Entries from February 2008 ↓

Join CIOs next Thursday at the AIIM Expo

I’ll be moderating a morning keynote panel at the AIIM Expo in Boston, MA, USA, entitled “The Future of Information Management: The CIO’s Perspective.” The panelists represent a really nice cross-section of industries: Reginald (Reggie) J. Henry, Chief Technology Officer American Society of Association Executives & the Center for Association Leadership Jay Leader, Chief Information Officer iRobot Corporation Peter E. Lesser, Director of Global Technology Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meaghe
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Life On The Lily Pad - Episode 6

February is here and gone. Whoosh. There…that’s two months of the year gone by without me even turning around twice. When I’m in my 90s I’m not sure I’ll remember this year well enough to start any sentence with “back in aught eight……” (but I will cause I think it’d be cool to talk like that). I do remember that it was a cold, snowy month and that tidbit might stick with me for a while. It is definitely the most winter I’ve experienced in this province since I moved here almost 10 years ag
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The Fast 50

The Fast 50 By Troy Worman on February 29th, 2008 Fast Company has released it’s 50 Most Innovative Companies list. They call them the Fast 50. I’m curious. Do any of their selections give you heartburn or do you see any obvious omissions? Google Apple Facebook GE Ideo Nike Nokia Alibaba Amazon Nintendo Procter & Gamble News Corp. Affymetrix Samsung Method Target HP Tesco Ausra Timberland IBM Arup Anomaly Autodesk Herman Miller RealNetworks Boeing LG Electronics Omniture iRobot Wal-mart Live
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Readybot: A kitchen cleaning robot prototype

How would you like a robot that can clean your kitchen? I wouldn’t mind it actually. A team of engineers in California’s Silicon Valley are determined to create a simple household robot that can clean a kitchen. The Readybot project has been in the works for years and the team has finally created a prototype for testing. The robot looks like R2-D2 from Star Wars and boasts 2 arms and multiple cameras that the robot uses to detect, track and grasp objects such as dishes and glasses found in any h
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Friday Funnies: Move over Osama bin Dyson

Kagro X warns us: Killer terrorist vacuum cleaners. Fucking hell! Good on Fox Propaganda for keeping the citizenry informed of the dangers of Roomba. We wouldn’t want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud… or a dust bunny.
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FOX Nutwork: Now with more dumb!

Via Scholars & Rogues, today I learn that the FOX Nutwork is Teh Stupid: Terrorist groups may soon deploy killer robots against unsuspecting civilians, a British researcher warned Wednesday. Professor Noel Sharkey of the University of Sheffield, in an address given to a defense-oriented think tank in London, pointed out that combat robots, or “autonomous weapons systems,” were already being used by several countries. “The trouble is that we can’t really put the genie back in the bottle
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‘Turing’ Test for Killer Robots

There’s been a lot of hooey and scare-mongering, lately, about killer robots — and the need to proactively figure out how to rein ‘em in. The thing is, none of these would-be John Connors can seem to agree on what an autonomous killing machine is, really. One professor at a recent conference even suggested that a landmine would fit the bill. But here’s one proposal that, shockingly, makes a bit of sense: Barrister and Engineer Chris Elliot explained his thoughts on the legality of future
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A HERO Will Rise

Yesterday in his post Rise of the Edubot, John mentioned in passing that perennial electronics DIY company Heathkit (now focused on the educational and training markets) had announced a new version of their original HERO robot from 1982. HERO 1 had a Motorola 6808 CPU and 4k of RAM on board. He came equipped with motion, light, sound and sonar ranging sensors. You could even add an optional arm attachment and max out his capabilities. There were a couple follow-on models, and then it faded awa
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iRobot Floor Washing Robot - $250 & $25 GC

iRobot Floor Washing Robot - $250 & $25 GC Posted 02/29/08 by db Linens N Things is offering the iRobot Scooba Floor Washing Robot for $249.99+S/H, plus get a $25 gift card with purchase. Features robot that automatically washes, scrubs and dries the floor, simple to operate, cleans under furniture, tables and hard to reach places. Click here for the techdeal.
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Tweet Tweet!

Twitter is a service where I can send mini-blog posts under 140 characters just to update my peeps what’s going on right now. Here’s what’s been happenin’ today (updates every day @ 11PM PST): 23:59 AllThingsChill: Tweet Tweet! tinyurl.com/yok38f # 06:49 I think I’m going to buy Rock Band while @Markomni is here visiting. We won’t even leave the house! LOL. # 06:56 I wanna pull the trigger on the iRobot Roomba 4296 Remote Scheduler Robotic Vacuum for $99 @ www.woot.com/. EEEE # 17:51 @jkottke
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