The Mythbusters Construct a Kit Bot 148
A reader wrote in to mention a writeup of a really great Mythbusters project. Hyneman, Savage, and Imahara went out and purchased a 'Vex' robot kit from RadioShack, and constructed the bot to see what it was like. They were pleasantly surprised. From the article: "Jamie Hyneman: I must admit I was expecting to turn up my nose at a do-it yourself robotics kit from Radio Shack. But guess what? The VEX System kicks butt. In a total of about 12 person-hours, Adam Savage and Grant Imahara (my cohosts on MythBusters) and I were able to build a functional, if somewhat basic, prototype equivalent of an iRobot's PackBot."
Radio Shack is going to be selling a ton of them (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Radio Shack is going to be selling a ton of the (Score:3, Insightful)
You have to understand that Radio Shack is teetering on the edge of self-destruction due to piss poor management tactics and poor product placement.
They are shuttering between 400-700 corporate stores (I don't think this will affect franchise owners, but who knows) and reevaulating where they stand on what products they need to be pushing.
The robotics kit was a safe bet to do a little advertising without getting wrecked because of shoddy materials or lousy manuals.
Vex is NOT a robot (Score:1, Insightful)
The Vex System is no more a robot than a remote controlled model airplane or my car is.
A remote controlled device is NOT a robot.
A robot is a mechanical and electronic device that performs a function(s) under its own control. It is capable of making its own decisions.
An android (NOT "droid") is a robot with the appearance of a human or animal.
For further enlightment read "I, Robot" by Isaac Asimov.
Re:Person Hours? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Person Hours? (Score:5, Insightful)
Are you kidding me? Kari has that whole Earth-mother, freaky San Fran chick action going on, and Scottie is a tatooed hippy chick who can weld and build stuff.
Hell, in some of her outfits, Kari looks like a friggin' Anime character, and in a bikini she's amazing -- she's hot like Willow was hot.
We're talking two protypical geek-girls if I've ever seen 'em. Except they're artists and techicians.
Are they the protypical fashion hottie? Nope. Does the total package of coolness transcend all of that? Absolutely. They're hot in a counter-culture way that's way better than what Vogue tells us is hot. Like I said, tank girl not fashion model.
But, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. So your mileage may vary.
Re:Person Hours? (Score:3, Insightful)
"I think mankind ought to be human kind, but they take it too far, they take themselves too seriously, they exaggerate. They want me to call that thing in the street a personhole cover. I think that's taking it a little bit too far. What would you call a lady's man, a person's person? That would make a He-man an It-person. Little kids would be afraid of the boogieperson. They'd look up in the sky and see the person in the moon. Guys would say come back here and fight like a person. And we'd all sing "for it's a jolly good person." That's the kind of thing you would hear on late-night with David Letterperson. You know what I mean? So...so I think it's an exaggeration and I like to piss off any group that take's itself a little bit too seriously."
Re:What geek doesn't love Radio Shack? (Score:1, Insightful)
The new mottos of the store --
Radio Shack: You've got questions, we've got blank stares
Radio Shack: Wanna buy a phone?