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Need a Way to Use 225m of Blue Duct Tape?
pc-0x90 writes "In Canada, when engineers finish their undergraduate degree, they attend a ceremony referred to as Kipling. Alongside the formal ceremony are the kipling pranks. This year, the Software Engineers at McMaster University designed a life sized Pac-Man board, thus answering the question of whether or not software engineering is in fact engineering."
What is the scale of PacMan in real life??
What I really wanted to see was the space distorters making it possible to wrap around to the other side after crossing the outer border.
When Argumentum ad Hominem falls short, try Argumentum ad Matrem
"Computer games don't affect kids, I mean if Pac Man affected us as kids, we'd all be running around in darkened rooms, munching pills and listening to repetitive music."
until they figure out how to make pacman appear on the left hand side of the maze after disappearing from the right hand side.
"thus answering the question of whether or not software engineering is in fact engineering."
:/
Well it certainly answered whether a Canadian University could withstand a slashdotting after 2 posts
Yo Grark
Canadian Bred with American Buttering
Canadian Bred with American Buttering
There's only 3 ghosts!! Kids today... they don't pay attention to details.
---- Meh.
Note that they asked the security guard for permission... and they likely cleaned up after themselves too... sheesh...
They know exactly how much tape they used, but they don't know how many people were there making it.
"I can't drive 55. It only goes 38."
With that much duct tape, you think they'd be able to piece together a server that wouldn't be slashdotted so fast...
I fail to see how the design of a massive Pac-Man board is, in any way, related to the *art* of designing good software.
- Chris Z. Wintrowski -
[ Site ]
Main Entry: sarcasm
Pronunciation: 'sär-"ka-z&m
Function: noun
Etymology: French or Late Latin; French sarcasme, from Late Latin sarcasmos, from Greek sarkasmos, from sarkazein to tear flesh, bite the lips in rage, sneer, from sark-, sarx flesh; probably akin to Avestan thwar&s- to cut
Date: 1550
1 : a sharp and often satirical or ironic utterance designed to cut or give pain
2 a : a mode of satirical wit depending for its effect on bitter, caustic, and often ironic language that is usually directed against an individual b : the use or language of sarcasm
synonym see WIT
All Troll + "offtopic" mods are meta moderated as "Unfair", because you abused the system.
Since the original webpage got slashdottet I set up a "mirror", it's on a 100mbps connection. (not much when we have a slashdot effect in the picture)
http://skall.no/~termos/pacman/
Note to self: get smarter troll to guard door.
If only I had know that to be respected by Slashdot as an "engineer" all I needed was some some tape! Would have saved me a lot of time and effort.
"It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance." - Thomas Sowell
I believe it's called the Iron Ring ceremony everywhere. Shorely someone is confused, as Rudyard Kipling was the author of the ceremony.
Also, this Computer and Software Engineering seems to be part of McMaster's engineering department, as opposed to a misnamed Computer Science degree.
-legolas
Woooh!!! Ok, gotta get over my excitement -- it's not everyday that I find an article relating to something that took place in a building no more than 300m away from my bedroom. I go to McMaster and have actually walked on said Pac-Man board.
Generally the Kipling pranks here at Mac are rather well-done (cars are a common theme -- putting them on roofs, hanging them on sides of buildings, etc.) but this year things were slightly lackluster, if you will. I may have just not been out before some got taken down, who knows. That said, the Pac-Man board is still around (I've been in my room for a few days, so I don't know for sure) and still looks impressive.
There was a comment questioning the "life-sizedness" of the board, and being 6'1", 200lbs. I can say I fit most comfortably in the maze. The dots may have been slightly insubstantial for consumption (they were only the labels off beer, not the actual product itself... damn Engineers probably drank it all before hand, come to think of it) and the aliens/ghosts (please, no flames from those who know Pac-Man far better than I and who think I'm an idiot for not knowing at the very least what those things are called) weren't so large as to be intimidating. Other than that the "life-sized" label fits very well (they didn't just follow the pattern of the floor tiles, as this post suggested -- it's all measured out on their own scale).
I'm going to have to run over to the Computer department after I finish studying for this exam and observe the smoulding hulk of server that I'm sure now exists :). Wheee, what a fun day already, and all because of slashdot!
Adam, I don't know if you read slashdot, but my compliments on the good work. That and nice pics.
"this is a really good piece of cantoloupe."
This McMaster University sounds like a cheap-deep-fried-fast degree-granting institution.
"Would you like a McMaster or a McBSc with that ?
Don't read this sig
The best prank we computer scientists ever did was invite a stripper to the lecture. The stupidest thing we did was let the engineers (those guys that go to engineering school, mechanical, civil, chemical, electrical etc) know that we had invited the stripper.
lecture was eventually held in tutorial room out the back, and lecturer was unexpectedly lecherous - yuk.
Best prank engineers did was hang a roadworthy(?) volkswagon underneath the footbridge and over the river.
Best prank I ever contributed to was the kidnap and ransom of a local politician (with his consent). Raised $40 from the parliament house to keep him, and $300 from the uni bar to give him back.
-- it must be true, it's on the internet.
If they were real engineers, there'd be teleporters on either side of the board:)
Great job guys! Looks awesome.
High-speed Road Trip (18.000KPH)
Maybe the real prank was DOSsing their school's webserver by getting a link posted on /.
The Software Engineers at McMaster University designed a life sized Pac-Man board, thus answering the question of whether or not software engineering is in fact engineering."
That's like saying "The president played the saxophone, thus answering the question of whether or not politics is in fact music".
Kipling pranks at McMaster are occassionally creative, but I've seen more stupidity than creativity in the past few years. I admit up front my bias at being a Comp Sci graduate and resenting the forced merger with the Computer and Software engineers and coming under the evil shadow of their malevolent dictator.
That aside, Kipling has oft been at the root of distruction and vandalism. HOG and Kipling can be seen spraypainted on many signs, buildings, and sidewalks all over campus from Kiplings past. One year they actual released chickens in the middle of the Engineering building while the nursing students had set up their projects in the main hall for educating students on health issues, causing great stress to both the nursing students and the chickens. Laugh if you want, but I don't find the ruination of someone's school project and the injury of innocent animals entertaining - nor do I see that it shows any creativity or skill. The car on the roof of the library awning, while interesting, was also dangerous to passers by and damaged property. Silly Engineers.
I believe my favorite prank, because it was both harmless and amusing, was when they chalked every sidewalk on the campus to have road symbols, including dividing and passing lines, stop lines at intersections, etc.
Hmmmm, let's see graduating 2003....
If they entered university at 19, then they must be about 23, which means they were born around 1980 +- 1 year.
Pacman was long gone by the time they could reach the joystick!
I bet none of them ever played the original Pacman or even understood how big of a fad it was!!!
I remember taking my mom's silver quarters that she had been saving (remember when quarters were made out of real silver?!?), not understanding the value of them, and using them to play video games like Pacman.
"That's Incredible" would have segments on kids getting the highest scores ever, playing it the longest, etc. I got the crappy version of Pacman for the Atari 2600 (at first disappointed, but it was better than nothing, so I accepted it). I watched the terrible Pacman cartoon on ABC. I think they also had a Q-bert cartoon as well.
Ahhh, the good old days.