When looking at things like industrial robots it’s easy to look past the genius that went in to the design of a robotic arm and see something that looks like a crane, technology that has existed for hundreds of years, and not a complex AUTONOMOUS device. I have no doubt that, as time goes on, robots will become even more common place then today. Robots can be created to perform many mundane, repetitive tasks quicker and more accurately than humans.

Occasionally we see awesome robots that don’t necessarily serve much of a purpose (yet!) but look how cool this robot is: Hexapod (It turns into a ball at about 0:53 ) I am not sure what exactly that robot could do that would be productive. Perhaps explore terrain on other planets. Look awesome?

Think about this: line following is a staple of robotics. It has been for ages. Do a search for line following robots and you will find kits, completed robots, even races. Suppose at a school* there is a line painted on the floor or baseboard of each building to offer guidance for staff, students, and faculty (follow the blue line to get to a bathroom, follow the red line to an exit, follow a green line to classrooms). This system could be used by robots to navigate that building. If there were also RFID tags stored on the line that the robot could read then it could suddenly be used for things like automated refuse management. Travel the blue line, if an RFID tag is encountered read the tag, the tag contains information indicating there is a trash bin in the class room, it could also contain when the bin was last emptied. It is easy to think of an army of Roombas™ cleaning floors, emptying trash, and performing general maintenance.

Dealing with power is another concern but induction charging can be employed to handle this. Setup charging stations at strategic locations, Roombas™ already demonstrate that robots can charge themselves. If a facility is configured with robots in mind there is no reason why this strange future reality couldn’t be ours.

bonus video:

pancake stacking

* This also works for hospitals, office buildings, or any structure really.

This recipe serves 12 to 15.

Ingredients

• EGG YOLKS, 6
• SUGAR, 3/4 cup
• MASCARPONE CHEESE, 8oz, softened*
• CREAN CHEESE, 8oz, softened*
  
• HEAVY CREAM, 2 cups chilled
• RUM, 2 tablespoons **
• VANILLA EXTRACT, 1 teaspoon
• ESPRESSO, 2 tablespoons, plus 2 to 3 cups brewed
• EGG WHITES, 5
• LADYFINGERS, 40 to 50†
• COCOA POWDER ‡

Directions

1. In a mixing bowl set over but not touching a pan of simmering water, beat the egg yolks and sugar until the mixture is pale yellow and thick ribbons fall from the whisk (4 to 5 minutes).
2. Transfer the mixture to the bowl of an electric mixer.
3. Add the mascarpone and cream cheese and beat until smooth and creamy (2 to 3 minutes).
4. In a chilled large mixing bowl, beat the cream to stiff peaks.
5. Add the rum, vanilla and the 2 tablespoons of espresso and beat until smooth.
6. In a clean mixing bowl, beat the egg whites to stiff peaks (when the whisk is lifted straight out of the bowl and inverted, the whites should hold their shape).
7. With a rubber spatula, gently fold the mascarpone cream cheese mixture into the cream until blended and smooth.
8. Add about 1 cup of the beaten egg whites and fold gently until blended.
9. Add the remaining egg whites and fold gently until the mixture is smooth and blended.
10. One at a time, submerge each ladyfinger into the remaining espresso, then place it on the bottom of a 6-quart glass or ceramic baking or serving dish (about 2 inches deep).
11. Continue to form a complete layer.
12. Spread half of the mascarpone cream cheese mixture over the soaked ladyfingers until evenly covered.
13. Arrange another layer of soaked ladyfingers over the mascarpone cream cheese mess, then spread the remaining mascarpone cream evenly over the top.
14. Dust the Tiramisù with cocoa powder to create a rich, dark topping.
15. Refrigerate at least 4 hours or up to 1 day before serving

Okay more than one word. Thank you Strong Bad for the joke.

Seriously though it did not hold up as well as I imagined. I am happy letting that one rest in my memory. I am sure re watching that mess would decimate my memories of how awesome that film was.

I was also thinking about hooking up an xbee module to a micro-controller and interfacing it with the CAN system in my car. I thought it’d be slick to be able to get realtime data out of my vehicle. Why it needs to be wireless I couldn’t really tell you. I suppose I could just spit the data out to an LCD screen and a log but what fun is that? It’d also bee cool if I could mod the fuel air mixture on the fly. Perhaps map it to RPM changes. if the RPM ∆ fell within defined parameters then dynamically adjust the fuel:air ratio to a sportier, more responsive, mix. I suppose you’d want to have settings. I guess I am wanting to cobble together my own sport, cruise, etc settings.

Hmm. SparkFun.com has a shield for an arduino… This bears looking into… when I have more time.

blah.

I nearly collided with a kid* wearing a backpack that was at least 30% of his total mass. I thought if I had collided with him he would have fallen over backwards. I was then amused by the thought of running around tipping college students. =-D

Not much else to think about other than the fact that I am done with the GRE, (wheee), my CV (well its ready for review), and about 90% done with my statement of achievement.

Now I just need to finish me statement of purpose, request my letters of rec, and finish my application. wheeee!

*I say kid but he was probably 18-19. I think 10 years my junior makes him a kid. I stick to my statement.

Essentially you could pull a bunch of users from twitter, sort them so you have a bunch of atomic units, by that I mean people that aren’t following, or being followed by any of the others, and then analyze their tweets for a pattern. I am sure something would arise. Essentially it would be like the Kevin Bacon game only for an infinite amount of terms.

So if 12 users all ended up talking about apples and coke zero on the same day, you’d run analytics to see what could have lead them there. With time i’d imagine patterns would emerge and predictions could be made… just a thought.

I also though about boiled leather armour and dual wielding swords

I also thought a lot about logarithms.

Finally I also thought about dream jobs and the people who have them. I was thinking about some folks I know who seem to have gotten everything they ever wanted. I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t a twinge of envy to accompany it. However I also thought about what I remember them doing, I remember sacrificing everything except the pursuit of that thing. These folks were unremarkable in their jobs, and didn’t excel particularly at their education. What they did do was focus on what they loved. In the end they became very good at what they loved. It turns out if you are good at something people will pay you to do it.

This will require further thought.