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.
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).
Our machine looked nothing like the experts vision
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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)
How to find a running junkyard engine.
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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.
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Here is a list of the shows, and what got built
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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.
They know the problem in advance, and its the same
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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...
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I ordered a DSL line back in March. I live under a mile from the CO. The company looked in their database, and said "12k feet, no problem, but it will take 6-8 weeks". 8 weeks later, I call, for an update. "Bell Atlantic will have an install date for the pair in a week or two" (note: not that it would get installed in a week or two, but that they would set a date for the install in a week or two). Sometime in may a drop appears on the side of the house, and the installer shows up a few days later.
Out comes a cisco 675? and it gets plugged into the freshly wired socket. No joy in mudville. We even try hotwiring it to the outside box.
Now comes the real finger pointing. They put in a request to check the pair, its failing the continutity check. time passes, I head off to england. The DSL provider and the phone company schedule a mutall finger pointing session (ie: they both show up, and test the line together). I provide them power out by the drop (so they can plug the box in) and leve the box where they can get to it. I come home to find a tag from Rythms, saying that bell atlantic (which was in the process of becoming Verizon) blew them off.
Much chasing of guilty party. Eventually, (in august) I wind up on the phone with someone in Denver, that has an open supervisory connection to their DSLAM that is sitting in my local CO. Armed only with the box, and a made on the spot shorting plug, we determine that the new pair has DC continuity, but seems a mite long. The DSLAM says its 15k feet. They rant at Verizon who goes and checks: Your'e wrong, its 18k feet. Somehow they snuck another 2 miles of wire into my "local" loop. We check the other pairs nailed to the side of the house (since you can share phone and DSL on one pair, with suitable filters). Nope, they all take the same convoluted route.
ADSL is out, that leaves SDSL. No need to rewire (in theory anyway), just move the pair from the ADSL box to a SDSL one, and swap boxes. I mail the cisco box back. A work order is cut. Verizon promptly goes on strike.
I get a status email in mid september, Verizon installed a SDSL connected drop. First available install appointment is monday morning. Great. I wait expectantly. No installer. "you weren't there" the installer claims. "I guess on the porch and in the driveway doesn't count as home". Saturday morning next open slot. Again we wait. Nobody shows. I call Rythms. "There is nobody from that department here today. We can't find out contact information for the installer."
On monday morning various layers of management get read the riot act. (yup, same installer as monday and again "not home") I suggest he needs more direct supervision, and they will have someone else on my doorstep the next morning. We compromise on this morning. He called to say he was leaving, and showed up promptly. He has a "coppersomething" box. We plug it in. No joy. We go outside with shorting plugs. We find the Verizon install error (one wire out of the punchdown block). He fixes it for them and after some fiddling, we actually get a green light on the box. We go inside, and again get a green light. I fill in the IP addresses, and give the net a nudge. Much delight, packets fly and domains resolve. This is very short lived, seconds later, the green light goes out. More prodding of DSLAM from Denver. The light comes on, then goes out. Denver promises to prod further, and I leave for the office, amber leds blinking, the line trying to train up again...
Late November in the US. This weekend in the UK
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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.
Another particpant opens his big mouth.
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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.
The cost of tooling for injection molding, and for stamping sheet metal are so close, as to not make a difference. (in fact, its likely cheaper to do the tooling for metal, as the shape will tend to be much simpler) They don't have to use magneisum, they could do just fine with a normal grade of aluminum. (and the tooling would work with other metals -- they could offer titanium on the deluxe model)
They could also do a better job with plastic -- the case could be noticably smaller, and the clear construction makes that point fairly obvious (you can see the unoccupied space). They could also change battery technology, to confomal lithium (like the palm V), and get back more volume. (as well as saving landfills from ever more discarded batteries.)
Last year I saw an advertising peice for a campus targeted web site. The name doesn't stick in my mind (might have been maincampus), but the form the ad took did. To put it (semi) politely, a "toilet mint". One of those bricks they stick in the stand-up's to deodorize.
Now I have used the net back when it was "our little secret", and we didn't talk about unofficial uses, lest Proxmire find out and pull the plug. (or at least turn next years phone bill appropriation into a milk price support). If you told me that 25 years later, I would be urinating on a reference to the net, I wouldn't have wanted whaterver you were smoking...
Even car boosting orginizations like AAA peg the cost of driving at $.40-$.50/mile. If you start figuring in the indirect subisidies, the cost goes a lot higher. (all that sales and property tax that gets used to pay for road repair -- so called auto user fees don't come close to covering the direct cost of roads)
Besides the thing the converted is a MOPED. There are several compeeting definitions of "bicycle", but this doesn't even make the most liberal of them. (Intl. Human Powered Vehicle Assn, whose rules for eligibility are:
1. Vehicle must have a means of directional control, operated from the vehicle. (no guy with a remote control, trackside)
2. Land vehicles must have a brake. (they also do air and water)
3. No stored energy. (No batteries. Flywheels that are stationary at the start of the event are permitted)
I didn't finish school, I ran out of money. I also have been around the industry for a long time now, and think I can make some comments.
