Conservatives Without Conscience  

Technovelgy reports that Japanese roboticists are working hard on the talking head from Neuromancer - the one that talks without synth chips.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but if I recall Neuromancer correctly, the talking head more closely resembled this screaming golden idol than this uncanny disembodied mouth:

I recall long ago seeing a much more crude version of this at the Exploratorium . That device could only grunt and wail like the audio from a cheap adult movie. The WT-6, referenced above, allegedly speaks perfect Japanese.

Now you don't need to kill a serial mouse just to make an encoder wheel. You can use this Encoder Generator and a piece of transparency film or even plain paper.

Make: presents HOW TO - Make a digital toy infrared camera.

I did this myself, a while back, using a SiPix Blink II, the gel filters described in "$10 Infrared Goggles" , and a few pointers found here. Although the Blink II was never designed to be taken apart, I managed to do so without destroying it. It was then that I learned that the infrared blocking filter was of the sort bonded to the lens. Fortunately the lens appeared to be interchangeable with that of a security camera I had. So I borrowed that lens. I would come to regret that later.

At any rate, I managed to get the Blink II reassembled and set out on a grand day of photo taking. Unfortunately, I had forgotten the Blink II's major drawbacks. Not only does it take worse pictures than my cellphone, it sucks batteries dry within a few hours, and of course all of your photos will then evaporate at that point. So guess what happened?

Yes. I returned home empty handed. I tried (with fresh batteries) again and again, until the time I finally made it to a computer in time to download and view this:

Here's the complete photoset .

Oh, and the reason I came to regret using the borrowed lens? Well, a few more dead batteries and lost photos later, the experimental camera suddnly found itself flying into the bushes at the Lake Murray reservoir.It was never seen again.

It's got propulsion, collision detection, and light detectors.

Now it only needs batteries... and a brain... and programming...

Slashdot reports  on a new prosthetic limb that can be linked to the nervous system without implanting electrodes in the brain. Instead, nerves that had served a missing limb can be attached to neighboring muscles. When the bionic arm senses the resulting tiny contractions in the muscle, it moves.

Slashdot also reports  that some people are worried that CERN's Large Hadron Collider could create non-decaying microscopic black holes and destroy the earth. Or pehaps the planet might gain consciousness . At any rate, planetary destruction by a full-sized black hole would be ever so much more impressive.

What is the significance of the title of this site, you ask? Good question.

A long time ago, the Brunching Shuttlecocks , in addition to such unforgettable classics as the Geek Heirarchy and the Bjork Song , had the Cyborger . So, as you have probably already guessed by now, when my name is entered into the Cyborger, the resulting backronym is Electronic Replicant Intended for Killing.

Since, at that point, the Cyborger produced some pretty random-sounding results for other people's names, I was quite proud of my result. It sounded cool and dangerous and had a wonderful clarity of purpose that the other backronyms lacked. I could imagine artificial impostors infiltrating the ranks of the enemy and then quietly and efficiently carrying out their missions.

Now, when I first started with Thingamablog, I used my name as the title and had a rather vague and long-winded description about the blog's purpose. I didn't like this, and it wasn't until I tried switching their places that I realized why-- I would rather be the author than the subject. But that still left the problem of the title, and the one that I then had wasn't going to work. I needed something with a clarity of purpose.

Of course! The cyborger backronym! I tried that and liked it. But since I didn't want people to get the wrong idea, I dropped the "Intended for Killing" bit.

And that was how the Electronic Replicant got its name.

Newscientist reports  that roboticists are studying ways for future domestic robots to better interact with humans by sensing their moods. This could be done through biometric sensors, such as for galvanic skin response , or by facial-recognition software equipped with mood analysis algorithms . This would permit your robot to know when its help is or is not wanted.

One problem is that attempting to program a robot for every possible combination of moods and situations would be nearly impossible. Instead, some researchers propose allowing each robot to learn appropriate responses on its own. For example, one robot might learn that gloomy humans appreciate being cheered up, but another robot may learn to leave such humans alone.

In this sense, a robot would become rather like a pet, learning from-- and adapting to-- its environment Unfortunately, some pets are abused, to often-tragic results. What, I wonder, would be the result of robot abuse?

Hackaday 's hack of the day is this microwave oven arc welder:

Although I do happen to have a discarded microwave, and I do want to learn to weld, this project requires eight transformers, not just one.

Remember the LCD panel I salvaged a few weeks ago?

