Dirty robots

So you know how I like to paint little robots on postcards and mail them out to people? Yesterday, I spent some time with one of the robot recipients (who has a bunch) and borrowed them back so I could scan what they looked like on arrival. Here are two. They are a little bit dirty, but I love the orange marks stamped on the left side by postal machinery.

	i walk like a spider	i measure your emotions

Robot Hall of Fame

According to this press release, Carnegie Mellon University now has a Robot Hall of Fame:

The Robot Hall of Fame was established earlier this year to honor noteworthy robots, both real and fictional, along with their creators in recognition of the increasing benefits robots are bringing to society.

I think it is really neat that they are treating people who create fictional robots and people who create real-world robots as equals. Maybe someday, I'll write a story about a robot, and everyone will love my little robot character, and he/she will get to be in the Robot Hall of Fame. In my world, the Robot Hall of Fame is infinitely cooler than other halls of fame like the baseball one, or even the rock and roll one.



The Robot Hall of Fame's website will go live on November 10th, during the inauguration ceremony.



(I'm getting too robo-centric again, aren't I? I have to try harder to expand my electric horizons.)

Homestar Halloween

The Homestar Runner guys put up a really fun Halloween game and some pumpkin stencils. I like the Strong Bad one so much I almost ran out and bought a pumpkin. But then I remembered I have work to do.



UPDATE: The new Halloween cartoon is up now, too. Featuring Strong Mad in a Magnum, P.I. costume!

Let's have a holiday theme!

Check out this pumpkin carving robot at the Detroit Science Center. Kind of cool, and also kind of scary... perfect for Halloween.

My Halloween robots won't carve you a pumpkin, but you can take them trick-or-treating.

	help! my costume is too big	i will get you extra candy

Flash fun

This isn't about robots or the future, but it made me laugh out loud: Strindberg and Helium. It also made me want to talk like a helium balloon.



I like it for so many reasons.

Robots with a purpose

This BBC article says robots that do household chores are becoming more common. (I haven't seen any evidence of this in my apartment yet.)



And here is an article I read on CNN about how video games can be used to fight phobias.

Robots by Sony (and me)

	i have wings like a plane

I just read this article about a new robot by Sony called "Qrio." It sounds vaguely cute, in an Aibo-but-not-dog-shaped kind of way, but I don't want one. The idea of a robot companion is nice, but I would prefer a robot that makes me dinner or vacuums my apartment. Wouldn't useful robots have more appeal to the overworked masses than a robot that dances or wags its tail?



Maybe I shouldn't talk, though -- I thought this little flying robot I painted was cute, but now I'm realizing it wouldn't be good for much either. It's not big enough to carry people around. I guess it's just for sky-based fun, like a kite or a remote controlled airplane? (I am just as bad as Sony!)