First: there are some places where it makes a difference. Places that get some governmental funding, are required to care. Its hard to be a rocket scientist without a degree. In some places, you don't get to manage rocket scientists without an advanced degree. But there are lots of places where they don't care. I have had to find them. Note: CS is one of the few "sciences" where skipping the formalities is an option. If you are a Mech E, or Chem E, you won't be able to skip the sheep.
I do think its a fairly rare individual that can do very well without the full 4 or 5 years. There is a lot of stuff out there, and just finding your way to some of it takes an experienced guide to show you where to look, and you need the time to learn how to digest it. And you do have to read thru the stuff, you don't have time to re-invent it all. But that doesn't mean there aren't some that can skip the process. You are likely not able to make that decision correctly by yourself.
Yea, there is the "trainable" aspect that the first dead sheep proves, and a Phd means you are stubborn enough to finish a significant task.
The biggest thing that college gives you is time. Most of the learning part happens when not in the lecture hall -- if you are doing it right, you are spending 3-4 hours in the company of books, for every hour you spend in the classroom. Once you are out in the real world, you won't have the time to do this. You need to get a fairly solid base up front, because once you are on someones payroll, time to learn new techiques usually comes out of your nights and weekends, not your workday.
I get to read the resumes from a bunch of students, and sort them into the maybee and no piles. Here are some of the things I look for.
The only language that I care they taught you was written english. If you have successfully learned two or three different programming languages, its strong evidence that you can learn the language de jour. What I want to see on the techinical side is courses in techniques, (algorithims, data structures, even theory) not just a bunch of different introductory language classes.
Some things that aren't on the typical CS curriculum, but maybe should be -- from the math department: at least a semester of statistics, the one offered to business majors will do.(something I think every educated person should have) Some numerical analysis or numerical methods, so you know better what "exact" means, and how your FPU guarantees you wont ever get it.
Other stuff: A course that teaches you how to use a library (not a search engine, the actual dead trees on long rows of shelves) - something from the History department is a good bet. From the english department, the courses that are about your writing, not what others have written. The finance 101 course (not accounting, but how money "works" At a minimum, you have to know what the TLA's on the financial calculator mean. (NPV especially -- in fact this whole discussion is a variation on calculating future values of an investment today)). If you do go into a startup, you will stand a chance of understanding the questions the VC's are asking, and you will know some people that have studied the topic in enough detail to give a real answer. If you can get into a graduate seminar in some topic, it will teach you how to analyze the work of others, and present it to a group. (what you learn in some of these "off topic" courses should be usefull, but for your Phd in "life", its the process not the content that you will need)
It is very important to have some idea of what has been already done by others, and especially how to go about finding any that is relevant to you.
You can be the greatest code slinger out there, but if you haven't seen the well known algorithms, you could spend six weeks building 50 pages of code, when I went and spent 30 minutes looking for appliciable techniques, and turned out 4 pages of code in 2 days, that did a better job. (and yes, thats a real world example)
summary:
The full 4 years are a good idea for almost all. If you can afford to, I would wait on joining a company. You might be the exception, but you are likely not the right one to make that judgement. (you don't know what you don't know). Its as important that you know how to find information, as it is to get specific information stuffed into your head. The techniques are forever, any specific language will be passe' by the time you hit 35.
The Sf-lovers mailing list was a viable thing with several hundred members and at least a dozen messages daily by October 1979. At that point Usenet connected two sites, and had at most a handfull of newsgroups, and some traffic free days.
I know at one point, in the early 80's a gateway was establised to put the mailing list onto Usenet, that might be the origins of the rec.sf heirarchy. (there were several such gateways, some invovling magtapes mailed weekly).
Looking at some usenet history articles, the first public announcement of Usenet happened in early 1980, so the mailing list definetly predates it. (tho I did see one error in that article, so take it with a grain of salt. -- had human-nets preceeding SF-Lovers, when in fact, human-nets got created by Roger Duffy, in response to the star-trek movies swamping of the sf mailing list -- the original charter was to discuss how to manage very large, high volume discussions. (he also started digests as a "temporary" measure till the volume thinned out....))
Some people got them unsolicited in the US mail. By federal law, if you mail something to someone, without their soliciting it, even if it was in error, they own it.
These rules were put in place after people came up with the "clever" idea of sending people at random a box of "stuff" followed by a bill for said stuff. Any clause in a contract that is contrary to laws in effect in that place, is automatically void.
