Hey - Want to Win a Robot?

What will they think of next?  If you want to get a serious jolt of Geekiness, check out the new ROBOCHAMPS League!  I knew the Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio 2008 was a cool environment for a variety of academic, personal and professional applications but now they have a "league of their own" (couldn't resist).  The winner of the competition gets a COROBOT worth anywhere from $2,800 - $4,300 (WI-FI, XP PRO, IR, camera, batteries, etc.).  If you haven't been exposed to the Robotics Studio, I highly recommend taking a look even if you have no intention of developing the next RoboCop! 

In all seriousness, the studio includes tools for non-developers to produce working code using a Visual Programming Language (VPL).  I plan on diving deeper into this tool set as it represents a serious future direction for managing input streams from potentially millions of autonomous devices/services.  THAT is interesting to me...

BTW, Here's the (funny) disclaimer on the contest site...

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Must be at least 18 years old, a qualified resident from an eligible geography, and have technical programming education, experience and/or knowledge to program a simulated, autonomous robot using Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio 2008. Void where prohibited. See Rules for details.