Some folks have gone and played a reality version of the video game Frogger with a Roomba. OK, I know, it's just a vacuum cleaner and it has no mind or personality, regardless of the anthropomorphizing bent of those who name *ahem* their Roombas, or dress them up, or have videocams set up to record them scooting around sweeping up cat hair, so why am I so sad for the doomed, frog-costumed, Roomba in this article? I'm such a softie.
The Frogger Incident (as I have now come to think of it) occurred at the SXSW event - one of the bloggers on my blogroll (and many of yours) is Tish of Snarkaholic. She was there - hey, Tish, did you watch that? Tish will (I hope) be writing more about SXSW on her blog. Oooh, I want to brag on Tish here, too - she is in Time Magazine's TIME.com: Blogwatch -- Mar. 20, 2006 -- Page 1 listing! Way to go, Tish!
Edited to add - Tish posted on her love and hope and sex and dreams blog about the conference. Do go read!
I wasn't there and I'm still trying to figure out 'what's it all about' so I won't be writing more on the conference here. If you read the article about The Frogger Incident you will learn that this idea was cooked up by " Make Magazine associate editor Phillip Torrone and Eyebeam R&D fellow Limor Fried." Also participating were a number of inebriated über geeks - for example "Kyle Machulis, an expert in 'teledildonics'--sex toys that are controlled remotely via the Internet." (the quoted references are taken from the C|net article linked to above) Anyone else here think that the combination of Roomba hackers and a teledildonics expert could result in very interesting robotic 'domestic help' ?
I gotta figure out how to get to one of these conferences - it sounds like too much fun!
The recent news about the furry lobster kiwa hirsuta was referenced in a friend's Live Journal post. Apparently someone's already created a plush version of the lobster. Another friend (hi, Cookie) is, I believe, waiting for the knitting pattern. I suggested that it would be a cool purse. The claws would each hold an end of a shoulder strap...I want one now.
More meanderings around the 'net brought me to an article about time travel. I'm a fervent believer in scientific exploration and technological advancement. What I'm afraid of is that there is no science or technology that can't be perverted to disasterous use and humankind are not ready for something as potentially dangerous as time travel. Right now I hope this scientist is wrong and there's no way anyone will be crawling into a time machine. However, if I could just go back to last week with the winning lotto number...
The grandkitties are visiting again. TheBoy and his g/f are having some work done at the apartment. I won't gush about them or post new pictures - as much as I'd like to.
dawno, Roomba, Frogger, furry lobster, Kiwaida, ScienceNews
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4 comments:
Hey Dawno! I did hear about the Frogger/Roomba thing--and was in the panel that talked about modifying Roombas to do all sorts of things....including "cockfighting" Roombas. The geekdudes get a kick out of modifying Roombas for some oddball reason. Better to keep their explorations confinded to Roombas and not living things.
But that's where I also discovered my compulsion to re-configure crochet patters was a sign of abject geekery (lots of talk about crocheting and knitting among girl-geeks. go figure)
I put a post up on Love-Hope-Sex-Dreams on SXSW. It ended up being more personal than topical, so that blog was the better place for it (sheesh! to think I have to think about that stuff now...)
:-)
T.
Someday the whole knitting crocheting amongst girl-geeks thing should be explored in more depth - I don't think I knew you were a crocheter! Me, too. Although I haven't done anything in years. I inherited the love from my great grandmother - neither my mom or hers did. My mom was very artistic in just about every way, so I don't doubt she would have been great at it.
I'll be sure to wander over to the LHSD blog! Thanks.
ooh I found a great typo in my post - inebrieated -
I need to come up with a good darfinition of that word - something like a mellow state of well being one gets after consuming too much yuppie cheese....
Well, it's a mark of progress when people move from torturing small animals for laughs to torturing machines for laughs. Maybe not much progress, but it's an improvement.
Then again, some people would accuse my car projects of being torture to the cars. :)
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