A Million Useless Thoughts

A bit whelmed at the moment of the project I have taken on in getting COG to work better. While I have no doubt that the tasks can be completed, they need to be listed out and taken down one at a time. At the moment it feel a bit like treading water. The List: AI: Cog needs some interactive capabilities. AIML: A language for bots that can 'chat'. It's fairly simple in terms of it is mostly just a challenge response type bot, but it is a good starting point for make things work. There are other things out there and certainly a few that seem better, but this is free, just poorly documented. And quite possibly the biggest/longest task that may never be finished. Pidgin AIML Plugin: This is give COG an online presence while the batteries are being charged. It will simply be AIML running through pidgin as a plug-in. It is a good place to start for recording logs and trying to get some adaptation/feedback from people. Text-2-Speech: This can be done through

Working COG now that he has a face book presence. But there is a need to make him more interactive if I want it to go well. Any I found this rather humorous with A.L.I.C.E. and Kirk chatting at each other. I am planning on using AIML to with a Pidgin Plug-in to get some sort of interactive presence. Given what I've seen so far. I'll need to put in some work on learning all of this crazy stuff. But I'm having fun with it, and if COG starts out as a very odd on-stage ALICE than so be it. I know I'll have to keep at it to make it all work. Also if you have a picture of yourself try this out for fun. I think I have research to do on all of the stuff they did here. But I can see how it works. Anyway just keeping this blog moving forward.

After letting go of the feeling of disconnection, realized I should embrace the madness in public, instead of only letting people in slowly. So, instead of walking the dogs on roller skates at 4 in the morning where there is no one, I walked them at 4 in the afternoon. As expected people where just staring at the fact that someone is walking their dogs on skate, but who cares, the dogs and I are having fun. I think I'll do that some more. Also Cog is progressing a bit, and I tested his motors capabilities and sure enough cog can pull me on the roller blades. Considering there's a future plan to make cog a 4x4 instead of 2 + caster, he could evolve into a electric vehicle of sorts. We'll just keep pushing this, until they come with the pitch forks and torches!

Maybe I'm not as disconnected as previously thought: Guy Marries Virtual Girl Friend. Or date a robot. Either that or we are all coming apart at the seams!

Feeling a little like the world is just a little different at the moment. And maybe I've always been this way, but just starting to see it myself. I feel slightly disconnected with the world. Not sure whether it the endless posts on facebook, twitter, etc. or remembering that work is a business sometimes, not just R&D, or even sometimes at home. The phrase "thinking outside the box" feels more like there might be a box somewhere, but I'm so outside of it I do not really know where it is. Examples: A friend asked "If you could live ANYWHERE, where would you live?" My first thought was Jupiter or Venus, because the atmosphere would be very cool to watch. That and in my limited travels, pretty much any place is just like any other, people generally have the same goals and actions. Maybe it's that I've only been to more modern places. But it's really just people are people, cities are cities, and maybe that's it I just cannot live in

Finally decided that the robots current name is Cog. I was debating this because of all of the other Cogs out there, but finally decided that because of the steam punk influence in design that it would be a fitting name. Progress so far on Cog: Constructed that ARM kit: It runs on 5 3V DC motors. Which is fine, I have something to play with for figuring out the mechanic. In the mean time, I am attempting to wire to an older version of a IO control board we make at work to control the motors. May need to add some relays to make it work, and will be using 5V instead of 3V, but the motors should be fine. Wii Mote: Utilized GlovePIE and PPJoy to create joystick control for the left and right motors. The current software works perfectly, but needs to be scripted a bit and need to update the hardware to make some of the debugging a little easier. There is a needed box re-design coming anyway. It is fun to drive around and I need to post a video of it, but I want to post both a vi

The two active brain cells are giggling now. No time to blog, time to build!

