José Feiteirinha random life log

Can Printed Circuit MEMS (PC-MEMS) jump modular robotics to the millimetric scale?

2012-02-16T06:43:00.002-08:00

I've been following the Claytronics and Modular robotics for a while now..

However until recently all systems where either to big or too simple:

A revolution was required and today I learned about what might just be it: Harvard's Monolithic Bee.

"...a millimeter-scale flapping wing robotic insect produced using Printed Circuit MEMS (PC-MEMS) techniques."

I cannot avoid raising hopes on how this technology can speedup developments on Claytronics/ Modular Robotics on the micro-scales.

Graphene

2012-01-27T04:30:00.000-08:00

Graphene is tougher than diamond, but stretches like rubber. It is virtually invisible, conducts electricity and heat better than any copper wire and weighs next to nothing. An astonishing new material which could revolutionise almost every part of our lives. (link)

Now, new finding on this wonderful material:

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-01/uom-sgs012612.php

(...)
Graphene oxide is the same graphene sheet but it is randomly covered with other molecules such as hydroxyl groups OH-. Graphene oxide sheets stack on top of each other and form a laminate.
(...) with ordinary water, they found that it evaporates without noticing the graphene seal. Water molecules diffused through the graphene-oxide membranes with such a great speed that the evaporation rate was the same independently whether the container was sealed or completely open.
(...)
"If another atom or molecule tries the same trick, it finds that graphene capillaries either shrink in low humidity or get clogged with water molecules."
(...)
"Just for a laugh, we sealed a bottle of vodka with our membranes and found that the distilled solution became stronger and stronger with time. Neither of us drinks vodka but it was great fun to do the experiment", adds Dr Nair.

See more:

Videos (what is graphene)

Graphene 76 cm diagonal touch screen

Related discussion at Next Big Future

PS: Sorry for the dry, impersonal post, but I felt like sharing and had little time for a deeper writing.
Still, I'm eagerly looking forward for what graphene will do for us over the next couple of years. :)

The Detailed Universe

2011-12-19T10:18:00.000-08:00

Found on youtube title "The Detailed Universe: This will Blow Your Mind.", this astonishing video makes justice to its name.

Love it.

Why Intel is crazy.. and a small prediction.

2011-08-08T10:12:00.000-07:00

Intel will deliver 14nm based processors by late 2014 (link).

Yes, they got craaaazy and just thrown $5 billions into research so that they may move at twice the rate of Moor's Law.

Why did they do this? Intel's strategy had always been simple: be the fastest, others will fall behind.

However this shifted and nowadays this is not enough. 15 months after I got my HTC Desire, battery problems are yet to be solved, unlike many hoped.

The fact is that - depicted below - ARM processors put Atom in a corner once mobility is an issue.

And mobility is an issue, this (2011) is the year when Laptops + Desktop PCs loose to Smart-phones & Tables (link).

Once we know this and that ARM had already paired with IBM and publicly announced at the beginning of this year that they were targeting 14nm technologies (link).

Intel's move becomes only a marketing stunt, they are actually trailing behind and following the market.

These are the wonders of capitalism :) Moore's law becomes the standard and the rate of the exponential grown becomes itself exponential. Singularity gets closer.

Another - perhaps more interesting - consequence, is that 14nm amounts to something like 30 atoms in length per transistor, leaving the traditional Moore's law very little space left.

So yes, the third dimension will have to get into the game really fast.. and when/if this happens.. .. we'll adapt and look for the next piece of technology.

Which brings me to my prediction :-)

Point 1: Avatar was rendered on a cluster of 40.000 cores.

Point 2: Computer games now have budgets in the size dozens of millions of Euros, and I expect this to keep increasing.

Point 3: Immersive reality is a joining point on the two above.

I predict that the cinema industry as we know will be swallowed by near realistic games.

So, Hollywood is to the future games, as Theater was to Cinema.

Let me know what you think.

Learning OpenSCAD...

2011-08-04T12:33:00.000-07:00

It's decided, one of my first prints has to be a vase :)

I just started playing with OpenSCAD while I wait for the electronics and hot-end:

Not bad for an hour playing around. Let's see how it evolves :)

Meanwhile for the Hot-end I decided for the J Head Nozzle from thingfarm.org, I liked it because it's simple, elegant and compatible with the Wade's extruder I already have.

