Observe The Banana

I have just finished reading The Robots of Dawn by Isaac Asimov. This is the third book in his robot trilogy and is again a great combination of the science fiction and mystery genres. The main character, Elijah Baley, whom we got to know in the first two books is off into space again to solve another murder mystery, this time to the planet Aurora. Aurora lies somewhere between Earth and Solaris on the sociological spectrum. It combines the lower population density and ample use of robots of Solaris, with the social interactions and personal relationships of earth. The victim is a robot, which makes the crime not technically a murder, but the circumstances are entwined with global and galactic politics. Baley is summoned to duty and given no choice but to accept, and the future of not only his career but of earth itself rests on his success. Baley gets to team up with his old partner R. Daneel Olivaw, and must use every bit of his cleverness to unwrap the mystery. Similar to the last book, The Naked Sun, he is presented with only one suspect who could have committed the crime, and the assertion that that suspect could not have committed the crime. He has been conditioning himself to face the Outside and is not as crippled by his agoraphobia, but faces a new personal challenge when faced with his first experience with being outside during a thunderstorm.
When I started this series I commented on the apparent differences between Asimov and Heinlein’s writing style, but I found this book to actually be much more similar to Heinlein’s style than either of the other two books in the series had been. The Robots of Dawn was actually written 30 some years after The Naked Sun and it is apparent that Asimov’s style changed over that time. The text is full of long intricate conversations between sharp individuals engaging in a kind verbal fencing to outmaneuver each other, which is a style I had previously associated more with Heinlein. While the intriguing mystery held my attention, the long-winded dialog did get a little tiresome at points. Overall, I am very glad I finally got around to reading this classic trilogy and get to know Elijah Baley and the esteemed R. Daneel Olivaw.

I have often thought that futurists had a great racket going. They sit around and make up a bunch of random nonsense about what they think the future will be like, and apparently some of them even managed to get paid for it. It usually looks to me like their predictions are based on no more expertise or research than you or I might be able to come up with over a beer at the corner bar, and years later they are of course never held accountable when their predictions are wildly wrong.
In the July (2008) issue of Discover magazine in “Why Laughing Matters” Jim Holt offers a very interesting hypothesis on what they do wrong, “the repeated sins of futurologists is that they often extrapolate from what is new rather than from what is old”.

(click for more…)

A few weeks ago I posted about some students at the Department of Technological Studies at Ohio Northern University who are working on making an industrial robot play air hockey. Now it looks like an engineering services company called Nuvation has a lead on them. They recently demonstrated a very successful version of an air hockey playing robot that is able to beat all comers (or at least wins 90% of games) at the Freescale Technology Forum 2008 Americas. Here is a nice video interview with the CEO of Nuvation explaining their system. One interesting point is that the robot vision system not only tracks the current position, speed and direction of the puck, but then makes intelligent guesses on its future position predicting up to three bounces. They are showcasing the power of the processing system which is using two different procesors working together, but I have been unable to dig up more technical details online.

The robot, by the way, does live up to its advance billing, according to Kanellos. In watching it for a half an hour at the Freescale Technology Forum, the bot never lost a goal and scored many. Granted, none of the players he witnessed were off-duty roofing contractors tanked up on a 12-pack of Keystone Lager, but some players were pretty good nonetheless. The most eerie moments come when the robot would block a shot without even moving. It mocks you with its stillness.

Crave via TechEBlog

Update:

I finally found a little more technical information on this robot here:
Robot Aims to Top Human at Air Hockey

They talk about how the “The robot is powered by a special pc-board that can instantly switch between Freescale Semiconductor’s 8-bit Flexis and its 32-bit ColdFire microcontrollers”. Apparently in 8-bit mode human players could beat the robot, but in 32-bit mode the robot would win most of the time.  Follow the link above to learn more.

Last summer while looking for something to occupy my mind on long bike rides I discovered the world of science fiction podcasts. I listened to a lot of great stories from Escapepod, and found a promo for Nina Kimerbly the Merciless by Christiana Ellis, which I also enjoyed quite a bit. Unfortunately as the riding season ended I found it really just didn’t work to listen to podcasts around the house, so I got away from them for a while. This summer, as I started riding again, I went back to Escapepod to see what I could find and this time I came a across a promo for another Christiana Ellis project, Space Casey. Like Nina Kimberly, it features an irreverent heroine out against the world (or worlds in this case). This tag line is “Some heroines will steal your heart… This one will steal your wallet.” They lose no opportunity to poke fun at romantic cliches of action stories as we follow Casey on her misadventures. I have only listened to 3 of the 10 episodes so far, but it is off to a great start as Casey discovers her choice of space ships to steal may bring her more trouble than she bargained for. If you like science fiction with humor and strong female characters, check out Space Casey, or for a similar female character set in more medieval times (with excellent dragons), check out Nina Kimerbly the Merciless, or for a great variety of audio science fiction check out Escapepod.

or things that make you go “Doh!”

