Robots!

I’ve been learning more about electronics, in part to get a ground-up understanding of computers. In the process I’ve become interested in learning to build robots.

My first attempt at building a robot, about 8 years ago, wasn’t really successful. I was in high school and I wanted to build a robot that would turn off my light switch across the room because at night I would read in bed, and when I was done I didn’t want to have to get up to turn off the light. So I got my mom to buy me Lego Mindstorms one Christmas and put together a robot, and it would just run into the wall and fall apart. I tried a little more and kept getting the same result, so I just said “fuck it” and I bought a lamp to put beside my bed. Incidentally, that’s still how I approach problems most of the time.

Anyway, one thing I’d like to make is a little wristband with an LCD (like a digital watch) displays random words throughout the day. After that, a robot parrot which repeats words it hears often. It’ll have Barry White’s voice.

Woz’s Calling

Normally I don’t watch TV, much less blog about it, but last night on “My Life on the D-List” they showed Steve Wozniak, billionaire inventor of the personal computer, bragging about how many Kathy Griffin t-shirt he sold at a convention for bears (not the animal – big, burly, gay men). Hilarious.

They also showed Woz going to a “bear maul” (a bazaar for big burly gay men paraphernalia), picking up a whip and saying, “This must be a movie prop.” I tried to find a clip, but only found this lousy 2 minute piece from bravo. It does show Woz briefly at the beginning of the clip.