I can't comment on those that picked them up in person. I have a sneaking suspicion that various bits of uniform commercial code apply however, and since no contract was presented (not even an "open this package and agree) I have a sneaking suspicion that they also get considered gifts, which you can dispose of at yor leisure.
Posted to the MIT announcement system, that inspired the creation of the original huge mailing list, sf-lovers. By the time it made it out to Parc, it was about 6th generation forwarded, and took about a week from original posting to make it to them. It inspired a mail admin named Brodie to create a mail reflector, so such news could get around faster. SF@parc-maxc
It quickly became very successful, and to a bureaucrats attention, prompting its move back to MIT, the name changed to SF-Lovers@mit-ai, where it puttered along still readable by a mostly 300 baud community, until Star Trek the motionless picture came out, otherwise known as the day the mailer died. The MIT mail engine got more than 6 hours behind. Digests happened. Unix mailers that at the time reqired a separate copy per recipient got re-written. We even saw semi-official header forgery -- kicked off MIT's machines due to overloading, its new host (another major university, on the left coast) forged headers to make it look like it still originated at MIT, so its own administration wouldn't know that the mail originated on their system.
As to first time by a hugo winner: One year later, saw the first "@-sign" party. two (past) hugo winners, and one nominee were in attendance (niven, pournelle, and forward. Went thru more irish whiskey than SFWA did that night). So was a suitcase sized portable printing terminal with thermal paper, and an acoustic coupler on the back. Ran at a whopping 300 baud. Results of the voting were posted to the list within hours of live announcement, a comment was added by one of the winners (who got an instant invite to the party when the result got announced) and with the digest maker in attendance at the party to launch a "special edition" of the digest.
So in less than a years time, we went from no list and more than one week from live announcement to first posting, to near real-time coverage, with comments by a winner. (the very first online announcement was delayed, because in 1979 the Worldcon was in Brighton, UK. Still fairly broke at the time, we went to the NASFIC in Loisville, held the following weekend instead, heard the results from some fen that had done both conventions. I posted the announcement when we got back home, slightly suprised that someone hadn't beaten me to it.)
One small comment about the "@-sign" parties. At the time, the arpanet was "our little secret", and we were particularly circumspect about "unofficial" uses of it. We really did worry that Proxmire (who was in office at the time) would find out about recreational use of the net, award a "Golden Fleece" award, and manage to divert the funding to a milk price support program. So it was a harder party to get into than the usual legends of tightly controlled doors, the SFWA and Balantine Books parties. It also made for a very funny panel discussion 6 months later at the 81 Boskone, where the 5 of us siting up at the table in front discussed how such a future system could work, carefully avoiding any use of the present tense, not telling them that "our tax dollars" were paying for one as we sat there.
If someone mails you something, unsolicited (even in error) its yours. Those that got them in the mail without asking for one, own the hardware. Federal law says the "hardware license" part of the "contract" is void.
(this got enacted after places started sending people unsolicited "merchandise", followed by a bill. Its very clear now, you mail it to someone without their asking for it, they own it)
I can't comment on the "loan" status for those that asked for one at ratshack.
Ever hear of an old invention called the bicycle? Very low resource needs (remember, half the fuel burned and pollution emitted by an automobile happens in manufacture, before it does even a single mile of driving. For the low emmission/fuel consumption sort, I bet the ratio is even worse)
"but I can't" -- The median auto trip in the US is less than 2 miles. The typical commute (all modes) is around 6 miles. It would do us a huge amount of good if some of those trips happened by other means. Not just in reduction of congestion, or the huge infrastructure subsisdies that cars get, but in overall life expectancy. Cycling is actually safer than driving, (yes, I do have the numbers to back it up) and the regular exercise of utility cycling will do wonders to your risk of heart disease.
It should not take 2.5 tons of metal, and a couple of ounces of petroleum to transport a videotape 1.5 miles to the rental return. Its almost beyond ironic to use the same resources to transport an otherwise healthy 13 yr old to an athletic practice.
Thanks for the kind words. The brit series is all taped, its now the directors/editors turn to go heads down and turn more than 100 hours of tape into a coherent 50 minute (44 for the US market) whole. (they usually have 6-8 cameras going while building, and often more than that while testing) No more flying over to London at the TV companies expense till next year.
You may not believe this, but that tape was made the first day the team had ever met in person. (our common friends were suprised we didn't already know each other, there were several that knew all three of us) We were originally going to describe how a Mr. Coffee worked, how it got cold water from the bottom mounted resivoir to hot water out the outlet over the basket, without anything resembling a pump. But it was late on Sunday, and we couldn't find a matching pair to bisect on camera... (Crash had brought his sawzall to the session for that purpose). Geo suggested sewing machines, so we rooted around the junk in his loft, and found the makings of the machine. (yes, the bobbin is Cat 5 ethernet cable, in electric blue) Took us about half an hour to build.