The hideous remains of my lawnmower blade that you see above is the result of discovering a hidden 6 inch tall, 4 inch diameter stump in a patch of tall weeds. There used to be a bush there until last fall when the power company removed it (almost, except for the lawnmower trap). The weeds grew tall over the fall and spring and this was the first time I had tried mow them. The really annoying part? That was a brand new blade on its maiden voyage! doh! The mower itself stopped with a horrific clank and puffed some white smoke, but I was able to start is again (after removed the blade), so I am hoping it is okay. Everything I read online tells me not to try straightening a bent blade, so I guess it is off to the hardware store for me….

A guest post from Uncle Jack

Last night on the tube I saw an ad for the new Journey to the Center of the Earth movie. Brendan Fraser movies are generally a plus in my book [he is George of the Jungle!], and I had read that some of the movie was shot in Iceland –prob’ly places I never saw– so I was interested. I had also read the Verne novel when I was a kid, and was curious as to whether the new movie includes the Snorri Sturluson angle.

So far, Snorri seems to be left out. The IMDB cast listing is only six names long and no Snorri. Next I check the “Official Site.” There I’m greeted by bombastic theme music and the rest of a typical official movie site stuff, much of which doesn’t work. Of note is the Vernian Log that links you to the “Asgeirsson Institute for Progressive Volcanology,” and a “polar opposites” widget. The first has me wondering if this movie’ll be the Indiana Jones of hard geology –I’ve gotta look up my college neighbor and ask– and the second purportedly finds one’s antipodal location on the globe.

The widget was fun for as long as it took for me to notice that everybody I know lives opposite the Indian Ocean. I s’pose that you enter your global location as a US zip code should have tipped me off. Determined to test the limits of this widget’s powerful technology *heh, heh* I look up zip codes in Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico. Interestingly, Kotzebu, AK is still opposite the Indian Ocean [near Antarctica], but Hanalei, HI is opposite somewhere along the Namibian/Botswana border [not Madagascar] and San Juan, PR is opposite somewhere outside Helen Springs, Australia. Methinks the widget’s algorithm is a wee bit off.

I come out of this adventure feeling a little robbed ["No Snorri! Crappy widget!"], but at least it was educational. I now have a better idea how large the Indian Ocean is, and I found a locality check tool that is much more fun.

Addendum:
According to IMDb, the 1959 JTTCOTE [hereafter pronounced "Jaitey-coat"] had Pat Boone [yes, that Pat Boone] and James Mason scampering around Lone Pine, CA pretending it was Iceland.

I have just finished reading The Naked Sun by Isaac Asimov.
Elijah Baley is off on another murder investigation involving robots. This time he has to leave earth and head to the planet Solaris, where through generations of isolation and social conditioning human nature has been turned on its head (compared to earth). Where, on earth modern people live in dense population centers in close quarters to other people and never ever venture outside, most having never seen the sun or open sky, on Solaris, the population size is strictly regulated and people live on huge individual estates in isolation from others. Through use of 3D tele-viewing systems people never have to actually be in the physical presence of another and have grown to be terrified of actually seeing each other in person. Also, unlike the earth population which has shunned the use of robots in jobs involving humans, the Solarians each employ dozens of personal servant robots to meet their every need. Elijah is forced to reconcile these great differences as he struggles with his own debilitating discomfort of being outdoors, and the Solarians’ great anxiety of seeing him in person. This book is a both a murder mystery and sociological study of human nature (and nurture). I noticed that the Elijah Baley character seems to have matured some from the first book, Caves of Steel, and frequently seems to be more in charge of his behavior. After finishing this, I am jumping right in to the third book of the trilogy, Robots of Dawn.

Today BBC News online had an interesting article on the history of the use of SOS as a call for help.
Early ships had no radio communication options and relied on flags, flares or signal lights to communicate with other ships. In a disaster situation ships were usually had to fend for themselves. When the radio was invented it was a great help, allowing communication over the horizon to other ships or land, and could be used to call for help in disasters. The early radio system could not modulate a voice signal and instead just produced a steady carrier wave than could only switched on or off, so morse code was used in a similar way to land based telegraph systems. In fact most ship radio operators came straight from land telegraph systems. The letters “CQ” were used to first call for attention when beginning a transmission. (as is still the case with HAM radio operators using morse code). In cases of emergency operators added a D and used “CQD”, which did not mean “come quick disaster” as some imagined, just “attention, disaster”. The problem was that in all the noise the D could easily be missed, and as “CQ” calls were so common many CQD calls were just missed. In 1906 the international telegraphy community got together to try to solve the problem in some way that was both internationaly acceptable, and impossible to mistake. The Germans suggested “SOE” (dot-dot-dot, dash-dash-dash, dot) which was considered, but it was feared the single dot for the E could be too easily missed. Eventually the conference agreed upon “SOS” (dot-dot-dot, dash-dash-dash, dot-dot-dot) which is hard to mistake for anything else. Interestingly enough, since the pattern was repeated without a pause it can just as easily be read as IJS, SMB, or VTB. SOS became the official call for assistance on July 1, 1908. Apparently the expressions “Save our Souls” or “Save Our Ship” are really just “backronyms” constructed later.
“It is believed the first ship to have sent out an SOS signal was the American steamer Arapahoe in 1909. When the Titanic was sinking in 1912, its operator first sent out CQD and then SOS, alternating. CQD persisted, particularly among British operators, for many years.”

