Alt-BEAM Archive

Message #11714



To: BEAM beam@sgiblab.sgi.com
From: Richard Piotter richfile@rconnect.com
Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2000 03:10:39 -0600
Subject: [alt-beam] Richfiles Web Page Update--VIDEOS!!!


Well, I'll keep it simple. It's the first update in over a month, and I
have new videos online. Some videos have been optimized. I have learned
a few more video tricks. They can't fix my camera "quality" but they do
drop the file sizes by an easy 15-20%

There are two videos in particular, the Bronco and Walkman movies.
You'll need a version of Quicktime that does Sorensen video (version 3
or 4). They clearly show off the gaits of both robots.

Future videos will include Floor Monkey, and with any luck, some new bots.

The videos are on the page for each robot, in the robotics section. They
should be listed at the bottom of the pages. The file sizes displayed on
the download links are incorrect. I havn't spent the time to update
them. I seem to cut the files down a little each time I mess with them.

Enjoy the videos!
--


Richard Piotter The Richfiles Robotics & TI web page:
richfile@rconnect.com http://richfiles.calc.org

-- Make Money by Simply Surfing the Net or responding to E-Mail!!!
-- Click below!!!

http://www.alladvantage.com/go.asp?refid=ATL147
http://www.spedia.net/cgi-bin/dir/tz.cgi?run=show_svc&fl=8&vid=329630



11715 Mon, 13 Mar 2000 04:32:05 -0800 (PST) [alt-beam] Re: possible motors beam@sgiblab.sgi.com Daniel Grace I _just_ turned 16, so I don't know how to get to most
of these places, and definately can't check the
liqueur store! thanks for the suggestions!

~Daniel

--- Timothy Flytch wrote:
> There sold by private venders... so like all things
> at wally word sometimes
> they just don't have them and may never again... try
> your local liqueur
> store... I've seen them in the grocery stores too...
> Albertsons... longs...
> K-mart... and payless...
>
> Timothy...
>
> >
> >I looked for the rotating suckers at the store
> today.
> >Wal-Mart doesn't carry them any more! Does anyone
> know
> >where they can be found?
> >
> >~Daniel
> >
> >=====
> >ICQ # 39402143
> >__________________________________________________
> >Do You Yahoo!?
> >Talk to your friends online with Yahoo! Messenger.
> >http://im.yahoo.com
>
>
______________________________________________________
>


11716 Mon, 13 Mar 2000 08:41:06 -0800 [alt-beam] Re: Richfiles Web Page Update--VIDEOS!!! beam@sgiblab.sgi.com Laura Malinowski Laura/Rob Malinowski
--------------B22D8C154246C9DA34D6DDA8
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nice videos.
Rob M.

Richard Piotter wrote:

> Well, I'll keep it simple. It's the first update in over a month, and I
> have new videos online. Some videos have been optimized. I have learned
> a few more video tricks. They can't fix my camera "quality" but they do
> drop the file sizes by an easy 15-20%
>
> There are two videos in particular, the Bronco and Walkman movies.
> You'll need a version of Quicktime that does Sorensen video (version 3
> or 4). They clearly show off the gaits of both robots.
>
> Future videos will include Floor Monkey, and with any luck, some new bots.
>
> The videos are on the page for each robot, in the robotics section. They
> should be listed at the bottom of the pages. The file sizes displayed on
> the download links are incorrect. I havn't spent the time to update
> them. I seem to cut the files down a little each time I mess with them.
>
> Enjoy the videos!
> --
>
> Richard Piotter The Richfiles Robotics & TI web page:
> richfile@rconnect.com http://richfiles.calc.org
>
> -- Make Money by Simply Surfing the Net or responding to E-Mail!!!
> -- Click below!!!
>
> http://www.alladvantage.com/go.asp?refid=ATL147
> http://www.spedia.net/cgi-bin/dir/tz.cgi?run=show_svc&fl=8&vid=329630


--------------B22D8C154246C9DA34D6DDA8
content-transfer-encoding: 7bit



nice videos.