As for the electronics, I've ordered from the German RepRap Foundation (GRRF.de) , they only had version 1.2, while the latest is 1.3 but should be ok for starting.. and it was on stock.

Eventually I want to move to the R2C2 board, but for now I'll be happy when can print the vase above. :)

RepRap Prusa Frame - Step 1 is done

2011-08-04T02:33:00.001-07:00

We, after a couple hours I have the frame, still a while to go though, but at least my RepRap already has a structure.

I'm thinking on giving it a name, any ideas?

To know more about the RepRap, visit RepRap.org.

EVO

2011-06-28T08:37:00.001-07:00

Evo 0.9 is my implementation of a genetic evolutionary algorithm for mimicking an image using only unnatural selection and random triangles.

It is based on the sort of software below:

Evo is made in Java 6 and the Jar (i.e. executable) can be downloaded here.

Configuration options are:
Resolution (pixels) - Since using the original resolution of a big image normally results in extremely slow behaviour, I've added this option. For example if this is set to 1000000 (i.e. 1 million) it will resize the image to 1 megapixel and evolve based on the resized image.
Number of Triangles - Total number of triangles used in the image.
Number of Threads - Number of threads used (I normally use one per CPU core).
Generation size - As there I am only using mutations, then this variable does not make much sense. However, the script will stop optmizing once the improvement is below 0.001% in one given generation. (So basically the bigger this number, the more demanding the software will be)

If you want to download, get more information or contribute, then consider looking at the forum:
http://forum.feiteira.org/forumdisplay.php?fid=8

To simply download, use:
http://forum.feiteira.org/attachment.php?aid=1

TMS: Deactivating brain parts, makes it more powerful?!?

2011-06-03T05:29:00.000-07:00

The research of a test in which a research subject was asked to draw a picture of a
dog four times, at different stages of his exposure to transcranial magnetic stimulation.

Found this interesting links while reading The Singularity is Near from Ray Kurzweil:

Savant for a day (http://wireheading.com/brainstim/savant.html)

Shows that maybe Savant syndrome can be induced.

TMS: Twilight Zone Science (http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/news/2002/04/51699)

A bit more detailed than the above, but still worth the reading.

"The technology at the core of professor Allan Snyder's experiments to boost creative intelligence,transcranial magnetic stimulation, is behind some pretty wacky claims. Subjects in experiments byDr. Michael Persinger, of Laurentian University, believe they felt the presence of God, or some similar mystical experience." - www.wired.com 04.18.02

Added that to some searches and found these below. I find the combined knowledge to be mind blowing :)

Jason Padgett - Brutal Attack results in Savant Syndrome

Daniel Tammet - The Boy With The Incredible Brain

Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery. Today? Today is a gift. That’s why we call it the present. ( Kung-Fu Panda)

2011-04-23T05:29:00.000-07:00

Well, today I'm finally taking the time to cleanup my house. With the long weekend, it's actually relaxing, and although it goes very slowly every little thing I organize or try to find the correct place to put them makes me feel better.

Now I have only my kitchen remaining to be cleaned and am procrastinating it by doing other stuff like saving all my albums into folders in the filesystem.

Currently I have most of my pictures either in iPhoto, Picasa, Picasa Web or all. However I'm reluctant to trust any of these (including Google) to last forever, and even if they do, there is no really easy way to export albums between one and the other, adding that to future versions, future incompatibilities, and lack of mobility, I've decided to follow a friends old-fashined method of having everything saved in folders with names starting by date, place and short description.

Not only this does all that I need, it is completely portable across different operating systems, filesystems and can be saved anywhere. Also, although it's in an applications best interest to difficult the export, they've actually made a good job when handling the import. Which means I'm not loosing anything in what regards integration.

Back to the cleanup, I've found a CD saved by my oldest friend Nuno. We've met at age 9, have 4 days of age difference, took different decisions in life, and have met 20 years late, not in the same class, but now in another country and in the same division at the European Space Agency.

He's always been the guy that brings the camera along and earlier in our lives, he was already thinking about the future, that is why at age 16 he did a backup of all the most important things I had in my computer. I had that CD almost forgotten in Portugal, until I found it last year when cleaning up my room.

