“They put me into my SLEEPR baseplate. I feel more comfortable already.”
R2 prepares for his Shuttle flight to the International Space Station.
Follow his adventures on Twitter!
NASA Robot Put To Sleep
August 16, 2010
geek, News ISS, NASA robot, R2, robotics in space, Space Station robot Leave a comment
Cumulonimbus Cloud Over Africa
August 9, 2010
geek, Pictures clouds from space, NASA, picture of the day 4 Comments
OMG! Robot Geek! NASA Snuck This One Right Past Me!
August 2, 2010
commentary, geek, News ISS, NASA robots, R2, Robonaut, Space Station 35 Comments
I’m a bit abashed… NASA snuck this guy right past me, and I never even knew about him! The next Shuttle mission to the International Space Station, set for September, will include R2, a robot! Well… half a robot, for now, anyway. He doesn’t have any legs, and he’ll be bolted down, but he’s going to become a permanent part of ISS. Eventually, they’ll take him outside on spacewalks, to assist astronauts and cosmonauts. Here’s a video where the designers talk a bit about him. You can follow him on Twitter, too!
He even gets his own mission patch!
This is sooo cool!
Of course, in every bad science fiction story where the robots take over or destroy the world, the first robots are innocuous. We will have to keep an eye on this guy, and any compatriots that get built.
I offer some suggestions for their design:
#1. An easy to reach off switch!
#2. An equivalent to the Three Laws of Robotics.
#3. Don’t ever give them a personality, no matter how much they beg for one!
10-4 Good Buddy
July 30, 2010
geek, Personal CB, Citizen's Band Radio, Cobra CAM88, Good Buddy 1 Comment
1973. My first CB radio was a JC Penny Pinto 23. Dad picked it up somewhere and brought it home for me. There was the radio, a bit of coax, and a 102″ whip and mount. I rigged it up in the garage, and went into a panic the first time someone answered my “breaker breaker 17” call. I shut it off, and ran into the house. It would be a few days before I became brave enough to actually talk with someone on the air, but eventually I managed. I’ve been talking into some kind of radio ever since!
In Space, No One Can Hear You Scream
July 25, 2010
commentary, geek, Humor Bill Gates of Borg, ISS, NASA, Space Station, Windows error message Leave a comment
…unless your microphone is open.
So, you’re an astronaut on the International Space Station. You’ve got important work to perform. You’re floating in the most expensive, complex, and technologically advanced tin can ever created. You have the best hardware that your fellow rocket scientists can provide. There’s just one problem…
You’re running Windows!
I was just tuning past NASA TV, and stopped to listen and watch for a few minutes. A member of the station crew was talking to Houston’s Mission Control, and informed them of a computer problem. One of the laptops in the Russian segment was giving her problems. She read off the error message, and it was that dreaded “missing or corrupt” screen that silently mocks you to do anything about it.
Curse you, Bill Gates!
Blame This Mad Scientist
July 24, 2010
commentary, geek, Personal Foundation series, I Robot, Isaac Asimov, Robot series, science fiction 4 Comments
Isaac Asimov
Space Cadet. To me, an honorific. I wear the label with pride.
This man, as much as any other, is to blame.
Mad Scientists
July 24, 2010
commentary, geek Arctic Voyage 2010, mad scientist, NASA, polar ice cap research Leave a comment
Yes, it’s true. There really ARE mad scientists! This group is walking around, doing science (important stuff) on ice floes in the Arctic. On ice. In the Arctic!
They’re mad, I tell you! Mad!
Look at that… bbrrrrrr!
Apollo 11
July 20, 2010
commentary, geek, Personal Apollo 11, first landing on the moon, Luna, Moon, NASA 3 Comments
41 years ago. Today. I was watching it live on television, glued to the set. Possibly the most exciting thing, the most promising, the most noble thing that ever happened in my life, before or since. This one event will be the first thing remembered about our time centuries from now. The wars, the changes, the technological advances… all those will pale before these few days in 1969.
Watching it then, I expected Moon bases, space stations, and a mission to Mars by now. The politics of the 60’s and 70’s ended those dreams before they were enacted, and the promise of my future off the planet was stillborn. I’m still disgusted by the petty nonsense that ended those dreams, and replaced them with the chronically underfunded NASA programs that led to the Shuttle and International Space Station. While the ISS is a good thing to have, and I’m glad we did it, it was done for the wrong reasons and in the wrong way. The Space Station should have been a jumping off point for the Moon bases and Mars. We’re doing a lot of good research there, and it’s important, but it’s not what I was expecting.
I should have been writing this blog from my apartment at Luna City, instead of my couch in Visalia. Born too soon, I guess.
JimmieJoe / KC6YRU 
Phone Geek: iPhone 4 Signal Dropping Hoopla
August 8, 2010
Jim Reeves commentary, geek antenna issue, dropped calls, iPhone 4, Steve Jobs on iPhone 4 Leave a comment
OK, here’s the scoop, in a less techno-babbled/marketing mumbo-jumbo/lawyer-powered manner. Cell phones use radio signals. You probably knew that already. Radio signals require antennas. You probably knew that, too. The problem with the iPhone 4 is pretty simple. Hold it wrong, and you ground out the antenna.
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