I'm slipping on keep everyone up to date on FIRST in the News, even when it is with our own team. Yes, Team 904 was interviewed a couple weeks ago and the resulting show was aired at least 4 times on local TV.
If you saw the show, post a comment and let me know what you think. If you haven't seen it, you can see it here:
http://www.marandatv.com/2008/11/22/where-you-live-november-22-2008/
- then you can come back and leave a comment. :)
Just so you know, this is a half hour show that is devoted to science and technology. Team 904 enters the scene at about 6:30 into the broadcast.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Programming Poll Results
So for the last few weeks, my blog has had a poll that asked users how they'll be programming their FIRST Robotics Competition robots for 2009. All 3 votes unanimously pointed to C++ as being the programming platform of choice.
This is quite interesting since National Instruments (maker of the cRIO) has been heavily pushing LabVIEW. Not coincidentally, National Instruments is also the developer of LabVIEW. Makes sense right, make us use their hardware and then give us their proprietary development environment to use for programming the hardware.
I know Wind River is providing their Workbench for C++ folks to use, but in the end, C++ can be used in thousands of different environments, from Microsoft to Eclipse from Sun Microsystems. There are C++ environments that are free and there are some that cost a lot of coin.
LabVIEW isn't what I would call a language but an application where the user can drag and drop "things" to make logic to solve a problem. This is essentially what a computer program is, however it is written using commands and specific syntax to create an algorithm that solves the problem.
I'm not trying to beat up on LabVIEW; I have downloaded it and have given it a whirl. I have intended on posting a review. I'm not sure if that will happen or not, but I'll try. I am surprised that all votes on my poll went to C++ considering the amount of effort NI has used to promote LabVIEW.
Now, time for a new poll.
This is quite interesting since National Instruments (maker of the cRIO) has been heavily pushing LabVIEW. Not coincidentally, National Instruments is also the developer of LabVIEW. Makes sense right, make us use their hardware and then give us their proprietary development environment to use for programming the hardware.
I know Wind River is providing their Workbench for C++ folks to use, but in the end, C++ can be used in thousands of different environments, from Microsoft to Eclipse from Sun Microsystems. There are C++ environments that are free and there are some that cost a lot of coin.
LabVIEW isn't what I would call a language but an application where the user can drag and drop "things" to make logic to solve a problem. This is essentially what a computer program is, however it is written using commands and specific syntax to create an algorithm that solves the problem.
I'm not trying to beat up on LabVIEW; I have downloaded it and have given it a whirl. I have intended on posting a review. I'm not sure if that will happen or not, but I'll try. I am surprised that all votes on my poll went to C++ considering the amount of effort NI has used to promote LabVIEW.
Now, time for a new poll.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Why FIRST?
FIRST was started over 15 years ago by inventor Dean Kamen. He felt that Americans were idolizing sports stars and pop culture to the point that we were beginning to suffer with respect to science and technology. His philosophy was, we need to create an activity for young people, where they could idolize scientists and engineers, and direct their endeavors toward a future where they'd be best equipped to solve problems. He is absolutely correct and that is why I devote a lot of my time to helping FIRST and students on FIRST teams.
I feel that we (Americans) are losing the lead on science and technology breakthroughs. We've stifeled creativity at the educational level and that is no longer blossoming into a rich creative group of scientists and engineers. We need them badly.
FIRST is all about letting students be creative along with learning real-world skills to solve engineering problems. This set of skills is what we need to solve many of the problems we are facing today.
I try to read a few blogs every day; most of them are related to either science or astronomy. I just finished reading a post regarding the distant star Betelgeuse. The post went into a lot of detail regarding the discovery of a bow shock that was recently imaged around the star. To me, this is wickedly cool. It shows that there is some sort of interstellar medium surrounding the star (not just a vacuum, like I learned in school). That aside, what device made this discovery you ask? It was Akari, a Japanese satellite observatory.
Americans have fallen into a rut, and believe that everything new that is discovered or invented comes from our great land. Not so.
Congratulations to Japan. Maybe the next discovery will be from the US of A... maybe not. This is why we need FIRST.
I feel that we (Americans) are losing the lead on science and technology breakthroughs. We've stifeled creativity at the educational level and that is no longer blossoming into a rich creative group of scientists and engineers. We need them badly.
FIRST is all about letting students be creative along with learning real-world skills to solve engineering problems. This set of skills is what we need to solve many of the problems we are facing today.
I try to read a few blogs every day; most of them are related to either science or astronomy. I just finished reading a post regarding the distant star Betelgeuse. The post went into a lot of detail regarding the discovery of a bow shock that was recently imaged around the star. To me, this is wickedly cool. It shows that there is some sort of interstellar medium surrounding the star (not just a vacuum, like I learned in school). That aside, what device made this discovery you ask? It was Akari, a Japanese satellite observatory.
Americans have fallen into a rut, and believe that everything new that is discovered or invented comes from our great land. Not so.
Congratulations to Japan. Maybe the next discovery will be from the US of A... maybe not. This is why we need FIRST.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Games
I know all kids like games, and some adults too. I've found a couple games online that I like and I'm going to give them a quick review.
Fantastic Contraption
A physics based game that requires the player to build machines to move the game-piece into it's finish zone. The first 20+ levels are free, and there are more that you can buy. I made it through all of the free levels, and haven't yet tried the additional levels. Some of them are quite tough, but I managed to figure them out, so I know you can too. You can save your contraptions and also see contraptions that other users have created. You can rate other players contraptions, some are simple and elegant, some are unbelievably complicated and others are just plain cool.
Assembler
Another physics based game that requires the player to build simple structures with the supplied shapes to get the game piece(s) into their proper zone. This game is much easier to complete the levels, but it keeps a timer running and shows speed records from other players. This part is kinda hokey, because you can restart a level as many times as you want. In the end all your timed on is how fast you can drag the shapes around, not really on how fast you can solve the problem.
To summarize, both games make you think and are quite addictive. I'd recommend that anyone getting their brains in shape for designing a FIRST Robotics robot, try them out and have some fun. Just make sure you don't play for too long, and get your homework done first!
Fantastic Contraption
A physics based game that requires the player to build machines to move the game-piece into it's finish zone. The first 20+ levels are free, and there are more that you can buy. I made it through all of the free levels, and haven't yet tried the additional levels. Some of them are quite tough, but I managed to figure them out, so I know you can too. You can save your contraptions and also see contraptions that other users have created. You can rate other players contraptions, some are simple and elegant, some are unbelievably complicated and others are just plain cool.
Assembler
Another physics based game that requires the player to build simple structures with the supplied shapes to get the game piece(s) into their proper zone. This game is much easier to complete the levels, but it keeps a timer running and shows speed records from other players. This part is kinda hokey, because you can restart a level as many times as you want. In the end all your timed on is how fast you can drag the shapes around, not really on how fast you can solve the problem.
To summarize, both games make you think and are quite addictive. I'd recommend that anyone getting their brains in shape for designing a FIRST Robotics robot, try them out and have some fun. Just make sure you don't play for too long, and get your homework done first!
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