Categories
Uncategorized

Milwaukee Robotics Club Meeting

Milwaukee Robotics Club Meeting

I attended the Milwaukee Robotics Club Meeting on May 21st, 2011 at the Milwaukee Makerspace. There were a handful of people in the electronics lab working on various electronics and robotics projects.

Taking the Quadcopter for a spin

David had a quadcopter assembled, and was doing some early testing. He started out with it tied down to a table and after things seemed to be working, he ended up doing a short flight. It looks like getting the hang of flying it may take some time, but it’s a pretty cool looking project.

David also had his “Junkbot” there as well. I think it’s pretty sweet looking, and undeserving of the name “Junkbot” but hey, he can call it what he wants! It sounds like most of David’s robots will eventually have cameras mounted on them. Robot overlord will be watching over us soon…

Android controlled LEGO Mindstorm Robot

Jason and his daughter had a LEGO Mindstorms robot that they were controlling with an Android app that they wrote. Also, take note programmers: if you’re thinking of using the word “no” try using the word “false” instead. Great advice from Jason! :)

As for me, I continue to work on Drawbot, mainly the actual programming of it. I got there late and had to leave early, so I didn’t get too much done, but it was fun and inspiring to see what everyone else was working on. Royce also said that he’s willing to help anyone who has a project started, or in mind. He’s sort of the robotics expert around the Makerspace.

I believe meetings will be the third Saturday of each month, from 1pm to 4pm. I’m pretty sure I won’t make it in June since it’s my birthday, but stop by if you can and see what’s happening.

Categories
Uncategorized

Does the Internet demand multifacetedness?

Multifaceted

Meet Melissa… Cupcake Lover, Runner, Cat Wrangler, Shoe Freak, Novelist.

Meet Mikey… Designer, Beer Drinker, Bicyclist, Avid Reader, Coffee Snob, Banjo Player.

These aren’t real people… Well, they probably are real people, because it seems more and more these days, you can’t be just one thing.

Years ago, I don’t think it was strange for people to describe themselves using just one title: Programmer. Accountant. Sales Associate. Event Planner. Truck Driver.

One thing just doesn’t cut it anymore. Now you can’t just tell people you’re an Engineer, you also have to let them know you’re in a band, or you collect Star Wars fan art, or grow your own green beans.

Is the Internet to blame for this? In some ways the web has allowed people with niche interests to find each other. Nerds of all kinds can find nerds with similar interests, and a place to proudly proclaim their nerdiness.

And of course you’ve got that Facebook profile or Twitter bio to fill out… and you can’t seem like some sort of weirdo who only does one thing. Are you just going to tell people you are a Writer, or will you get into your love of restoring old Vespas?

So I’m not quite sure if it’s a fear to proclaim that you are just one thing, or this finally admitting that we are multifaceted people with diverse interests.

Is part of it personal marketing? The belief that you need to sell yourself? Who wants a screwdriver when you can get a drill driver than can drill holes and put screws in things? Perhaps people think that if they have more skills they are more valuable. (Take “valuable” to mean “a better person” or “worth more money.”)

I suppose this all ties into identity in some way… Have you ever had a hard time answering the question “So what do you do?” when meeting a complete stranger in a social setting?

Categories
Uncategorized

Processing: InitSketch

InitSketch

Today in Processing there’s no code, but we’ll still talk about code… code editing that is.

If you love your editor, then you love your editor, and it’s not fun or easy to switch, so writing code in the Processing IDE is fine, but you start to miss your editor and all the tricks it has. One of the tricks is templates. Well, the InitSketch Processing Tool takes care of that. It gets rid of the tedium of starting from a previous sketch, copying and pasting in a new one, and then deleting all the stuff you don’t want.

InitSketch adds an item to the Tools menu which will pre-fill a new sketch based on a template you create. It’s a small thing, but it’s handy. (I do wish it handled multiple template files, though.)

I was also interested to learn that Processing is somewhat based on jEdit, my long time text editor, which is pretty cool, and I may end up digging into jEdit as and External IDE as well.

Categories
Uncategorized

RoboBoy

RoboBoy

(consider it cc:by)

RoboBoy was kind enough to pose for a portrait. Sadly, RoboBot is half-human, and half-robot, but no one ever seems to know which half is which, and he often feels disenfranchised by such things. But don’t worry, RoboBoy is not defenseless, and he does possess the power to kill humans… or is it robots? I’m never quite sure…

Categories
Uncategorized

UNITE BTS

Back in August 2010, on a 95 degree day, Z2 shot a video for the Milwaukee Wave. We were on set around 7am and wrapped some time after 7pm. We shot in 4 main locations, ranging from downtown Milwaukee, the East Side, and Pewaukee. We shot it on our RED ONE camera. For a few shots we had a guy on rollerblades zooming down the street doing hand-held shots with the RED. It all worked out pretty well. You can see the UNITE video on YouTube.

The footage from this behind the scenes video was shot on two different Panasonic HVX200s, mostly by myself and Joe Haas. Joe also assisted in the editing of the video.