As I said elsewhere, I watched, and didn't get the overwhelming urge to compete that Junkyard Wars/Scrapheap Challenge left me with. I simply had to enter a team to Scrapheap. Perhaps if I were 15 years younger, or hadn't seen Scrapheap first. But this does seem a fairly pale competitor, they are only solving the one problem, the only real physics taught is Ke=1/2mv^2, and thats done tacitly. Blendo's been built, and given the restrictions on projectiles, can't really be defeated, so why bother.
This doesn't mean I won't watch (as long as they keep some semblance of tech amongst the hype) If nothing else, they need to find some "decorations" with brains. (they are scarce, but do exist).
Things that might get me building one -- make them autonomous. If not autonomous, have them constructed on camera. (and yes, fever pitch construction can be GREAT tv, especially if you supply the builders large angle grinders).
-dp-
For those that haven't seen blendo, it was a manhole cover with a central undercarriage, that held the rim of the cover just above ground level, with a dome (heavy gauge WOK) welded to it. There were a couple of "teeth" fitted to the edge of the disk, and a 5hp or possibly 7.5hp gas engine to drive it (your basic briggs and stratton). Spun the "cover assembly" at >500rpm. Anything that tried to hit the spinning wok, got tossed aside, and anything presented to the teeth was digested. Its builder just had to drive it up to the other guy, and bits of robot were driven thru the safety cage. The two times it was run, they had to stop competition, and let the remaining 'bots battle for second.
Its funny, but I watched Junkyard Wars, and by the first commercial, knew that I had to be a part of it. Watching the robots was entertaining, but I didn't have an overwhelming need to start designing and building an entry.
Its always the same problem, and you know about it in advance. There isn't a time limit on building the things. You don't have to improvise to suit the materials you can find. (and you don't get to see them getting built).
If they were autonomous, it might be more interesting, but I have otherwise outgrown video games.
Besides given a choice between a week in London, and a couple of days in Las Vegas, I will take London every time..
On a somewhat gentler note, there is Kinetic Sculpture Racing (got its original start 30 years ago). There is also an annual "Art Cars" festival, but I don't have a link handy.
BTW: One of the members of The NERDS, Geo has worked with SRL, and various european industrial art groups. He is rather proud of his building TK-1the worlds first, and only known wood fired, twin turbocharged, hot tub.
Quick summary: TLC is still making up their mind about showing the soon to debut 10 show British third season. (which among other things has us Yankee NERDS taking on some British teams). Calls to the network should help their decision. (oh yea, there are 7 episodes from years 1 and 2 that haven't been shown here either)
They did commision the UK production company to make a seven show all-american series. Same pile of scrap, same crew, same caliber of challenge. They replaced Robert with an american comedian, and all the teams are from the US (and possibly Canada). They will show this sometime starting in January. (no, The NERDS aren't in that one, there is a real advantage to having done a show, so it wasn't fair for us to go up against a brand new team -- next year when they have the possibility of returning teams, we expect to have a go against our countrymen)
The only physics it demonstrates is Ke=1/2mv^2, and you don't get to see them building the things.
There is a real "Iron" chef like mechanical challenge show, in the UK it goes by the name Scrapheap Challenge, when shown in the US, they call it Junkyard Wars. It too features a Red Dwarf actor as host, this time Robert, the guy that plays Kryten (without the mask however).
Basic premise: Two 3 person teams are each provided with a specalist, identical workshops, and equal access to an 800 ton pile of scrap metal. (literally). Dragged from their beds at the crack of dawn, costumed in flameproofed jump suits, they are given a problem to solve (something "simple" like a one person glider, or a 4 person amphibian. How about A diving bell, or a MPG marathon machine. It might be something that can solve a problem, say retrieve a car sunk underwater), and they have 10 hours to build a solution, using only what they pull off the scrap pile. The next day, the two machines are run head to head, and the better one's team advances to the next round, and a harder challenge.
I organized the first US team to compete. We think its a whole lot more fun than Survivor or Iron Chef. The obvious questions are answered in my FAQ
In the UK, the show is carried by Channel 4, and the new season starts Sept 17. In the US, TLC carries it, but not particularly well. (they have show 6 of the 13 existing episodes, and haven't yet agreed to pick up the third season. They have commisioned their own version, to be shown in Jan/Feb timeframe.)
-dp- We flew over, we built, we can't say what we got to build, or how we did until the shows air,
we had a truly great time.
This planet needs a lot more kids that think taking the lawnmowers'
engine apart is more fun than playing nintendo.
Slashdot Mirror
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.
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).
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)
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.
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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.
