behind that there sid
Twenty weeks ago, two karma whores took this whole thread over
Moderators couldn't stop em
Quickest damn flamewars I've ever seen
Got modded down in cold blood
That ol' inchfan there was their lil' home away from home
They say the ghosts of TROLL and K-HO still live in that thread
And on a quiet night
You can still hear the footsteps of Signal11 and Ol' Shoeboy
[Signal11]
I don't post, I float in the grits wrapped in some toast
I'm not a real slashbot, I'm a troll linking to goats
I translate when my post is read through a Cuecat and a noise is bred,
picked up and transmitted through Shoeboy's head (AAHHH)
Trapped him in a sid, possessed him and hoist his thread
Till the K-HOness flows through his blood like poisonous lead
Told him each one of his bots is dead
I asked him to come to the steelcage, he made a choice and said
[Shoeboy]
+2 hard? yo I done post first!
We can get in two threads and deliberate at each other
To see which one'll swerve first
Two blind slashbots panic, whose mental capacity holds
That of a thread on top of nine other comments
Kissed the cheek of the da RMS
Intelligence level is lower than JonKatz sellin'
Dismissal, I'm not a fair man, disgraced the race of a unix admin
Intercepting flamebait wit my bare hands like a patriot
One thread sliced without words, I buried the AC corpse
In my past life when the Red Hat mounted the First Post
And stayed over-worked, its like the zealots and newbies
Collaborating, attemptin to take over the earth
[Signal11]
Cuz this is what happens when TROLL Meets K-HO
We hit the trees till we look like (-1: Insightful)
He's K-HO, and I'm TROLL like Steve Segal
Above Karma cuz I don't agree wit Hemos either (shit, me neither)
We ain't eager to be feeble
So please leave me wit the keys to your PT Beetle
I breathe mdma in three lethal amounts
When I stab myself in the knee with a diseased beer mug
Releasin rage on anybody in penis-bird range
Cold enough to make the topic change into something lame
(He's insane) No I'm not, I just want to eat lunch and I'm pissed off
Cuz I can't write a decent flame...
[Shoeboy]
The disaster of threads
I'm 1337 enough to commit suicide and survive long enough
To mod my post after I'm dead
When in trolltalk it's funny
actually my flavor's similar to a llama
Cuz I serve any stranger wit karma
I spray a hundred, man until the story changes
While slippin comments at point blank range like they was punches
Piss on a zealot and burn it, murder you then come to your funeral
Use a server for hobby, strangle your distro then confirm you
Whippin slashbot ass, throwin trolls crackin jokes
Wit my posts wrapped in gause, dipped in FUD and rants
I'm blazin AC's, at the same time amazin AC's
Somehow AC's ain't that eye-brow raisin to me
From all of angles of us,
crash a Mac bad enough
to trigger a
And bust till flamewars errupt
[interlude]
*phone rings*
Hello? (momo) Aiyyo what's up?
(we're comin to get you..)
VLAD! THEY KNOW IT'S US!!
[momocrome](cameo)
I used to be a loudmouth, remember me? (uh-ah)
I'm the one who burned your sid down (oh)
Well I'm out now (shit), and this time I'm comin back to blow your sid up
And I ain't gon leave you a trolltalk to fall back on
Give me two fat flames and three fuck-yous
And you won't see me like 1337 kiddies in comp.newsgroups
And when I go to AOL and I'm gettin ready to leave
I'ma put card numbers in a file and charge people to see
[Shoeboy] (Signal11)
Cuz this is what happens when TROLL Meets K-Ho
And we hit the trees till we look like MySQL
He's K-HO, and I'm TROLL like Steve Segal
Against karma, see you at Kiro5hin for the sequel
(We'll be waitin) See you in hell
Goats.cx, Raymond da Eric S,
See you on AOL for the sequel (bye bye)
TROLL Meets K-HO, what? (till next time)
[Taco]
And so that's the story when Signal11 Meets Shoeboy
Two of the most cumbersome individuals on slashdot
Made Eric Raymond and Richard Stallman look like Karma Whoring thespians
It's too bad they had to go out the way they did
Got flamed in the back comin out of that ol' crunchtime
But their spirits still live on till this day
Shhh...[posts] wait, did y'all hear that?
