The Intergalactic Highway

however my time (and money) is limited

The issue of money is always in the way! >.< LoL And, naturally, time is always against us all.

Thanks for the support. It would be so awesome to be working on the next wave of Transformers.. and the wave after that.. and... you get the idea.

You're quite welcome. And that would be awesome! I sincerely hope you make it there. You'll do a great job! After all, someone needs to kick Hasbro in the rear for those... *shudder* Star Wars Transformers.

Come on people! Who out there wants to see this giant green behemoth standing out the front of the next Botcon site?

Oooo! *jumps* Me, me, me! LoL Seriously, that would be one of the coolest things. I can just see it in my mind right now. It would be schweet!

British guy over here!


If somebody hasnt said already,watch out OOP's waffles!

If I ever find out who keeps frisbying my waffles around, I'll stab you with a banana! NO! I'll stab you with a slimy, brown, rotting banana!

Yeah, mate, hope you get better soon. I got it last week and as a result missed two days of work, a whole bunch of gym time and my training for fencing

Dude, you fence????!!! *waives around a foil, trying to remember her only five lessons* If you're ever in Alberta....

"Decepticons forever!" Hey, if you're in robotics, why not aim for a MOVING Devastator statue? At the very least, an arm waiving around or something

And speaking of the Way of Primus, have you seen the Church of Optimus shirt on the 'net yet? If you haven't, I can pester my bro for the link.

SilverfromOZ wrote:G'day all,

my name's Joseph and I'm a 23 year old engineering student from Australia who is just finishing up my industrial training. Meaning that by November, I will be free, cashed-up and head over to Japan and good 'ol US of A. I am currently hunting around for any hint of a convention in either country and would really appreciate any information at all. Also, I'm going to need things to do and people to meet, so if anyone is interested in making friends with a whacky, tall, blonde, boy from down under I'd be interested in making friends with you. So that's me. I look forward to many long and interesting rants about BW, TF and the ever delicate issue of whether Beast Machines was a worthy successor of Beast Wars

-Joe

Greetings from the US! Now, would you prefer me to refer to you as "Silver", "SilverfromOZ", or "Joe"?

You're a Robotics Engineer, eh? Which particular discipline do you hail from; mechanics, or controls? Personally I'm more of a controls person. I like to think of myself as a programmer, although I find myself saying

See Code
See Code Crash
Why Code Why?!?!

quite often. Heh, name of the game I suppose. Plus I enjoy playing around with wires more than calculating the mechanical advantage of a robotic arm (even though I have been known to design a part and then get my hands dirty in the machine shop). The threat of electrocution is a great motivator for quality workmanship.

Never fear, if you're whacky, you will find yourself in excellent company.

BM, began to grow on me. At first I hated it, but as I got older I started to appreciate it a bit more. The story line is good, some of the character development was very interesting, and the final fight between Optimus and Megatron kicked bot. Although I'm not sure if ANY show could be a worthy successor to Beast Wars.

Posted by: Optimal Optimus Primal

After all, someone needs to kick Hasbro in the rear for those... *shudder* Star Wars Transformers.

They did WHAT?!?!

*decrypts World Domination pamphlet from hidden jumpdrive in his desk*

If anyone should need me, I will be locked in my Lair of Shtuffness!

Yes. I did foil for about 5 years, then moved on to Epee for the last five years. I am also President of the Club Marconi Fencing Academy which we just formed this year. Its a cool sport but still very low profile... I mean seriously, people hitting each other with swords does not sell?!!! Alberta huh? Hmmm.. meeting a fellow Beast Wars fan who has fencing skills (yes 5 lessons still counts as skills ) and adding another country to my holiday plan.... sounds tempting

No, I have not seen the shirt, however it seems like something I require...

EGADS!! A slimy banana no less... well I am the waffle culprit and take this (plucks out a feather and pokes it at Optimus) AHA!!