Starting thinking about how to learn new things and found that nothing really beat kids toys for getting started on how to learn. However, it took a bit to overcome the stigma of they're kids toys. Kids toys have many things going for them over more adult how-to videos and projects. First they tend to be safer, nothing like learning on how things go together then plastic bits that break on your skin rather than sharp metal bit covered in red blood. Second they much more colorful than brown or gray. No idea who thought the world should be gray, but bright color are much easy to find when looking for new bits. And finally they are far more hands on-discovery than a how-to video. When books and video there's still the fine tuning that needs to be learned by doing. The toys have this built in to some degree. Why was I thinking about this? Well, I only somewhat understand the mechanics behind a multi-motor robotic arm, so I decided to order the cheapest I could find. It wa

What do health care and baseball have to do with each other? Statistics. So, with all of this talk about health care reform, I starting think about how insurance companies rely on *tons* of statistics. Statistics based on past performances, over health numbers, the cost of procedures, etc. And for a long time they used those numbers to analyze the risks of losing a patient, wasting money on tests, or even law suits. For the most part, it has become a large number crunching machine. Unfortunately instead of trying to balance human life, it seems as though Greed has altered the machine to instead balance the money going to those running the machine. The removal of the human element is why we talk about the reforms today. But enough about the problems, how about a solution? Well, I started thinking about something else that requires a great deal of statistics and human *gut* instinct: Baseball. A game that makes as much use or more of statistics to determine outcomes that the heal

Sometimes things get done because someone does not know that it cannot be done. How is that we can limit ourselves by the perspective of something being impossible? Why do we as a race mock those we seek to try to the impossible? It appears that the first time is always the hardest, the no one has done it, what make you think you'll succeed. Maybe it's just a matter of perspective on the impossible, much like the famous math student who solves an unsolved equation because he thought it was part of a homework assignment. The sonic "barrier" also considered impossible. Just wondering how far we will go if we stop thinking about the thing we "cannot" do, and instead consider what we can!

Or is it just humanity can reuse resources to alter their environment? Ok, time for an explanation. First, about a year and half ago, I created a compost heap to recycle plant life back to dirt/compost. Second, dug a hole for a concrete slab about couple months ago. Today, I took the loose gravel that made up a make shift parking space on the lawn. It was starting to get weedy and ugly, and we never use it anyway. So, I took the rock used them to finish the bottom of the slab hole for water drainage. Took the dirt from the hole to fill in where the rocks were. Covered new grass seed with the compost to help fertilize it. And now plan to use the rest of the rocks to fill in around the air conditioner. Somehow through just movement of things found in the yard, the yard was improved. Just an odd happy feeling about maintaining balance of the objects in the yard. That and I'm sore from moving it all. Guess we can never escape physics!

So, noticed that they are running out of idea's with the old guitar hero, just more songs, themes, instruments, and now DJ Hero? Really I thought they could be more creative with this, so here we go plug in the amp and crank it to 11, because here's what I think would be cool for expanding this niche of games: The JAM. The idea hit while listening to the Grateful Dead and how no two concerts are really ever the same, which with any good band is the case. At some point in the middle of a well known song a great band will start to "JAM" that is they keep the music similar to the song, but alter, play with, and basically have fun with the music they're playing. This to me is why I'd go to a concert, any band that plays the same song as on the radio is well boring. And to some extent I think that's what is happening to the press the button with the beat genre. So, now it needs the infusion of randomness, just mashing the same buttons gets boring, so let

You know sometimes "it is just hard to get good service these days". Well have I got the product for you: The Tip-O-Meter. It works just like a clock, but in reverse. It counts down from the moment you step into a restaurant. The Tip-O-Meter tracks just how well your server is doing, indicating just what level of tip they should expect as they are serving you. You can raise the value if they do some nice or speed up the count down if they are being particularly slow. In short it's the best indicator about how you feel you are being served. I really should build one of these. I really do not see how it can backfire, unless it somehow hits 0, in which case make a hasty escape through the fire exit. You could use this as a wacky psychology experiment, you know walk into an expensive restaurant and start it out REALLY low or REALLY high and gauge just how well people treat you versus not having it. Or better still start really high it have it accelerate the count do

Just thinking about showers. There are those 'full body' shower that have a bunch of head to spray your entire body with water. Well I was thinking why not add in a way to put liquid body soap into the lower section of those shower heads, then just hit the soap button and it lathers you with soap then sprays you clean, quick, simple, probably would save time in the shower. Basically just steal all of the parts from a car wash and make a 'human wash'. We'll just add a 'dry' cycle to this through use of heat vents from the top and bottom, possibly just steal the technology in the Dyson Hand Dryers. If you've never used one find one and try it, really the first air hand dryer that works. Not sure if it could not be used for whole body drying, but I think it's worth a try. Any just thought a human wash would be fun, which reminds me I need to think about redoing the downstairs shower.

