Ma and Pa's Blog

Here’s the video I promised Sebastian:

Lego Robot

(He looks a little bit like Wall-E, doesn’t he?   Maybe he’s Wall-E’s little cousin.)

We went to COSI (Center of Science and Industry in Columbus) today with Mike, Caleb and Owen.   It was a lot of fun for them and us.   Ohio was threatened by thunderstorms, but we were spared all but some refreshing sprinkles during lunch and walking to the car for the ride home.   I can’t begin to recount the exhibits, but here are a few photos.

See the coming Nikon Coolpix S10000pj that can project photos and videos.

Wait — the iPod projector is HERE

I saw this and found it amazing.   Hope you enjoy.

See an article from Scientific American here.

Today was the big competition at Case, and Hoban’s performance was very respectable.   A 4th place was achieved through an admirable effort at the event.   The originally planned algorithms could not be completed in time (lessons learned for next year) and an overnight rewrite was incomplete when we left for the event this AM.   To make it worse, the robot was left at home — prompting an emergency call to, and courier run by, a team member’s mother (God bless her!).  Program tuning throughout the day was successful and got the team into the final-four runoff.   Everyone was pumped, and the underclass team members are already planning for next year.

Lego Robotics Competition from Pa on Vimeo.

We survived 2008, which I’m thankful for, and now I’m very happy to leave it behind.  The new year probably offers more hope than it can deliver, but it feels like we’re turning a corner.  The economy will recover, the war will wind down, the world will be our friend, flowers will bloom, music will play, the Browns will win a championship  . . . .  sorry, I get carried away.

We recently accomplished video calls with both our sons’ families, and it’s nice that we’ll be able to see everyone more often.   While we talk often, and visit whenever we can, still,  seeing everyone’s face in real time every week or so will be great.   The stray pixels and occasional freeze ups hardly matter.

Last evening, we played a very strange (and fun) board game with the Saracenos and Roadrucks.   It’s called ‘Quelf‘ and it claims to be (no it is) very random.  It basically involves ever increasing doses of doing and saying silly things.  Play is hardly competitive, and disputes are next to impossible to resolve other than arbitrarily — due to lots of wiggle room in the challenges presented.   I guess you had to be here.   It was random (no other words fit) and it made us laugh . . . and, no, we weren’t drinking.

Off to the tar pits . . .

Just a quick note prompted by spotting an Asus Eee PC on the shelf at Target.   The $299, 2 lb. laptop (“netbook”) is available with WindowsXP or Linux.    I notice at the Target web site that more models are available.   Actually, the units for $359 look like the best choice — larger screen (8.9 vs. 7″ with 1024×600 resolution vs. 800×480 resolution) and more solid state drive capacity (8GB vs. 4GB).   There are other compact “netbook” computers that include conventional hard-drives in lieu of solid state drives, but the battery life must suffer.  The reviews I’ve read have been very positive, and for web surfing, email, home or school document creation (word processing and spreadsheet), and photo viewing these seem very capable.   An external USB drive or online server could provide archival storage if a full blown computer is not available.  An external keyboard, mouse, and monitor could be connected for desktop (docked) use.     Drool.   Drool.

Click on the picture for a cool demo.

Eee PC

I guess what I really like is the design elegance of these little machines.   By stripping out excesses in hardware and software, they satisfy 99% of most people’s computing needs (my unscientific observation) with an inexpensive, attractive, compact, and energy efficient solution.

given:

a=b

therefore:

a^2 = b^2

substituting:

a*b = b^2  — because a*b is same as a^2

new equation:

a^2 – b^2 = a^2 – a*b  — because a*b is same as b^2

factoring:

(a+b)*(a-b)=a*(a-b)

dividing by (a-b):

a+b=a

substituting:

a+a=a  — because a is same as b

or:

2*a=a

dividing by a:

2=1              ?????  !!!!!!

WHY?

OK. In a grand gesture, in honor of Earth Day, we have turned off unnecessary all lights. Larry even unplugged the tiny light in the bathroom. I’d feel Amish if I didn’t have my laptop — and the t.v. tuned to “Nova”. (T.V. doesn’t count if it’s educational). So, we’ve shown our solidarity with the Sierra Club and all the tree-hugging liberals who believe in global warming. My question is, did anyone else?

I’m going to light a candle. Wish I still smoked–it was easier to score matches.