[Footsteps and wind blowing]
-=(V)0(V)0cr0(V)3=-
maybe they should stash one of those " Build it Yourself Space ship kits" in the yard.
Guys Junkyard wars is old news on the Metals Newsgroups. There is even an american team called the NERDS. New England Rubbish Deconstructionists, led by Jeff Delpapa. Here is the full scoop. TLC JUNKYARD WARS AFTER THANKSGIVING SPECIAL Leftovers? We got your leftovers right here! Old engines, recycled transmissions, salvaged remote controls, and a couple patched tires. Put them together and you get the best after Thanksgiving treat there is, JUNKYARD WARS! TLC is bringing back this summer hit with a marathon of its tool-packing, fume-hacking, mechanical madness. So grab your favorite power tool and a can of WD40 and watch as two teams face off in the junkyard for a battle of wits, mechanical skills, and stamina. The only turkeys will be the ones shopping at the mall. North American Premieres of the British version of JUNKYARD WARS will air throughout December, and brand new shows with American teams are premiering in January. All shows are rated (PG). Noon Power Pullers 1 PM Flying Machines 2 PM Cannons 3 M Amphibious Vehicles 4 PM Land Yachts ***North American Premiere*** The Bodgers, a group of London bikers, take on a team of washing machine repairmen to see who can build a vehicle out that will go the farthest on a tiny quantity of gasoline. 5 PM Mileage Marathon ***North American Premiere*** The Driller Thrillers face The Megalomaniacs in a junkyard challenge to build and race the fastest land yacht. Think sails with wheels. 6 PM Marine Salvage 7 PM Walking Machines 8 PM Demolition ***North American Premiere*** The teams each have to build a machine capable of demolishing a set of industrial outbuildings at an old powerstation in Norwich. Sadly, no explosives are allowed, but each team may use more than one machine to accomplish the task. 9 PM Bomber ***North American Premiere*** Teams must build a non-piloted flying vehicle that can accurately drop paint bombs on a target on the ground. Both teams need to go with radio-controlled vehicles, but that?s where the similarities end. 10 PM Flying Machines 11 PM Cannons Mid. Amphibious Vehicles 1 AM Land Yachts 2 AM Mileage Marathon Have fun.
Wow, I am happy to see that so many other people enjoyed that show. I only was able to catch the last 3 or 4 episodes over break, but even my parents were entertained by it. I'm glad that it is being picked up again by TLC. Smart move.
What I want to see is a list of shows in a similar vien to Junkyard Wars, Robot Wars, Battlebots, etc. Post your list of the best wacky shows that are CURRENTLY on TV (or at least get re-run now and then). Hopefully we'll all benefit by finding out about a show or two that we missed out on.
I can't wait for my Tivo to arrive now...just taping Robot Wars from my local PBS station last semester was bad enough...
So lets see those lists! (Feel free to include non-tech wacky shows like Lumberjack Challenge, etc)
------
Let me give you the lowdown
I cant seem to find it on the TLC schedules...
The A-Team used to be like junkyard wars. The plot would always center around the A-Team getting captured in some holding area equipped with all the tools (duct tape, blow torches, etc) they needed to build some sort of contraption. It used to be the best part of the show (besides the amusing parts w/ Mr. T).
Sorry.... I'm a child of the '80's. --mk
Thank GOD for Robot Wars. It is nice to other skills than just out and out bash and smash. Battlebots needs a little tweaking. Leave it to us Americans. Big Brother, Survivor and now BattleBots. Sheesh! Does all our programming come for overseas ideas?
lcase
lcase - @home in cyberspace
As a side note, the two major cps programs out there are Destination Imagination and Odyssey of the Mind The programs are pretty similar. Take a team of 7 or less kids or college students, give them an open ended problem to solve, and have the present the solution on a Saturday competition. The presentations generally include technical portions, as well as a skit, about 10 minutes in length, along with scenery and the like. The competition also include an on the spot portion, where you're given a problem to do in about 10 minutes from beginning to end. Again, creativity is highly stressed. Not exactly geek culture, but I strongly encourage people to go check out either program and volunteer to help out as a judge or something.
was the one where they had to build a cannon out of scrap. The whole thing is a neat exercise in how that weird feeling (at the beginning of a product's life cycle) of "Something about this idea just doesn't seem right", which keeps coming as that "some thing" keeps causeing no end of problems, until you finally go to test the whole enchilada and then, BAM! Doh, we need a dope slap! No wonder nobody else does it that way!
mas cerveza, por favor politically incorrect stu
I loved the three episodes of the show that I saw, but I agree that it's a bit cheesy to see them discover "just right" materials that don't really belong in a junkyard.
