Dog Catchers

May 25, 2016

Lately if you’re a sci-fi/fantasy fan you might of heard about the Sad or Rabid Puppies.  They are a campaign to get books from white male authors nominated for a Hugo and try to flood the slate of categories to once of there approval.  The system is easy to game for that of all it’s over 10000 members at WorldCon only a small portion of them submit ballots for nomination.  This has many of the same vain as Gamergate.  It seems like the right wing hate machine is getting it tentacles into everything that is changing to be more diverse.

So how we going to change this you ask?  Do the same that the occupy movement and the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign.  We need to get the rest of the WorldCon goes to nominate books that are not supported by the sad puppies.  To strengthen are resolve like the Occupy Wall St movement.  Pressure authors and artists to no accept the nomination if they are on the sad puppies list.  Same goes for publishers also.  TO BE DOG CATCHERS.

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R.U.D.I. Project Update

May 6, 2016

Just wanted to give you an update on my robot project.  The EZ-Builder developer kit is turning out to be working quite nicely.  The different components in the developer app makes it easy to add controls to the servos and accessories.  Let me break down what I am hoping to have by EerieCon in Sept-Oct.

Mark I

  • Wheels in the feet to have it move forward, backwards and turn like a tank
  • Head to rotate 90 degrees left and right, 60 degrees up and 30 degrees down
  • 3×3 LED grid for each eye.
  • Camera to get a first person view to drive
  • Talk/Beep to interact with the people
  • Interface on my tablet to control it

Biggest problem I am having is the speech functions.  I could type it and get the bot to say it but that only works on the laptop and not the tablet.  Thought about having a microphone that I could talk into and it would come out of the robot speaker, but there is no means to do that.  Thought about having it beep like R2-D2 or BB-8 and I just press buttons on the app to make the noises or setup a chat bot interface with a microphone and speaker.

The problem with the chat bot is I will have to hack the brain and solder on a speaker and microphone and make the chat bot with Pandora Bots.  With Pandora bots though I have to make the responses for questions people might ask.

If I finish with Mark I will make a Mark II?  I have thought about adding some of the following items.

Potential Mark II upgrades

  • Arms with possible pinchers for hands
  • Flashlight
  • Cigarette Lighter
  • Drink Tray
  • Laser Pointer
  • MP3 player
  • Phone Charger

The cigarette lighter, flashlight, laser pointer and phone charger would be on arms would extend and retract from the body like R2-D2, and the drink tray would attach to the arms.  The ideas are endless but time and effort aren’t, so I think I will keep it to Mark I.

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Bernie, Bernie

April 19, 2016

I am nervous about going to the polls for the NY Primary because of the dirty tricks that Clinton has done in other states.  I have voted in primaries before (2004 and 2008).  This is big because I am a Bernie Sanders supporter, and if he wins it will greatly narrow Clinton’s lead and maybe surpass.  (I can only hope.)  There was some news that a polling place in Greece, NY was having problems.  Looked into and it isn’t my polling place.  I just want to vote.

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Imperfect People, Imperfect World

April 13, 2016

I had a friend just come out as transgender and that makes a total of 6 people I have met that are transgender.  (5 male-to-female and 1 female-to-male)  It got me thinking about imperfection and what it means.  The saying nobody is perfect is fitting but everyone reflexes that imperfection differently.  I was thinking about the different types of imperfects there are.  There are physical disabilities, mental disabilities, sexual orientations, and gender identities that can be considered that.  One thing that we all have the right is be able to face them and seek help so that we can have a “normal” life and as a society we need to make sure that we accept then and give our support.  At the end of the day we are just people; imperfect in every way.

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They say it is spring?

April 4, 2016

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This is outside my window the morning on 4/4/2016.  The calendar says spring but outside looks like winter.  We hit a cold snap and it got me thinking of a Time magazine article I read back in 2000.  Says the melting ice caps will cause an ice age.  You’re going to ask how would that happen?  The article says that the melting enters cold fresh water in the oceans in the higher latitudes causing the currents from the equator to prevent the warm temps getting that high and causing an ice age.  Here is a link that talks about my point: How Global Warming will Cause the Next Ice Age

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Not an April Fools Joke

April 1, 2016

On 4/1/2004 I was doing tech support for Gateway Computers.  This old guy calls me with an issue with the Hard Drive.  He wanted to buy a replacement.  He only had 1 day left in the warranty for support.  He tells me he smashed it with a ball peon hammer.  I asked the question of why.  The guy got paranoid and said there was data like financial data on it that he wants to protect.  Informed him that we provide a utility that can write 0s to the HDD destroying all data.  He didn’t believe me.  Informed him what he did wasn’t covered under the warranty so I sold him a new one.

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Segway Racing?

March 25, 2016

I first learned about Segwag Polo from show My Life on the D List.  This got me to thinking if anyone ever tried Segwag Racing?  I have played with the idea, but what kind of regulation would the race have?  How long will the race be and what shape the track will be.  Also rules for crashes and infractions like if a driver punches another.  It was a crazy idea and Segwags aren’t that popular.

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Return of the R.U.D.I. project.

March 11, 2016 3 Comments

A few years ago I was helping out with a scifi convention and wanted to make a robot as a mascot.  I tried to learn programming arduino boards to do it.  Tried as hard as I could but couldn’t get the board programmed to work.  I scraped the project and gave some of the parts away.  Years later I was looking on Instructables and found out about the EZ-Robot Developer Kit.  So I ordered the kit and am going back to creating R.U.D.I. again.  Bring him to EerieCon
in Buffalo/Niagara Falls, NY area to entertain the guests.  Will keep you posted.

P.S. R.U.D.I. stands for Rudimentary Utility Droid Intelligence.

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Bigger and Better Things?

February 20, 2016

On Friday February 19, 2016 I quit my job at Paychex and am going to start a new job on Monday February 22, 2016.  I am excited to start a new job and nervous also.  Paychex was a good company to work for and I had a job doing support for an online time tracking program called Time and Labor Online.  The problem with that was it wasn’t in Information Technology and more of account management with billing and cancellation we had to perform.

I am going into a I.T. position where I will be supporting network print services.  The position is a step up from my former one and the pay is 21% better.  This is the kind of job I was looking to get when I graduated college and that has me nervous.  The reason why is back in 1999 a year after I graduated from RIT with a BS in I.T.  I had this nice paying job starting out in a company’s IT department.  I had hopes and dreams of a future, but after 6 weeks I was fired.  I was a poor performer at my job because of my A.D.D. and my inexperience.   I now have good meds, experience and maturity, but it still a nagging feeling that I might not have it after 6 weeks.  I hope for the best and preparing for the worst.  I will keep you posted.

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#BernieHasAPosse

February 2, 2016

I was watching the Iowa Caucus and it was a nail biter.  I am a Bernie Sanders support and he had no superpac support or rich donors and trailed behind Hillary Clinton by 4/10 of a percent.  I would love if he won, but the presidential race isn’t a sprint but a marathon, and Bernie and Hillary broke from the pack.  He is on her heels and may over take the lead during Super Tuesday.  Only concern is accusation of Hillary changing the vote to her favor.  Bernie is a fighter and so is his posse and we will make sure this election is fair.  Because if it goes unchallenged then it is Florida in 2000 all over again where Al Gore decided to concede the election then staying in for the end and could of won.  The corruption in the US is getting worse.  This has to stop.  That’s why Bernie Has a Posse.

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