

Hacking a ping pong table - m4tthumphrey
http://sidigital.co/blog/lab-notes-hacking-our-ping-pong-table

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karlick88
Tangent:

Given the sidigital is a digital marketing solution company. These kind of
projects is ingenius content marketing for themselves.

It generates good buzz for:

1\. their potential customers (look how innovative we are)

2\. their potential hires (you will have heaps of fun working here)

3\. gives existing employees something to brag about (look how cool my company
is)

As a side note, I remember there are a startup in SF that mapped every
engineer's desk and have nerf guns (hooked up to their continuous integration
service) that shoot at engineer whenever someone breaks the build; If I were
the CEO, I would only approve these kind of projects if I get some marketing
benefits out of it

Has anyone here been with companies with similar side projects, what are your
thoughts on ROI?

~~~
joshcrowder
I run a small agency(currently 6) and we run monthly hack days to build
something cool. The last was a dashboard that links to an ibeacon once we
enter the room it says hello and says goodbye when we leave. Completely
pointless but it was interesting to build and had some great side effects.

We received 6 applications for jobs that weren't advertised (5/6 were very
good). But also we got a great amount of feedback from our existing clients
interested in using it for their own companies!

Our next project is a drinks robot built into a globe!

As a CEO you need to care for more than the bottom line.

~~~
alexcroox
Agreed, none of our (Si digital) hack projects would have been possible
without our MD's go ahead and foresight to see the value in these projects.
More of what he made possible here
[http://sidigital.co/lab](http://sidigital.co/lab)

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baddox
I hope they're keeping detailed statistics, like how often each player wins a
point on their own serve, which opponents are the best/worst against each
player, etc.

~~~
alexcroox
Yep, time for each game too, and which end they play best at for the
superstitious amongst us. Tons of stats we'll probably never use, but just in
case!

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Someone
_" and when it’s time to switch servers (every multiple of 5 points). […] Once
one player reaches the final score of 21 with 2 points clear, the system
automatically ends the game"_

It amazes me how long it takes for rule changes to propagate throughout the
world.

Table-tennis has been using 11-point games for over a decade, with serve
rotation after every two points
([http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_tennis#Rule_changes](http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_tennis#Rule_changes)),
but I rarely meet recreational players who are aware of that, and that
includes people who played it first after those rule changes were made.

~~~
alexcroox
We are definitely aware, but given our skill level games to 11 would end far
too quickly. That's why we opted for the old 21 system. Maybe in a year when
we can actually maintain good rallies we will upgrade to 11 :)

~~~
simplify
It's not a matter of skill, with games to 11 you can play 2 out of 3, which
often turns out to be longer than games of 21. Personally I think games to 11
make it more exciting; it's really fun being down a game and then gaining hope
when you win the next :)

~~~
jacquesm
You can play 2 out of 3 just fine with games to 21.

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jacquesm
Another version of this idea:

[http://the-incredible-machine.com/pingpong-what-if-your-tabl...](http://the-
incredible-machine.com/pingpong-what-if-your-table-tennis-table-keeps-score/)

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arjie
Wow, everything looks so smooth and slick. Great job, guys.

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mongoosled1
Very cool.

I made a web app that would show whether or not our table was currently in use
based on the sound and frequency of ping-pong ball impacts.
[https://github.com/helious/rails-sound-spy](https://github.com/helious/rails-
sound-spy)

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MIKEMAC972
It would be awesome if this could handle scoring for Doubles and then evaluate
the best teams over time.

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LVB
Nice. But score keeping in one's head, while challenging, is at least doable.
Truly impossible: keeping track of serve/receive pairs and partner switches
during casual doubles play. I've never seen four trained engineers get it
right. :-)

~~~
addandsubtract
Switching sides during a double is easy. As soon as the serving side is
switched (every 5 points), the new serving side switches player positions.
Everything else stays the same.

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elwell
> Developers don’t have the best hand eye co-ordination

1\. "hand-eye coordination"

2\. Generalizations should at least be supported by references

3\. Pretty awesome hack

~~~
alexcroox
1\. Thanks, fixed!

2\. Every developer in our office :P

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joezydeco
C'mon! Project the score and win/lose effects directly on the table!

If you're gonna go graphic-y and fun, go big!

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staplesowns
This was pretty cool. Was anyone else upset that there wasn't a full clip of
them playing and showing this in use?

~~~
baddox
It would be nice to hook up a GoPro in the corner of the room and
automatically record each matchup. Given that the system knows when games
start and end and who's playing, you could even overlay a scoreboard and live
stream or upload to YouTube.

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revelation
2500mAh gone in a week? What are they doing?!