Perhaps producers could vary it a bit by giving teams free access to materials in the junkyard as well as limited access (say --pick 5 items) from a cache of useful materials that are very unlikely to be found in a junkyard. That sort of approach could substantially increase the variety of things that could be built.
Is the yard "salted"? Depends on what you mean by "salted".... They do make sure that a grand excess of random parts to make do are available. But there's no pre-defined set of detail plans; I've seen what the "experts" planned out for us in one of our Challenges: there were three different ideas, each one on one sheet of lined notebook paper, no details, no dimensions.... and our result looked like nothing on any of these three "expert's plans".
Some of the most "fun" challenges have been where a critical part is intentionally _purged_ from the 'heap- the challenge becomes to construct that critical mechanism from random iron, and get it to work!
Improvization is absolutely key on the 'heap. I can't emphasize this enough. With ONE exception (safety-related equipment), you will NOT find ANY of your key parts "brand new, in box, with doc set" on the heap. What you will find are numerous broken vehicles, trashed appliances, industrial and construction junk, and machine-shop cutoffs/remnants, which may or may not have been placed on the heap because of the challenge, and may or may not have a functional whateveritis you were looking for. (we know that they in general do _NOT_ clean the 'heap out of helpful bits, because we found previous challenger's machine parts on the 'heap )
The "Experts" are people who've worked with purpose-made machinery in their area of expertise for literally decades. Back in their shops, they have all the proper parts, the right tools and alloys, testing equipment, CAD software, the whole shebang. In short, they have the tools, they have the technology. BUT NONE of that is available on the Scrapheap. The Experts themselves have to learn to scavenge and improvise; anything you can't find or manufacture yourself does not exist, even if you have half a dozen of them back in the stockroom at the company (yes, I've seen an expert nearly tearing their hair out in just this situation).
Bearings have to be scavenged; we ripped some out of a Moped. Need a bigger bearing, with a strong shaft? Use a steering knuckle and CV joint off that crashed Citroen. Box girder? If you can't find cutoffs from someone elses project, cut them out of that shed roof. Heavy electrical cable? Scavenge it from one of the big junked excavators.
The ONE EXCEPTION - wherever safety on the set or British safety law (the equivalent of OSHA) is involved, new parts and tools are always salted. For example, safety valves are always new, freshly tested, with certification papers up in the Director's cupola. If you manage to scavenge a safety-related part that isn't one of the certificated ones, an assistant director will let you know- and won't let you build using the unsafe part- they'll send you back out onto the heap with a hint on where to find the safe part that does the same job.
We aren't allowed to change our own grinding wheel or cutoff disks, for the same reason (they have to be spin tested before use, in a safe area). Explosives and high-flammability materials (and fuel tanks) are likewise covered and there are a platoon of Britain's Finest Firemen standing by for the whole day, as well as paramedics and an ambulance, Just In Case (and my thanks to them!).
By it's nature, the show can be dangerous and everyone on set, contestant or not, has to be on gaurd all the time. There hasn't been a serious injury yet (sprains and strains, that's all), and everyone on the show works to keep it that way. Even if it messes up continuity (and you can see this occasionally, where safety gaurds get added to a machine after "TIME" is called) a safety issue trumps any other consideration of the show.
Hope this helps...
-Dr. Crash (Captain, NERDS, season 3)
What do you do if you dont own a television - but still want to see this show?
...
I stream all my media, what is the holdup of full broadcast of TV stations via the internet? This is that same problem I have with BattleBots - I want desperately to see these programs, but I dont own a television.
