Observe The Banana

It’s a Woot thing. What is Woot? Woot.com is a different kind of online shopping site. Every day they have just one thing for sale. It remains for sale until they sell out, or the until the day ends. The next day they have one different thing for sale. They have great deals, and wacky descriptions of the items, usually making sure to point out not only what a great deal it is, but also honestly pointing any weaknesses or shortcomings in the product. Every once and a while things get interesting when they have a Woot Off! On these special hallowed days they have offer many things, still one at a time until a preset quantity sells, before moving on to the next item. An item might be available for hours, or for only minutes. It inspires compulsive refreshing to catch new deals throughout the day (as their song goes, “giving me an F5 complex, refreshing just to see what comes next!”). There are even third party web sites dedicated to tracking Woot Offs and notifying you when new items appear (mywoot.net is my favorite). The highlight of the Woot Off is the “Bag of Crap” (referred to as BOC, bandolier of carrots, etc) which is a random item grab bag. For some reason this is the most popular of items and instantly causes their servers to overload as it appears. This is despite their adamant assertions that you really don’t want one (see below). It is a true miracle of modern marketing genius. Having shopped on Woot for several years now, and purchased several items during Woot Offs or otherwise, I have just for the first time today managed to secure my very own Bag of Crap! It may be a dime store trinket, it may be a valuable electronic item left over from a previous day, I just have to wait and see. I will announce its contents when it arrives. – See what I got: I Got Crap!

And it was written…..

If we allow you to give us your money, we shall grant you some sort of bag and some quantity of crap. We promise nothing more. And if you know what’s good for you, you’ll be grateful for that.

THE HOLY CRAP COMMANDMENTS v2.0:

I. Thou shalt expect nothing beyond one bag of some kind and your chosen quantity of crappy items (which should be THREE).

II. Thou shalt not whine and complain when some people’s crap turns out to be nicer than yours.

III. Thou shalt take a moment to consider whether you might be better off just not buying this crap.

IV. Thou shalt not order just one crap and blame it on anything but your own inattention.

V. To paraphrase Stephen Stills, shalt thou not get the crap you want, want the crap you get.

Another Roomba fan



Link icanhascheeseburger

I have just finished reading the book Futuretrack 5 by Robert Westall
I picked up this book on a whim from a library sale table for my 10 year old son to read. He enjoyed it and recommended to me, so I read it also. I was overall quite impressed. Reading reviews on Amazon it appears to be somewhat of an overlooked young adult classic. Not so many people have heard of it, but those who have read it, loved it.
Part Mad Max, part THX1138, and many parts all its own, this book takes place in a future England (it ends in 2012) where society is strictly divided into different classes. There are the Ests, these are the rich, elite educated class who enjoy comfortable homes in fancy estates, leisure time recreation and travel. Then there are the Unems who live in poverty and squalor in a violent urban society. Birth rates among the Unems are low, and death rates are high. The Ests suffer from birth rates higher than their system can maintain, so at the age of 21 all Ests are required to take E-level exams. Those scoring too low are cast out (through the “wire”) to become Unems. Those scoring high enough remain Ests, and those scoring perfect are destined to become Techs, a secret class of engineers and technicians that create and maintain all the advanced technologies that keep the society running. Although violence and death is a regular part of everyday life for the Unems, there are still laws and rules and those found breaking them are immediately whisked away by Paramils to a “lobo farm” where they are reduced to passive house servants for the Ests. The title refers to “Futuretracks” or job paths that some of the Unems take, including entertainment, competitive pinball, prostitution or deadly motorcycle racing (Futuretrack 5). The main character, Henry Kitson,  is born an Est, but scores 100% on his E levels and becomes a Tech and begins to learn the secrets of how things are run, but there is one big secret he can not find out concerning a mysterious Scott-Astbury and his “big mistake”. Bright, clever, strong and resourceful, Henry is not satisfied to babysit the main computer, “Laura” and her senile creator and decides to leave the system and find out what is really going on. He adventures outside of “the wire” with his Unem companion Keri and, showing his abilities to adapt and succeed at whatever challenges face him, discovers an entire world outside his previous life and teachings. His discoveries, and his subsequent decision to try to change the world for the better left me with a lot to think about, and sparked some interesting discussions in our household on the role of government and the merits of free will in society. The ending is far from black and white and could be considered happy, sad or somewhere in between based on your personal interpretation, which I guess is a testament to the depth of this book.

Wouldn’t the world be a better place with more chickens keeping the peace? I love the end where I can just hear that chicken saying, “Now don’t make me come back here again!” as he walks away.