[Link]

I have just finished reading Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov. I decided to read this book after a friendly commenter suggested the addition of R. Daneel Olivaw to my list of favorite robots. As with most of Asimov’s works  this is a well written fiction that takes place in earth’s future. It is a murder mystery as well as science fiction. The main character, Elijah Baley, is a plain-clothed detective in New York city assigned to solve the politically charged murder of a top robotics expert in “Space City”, where the only inhabitants are humans from other worlds, and robots. After earth colonized other planets, the inhabitants of those colonies decided to become separate and independent of earth and over time evolved into a very different society where populations are low, the use of robots is embraced and a lack of natural immunity to disease makes them fear earth people and their germs. While robots are used on earth for mining and farming, their use in the city around people is slow to be accepted with many people distrustful and angry about people losing their jobs to robots. With the earth’s population topping 8 billion, cities have become massive enclosed population centers with strict rationing and social ranking. Most people have never been outdoors and seen the natural sky, sunlight or non-airconditioned air and are naturally somewhat agoraphobic, a lifestyle eluded to in the title. The countryside between cities is occupied only by robots who work the farms and mines. Not an attractive future in my opinion. Like Asimov’s I Robot stories which came before, this book deals a lot with human robot interaction issues and Asimov’s three laws of robotoics.

I think I may have the tendency to mix up Asimov’s writing with that of Robert Heinlein in my head sometimes due to the similar time periods they wrote, and the similar reality based, future earth, science fiction style they used. Having read of a lot of Heinlein recently some of the differences stood out while reading this book. Even though Asimov is also known for writing science non-fiction works, I find his fiction contains less of the science lesson factoids so common with Heinlein. I also notice that Asimov’s characters are often more fallible and human, as opposed to Heinlein’s tendency to depict highly effective, rational and clever characters. Elijah Baley is frequently very emotional and makes some irrational decisions based on those emotions, but in the end puts the pieces together cleverly to solve the mystery. I would guess his emotional behavior serves to accentuate the contrast of his emotionless and logical partner, Robot Daneel Olivaw. One similarity to Heinlein is his believable descriptions of future advancements in engineering and technology. I particularly liked his transport system which involved rows of moving conveyor belts, each row moving slightly faster than the next. In the center is a continuously moving transport vehicle. People can easily step onto the outer slowest belt, then work their way inward accelerating more at each level until they are moving at 60mph, the same as the transport vehicles, and can step into the vehicle easily. For shorter distances they can just choose a middle speed belt and ride it to their destination. Reminds me of the moving belts used at Disneyland to allow people to step onto ride cars without the ride having to stop.

Overall I enjoyed this book quite a bit, and by the time I have gotten around to writing this, I am already half way through The Naked Sun, the next book in the robot trilogy.

Two original (I believe) jokes from the mind of my son B

–

Sometimes when my old hound dog talks in his sleep he doesn’t tell the truth,
but I figure what the heck, let sleeping dogs lie!

–

My friend is sooo confused!

How confused is he?

When I got sick he sent me a bowl of rose soup . . .

. . .

and a bouquet of chickens!

I have finished reading Rainbow Mars by Larry Niven.

It is the year 1108 AE (Atomic Era, starting in 1945 with the first atomic explosion). In this post industrial age almost all plant and animal life has been driven to extinction by the poisons of industry in the air and water, leaving only the humans who were able to adapt to the pollution, and the farmed yeast they live on.  Waldemar the Eleventh  is the new Secretary-General, the latest in the line of monarchy of leaders of the United Nations. Waldemar the Tenth liked extinct animals, Waldemar the Eleventh likes planets and the stars, and they say he is not a mental deficient (unlike Waldemar the Tenth who was 26, but whose inbred family had left him with the intelligence of a 6 year old). Hanille Svetz, an agent for the Institute of Temporal Research, no longer being sent into the past to find extinct animals, is now assigned to travel to Mars’ past, when canals were observed on the planets surface, and find Martian life. They find much more life than they expected, including a giant tree extending from the planet’s surface into space. As usual, the mission does not end up going the way it was planned. They end up in earth’s own past struggling to make it back to the present, and then to restore the time line they knew.