Hey Kamikaze, congratulations on your country owning mine

Of the star wars transformers General Grievous is the best and I didn't mind Han and Chewie because they looked good and the combiner into the Millenium Falcon is a cool design. Boba Fett looks like Fattius Maximus and Vader looks like he has been stretched out on a torture device

Well the ultimate level of the Devastator statue would be to have it doing the hulk-smash gesture whilst it's eyes light up and shoot lasers That's at the realistic level of automation that a lone mad engineer could potentially accomplish, however if it becomes a large-scale project (as if six pieces of earthmoving equipment were not large enough) I know a place here which sells MASSIVE DC motors. One of them is about the size of a volkswagon beetle. One of those per joint, and "Devastator Crush!!"

Hey Moosey,

yeah sorry mate. I don't know how it happened but I wasn't notified about your message and I posted past you. I hope the stuffiness is now not directed at me. I don't want ANOTHER stuffiness war... believe me the last one was so bad we couldn't fit through the door.

OK I studied Mechatronics at eh University of New South Wales and did a mix of control, AI and my thesis involved a vision system for an agricultural tractor. So I think my skills at the moment are somewhat varied. As I am currently doing my industrial training, I have yet to pick the exact field I want to permanently sink my teeth into. Obviously working in the toy industry would be fantastic but I just love anything to do with robotics so even if its a robot that scans through a giant box of paperclips and locateds the slight stress fractures, they are still cool machinies to watch working and it always gives me a buzz when things start going right.

I understand the mantra that you mentioned. A mate and I had to program a small wheeled rug-warrior and no joke, for about a month we kept churning through the code and everything was right but no response. By the end of it we were pulling out our hair and swearing and on the very DAY it was due, we noticed one tiny imperfection and sure enough everything worked. We got the best mark in class too. Robots are funny things and fun to play with

Excellent note on the whackiness and electrocuton. I think we will get along swimmingly #he says as the still smouldering remains of his house sits in the background#

So you're a New Yorker. Groovy. Apparently Sydney is the New York equivalent of Australia, because everyone talks so fast and is witty and always in a rush. You other people from other states come over and yell at you to slow down. I'm actually aiming to land in New York as my first stop when I go in my holiday in November (provided that work does not want to keep me on until after that period) perhaps two crazy people can meet and discuss Beast Wars at length in a fast paced, witty conversation.

Sorry again for the unintentional snub but I promise not to do it again if you send a donation to.... Look forward to hearing from you again.

Right.......well i'm Bob and i'm an American! I'm also a Megatron fan, so if you ever do get into the Transformers business.......make a cool looking Megatron, or a transforming rubber duck. And I agree that Megatron and Primal's battle at the end of Beast Machines was really cool......but I didn't like how the maximals looked. Welcome I guess.

Think nothing of it Silver. I never perceived it as a snub by any means.

I'd be very happy meet up and show you around, but I'm not entirely a New Yorker. I love the city, but I actually live about 6 hours away from NYC.

By the end of it we were pulling out our hair and swearing and on the very DAY it was due, we noticed one tiny imperfection and sure enough everything worked. We got the best mark in class too. Robots are funny things and fun to play with

Hah, I've fixed a piece of code less than 5 minutes before it was due! (Talk about cutting it close!) It's amazing how one little line of code, or one tiny variable can cause the entire machine to go nuts (and you as well ).

I partake in a thing called the FIRST Robotics Competition. I have been a part of my school's team for the past 4 years (and will probably continue into college next year as a mentor for a team). It's one of the most amazing things out there in the field of science and technology. The Official FIRST Website. Each year we get a new game to play using a robot, we have 6 weeks to design, build, test, re-build, and program a robot to be used in a competition. The season starts in January and runs through February and March (the build season stops in February, and is followed by the competitions obviously). Every January, each team watches a live web broadcast which explains what the game is all about. We have all of the documentation before hand, but FIRST has sponsors such as NASA working on their encryption and security features so no one has yet managed to open the Game Manual before FIRST gives us the password.

