May 18, 2012

My "Better know a Cloudspoker" interview on YouTube

Cloudspokes' Jeff Douglas interviewed me some time ago as part of the Better know a Cloudspoker series. Check out the interview on YouTube. 

May 12, 2012

Lego Mindstorms Nxt Strider

It's been close to two years since I had purchased the Lego Mindstorms Nxt robotics set. Being alone at home yesterday evening, thought of putting together one of the robots. Decided to build the walking robot - or strider as named in the book. Stayed up till 3.00 AM this morning putting together the robot. Did the programming in the morning and am quite satisfied with the results. Interestingly, modified the mechanical design slightly to allow a better click of the touch sensors. Need to rubberize the leg tips so that the walking is non-slippery. 
The Strider
For those unfamiliar with Mindstorms robotics kit, it is one cool robotics set by Lego. Not only can you build cool robots, you can actually program it to do things. It includes 3 motors, 2 touch sensors, an ultrasonic sensor and a light sensor. Programming is done visually using the included software. The programs can be transferred to the robot either via a USB cable or wirelessly via Bluetooth. 


Highly recommended for kids 12 and above and of course the inner kid in every adult :-). Enjoy!