Posts by Dave 126

Surface Detail

meaning, are the floors ferrous?

Are they sure to have security flaws?

I'd have thought that existing competitive RC leagues ( cars, planes etc) would have ironed out those kind of issues.

The production company is likely to fit Go-Pro cameras to competing robots (to make things more 'immersive' for the viewer at home), and will take a dim view of anyone messing with them.

>would that be cheating though?

That attack method would be easy to defend against... just pot the PCBs in epoxy or silicone conform spray.

The thing about an arms is race... etc etc

The production company are boasting of a "purpose built, literally bullet-proof arena" in Glasgow, so maybe the new rules won't be quite so constrained by safety concerns.

Re: Deadline

>Our assumption is that they must have already contacted existing teams. It is very short notice otherwise.

@Lester Haines

I've emailed you a link to the production company's website that has an email address and telephone number for more information.

Imagine a sliding scale of possible outcomes, with a Perfect Landing at one end, and a fireball at the other:

[Perfect Landing] - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [BANG!]

Where on this scale would a giant net (or airbag) make sense?

At one end of the scale, a giant net or airbag is redundant, and at the other extreme it wouldn't help at all.

Re: Launch Window

@Duncan Macdonald

I don't suppose you are *that* Duncan Macdonald, from PCZone? :)

Yep!

Or more generally, there are so many factors (marketing, hardware quality and availability, partner adoption, UI design, luck, time to market and so on and so on) relating to the success of an OS that to attribute success to just one factor (OS 'quality') is too simplistic.

Re: What on earth is the author talking about?

> Why is Ubuntu's software on top of the Linux Kernal any different from Android?

Any non-GUI Linux software will run on Ubuntu Touch, but it won't on Android.

Re: It works...

>Pushing Linux to anyone and everyone seemed like a good idea. Unfortunately, all those who couldn't program started designing icons, backgrounds and sounds for projects like KDE and GNOME.

You're right to highlight the importance of skills beyond coding. Whilst coding lends itself to many people working on a project (modules, bug-reporting, audit trails, etc), the User Interface / User Experience seems harder to get right by this approach.

UI/UX design benefits from thinking about users who are different from yourself, at varying levels of competency. If you are designing software for a draughtsman, then it is obvious the team needs a deep understanding of draughting, and not just coding. A UI design can take longer to test- with real human subjects - and then analyse than code. Coders can teach themselves to code with no more equipment than a PC, but subjects like human cognition are learnt in a different fashion.

Re: It works...

@John Arthur

I agree.

However, it seems unlikely that Linux will gain enough market share to attract more software vendors before other solutions present themselves:

1. Run software remotely, from an AWS instance or whatever. The pay-per-use model works better for smaller users, and you can throw as much computer power at the job as you wish.

2. Google's ChomeOS/Android mashup plans (whatever they are) take off and attract interest from developers, who then consider the job of porting their wares to traditional Linux distros worthwhile. Or you just run ChromeOS apps in a VM on your existing Linux box.

3. Due to pressure from Steam on Linux, office tasks on ChromeOS and applications on AWS, Microsoft has to reduce the cost of Windows to the point that it is no hardship for you to buy it and run it in a VM.

I'm not saying that any of these things will definitely happen, but that the path forward is far from straight.

The success of Android owes more to the backing it had from Google than it does to the OS that underpins it. And even then, it was a bit of a rush job - though its pretty good now.

In support of my statement, I offer the example of the even more Linux-y mobile OSs from Nokia - or even WebOS from Palm - where are they now?

I would also observe that WinPhone works better on low powered hardware than Android (though with hardware costs now so low it is is a moot point), and that QNX that underpins Blackberry's BB10 is technically superior to Linux for many applications.

Linux is good, but it is not a panacea. The adoption of a platform, or otherwise, depends upon far more than the technical proficiency of an OS.

Re: It works...

>In other words if you don't like Linux desktops, get windows, chrome or osx the choice is yours

Exactly.

It makes me wonder, who the hell actually wants mass adoption of the Linux desktop? I mean, Linux desktop users seem happy enough at the moment, so how would it improve their experience if yet more people ran Linux?

The only advantage that I can think of is that wider Linux adoption would put more pressure on open file formats - and that helps everybody, whatever OS they use.

Conceivably, mass adoption of Linux on the desktop might result in more propriety productivity software coming to the platform, but apart from games Linux users don't seem too bothered by that (because they can use WINE, or VMs at a push, or because they are masochists and actually prefer The GIMP). That said, we're reaching a point where software, CAD for example, can be run through a web-browser from a remote server and so is OS-agnostic.

So everybody's happy! Good stuff.

Re: Pah. RC models vs more RC Models

Huh? Can someone expand on what they objected to in my post?

Was it:

- the the software-on-hardware format?

- the idea of restricting the hardware and materials that can be used?

- the idea of restricting the construction methods so that they are accessible to a wide pool of participants?

Genuinely, I'd respect your point of view, but I just don't know what it is!

Re: Someone fetch me a bucket of iced water and a strong cup of coffee...

Actually, he's filming another series of Red Dwarf at the moment. And on New Year's Eve, his Radio 6 Funk show shifted to Radio 2 for the afternoon.

But yeah, I saw him DJ at a night club last year, and his enthusiasm did appear to be... enhanced.

http://www.express.co.uk/showbiz/tv-radio/596143/Red-Dwarf-returns-Craig-Charles-Robert-Llewellyn-Chris-Barrie

>Any rules about including electronic warfare capabilities ?

