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All Mimsy were the Borogoves

A project log for Computer Motivator

If you don't know what a computer motivator is by now, then you have been reading too many textbooks and not watching enough TV.

glgormanglgorman 09/17/2021 at 18:510 Comments

 I am not sure if "mimsy" is quite the way to describe how I am feeling right now.  I was trying to 3D print a planetary drive, using a graphics package I wrote from scratch, even though I used a commercial 3-d printer to do the actual print, and I ended up with a solid block of gear-ness.  Maybe I should entitle this post ".. and did gyre and gimble in the wabe."  Hopefully, I will have better luck next time, especially if I can conjure up a design for some kind of multi-axis gyroscopic platform, which might be used not so much as a part of an IMU (inertial measurements unit) - since we have GPS and MEMS (!!) accelerometers for that!  Yet, what about giving the Boe-Bot a multi-axis stabilized camera platform, based on the traditional model of the type of stationary platform as was typically used in the IMU in the Apollo spacecraft era.?

 Right now, I am nowhere near doing that, as least as far as "implementation" is concerned, or perhaps it might be easier than I might think.  So where are we?  Perhaps the Boe-bot isn't very good at navigating rough terrains, such as brickwork, or shag carpet, and that makes me think of something otherwise out of the box and as if out of nowhere in this context, but which comes to mind, anyway.  How about a Boe-Dozer?  Not a bulldozer, because it's not a bulldozer at all, as it is more like a steam roller, that is to say, if I put that big gear on the front, it should be an easy mod.  Or I can try to finish the oscilloscope code and get a camera mounted so that I can actually control this thing over Bluetooth.

 Maybe this is finally a good time to open up this page for comments.  What does the Hackaday community really need right now?  A C++ compiler for the P2?  A LISP for P2/Arduino that is "just enough lisp" to be able to run ELIZA/SHRDLU?  Or a crystal skull that says "good evening" to passers-by on Halloween?  (and then engages them in conversation sort of Eliza-like) I don't think I can quite pull that one off, just yet.  The crystal skull part that is.

 A SHRDLU-like "planner" with speech recognition and an Eliza-like interface is very doable with 3-rd party open source tools.  I just need to finish Frame-Lisp and get the oscilloscope and spectrum analyzer interface running. 

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