The corn seems to be setting up nicely in the late afternoon the past few days. I think it is actually better now after the rain we received over the past week. Skins were sliding too much so I ended up boot packing up the steeper sections but man, there is nothing like skiing on a warm sunny afternoon with the view of Lake Tahoe in the background.

The RoboCup competition, first held in 1997, is intended to spark developments in robotics and artificial intelligence that could see robots become more useful to humans in rescue operations, assisting the disabled or elderly, and other applications.

The RoboCup competition is a well-known, landmark project in the robotics communities. Virginia Tech became the first team from the United States to participate in RoboCup’s humanoid league when it qualified for the 2007 competition in Atlanta.

RoboCup has multiple leagues for different sizes and types of robots. TEAM VT DARwIn is competing in the kid-size, humanoid league for two-legged robots up to 60 centimeters tall.

The rules of competition get tougher each year, Hong said. Last year’s challenge was for teams of two-robots — one goalie, one striker. This year’s more challenging games will be three-on-three with collaborative play.

The roots of TEAM VT DARwIn go back to 2004, when Hong and his students created a two-legged humanoid robot as part of their research into bipedal locomotion. Since then, he and his students have created progressively more advanced versions. For RoboCup, they are fielding the DARwIn III series.

“It’s a refinement,” Hong said. “Much stronger, faster, smarter.” Developing robots that can walk around like people, as opposed to relying on wheels, is important if robots are to be able to realize their full potential to help humans, Hong said.

“For these robots to live with us, they have to have a similar form, a locomotion method so they can actually climb stairs instead of us building a special ramp for the robots,” he explained.

“RoboCup is an amazing place to be,” he said, “You have so many different robots, developed all over the world. People with completely different backgrounds and educations [are] all competing on the same challenge and trying to do the same things. You really see a lot of different perspectives, which is always very interesting.”

RoboCup team members are allowed to program their robots to perform specific functions on the field, such as forward, defender, and goalie. But the robots have to play autonomously, not by remote control, for two 15-minute periods.

In other words, participants prepare their robots as best they can, then hope their squad will perform as expected.

This instructable will show how you can use an Arduino and a few simple components (wire coil, transistor, capacitor, resistor) to make a device that can spoof an 125 KHz (low frequency) RFID tag.  This is version 1, so there are many enhancements that can be made, but this version is stupid simple, yet it works.  I did this in a few hours without much previous knowledge of RFID and without any fancy equipment (like a radio tuning hardware or an oscilloscope… I guess an oscilloscope is fancy, I need to pick up one of those.

Enter to win two free all-inclusive weeks to Momentum Summer Ski Camps in Whistler with either X Games Record Breaker, TJ Schiller or Olympic Gold medalist Alex Bilodeau as your mentors. Momentum Ski Camps is the largest skiing-only summer camp in North America. For 19 years they have driven and fed the sport of Freestyle skiing in both moguls and freeride, by helping produce some of the greatest skiers in the world. During the 2010 Olympics, 4 of the 6 medals in Moguls went to former Momentum Campers, including Gold for Alex Bilodeau. At X Games this year two of the coaches broke world records. The camp is open and designed to teach all levels of skiers.

To enter, visit MomentumCamps.com and click on the contest button on the front page. ]]> http://tahoedesigner.com/2010/04/12/two-chances-to-win-a-free-summer-camp-at-momentum-ski-camp/feed/ 0 http://tahoedesigner.com/2010/03/23/2010-freeride-champions-crowned-in-verbier/ http://tahoedesigner.com/2010/03/23/2010-freeride-champions-crowned-in-verbier/#comments Tue, 23 Mar 2010 16:47:49 +0000 Tahoe Designer 21564 at http://www.doglotion.com After the men’s final competition was postponed Saturday, due to bad visibility, the world’s best freeride skiers and snowboarders once again took on the mythical 600 metre North face of the Bec des Rosses. In perfect conditions the 24 male riders put on the most spectacular show with the fastest and most committed edition of the 15 years of the “Xtreme”.

After the men’s final competition was postponed Saturday, due to bad visibility, the world’s best freeride skiers and snowboarders once again took on the mythical 600 meter North face of the Bec des Rosses. In perfect conditions the 24 male riders put on the most spectacular show with the fastest and most committed edition of the 15 years of the “Xtreme”. Several first descents were opened on the face. With this high level, the battle for first was extremely tight. The breathtaking performances of Swede Kaj Zackrisson, ski, and Frenchman Xavier de Le Rue, snowboard, took them to the first step of the podium.

