The recent passing of Steve Jobs jarred open a lot of memories and emotion for me. While Jobs and I never actually met in person, our paths crossed numerous times and he had a profound affect on my life. Like many IT professionals my age, the late nineteen seventies was fertile ground for new inventions, creative thinking and imaginations spinning out of control. Steve Jobs was only one of the influential technology forces in my life at that time. Equally inspirational were Steve Wozniak, Allan Kay, Bill Gates, and Doug Bailey to name a few.
In 1976, I was an impressionable 10 year old living in British Columbia, Canada and had an interest in space, robots and fire trucks like any normal 10 year old boy. At the same time my uncle, Doug Bailey, was an ex IBM engineer who was also a curious inventor. Today we call people like him hackers, but back then he was just an engineer trying to figure out how some of this new emerging technology was going to affect people and work and lives. I was lucky enough to be hanging around his house one day when he was scavenging the keyboard out of an IBM Selectric 80 typewriter. He was building his own keyboard interface to replace the manual input switch panel on the Altair 8800. I remember asking how he knew that pressing a certain key could make a letter appear on the screen and he proceeded to explain binary and switch matrix logic over the next hour. I was hooked.
That summer Doug sold some of the first Apple I computers in white boxes as hobbyist kits out of H&S Micro Systems, his attempt to bring computers to the masses. The TRS-80, Apple II, and Commodore computers followed closely afterwards, along with a host of names no one remembers like Acorn, and Franklin. I spent part of the following summer visiting, hanging out at H&S, and generally ingesting all I could that was "computer". The place was abuzz with hobbyists looking for the next cool thing, talking about "Home brew" computers and the future. There was a whole new world evolving between the Home Brew Computer Club and Xerox Parc. Altair, DEC, Intel, IBM, Microsoft, Apple… it was anybody's game and people were writing new rules for it every day. When I look back on it now, it is hard to believe the revolution that was percolating around me.
The following year I sold one of the first IBM-PC's, complete with 64Kb RAM and floppy drive. The retrofit 10Mb hard drive (yes that was megabyte) was an extra $3000 so it was not a popular item. I don't have actual statistics, but at 13 years old I may have been the youngest computer sales person in Canada. That was about the time when the whole thing exploded. Everybody wanted to be part of the computer revolution. The TRS-80 in my bedroom was constantly in pieces and my soldering iron was always ready for the next home-brew project culled from the pages of Byte Magazine. With some inspiration from my brilliant uncle again, a modem was created and phone lines were hacked so I could rampage through BBS's and the emerging FidoNet. I made some interesting connections and friendships "on-line" in those early BBS's, some of whom went on to create or contribute to things like Netscape and the original MSN. If I had only known then what I know now about where those small projects were headed.
Today I look back in amazement at where we have come from and the changes that have taken us to where we are now. This week is my uncle's birthday, and while I was thinking about his contribution to my IT career path, I received the news that Steve Jobs had passed away. In a heartbeat, a flood of memories stored away by a 10 year old came rushing to the surface. I sometimes wish I had done more in a creative sense to dramatically change the IT landscape, but I am satisfied with the number of other 10 your old minds I have infected with curiosity. I try to seize any opportunity to help kids explore IT whenever possible, mainly due to the impact of curious, creative men like them. If I can influence just one young mind to greatness, then I think the journey will have been worth it.
Be Awesome. Change The World.
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Red, Black, and White Stripes
I was already a fan of The White Stripes, but I have just finished watching "Under Great White Northern Lights" and am now completely over the edge. If you have an hour and thirty five minutes to take in this great rockumentary, I highly recommend it. If you are Canadian and love music, it is an absolute must.
For those who have not yet been indoctrinated into the musical world of Jack and Meg White, YouTube "Hotel Yorba" or "Seven Nation Army" immediately. Jack White is quite possibly one of the most creative, original, musicians of our time. Meg and Jack manage to fill any space with a sound that should come from a full band of five or six, yet there really are only two of them on the stage. The raw, unfiltered emotion explodes in the form of bass beats and treble riffs that engulf you and wont let you go. Yeah, I'm a fan.
