I flew in on Monday night, and my firm had a reception waiting for us with an open bar. Pretty cool - but this is where I think I may have made my initial mistake. I challenged my coleagues to a competition to see who could finish the most gin & tonics before the open bar closed. In hindsight, it might have been wiser to choose a drink that cast me as a little less queer.

As the night progressed and I socialized with everyone, a particular dude that I will call Thomas befriended my group and me. My initial size-up of this Thomas character was that he was a complete fag. Not in the sense that he liked guys, but more in a Clint Russell kind of way where the guy just ruins everybody elses time becuase he is so annoying.

As it turns out, my initial size-up was innaccurate - Thomas does like guys. In particular, this one. After a night-long relentless barrage of Thomas flirting with me, he finally got to the point and flat out asked me if I wanted to hook-up. It went something like this -

Thomas: "Hey BigDog - you sure pounded a lot of Gin & Tonics tonight. That was awesome!" Thomas then steals my work nametag.

BigDog: "Thomas, give me my nametag back"

Thomas: "I'll give it to you tomorrow if you have a couple shots of tequilla with me! Yeah!"

BigDog: .....

Thomas: "hook-up?"

BigDog: "huh?"

Thomas: "hook-up?"

BigDog: "No."

Thomas: awkward silence........... "I mean, do you want to go hook-up with those chicks?"

Official site

Big Dog, el mismo que canta y encanta. En realidad que camina, da algo de risa y encanta. El más-más de los robots cuadrúpedos. De acuerdo la Boston Dynamics (¿serán los mismos de la mitad de aparatos del RadioShack?),  camina, corre, escala, viaja a campo traviesa*, y carga bultos. El lado malo es que se alimenta con gasolina. , pero es aparentemente capaz de "reciclar energía" del mismo modo que los cuadrúpedos reales**. Véanlo.

La LeaveMeAloneBox (CajaDéjenmeEnPaz), también descrita como la máquina autorreferente o autoconsciente. Basado en una idea de Claude Shannon y Marvin Minsky, es una cajita sin mayor gracia con un interruptor que activa un par de bracitos mecánicos que abren la tapa y apagan el interruptor. No tiene razón de ser, no le encuentro aplicación práctica, es sólo una fumada a la que le fue conferida vida electrónica y un propósito circular. ¿Se le puede llamar "arte"?

Fuentes: Gizmodo, Microsiervos e IdiotToys.

* Sí, escribí todo este post como excusa para decir "campo traviesa".
** Una vez leí que el enfoque analítico era incapaz de demostrar la movilidad del canguro como una suma de partes, dado su tamaño y peso. La clave que el dichoso método no concebía era el reciclaje de energía producido por los brinquitos del marsupial. O algo así.

For a full presentation and other video formats, go to Boston Dynamics. They include a higher resolution WMV

It got me thinking - what dollar value do you place on a Saturday? How much money would you pay to have a sunny day like tomorrow to do whatever you wanted with? Maybe go to the Husky Spring game, or the freemont troll stroll, or just play rockband and BBQ all day?

I think the cash value of tomorrow is at least 200 bucks. There are probably only 10 -15 nice Saturday's in the entire year in Seattle - I don't want to be committed to anything on any of them. I certainly would pay 200 bucks to not go to this birthday party tomorrow.

This kid is getting a $30 present, a $200 Saturday, and probably at least $20 bucks in gas b/c it's in Tacoma. Happy Birthday.

Another factor propelling broadcasters in this direction besides the sound quality is the youth market.  According to this recent article in the Globe and Mail, 80% of all people under age 54 do not listen to AM.  In Saskatoon, Wired 96.3 is targeting its music at teens and the 18 to 34 year group.  Its manager, Carley Caverly, says "it is the only radio station in Saskatchewan with this kind of music format."

