Jason Mark Roehrig My Web Home

I'm a sucker when it comes to toys. Wandering into a toy store is to me a form of impulse control training. Thanks to /. and ars technica I'm now battling with web-induced impulse-buying temptation.

The Tux Droid may not be very practical, but it certainly seems like a nice way to be wasting time. Certainly better than submitting oneself to brainwashing via commercial TV. At least one can use the excuse, that one purchased the Tux Droid for Python hacking skillz training, which to me, honestly, is less of an excuse and more of a darn good justification

The community of Tux Droid hackers seems a little quiet, but that will hopefully change once Tux Droid receives a little more exposure.

Now, screw self-control, where are my credit card details?

Human beings have emotionally bonded with material goods as far as we can look back with confidence. In our modern times we find a variety of objects people form deep relationships with, as multiple as differences amongst individuals in general. Probably the most popular object or desire, especially amongst penis carriers are cars. Some people fall in love with buildings, and I don't mean this in the sense of "I love your new outfit", but rather "I love her with all my heart".

What will be really interesting to see, is how our relationships with robots will develop, especially once we have humanoid bots sharing our intimate space. It isn't far fetched to believe, that the legality of human-robot marriages will be the new frontier of the equal-rights movement.

Emerging Sentimentality

Reset Robot
Courtesy of Simulated Comic Product
I found this comic (see picture inserted) highly disturbing and offensive. In the absence of its possibility, having ones mind completely erased can sound sweet tasting. It's reality though, looses quickly any attractiveness. Rather fear inducing is the awareness of loosing everything we consider to be my self.

The sight of the reset button evokes strong feelings, even if it attached to just a machine. Maybe it's just me. After all, my favourite character A Hitchhickers Guide To The Galaxy is Marvine, a chronically depressed humanoid robot.

Usually we associate it with turning a faulty machine back into a functional state.

Longevity Via Robotic-Rebirth

In a couple of centuries we will be able to virtualize our minds, enabling ourselves to be transfered from our wet-ware into maintainable hardware. Backing-up our data will then no longer just be of real concern to businesses only. Of course loosing a life-time supply of holiday snaps bears its tragedy, but imagine a backup actually meaning to live or to do.

Applications close on August 16'th 2007.

LANdroids are autonomous mini-robots, facilitating a wireless communication network for troops in urban warfare environments, with self-healing abilities.

For more information visit the official US Federal Grants page, or view the attached PDF-document, listing the the projects specifications.

"What is more, the challenges facing the robotics industry are similar to those we tackled in computing three decades ago. Robotics companies have no standard operating software that could allow popular application programs to run in a variety of devices. The standardization of robotic processors and other hardware is limited, and very little of the programming code used in one machine can be applied to another. Whenever somebody wants to build a new robot, they usually have to start from square one."
Little Willi's announcement to f*&$ up another industry?

I read, or rather use to read, the Scientific American on a monthly basis, in other words regularly. While living in Germany, the local version consumed was called Spektrum Der Wissenschaft, a name that lacks any nationalistic sentiment, and is far more descriptive - sorry for that tangent. Anyhow, for me it was always important to have an overview over the latest research in all fields of science, as not to be stuck in a physics and maths world only. And to hear it form the cows mouth, not its ass.

How times change. Today Slashdot referred to an article on Scientific American, where the ass was provided with ample space for its flatulence. After all, what would little Willi know about robotics? And how dare they label him "the leader of the PC revolution". What an insult to such people as Wozniak and other brilliant minds, as those working for Xerox, the actual source little Willi "got his visions" from.

I'm not going to link to the article I'm discussing directly, because I want to spare my readers from the self-indulgent and delusional "visions" of little Willi, mixed with a bunch of sentences I could swear to have already read somewhere else. In all of Scientific Americans publishing history, this must be by miles the article with the most appearances of the personal pronoun "I".

I would really like to know, what's so "visionary" about claiming something, the brightest minds have been talking and working on for the past couple of centuries? Especially at a time, where Roombas are entering many homes. Even my technophobe grandmother has been pondering to get one. And that's a women with an ATM phobia! What part had little Willi played in this? None what so ever! But now he comes along and claims "I can envision a future in which robotic devices will become a nearly ubiquitous part of our day-to-day lives". Sounds like the mumbo-jumbo one might be used to hear on Psychic-TV.

I'm just an enthusiast of robotics, and have only recently been reading up on the current state of robotics. Never the less, this bloke doesn't mention anything that hasn't been said in the past 10 years. And besides the constant self-references and subtle advertising of his corrupt business, every word written that is actually on topic, seem to be words hacked by someone else's keyboard. Little Willi sticks to his old tricks - relying on the wealth of his parents and ideas of other people.