My son B drew this funny little cartoon depicting the elderly iPod Nano telling the new youngin’ Touch how it was back in the day . . .
This was on the envelope containing my amazing new robot bookmarks which I will have to scan and share another day.
Pi day (March 14 or 3/14) rapidly approaches once again. Last year we celebrated with . . . a pie. This year we are going to be in Minneapolis for my son B to play in a state piano competition, so I was not sure how we would recognize the day short of buying some pie. But now, salvation! Make: TV is having a Make: Day at the Science Museum of Minnesota. We are SO there. As a subscriber to Make magazine, and the Make philosophy I often lament that all of the Maker Faire events take place in far off Texas or California, so I am very pleased to be able to attend a Make event right here in my home state of Minnesota, and even on a day when I will be driving to the Twin Cities anyway.
Celebrate the ingenuity and inventiveness in our community. Make: television, Geek Squad® and the Science Museum of Minnesota join forces to create a new event giving local engineers, artists, tinkerers and inventors the opportunity to showcase their DIY creations to museum visitors.
This family-friendly event features arts, electronics, musical performances, green technology, crafting and more!
Happy Pi Day!
I was a little skeptical at first, but after watching it I couldn’t describe it any better than my brother did when he sent me the link:
“Ah, Sheesh . . . I laughed, I cried . .. its the feel-good hit of the year . . . if you’re a sucker for schmaltz . . . you’ll not regret investing the 16 min!”
Watch it with someone you love. Try to spread a little happiness to everyone you meet.
“You paid for parking . . . for me?”
Another joke from the mind of B:
What do you call a role playing game that moves around and changes a lot?
.
.
.
.
ADHD&D !
The students at Ohio Northern University put together an ice cream serving system with two Kuka robots and an Allen Bradley Micrologic 1500 PLC. While this kind of educational automation project may be common in university robot labs across the country, being a big fan of both ice cream and robots I thought I would give a nod to these students’ excellent work. They report that it took 26 students and 5 weeks to fabricate the system including writing all of the code and machining custom effectors. It takes 2 minutes to serve a cup of ice cream complete with spoon and toppings of choice. The students did not want to speed up this cycle time so the user could enjoy “an experience watching the system” and not just get fast ice cream. A nice touch is the way the robot arm moves a little, then lowers the cup under the soft serve machine to produce a nicely shaped point on the top of the ice cream serving. Watch it in action below.
. . . or better parenting through Unix. My son B really got a kick out of this xkcd comic:
So now I have learned to put the concept to good use:
Me: Time to brush your teeth and get ready for bed
B: No, I’m reading
Me: SUDO, brush your teeth.
B: Okay! (jumps up and runs upstairs.)
Works great for now, at least until the novelty wears off in a few days.