I've just started having a look into it, and already found some jewels, here are some of the pictures Nuno saved from my PC around that time.

Looking at them is not even nostalgic (well not yet), it make the past, the present and the future merge altogether in my thoughts, thinking on what we've accomplished and what we both still having in front of us.

So, without further delay, here are, screenshots of 13 years old software made by a teenager with a love for computers.

Playing with fire effects

Extending the fire effects

Have no recall of what's this, what so ever

TopDog image editor. TopDog was my first game, this was the image editor I did. It was used by my sister to create sprites (images) for the background, enemies, etc..

Playing with 3D

Taking the learnings from high-school Art's class and putting it onto the computer.

The ability to do Art without the mess of having to redo all from scratch when you mess-up, is what made me turn to computers.

:) Nice one to end this post

List of dystopian films sorted by IMDB ranking

2010-10-16T06:13:00.001-07:00

Well, after talking with a friend about some of the movies that we've both seen, I decided to look for a list of dystopian films. I found the list on wiki, and then just took the time to sort it by IMDB rating.
I'll use it to sort what movies to watch next, maybe it can also be of some use to you.

IMDB Rating / Movie Name
9 Megiddo: The Omega Code 2 (1999)
0 FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions (2004)
7 Battle Royale II: Requiem (2003) - Sequel (aka Batoru rowaiaru II: Chinkonka)
9 Judge Dredd (1995), based on the comic of the same name
1 Class of 1999 (1990)
2 Z.P.G. (1972)
3 Babylon A.D. (2008)
3 Escape from L.A. (1996) - Sequel to Escape from New York (1981)
4 Æon Flux (2005), loosely adapted from the MTV animated series of the same name, created by Peter Chung.
5 Soldier (1998)
5 Turkey Shoot (1982) - (aka Escape 2000)
6 Southland Tales (2007)
9 The Handmaid's Tale (1990)
0 Doomsday (2008)
1 Deathrace 2000 (1975)
1 Screamers (1995), based on the short story "Second Variety" by Philip K. Dick
3 Code 46 (2003)
3 Demolition Man (1993)
4 District 13 Ultimatum (2009) - Sequel to District 13
4 Idiocracy (2006)
4 Land of the Blind (2006)
4 The Running Man (1987), loosely adapted from the novel of the same name written by Stephen King under the alias Richard Bachman
5 The Matrix Revolutions (2003)
6 Death Race (2008) - Remake from Deathrace 2000
6 Revengers Tragedy (2003)
7 Logan's Run (1976)
7 The Omega Man (1971)
8 Sleeping Dogs (1977)
8 THX 1138 (1971)
9 The Island (2005)
0 Soylent Green (1973), based on the Harry Harrison novel Make Room! Make Room!
0 Strange Days (1995)
1 Aachi & Ssipak (2006)
1 District B13 (2004)
1 Escape from New York (1981)
1 The Matrix Reloaded (2003)
1 Nineteen Eighty-Four, based on the George Orwell novel of the same name, filmed in 1956 by Michael Anderson
1 Nineteen Eighty-Four, based on the George Orwell novel of the same name, filmed in in 1984 by Michael Radford
1 A Scanner Darkly (2006), adapted from the Philip K. Dick novel of the same name
2 Fahrenheit 451 (1966)
2 Harrison Bergeron (1995), a cable television movie adapted from the short story of the same name by Kurt Vonnegut
3 Sleeper (1973)
7 Equilibrium (2002)
7 Minority Report (2002), based on the Philip K. Dick short story "Minority Report"
8 Gattaca (1997)
8 The Trial (1962)
9 Battle Royale (2000), based on the novel and manga of the same name. (aka Batoru rowaiaru)
9 The End of Evangelion (1997)
0 Brazil (1985)
0 Punishment Park (1971)
0 Serenity (2005), a continuation of the canceled Fox television series Firefly by Joss Whedon
2 V for Vendetta (2006), based on a graphic novel by Alan Moore
3 Blade Runner (1982), based on the Philip K. Dick novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
3 District 9 (2009)
4 Metropolis by Fritz Lang (1927)












5 Wolf's Rain (2003) - TV



















7 The Matrix (1999)

IMobster Bot updates

2010-09-03T00:33:00.000-07:00

Note: I've added all relevant information to the new forum http://imobsters.kapouta.com
Please use it instead of this thread, I'll try to reply to any questions posted there.