Jack and Meg broke up the band earlier this year much to the disappointment of their fans, but fourteen years is a long time to maintain that pace and it was time for something new. Their cutting edge music lives on in the fans that just wont let it go and new projects have them busy in new directions.
I think what I like most is their ability to break out of the constraints of the corporate music world, and the general constraints of society as we know it. They play what they feel, not what will sell and in the end, their honesty to themselves made them one of the best loved alternate music bands of the last decade.
Be Awesome - Change The World.
For those who have not yet been indoctrinated into the musical world of Jack and Meg White, YouTube "Hotel Yorba" or "Seven Nation Army" immediately. Jack White is quite possibly one of the most creative, original, musicians of our time. Meg and Jack manage to fill any space with a sound that should come from a full band of five or six, yet there really are only two of them on the stage. The raw, unfiltered emotion explodes in the form of bass beats and treble riffs that engulf you and wont let you go. Yeah, I'm a fan.
Jack and Meg broke up the band earlier this year much to the disappointment of their fans, but fourteen years is a long time to maintain that pace and it was time for something new. Their cutting edge music lives on in the fans that just wont let it go and new projects have them busy in new directions.
I think what I like most is their ability to break out of the constraints of the corporate music world, and the general constraints of society as we know it. They play what they feel, not what will sell and in the end, their honesty to themselves made them one of the best loved alternate music bands of the last decade.
Be Awesome - Change The World.
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
A few good men…
I did not realize how particularly unique my skill set was until I started the search for more people like me to help spread out work load. Before you think this is going down the line of an arrogant "I'm so awesome" rant, you should understand that I really don't think so and I am certainly hoping it is not true. I need clones.
Actually, building a clone army is a pretty awesome thought, but really I just need a few good men, um… people… to share the work load. The company I spend most of my waking hours producing activity for is growing by leaps and bounds and our team just can't keep up to the business volume. Sure, that's a happy problem, but its still a problem.
The team I am part of work with some of the most brilliant minds on the planet and we are creating better, faster ways for other companies to market their products, deliver information and enable communication globally. I am one of five who demonstrate, integrate, and implement the fastest multi-protocol messaging system in the world. Five people who's installed clients transport on the order of six billion digital messages every day. Five. We could use a little help.
Message Systems is approximately 100 brilliant engineers, marketing experts, sales professionals and software developers spread across 6 countries. We have installed products in the USA, Canada, China, India, UK, Brazil, France, Italy, etc, etc.. pick a country, the world loves us. We can transport digital messages to your email inbox or mobile phone or web browser or instant messenger and we can do it at over a million pieces per hour.. per server. We can do it in plain text or in vibrant full multi-media and we can save production costs at the same time.
With all that awesomeness, there is a need for some very special people to help us present it, sell it, integrate it, and support the customer through the early days of an implementation. While we also need sales people and software developers, I particularly am looking for what my friends and I call "the new renaissance men." We need individuals who are just as comfortable in a sales presentation as they are writing a PERL script. They need to understand business operations and also have intimate knowledge of RFC2822 (and all its friends). These people can discuss the impact of the debt crisis effectively with a sales prospect over dinner, then sit down and write 200 lines of PHP or PERL or Python to demonstrate how our products can solve that client's problems.
We are looking for entrepreneurial, self starters who have a passion for Information Technology. We are looking for that geeky kid who got laughed at in school for building a home made rocket complete with digital telemetry… until it worked. We need people who can learn a new programming language, write a script to demonstrate a function, and present it as a solution sale to a prospect… in 3 days.
These are the men and women of the new renaissance. They cross disciplines easily and consume information like water. They can write code, sell ice cubes to Eskimos, and have hobbies like painting or writing that are closer to professional work than hobby. They are often published writers, guest speakers, inventors, or that guy at the end of your block who can just fix anything.
If you are this person and you are stuck in a mindless code-monkey role and screaming to get out. Please contact me. If you know someone like that please forward this to them. If you live with this person, do them and yourself a favour and put this in front of them. We need clones.
