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Winter Pentathanerd 2012 – Final Results

A yeti-like photo of this year's lego luge contraption

The Winter Pentathanerd games wrapped up this week with three exciting events; Anna Grahams, Lego Luge and a clever variation on The Price is Right as the final round. Below are the detailed accounts of each event as written by Mark Seemann, the founder and organizer of the Pentathanerd games…

Wednesday – Anna Graham

“For the Anna Grahams event, contestants had to unscramble words or phrases to guess the original word or phrase based on the selected category. In groups of three, teams had to get four correct to move on to the final round of three. The categories were:
Steel Men (Elements)
Hip Cretaceous Stirrer (Prehistoric Creatures)
See Ample Money (Employee Names)
Creates Niches (Earth Sciences)
In the first round after choosing Earth Sciences, WYSIWYG blasted to a quick victory against Teh Awsumbs and QWERTY, leaving them with nothing on the board. In the second round, The Nerderlands’ knowledge of Elements gave them an easy path to victory over Teh Newbs and Nausea, with each of the others scoring a single point. In the third round, Chicago’s team RAGE! phoned

in and managed to get a point in the category Prehistoric Creatures; Don’t Blink came close with three, but We Are Not Cheaters pulled away with the win.
In the final round, We Are Not Cheaters’ Annette J took a quick lead with her knowledge of Employee Names, but WYSIWYG’s Sean Hickey and The Nerderlands’ Jim Barrett kept the scores close. Easily the most entertaining category, among the anagrams were “dimmest hick” and “cranky urea.” After a number of unanswered anagrams, a snap *snap* judgement had to be made to continue, after running out of anagrams in the category; we resumed the round with the remaining unsolved Elements anagrams.
The score quickly tied up, three points for each team. The final clue – “tiny moan” – was solved by The Nerderlands.

Try your hand at unscrambling the same clues as the challengers here: http://pentathanerd.com/ag/“

Thursday – Lego Luge

“A record crowd braved the chilly 76-degree weather in the Nerditorium to witness the first ever indoors Lego Luge event of the Pentathanerd. Thanks to the tireless efforts of Eric Myers, the indoor track made for a spectacle of its own, as competitors waited their turn to try out their luge designs in “the series of tubes.”

Participants were expected to bring their Lego vehicle – complete with rider – to the event for approval from the Head Judge (Kai Esbensen). Then, the competitors handed their luge to the Primary Luge Launch Technician (Mark Seemann, standing on a ladder), who placed the luge carefully in the pre-calibrated “Flusher.” Once docked in the “Flusher,” a member from the team pulled on the release mechanism, occasionally needing to jiggle the handle, to begin the luge’s descent toward the luge track. Based on the results, the following points were awarded:

300 pts – Clearing the flusher earned 300 points
500 pts – Making it into the luge track (not as easy as it sounds!)
700 pts – Getting caught in the “lint trap”
800 pts – Getting into the garbage can
900-1200 pts – Clearing the entire luge track, depending where the Lego rider ended up on a field of points

Three teams managed to propel their craft all the way down the luge track; WYSIWYG, Nerderlanders, and Ridin’ QWERTY. WYSIWYG missed the scoring field of points, earning 900 points. The Nerderlanders landered [sic] on the board, but just outside a colored scoring area, earning 1000 points. QWERTY made a solid showing in this event, also landing on the board but outside bonus points areas, tying for first place.”

Friday – Price is Right

“The Friday event was Teh Price Is Right. The game, as was revealed right at the start of the event, was to guess how Jansen Price would answer questions (hence, [Jansen] Price Is Right). There were eight warm-up questions, worth 100 points for the first four and 200 points for the second four, leading up to the wager-style bet-it-all final question.

February 2nd – Open House and Spirit Showcase at The Nerdery

In 2011 we logged over 426,000 project hours on 292 projects, added 120+ nerds and even kicked through the walls of our office to find places to put them. This year, we want to do it again and we need the help of nerds like you. So, whether you’re looking for a job, or just want to say “hi,” head on over to our house on Thursday, February 2nd from 5-9pm and enjoy yourself at The Nerdery’s Open House featuring our Nerd Spirit Showcase and Talent Show. We’ll show off what life is like for our 300 nerds, including what kind of things they work on, their random talents and what they do when they’re not coding.