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-
I ordered a DSL line back in March. I live under a mile from the CO. The company looked in their database, and said "12k feet, no problem, but it will take 6-8 weeks". 8 weeks later, I call, for an update. "Bell Atlantic will have an install date for the pair in a week or two" (note: not that it would get installed in a week or two, but that they would set a date for the install in a week or two). Sometime in may a drop appears on the side of the house, and the installer shows up a few days later.
Out comes a cisco 675? and it gets plugged into the freshly wired socket. No joy in mudville. We even try hotwiring it to the outside box.
Now comes the real finger pointing. They put in a request to check the pair, its failing the continutity check. time passes, I head off to england. The DSL provider and the phone company schedule a mutall finger pointing session (ie: they both show up, and test the line together). I provide them power out by the drop (so they can plug the box in) and leve the box where they can get to it. I come home to find a tag from Rythms, saying that bell atlantic (which was in the process of becoming Verizon) blew them off.
Much chasing of guilty party. Eventually, (in august) I wind up on the phone with someone in Denver, that has an open supervisory connection to their DSLAM that is sitting in my local CO. Armed only with the box, and a made on the spot shorting plug, we determine that the new pair has DC continuity, but seems a mite long. The DSLAM says its 15k feet. They rant at Verizon who goes and checks: Your'e wrong, its 18k feet. Somehow they snuck another 2 miles of wire into my "local" loop. We check the other pairs nailed to the side of the house (since you can share phone and DSL on one pair, with suitable filters). Nope, they all take the same convoluted route.
ADSL is out, that leaves SDSL. No need to rewire (in theory anyway), just move the pair from the ADSL box to a SDSL one, and swap boxes. I mail the cisco box back. A work order is cut. Verizon promptly goes on strike.
I get a status email in mid september, Verizon installed a SDSL connected drop. First available install appointment is monday morning. Great. I wait expectantly. No installer. "you weren't there" the installer claims. "I guess on the porch and in the driveway doesn't count as home". Saturday morning next open slot. Again we wait. Nobody shows. I call Rythms. "There is nobody from that department here today. We can't find out contact information for the installer."
On monday morning various layers of management get read the riot act. (yup, same installer as monday and again "not home") I suggest he needs more direct supervision, and they will have someone else on my doorstep the next morning. We compromise on this morning. He called to say he was leaving, and showed up promptly. He has a "coppersomething" box. We plug it in. No joy. We go outside with shorting plugs. We find the Verizon install error (one wire out of the punchdown block). He fixes it for them and after some fiddling, we actually get a green light on the box. We go inside, and again get a green light. I fill in the IP addresses, and give the net a nudge. Much delight, packets fly and domains resolve. This is very short lived, seconds later, the green light goes out. More prodding of DSLAM from Denver. The light comes on, then goes out. Denver promises to prod further, and I leave for the office, amber leds blinking, the line trying to train up again...
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.
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.
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The cost of tooling for injection molding, and for stamping sheet metal are so close, as to not make a difference. (in fact, its likely cheaper to do the tooling for metal, as the shape will tend to be much simpler) They don't have to use magneisum, they could do just fine with a normal grade of aluminum. (and the tooling would work with other metals -- they could offer titanium on the deluxe model)
They could also do a better job with plastic -- the case could be noticably smaller, and the clear construction makes that point fairly obvious (you can see the unoccupied space). They could also change battery technology, to confomal lithium (like the palm V), and get back more volume. (as well as saving landfills from ever more discarded batteries.)
You forgot a couple of steps, including the most important one, step 4.
4) Pound to fit
5) Paint to hide
Junkyard Wars/Scrapheap Challenge competitors: using your eyes is faster than the micrometer in step 1, and step 5 does not apply.
Last year I saw an advertising peice for a campus targeted web site. The name doesn't stick in my mind (might have been maincampus), but the form the ad took did. To put it (semi) politely, a "toilet mint". One of those bricks they stick in the stand-up's to deodorize.
Now I have used the net back when it was "our little secret", and we didn't talk about unofficial uses, lest Proxmire find out and pull the plug. (or at least turn next years phone bill appropriation into a milk price support). If you told me that 25 years later, I would be urinating on a reference to the net, I wouldn't have wanted whaterver you were smoking...
Even car boosting orginizations like AAA peg the cost of driving at $.40-$.50/mile. If you start figuring in the indirect subisidies, the cost goes a lot higher. (all that sales and property tax that gets used to pay for road repair -- so called auto user fees don't come close to covering the direct cost of roads)
Besides the thing the converted is a MOPED. There are several compeeting definitions of "bicycle", but this doesn't even make the most liberal of them. (Intl. Human Powered Vehicle Assn, whose rules for eligibility are:
1. Vehicle must have a means of directional control, operated from the vehicle. (no guy with a remote control, trackside)
2. Land vehicles must have a brake. (they also do air and water)
3. No stored energy. (No batteries. Flywheels that are stationary at the start of the event are permitted)
I didn't finish school, I ran out of money. I also have been around the industry for a long time now, and think I can make some comments.
