Entries from June 2008 ↓

The Army announced last week that it was refocusing the Future Combat Systems program on aiding infantry units first (about time) rather than on heavy units given the urgent requests from the field for better lower-level equipment. It looks like this is the schedule — a Preliminary Limited User Test will begin this summer in Fort Bliss, Texas, followed by a full-blown Limited User Test in FY’09 (federal fiscal years start Oct. 1). Here is the key sentence: “The formal LUT scheduled in FY09 wil
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This afternoon while I was moving across the vinyl floor with bucket, cleaner and a wash towel in hand, diligently scrubbing away all the dirt/scuffs, I suddenly realized I must have been a spitting image of the tiny cleaning droid “M-O” that obsessively cleans all the “contaminants” from the pristine floors in the wonderful new animated feature, WALL•E. The film certainly appealed to the clean freak in me, with a myriad of robotic cleaning and organizing machines that are orchestrated to wondro
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I finally purchased my own roomba!   I bought the Roomba 550, pretty good deal.  It comes with 3 extra filters, brush cleaner, 2 virtual walls/lighthouses (it has a switch, can work as either one), self charging docking station, and the roomba (with scheduling built in). I set up the dock last night, charged it up, set the schedule (for thursdays), and hit clean to watch it on its first exploration.  It did a pretty good job!  Picked up a lot of dust off the floor and carpets.  Better yet, I d
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The folks at iRobot not only make the Roomba, which will robotically vacuum your floors and drive your dog insane, but also they make military iRobots, which will chase down and, er, vacuum up terrorists, enemy combatants, and other assorted malefactors. I, for one, would not like to see the bad boy pictured on the right chasing me down some hallway or alley. Not every iRobot, however, packs heat, and many perform certain defensive military missions such as handling and disabling IEDs, detectin
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Here’s a new one — a positive Looj review! Some decent videos at the link. thx, Microcapfun Sadly, I think the Looj, at least in its current incarnation, is a bit of a bust. The reviews are in, and the list of shortcomings — a pretty crappy battery, tendency to flip over/get stuck, etc. — make the Looj a sidenote to the iRobot business. Useful to many people, sure, and a large potential market, yep. But not quite there. And it didn’t help that the company hasn’t been able to get the Looj in
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Readers of this blog know that I’ve strongly advocated for iRobot to open up its own retail stores, a la Apple, to better educate consumers about robots for which they have no frame of reference but which seen operating in person would very likely be wowed into impulse buys, particularly around gift-giving time. (The typical mall store may have a Roomba vacuum or Scooba floor washing robot sitting on a shelf, where it looks like a toy in a toy box, instead of the life-improving tools that they a
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I just wanted to show actual proof that I’ve gotten my prizes from Live Search Club. It’s always helpful to find reviews before you buy something or before you spend time accruing points on a free game site. I would definitely look at a Fenphedra review before I tried the product. Anyways, I really love the Live Search Club site because you don’t need any referrals, you don’t have to sign up for offers. You just play games & hopefully they will send you your prizes. I got a roomba from t
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Scientists at SINTEF are working on a robot that can navigate inaccessible industrial pipes in order to check their condition, locate leakages, and clean the ventilation systems. .. Tags: Robot Related Articles: Adept announces Cobra s800 packaging robot Evolution Robotics unveils New ER2 Personal Robot Robot climbs 1640-foot cliff at Grand Canyon Twenty years in the making - ASIMO the humanoid robot iRobot unveils US$130 programmable robot for developers and students Robosapien proves it’s
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I think I accomplished more over the course of this weekend than I have in like the last two months. I didn’t even have any help, because this is hubby’s work-weekend, and he was working an extra shift on Friday. Although, he was kind enough to go out and pick me up lunch yesterday, just so I could keep on doin’ what I was doin’. I thought he was going to get lunch for the both of us, but he only brought back stuff for me. I’m the luckiest girl, I swear. I even managed to find enough energy e
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