Rob M.

Richard Piotter wrote:

Well, I'll keep it simple. It's the first update
in over a month, and I

have new videos online. Some videos have been optimized. I have learned

a few more video tricks. They can't fix my camera "quality" but they
do

drop the file sizes by an easy 15-20%

There are two videos in particular, the Bronco and Walkman movies.

You'll need a version of Quicktime that does Sorensen video (version
3

or 4). They clearly show off the gaits of both robots.

Future videos will include Floor Monkey, and with any luck, some new
bots.

The videos are on the page for each robot, in the robotics section.
They

should be listed at the bottom of the pages. The file sizes displayed
on

the download links are incorrect. I havn't spent the time to update

them. I seem to cut the files down a little each time I mess with them.

Enjoy the videos!

--

Richard Piotter             
The Richfiles Robotics & TI web page:

richfile@rconnect.com                  
http://richfiles.calc.org">http://richfiles.calc.org">http://richfiles.calc.org

-- Make Money by Simply Surfing the Net or responding to E-Mail!!!

-- Click below!!!

http://www.alladvantage.com/go.asp?refid=ATL147">http://www.alladvantage.com/go.asp?refid=ATL147">http://www.alladvantage.com/go.asp?refid=ATL147

http://www.spedia.net/cgi-bin/dir/tz.cgi?run=show_svc&fl=8&vid=329630

">http://www.spedia.net/cgi-bin/dir/tz.cgi?run=show_svc&fl=8&vid=329630">http://www.spedia.net/cgi-bin/dir/tz.cgi?run=show_svc&fl=8&vid=329630



--------------B22D8C154246C9DA34D6DDA8--



11717 Tue, 14 Mar 2000 02:54:37 +1300 [alt-beam] Re: Giant circuit / botpic database site - an alternative approach beam@corp.sgi.com Justin >> You've already said that he isn't able to do the work - if one person =
is
>> going to maintain such a site, they have to read the list, follow up a=
ll
>> the new urls, regularly re-check old sites, research new circuits,
>> update most weeks, and do that until the day they die, and beyond.
>> That's a full-time paid job. That's unrealistic.
>>=20
>That's not what I said at all. I'll repeat for the sake of clarity. Bruc=
e=20
>DOES do a great job, but he's not psychic. He will post anything you let=
him=20
>know about. He always has. The problem is on the builders end, not Bruce=
's.=20

I still think you've missed the point. For starters, Bruce doesn't have
to be psychic when the builders already tell everyone everything via
this list, he just needs to be able to do more work than is humanly
possible and never take a break. Yes, he does a fantastic job, but this
is relative to what one person can do, and even if this were not the
case, chances are high that he won't be doing a fantastic job five years
from now. Will he be able to pass the reins to someone else _before_ the
updates slow and the site becomes outdated enough that a truly
comprehensive update is no-longer feasible? Probably not - things just
don=92t work like that.=20

>He even has a form you can fill out on the site, what more can he do? Ye=
s, it=20
>could be better, but that involves participation and enthusiasm on your =
part=20
>not his. Do you expect him to constantly monitor for new information so =
it=20
>can be used at our leisure? I don't think anyone would expect him to hav=
e to=20
>do that,=20

Exactly - we cannot ask of someone the things required in order for a
one-person maintained site to fulfil the task I was talking about. What
Bruce is doing now requires a _lot_ of work, yet what would be ideal
requires orders of magnitude more - if one person is going to do it.=20


>It's not really workable to let anyone post=20
>whatever they want to a communal site. Opinions and degrees of experienc=
e=20
>vary wildly and more work would be needed to weed out the fluff than is=20
>presently required to simply tell someone that you would like something=20
>listed.