First: there are some places where it makes a difference. Places that get some governmental funding, are required to care. Its hard to be a rocket scientist without a degree. In some places, you don't get to manage rocket scientists without an advanced degree. But there are lots of places where they don't care. I have had to find them. Note: CS is one of the few "sciences" where skipping the formalities is an option. If you are a Mech E, or Chem E, you won't be able to skip the sheep.
I do think its a fairly rare individual that can do very well without the full 4 or 5 years. There is a lot of stuff out there, and just finding your way to some of it takes an experienced guide to show you where to look, and you need the time to learn how to digest it. And you do have to read thru the stuff, you don't have time to re-invent it all. But that doesn't mean there aren't some that can skip the process. You are likely not able to make that decision correctly by yourself.
Yea, there is the "trainable" aspect that the first dead sheep proves, and a Phd means you are stubborn enough to finish a significant task.
The biggest thing that college gives you is time. Most of the learning part happens when not in the lecture hall -- if you are doing it right, you are spending 3-4 hours in the company of books, for every hour you spend in the classroom. Once you are out in the real world, you won't have the time to do this. You need to get a fairly solid base up front, because once you are on someones payroll, time to learn new techiques usually comes out of your nights and weekends, not your workday.
I get to read the resumes from a bunch of students, and sort them into the maybee and no piles. Here are some of the things I look for.
The only language that I care they taught you was written english. If you have successfully learned two or three different programming languages, its strong evidence that you can learn the language de jour. What I want to see on the techinical side is courses in techniques, (algorithims, data structures, even theory) not just a bunch of different introductory language classes.
Some things that aren't on the typical CS curriculum, but maybe should be -- from the math department: at least a semester of statistics, the one offered to business majors will do.(something I think every educated person should have) Some numerical analysis or numerical methods, so you know better what "exact" means, and how your FPU guarantees you wont ever get it.
Other stuff: A course that teaches you how to use a library (not a search engine, the actual dead trees on long rows of shelves) - something from the History department is a good bet. From the english department, the courses that are about your writing, not what others have written. The finance 101 course (not accounting, but how money "works" At a minimum, you have to know what the TLA's on the financial calculator mean. (NPV especially -- in fact this whole discussion is a variation on calculating future values of an investment today)).
If you do go into a startup, you will stand a chance of understanding the questions the VC's are asking, and you will know some people that have studied the topic in enough detail to give a real answer.
If you can get into a graduate seminar in some topic, it will teach you how to analyze the work of others, and present it to a group. (what you learn in some of these "off topic" courses should be usefull, but for your Phd in "life", its the process not the content that you will need)
It is very important to have some idea of what has been already done by others, and especially how to go about finding any that is relevant to you. You can be the greatest code slinger out there, but if you haven't seen the well known algorithms, you could spend six weeks building 50 pages of code, when I went and spent 30 minutes looking for appliciable techniques, and turned out 4 pages of code in 2 days, that did a better job. (and yes, thats a real world example)
summary:
The full 4 years are a good idea for almost all. If you can afford to, I would wait on joining a company. You might be the exception, but you are likely not the right one to make that judgement. (you don't know what you don't know). Its as important that you know how to find information, as it is to get specific information stuffed into your head. The techniques are forever, any specific language will be passe' by the time you hit 35.
The Sf-lovers mailing list was a viable thing with several hundred members and at least a dozen messages daily by October 1979. At that point Usenet connected two sites, and had at most a handfull of newsgroups, and some traffic free days.
I know at one point, in the early 80's a gateway was establised to put the mailing list onto Usenet, that might be the origins of the rec.sf heirarchy. (there were several such gateways, some invovling magtapes mailed weekly).
Looking at some usenet history articles, the first public announcement of Usenet happened in early 1980, so the mailing list definetly predates it. (tho I did see one error in that article, so take it with a grain of salt. -- had human-nets preceeding SF-Lovers, when in fact, human-nets got created by Roger Duffy, in response to the star-trek movies swamping of the sf mailing list -- the original charter was to discuss how to manage very large, high volume discussions. (he also started digests as a "temporary" measure till the volume thinned out....))
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Some people got them unsolicited in the US mail. By federal law, if you mail something to someone, without their soliciting it, even if it was in error, they own it.
These rules were put in place after people came up with the "clever" idea of sending people at random a box of "stuff" followed by a bill for said stuff. Any clause in a contract that is contrary to laws in effect in that place, is automatically void.