Also, should the show use autonomous robots, physical distractions to upset the enemies object-recognition routines... like a matador using a red towel to spoof a bull.

Re: apex predators

Actually, screw the BBC and let's launch the Reg Automonous Robot Death Match* tournament of our own.

As a bonus, it would make the forums more fun to moderate:

Sir, you have downvoted me and I demand satisfaction! Robots at dawn! Or about ten am if you want to get a full English first!

Re: apex predators

Yeah, the problem with the original show was that Robot A might be destroyed on its first round, and unable to compete. Why is this an issue? Because if one accepts a Rock-Paper-Scissors scenario as plausible, it makes competitor's fate luck of the draw.

So:

Contestants, working within material and construction constraints, submit their designs to the BBC. If there robot is damaged, new parts are laser-cut and 3D printed by the BBC, and assembled by the team. The team may also choose from a limited, but wide, selection of off-the-shelf components (Bloggs disc saws, Jones' hammer heads and centre-punches, etc, nuts, bolts, ) Hell, having the teams assemble their components into a robot could be a competitive round in its own right, rewarding design-for-maintenance)

Having robots that are smaller, lighter aqnd quicker to make using simpler tools (once custom laser and £d-printed parts are supplied) would result in a more rapid 'evolution' of the teams' designs.

Re: Pah. RC models vs more RC Models

>Why even bother with the physical machines smashing each other up?

Because software without hardware can be boring.

With the hardware, teams will be composed of people with different skillsets, as well as encouraging young people to learn practical skills.

Personally, I'd like to autonomous robot wars, with standard constraints. Just as an example:

- The CPU must be a XYZ with an RST GPU, programed in [language]

- Power supplies must be no more than N x li-ion batteries of DEF variety. If this was a commercial show, they could have sponsorship from an 18v powertool manufacturer, and state that all 'bots must use Ryobi/Makita/whoever model BAT018 batteries, for consistency.

I'd even be tempted to specify standard materials ( "No more than X Kg of 3mm sheet aluminium, X Kg of standard PLA or ABS polymer, X Kg misc, etc"), to place the emphasis on design and engineering, and not just whose dad has access to a milling machine. The materials I've specced can be easily worked (with a jigsaw, or laser-cut by a bueaea, or 3D printed) in almost any garage.

Just ideas.

That would be interesting, but might result in some boring matches (Robot A mistakes wall for Robot B, Robot B spins in circles).

The BBC could specify a standard processor and suitable language for programming the robots.

A man walked into a bar... and said ouch*

*I'm unable to provide any evidence or witnesses to this event. Sorry.

Re: Are you kidding me ?

@Qwertius

You need to read the article in the context of continued speculation about Google's plans for Chromium OS and Android.

see: http://arstechnica.co.uk/gadgets/2016/01/2016-google-tracker-everything-google-is-working-on-for-the-new-year/2/#h3 for the background.

As such, the article is a bit of fun, in the spirit of "What X *might* look like..."

Take it easy!

Re: black-body radiation...

>Still at least you didn't copy the bit from the Daily Telegraph's "science editor" who described the incandescent filament as emitting

The MIT news letter uses the same phrase.

http://news.mit.edu/2016/nanophotonic-incandescent-light-bulbs-0111

Re: Sounds expensive

>As Da Vinci noted: Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. And usually a lot cheaper.

An LED light is more complicated and expensive than an incandescent bulb, but cheaper to run.

A bicycle is more complicated and expensive than a sled, but more efficient in many circumstances.

So, as others have noted: Horses (or bicycles, or sleds, or camels, depending) for courses.

Or: Anyone who overgeneralises is always an idiot. : p

Re: Petition fatigue

Man: However, I would just like to add a complaint about shows that have too many complaints in them as they get very tedious for the average viewer.

Another Man: I'd like to complain about people who hold things up by complaining about people complaining. It's about time something was done about it. [sixteen-ton weight falls on him]

Feynman was well known for playing bongos.

Einstein, who of course already has an element named after him, was also an amateur violin player. During one attempted duet, Einstein's musician friend declared in exasperation "My God Albert, can't you count?!"

>It might be modern, but it's still myth:

>Myth - from the Greek word mythos (μύθος), which simply means "story".

The same could be said of Bowie's alter egos as well!

Just as a quick game, which musicians are also scientists?

William Herschel, composer and astronomer.

Brian May, who has played with Bowie on Queen's Under Pressure, has his PhD for zodiacal dust.... who else? Join in, folks!

Re: Solves only the easy problem

I'm no expert, but what are the possibilities of bitrot when copying DVDs from generation to the next? Or rather, how does one ( by choice choice of file system, method of error checking when making new copies etc) limit/eliminate the impact of small errors on compressed (jpg etc) files?

If one uses a more capable but lesser-used file system, would it result in a greater headache for future librarians?

>(google for heroic efforts to extract data from old NASA tapes).

That was a system only used by a small number of people. The same is true iof the BBC LaserDisc-based hybrid digital data and analogue video overlay system used in the 1980s BBC Domesday project.

DVD drives are so common today that finding one in 50 years time (if only to reverse-engineer a non-functioning one) is likely to be easy.

(Whoah, DVD drives.... every laptop and desktop I've had in the last 15 years has had one, various units under the television, a games console or two... it's got be getting close to a dozen DVD drives at least, and I'm just one person. )