Well, it's been a while since I update this, so here it goes.

You may now download the new version from the script here. To know more on how to run/configure the bot read the previous post on it first.

This new version adds the ability to do missions via scripting, I've added the doNextMission() function that automatically tries do do the last non-complete mission.

I've also provided an example bot main cycle that:

-Tries to do the first non-complete mission (if it needs to buy equipment and there is money available it will also do it - including withdrawing from the bank if necessary).

- Second it will look at the best real estate investment and buy it, if possible.

- Finally it deposits all remaining money

I'm running this every 2 minutes on my home computer for a month now without any problems :)

Scripting iMobster

2010-07-12T06:45:00.000-07:00

Hi, there..
I've been running this little script on my PC for a while now and decided to make it public.. let's see if storm8 doesn't get too upset.

What does it do?

Well, currently I have functions that allow you to:
IMob.deposit(amount): Deposits a specific amount of money
IMob.depositall(): Deposit all your money (nice to have running as a crontab task over the night, making sure you never loose any cash)
IMob.buyBestDeal(): Why use real estate calculators? This function will automatically do the math and buy in the best deal (as long as your wallet [i.e. not including the bank] money is enough to do so)
IMob.withdraw(amount): Takes money from the bank to the wallet.
IMob.inviteMob(mobcode): Invites a person to your mob.. nice to have.. if you can process the HTML from any of the IMobsters listings on the internet, then it's possible to simply invite a list of thousands of players to join your mob.
spendAllMoneyOnRealEstate(IMob): With this little tool you can spend all your money in a smart way, it will keep buying the best deals in real estate until you cannot buy any more the best deal.

Others:
getNextNetIncome(): Time in seconds until you get your next income.
getWalletMoney(): Money in the wallet..
getNetIncome(): Returns your net income (after deducting the upkeep)
getBankMoney(): Returns the money in your bank..

And finally:
processPage(url,content=nil): This litle function is the core of the script and allows you to parse any page, submit any request or both.

Installation
Install Ruby: http://www.ruby-lang.org
Edit the file and update your UDID.
Run the script via Ruby: ruby imob_v001.rb

How to find my UDID?
On Android: Turn of your network, start IMobsters. An error message will appear with a link, something like: http://im.storm8.com/apoints.php?fpts=12&version=a.1.34&udid=223acbbcb1234c3ba1c&pf=acb1cbc33bac4bcb23122b687
Only the text in italic-bold of the link about is of interest. Take it and replace it on the line at the top of the script saying:
PAGE="/apoints.php?fpts=12&version=a.1.54&udid=200145745b874941&pf=7761ad4efac1dc9e6b87a016d4e1d0dc"
That's it! Now you can use the script. :)

On iPhone: No idea.. probably you'll have to sniff the network for a like the above (http://im.storm8.com/apoints.php?....). The error message when the network is off does not show any link on the iPhone.

Testing:
You can run the script as it comes, it will simply printout some of your player's specific info.

Download: click here

Have fun, and be kind to share any upgrades you may add to this script.

My last two months of (online) poker

2009-12-01T10:36:00.000-08:00

Well, I thought that today, being the 1st of Dec and roughly 2 months since I took on this new hobby that maybe it was a good time to commit my results.

So far they have been good, but there were some not so good moments.. as we can see for my first 5k hands.

So here is the total results for the last two months:

The overall graph:

10NL.. definitely a heater

5NL.. - heater, followed by downswing+tilt&pure old bad playing..

2Nl.. standard

And the detailed graph view...

For what is worth I know I had one major upswing in 10nl.. and know it's not sustainable.. but well it feels good right now :)

My non showdown winnings show clearly how I have played with my aggressiveness. The 2NL graph IMO shows the best improvements around 19k where I learned something (not sure what).

Here are some notes I was taking in the begining:

2.2 k hands - raise pre-flop when you have a good hand

7.5 k - STOP bluffing so much

8.5 k - Pay more attention to position

19k - did not took any notes.. may a result from accumulated experience

23-25k - Tested multi-tabling 12 fast tables...

I mostly do 9 normal tables now.

First post no contents.. will add something later

2009-11-30T04:13:00.001-08:00