Send me your resume and I will get it to the right person. You can review the current official career posting here or just go to www.messagesystems.com/careers and take a look at some of the other positions we have open. We are looking for the best, brightest individuals. We don't need 100 generic people to pound keyboards we just need a few good miracle workers.
Be awesome. Change the world.
Actually, building a clone army is a pretty awesome thought, but really I just need a few good men, um… people… to share the work load. The company I spend most of my waking hours producing activity for is growing by leaps and bounds and our team just can't keep up to the business volume. Sure, that's a happy problem, but its still a problem.
The team I am part of work with some of the most brilliant minds on the planet and we are creating better, faster ways for other companies to market their products, deliver information and enable communication globally. I am one of five who demonstrate, integrate, and implement the fastest multi-protocol messaging system in the world. Five people who's installed clients transport on the order of six billion digital messages every day. Five. We could use a little help.
Message Systems is approximately 100 brilliant engineers, marketing experts, sales professionals and software developers spread across 6 countries. We have installed products in the USA, Canada, China, India, UK, Brazil, France, Italy, etc, etc.. pick a country, the world loves us. We can transport digital messages to your email inbox or mobile phone or web browser or instant messenger and we can do it at over a million pieces per hour.. per server. We can do it in plain text or in vibrant full multi-media and we can save production costs at the same time.
With all that awesomeness, there is a need for some very special people to help us present it, sell it, integrate it, and support the customer through the early days of an implementation. While we also need sales people and software developers, I particularly am looking for what my friends and I call "the new renaissance men." We need individuals who are just as comfortable in a sales presentation as they are writing a PERL script. They need to understand business operations and also have intimate knowledge of RFC2822 (and all its friends). These people can discuss the impact of the debt crisis effectively with a sales prospect over dinner, then sit down and write 200 lines of PHP or PERL or Python to demonstrate how our products can solve that client's problems.
We are looking for entrepreneurial, self starters who have a passion for Information Technology. We are looking for that geeky kid who got laughed at in school for building a home made rocket complete with digital telemetry… until it worked. We need people who can learn a new programming language, write a script to demonstrate a function, and present it as a solution sale to a prospect… in 3 days.
These are the men and women of the new renaissance. They cross disciplines easily and consume information like water. They can write code, sell ice cubes to Eskimos, and have hobbies like painting or writing that are closer to professional work than hobby. They are often published writers, guest speakers, inventors, or that guy at the end of your block who can just fix anything.
If you are this person and you are stuck in a mindless code-monkey role and screaming to get out. Please contact me. If you know someone like that please forward this to them. If you live with this person, do them and yourself a favour and put this in front of them. We need clones.
Send me your resume and I will get it to the right person. You can review the current official career posting here or just go to www.messagesystems.com/careers and take a look at some of the other positions we have open. We are looking for the best, brightest individuals. We don't need 100 generic people to pound keyboards we just need a few good miracle workers.
Be awesome. Change the world.
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Fixing my Keurig B60 coffee maker
I love my Keurig B60 coffee maker but every once in a while it fails me. I am not the only one, Google is full of searches for "how do I fix my Keurig coffee maker". Most of the time I can slip in a coffee packet (K-Cup), push the button and get a perfect cup of coffee. However after a few months of stellar performance, it will sometimes sputter and die with only a few teaspoons of coffee in my cup :(There are several different symptoms and fixes with these things. Lets make sure you are fixing the right thing here.
Symptom 1: Coffee brews and pours into a mug, but makes less than expected. This gets progressively worse and can get down to a trickle.
Fix: This is most likely just water scaling from hard water. You should descale the machine first and if that does not fix it, try my fix below.
Symptom 2: Water will not draw from the tank to fill the maker.
Fix: This is again a scaling issue and the Machine should be descaled, but you will want to clean the water intake in the base of the machine with a vibrating or ultrasonic toothbrush first.
Symptom 3: Coffee was brewing normally, then suddenly stops. Water seems to draw from the tank then cycles out just as quickly but never pours any coffee.
Fix: This is most likely a clogged dispensing valve which is what I am fixing in the instructions below. This can happen from hard water build up but it is more often caused by coffee grounds getting lodged in the valve.
