[Robotgroup] Bruce Shapiro 2nd attempt

[Vern Graner]

 > Hi Rick,
 >
 > A friend of mine, from Minneapolis, was down at the Austin Maker
 > Faire.  He was surprised when he saw your sand and eggplotters, but
 > not me.  He sent me a couple photos of your exhibit.
<snip>

Rick et. al.

I find Bruce's letter to be fair as well as polite and reasonable. I 
think we can certainly make the concessions for which he asks, and an 
apology is in order (I'll do that part).

Further, renaming the work is a good idea as it would eliminate *any* 
possible confusion over the ownership of the pieces (i.e. people 
thinking we are just *displaying* a work on loan to us from Bruce 
Shapiro rather than an item created by *us*).

As for the Maker Faire summary statement "Unlike Dr. Shapiro's design, 
The Robot Group reveals its inner mechanism.", I'm sorry to say that I 
might be ultimately responsible for this depiction. :( To explain:

I saw "Sisyphus I" in San Mateo at Maker Faire, and when I returned to 
Austin I spoke to group members about similarities and differences and 
one item I mentioned was how the unit we had was open framed and the 
mechanism was a "part of the show". When time came for a "blurb" to be 
submitted for the Maker Faire site a longer, more detailed description 
of the differences between his Sisyphus I and our interpretation was 
submitted to MAKE, but was "boiled down" to this unfortunate phrasing.

I can see how this situation would be distressing as the short statement 
on the MAKE page could be construed as a criticism of Bruce's 
willingness to share the details of the design. That was certainly not 
our intent, nor is it the case! It's clear from his web site that he 
*does* share many details about the construction and operations of his 
designs. I know I am grateful for him doing so as it helped us build the 
things we have thus far! :)

I can ask Sherry Huss to update the MAKE description page to place a 
summary phrase that would be less likely to be interpreted as a criticism.

So, before I do, the question is what name shall we bestow on the sand 
art machine and the machine which draws on eggs? Suggestions?

How about:

Rename Sisyphus to-
   Dune Sculpture
   SandArt
   ShapiroBot :)

Rename Eggbot to-
   ShellDraw
   Eggwriter
   Rotoplot
   EggPlotter
   RadialWriter

Any other ideas? :)

Vern

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