So popular is FM there is little space left on the dial in some cities for additional frequencies.  In some cities such as Thunder Bay, Ontario there are no local AM stations.  In Saskatchewan, we have seen two mighty AM stations: CFQC Saskatoon and CKCK Regina come and go. Even the once formidable signal strength of CBK 540 has eroded in some cities.  Thus, CBC received regulatory approval to broadcast Radio One on FM in Regina and Saskatoon markets in addition to its AM signal.

According to the Globe and Mail, the switch to FM has also proven profitable.  The latest figures show that commerical AM stations netted an average of 118 thousand a year while FM stations averaged 659 thousand dollars per year. How long those numbers hold up is anyone's guess with the growth of satellite and Internet radio including Saskatoon-based Jazz Avenue. 

The book is half philosophy thesis about how faggy liberals are ruining the world, a quarter mystery novel, and a quarter pornography. So at least 25% of it you should enjoy.

Just given that the book is kind of old, really big, written by a woman, and has a weird cover, I expected that it was going to be incredibly boring and shitty. I still think that is the proper assumption to make given all of those circumstances, but this book rules.

I have never read a book like it. It is an exciting mystery novel, it is science fiction, it has heroes and villains and good vs. evil. At the same time it is philosophy and defines a compelling moral code for all of us to live by.  If it had some traditional fantasy novel characters in it, I would probably proclaim it the best book ever written right now.

Here is a typical exceprt that I enjoyed:

“Rearden heard Bertram Scudder, outside the group, say to a girl who made some sound of indignation, "Don't let him disturb you. You know, money is the root of all evil – and he's the typical product of money."

      Rearden did not think that Francisco could have heard it, but he saw Francisco turning to them with a gravely courteous smile.

      "So you think that money is the root of all evil?" said Francisco d'Aconia. "Have you ever asked what is the root of money? Money is a tool of exchange, which can't exist unless there are goods produced and men able to produce them. Money is the material shape of the principle that men who wish to deal with one another must deal by trade and give value for value. Money is not the tool of the moochers, who claim your product by tears, or of the looters, who take it from you by force. Money is made possible only by the men who produce. Is this what you consider evil?

      "When you accept money in payment for your effort, you do so only on the conviction that you will exchange it for the product of the effort of others. It is not the moochers or the looters who give value to money. Not an ocean of tears nor all the guns in the world can transform those pieces of paper in your wallet into the bread you will need to survive tomorrow. Those pieces of paper, which should have been gold, are a token of honor – your claim upon the energy of the men who produce. Your wallet is your statement of hope that somewhere in the world around you there are men who will not default on that moral principle which is the root of money. Is this what you consider evil?

      "Have you ever looked for the root of production? Take a look at an electric generator and dare tell yourself that it was created by the muscular effort of unthinking brutes. Try to grow a seed of wheat without the knowledge left to you by men who had to discover it for the first time. Try to obtain your food by means of nothing but physical motions – and you'll learn that man's mind is the root of all the goods produced and of all the wealth that has ever existed on earth.

      "But you say that money is made by the strong at the expense of the weak? What strength do you mean? It is not the strength of guns or muscles. Wealth is the product of man's capacity to think. Then is money made by the man who invents a motor at the expense of those who did not invent it? Is money made by the intelligent at the expense of the fools? By the able at the expense of the incompetent? By the ambitious at the expense of the lazy? Money is made – before it can be looted or mooched – made by the effort of every honest man, each to the extent of his ability. An honest man is one who knows that he can't consume more than he has produced.

