It’s sad when lovers no longer get a charge out of each other…

[Tusind Takk @mprados!]

You know, I really could never dance for another. . .

A bit o’ background from IsraeliGuitar (on youtube)

I Wanted for a long time to upload a video of me improvising with my guitar and the Kaossilator.

Everything I did was very boring as the loop in the Kaossilator is quite short. You can’t really play any chord progressions, only the same chord over and over and over and over.

I tried to think of a song that has a single chord and found Groove is in the heart. It’s the same chord and the same bass line all through the song.

It wasn’t easy making 7 minutes of the same chord not boring or anoying, but I think I did a good job.

[Thanks @KOduckgirl]

Josh Ellingson, the superlative artist responsible for some of my favorite robot art (including this preliminary version of the RoboGames poster he did last year), has a super colossal art show in Second Life on May 23rd.

The Museum Of Robots is putting this on and it looks like it will be tons of virtual fun!

Bots, Bugs, and Beasts
the art of Joshua Ellingson
Opening Reception May 23rd, 9am (PST)
(my Second Life name is “Grover Zelin”)

I am wondering quietly how refreshments work Second Life. Then again, if I were really into these newfangled online community thingies, the only thing I would have in them would be a lawn so I could tell the damn kids to get off of it.

Yeah we’re late top the party on this one, but,Makerbot turns to the dark side:

Go see Makerbot at MakerFaire! Buy MakerBots! Yay 3D printing!

Yes, yes yes yes:

Thanks @thinkgeek!

Older, but still awesomely executed:

And how. Much animatronic lusciousness here.

[via @koduckgirl and Digg! Thanks Tryntje!

Have you always wanted to be part of the world domination “in” crowd? Do you get your celebrity gossip from Popular Mechanics? Does five gallons of motor oil, three car batteries and a set of alligator clips turn you on?

Boy do we have a party for you. Join ComBots, Laughing Squid and the Robotics Society of America for a night out to benefit this year International RoboGames. Guzzle tasty beverages made by your favorite robot bartenders, see works in progress and other junk made out of art, and hobnob with some of the leading lights of robotic society.

Get a martini from a robot!
Buy great robot art!
Drive a combat robot!
Get a robot-made roasted mashmallow (made w/a flame thrower!)

image courtesy Scott Beale.

Door charge is a sliding scale, all proceeds go to making RoboGames 2009 better than ever! Give til it hurts. We do.

Follow http://twitter.com/robogames for the latest updates.

Saturday, May 9, 2009, 7:00pm-2am
Secret Location

So, we here who put on RoboGames were standing around shooting the breeze with our good pals at Lagunitas Brewing the other day.

“Gosh,” we said, “Wouldn’t it be great if we could get together a bunch of neat people and drink beer and talk about robots?”

“Yeah!”, said Jimmy J, General Organization Guy and Pony Ride Attendant up at Lagunitas, “It would also be cool to have a backyard barbecue with robot people, robots, and big lumps of tasty goodness to wash all that beer and conversation down with!”

“Golly,” said Mister Robotics, “It would sure be neat to do all that *and* have it be a fundraiser for RoboGames 2009!”

“Wow!” Said Ron, Lagunitas Sales Honcho, “I’ll bet that if we package up a fun afternoon of beer-becuing, robots, music and nifty surprises, and had it all up here in our super spiffy beer-tasting loft overlooking the Lagunitas Brewery, we could get a ton of people out here and get people excited about RoboGames 2009 at the same time!”

“My God Man!” we said, pouring ourselves another fine Imperial Stout, “You beer guys are Geniuses! That’s what we’ll do! We’ll invite a ton of people up to beautiful Petaluma, ply them with food, drinks, free tickets to RoboGames and other robotic delights, and let them know that their ticket money goes to helping put on a stunning show of technological wizardry and sportsmanlike excitement! The RoboGames!”

And so it was thought up, an so it shall be done:

The RoboGames Lagunitas Beer Party!
A Fundraiser for The International RoboGames 2009
Saturday, May 16th, 2009 - 4:20-8:00pm
$50/ticket gets you:

• All you can eat BBQ (dude, that’s like a $30 value)
• All you can drink (but not drive) beer (oh come on… That’s worth $100)
• All you can listen to live music ($10 cover…)
• One ticket to RoboGames in June (hey, that’s a $20 value right there…)
• Tour of the Lagunitas brewery and bottling plant (oh, at least $10)
• Chance to get autographs from Team “Beer Bash“, the flame-throwing, combat robot made from a beer keg (worth at least 25¢. )
• Opportunity to drive a real combat robot (priceless. Friggen, priceless.)
• and on and on. . .

