Yeah it basically only goes when I bink freerolls.

K, gonna give Bovada a try. I got the itch to play some pokers. Having to use an international Visa gift card seems annoying.

Nope not dead. I'll see your lol-auto-fold and raise you some run good when taking a shot at 2/4



Almost makes up for playing 8/16 live and watching a drunk guy dust off 5 racks and me only winning 1.125 BB's for the session . On the bright side I realized I previously (at the B in LV a few months back) met old school poster merryber. Counts for a win for the weekend, right?

Hello all. I haven't played a hand of poker in a couple years. How does it work?

get a netspend prepaid card and use that

hi buzzerson

I bink a $400 second place finish and we move on to talk of auto folding hands without a single gg, congrats, sup bro or anything even remotely resembling acknowledgement.

You guys are miserable old curmudgeons.

Or we're just used to you owning, and expected a first? Think you flew across the fold for me. Nice bink. Keep up the good work.

Not that I'll ever see my Merge/Carbon money but hypothetically I'm too busy rubbing it on my titties.

carbon money should be fine. checks are faster lately than they were a while ago. i got my last two in 6 weeks and then 5 weeks.

I wish. In a year and a half of playing in this monthly game this was my best finish. I should have won but couldn't close the deal. Very happy regardless.

did you just called me old



just my luck to miss that guy w a -5 racks...

Not old, but "old school." That just means your join date is from before I started playing/in highschool

And yeah the only thing more frustrating that watching him dust off that money was the guys who won most of it were playing like 29/4 vpip/pfr

I assumed you always won!! Congrats in the 2nd

Oh and yes congrats

***crickets***

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnFQQtdB7Do

It seems like I'm coaching a competitive robotics team. My personal weakness is likely gear trains. Anyone know any good basic guide for once you get past counting teeth for mechanical gain and trade-offs of speed/torque? Real world issues for making decisions about how to design gear selections?

Sounds like a perfect candidate for some book written in the 40's or 50's.

What type/level of competition are you doing? VEX?

If it's that middle school/high school level, I would guess that a lot of what your decision-making will be based on size limitations, or possibly just the availability of parts (unless you're well-resourced and can buy whatever you need).

Here's a link to the VEX lessons on power transmission. I suspect this falls into the lower levels of things you already know, but there's an interesting "real world" setup that they give in section 8.10.

http://curriculum.vexrobotics.com/cu...r-transmission

Yes, definitely.
They're doing a mixed elementary/middle school VexIQ team. Several of the kids did a school team last year, and I'm hoping to add some real world expertise. I have read the VexIQ curriculum (which is really good), and I'm trying to figure out how to get the group of 8-11 year old kids through as much of it as possible. From the programming side, my professional experience is spot on and I can really help. From the mechanical side, once you get to dynamics, I'm more of a hobbyist... or worse.

Thanks for the Vex link, I think the higher level competition set is more in depth. Hadn't thought to look there. If nothing else, expanding my own knowledge helps.

I'm trying to make it out to Vegas in June, if you're around. Would love to get together.

That's a good age for learning by failing (and I mean that in the most positive way possible). They would probably work better from problems in search of a solution rather than a concept in search of an application.

A year ago, I bought a Vex IQ set for fun and built a few things. I really enjoyed how well the components fit together. I've also played with the high school Vex stuff, but I think right now I prefer the simplicity of the Vex IQ stuff.

How many of them are there and how much time do you have with them? Also, does the group exist to compete or are they students who just think this stuff is fun?

A "real life" application of this stuff is big construction machinery. You can point to a front-loader and ask questions like "How many places does the bucket/arm pivot?" and "What piston moves which part?" and "Why does that piston push there and not somewhere else?" And then you can have them try to make something that moves like that.

There are also some more dopey sorts of things that you can talk about:
* Why does it hurt more if your hand gets pinched in a door on the hinge side instead of the far side? (Levers)
* Stand with your heels and butt against the wall. Now bend over and try to touch your toes. Why do you keep falling over? (Center of gravity)

Don't worry. I'm sure you can out-think the kids. And if you're not sure what's going on, you can always challenge them to figure it out themselves!

I'll be here. When the time gets closer, let me know what your plans are.

You have a good point here. I'm somewhat frustrated in these scholastic competitions due to the emphasis on "creativity" -- without a basis of experience and a toolbox of ideas, how do you synthesize something? You're saying, just use trial and error and understand weeding out failure. Like that.
State competition had both, with the mid and high school levels doing Vex. The big versions were impressive, though I think all the schools came up with basically 3 ideas and all designs were variations of those. The IQ competition had much wider variation.
There will be between 6 and 8 in the group. We're trying to be a competitive team and qualify for worlds. I think most of the kids are starting from "this is fun" and that's why they did the school robotics class. We're hoping to have an hour or two a week, and we have nearly 6 months of "free" time before competitions start.
Like that. From the competitive robots I've seen, catapults are a good tool -- the spring force of the rubber bands is consistent, and it lets you do some cool things. Have to figure out a good real-world analog.
Like those, as well. They've had a good introduction to CG because this year's competition was on a ramp. They haven't had a lot of experience fixing CG problems, and that's a cool idea.

In the competitions we went to, there were two club teams that dominated. I also thought it might be fun to build versions of their robots and ask "why did those work so well" and "could we even improve their designs".
Will do

I just looked, and I didn't see that they announced next year's game yet. Maybe you can have them go through the design process of a robot from a game from a previous year. You've got enough for 2-3 teams to compete against each other.

Thought I would stop by for a peek and can't resist saying hello to my old friends in the micros. Good on you all!!!!!