[robocup-rescue-s] Inaccuracies in "Hidden Rule" email.

I would like to correct a number of inaccuracies in the email entitled
"Hidden rule" from Humberto Silva Naves.

> Today our best friend and the chair of the Technical Commitee, Mr.
> Cameron Skinner, told us about a new exciting rule just before the
> first session of the second day of competition: "All teams may upload
> their codes only 2 times, one before 9:50 AM and another during lunch
> time".

I am not chair of the TC this year. Nobuhiro Ito is chair.

This change was announced the previous evening and again at the morning
team meeting.

This was not a *rule* change, but a change in competition procedure. On
the first day teams were allowed to upload between each session because
teams always discover a large number of bugs on the first day. On the
second and third days we want to have as many simulations as possible so
the number of uploads is restricted. The same policy will apply for the
semifinals and finals.

> This new rule deeply depreciated our team, that missed the submission
> by only 2 minutes. We argued with Mr. Skinner, if he could open a
> little exception, for those teams flawed by this new rule, and accept
> just one more submission (between the first and the second
> sessions) for all teams. It was useless, the man was irreductable.

This is true. Team Itandroids missed the deadline and argued about it
for about 30 minutes. The first session had already started at this
point. After arguing with me, they argued with Alexander and with Arash.
All three of us reached the same decision: no more uploads. No team was
allowed to upload until lunch.

They missed by "only" two minutes, but the time is irrelevant. If I
arrive "only" two minutes late for the train should they bring the train
back to the station for me?

> Just before the last session in the morning, the server crashed, but
> Cameron hasn't allowed submissions (please, keep in mind that the
only > reason for this new rule is to decrease the competition's time).

The file server's hard disk failed *during* session 2, not before. It
took a long time to salvage the disk and copy everything to a new
machine. Teams were not allowed to upload during this time because
session 2 was in progress at the time of the crash. It would not be fair
to allow uploads for the 10 remaining teams but not the 9 that had
already run.

I note that during the salvage operation a number of teams attempted to
log in to the file server, despite being told not to. This sort of
behaviour is unacceptable.

> But it does not finish here! We uploaded our
> code, and our big brother extended the submission time by 25 minutes,
> delaying even more !!! (why now? and why not before?).

I'm not sure what you mean. Do you mean during lunch? In any case, there
is a big difference between delaying the start of a session because we
are running late and changing a procedural decision already reached by
the TC.

Why now and why not before? Because before a session had already
started. There are NO exceptions to the rule: once a session has started
there are no more uploads.

> In the afternoon, we left the competition arena for lunch, and when
we > arrived, guess what happened? The rule changed again!!! Cameron
> created a new "submission time", and we couldn't again
> upload our code (we arrived 2 minutes before closing).

The rule did not change again. In the afternoon, uploads were allowed
during lunch (as everyone knew) but not between sessions. Because the
morning had 2 sessions we decided to have 2 sessions in the afternoon,
followed by an upload, followed by the final session for the day. Please
note that a different team uploaded incorrect code during lunch and were
told that they would not be allowed to fix it until after session 4 -
all teams were treated exactly the same.

If a team does not make sure that they are at the venue then it is their
problem if they miss important announcements.

> Does it have something to do with the Posseidon`s Java Exception
> issue? Strange, very strange!

What? This makes no sense. Am I being accused of favouring one team over
another? I have worked extremely hard to ensure that the competition
runs smoothly and, above all, fairly for all teams. I am not biased. I
repeat, I am NOT biased.

I expect an apology for this baseless claim.

> Just to finish the play, our best friend delayed the competition,
> because he was playing Tetris!!!

First, the Tetris game occurred while the script for collecting the logs
from the previous session was running. Second, Arash Rahimi was playing
Tetris, not me.

I wish I was that good at Tetris!

> New Rule (it is in the server):
> if (teamName == "itandroids") then
> strongly reject Submission (and maybe laugh loud at)
> else if (teamName == "Poseidon") then
> accept Submission at any time
> else
> ... // You already know this part

Again, I expect an apology for this baseless claim.

I find this attack highly offensive. If any team has a problem with how
the competition is run then they should approach a member of the TC, not
post wild accusations on the mailing list. Decisions such as uploading
times and when sessions are run are made by the TC, not by any individual.

If anyone thinks I have a bias for or against any team then I suggest
you explain your reasons to me and I can help you understand the
decisions that have been made. If you do not want to talk to me, then
approach a member of the TC and discuss it with them.

Cameron.
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Received on Fri Jun 16 23:37:02 2006