This book was a little hard for me to get in to at first, as the writing style is so drastically different than the Heinlein and Varley I have been reading recently. It seemed somewhat less smooth, and the temporal jumps and paradoxes left me struggling to follow it at times, but the overall premise was interesting enough to keep me going. They use ‘extension cages’ to travel in time. The cage itself is just the vehicle attached to the time machine which stays in the present time. The arm between the two “fades off in a direction the human eye can’t follow”.  Time travel is still somewhat difficult and very expensive and is reserved for satisfying the whims of the current leader. Post industrial humans have evolved to breath the polluted atmosphere, and now cannot breathe pre-industrial air as it does not have enough carbon dioxide in it to trigger their body’s autonomic breathing mechanism and they just forget to breathe. They use a filter hood over their head which passes the needed gases in the needed ratios for them to breath in the past, or in a martian atmosphere.

After the main story ends, this books includes several stand alone chapters covering the earlier exploits of Svetz, which were eluded to in the main story line. With tidbits of incomplete information from ancient children’s books, he goes to recover extinct animals from the past, often ending up with something which was not exactly what he went looking for. These actually helped fill in a lot details for me and in some ways I enjoyed them as much if not more than the rest of the book, or at least they increased my enjoyment of the main story. I am not sure, but I almost think these should have come first.
Even though I was not so sure in the beginning, by the end I ended up enjoying this book quite a bit, although I am not going to run out and find more books by Larry Niven to read. I think he might be best known for his Ringworld series.

Photo by Pro-Zak

I have always thought tugboats (or water tractors as they are sometimes called) were pretty cool. Maybe it was the Little Toot book I enjoyed back when I was just a little toot myself, or maybe it is all that raw power packed into a small no frills work machine, like a locomotive for the water. Indeed, I read that some tug boat engines were originally designed for locomotives, then had a sump oil pan added to handle the rolling sea. I have recently learned that many tug boats do not use a conventional propeller (or “screw” for you nautical types) for propulsion, but instead use a fascinating system called a Voith Schneider Propeller (VSP) which combines propulsion and steering in a single efficient unit. Developed nearly 78 years ago, the Voith Schneider unit uses vertical blades protruding from the ships hull from a rotating disc. The blades all travel around a common center axis, while each blade can also rotate on its own center axis. The pitch of the blades is continuously varied as they rotate around the circle so that they push against the water in one direction, while slicing though it in the other. This allows the system to produce thrust in any direction, or produce a rotational thrust around the center of the unit. This system allows a tug boat to move in any direction regardless of which way it is facing, and allows it to rotate in place, giving them excellent maneuverability in tight spaces. Keep reading for more details, diagrams, links, videos and more.

(click for more…)

As of May 2008, Owners of the Nintendo Wii game console can now download free game demos to their Nintendo DS game system at home just like the Download Service available at some stores. The service is available as part of the new free Nintendo Channel on the Wii. You can purchase the Nintendo Channel through the Wii Shop Channel. The Nintendo Channel features Wii game videos and trailers. To find the DS Download service you will need to agree to allow “Data-Sharing” service that sends data on what games you play to Nintendo. Then go to “Find Titles for You” and the bottom choice will be “DS Download Service”. If the option is grayed out as unavailable, then you have not agreed to the data sharing. Once in the DS Download Service you will see a list of available demos, some of which appear to be permanent, some of which seem to be available only temporarily. I have noticed the “Distribution Ends:” date they give is not always accurate . After you download a game you can keep it on your DS until it is powered off. If you want to save a demo to play the next day, just close the DS to suspend it without turning it off.

I will post the new list on this blog as they change.  July 2008 list is here

June 2008 Wii Download Service Titles (Updated 6/23/08)

Brain Age Demo - always available
Brain Age 2 Demo - always available
Flash Focus Demo - always available
Crosswords DS Demo - always available

Crosswords DS Anagrams Demo - Distribution Ends: 06/29/08
Wall E DS Demo - Distribution Ends: 06/29/08
The Incredible Hulk - Distribution Ends: 06/29/08
Kung Fu Panda DS Demo - Distribution Ends: 06/29/08
Contra 4 - Distribution Ends: 06/29/08
Cake Mania 2 - Distribution Ends: 06/29/08

This morning on the MPR morning show they played this fun song by Hypnotic Clambake called 500 Robots.

“I’ve got 500 robots in my house, they do the things that I can do without….”

It is a fun catchy tune that is stuck in my head and will my theme song for the day. It is from their Mayonnaise album.
I managed to find this live version on Internet Archive - Enjoy!

Hypnotic Clambake - 500 Robots Live MP3

Hypnotic Clambake Official Site