I can't comment on those that picked them up in person. I have a sneaking suspicion that various bits of uniform commercial code apply however, and since no contract was presented (not even an "open this package and agree) I have a sneaking suspicion that they also get considered gifts, which you can dispose of at yor leisure.
Posted to the MIT announcement system, that inspired the creation of the original huge mailing list, sf-lovers. By the time it made it out to Parc, it was about 6th generation forwarded, and took about a week from original posting to make it to them. It inspired a mail admin named Brodie to create a mail reflector, so such news could get around faster. SF@parc-maxc
It quickly became very successful, and to a bureaucrats attention, prompting its move back to MIT, the name changed to SF-Lovers@mit-ai, where it puttered along still readable by a mostly 300 baud community, until Star Trek the motionless picture came out, otherwise known as the day the mailer died. The MIT mail engine got more than 6 hours behind. Digests happened. Unix mailers that at the time reqired a separate copy per recipient got re-written. We even saw semi-official header forgery -- kicked off MIT's machines due to overloading, its new host (another major university, on the left coast) forged headers to make it look like it still originated at MIT, so its own administration wouldn't know that the mail originated on their system.
As to first time by a hugo winner: One year later, saw the first "@-sign" party. two (past) hugo winners, and one nominee were in attendance (niven, pournelle, and forward. Went thru more irish whiskey than SFWA did that night). So was a suitcase sized portable printing terminal with thermal paper, and an acoustic coupler on the back. Ran at a whopping 300 baud. Results of the voting were posted to the list within hours of live announcement, a comment was added by one of the winners (who got an instant invite to the party when the result got announced) and with the digest maker in attendance at the party to launch a "special edition" of the digest.
So in less than a years time, we went from no list and more than one week from live announcement to first posting, to near real-time coverage, with comments by a winner. (the very first online announcement was delayed, because in 1979 the Worldcon was in Brighton, UK. Still fairly broke at the time, we went to the NASFIC in Loisville, held the following weekend instead, heard the results from some fen that had done both conventions. I posted the announcement when we got back home, slightly suprised that someone hadn't beaten me to it.)
One small comment about the "@-sign" parties. At the time, the arpanet was "our little secret", and we were particularly circumspect about "unofficial" uses of it. We really did worry that Proxmire (who was in office at the time) would find out about recreational use of the net, award a "Golden Fleece" award, and manage to divert the funding to a milk price support program. So it was a harder party to get into than the usual legends of tightly controlled doors, the SFWA and Balantine Books parties. It also made for a very funny panel discussion 6 months later at the 81 Boskone, where the 5 of us siting up at the table in front discussed how such a future system could work, carefully avoiding any use of the present tense, not telling them that "our tax dollars" were paying for one as we sat there.
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If someone mails you something, unsolicited (even in error) its yours. Those that got them in the mail without asking for one, own the hardware. Federal law says the "hardware license" part of the "contract" is void.
(this got enacted after places started sending people unsolicited "merchandise", followed by a bill. Its very clear now, you mail it to someone without their asking for it, they own it)
I can't comment on the "loan" status for those that asked for one at ratshack.
Ever hear of an old invention called the bicycle? Very low resource needs (remember, half the fuel burned and pollution emitted by an automobile happens in manufacture, before it does even a single mile of driving. For the low emmission/fuel consumption sort, I bet the ratio is even worse)
"but I can't" -- The median auto trip in the US is less than 2 miles. The typical commute (all modes) is around 6 miles. It would do us a huge amount of good if some of those trips happened by other means. Not just in reduction of congestion, or the huge infrastructure subsisdies that cars get, but in overall life expectancy. Cycling is actually safer than driving, (yes, I do have the numbers to back it up) and the regular exercise of utility cycling will do wonders to your risk of heart disease.
It should not take 2.5 tons of metal, and a couple of ounces of petroleum to transport a videotape 1.5 miles to the rental return. Its almost beyond ironic to use the same resources to transport an otherwise healthy 13 yr old to an athletic practice.
Thanks for the kind words. The brit series is all taped, its now the directors/editors turn to go heads down and turn more than 100 hours of tape into a coherent 50 minute (44 for the US market) whole. (they usually have 6-8 cameras going while building, and often more than that while testing) No more flying over to London at the TV companies expense till next year.
You may not believe this, but that tape was made the first day the team had ever met in person. (our common friends were suprised we didn't already know each other, there were several that knew all three of us) We were originally going to describe how a Mr. Coffee worked, how it got cold water from the bottom mounted resivoir to hot water out the outlet over the basket, without anything resembling a pump. But it was late on Sunday, and we couldn't find a matching pair to bisect on camera... (Crash had brought his sawzall to the session for that purpose). Geo suggested sewing machines, so we rooted around the junk in his loft, and found the makings of the machine. (yes, the bobbin is Cat 5 ethernet cable, in electric blue) Took us about half an hour to build.