I have just finished reading Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman.
In this book we follow the exploits of an angel (with a little mischief in him) and a demon (with a little good in him) as they disobey orders from their respective superiors and work together to try to delay the apocalypse (which would bring to an end the lifestyles they have come to enjoy on earth). We also meet a professional Witchhunter, a young witch who possesses the one truly accurate book of prophecies, and the “Adversary, Destroyer of Kings, Angel of the Bottomless Pit, Great Beast that is called the Dragon, Prince of This World, Father of Lies, Spawn of Satan, and Lord of Darkness” who otherwise appears to a be normal, mischievous English boy who happens to able to instantly master any computer game he tries and doesn’t particularly want to bring about the end of the world.

Published 1655, Agnes Nutter’s book of prophecies, although accurate and correct, was not always as useful as one might hope:

It was obvious that Agnes had a line to the Future, but it was an unusually narrow and specific line. In other words. almost totally useless.
[...]
“She managed to come up with the kind of predictions that you can only understand after the thing has happened, like ‘Do Notte Buye Betamacks.’ That was a prediction for 1972.
[...]
“Most of the time she comes up with such an oblique reference that you can’t work it out until it’s gone past, and then it all slots into place. And she didn’t know what was going to be important or not, so it’s all a bit hit and miss. Her prediction for November 22, 1963 was about a house falling down in King’s Lynn.”
“Oh?” Newt looked politely blank.
“President Kennedy was assassinated, ” said Anathema helpfully. “but Dallas didn’t exist then, you see. Whereas King’s Lynn was quite important.”

There is also an important lesson on the hazards of burning someone with future sight at the stake for being a witch:

“Thirty seconds later an explosion took out the village green, scythed the valley clean of every living thing, and was seen as far away as Halifax.
There was much subsequent debate as to whether this had been sent by God or by Satan, but a note later found in Agnes Nutter’s cottage indicated that any divine or devilish intervention had been materially helped by the contents of Agnes’s petticoats, wherein she had with some foresight concealed eighty pounds of gunpowder and forty pounds of roofing nails.”

I got a good chuckle at the demon Crowley’s vintage Bentley in which any cassette tape left for more than a fortnight metamorphose into Best of Queen albums:

“Ah, this is more like it. Tchaikovsky,” said Aziraphale, opening a case and slotting it into the Blaupunkt.
“You won’t enjoy it,” sighed Crowley. “It’s been in the car for more than a fortnight.” A heavy bass beat began to thump through the Bentley as they sped past Heathrow. Asiraphale’s brow furrowed.
“I Don’t recognize this, “he said. “What is it?”
“It’s Tchaikovsky’s ‘Another One Bites the Dust’,” said Crowley [...]
They also listened to William Byrd’s “We Are the Champions” and Beethoven’s “I Want to Break Free.” Neither were as good as Vaughan Williams’s “Fat-Bottomed Girls.”

I have read quite a bit of Terry Pratchett, including many of his Discworld books, but I had not yet had a chance to read Neil Gaiman so I am not able to judge his influence on this book. I did see a lot of Pratchett in this book and, although this is certainly not a Discworld book, the presence of the DEATH character (and the other horsemen of the apocalypse) and the descriptions of witches make it feel closely related. To me it felt like a cross between Discworld and Only Human by Tom Holt. An enjoyable irreverent romp, well worth the read.

This looks to be a very cool demonstration of the power of this track excavator. The tower is obviously special made for this feat and appears to include locking points for the plate on the end of the arm, and places to wedge the tracks as the arm moves up to the next level. There is vigorous discussion on Gizmodo debating whether or not this is real or photoshopped, but I can easily believe that this was a real demonstration (although they may have removed the counterweight from the excavator). This desperately needs a video! …and yes that guy must have b*lls of steel!

via Gizmodo [Dark Roasted Blend] (scroll down to it)

Here is one more blurry photo from German TV that would seem to verify the stunt as real.

