Honda, using technology gleaned from their Asimo robot, have trumped the Segway and I WANT ONE!

Honda has introduced the U3-X. It weights around 22 pounds and is about the size of a large skate board, small enough to be carried around. (It even has a handy dandy carrying handle.) It’s not as fast, (only about 4mph). But what makes the U3-X really cool is its omni-directional travel. It looks like your just floating around.

The bad news is they don’t have any plans to sell them. I’m guessing partly because they’re worried about exposing their technology and partly because they would cost eleventy-billion dollars each.

But seriously. C’mon guys! If I can’t have my flying car, at least give me a shot at a floating chair!! Then again, you could argue that this puts us one step closer to being the gelatinous blobs from Wall-E (clicky). [Edit: LOL!*After* I posted this, the original article was updated with a pic from Wall-E. THEY STOLE MY JOKE!!]

You can read the complete article. (Clicky clicky.)

The article had a better video from the press conference when I first read it, but it seems that video is not working now. [Edit: They replaced it with MY Wall-E joke!] So here’s a promo I found on YouTube:

Happy 9’s!!

At the sound of the tone it will be 09:09:09, 09/09/09.

BEEP!!

(WordPress bungled this post, so I had to hack the database to get it to show up. Now it’s LATE!! Grrr.)

I’m telling you, we live in a Star Trek world! (Yeah yeah, I know. Put away your light sabers. I know I’m mixing my sci-fi worlds. Get over it.)

Here in the U.S. most of our robot tech is driven by defense contracts (like trucks that can autonomously navigate battle fields, and armed unmanned helicopters). But in Japan, it’s pretty much about sexism entertainment. And after seeing the video below, I have to admit, they’re making shocking advances.

It was only a few years ago that a bi-pedal robot was only possible with hundreds of pounds of computing power on board. Even Honda’s diminutive Asimo looked like he was wearing a bulky space suit. Those japs have put their robots on a run-way model style diet and have come out with… well… a run-way model. Seriously!

Here she is in her first real-live run-way show.

We used to get in trouble in school for copying. Now, it’s how most programmers make their living! Can’t figure out how to make that div tag line up? Google-Copy-Paste. Can’t get your objects to serialize? Google-Copy-Paste. Can’t get your database query to work? Google-Copy-Paste.

There’s lots of talk about intellectual property and copyright infringement. But the fact is, in the world of software development, 99% of what you see is copied, massaged, reworked, preexisting code. It even has its own made-up word. It’s called “googlegramming” (i.e. programming via Google). This is a dirty word in development circles as it implies that a “googlegrammer” doesn’t really know how to write code. They just know how to copy and paste. These guys are always using a hammer to drive in a screw, metaphorically speaking. I’ve worked with some and its extremely frustrating.

But, is all googlegramming a bad thing? No. I don’t think so. You can take old code and use it to do something new and innovative. That, to me, is when googlegramming is allowed, nay, encouraged. (Although most would argue that this goes beyond the definition of the new, made-up word.) Using canned code is a great way to speed up development of a new creation. As the chair of the Comp-Sci department once told me, “Plagiarism is the highest form of productivity!”

And if you think this is a new phenomenon, check out this amazing youtube video that proves that Disney knew a thing or two about productivity long before the personal computer existed.

I really like David Crowder Band. I really like internet memes. I really like Twitter (but I’m not addicted). I really really LOVE this video!! (And yes, I’m going to tweet it too.)

In honor of  Embrace Your Geekness Day, this week’s quip is surfeit with geekitude.

There are 10 kinds of people in the world: Those who understand binary and those who don’t.

Ghosty pointed out (via Facebook comment) that today has an even more auspicious clock moment. (This one will only last a second, but at least we’ll all be awake for it.)

Everybody make sure and pay attention during your lunch hour. This will be a once in a lifetime moment!!

12:34:56 7/8/9

Wow! How did I miss that?! Thanks Ghosty!

It’s now 05:06 07/08/09. These things don’t happen that often, and since I’m a numbers geek, I must at least mention it.

Of course, if you know me at all, you know I’m not actually posting at the ungodly hour of 5 AM. But through the magic of delayed posting, I can honestly say it is 5:o6 AM.

Check back at 09:09 09/09/09. (Just a month away!)

Incontrovertibly, theirs precisly three mistakes in this nonessential, unsubstantial sentence. What are they?

In my case, it’s a Treo 700w.