From: db...@nospam.com (Dave Baum) Subject: Minstorms beta testing Date: 1998/08/24 Message-ID: <dbaum-2408981635200001@kebob-28.d.enteract.com>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 384333468 Organization: EnterAct L.L.C. Turbo-Elite News Server Newsgroups: rec.toys.lego I don't know any of the details of the Mindstorms beta test, but I was involved in the Robolab beta test. (Robolab is the RCX software available through Dacta). The Robolab beta test was a *real* beta test. It ran over several months, with intermim versions of software released to fix bugs discovered during the beta. I am sure that Mindstorms had a similar testing process. The recently announced "public beta test", however, seems like more of a publicity and information gathering exercise than anything else (why else would they care about family income). I assume everyone who responded to the beta test questionaire will get a follow up notice about mindstorms being available, etc. Since Mindstorms is now released, I've posting some pictures of a few RCX creations on my web site: http://www.enteract.com/~dbaum/lego/creations/index.html Dave -- reply to: dbaum at enteract dot com
From: Larry Pieniazek <l...@voyager.net> Subject: Re: Minstorms beta testing Date: 1998/08/24 Message-ID: <35E229BD.A498C6AD@voyager.net>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 384424760 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit References: <dbaum-2408981635200001@kebob-28.d.enteract.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Organization: Cambridge Technology Partners Mime-Version: 1.0 Reply-To: lp...@ctp.IWANTNOSPAM.com Newsgroups: rec.toys.lego Cool models, thanks for the info and the pics! How did you get involved? That is, who contacted who? Did you get a full set of stuff to play with and keep? Dave Baum wrote: > > I don't know any of the details of the Mindstorms beta test, but I was > involved in the Robolab beta test. (Robolab is the RCX software available > through Dacta). > > The Robolab beta test was a *real* beta test. It ran over several months, > with intermim versions of software released to fix bugs discovered during > the beta. > > I am sure that Mindstorms had a similar testing process. The recently > announced "public beta test", however, seems like more of a publicity and > information gathering exercise than anything else (why else would they > care about family income). I assume everyone who responded to the beta > test questionaire will get a follow up notice about mindstorms being > available, etc. > > Since Mindstorms is now released, I've posting some pictures of a few RCX > creations on my web site: > > http://www.enteract.com/~dbaum/lego/creations/index.html > > Dave > > -- > reply to: dbaum at enteract dot com -- Larry Pieniazek http://my.voyager.net/lar I prefer email at my CTP email address. It works fine. Remove the spamblock text to use it. Physical mail should go to my home address, not Auburn Hills. That project is over. Email me for details if you need to.
From: db...@nospam.com (Dave Baum) Subject: Re: Minstorms beta testing Date: 1998/08/24 Message-ID: <dbaum-2408982308100001@hamul-20.d.enteract.com>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 384435341 References: <dbaum-2408981635200001@kebob-28.d.enteract.com> <35E229BD.A498C6AD@voyager.net> Organization: EnterAct L.L.C. Turbo-Elite News Server Newsgroups: rec.toys.lego In article <35E229BD...@voyager.net>, lp...@ctp.IWANTNOSPAM.com wrote: >Cool models, thanks for the info and the pics! How did you get involved? >That is, who contacted who? Did you get a full set of stuff to play with >and keep? > I'll post more pics as I build new things. I now have an "angle sensor", and am going to use that instead of the light sensor in a new "counting car". This way, I can count rotations of the main axle, and won't be dependent on the floor for any sort of lines. I also hope to have a second RCX in a couple of days...most of my ideas need more than 3 motors, and I'll need to get the two RCX's working together (yes, its possible - they can exchange simple IR messages). As for getting involved, part of it was pure chance...Anthony Fudd (robotics master builder), Ben Erwin (one of the software developers), and I are all from the same fraternity at MIT. I got a full Dacta RCX kit...its called "Amusement Park". There are four separate projects in the set, all sharing the amusement park theme. Same basic mix of stuff as Mindstorms: RCX, 2 motors, 2 touch sensors, 1 light sensor. The kit itself is ok - definitely geared to the educational market. The latest Pitsco catalog has all of the information on it. Dave -- reply to: dbaum at enteract dot com