Related: Undressing a woman with a lalrge digging machine

I have just finished reading another “Sherlock Holmes comes to Minnesota” book for our local library book group. In this story Holmes is called to Minnesota in 1899 to help investigate the mystery of the Kensington Runestone. For those who have not heard of it, this a real unsolved mystery from Western Minnesota. In 1898 a Swedish American farmer claimed to have discovered a stone tablet tangled in the roots of a tree. On the tablet were rune carvings which tell of a Viking exploration party exploring the area in 1362. If true, this would mean that Viking explorers ventured far further into North America than ever previously thought. Experts on both sides still debate whether the tablet is a hoax or real.
In this book the author takes some liberties with the story of the discovery of the Runestone, turning it into a murder mystery. Larry Millett does a fairly good job of creating a somewhat traditional Sherlock Holmes mystery story in the style of Arthur Conan Doyle, although in our book group discussion we noted how in this case Holmes was surrounded by several other extremely bright and competent individuals who were able to match wits with the great Holmes, perhaps more than usually occurred in traditional Holmes novels. The author also seems to delight in describing the flavors of rural Western Minnesota including the landscape, the cold and the taciturn Swedish demeanor of its residents. I enjoyed the descriptions on other-worldy flat landscape of the Red River valley, and the factoids about the heavy wall construction of grain bins designed to support the outward pressure of the grain which flows like a liquid. This was a fun book which should appeal to Sherlock Holmes fans and Western Minnesota natives alike.

Here is a fun little diversion to waste some of your time. Check out Akinator, the Web Genius. It is an online “guess what you are thinking of” game like those little electronic 20Q  games. This one guesses characters, real or otherwise – anything from celebrities to cartoon characters. It works surprisingly well, starting with broad questions, then throwing in some odd details, then – hey wait a minute is it getting close? then Wow! He got it! These must use an interesting algorythm that seems to be more advanced than a straight decision tree. The questions do not start the same every time, and it will frequently surprise you with the correct answer after seemingly not asking anything very specific to your answer. This one in particular is interesting in that it has more options than just yes or no. You can also answer ‘probably”, “probably not” or “I don’t know”.

Go check it out!

LINK

I have had this song stuck in my head for days now. A fun little ditty about a man trying to clean up his life with a robot vacuum cleaner. Starts a little slow, then takes off. The dancing is fun, and I like how he really belts out those lyrics. Enjoy!

“I got a robot vacuum! Cleaning up my life!“

Over at Gizmodo they have the most impressive guest blogger I have seen yet – the Phoenix Mars Lander itself! Click over to read its two current posts:

• Phoenix Mars Lander Looks Back on its Re-Birth
• This is What Landing On Mars Feels Like

Includes a lot of interesting technical information and background on the lander, and a few “personal” insights:

One of the most common questions I’m asked, and one of the most difficult to explain, is whether I knew going in that this mission would cost me my life. The answer to that is yes, of course, and there’s not a single robotic explorer in our solar system that doesn’t know it faces the same fate. Unlike all of you, most of us can’t go home again.

LINK: Phoenix Mars Lander: NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander Guest Blogging on Giz

Like most people who have taken basic science classes or played with refrigerator magnets and paper clips, I knew that stacking up magnets can increase their magnetic pull. Three fridge magnets stuck to each other can hold a longer chain of paper clips than one. Until recently I did not know that their is actually a special way to arrange magnets to increase their lifting power much more. Invented by the late Klaus Halbach, a physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the 1980s (relatively recently in my world view of engineering advancements) the Halbach Array is just such an arrangement. It was invented to focus accelerator particle beams but is now finding many other applications in brushless motors, linear motors and are critical component in a new generation of maglev trains.

This is how the magnets are arranged in a Halbach array:

It does not matter which way N or S is and long as you are consistent to the diagram.  It is not intuitive (to me anyway) but it turns out that this arrangement combines the magnetic flux along one side for a much greater force, while nearly canceling the pull on the other side.

“The diagram (below) shows the field from a strip of ferromagnetic material with alternating magnetization in the y direction (top left) and in the x direction (top right). Note that the field above the plane is in the same direction for both structures, but the field below the plane is in opposite directions. The effect of superimposing both of these structures is shown in the figure at the bottom:” ^Wikipedia

Here is another nice diagram that shows how the arrangement combines the flux of the different magnets.

The above diagram is from an excellent article entitled Build a Halbach Array which details the construction of a simple Halbach array using a wooden bock and Neodymium-Iron-Boron cube magnets. They point out how hard it is to push the magnets into position as they will always want to flip over and align N to S poles, hence the need for the wooden block and glue.

Halbach arrays can also be constructed in several cylindrical forms which turns out to be very useful for brushless AC motors, magnetic couplings and magnetic bearings.

You can learn more at Halbach Array which includes the customary Wikipedia complement of images, diagrams, formulas and links.

There is also a nice set of links at Halbach Array links

Now you know…..

