Murch-Blog
Weather.com vs. SimpleWeather
Above is the current information for Brunswick, ME according to weather.com. Beyond the utter crappiness that defines the weather.com layout, design philosophy, ad-inundation, they actually get some stuff right: weather warnings.
A new startup, SimpleWeather.com , gets it mostly right. However, ignoring weather warnings is something they get dead wrong. In fact, I’d say it’s the most important feature in a weather site — people need some warning about when the weather is going to be crap. Here’s the Brunswick, ME data:
According to this forecast, the weather outside is peachy. As I hear the half-inch hail smoothing out the Searles rooftop , I disagree.
RoboCup Style
Team Profile, Microsoft Hellhounds:
Microsoft Hellhounds (formerly known as Ruhrpott Hellhounds), while a newcomer at RoboCup 2006, is one of the oldest and most successful teams in the history of the Four-Legged League. The team was founded in the autumn of 2001, as a project group for students of Computer Science. In spring 2002 it took part to its first competition, German Open 2002, and joined the GermanTeam, a joint effort of the Humboldt University of Berlin, the Bremen University, and the Technical University of Darmstadt, to take part in the RoboCup World Championships as a national team. Together with the other members of the GermanTeam, Microsoft Hellhounds won the Technical Challenge competition at RoboCup 2003, and the Soccer Competition in 2004 and 2005. As an individual team, Microsoft Hellhounds won the German Open 2005, RoboGames 2005, US/German Championship 2005 (defeating the winner of the US Open 2005), Dutch Open 2006 and US Open 2006. Due to its large amount of team members, after RoboCup 2005, Microsoft Hellhounds left the GermanTeam with the intent to compete as a new team at RoboCup 2006.
Team Profile, Northern Bites (I swear to god, check here (and I didn’t even write it, either))
Bowdoin College’s Northern Bites began in Spring 2005. Though we are mostly undergrads balancing full class loads, we enjoy RoboCup as an escape from the standard academic methods of problem sets, examinations, and essays. Team member quotes as to why they joined the nBites: “I was interested in the application of advanced mathematics in a computerized environment.” – Mark McGranaghan ; “I hoped to finally succeed in competition after losing at years of sports in school” – Joho Strom; “Nothing shows the inanity of our human existence more then robot dogs running on carpet.” – George Slavov. You can read all about our glories and downfalls at our state of the art blog: http://robocup.bowdoin.edu