On Friday we let our hair down at Sophos HQ, and held a “Potato Drop Challenge” to celebrate the release of the latest version (v9.5) of our security and control product.
Teams had to drop a raw potato from high up in our building’s atrium towards a target, and were judged for a number of factors including accuracy, grace-in-the-air, longest flight and artistic impression by an array of international judges.
Over a dozen teams took part, creating a wide variety of flying machines out of paper clips, plastic straws, glue, cotton, string, elastic bands, two sheets of a broadsheet newspaper, a standard-sized carrier bag, sellotape and lolly sticks.
There were some pretty cool designs – although none succeeded in being entirely successful as anti-gravity devices.
Watch the YouTube video below to see some of the action that took place:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZ8Qr0x2aUs&hl=en_GB&fs=1&rel=0]
Cliff and Charlie of the “Team The Mighty Atom” (sadly, Minu who ‘made it happen’ isn’t pictured) proudly display their creation which they christened: “Double Rainbow Mk. II it’s so awesome oh my god”. That apparently is its show name, and you’re allowed to shorten it to “The Double Rainbow”. Their design incorporated landing lights and a “frickin’ laser”.
Vicki, Donna and Ana of “The EA Team” explain that their “potato holder represents a bird with captured prey in its claws. We wanted to make our creation as colourful and pretty as possible and hoped that it would fly with all the decorations we put on it.”
“The Compu Tators” rethought their design after a dismal practice run, and decided to go “purely for style and accuracy. The lemming’s tiny umbrella is unlikely to provide the required wind resistance for him to gracefully drift to the floor as they do in the retro videogame.” They did, however, have a theme tune.
“M*A*S*H” scared me a bit with the description they sent me of their flying machine: “The potato dropper depicts a potato painting a female subject in his studio, by a window, with a large map of The Netherlands on the wall behind. The painting only has one figure, the potato. The potato is thought to be a self-portrait of the creators’ aspirations and dreams, although the face is not visible. The stickers on the device are representative of the Seventeen United Provinces of The Netherlands, flanked by views of the main centres of power. The potato is actually ginger but has bleached its hair for the occasion of the maiden flight.”
Yes, right..
Well done to everyone involved – and thanks to the folks who organised the event. A splendid time was had by all.