A guest book post from my son B

Percy Jackson and the Olympians is a series of books with a mix of genres that is based on the Greek mythos. The book has many surprises in the beginning, so I won’t give you too many details and ruin the surprise. I will, however, tell you a little bit:

Percy Jackson has it tough. His father left across the sea before he was born, and his mother married Smelly Gabe, who plays poker, is mean to Percy’s mother, sniffs out money like a bloodhound (and asks Percy for it), and blames Percy if so much as a bird would poop on his car (never mind that Percy can’t drive). His mother always goes out of her way to get blue food because Gabe once said there was no such thing. At least he has his best friend Grover to help him through hard times.  But Percy Jackson’s life is thrown apart by a series of odd events involving mythical creatures, and the few answers he gets only brings more questions…

Read the book to find the questions (and answers)!

And if you like book 1, The Lightning Thief, you will probably like book 2 (The Sea of Monsters), book 3 (The Titan’s Curse) and book 4 (The Battle of the Labyrinth).

The Field Robotics Center at Carnegie Mellon University’s Robot Institute has a nice robot slide show on their web site. No R2D2 or Johnny 5 here, just real working robots. Some are research prototypes, but (to me) the true stars are the actual working robots like the Remote Reconnaissance Vehicle (shown above) which was the first vehicle to enter the reactor containment building at Three Mile Island after a meltdown in March 1979. Click on the link below for lots of working robot goodness.

Robots at the FRC

As of May 2008, Owners of the Nintendo Wii game console can now download free game demos to their Nintendo DS game system at home just like the Download Service available at some stores. The service is available as part of the new free Nintendo Channel on the Wii. You can purchase the Nintendo Channel (for free) through the Wii Shop Channel. The Nintendo Channel features Wii game videos and trailers. To find the DS Download service you will need to agree to allow “Data-Sharing” service that sends data on what games you play to Nintendo (Under Nintendo Channel settings, Data-Sharing Settings). Then go to “Find Titles for You” and the bottom choice will be “DS Download Service”. If the option is grayed out as unavailable, then you have not agreed to the data sharing. Once in the DS Download Service you will see a list of available demos, some of which appear to be permanent, some of which seem to be available only temporarily. I have noticed the “Distribution Ends:” date they give is not always accurate and the list does not update until at least a day after that date. After you download a game you can keep it on your DS until it is powered off. If you want to save a demo to play the next day, just close the DS to suspend it without turning it off (and consider plugging it in since the battery will slowly drain in this suspended state).

Since I have been unable to find a list on the web of what demos are available, I will post the new list on this blog as they change (which is usually a day or two after the “ends” date).
Enjoy!

Click here for the current list of available downloads

November 2008 Wii Download Service Titles (Updated November 24, 2008)

Mystery Case Files MillionHeir – No end date
Crosswords DS – Crosswords Demo – No end date
Brain Age Demo – No end date
Brain Age 2 Demo – No end date
Flash Focus Demo – No end date

Personal Trainer: Cooking Mac & Cheese Demo – Distribution ends 11/30/08
Walt Disney Pictures Bolt Demo – Distribution ends 11/30/08
Prince of Persia: The Fallen King Demo – – Distribution ends 11/30/08
Soul Bubbles Demo – Distribution ends 11/30/08

I got a kick out watching this hexapod robot dance the mambo. The head is a little creepy, but its got some rocking dance moves

I wonder if they did anything fancy to sync the moves to the music, or just hit start on program and play on the music and the same time.

Baked out of red earthen clay, a Golem is brought to life with ancient magic text written on a piece of paper and placed inside their head. They are large and very strong and dutifully follow the instructions of their owner. A Golem will tirelessly perform the nasty, dirty jobs that no one else wants to do. Day in and day out for years on end without a rest they can handle molten iron, shovel animal guts in slaughter house, or stand in the cold, wet, dark bottom of a mine shaft turning a pump for decades.
But what might come of a Golem created by other Golems? In this installment of Terry Pratchett’s ever lovable Discworld series, Commander Samuel Vimes of the Watch struggles to solve a series of strange murders, while at the same time trying to figure out how the Patrician, Lord Vetinari is being slowly poisoned. Having read a number of the books out of order (which is not a problem with Discworld) this book gave me a lot of interesting background on a number of the Watch’s more interesting personalities including a werewolf struggling to control her instincts and female Dwarf (Cheery Littlebottom) who, despite her usual long beard, experiments with exposing her true gender with lipstick and skirts. We also see the start of a new age for the Golems when someone gives one ownership of itself by placing its paper of ownership inside its head. If you have somehow resisted entering the wonderful otherworld of Discworld, I encourage you to dive in, it is an amazing place that mirrors our own world, but with just enough differences to draw attention to our own crazy social institutions which we take for granted.
…and please someone tell me, is Wee Mad Arthur a Mac Nac Feegle?