Final Freeride World Tour Results 2010

Verbier
View Mens Final Ski Results from Verbier
View Womens Final Ski Results from Verbier

Overall Tour
View Mens 2010 Overall Tour Standings
View Womens 2010 Overall Tour Standings

Below is Lake Tahoe freeskier Jt Holmes account of his crash at Bec Des Rosses…

The Bec Des Rosses
By, Jt Holmes

I want to share an account of my crash in Verbier. I am not sure if the word to describe it was horrendous or legendary, but I hope it’ll be considered the latter. The description got lengthy, so I apologize, but hey, it was a lengthy crash.

There was a line to the skiers left that appealed to me, gnarly, steep one with a big air. I am a firm believer in skiing a line on a mountain that speaks to you, one that you notice right away. This one did. I pointed it out to Cody and said “I think I am going over there.” Cody, without skipping a beat replied “Do you want me to be one of your pall bearers?” We have sick senses of humor, and from that moment onward, we referred to the line as “The Pallbearer.”

I liked The Pallbearer, and I chose it for many reasons. I was going second to last, so I wanted to do something creative. All of the stock lines would have bomb holes and tracks by then. After the warm storm that came through, I figured the snow up higher would be better, and I like to take big airs at the top of runs that are on big mountains, because by the time you get to the bottom of the Bec Des Rosses (which is 1000ft taller than KT22 and way steeper) your legs are spent. And most of all, I wanted to win the Verbier Extreme, dammit. I have never won a big mountain comp. What does getting 3rd or 7th do for me? It proves I can hang, that I am really good at big mountain skiing, amongst the best competitors. But, that is proven by being in the starting gate, and by having a solid career for years. I wanna prove that I am the best, dammit. I want a W, a blue ribbon, a 1st place trophy. The Pallbearer was a winning line, it appealed to me. It was on.

First, I navigated a few hundred feet of terrain that was as steep as McConkey’s at Squaw, and similarly boney with much longer exposure. Then I hucked the cliff band in the photo. I landed the cliff, just barely shorted it actually. I wanted to be a touch to the skiers left of where I landed, thus avoiding a protruding rock.. Skiing in, I was blown away at how flat light it was over there in the shade. That confused me for a sec. But more so, it took the accuracy out of take-off trajectory. Anyway, shorting was no big deal, my skis tapped rock, but it was so steep that I landed fine and was on my way, just a bit in the back seat, and still struggling to see. This may not have been a problem, I may have been able to sit up from the back seat and keep going if I did not have that mandatory left turn to negotiate in order to avoid the rocks to the right of the track. Hitting those at 50+MPH was not an option. I was really just kind of asking too much to pull off that turn on 50 degree wind buff while sitting up from the back seat. The next thing I know, I was high side catapulted after touching down for a moment and I am airborne, thinking “that…just…happened.”

Note the impressive spacing between divot mark number one and divot mark number 2, in between which my skis and a pole are seen lying there.

At this point, I proceeded to tomahawk down 45-50 degree windbuff… for days. The inertia was incredible. I wear an item of gear that when activated by pulling a handle, inflates a pillow type thing around head and neck creating an air pocket for avalanche burial survival. Amidst the tumble, I figured, “why not pull the handle?” the pillow will provide good protection. I could not reach the handle because the centrifugal force would not let me bring my arms in. My jacket was up, so I couldn’t see much. Just felt myself tumbling like someone put me in the clothes dryer.

The Bec Des Rosses is about 2700 feet from starting line to finish line. I rag dolled a good third of the face. 800ft? maybe 1000ft? Timy, who was standing at the finish line after laying down an impressive line for his first attempt at the Verbier Extreme, said to me “man, I thought your boots were gonna come off” He also estimated my tumble to be 1700 ft. I think he is wrong, I mean, we all know that Timy is at least a little bit off, right? But no one was out there with measuring tape or a laser range finder, let’s just say it was one hell of a wipeout.

