While the U.S. seems to be taking a turn for the worse, I am working on helping high school students interested in robotics. This last weekend, on their own, several students figured out some programming needed to get a basic mecanum drive robot to move 🙌😀🙌😀🤖🤖🤖

This grasshopper rode on my windshield for about 5 minutes. Great gripping legs!

#insect #physics

For First Robotics Competition team training we are trying the XRP Robot ( see www.sparkfun.com/products/22230 ) - @raspberrypi.bsky.social Pico W plus with extra ports, small motors, & encoders. There is a connection to WPIlib code base via simulation to drive the bot. Still experimental

#Calculator moment: apparently the HP12C, introduced in 1981, is a classic, and you can still buy it!

The handbook is very helpful book to learn about the background of financial calculations (love the paper tape on cover😀)

I use this one occasionally.

Learn more: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP-12C

I have had this HP-20s on my desk since 2004. It was in a supply closet at work, unused! So I took it for my daily calculation needs.

I know, I know, I could open up a browser to do a calculation. But it is so much easier /quicker to just grab the 20s 😀

what is your everyday go to #calculator?

#Calculator / PIM #retro visit: Psion Organizer II LZ. My grandmother had this bought for her by a relative in UK in 1989, £149.99 from Dixons.

I used it more as a timer and a calculator than as an information device.

See more about it here en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psion_O...

#nasa #space
on my mind while watching #osirisrex sample return landing was interview w/ USAF person who said he would "assess the hazards in the area, like unexploded ordnance"... to have the craft come all this way home and then to land and explode on old ordnance 😱 - whew all good now.

Calculator moments: I bought this TI-74 Basicalc in the mid 1980s because it was cool looking! It had a keyboard &could be programmed in Basic!

There is an 8K RAM cartridge that can be used to store programs & it has a mode to turn it into full function calculator 🧮🧮🧮

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TI-74

Spider close up at dusk. Used a Canon PoweShot SX530 HS with flash and zoomed in from about 10 feet (the spider was up in a tree).

#spider

Back when making decisions was simple 🤔😜

This is a TI SR-51 calculator (www.datamath.org/Sci/WEDGE/sr...) introduced in 1975, along side book geared for a TI-55 calculator (www.datamath.org/Sci/MAJESTIC...)

Sometimes having a simple book with a simple computing model is helpful 😀

Spider decided to build a web at the deck steps to possibly capture larger food sources!?!?! 😜 🕸️🕷️🕸️🕷️

Working on small raspberry pi Pico W robot as a stepping stone to First Robotics Competition prep before jan 2024 and programming an NI roboRIO😀

See this video for background
youtu.be/iTo4Qh2R6m4

Looks like an early morning tomorrow 😀😴🥱

starwalk.space/en/news/new-...

Another page from the Jan 2013 National Geographic magazine, a statement from Professor Lonnie Thompson (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lonnie_...) - "Data alone wouldn't change human behavior". .... re climate change 🤔

not an optimistic view of making changes before everything goes wrong.

Did expedition actually happen?

Turns out this expedition is still in development, with the ship expected to be assembled in 2024, for deployment in 2025.

There are some 3D images here
www.polarpod.fr/en/polar-pod

Occasionally I pick up used National Geographics at Half Price Books ($0.50 each, a bargain!).

Reading through Jan 2013 issue I found a story about the "Antarctic Pod", a specialized vertical ship designed to explore Antarctic Circumpolar Current in 2015.