A collection of our many clubs – including the MakerBot Collective, Binary Knitting Club, and the Footbag Posse – will be running demonstrations throughout the evening for our Spirit Showcase. At 7pm the Talent Show, where everyone is invited to show off their random and obscure talents, will begin in the Nerditorium with confirmed acts such as a traditional bagpipe performance, recital of periodic table of elements and rubik’s cube speed challenge. It’s true our nerds have some pretty remarkable abilities but we’re really looking forward to seeing what you, the public, can bring to the competition. Winner by audience choice will receive some sweet, sweet Nerdery swag. If you’re interested in participating, let us know what you’re planning to do below and come prepared!

For those of you who know you’d like to pursue a career at The Nerdery, our Nerd Hunters will be conducting fast-track interviews throughout the evening. Fast-track interviews include a basic skills assessment and a chat with a Nerd Hunter. Impressive fast-track applicants can go right to the next step of the application process, the code challenge, without having to come in again. If you’re not so sure about working for us but still want to learn more, feel free to come in and ask a few questions with no obligation. We’d love to meet you either way. Sign up for an interview or consultation time-slot on arrival.

RSVP and feel free to invite your friends or anyone else who wants to spend a Thursday night hanging out with nerds. Look forward to seeing you all!

Winter Pentathanerd – Midweek Update

We now join the Winter Pentathanerd in full swing, this week at The Nerdery! The Pentathanerd, as you all remember, is the twice-yearly competition that pits nerds against nerds across five different events testing their nerdy skillz. After two of these lunchtime events – “Biathlon: Revolutions” and “Rubik’s Cube with a Twist” – team WYSIWYG is in the lead with The Nerderlands, We Are Not Cheaters and Don’t Blink in hot pursuit. Here are the full scores as of yesterday…

1. WYSIWYG: 2243
2. The Nerderlands: 1958
3. We Are Not Cheaters: 1888
4. Don’t Blink: 1872
5. Teh Awsumbs: 1672
6. Teh Newbs: 1422
7. RAGE!: 1372
8. Nausea: 958
9. QWERTY: 300

The Nerdery’s very own boy reporter Mark Seemann has the scoop on the action:
“Biathalon: Revolutions was based on the concept of “run-and-shoot.” The competitors used nerf guns (their own or one made available for use) to shoot at high-tech paper-plate targets. The course was set up to have two competitors go head-to-head, almost literally. From opposite ends of the same table, competitors shot from “bases” at a series of targets. There were targets for each competitor facing each base. After two (2) shots, the competitor switched to the other base, even if those targets have been knocked down. If a competitor knocks down a target for the other competitor, it still counts as knocked down.

Thus concluded the first event of the Winter 2012 Pentathanerd Games

The winner (with a record time of 19 seconds) is The Nerderlands.
In second place, We Are Not Cheaters, followed by a tie for third between WYSIWYG and Teh Newbs.

Rubik’s with a Twist was a speed-solving competition, but “with a twist” that was revealed in the final round of competition.

The event started off with a massively multi-player (offline) round of speed solving (MMPORoSS) wherein the teams were seeded into a direct elimination table of the top eight. (Team Nausea obliged to make it easy to eliminate the ninth team by not showing up.)

WYSIWYG’s Sean Hickey eliminated QWERTY in the fasted recorded time of the day, solving in 33 seconds. Also making it out of the top 8 were Teh Awsumbs (1:18), [We Are Not] Cheaters (2:30), and D

on’t Blink (1:50).

WYSIWYG blasted Teh Awsumbs out of the games with another fast 49-second speed-solve. Then Don’t Blink’s Sean Kladek struggled against Justin Hendrickson from [We Are Not] Cheaters, who seemed to be taking his time. After an opening piece of hijinx where Justin unsuccessfully locked Sean’s cube in a filing cabinet, Sean never figured out that Justin had also swapped his cube for another cube with 10 red stickers instead of 9. Team [We Are Not] Cheaters was disqualified for the dishonest shenanigans.

WYSIWYG faced Don’t Blink in the final round and the “Twist” was revealed. Instead of unscrambling the competitor’s cubes (following trends from earlier rounds), they instead had to unscramble mirror-block cubes!
These all-silver-faced cubes have different-sized faces instead of colors to tell them apart. The two contestants looked a bit out of their element as they previewed their challenge.

