Would you like your light to come on when a friend's comes on on the other side of the world? Would you like a bubble machine to fire up when your favourite song plays on the radio? Well you can with an arduino!
But can they make SWORD toys greet you when you come home from work [aka Stepford SWORD!]?
The future's bright. The future's arduino. I'm confused.
Taxi for Woods! think youve been on the funny fags again!
ReplyDelete(nods) either that or them mushrooms he grows.
ReplyDeleteI took a quick look at arduino (before calling 999) ... puts me in mind of PIC micro-controllers. Could be fun to play with.
And, for the record ... My toys greet me when I get home anyway. They talk to me a lot. A surprising amount of their conversation revolves around knives and hatchets ... good thing I don't listen to them, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteRant Warning;
ReplyDeleteThere was something about Ardi-wasits on R4 the other night, and despite trying to pay attention, it all went way over my head!
Sometimes I do think it's all going a bit to far or too fast without a good reason. Take for instance the attemtp to give everything on the planet a bar code, and a wiki entry?
Well it's fine to view a nice Rafael Lipkin tank transporter on someone's blog, but do we need the ability to search for the individual webpages of the thousands that lurk in collections, attics and cellars?
And who the hell wants to know the age, origin or 'fashion label' of the contents of my sock drawer, but that - as I understand the 'project' - is the ultimate aim.
If I choose not to bar-code my copy of I Robot, or not code the Spacex collection as I don't want to damage the cards, am I then guilty of sabotageing the whole plan? If some people don't bar-code their 'stuff' because they think lots of other people will code their duplicate copies, is there any point in anybody codeing anything.
I still prefer the original Hotmail page layout of 1999 than either of the major overhalls, it was just right for an idiot like me!
The summer changes to blogger have driven me to despair, there was nothing wrong with it? now it automatically loads articles in the wrong order, changes font size, produces huge gaps where you didn't want, plan or expect them...
It seems to me there is a driving force amoung the geeks to change for change's sake and try anything once?
Did you know people (young people!!!) are getting electronic ID chips embeded in themselves before we even get round to having overtly Fashist governments?????
Give me a box of toy soldiers and a bucket of Lego (R)/(C)/TM anyday...they probably talk more sense Toad?!!
'Smetsom'...Totally unneceessery tweaks or additions to the IT infrastruture...grrrrrr!
Which Radio 4 programme was this, Mav? Or what time was it on? I'd like to see if it's on listen again. I am curious (and frightened) by your news that some people are getting electronic ID chips embeded in themselves. Do you mean they are choosing to?
ReplyDeleteYour rant was well-justified, Mav. I'm sick of all these needless changes too. Know what makes me particularly angry about them? The lack of choice. Even more, I hate the false offering of choice.
Yahoo recently updated its email services. The old one was fine - much better. This new one is supposedly faster (like I need quicker email!). I hate it. I hate the layout - hate everything about it.
When it was introduced, I was given the option to NOT have this new interface. I could keep the old one if I wanted. So guess what I chose? Yep - I elected to keep the old one. Wanna guess what happens if you choose to continue with the old one? (nods) That's right - they "upgrade" it anyway! It's a completely false choice. Maybe they assume everyone will be so eager to try the new one that a lying-scumbag-false offer of not having to change will suffice. And this isn't the first time Yahoo has done this.
Anyway, I'm guessing I've misunderstood what this "arduino" stuff is. I assumed they were just controllers, and described them as fun cos I used to like putting lights in models, and have once or twice toyed with the idea of using micro-contollers to switch them on and off.
Personally, I am sick to death of modern toys. All-singing, all-dancing, all-exploding they may be. But, yes, give me a battered old Barbie or a bucket of Lego and my imagination will supply the rest.
Like Mav, the new Blogger drive's me mad especially the removal of my paragraph breaks for some bizarre reason. The thing I want most is multiple-image posting, which Blogger had for about a week and then it vanished.
ReplyDeletenot sure which programme mav heard Toad but the one i caught was http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15018894
ReplyDeleteThank you, Commander. I shall take a look.
ReplyDeleteI think it was one of those mid-evening documentry/magazine type programes, but can't remember which, about a week ago, might have been the World Service techie thing though? Wired? Click something? They were at a large tech convention the other day?
ReplyDeleteThere's been a lot about 3D printing recently as well, including 2 episodes of 'In Buisness', this is facinating stuff, we covered it on the forums a year or two ago (HaT and Strelets) and if you read 'Makers' which I put on my 'Other Collectables' blog the other day, it really makes you think....
Basicly the nightmare worst case senario is turning the planet to grey goop (a favorite of the naysayers!), but the upside is it means you can design anything you want to be in the Sword range, upload it to your memory stick/dongle, pop-down to prontoprint and have as may as you can aford - made!