Sometimes the world makes you feel helpless. You think you can change the world and the harder you push the more it pushes back. Sometimes it moves a little, sometimes the little bits add up and you find you CAN move mountains. You just have to keep your attitude high as that IS the thing you can change. No matter bad things look just keep the attitude up and things will begin to get better, slowly, but surely. Heads up, stay positive, we're all in this together!

As always life is preserves some sick twisted sense of balance. About two weeks ago an old knee injury showed and caused me to have to zombie walk up and down stairs. Spoke with cousin Emily, a P.T., and she recommended some exercises to help out with the knee. This somehow has started cascading into a full workout for the whole body. Well that leads back to the "the one pack" as being a play on "the six pack", representing my current state of not quite being in top form. We are going to continue to push this exercising and add 5 to the 1 pack.

Just an odd thought on life itself, and how basically all life tries to create more life. Because of this life changes and adapts how it creates life. Starting first from cooperation of amino acids to create cells, cells dividing sharing dna, then sex for a new form of reproduction. All levels simply trying to survive and produce more life. Well, what I can foresee is a rather radical next jump the forms of life. What if, as great as humanity is, we were never meant to mingle among the stars. That instead we are to create that next form of life that will populate the stars. Imagine if you will large ships with automated controls and vast stores of genetic seeds. The ships are designed to run using nuclear fusion, feed on hydrogen and stars using the fused material to repair any damage they have sustained while they wander the stars. "Living" for millions of years, like days to them, traveling to find more planets to populate with life forms that will convert the raw

A while back I was attempting, with my friend Jason, to make a working robot, with tracks. One day I got ambitious and got one whole side finished, mounted, and ready to go. Then powered it on to a glorious first run of about 20 seconds before the rivets busted the wood used for the tracks and the whole shredded to stop. Disappointed I moved on to other projects for a bit. I came back to an older idea of just using wheels and a caster, a simpler idea but proven and sound. Now, I have completed the first step and just maybe the whole thing is starting to take shape again. Now we can being again to get something up and running, the first of the robot army.

My wife does Improv, and was playing a location that did not have stage lights. Mostly they have disco lights and a good sounds system. Basically just a club. So I was tasked with creating a portable light system that we could go in and setup quickly. Oh yeah, it had to be cheap and done in under 24 hours. To the hardware store! First thing I think of is work lights, well because had a pair, but they did not provide quite the right light. Fortunately, Jen come up the correct type of mountable flood lighting and a couple of lamps with adjustable light positions. Excellent, things are going well, now all that we need is a light board. With the current setup everything was AC, not the 12VDC used by most lighting systems. Good thing they make light dimmers, with a quick calculation determine that with one AC outlet we can use up to 3 dimmers with 600 max watt loads each before blowing a typical circuit ( 120 V x 15 A = 1800 Watts ). We grab 3 outlets to go with the dimmers, allow

To finish up thought 21, I made a battery ended wall wort. At least the simple version just as a proof of concept. And it works. So here's how you build one: Materials: 1 Nail, 2 1/2" 1/2" tubing, the kind for water pumps. 1 wall wort, in this case a variable voltage one (thanks Seth). 1 AA battery, for model. Tools: Soldering Iron Wire Cutters Wire Stripper Needle Nose Pliers Hot Glue Gun Metal Cutting Tool. I used a dremel with a cut off wheel. Step 1: Cut the end off of the wall wart Step 2: Strip the ends and mark which it the positive side and which is the negative. Strip with about 1 1/2 inches of exposed wire. Step 3: Cut the nail in half. Optional: grind down to a smooth even surface. Step 4: Wrap the positive wire around the pointy end of the nail and solder into place. Soldering to nail my take a while, high heat and pinch with the needle nose pliers. Step 5: Wrap the negative wire to the head of the of the nail and solder into place. Step 6: Cut 2 t