      "To trade by means of money is the code of the men of good will. Money rests on the axiom that every man is the owner of his mind and his effort. Money allows no power to prescribe the value of your effort except by the voluntary choice of the man who is willing to trade you his effort in return. Money permits you to obtain for your goods and your labor that which they are worth to the men who buy them, but no more. Money permits no deals except those to mutual benefit by the unforced judgment of the traders. Money demands of you the recognition that men must work for their own benefit, not for their own injury, for their gain, not their loss – the recognition that they are not beasts of burden, born to carry the weight of your misery – that you must offer them values, not wounds – that the common bond among men is not the exchange of suffering, but the exchange of goods. Money demands that you sell, not your weakness to men's stupidity, but your talent to their reason; it demands that you buy, not the shoddiest they offer, but the best your money can find. And when men live by trade – with reason, not force, as their final arbiter – it is the best product that wins, the best performance, then man of best judgment and highest ability – and the degree of a man's productiveness is the degree of his reward. This is the code of existence whose tool and symbol is money. Is this what you consider evil?  

      "When you have made evil the means of survival, do not expect men to remain good. Do not expect them to stay moral and lose their lives for the purpose of becoming the fodder of the immoral. Do not expect them to produce, when production is punished and looting rewarded. Do not ask, 'Who is destroying the world?' You are.  

      "Until and unless you discover that money is the root of all good, you ask for your own destruction. When money ceases to be the tool by which men deal with one another, then men become the tools of men. Blood, whips and guns – or dollars. Take your choice – there is no other – and your time is running out."

Big dog

El caso es que hubo gente que dudó de su veracidad, diciendo que eran dos personas disfrazadas. Bueno este si son dos personas disfrazadas parodiandolo XD

Big dog beta

Y MI EPISODIO FAVORITO DE NARUTO

El final de Zabuza y Haku

Parte 1

Parte 2

Parte 3

Kolla in klippet på det amerikanska företaget Boston Dynamics senaste skapelse. Det är en fyrbent robot som kallas "Big Dog" och är den mest avancerade i sin skepnad som robot. "Big Dog" är utvecklad för att kunna ta sig fram i mycket svår terräng såväl gåendes och springandes men även klättrandes.

Roboten som påminner om en insekt drivs av hydraulik som i sin tur drivs av en bensinmotor, alltihop styrs av en dator monterad i roboten. Kan någon förklara för mig hur den kan hålla sig på benen vid 0.45 och 1.45? Sanslöst.

Läs mer on "Big Dog" på Boston Dynamics hemsida.

(MP3) Sebastien Tellier - Divine

(MP3) The Cramps - Human Fly [audio http://one.fantasticweapon.com-a.googlepages.com/06-TheCramps-HumanFly.mp3]

...and actually, I take it back. I'm not sorry at all.

No mês de março publiquei o video do Big Dog. Lembra?(claro que não. Ninguém lê essa merda)

Mas como o próprio tópico diz, tem sempre um besta...

E mais... lembra dos corpos dançando o Daft Punk?

Sempe tem umas gostosas bestas...

Here's the video. Pure genius. Keep it up guys:

Vía Gizmodo

Desde luego lo del Big Dog es algo ‘de grandes ligas’ como se suele decir… Nada más hay que verlo:

Aún no salía de mi asombro cuando a través de un twit, me entero de la existencia de la parodia del Big Dog … Jajaja, igualmente merece la pena:

En el post, Arturo J. Paniagua dice sentir miedo viendo al robot. La verdad es que yo también siento inquietud viendo al cacharro en movimiento, y no puedo dejar de imaginarme ese hipotético futuro en el que las máquinas se rebelen contra los humanos.

En Kirainet, Héctor García, habla de este sentimiento como "El Valle Inexplicable" diciendo: "[..] cuanto más se parece un robot a un humano tanto en su apariencia como en sus movimientos más empatía genera en los humanos, pero llegado a un punto se entra en una especie “Valle Inexplicable” en el que el robot general repulsión. [...] Un robot que no se parezca mucho a un humano tiene más probabilidades de ser aceptado que un robot humanoide con características humanas desconcertantes".

Menos mal que los humanos ya nos estamos preparando para combatir a las máquinas cuando llegue el momento de su rebelión. Y lucharemos con sus mismas herramientas, como demuestra éste vídeo donde se muestra un prototipo de réplica al Big Dog.