Here is the official animation explaining last season's game.

Here is a video I slapped together of my team's regional competition in Rochester, New York. It's not my best work (I have since upgraded my editing suite) since I didn't spend too much time perfecting it. I love our robot in this video (it's the boxy one with orange and green bumpers). The drive train was so maneuverable, and the thing was a BEAST! We could swap between 4 wheel and 2 wheel drive, we could shove almost ANY robot out of our way (I was one of the two drivers for my team, I've never had so much fun). We clocked the robot at a top speed of 22 MPH (we used a radar gun), and I almost knocked over the huge Lexan/diamond plate shield you see in front of the driver stations (I wasn't even going full speed, it was completely accidental).

While in the U.S. I would suggest going to one of these competitions, they are absolutely crazy! Loud music, thousands of dollars worth of hardware and software clashing on the field, brilliant minds pitted against each other, and a feeling of excitement that is hard to match.

I think we will get along swimmingly #he says as the still smouldering remains of his house sits in the background#

Hmm, it would appear that you made a slight miscalculation.

Speaking of annoying lines of code. I am currently tearing my hair out over this spreadsheet. It is doing everything I need except it creates a clone of itself and can't save over the origiinal because it is still open and thus it opens, creates the new sheet I want it to and then closes without saving anything. Thus its a very time consuming way of doing nothing Oh well life goes on.

Yeah it would be really cool to have a contact in the NY ish area. I'm currently contemplating car hire for interstate travel and am looking at driving to Rhode Island after NY, then Ohio (have relatives there) and then Florida (again relatives, not to mention Disneyland ). However, I have just been informed that I need to be at least 25. Is this true? Also, how long do you estimate travelling times between place to be? I'm giving a day of intensive driving (or other transport) to get from place to place.

The Robotics comp sounds awesome. Do you know of any happening from about the 15th - 30th November? I have a lot of ground to cover and not much time to do it in (the company has asked me to work for an extended period with them which is super shiny).

Hmmm, Novermber, eh? Well, I think there is a post season competition in November out in Rochester, there are a few others in the fall that I can look into (some are better than others mind you).

Driving? Well, from New York to Florida, you can expect about a day's drive I believe (24 hours that is). You could probably get a better estimate from Google Maps. As for the age limit, yes, it appears as though rental-car companies would like you to be 25, but it does look like they will rent to people 21-24 years of age with a surcharge applied per-day. (I just found that by looking at the Avis website quickly.) You may be able to make arrangements through the company you work for, they may have some sort of rental agreement with Aviz or Hertz.

Actually, I just checked out the Hertz site, they will rent to people 18 and up, they just have a different set of prices depending on how old you are.

The whole 25 thing is really ridiculous, it has to do with the insurance companies and research that said people over 25 are better drivers than people under 25.

If you do not mind me asking, which company are you working for?

Not at all. I'm currently working for Alcoa. Big aluminium processing plant which is conveniently located 10mins drive away from home.

Thank for info that's quite a relief that driving may still be an option. I'm interested in cruising the wild american roads in a 2005 Mustang

If you don't mind, I'll leave my robotics craziness plans in your hands. You know where I'm heading and seem to be on the pulse with these competitions. If you could post the relevant info and you recommendations, I'll see what I can slot into my itinerary.

Thanks again for all the help. Look forward to catching up in person if possible. Now it's back to waging war in the dark, murky quagmire that is Microsoft Excel

G'day, mate! D-Chan here. I'm an aussie too! Yaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyy! I'm a newbie i joined yesterday LoL

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Cheetor: Wow, Big Bot sure knows how to handle a new body!
Rattrap: Well, sure he changes them an awful lot.

-Beast Wars - Optimal Situation

I love using G'day shamelessly don't you

It's great cause no one from any other country has the right to it

WHAT?! This thread had over 5000 views?!! Wowsers. That was some time ago.

Well welcome again D-Chan