To be honest, it was not that scary. I knew that it was a clean fall zone, with the exception of that one rock I tumbled over. That was of concern, but I knew it was a cliff band that I would go over, not a wall of rock that would stop me, or pin-ball me into a change of direction toward bigger cliffs. I just tried to relax because I knew there was no stopping it. I never impacted anything hard, and I walked away with an aggravated right knee and bruised/tweaked ankle, maybe a week off of snow. As soon as I was able to dig my heels into the snow and stop, I waved that I was A-OK. I kept waving over and over and over because I knew that everyone was concerned. And when I say everyone, I mean the thousand or so people that were present and watching, the people who may have been watching on live feed, the local news, Eurosport, French, Swiss and Italian TV.

I was disappointed to bail like that in front of everyone. And it was humiliating that a heli plucked me off the mountain via long line. If you look at the picture, you can see that my skis are way up the hill, in between divots 1 and 2. It would have taken me forever to climb up to them, and I was waiting for the adrenaline to subside because then I would know if I was injured or not.

In terms of the outcome, it rattled me a bit mentally more than anything else. It was humbling. I watched CR go with a much less dramatic crash, so that hit home. Being in a tumble like that, in which there is just no stopping, no matter what, you really realize that the mountains and gravity are the boss. I thought to myself mid tumble “well, I knew if I fell here I would go for a ride, now, I am going for that ride.” It was a proud line, a zero or hero scenario. I got a taste of zero, but I will be back to the Bec Des Rosses for redemption.

via dogolition
via unofficial squaw

]]>

Enter the Photo Contest by submitting your single best winter image taken in the Kootenays by March 20th and become eligible to win some superb prizes. The top 3 winners will be picked by the celebrity photographers and be shown on the big screen during the Gathering’s In the Crosshairs presentation!

Get your photo loaded at www.thegatheringatred.comby March 20th 2010.

Prizes
Grand Prize: 2 days cat skiing for you and a friend at Valhalla Powdercats!
2nd Prize: Elan skis
3rd Prize: Winter gear prize package

via: powder

As the wind whistled over the razor-sharp rock spires of Kirkwood’s Cirque, skiers readied their gear and nerves for the fifth stop of the Subaru Freeskiing World Tour. This is one of the most-respected steep skiing contests in the world and the venue at Kirkwood Mountain Resort has become notorious due to its steep, technical slopes and because it is permanently closed to the public.

Athletes scoping their line – photo: Ben Meester-MSI

The Cirque is a 1,500-vertical-foot wall of rock which resembles some of Alaska’s most aesthetic peaks. It has ski lines that get upwards of 60-degrees in slope angle which means that if you could somehow stand still on it, your extended elbow would touch the mountain.

As the competition got going last Thursday, Kirkwood received two feet of powder. Event organizers saved the most challenging section of the Cirque for Sunday’s final which guaranteed perfect conditions.

Men’s Podium: Aaron Schmidt, Dylan Crossman and Marc Welgos – photo: Ben Meester-MSI

Men’s winner, Dylan Crossman from Mad River Glen, Vermont attacked the Cirque with a smooth style and creative line choice. Combining guts with finesse, he threw a 360 spin in the middle of his run.

”After having stormy weather on day 1, I woke up in the morning and it was blue bird,” said Crossman. ”I knew I had to make a impressive and smooth run to make my way up from the third position to the first.”

Behind him, in second, was Aaron Schmidt of Fernie, British columbia, who also skied with the aggression and fluidity that the judges love to see. In third, was Marc Welgos of Aspen, Colorado, who skied an impressive and technical line.

Nick Greener – photo: Ben Meester-MSI

Bad weather moved in during the final heats and women’s winner Janina Kuzma from Treble Cone, New Zealand, considered altering her gameplan.

“I was going to change my line but I stuck with my guns, stayed on my feet and I’m really happy,” said Janina. She did an airplane-turn into a tight choke in one of the steepest sections of the Cirque called the ”Hidden Chute”. Her aggressiveness was further rewarded with the contest’s Backcountry.com Sickbird Award which honors the skier who most represents the sport’s heart and soul while ”going big’’. This is one of the few times a female has won the coveted trophy.

Janina Kuzma – photo: Julie Weinberger

Behind Kuzma, going home with the second place, was Angel Collinson, of Snowbird, Utah, a rookie on the Subaru Freeskiing World Tour and in third place was Crystal-Rose Lee, of Whistler, British Columbia.