Is anyone aware of a URL (ftp/wrapster/gnutella/freenet) where the full shows (BattleBots, Junkyard Wars, ScrapHeap Challenge) are contained? Has anyone recorded and digitized the programs?
Help a fellow geek out - someone please please please provide a link to any or all of these programs in their entirety
Imagine you're brought in, and first thing in the morning told your job is to build the best machine you can for ... a car mp3 player, a C compiler, graphics design, etc. Give each team a 28.8 modem and ISP account to allow some downloading of s/w but not enough to do serious downloading of large programs.
Just think of the fun. Maybe allow each team to bring in 3 CDs or something. You know, an OS, some basic s/w, maybe some docs.
I know of several companies in my town (~200,000 people) that would have enough junk lying around to make this interesting. If nothing else, it would give the companies something to do with a bunch of the old stuff that's lying around.
Hmm.. Maybe I should actually get cable. Maybe. I'd really like to see this show, but I'd probably never turn the TV off if we did get cable.
On a random note -- the Minneapolis/St. Paul area apparently only has about 50% penetration with cable. IIRC, most areas are much higher (70-80% or something).
--
Ski-U-Mah!
Wouldnt it be cool for us to have our own 'junkyard war' ? Perhaps we could design a challenge that everyone could have a go at, preferably something which has easy-to-verify results, and can be done over the internet. perhaps see who can design the longest flying paper aeroplane - this can be verified by posting the design and allowing others to test it. Any ideas? Winner gets a free... er. well, nothing, but hey :)
Battlebot is too easy. They have all sorts of time to buy and make parts, then engineer them into a working robot. Anyone can drive down to Radio Shack and get a servo. It takes something different to make an old steam pipe into a working cannon...
I watched the UK 'Who's line is it anyway?' I don't watch the US version anymore. It just doesn't have the same feel. Especially when both shows had the same 'improvised' acts on both shows (like Ryan doing hunted deer in party quirks)
I have quite a few doubts that the US version of Scrapheap will fare any better.
-- That which does not kill us has made its last mistake.
I saw the previews for Junkyard Wars and wanted to see it then, but I missed it. I just went to tlc's web site and did a search for "Junkyard Wars". It couldn't find it. I found the TV listings page, and did a seach from there. Found it. Went to the page. Found a link that gives showtimes. Instead of giving me a date and time it put me back at the daily tv listings, and not the day of the show, but todays listing. Like I'm going to go through day by day listings to find a show that may or may not be there and I may or may not be able to find if it does. What a crappy site. Pretty pictures: 10 usability: 0
All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence -- and then success is sure. Mark Twain
I'll start one if there are people that are interested!!! I want to build a killer device out of a car engine and AOL CD's.
I used to be someone else. Now I'm someone better.
Real life is underrated.
IMHO:
I thought it was really dumb. I didn't like the Mad Max / Judge Dredd spin, and the pretense that the parts are all "found" is annoying. The little informational bits they insert are less educational than yer average "Schoolhouse Rock" cartoon.
Maybe they count on the audiance being drunk, and thus unable to actually notice how lame it all is.
I am Jeff, organizer of the first US team to compete, and the one interviewed by Wired. Crash is a teammate. The TLC site is fairly low on content currently. I suggest either our site or the Channel 4 TV site which includes some neat time-lapse photography of the workshops as the machines come together.
TLC is planning to show more episodes of the british show in the late fall and early winter. (the schedule isn't final yet, so I can't give a more exact date). In Jan/Feb, they will broadcast an Americanized version of the show. No they didn't dumb it down. Its the same crew, same pile of junk, and comparable challenges. The big difference will be in the accents of the contestants and they replaced Robert with an American comic.
Yes, it is a real pile of scrap. On the other side of the wall from the set, are Cockneys in large cranes, that end in claws, literally tossing cars thru the air. Like a good yard, the stuff is partially sorted, on one side is a pile of wood and other construction debris (the wood is "experienced" most of the plywood had clearly been a concrete form in its first life). Next comes ex plumbing, and electrical conduit. Cars in various degrees of flattened are piled forming the odd aisle, then the ventilation/hvac stuff. Off to the other side starts some of the more serious industrial scrap. there is a 20 foot pile of very rusted 1-2" wire rope, next to what must have been a large liquid storage tank (20' diameter, guessing from the curve in the 8' square sections of 1" plate steel) There is the twisted remains of some conveyor systems (a great source of chain and bearings), and other large machines, including what looks like the yard's now-deceased former car crusher. Closer to the workshops, are some of the more unusual vehicles, including a well tagged ex- tourbus, and some military surplus truck based device that seems to be a large collection of hydraulic bits.
