CAD file formats are a mess.
I’m trying to get a part made in Autodesk Inventor into Mastercam.
IGES is borked. Half the surfaces don’t come in.
SAT has a version mismatch or something, and it refuses to import.
I don’t have a license for STEP import, apparently, and STL (even if it isn’t NURBS) is messed up like IGES.
This is obviously an attempt by Autodesk to dominate the world.
Today, my friend told me about this amazing new Internet filter. He went to a meeting at the city hall, where it was being demonstrated to the government. Apparently, the police gave it the thumbs up and recommended it for the schools. On a news story, it said that it was made by a Purdue University graduate Gabe Luu.
To make a long story short… the entire program is amateurish (can’t blame the one guy) and ultimately ineffective.
Personal Proxies
On the Safe Chat website, there’s an example image showing Porn.com with and without Safe Chat. What Safe Chat does is kill any browser that’s not Internet Explorer (no Firefox). So… I set Safe Chat to block MySpace, because according to the media, MySpace is the breeding grounds of predators.
OK, Safe Chat blocked MySpace.com like it should. But, with my own little proxy server, I got around it easy. Strike 1 for Safe Chat.
Public Proxies
OK, so maybe Safe Chat didn’t block my proxy because it’s a tiny obscure little proxy only used by me. Let’s try something much more popular. Let’s try PHProxy.org. Nope. Still got to MySpace. Strike 2.
Instant Messaging
Safe Chat’s instant messaging works by whitelisting contacts. Safe Chat quickly killed Miranda when I started it. Renaming the executible didn’t work. Thank god they didn’t miss that easy easy trick.
How I broke it
I got out my trusty debugger/memory editor and started playing around with SCCheck.exe’s memory. It terminated or exited or died or something, and my Internet access was unfettered. “That was easy.” Programs shouldn’t just go away when another program messes with it a little. That’s like poking a security guard in the face and walking past without raising any alarms.
Conclusion
How much did Luu bribe the police with? Either that or the police were computer illiterate. Seriously. Protection is very simple and unintelligent. It blacklists sites (try blacklisting the Internet), filters words, and bans the user from choosing which browser or instant messaging client to use. That’s all. There’s no comprehensive, company-maintaned, often-updated list of bad sites and categories. Safe Chat cannot compare to a dedicated corporate filtering solution, such as one from 8e6 (which Kokomo Schools already has, too!). Actually, Safe Chat cannot compare to most software solutions like it. So sad.
This software also has one of the worst interfaces ever. Nice cool titlebar Luu… but you are in desperate need of a UI expert. Speaking of which… I’m available for reasonable rates.
by Eric Jiang
reporting from St. Louis, Missouri
“Three, two, one, go!” The match begins and two sides furiously battle it out on the 28 by 54 foot field, knowing that one small mistake could cost them the championship. The hundreds of fans in the stands are at a fever pitch, loudly cheering them on in any way they can. This is no ordinary sport. This is FIRST Robotics.
Every year, thousands of high school teams around the world are given six weeks to construct a remote-controlled robot to compete in the FIRST Robotics Championships. This year, two alliances of three teams each must compete to place inflatable “ringers” on a centerpiece contraption known as the “rack” and form rows and columns of tubes. Bonus points are scored by lifting your own team’s robots off the ground at the end of the 2:15 min. match.
This year, Kokomo High School’s robotics team, the TechnoKats, traveled to St. Louis to take part in the regional competition from March 1st to 3rd. The TechnoKats were one of 45 teams attending St. Louis, each with their own unique strategy for scoring points.
Their robot was simple: six wheels, an arm that went up and down, and a pneumatic claw. The operators, seniors Kyle Love and Nick Bailey, spent many long hours practicing for this event. The TechnoKats had some of the most impressive performances, managing to score as many as seven ringers in a row, a feat few teams accomplished.
The TechnoKats, in an alliance with the Lightning Lancers from Missouri and Warren Central from Indianapolis, advanced to the final matches on Saturday. One of the most valuable robots on the alliance was Warren Central’s; its main duty was to act as a ramp to lift the other robots off the ground. Every match, they managed to lift at least one robot, scoring huge bonuses. These bonuses were what led them on an unstoppable winning streak to first place. The final match between them and the regional finalists was decided in a landslide victory: 66 to 16.
But FIRST, which stands for For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, is not just about scoring points and winning. FIRST, founded in 1992 by Segway inventor Dean Kamen, is there to inspire students to be engineers and scientists, to give them experience working in a team, and to teach them “gracious professionalism.” That is why the most prestigious award, the Chairman’s Award, isn’t given to the team that scores the most points. It is given to the team that “best embodies the principles of FIRST.” Chairman’s Award winners often have a history of sportsmanship, community service, and even starting and mentoring other teams. “Ten years ago, when I graduated from high school, there weren’t any programs like that established. It gets [the students] way ahead of their peers for college,” said Amy Przybylinski. Przybylinski helps manage team scouting, marketing, and award submissions. For junior Andy Gibson, the most important part about FIRST was “teaching people how to work together to achieve something more than what they would normally achieve.” Indeed, the judges noticed that in almost every interview they conducted, students cited teamwork as the most important thing they gained. The TechnoKats came in this year with a brand new rock ‘n’ roll theme. Their new look includes concert-style tickets, golden record awards for other teams and a new logo inspired by 80’s rock band Journey.
Not only were the TechnoKats regional champions, but they also took home the Motorola Design Award. The Motorola Design Award recognizes superior engineering and an excellent robot design.The TechnoKats have more competition ahead. They will be heading out to Purdue for the Boilermaker regional from March 15th to 17th. Soon after that, they will journey down to Atlanta, Georgia for the world championships, held from April 12th to 14th. “Hopefully the same amount of fun we’ve had [at St. Louis] will be at Boilermaker and nationals,” said Gibson.
The TechnoKats are certainly making a big comeback from last year’s unimpressive performance. Said Przybylinski, “The exciting part for me was seeing that after a couple years of having less success than we used to.” Exclaimed lead mentor Andy Baker, “This year, we are ‘Back in Black’!”
Eric Jiang is a sophomore at Kokomo High School and is a member of the TechnoKats.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
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