First, David Hasselhoff is popular in Europe. I think I read that that guy was like #1 on the European charts for a while. No matter how shitty Americans can be, at least we all know that that guy sucks bad.

Second, Melissa knows this European guy, and he eats sandwiches for breakfast, lunch and dinner - and claims that that is normal in Europe. I like a good sandbo as much as the next guy, but that's kind of wierd, isn't it?

Third, from what I can tell, there arn't very many skyscrapers in Europe.

Fourth, all good movies are made in America. I haven't actually seen any foreign films, but it seems like they suck.

Fifth, I read in a history textbook once that one of the reasons we were successful in the Revolutionary war is that Americans are actually significantly bigger/more powerful than English people. I think we all respect the fact that power=cool? Greenberg?

Sixth, I believe www.beasttube.com was created in America.

I am a pretty generic American guy, and I am pretty sure that I am quite a bit sweeter than a generic piece of European trash.

Corey - feel free to make your post right on top of mine b/c I don't know if this one is really going anywhere.

Funded by  the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA). Itis being developed by Boston Dynamics with the goal of creating robots that have rough-terrain mobility that can take them anywhere on Earth that people and animals can go. 

See it in action below. Turn your sound down. It's noisy

In other news....

The University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science has received the largest single award in the School’s 156-year history to help create the fundamental networks and technologies that will put unmanned machines on the front lines of battle.

This award will incorporate more than $22 million in funding during 10 years from the Army Research Laboratory.

visit www.Roslyn-Robot.com

Some other guys made a robot of their own. I like it a lot more. This is for you, Zach.

Can't paste the video, so you have to follow this link to Gizmodo.

Clearly the ultimate goal is to build a bullet train after we raise enough money. The genius of the bullet train business is that you get to choose where it stops if you build it. We should buy a shit load of land somewhere cheep, and then add a stop there and instantly quadruple the value of our property. In the meantime, here are my best ideas:

First - I have noticed that people place a lot of value in things that are heavy. If you are at the Bon Marche and are looking for a toaster oven, you are clearly going to apply the weight test. If one weighs about 3 times as much, there is an assumed inherent quality in that product. So why don't we just start copying products already on the market, but inject some lead or something into it? Boom - our product is better.

Second - a bar where you can purchase an entire keg. The idea being that if we all go to the bar, we can just throw 150 bucks down as a group, and have an entire keg of PBR, which we could either drink all ourselves, or distribute to the chickies.

 Third - Selling a deal that combines the technology of the Iphone and facebook, where the Iphone uses its GPS technology to track everywhere you go, and superimposes a line on a map showing everywhere you have ever been. I've always thought it would be cool if you could somehow see a visual map of everywhere you have ever been since you were born. The line tracking your route of life could change from blue (day 1) to red (present time) in color, so that your route is also a timeline. Then, you could load up your map on the software we are going to make, and it will be a conduit to blogging. So when you look at your personal map, you can put a dot on the line for events that took place, and when you click on it you can post pictures/blog about what happened then and there. Then, everybody could upload these on to facebook, and have them all linked. So there would be like sponsored events, where a bunch of people would probably have one of these "dots" on their timeline. For instance, if you were at a certain bar on Friday night,a lot of other people would be there too. So when you click on the dot a few days later, you could see who all else was there, pictures they posted, blogs they wrote about it, and then could connect with people there. Maybe you saw some hot chick that you didn't get a chance to talk to, but now you see her a few days later on this sweet new technology I'm inventing? Clearly the toughest part is some people might be uncomfortable with posting exactly where they have been and when to the public. Well, you could easily add a feature to the software so that you could block out chuncks of time from your timeline to not show to the public. Problem solved.

Fourth - our idea about taking over a small resort town somewhere. This deserves it's own brainstorm session because I really want to do it.

Please add your own new ideas, why you think mine suck, how to make mine better.... and no, I do not want to change my blog timeline software into another BeastTube.

At first glance, it is a rather freakish looking creature.