Recently got a couple pieces of non-mobile electrics, and they take batteries? why? Couldn't they put a wall wart to go with it. (For those who do not know: wall wort = ugly black two prong ac adapter, it looks like a wart on your wall). I mean really mass produces wall warts are pretty cheap and would only effect the price by a dollar or two. But consuming batteries for something stationary is just wasteful. Ok rant over. Time for a solution. Here's what we came up with today for a plausible and quick solution. First find a power supply close to the battery power needed 2 batteries = ~3 vdc, 3-4 batteries = ~5 vdc. Then cut the end off of it keeping track of the plus and minus. Next build a fake battery: For a quick and dirty solution a PVC tube the same radius as the battery. Cut into appropriate number of 'batteries'. Epoxy nails in place for the plus and minus terminals. Solder the ends of the wall wart to the nails. Finally fill in the whole th

Turns out vinegar and citric acid to a most amazing job at killing broad leaf weeds. Mixed about 28 oz of 5% vinegar with 4 oz of lemon juice. Spray the plants in the morning, after the sun has started shining on them. During the day the acid + sunlight browns the leaves to a crisp. Note it take the round up about a week to kill off the same type of plants and requires the dogs to stay indoors for about 2 hours until it fuses to plants and becomes rain hard. Cost break down: Round Up = $25 for a gallon Vinager = $3 for a gallon Bottle of lemon juice $3 for 8 oz. (can get 5 lbs of citric acid for $12 but it'd require quite a bit more vinegar.) Reuseable Spray bottle: $4 So: $25 vs. $10. Toxic chemical vs safe to drink. 1 week results vs end of day. Just makes me wonder if I am missing something here? Is there something that the Round Up does better? does it not kill grasses? Add missing elements to ground? Not really sure, but so far the vinegar and lemon juice look to be a fo

Back to the teflon cat box thing. First closest thing I to an off the shelf solution would be a 15x17x3 lasagna baking pan for $15 + S+H. Not quite sure it would be big enough. Turns out they make a polyurethane with Teflon particles embedded. While this is not quite the right process for applying Teflon it is pretty close. Teflon is applied in the following steps: 1.) Rough up the surface (sand blasting metal). 2.) Apply an epoxy primer, let dry to a "sticky" level. 3.) Apply Teflon particles. 4.) Bake the Teflon on at about 500 degrees, so it gets close to its melting point. 5.) Let sit for 7-10 days to cure. A bit of an involved processes, but not too difficult. The Telfon polyurethane seems something to try, anyway. So far it seems like if I manage to make one, I'd be making a few more for friends. At least I think the concept has been well received.

Point one today (from the wife): Does it seem odd that we wrap up cat and dog, poo and pee into plastic bag to be effectively preserved for millions of years. Just think of what future archeologist will think. I guess this does stem from the fact that cats and dogs, and well just about every other animal on the planet as been peeing and pooping, when ever and where ever they please. Granted we'd have a bit of a smell problem if everyone went where ever, but we developed sanitation for a reason! Further most animals poo is beneficial to plants as fertilizer. Well, not really dog and cat poo, but why not just flush this stuff? or compost it in a 'hot' compost pile. Well it turns out we're not that bad, they do make flushable/compostable kitty litter. Oddly they charge more for them despite using things like ground corn cobs, pine pellet, wheat staff, i.e. other industry waste products, so why more expensive? or better if you have a yard why not grow corn, wheat, and

Alright time to start an experiment: Which works better sugar or round-up? The setup: Rope off 3 patches of yard (on the side of the house) approximately 5x5 squares. Section 1 is the control I will apply nothing to this patch. Section 2 is the sugar group will apply sugar and other organic treatments to this patch of soil. Like spraying weeds with vinegar and lemon juice. Section 3 is the chemical group, use weed and feed + spray the weeds that survive with round-up. The goal find out what works better, and if the organic sugar and vinegar solutions are viable. Also to provide a documented case as to what works best. Procedure. I will take a photo of the experiment once a day at roughly the same time of day. Analyze for "green-ness" and weed to grass ratio. Finally place online.