So like, $170.25 of food, beer, and stuff for just $50!!! Buy Tickets here!

Lagunitas Brewing Company
1280 North McDowell Boulevard
Petaluma, CA 94954
21 and up only, please.

Only 100 lucky party-going people will be able to party with us at Lagunitas!

Your tickets gets you entry to the Lagunitas Robot Lounge, free food, free beer, a pair of tickets to the International Robogames, a goody bag stuffed with robotic delights and satisfaction in knowing that your drunken revelry goes towards making RoboGames 2009 better than ever this year!

Think of the children! And their robots!

Clicking below will embark you on this magnificent journey. See you at Lagunitas!
Buy Tickets here!

Thank you to our good friends (and sponsors of RoboGames 2009),

So, for a little background: Stephen Nelson is one of our favorite people that most of the six of you who check this site regularly have never heard of. He builds things like power tool racers and, more importantly, robots.

His stable include Evelyn, a Modified Dawg (watch out, 16mg video download); Eva, the beer retriever, and his latest and gnarliest creation, Ethel, (named for the Zappa song). As Mr. Nelson says, “The goal of building Ethel is a learning experience with software and vision system on a off road robot.” At least this was the goal when he started, she has since sprouted a flamethrower and a portable DJ rig, amongst other things. But I digress.

I will now turn over the tale of the latest adventures with Ethel to Mr. Nelson himself posting from his garage while nursing his road rash:

(more…)

The Powers That Be have seen fit to endow us with an intern! Our intern is Greg “Intern” Intermaggio (as in, “Hey! Intern!”) and he is adorable and, apparently, a glutton for punishment, seeing as he’s here at the Uncanny Valley, doing Lego robot stuff and helping us plan RoboGames.

Recently, Intern was corralled by Kids Talk Radio LA and they did a nice interview with him at the Computer Using Educators Conference in Palm Springs.

Way to go, Intern! Now get back to work.

Come to the RoboGames Town Hall, an informal conversation where robot builders, circuit benders, robosumo enthusiasts, combat people, kit bashers, software mutators, makers, doers, thinkers and all other nerds bent on robotic world domination can come on down and discuss RoboGames 2009.

Topics will include how to compete at RoboGames, how to get involved with the RoboGames populace as a competitor, volunteer, sponsor or other supporter, how to show off your robotically-oriented wares at RoboGames, and what we can do to make this year’s RoboGames a truly spectacular event.

RSVP at Upcoming, and tell your friends! At least, tell the ones who bow down to their robotic overlords. Mm, overlords.

Seriously, how has no one thought of this earlier? Aside,of course, from the whole “oh my god I just lost my finger” thing:

Geek Replaces Lost Finger With 2GB USB Finger

A Finnish programmer who lost his finger in a motorcycle accident has now replaced it with a prosthetic finger that has a USB drive built in. Jerry Jalava can now peel back his “nail” and reveal a 2GB “finger drive” for storing photos, movies and software.

Jalava had his left ring finger amputated last summer after crashing into a deer with his motorbike near the Finnish capital Helsinki. Given his profession as a computer programmer, the doctors treating him joked that he should have a USB “finger drive” and Jalava went for the idea.

[Thanks Vexed Magazine! (we found this through their twitter feed, which we have had for a while now.]

The advent of this robot clearly means Rosie the Robot is imminent, so people can stop asking, already.

From Bre Pettis and Adam Cechetti, here are the fruits of a long, punchy night at NYC Resistor:

Bre has established that Skynet will enable itself via tasty cheese-filled snacks:

This is one of those robots that I swear is alive. The noises it made were like an animal and it seemed that everytime we looked the other way, it was coming to life and changing things with the setup.

It shows that the revolution will come via Arduino and reprap controllers, and will be commented on by XKCD.

At least, it transcends NSFW for very unusual values of work:

Dinosaurs F*cking Robots

(Thanks to James Young for letting us come back to blogging with a, um, bang.)

““Mac vs PC” by Dan Chianelli and Nick Greenlee

[via the Squid]