Month: March 2008

Copter Bot

clearly amusedTim has developed his food-foot skill to include Do-Si-Do girl scout cookies. Somehow, he manages to flip them up into the air with his foot and catch them in his mouth with an accuracy level of maybe 30%.

The recreated Helicopter Bot has turned out to be, basically, a failure. Its “propellers”, connected to the sides of the basic XBC, barely even manage to push Tribbles out of the way. I’m pretty sure nothing was really expected of it from the beginning, but it seems to have failed even those low expectations.

the blogger in action!The software guys + Hannah are trying to program the bots to find a green Tribble. The bot needs to turn until it sees green, then go towards it until it is close enough, then pick it up. According to Liam, it takes a lot of code.

hard at workLiam brought his exchange student from Japan and explained the game to him. He began in English, then switched to (apparently basic?) Japanese, at which point I whispered to Hannah, “DUDE, he speaks Japanese?” and she seemed to believe it was common knowledge (“You didn’t know that?). It was very interesting.

Tribble Nibbles

the tribble nibble popcorn popper.Today Hannah and Ben are working on the ChickenBot that the hardware guys created. Physically, the hardware is perfectly capable of lifting a Tribble, but the programming looks like it will be more difficult. Right now there is plenty of talk of x and y coordinates… the bot needs to see the Tribble, get to the Tribble, then pick up the Tribble and eventually drop the Tribble. It sounds so simple; that’s when you know it’s tricky.

Anthony has decided to share his family recipe for Chex Muddy Buddies; the tradition is very sacred and we are honored that he would share it with us and take the effort to photocopy it from the Chex cereal box. They are delicious.

Anthony, Hannah, and I developed a plan as Mrs. Newcastle was putting the Pizza Rolls into the oven. We brought the container downstairs with a single frozen pizza roll and I put my dramatic experience to good use.

Me (shocked): “Anthony, is that the LAST Pizza Roll?”

Everyone: “what?? there were pizza rolls?”

Anthony: “last one.. who wants it?”

Tim: “I do!”

Liam: “No! Give it to me!”

anthony hard at work; tim in his stylin’ hat, eating a tribble.So we gave it to Tim but he figured out that it was frozen as soon as he touched it. Then Liam said, “I’ll eat it!” and put it to his mouth only to say, “aww, it’s hard.”

So we decided to bake it anyway, with the rest of them, figuring that 350 degrees will kill all of the germs. Except, Liam says, ebola. No comment.

eating those yummy tribblesThe “food dynamic” is quite fascinating; hoarding and hiding of food takes place frequently. Since the food stays on the hardware side of the room, the software guys typically don’t find it until most of it is gone. Luckily for me, I’m right in the middle so I can find all the food and participate in the hiding and hoarding, while feigning innocence.

What might be my favorite picture of all time:

Ben is clearly intrigued.