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Robotics

Robot Dramas: Autonomous Machines In the Limelight On Stage and In Society 31

aarondubrow writes: We're entering an era where we'll increasingly coexist with robots and other intelligent machines — some of which may look like us. Not only is there a growing number of industrial robots (about 1.5 million today), there are 10 million Roombas in our homes, porter-bots in our hospitals and hotels, social robots in our nursing homes and even robot spectators at baseball games in Japan, tele-operated by remote fans.

Theater is not an arena that we typically associate with robots, however, artists, musicians and producers are often early adopters and innovative users of emerging technologies. In fact, robots got their name from the 1920 play, R.U.R., by the Czech playwright, Karel Capek. An article in the Huffington Post describes a panel discussion at the National Academy of Science in June that featured the producers of three recent plays that starred robots. The plays highlight our robot anxieties, while offering new visions for human-robot interactions in the future.

Comment xtank (Score 1) 204

First time I saw it was on Sun 3s and Sun Sparcs I think in 1991 - might be too early for Sparcs? X11 blew me away right after I'd got used to terminal sessions - having a graphical interface and being able to send windows anywhere was just.. well.. futuristic. It still is. Played a lot of xtank, perpetually fiddled with the .XDefaults.

Comment Ban 'em (Score 5, Insightful) 109

If there is a direct link to be discerned from a Github user to an AWS stack then surely that user should simply be banned and then made to fix their crap before being allowed back on. Back in the 'old days' if the sysadmins on a system I was leasing time off could show that through my action or inaction one of their servers (even my virtual instance) was leaky they wouldn't flinch from shutting my crap down if I didn't comply straight away - and as far as I'm concerned they are quite within their rights to do it.

Comment Rediscover your joy (Score 2) 306

As others have said - find something you enjoy programming. I started making games for mobile a couple of years ago using Unity3D and Mono/C# - it ticks a lot of boxes for me, just enough coding, just enough creativity and other bits, just enough story telling. If you get bored of one bit you try another and eventually you get there. Plus you learn something about your target platforms along the way.

Games or mobile might not be the way you rediscover your joy but there is bound to be some great tech out there that you just can't wait to get your teeth into. Word to the wise - Kinect and Leap are not it.

Comment Already Won (Score 1) 413

The fact that the Kickstarter is now already over $2m after two days suggest that Mr Young or his business has hit on something. Obviously getting a load of big name stars to endorse the product helps not only Pono but themselves.

So a few facts:

  • Neil Young has always been about the sound (if he's not feeling grumpy) - if you see him play live you can find out how live is supposed to sound
  • Everyone in the music business knows this and that's why they are on his video (aside from the fact they are going to get a slice of pie)
  • Using an open format for the store and having the player alongside is a great move - you're not locking anyone into anything
  • The PonoPlayer may be a pocket sized audiophile slab of genius however even if it doesn't work out it's going to start a hi-def sound revolution - equate it with the Rio PMP 300

Pono wins either way - they have have access to the hi-def source and they start a hi-def revolution with the backing of all the big names. The fact that it's taken so long to get to market but has finally (almost) arrived with this kind of offering also suggests some serious thought has gone into the business and the business model - and now a couple of days in they are already justifying this. I'm impressed although I suspect that the apparent freedom and slickness of the marketing hides a deeper truth which will probably only come to light after the kickstarter finishes i.e. there are tentative deals in place to fold this in with more traditional offerings. Basically if you were iTunes would you like it if a lot of 'your' artists heavily promoting a rival service?

Comment Agile (Score 1) 136

Agile is the perfect platform for establishing micromanagement. Break your tasks down into really small pieces, keep daily tabs on progress, make the team responsible for delivering it. They used to call them 'daily progress meetings' when a project had got on the deathmarch and now they just call them 'standups'.

Comment Indie Kids (Score 1) 99

Well, there is no XNA any more but this is still good news for Indies and makes it an attractive platform whether there is additional developer support or not. And I'm sure there will be more announcements coming. When you compare the MS developer relationship to any of the other console producers they still have developer goodwill in the bank.

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