Janina Kuzma one of the only women who ever won The Backcountry.com Sickbird Award – photo: Ben Meester-MSI

The Freeskiing World Tour also presents The North Face Young Gun Award to a young competitor who shows promise and performs well. This weekend’s winner was Caleb Brown from Fernie, British Columbia, who qualified in 2nd position and finished 5th in the final.

Hundreds of spectators gathered at the bottom of the natural amphitheater which afforded awesome views of the incredible skiing taking place up above. People arrived on skis or by snowcat and there was an air of festival. Until the weather moved in at the end, it was a massive California sun picnic. Between heats, long time tour competitor Ted Davenport thrilled the crowd by ski-parasailing from the peak and sliding to a stop in the finish area.

Thousands tuned in sunday to watch the final round of The Subaru North American Freeskiing Championships LIVE on www.freeskiingworldtour.com. For a complete results, photos, videos, athlete profiles and more, please visit www.freeskiingworldtour.com.

After the famed Cirque at Kirkwood, California, the Subaru FWT continues to the legendary steeps of Snowbird Ski and Summer Resort. Long known as the premier venue on the Subaru FWT, Snowbird Ski and Summer Resort will host the 2010 Subaru Freeskiing World Championships, with the tour leaders battling for top positions in the final runs of the year down the infamous North Baldy.

The 2010 Subaru Freeskiing World Tour is supported by Subaru of America, The North Face, Sierra Nevada Co., Powder Magazine, Siege Audio, Mountain Sports International, Sportsinsurance.com, Guilt Man, Ski La Parva, Revelstoke Mountain Resort, Telluride Ski Resort, Crested Butte Mountain Resort, Kirkwood Mountain Resort, and Snowbird Ski & Summer Resort.

Kirkwood Day 1

Dylan Crossman – Winning Run

via: dogolition

Reference: EyeWriter
via: not impossible foundation

For one, we always seem to get snowstorms about the same time of year in the late fall. One will come between Oct 1 – 15 and one around Thanksgiving. Then we usually get a big storm around Christmas and New Years, and then a couple in February, March, and April. The first storm I experienced after moving to Tahoe was over Thanksgiving in 2001. It snowed for three days without stopping. I remember I was living in Squaw Valley at the time and shoveled off my entire deck only to see it covered again with a foot of fresh snow in no less than an hour after finishing. I remember feeling seriously concerned that it was not going to stop snowing. That soon passed and I became quite custom to the bountiful precipitation. That year I remember it snowed about 6″ to 12″ every other day in December and late March and April deposited 3 five foot or better storms.

In the short time I have lived here I have also become well acquainted with as they say in Mexico, “El Niño”. The El Niño meaning the boy in spanish, in weather terms is an effect that occurs in the Pacific Ocean where it the water temperature measures .5 degrees Celsius warmer than average, when it’s .5 degrees colder, it’s La Nina. El Niño causes effects all over the world, but here it works to pull the jet stream further to the south drawing cold air and precipitation that would normally be hitting the Canadian coast down to the western United States… and Tahoe!

For years I have had speculation that El Niño occurs roughly every 10 years or so, but nobody has ever been able to offer any scientific proof… at least to me. So I have been speculating that one could theoretically predict what years would be good snow years by looking at three different aspects.

1. previous years with low temps
2. previous years with high precipitation
3. previous El Niño years

I am no Nostradamus, but I do understand one thing, history repeats itself and in my years of experience in the world of technology, the term algorithm has danced off the tip of my tongue more than once or twice. So this is my thought, “If you create an algorithm of the 3 aspects based on weather history and create a data map of likely future occurrences where all three match up, and then cross reference real-time weather patterns, you could effectively create a El Niño alert. So that is what I have set out to do. And I am gonna do it with an App!

Check back each month for updates to this multi-part blog “El Niño – Building Smart Mobile Apps for Your Own Pleasure” where I will cover the different aspects of designing a weather app from data research to design to user experience.

*NOTE – POSTPONED*
I smashed my hand in a mixer and can’t use the computer. I will follow up with this when I get a chance…

It was a beautiful day all in all. I kind of expected to run into a little more snow at the top, but there was only a few small patches that even ran 7″ deep. I took some pinhole pics along with the digital ones below. I will post them once I get the film developed.