Even when parts are seeded for a particular purpose, there is no guarantee that they will attach to anything else. To use one of the already broadcast shows, "power pullers", there were apropriate tires in the pile. There were no differentials that fit said tires however, and one of the challenges to using the good (lugged) tires, was how to get them to mate with the differential you found.
-dp-
Organizer:New England Rubbish Deconstruction Society;The NERDS,first US team in the UK Scrapheap Challenge/Junkyard Wars
The schedule isn't yet set in stone, an exact date doesn't yet exist. They have said late november and december for more british shows (including the NERDS vs the Scots). and the (still filmed in London) all American series on for sometime in January or February.
Organizer:New England Rubbish Deconstruction Society;The NERDS,first US team in the UK Scrapheap Challenge/Junkyard Wars
Based off of the piano flinger (based of of the real cow flinger) used in Northern Exposure, I built a Mac Flinger many many years ago... It made it across a parking lot (53' 3"). Of course, it was completely fabbed with real parts (not trash) and it took me several weeks to design and build... but hey it was a neat way to put to rest a non-functional Mac Classic...plus I got credit for an independent study in "Computers in Aerodynamic Applications."
--
You say you want a revolution?
problem every time. The only physics it teaches is Ke=(1/2)mv^2, and while they did show the equaison once during the prelims, it was in the context of "you aren't supposed to understand this". It doesn't do anything to promote the idea that engineering might be a fun way to spend your life, etc. When I saw the first US broadcast of Scrapheap, I simply had to be a part of it. I forgot to watch last weeks episode of battlebots... -dp-
Organizer:New England Rubbish Deconstruction Society;The NERDS,first US team in the UK Scrapheap Challenge/Junkyard Wars
Three season episode guide, and Channel4's third season only tournament ladder.
While they re-use basic themes, the details change in a noticable way. For example, they have done an underwater show each time. First year, it was making the diving gear. The second was salvaging a sunken car. This year, we built submarines.
Every year, they have built a projectile weapon. The first year, they had siege engines, the second, cannons, and this year a different projectile challenge. Each year a boat gets built, the first it was just a boat, the second an amphibian, the third year, it had to put out a fire. The car for the first year was a pulling tractor, the second a MPG marathon machine, this year, they are steam powered.
They do welcome suggested challenges. One I offered up was "loudest noise you can make with wood", thinking of a wood fired steam boiler explosion going up against a wood fired turbojet engine, or a giant organ pipe (reed) powered by the entire team sitting on the bellows.
Organizer:New England Rubbish Deconstruction Society;The NERDS,first US team in the UK Scrapheap Challenge/Junkyard Wars
...if Hemos has realized that BattleBots is a parody yet.
Go look for a vehicle that went broadside into a tree. With the reliability of recent engines, the engine wearing out is not the most common reason a car goes into the scrapyard these days. Most of the ones we saw, the owner had re-arranged the sheetmetal in a serious way.
After all, one of the options offered to someone with a blown engine is a transplant from a junkyard. - The reason that you don't see many in a running yard, is that they do remove the good ones, and sell them. Since this "yards" "employee's" are the teams of scavengers, we get to remove them. The usual yard you have visited, has had the good stuff picked over by the yards employee's, the stuff they let randoms paw thru is stuff they are done with. If they let you at the unfiltered incoming stream, you would see a lot more functional stuff.
And not all the engines work. If you are lucky it fails in the workshop, while you have time to fix it. (you always test it in situ. Even with a "no prisoners" approach to removal, its going to use up a not insignificant amount of precious time. You want to know that it stands a chance of working before you invest any of that rare substance in it)
If you are like many teams, it (or its gearbox) will decide that it has had enough, while on course. The tractor pull was decided by transmission failure, Bowsers walking machine fell victim to welding too close to the ignition system. (blew the condensor, the points cooked during the challenge). The string trimmer engine in the most recently aired (in the UK) bomber competition did not want to run, and it took some serious persuasion to convince it otherwise.