After a back-and-forth, frustrating, nail-biting nine minutes and thirteen seconds, Sean Hickey was able to throw down an unscrambled cube, winning the event for WYSIWYG!”

Developing Accessible Websites (League of Front-End Developers)

Aaron Cannon, a software engineer and accessibility consultant at The Nerdery, has been blind since birth. To navigate the Internet, Aaron must use a screen-reading program that interprets a website’s code and audibly reads back basic content and navigation information. As a web developer himself, Aaron has become closely aware of common pitfalls that can confuse his screen-reading program and other issues related to developing for accessibility. In his talk, Aaron explains how his screen reader does and doesn’t work, demonstrates some good development practices when writing code for fully-accessible website and takes a plethora of questions from the audience.

This presentation is the first event organized by the newly formed League of Front-End Developers. The league’s mission is to create a space where fellow front-enders can gather to share and grow their knowledge of coding, design, culture and accessibility. Visit FEDleague.org to learn more about future League of Front-End Developers events and connect with the FED League on Twitter and Facebook to for more links, conversation, and media related to their group.

Pop Quiz – Pepsi vs. Pepsi Throwback

Ninja Battle

Every Wednesday afternoon between 12pm-1pm, a group of game enthusiasts meet in the new kitchen to play all manner of board games, “especially those that go beyond the normal conventions of Milton Bradley” as they are fond of saying. Last week the game was “Ninja Battle!”; A game where one side starts by drawing a ninja, then the other side draws something opposing or threatening said ninja (a wall, perhaps), then the first side draws something to ameliorate this problem (ooh, a ladder). . . lather, rinse, repeat, laugh. From all the endless possibilities, the nerds last week came up with a game that involves snakes, Chuck Norris, rain, a timelord and… oh, well.. you’ll just have to see:

Tenant Appreciation Picnic

Earlier this week, The Nerdery’s leasing company Belgard Properties held it’s annual picnic for current tenants just across the railroad tracks from our office in Bloomington. The picnic was complete with ice cream, food, pop and, of course, a salty banjo player. Below is a video if you were unfortunate enough to miss the action.

Summer 2011 Pentathanerd: Apollo 13 Challenge

Using only a bag of stuff, teams must make a tool that can retrieve a ring of keys from a bowling pin ten feet away to escape the wrath of an unjust jailor.

Here’s what Mark Seemann from The Werd had to say:
“The rain could not stop an event like this from happening – all it did was delay it for a little while. After a late start, the Apollo 13 challenge revealed its plot:

“You are all accused of a crime that you did not commit. The sheriff will prosecute you in the morning. Luckily, a confederate has given you a kit of supplies, and lets you know that the sheriff will be asleep for half an hour while you construct something, and then he’ll do his rounds, which will give you two minutes to grab the keys off of a bowling pin ten feet away and escape.”

Teams selected kits in paper bags with standard items like:

6 feet of twine
a 2 foot dowel
a manilla folder
one sheet of paper
three paper clips
two chopsticks
a set of platic utensils
a pen with…
6 feet of duct tape wrapped around it

In addition, each kit had a special item, one of:

4 foot dowel instead of the 2 foot
10 feet of nylon string instead of 6 feet of twine
banker’s box in place of the paper bag
scissors
10 paperclips instead of 3
2 foot piece of 1×2 wood
a bar magnet (not chosen, as Nausea could not attend the event).

The event was pass-fail: success brought the team 500 points, and failure earned nothing.

The InterNerds used the manila folder, rolled up, to extend a kind of fishing rod. Unfortunately, it came apart, and cost them too much time to recover (pun intended). She! attempted a similar device, but fell onto the floor and “out of the cell”, prompting an instant DQ from the head judge, Kai. The Whom? had a clever plan: they constructed a kind of trawling dredger – the paper bag with chop sticks taped to the top edge, string on the bag. In the crunch, the plan just wasn’t coming together, and they ran out of time.

Teh Awsumbs used the banker’s box to make a crane-style extended fishing rod which, after a few tense moments, was able to hook on to the keyring and pull it to victory. Effortless were able to harness the power of a waterski-handle looking device with similar hooks on it to snag the key and a win. Revenge of the InterNerds had a tense length of time after their paperclip hooks fell to the floor and snagged on the carpet. With time running out, and the hooks snagging and unsnagging, a last second shake brought the hooks up and in contact with the keys. With only 10 seconds on the clock, a desperation pull brought the keyring up and back in reach for a dramatic success.