Well, I finally put it to use. As it happens, I am setting up a small multipurpose server for my home. The motherboard I'll be using happens to have NTSC out, and this LCD happens to have NTSC in. So not only could I use this LCD as a mini-monitor, I could also dress it up and use it as a digital picture frame. So that is what I did:

I would say that the most difficult part of this project was figuring out where to get weird voltages such as +8v and -5v. The +8v source was relatively simple. Since the inverter powering the backlight required a +12v supply, feeding this also to an LM7808 regulator yielded the +8v. Since the PC power supply I use for testing does supply -5v, I actually considered tapping off the power supply in the server until I discovered that the server's power supply omits the -5v line. But I soon discovered this circuit , which uses a 555 timer and a few diodes and capacitors to produce a negative voltage, which not only worked, but also allowed me to power the entire project with a common 12v wall wart.

I also found this handy Capacitor Value Calculator , which translates the arcane three-digit codes on ceramic capacitors into the actual capacitance value.

Make: brings us an article on another homemade computer , this one built almost entirely from transistors. Three thousand surface-mount BC847/BC857 low frequency transistors make up the registers, arithmetic logic, and other units that are typically integrated into the microprocessor in today's computers. The MT15 runs at 500 kilohertz and has 128k of RAM, which is not transistorized.

This shows that "because I can," is often reason enough.

Meanwhile, Slashdot reports on the Open Prosthetics Project , a collaborative endeavor in which the share-and-share-alike Open Source philosophy is applied to prosthetics. I'll be watching this project with interest to find out how quickly it can get from peg-leg to cyberpunk .

This weekend, I was going to work on a jointed drawing arm modeled after the one shown in an old book I have. I have some balsa blocks and poplar dowels that I was going to cut, drill, and glue together to form the arm segments. Unfortunately, my cordless rotary tool has vanished. I doubt anybody "borrowed it-- without asking "because I still have the battery, charger, and bits. I cleaned and organized my entire work area and there was no sign of it, but I did discover that my Gorilla glue has also vanished and the charger for my cordless drill is now useless. Oh, and three of the four sprockets I was going to use are also gone. A mighty fine coincidence!

I am eerily reminded of a short story by Raymond F. Jones called "The Person From Porlock." In it, an engineer working on a teleportation system is beset by setback after setback resulting from tiny mistakes made by his team. He soon becomes paranoid, and his boss fires him. He then works on the project indepentently, until finally he is visited by a person from Porlock. It is no coincidence that another person from Porlock disrupted the concentration of the poet Coleridge before he could finish his poem Xanadu.

But, one should never attribute to malice that which can be explained by stupidity.Therefore, my original theory of a malevolent ninja stealing my tools at the request of an ancient society must be rejected. As for the amazing vanishing tool, it really didn't work all that well, anyway, so I've suggested that I be given a better one for my birthday.

Thank you, Ninja.

"When the robots take over, I hope they're Japanese," says author Timothy Hornyak in this brief interview . He notes that different cultures, such as that of Japan and the US, have different relationships with, and expectations of, robots. The Japanese, notes Hornyak, see robots as beloved friends and helpers, and this view results in such robots as the electronic pet AIBO and child-like Asimo and Qrio . The Americans, on the other hand, see robots as dangerous tools, and this view results in such robots as The Crusher , an unmanned surveillance and supply vehicle, the R-500 anti-explosives unit, and (of course), BattleBots, the Roomba sweeper, Scooba mopper, and Dirt Dog shop vacuum.

"Every society... gets the robots that it deserves," says Hornyak.

Newscientist reports on a self-healing material that pinpoints damage. There is an outer skin, a metallic mesh layer, and a liquid epoxy layer. When the outer layers are punctured, the epoxy flows forth and seals the hole. You probably are thinking what I thought, "Cool, this would be perfect for a robot!" Actually, the epoxy only hardens in the presence of ultraviolet light, and the damage is detectable only by a wand which induces a current in the mesh, except where broken. So, it's less than ideal for a robot, but would be excellent for a spacecraft.

Teamwork! Scientists have programmed miniature drones to work together . Now all we need to do is to scale this up to full size and set up a mesh-type network for them to communicate. What would be a good name? Let's see, it's a network of unmanned aerial vehicles, so, hmm... UAVNet? No. AerialNet? No. What's that thing they fly around in? The sky! We'll call it SkyNet! Oh, crap...

The San Diego Reader has an amusing article in which the author recalls being pestered by beggars, survey takers, and the religious. She, not suprisingly, hates it. I hate it, too. Why should I give my time and/or money to you, you random person on the street? Because I have it and you want it is not a sufficient reason. What's in it for me? If you say it's a magzine subscription, I'll kill you. Not literally, of course, only in my heart.

The Web and the real world are not so different from one another. Those people that stand on street corners and twirl brightly colored signs advertising condominiums and jewelry stores are like animated GIF's. Distracting, maybe annoying, but bearable. The people that sit on the median with poor-me stories written on cardboard are like maudlin chain letters that plead for you to pass them on. Worst are the wandering salesmen for various organized belief systems and other products. They are like pop-up ads that won't go away. Someone should invent a real-world pop-up blocker, and throw in a spam filter while they're at it.