I think these issues can be overcome in the planning stage. A branched
menu diminishes the problem right from the start, if you can get people
to use it. I would elaborate, but if you read on, I have a better thing
to do.

>You seem to be saying, and I by no means profess to speak for you,=20
>that a free for all site would encourage interest and participation. I=20
>disagree completely. Participation is the key word here. And it sadly wa=
nes=20
>after a couple of months.=20

Close. I see participation as needed in both types of site, but the
distributed one can operate with less participation, and doesn't suffer
when one person (the moderator) moves away. I was thinking of
encouraging participation by linking it in with the mailing list, but
this has nothing to do with the moderation style. With the Beam-list the
longest running and most frequented source of info, tagging something to
the coat-tails seems a good idea. Perhaps we should get nasty - if
another online beam competition is held (just wait 'till I get enough
money for some prizes... :-), entry requirements could include the
submission of a link to the web index, or whatever :-)=20


>A cry goes out across the dry net tundra=20
>for more stuff, new stuff, input! But, I say it's already there, just su=
pport=20
>and nurture it.

I think we may be on different wavelengths here - what I want is not
offered by what you propose, and what I propose (though may not have
communicated well) does not fit what you're saying, or demand that I
stop supporting existing sites.

At any rate, I disagree (and don't even see your main argument as
particularly relevant), but I think that while an established
unmoderated site could run indefinitely, the chances of getting it
established are so slim that I'm going to quit trying to explain utopia
and bog down and translate my meagre bookmarks for submission to
Bruce, thus creating at last the circuits section on the Web Index.

Note that the reason I started thinking along these lines was that I've
been away from beam for a while, and I had a good idea of what would
have been done in my absence, but I couldn't find any of it. My
bookmarked sites either no-longer exist or lack updates for the time I
was away. Link pages and webrings just linked to sites about BEAM,
giving so little indication of content that all I could do was trawl
through dozens of sites that had nothing of what I was after. Everywhere
I looked, it seemed the only way to know which of the current crop of
sites dealt in which aspect of BEAM was to already know - was to be
up-to-date with the list and community.=20
IOW, the beam community can be _very_ hard to access if you're not a
beginner looking for basic stuff, but are out of the loop as if you were
a beginner. Fortunately, I imagine my circumstances are rare :-)

I making this big long whinge as a disclaimer - when Bruce puts up my
submission which turns out to be outdated and tiny, that is why :-)



11718 Mon, 13 Mar 2000 08:27:39 -0600 [alt-beam] Vibration sensor from Silly Slammer "beam@sgiblab.sgi.com" Kelly Petriew Hey all,
Has anyone seen those "Silly Slammers"? They are basically a bean bag
filled with plastic beads and an electronic device that says one of 2 or
3 pre-recorded messages when thrown on the ground. I bought mine for
$2.00 at the local Dollar Store just so I could rip it apart and see how
it operates.
After removing the device from the bag I found the following:

a cheapy 8 ohm/.1 watt speaker about the size of a Loonie (or new 1$US
coin, heheh)
circuit board (approx same size as speaker)
3 batteries (like a watch battery but thicker - 8mm?)
the voice chip (or whatever it is) doesn't seem to have a package, just
a blob of black crap
the simple vibration sensor is a metal tube with a spring inside it. If
hit hard enough, the spring hits the side of the tube, causing the
switch to be closed and the circuit to activate.. so simple..

Just thinking this setup could easily be adapted to BEAM to trigger a
chirp or yelp if the robot is bumped too hard from any horizontal
direction. You will have to experiment with the spring and tube to get
the sensitivity you want based on the speed of your bot.

PS: the Silly slammer I bought was "Bigmouth Bennie", he's blue and
(oddly enough) has a large fabric mouth). He says "Ouch!", "Cut it
Out!", and "Quit it!"

--
Kelly Petriew

Systems Support Analyst
The StarPhoenix
204 5th Avenue North
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
Canada
S7K 2P1

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