The overall standings after this event are:

4962 – Teh Awsumbs (event points: 500 – going on to Gyparody)
4105 – Revenge (500 -going on to Gyparody)
3604 – The Whom? (0 – going on to Gyparody)
3378 – InterNerds (0)
3294 – She! (0)
2860 – Effortless (500)
2708 – Nausea (0)”

Summer 2011 Pentathanerd: Pinewood Lego Monkeyball II – Aerial Boogaloo

Dozens of brave Lego men kissed their Lego wives and kids goodbye to go forth and be launched from the Pinewood Lego Monkeyball II ramp in earlier this afternoon. Points were awarded per the color they landed the closest to.

Mark Seemann from the word filed this report:
“A wild set of entries graced the ramp of the Pinewood Lego Monkeyball ][ : Aerial Boogaloo event. From flying drones to boom arms to simple unaccompanied lego people, teams vied to land on gold for maximum points.

Nausea and Effortless struggled to find purchase on the points field; the Whom? had a clever plan to sneak in a quick landing for the maximum point area just below the end of the ramp, but failed to stick the landing.

The (Revenge of the) InterNerds teamed up to try out a last minute entry, succeeding in the end where others failed by launching a lucky solo lego person straight and true down the center to earn 600 points. For lack of definition, the head judge Kai E awarded both Revenge and InterNerds teams 600 points for their combined effort.

Then came Teh Awsumbs foray into Newtonian physics; a boom arm, counterweighted by a mostly full water bottle, suspended a lego person by a line which, when released from the start gate, swung out over the points field. Kai waited until the swinging slowed enough to judge that the lego person was sufficiently over the gold area, awarding Teh Awsumbs the maximum point value.

Not to be outdone, She! launched their simple vehicle. When it came to rest, a murmer went through the crowd as Justin H asked, “Is that it?” Then came the unique sound of an AR drone firing up, which (eventually) swooped down and magnetically attached to the vehicle, guiding it across the point field and over the gold area, past it, and off the board. Further attempts to regain the field were futile.

In later rounds, She! changed strategies and went with maximum dispersion, casting out the separated pieces of a lego person (or four, rather, as was learned after the event) onto the field. As the rules stated, if the lego person is in more than one area, the maximum point value of the fields is used, which earned She! 1000 points in the last round.

The overall standings after this event are:

4462 – Teh Awsumbs (event place: 1; event points: 1200)
3605 – Revenge (T3; 600)
3604 – The Whom? (5; 500)
3378 – InterNerds (T3; 600)
3294 – She! (2; 1000)
2708 – Nausea (6; 400)
2360 – Effortless (7; 300)

No lego people were harmed in the making of this event. Except for the four that She! used, which are currently in intensive care.”

Summer 2011 Pentathanerd: Tile Tornado

On day 3, the Scrabble/Bananagrams nerds were up in a timed game of collective word making.

Mark Seemann from The Werd reports:
“Intense wordplay was at the center of the first attempt at the new game Tile Tornado. Two players per team in five minute rounds with three teams grabbed tiles to make three-letter or longer words. With each player having only one tile, teams needed to co-operate to make words. Longer words earned bonus points per tile – four-letter words earned one extra point per tile, and file-letter words earned three bonus points.

The first round had the InterNerds facing She! and Teh Awsumbs. After a painful wait while tiles were counted, Teh Awsumbs emerged with a one-point lead on She! with the Interns woefully behind. The second round had The Whom? up against Effortless and Nausea. With massive points in bigger words, Effortless walked away with a comfortable lead: 85 points. The Whom? struggled with game logistics, and chose to be part of the final round with Revenge of the InterNerds and Teh Awsumbs (who filled in pro-bono – earning no points). In the last round, The Whom? were able to better their score, averaged between the two rounds they played, and Revenge were able to put up a significant score, winning 13 points alone for a Q played on a five letter word.

Revenge fell only two points out from Effortless’ lead, placing second, with Teh Awsumbs holding on to a narrow third place with 76 points.

The overall standings after this event are:

3262 – Teh Awsumbs (event place: 3; event points: 1105)
3104 – The Whom? (6; 904)
3005 – Revenge (2; 1179)
2778 – InterNerds (7; 618)
2308 – Nausea (5; 914)
2294 – She! (4; 1094)
2060 – Effortless (1; 1200)”