The robot below built with Lego Mindstorms and using a Nokia N95 Cellphone with an ARM processor (same type of chip as in the iPhone and Google Phones) is able to solve a 4×4x4 rubiks cube puzzle.
While the application is quite trivial (as in the robot can only do one thing and it is a simple algorithm no real AI here) it is a cool example of what some basic robotics can do.
I hope to post some photos and/or video of some of the robots where I am studying in the next few days at the latest later in the month when we have a robot soccer match between ourselves and The University of Newcastle.
I have now been flatting by myself for a week. It is an interesting experience. So far I am enjoying most of it. The room/flat that I am in is probably close to half the size of my entire old flat that had 3 people living in it. It is so nice to be able to move around!
The one major downside to flatting by yourself though is you are the only one to blame for any mess! It particular I keep on getting grumpy that the toilet seat has been left up and that dishes have been left in the sink. I want someone to blame. I am in denial that I am the cause of the mess. But I can’t escape it. So I get grumpy at myself. It is weird. I swear I am going to create a sign on the toilet that says make sure the seat is put down after use or else… I will just have to work out what the punishment for the or else is… I wonder if the clean me can win over the lazy me.
The Linux server your website is hosted on will be rebooted due to scheduled maintenance between 12AM and 4AM Tuesday morning, 08/02/2010. We anticipate up to 45 minutes of downtime during this period as the file system check takes this long.
So I wonder if when the Reserve Bank of NZ downsized and replaced the NZ coinage a few years back that they shipped all the similar sized coins over to aussie. :-p
Very interesting article in New Scientist this week about a possible link between exam grades and becoming bipolar.
Straight-A students are more likely to develop bipolar disorder than their more mediocre peers, at least in Sweden, according to a new study of more than 700,000 former high-school students.
Within 15 years of sitting their final high-school exams, aged 15 and 16, at least 280 of the students were diagnosed with bipolar disorder. After taking into account their parents’ income and education – factors that are known to affect exam scores – the highest-achieving students were more than three times more likely to suffer from the mental illness than their average peers.
Male overachievers, meanwhile, developed the disease 4.4 times more often than their average male classmates.
The stereotype of the brilliant but tortured artist aside, some aspects of manic episodes could reflect increased intelligence, he says. “People who have a biological predisposition to bipolar disorder have advantages, I suppose you could call them, in that they’re able to think clearly, think fast and concentrate,” MacCabe says.
700,000 is a massive sample size so it should mean that the study is quite a good one. However, it is limited only to Sweden school students it would be interesting to see if these results were reflected elsewhere in both first world and third world countries. Could mental illness be a by-product of technological, sociological and the complexities of the modern world on the human brain?
I am a few days behind in blogging this as I have around 400 blog posts to work through as I get back up to speed after 4 days with no internet.
The video below shows the intersection of Wellington and Union streets in central Auckland when the power was out a little over a week ago. It is impressive just how much better the traffic flows with no traffic lights:
I find this video particularly interesting as it mirrors the results of my honours level research which showed the traffic lights performed poorly compared to Give Way intersections or Roundabouts unless traffic was extremely congested. It is nice to see the results of a simulation also play out in real life.
I have arrived in Sydney and getting set up before starting university next week.
After four days of being in the 90s (aka the stone age) I now have a mobile phone and mobile broadband internet – it is quick too:
I have many photos to sort through and put online at some point as well as that a much larger blog to write detailing the first few days of my new life. In the meantime I will leave you to wonder how I managed to drive 600km in a rental car in 3 days without leaving Sydney.
This boat was moored near Westhaven Marina this afternoon on my way home from work. The photos have been taken from my cellphone and struggle to show the size of the mast. From my own guess it was around 50m in height. It would be one of the biggest yachts I have ever seen.
The sole power line to the entire Auckland region failed again this afternoon cutting power to around one million people. The only operating power station north of Hamilton is the Huntly coal fired station which cannot supply power to all of Auckland so Transpower cut power to all of Auckland except for essential services like hospitals, sewage and water supply.
However the reporting on both NZ Herald and Stuff reads quite funny:
Police say power has been restored to many of the 5000 Auckland homes left in the dark after a fire underneath power lines prompted mass power cuts from the Waikato to Northland and throughout Auckland this afternoon.
Now I am sure that there are more than 5000 homes in these areas:
Among the Auckland suburbs affected were Remuera, Ponsonby, Epsom, East Tamaki, Freemans Bay, Manukau, Mt Wellington, Newmarket, Onehunga, Birkdale, Beachhaven, Northcote, Glenfield, Manly, Helensville, Hauraki, Forest Hill, East Coast Road, Albany and Belmont.
In fact this image was posted on stuff.co.nz showing the extend of the outage:
The best system would be that no one pays any tax until they are earning what one regards as the minimum amount needed for a family of their size. Churning money from tax to welfare to inefficient.
And after that make it a one rate flat system.
It would be simple, fair and effective. No more wasted money on tax agents to creatively balance the books to pay the minimum amount.
