Archive for May 8th, 2008
Man can come up with some pretty cool stuff every so often, but nothing compares to what a Chilean Volcano has decided to spew forth ….
Yep, that is lightning coming out of that volcano… and that folks, is pretty freaking cool. Unless you live at the base of that particular volcano. Then it probably sucks.
fake sky lights.
[ The Sky Factory ] has produced a solution to the poor saps that sit in a windowless office.
I am one of those poor saps that sits in a windowless office in the bowls of a large corporate structure… Some days I have no idea what the weather is even like outside…. Not that these would help with knowing the weather, but they sure would be cooler to look at then the white wall with a clock on it that I stare at now…
A few years back, my wife and I took a cruise on a carnival cruise ship and had an inside room … WOW did that suck.. I would force myself to stay asleep since I thought that it was still really really early, when in fact it was really 10 in the morning. The room was literally in total darkness. Of course they had a big white screen that didn’t do anything and I thought it would be a good idea to slap a cheap flat screen in there and mount a few HD cameras on the front and back of the ship and let people “pretend” they have a window… you could even upcharge the room that has that…
Of course, a dude like me has no play with Carnival, and therefore my excellent ideas fall on deaf ears…
Their loss, as far as my wife and I, we only cruise with a balcony now anyway. 
So, I spoke about how much I loved the [ Pleo ] at Maker Faire last weekend… then today I was sent a video on You Tube of the Pleo being put into a combat ring with a combot. I am not going to post the video since I find it rather disturbing.
First of all, let me make a few facts known. I am not against combat bots and the sheer enjoyment of building a desctructobot to destroy other destructobots.. Nor am I some sort of wacky PETA person who is going to equate this to being the same thing as having “real” animals fight, since that is just stupid.
HOWEVER… Ugobe [ the company that makes the Pleo ] has created a robotic dino that is supposed to be very life-like. It is supposed to act like, and be treated like a pet, and yet they take this cute, cuddly dinosaur and stick it in the combat ring to be shredded and mutilated by a remote controlled lawn mower…
Sick.
You can hear kids in the background crying and people being noticeably disturbed by what is happening. Robots destroying robots can be quite enjoyable to watch, but only because those robots are not at all life like. When you market your robot to be a life like cute pet, and have it programmed to act and react as such, it is irresponsible to engage it in these types of activities.
Ugobe, you should be ashamed of yourself. I know I for one am embarrassed for you.