-dp-
Organizer:New England Rubbish Deconstruction Society;The NERDS,first US team in the UK Scrapheap Challenge/Junkyard Wars
We did keep the basic theme (can say more on Monday), but changed it in almost every detail. He hadn't solved some of the problems (like how to seal some things like the propellor shaft), and we picked very different materials than he originally thought to use. In our case, he was treated like a regular team member. He was most definetly not the team leader. (at times, who was leading was very much an open question. All of us talked about the "herding cats" model of team dynamics). All of us had a hand in design, and construction. If the rules had allowed, all would have had a hand in finding the parts. (the captain and assigned specalist have to stay in the shop)
Organizer:New England Rubbish Deconstruction Society;The NERDS,first US team in the UK Scrapheap Challenge/Junkyard Wars
BattleBots is, at most, 9 minutes of combat. I typically watch the show on fast-forward in under 10 minutes. Yawn. They try to spice it up with Gina Lee Nolin, but still, YA-fsckin-WN.
Has everyone forgotten Survival Research Labs, who put on shows in SF, and elsewhere?
TLC (the US network that is broadcasting the british shows) also commisioned a series with American accents only. (the one exception was Cathy). They had their own 8 team, 7 show single elimination tournament. The winner of that series stayed an extra week, and took on the winner of the British Grand Final (Megalomaniacs vs. Winner of this years UK series).
Organizer:New England Rubbish Deconstruction Society;The NERDS,first US team in the UK Scrapheap Challenge/Junkyard Wars
Was a commercial version of the MIT 2.70 design competition. (which has occaisionally been televised in the US, and carried live by NTT in Japan). It has spawned an organization that holds such competitions for high school students. The second round test given to the short listed teams is of this sort. Teams were given a collection of household objects, and a problem, which they had to solve in 45 minutes, while a TV crew poked cameras at them. (in our case, we used a webcam to let them watch) The stuff we got to use were things like paper, string, toothpicks, straws, etc. No power tools. (no duct tape even!) Another show in the same veing was "Secret Life of Machines". Not a competition, but two guys building examples of complex machines out of stuff that could be found in a garage. (like an incandescent bulb from some bits of wire, and a peanut butter jar). According to Cathy (the executive producer, and one of the hosts) she got the idea for the show from watching the movie "Apollo 13". She heard about the other shows after the first version of it aired.
Organizer:New England Rubbish Deconstruction Society;The NERDS,first US team in the UK Scrapheap Challenge/Junkyard Wars
Has everyone forgotten Survival Research Labs, who put on shows in SF, and elsewhere?
I haven't. SRL invented this stuff -- in...guess when? 1978. And he (Mark Pauline) continues to innovate.
From the bio page
/.ers probably won't get over their obsessions with mentally-deficient jock humor, though, so expect continued stories about watered-down, apolitical SRL rip-offs.
I think the Great Egg Race is still being repeated now on BBC Choice in the UK (if you've got digital). They don't repeat the whole program, just a ~15min shortened version though.
Every nerd has to go for this show: how to make anything from nothing. Every engineer who thinks he has the Right Stuff should sit back and figure -- wow, cool. Maybe there should be a slash-dot version of this show where you show up at some high-tech warehouse and have to assemble, say, a web server, from a left-over Apple ][, a high speed paper tape reader, and a 78 story building.
Okay, Lister is doing Robot Wars. Kryten is doing Scrapheap Challenge. So where's Rimmer at? How about Cat?
Any sufficiently advanced civilization is indistinguishable from Gods.
I like the concept because it's very original. I mean, you never see this kind of game show around very often and it's great way to recycle :-). It would appeal to geeks, true because it challenges you to construct something from bitty parts and to use your skills to build something. Kinda like Lego with bigger and dirtier parts...
Self Bias Resistor
"You'll never need more than 640k of memory." -Bill Gates
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When the pin is pulled, Mr. Grenade is no longer our friend.