As I said elsewhere, I watched, and didn't get the overwhelming urge to compete that Junkyard Wars/Scrapheap Challenge left me with. I simply had to enter a team to Scrapheap. Perhaps if I were 15 years younger, or hadn't seen Scrapheap first. But this does seem a fairly pale competitor, they are only solving the one problem, the only real physics taught is Ke=1/2mv^2, and thats done tacitly. Blendo's been built, and given the restrictions on projectiles, can't really be defeated, so why bother.
This doesn't mean I won't watch (as long as they keep some semblance of tech amongst the hype) If nothing else, they need to find some "decorations" with brains. (they are scarce, but do exist).
Things that might get me building one -- make them autonomous. If not autonomous, have them constructed on camera. (and yes, fever pitch construction can be GREAT tv, especially if you supply the builders large angle grinders).
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For those that haven't seen blendo, it was a manhole cover with a central undercarriage, that held the rim of the cover just above ground level, with a dome (heavy gauge WOK) welded to it. There were a couple of "teeth" fitted to the edge of the disk, and a 5hp or possibly 7.5hp gas engine to drive it (your basic briggs and stratton). Spun the "cover assembly" at >500rpm. Anything that tried to hit the spinning wok, got tossed aside, and anything presented to the teeth was digested. Its builder just had to drive it up to the other guy, and bits of robot were driven thru the safety cage. The two times it was run, they had to stop competition, and let the remaining 'bots battle for second.
Its funny, but I watched Junkyard Wars, and by the first commercial, knew that I had to be a part of it. Watching the robots was entertaining, but I didn't have an overwhelming need to start designing and building an entry.
Its always the same problem, and you know about it in advance. There isn't a time limit on building the things. You don't have to improvise to suit the materials you can find. (and you don't get to see them getting built).
If they were autonomous, it might be more interesting, but I have otherwise outgrown video games.
Besides given a choice between a week in London, and a couple of days in Las Vegas, I will take London every time..
In a similar vein, there is Kal's group, the Seemen, and (the efforts of just two people) The Large Hot Pipe Organ.
On a somewhat gentler note, there is Kinetic Sculpture Racing (got its original start 30 years ago). There is also an annual "Art Cars" festival, but I don't have a link handy.
BTW: One of the members of The NERDS, Geo has worked with SRL, and various european industrial art groups. He is rather proud of his building TK-1the worlds first, and only known wood fired, twin turbocharged, hot tub.
This is covered in more detail in the FAQ
Quick summary: TLC is still making up their mind about showing the soon to debut 10 show British third season. (which among other things has us Yankee NERDS taking on some British teams). Calls to the network should help their decision. (oh yea, there are 7 episodes from years 1 and 2 that haven't been shown here either)
They did commision the UK production company to make a seven show all-american series. Same pile of scrap, same crew, same caliber of challenge. They replaced Robert with an american comedian, and all the teams are from the US (and possibly Canada). They will show this sometime starting in January. (no, The NERDS aren't in that one, there is a real advantage to having done a show, so it wasn't fair for us to go up against a brand new team -- next year when they have the possibility of returning teams, we expect to have a go against our countrymen)
The only physics it demonstrates is Ke=1/2mv^2, and you don't get to see them building the things.
There is a real "Iron" chef like mechanical challenge show, in the UK it goes by the name Scrapheap Challenge, when shown in the US, they call it Junkyard Wars. It too features a Red Dwarf actor as host, this time Robert, the guy that plays Kryten (without the mask however).
Basic premise: Two 3 person teams are each provided with a specalist, identical workshops, and equal access to an 800 ton pile of scrap metal. (literally). Dragged from their beds at the crack of dawn, costumed in flameproofed jump suits, they are given a problem to solve (something "simple" like a one person glider, or a 4 person amphibian. How about A diving bell, or a MPG marathon machine. It might be something that can solve a problem, say retrieve a car sunk underwater), and they have 10 hours to build a solution, using only what they pull off the scrap pile. The next day, the two machines are run head to head, and the better one's team advances to the next round, and a harder challenge.
I organized the first US team to compete. We think its a whole lot more fun than Survivor or Iron Chef. The obvious questions are answered in my FAQ
In the UK, the show is carried by Channel 4, and the new season starts Sept 17. In the US, TLC carries it, but not particularly well. (they have show 6 of the 13 existing episodes, and haven't yet agreed to pick up the third season. They have commisioned their own version, to be shown in Jan/Feb timeframe.)
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We flew over, we built, we can't say what we got to build, or how we did until the shows air, we had a truly great time.
This planet needs a lot more kids that think taking the lawnmowers' engine apart is more fun than playing nintendo.