Archive for December, 2007
Battery Charging, or Tires Warming? (Video)
BryanB’s line-following robot “Arty” got better times with each loop at Fall Chibotica 2007.
Although a small factor, the warmth the tires got from running may have caused them to get more traction. The added traction would have then caused the robot’s tires to slip less, and the robot would go faster.
–Scotty
Windows 7 Screenshot?
This fake screenshot of Microsoft Windows 7 showed up on Wikipedia on December 15, 2007.
(Click on the image to see a larger picture)
–Scotty
RoboPhilo is Shipping!
After the quick wait compared to Pleo, RoboPhilo is shipping!
“Kilroym42” said (although I have not confirmed it true) that due to recent lead paint on toys, RoboPhilo may come with decals or instructions on how to paint RoboPhilo yourself, until they receive the needed certificates to export.
Check out my previous post about RoboPhilo.
–Scotty
Line-Following Tow Truck (Video)
One more Steve Hassenplug creation that I saw at Fall Chibotica/iHobby Expo 2007 was a line-following tow truck named “Big Rig”
Steve kept the same design used by the LEGO(r) Tow Truck kit but changed the design enough to attach one NXT Brick under the hood, and light sensors to find and track a line in the front.
–Scotty
Windows 7, What Do You Want?
Windows(r) Vista(r) has charted new territory, but what about Windows 7? It is said that Windows 7 (codenamed Blackcomb, then Vienna, but will probly release under a different name) will need Quad Core computers and other powerful hardware.
So what do you want? Post a comment to say!
I want to see (in no particular order):
* Improve backwords compatibility, with support for programs dating back to Win 95, maybe an additional download?
* If you can’t do the above, improve Virtualition software. And have instructions how to easily install OSes.
* With Internet Explorer some sites render better in IE6 over IE7, an option in the browser to render the page in three of the most likely different ways may help.
* An easy way (maybe use a control panel) to select which programs should start on Start Up.
* Simple UI without the loss of features, like Word 2007 maybe.
* Forget about “looks”, if it makes the overall UI “a lot” nicer have it, but if you lose speed (Aero in Win Vista) over it forget it!
* Stable, as in very few crashes.
* Don’t forget about “power users”, people who like “perfmon”, and other helpful features.
* A way to “pin” any window to the top, not just programs with this feature.
* Have editions like “Home” (stuff you’d use at home), “Business” (stuff you’d use at a business), and “Complete” (every feature).
* Instead of the OS coming with a ton of features that you may not want, and having to uninstall them (eg. Games), have more downloads so you can make it the way you want.
Other Microsoft Programs:
* Keep enhancing Visual Studio, have options to create skins (like used by Office 2007 XP).
* I love the help feature in Office 2007, it is much better then in Office 2003.
* With the help feture in Office, a way to have the program do it for you would be good (like a “Click Me to Have it Done” button), oposed to the current way that you have to “click here”, then “click there”, then “select that”, then “click OK”.
* I like the simple and useful UI of Live picture viewer, maybe keep as a downloadable add-on.
Well, that is my big list of just about every (good) idea I could think of, without the idea of the USB flame thrower, and microwave…
Please restrain from “hate comments”, but feel free to say what you don’t like and how you think it should be changed (or if you think it should be removed).
Now say YOUR ideas!
–Scotty
Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft.
Hamid`s Bioloid Vision Module
Hamid has released a camera for the Bioloid!
RIBO Labs 
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