In response "Thought 14 - Perpetual Cat" sugarbumkin said, "The same theory could be applied to balloons tied to kindergarteners at recess. I like it." Well this got me thinking... Clothes with that are laced with MEMS generators. A MEMS generator is a solid state electronic circuit that generates low level of current though passive motion of the environment. Things like temperature change, acceleration, and even Brownian motion are converted to power using a MEMS generator. So, now we have attached them to small free moving bipeds of pure energy. How do we get the energy back. I figure that we isolate the playground into a large battery configuration where the children are running around on a conductive plate that makes contact with the heels of their shoes. They will run around with a super capacitor in addition to the MEMS, when their feet touch the ground the super-cap is discharged into the conductive plate underneath them. I do not think that the childr

Currently have a few friends going through some rough times, and they are all smart talented people. So, I'd figure I'd put up one of my observations of the world. The curse of genius as I see it, is that the world is flawed, imperfect, and broken, that it need to refined, perfected, and fixed. The genius will pursue to endlessly this goal, it is this view that the world could be may better that makes a genius look so incredibly smart and talented to those around them. However, the pursuit has in itself a dangerous flaw, that not everything can be refined, perfected, or fixed. It is upon internal realization of this flaw comes an inevitable choice: Continue the pursuit, the rules be damned, things will be changed! or find a quieter more stable path fixing minor things. I find that the first usually comes with a very high price tag. One, sadly, I decided was too high. The stable path does not mean that interests cannot be followed or world fixed, just that flaws in the

While I believe in Newton's 2nd law. Here is my perpetual motion machine. Similar, but not quite the same as the buttered toast and cat. Strap 6 cats to a balloon. Drop the 6 cat. Each cat will attempt to move itself into position as to land on its feet, thus moving the other 5 cats around the balloon. This will build up a massive static charge which we can then hardness for power.

Ok, this is a stupid thought. But oh well. Imagine altering a first person shooter to be a redone in all lolcats fashion. That is cats running around saying lol cats things like "I'm N UR base, kill'n' UR Dudez." And getting power ups in the form of cheese burgers. I think it needs more maybe a "om nom nom nom" gun of some sort that eats the cats or whatever. Maybe just make this an Meme FPS just so we can kill all of the meme's in a glorious fashion. I guess that this would require a Rick Ashley sound track. Oh god the horror... Ending thought now before my brain explodes.

Finally cracked this one after many years of trying to break these types of things, because well, they just logically bug me. The glass, half full or half empty? The problem lacks enough information, so we need to add that information in. What information you ask as this is supposed to be a question to determine if you are an optimist or pessimist? Simple is someone pouring liquid into the glass or is someone drinking from the glass? If someone is pouring the glass then they are filling it, therefore it would be half full. If however the glass is being drunk from, the person is emptying the glass, making it, therefore, half empty.

Had an odd thought about a comic series/graphic novel. Just random/useless thought: A comic set the DC universe, though any would work. The idea: Janitors sick of cleaning up all of the messes decide to stop the fighting between the Heroes and Villains, by defeating them all. Background: The original stone cutters were the working class, in a secret, yet open society of janitors and maintainence men, they meet to discuss their plans to stop the Justice League. The joke: The comic is a normal plot line with various janitors, window washers, etc, all lurking the background of cells, just "doing their job". However as the plot grows it turns out they have been spying on and setting up the Justice League and the Legion of Doom, slow getting them to fight and defeat each other. All the while gathering blue prints from Lex Corp, Wayne Enterprises, Star Labs, and other high tech or government facilities. The inspiration: G.I. Joe's "The Viper": A window wiper u