The first post!
OK, I've got all the templates the way I want them (although I'll probably change them a bit later on), and so this blog is a go. Which is a good thing, because I want to write in it! I'm not sure where to start, I'd like to talk about what's happening in my life now, but I think it'll be confusing without some background info. But background is boring. I want to keep these posts short, so I think I'll just tell you the old stuff as I go along and just hit you with the new stuff right now.
Today, I fought space monkeys while wearing an exoskeleton armour. Yes, basically those big robots in Japanese cartoons, only not that big and shiny. This is a prototype after all, so it doesn't have a top-of-the-line paintjob. In fact, it doesn't have a paintjob at all, so it looks a bit crappy aside from the fact that it's a big kick-ass robot. Also, I didn't actually drive the robot, because it's not done yet. You can sit inside it, but it's basically just an empty armoured husk. What we're doing now is just some usability tests in a simulator.
So yeah, here's some background. The simulator was designed and built by my neighbour and university lecturer, who defected from the Soviet Union during the Cold War. He used to be a scientist there, apparently doing research on some kind of "versatile armoured personnel carrier." Basically a next-gen tank. According to him, the project never really got off the ground.
This guy seems nuts sometimes, he's kind of paranoid and seems to think that people are looking for him. His Swedish is still not very good, so he sometimes asks me about something he's heard on the news about the Russian mafia. I try hard not to smile when he uses an obviously phony matter-of-factual tone of voice to start a "casual" conversation: "I heard on the news, it was something about Russia." You know, I always thought the russian accents in movies were exaggerated, but they're apparently spot on! This guy's a lot of fun to be around. He's a great guy, something between a nerdy middle-aged man and your typical sweet/wise old man, and he can talk passionately about some dusty old theories that you can't help but care about just because his ramblings are so entertaining.
Anyway, the simulation was fun. He wants the controls to be as intuitive as possible, and apparently he has a bit of usability testing left. He wants it to feel like a second skin. Well, in that case it's a very weird skin at this point. I found the simulation to have kind of sluggish response times, which was a bit disappointing. The simulation is basically a game where I was sitting in the robot, controlling it, and fighting big monkeys in space. Did I mention this guy is a loon? The controls involve moving like you want the robot to move, but to only kind of hint at the movements enough for the controls to register them. It's hard to explain, and very awkward at first, but it felt pretty natural after a while once I started getting the hang of it.
This post ended up longer than I wanted it to be. I actually went back and edited, but for everything I delete I add some other stuff. There's just so much to talk about. It'll have to wait, I can't be writing here all day.
Today, I fought space monkeys while wearing an exoskeleton armour. Yes, basically those big robots in Japanese cartoons, only not that big and shiny. This is a prototype after all, so it doesn't have a top-of-the-line paintjob. In fact, it doesn't have a paintjob at all, so it looks a bit crappy aside from the fact that it's a big kick-ass robot. Also, I didn't actually drive the robot, because it's not done yet. You can sit inside it, but it's basically just an empty armoured husk. What we're doing now is just some usability tests in a simulator.
So yeah, here's some background. The simulator was designed and built by my neighbour and university lecturer, who defected from the Soviet Union during the Cold War. He used to be a scientist there, apparently doing research on some kind of "versatile armoured personnel carrier." Basically a next-gen tank. According to him, the project never really got off the ground.
This guy seems nuts sometimes, he's kind of paranoid and seems to think that people are looking for him. His Swedish is still not very good, so he sometimes asks me about something he's heard on the news about the Russian mafia. I try hard not to smile when he uses an obviously phony matter-of-factual tone of voice to start a "casual" conversation: "I heard on the news, it was something about Russia." You know, I always thought the russian accents in movies were exaggerated, but they're apparently spot on! This guy's a lot of fun to be around. He's a great guy, something between a nerdy middle-aged man and your typical sweet/wise old man, and he can talk passionately about some dusty old theories that you can't help but care about just because his ramblings are so entertaining.
Anyway, the simulation was fun. He wants the controls to be as intuitive as possible, and apparently he has a bit of usability testing left. He wants it to feel like a second skin. Well, in that case it's a very weird skin at this point. I found the simulation to have kind of sluggish response times, which was a bit disappointing. The simulation is basically a game where I was sitting in the robot, controlling it, and fighting big monkeys in space. Did I mention this guy is a loon? The controls involve moving like you want the robot to move, but to only kind of hint at the movements enough for the controls to register them. It's hard to explain, and very awkward at first, but it felt pretty natural after a while once I started getting the hang of it.
This post ended up longer than I wanted it to be. I actually went back and edited, but for everything I delete I add some other stuff. There's just so much to talk about. It'll have to wait, I can't be writing here all day.
1 Comments:
Wow the big robot sounds cool... shame about the whole space monkey part!
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