I have taken this little guy apart a few times to fix it and I thought I would share how in case you have one of these too. The B50 through B100 seem to have similar architecture so it should be similar for most of those models but this one is specifically a model B60.
What you will need:#1 Phillips screwdriver
#15 Torx driver
canned air
long tweezers
small cable tie
cable snips
Broken Keurig B60 Coffee Maker
Unplug it. There are heaters, pumps, sensors, etc here that are powered and could be potentially dangerous. Right under the top cover there are a few sensors and switches as well, so unplugging first is prudent. It is also important to remove any coffee packet that may be left in the machine and leave it out until the fixing and cleaning is done.
Remove the top access handle. Remove the two Torx screws at the handle pivot points. Before you lift the handle off, use it to open the top like you are going to load it. Now take the handle off.
Remove the lower cover. There are two black screws holding that in place. This just gives you room to get to the upper screw you need to remove next.
Looking up under the front of the top cover, there are two silver screw - remove them. Be careful with these as they are easy to drop and lose. It is a good idea to use long tweezers for taking these out and re-installing them as well.
You should now have 3 sets of screws - don't mix them up.
Push the hood back and lift - it should come off easily. If it gives you any resistance, you probably have it open too far, close the top slightly and push back, then lift.
At the front of the unit there is a hose that terminates into a valve that eventually injects hot water into the coffee packet. Carefully snip the cable clamp and remove the hose.
There are two silver screws holding this valve in place, remove them and the whole assembly will drop out.
Clean out the outlet side with caned air or high pressure water. Be careful, this is really sharp and is normally the part that pierces the top of the coffee packet so it can just as easily pierce your hand.
If this is the problem you will likely find bits of coffee or hard water deposits built up in here. after it is cleaned out you should be able to blow air through from the hose connected side easily.
Reassemble in the reverse direction. Attach valve, then hose and cable tie. Screw in the upper cover (may need tweezers for this), then the lower. Screw in the access handle.
Now plug it back in and run it without a coffee packet so that clean water flows through the system. You may want to also take this opportunity to descale your Keurig and if you have hard water like we do, use an electric toothbrush (the vibrating kind) to clean out the water intake.
You should now have a working coffee maker again.
Thursday, June 9, 2011
A robot that can make robot parts...
and other stuff
I saw this on the Colbert Report last night (thanks Stephen) and I have to (*have to*) have one! I can not believe I have not seen this in my news feeds yet. Every robot building shop needs one of these.
What am I ranting about? The Maker Bot Thing-O-Matic! [http://www.makerbot.com/]
This thing is tres cool, mon ami. Of course it makes other stuff too, but the first thing I imagined when I saw this on Colbert was custom gears sets, then the elusive artificial Phalanges I have been wanting to mould, then my mind went crazy with possibilities.
If you are a gear-head (robot builder/hacker) then you have probably come across the situation where the gear set on the motor in your hand is not the one you need. The search begins to find a replacement gear that will give you the reduction you need, but hours of driving between scrap yards and surplus stores yields nothing. Now, you can just make one.
In fact, you can make just about anything. Gears, hinges, struts, eyelids, shields, faceplates, actuators, fingertips, grippers, spacers, levers, buttons, bumpers, and more.
The alternative has been the CNC milling machine where you can cut the shape you need out of a block of material. There are desktop varieties like this one but they are expensive and can waste a lot of material. The Maker Bot Thing-O-Matic creates an object from scratch using hard plastic thread feed. This is the same plastic used to make Lego and when was the last time you broke one of those?
For $1300 USD, this is a must-have for any custom developer / bot-hacker / gear-head shop.
Be awesome. Change the world.
What am I ranting about? The Maker Bot Thing-O-Matic! [http://www.makerbot.com/]
This thing is tres cool, mon ami. Of course it makes other stuff too, but the first thing I imagined when I saw this on Colbert was custom gears sets, then the elusive artificial Phalanges I have been wanting to mould, then my mind went crazy with possibilities.
If you are a gear-head (robot builder/hacker) then you have probably come across the situation where the gear set on the motor in your hand is not the one you need. The search begins to find a replacement gear that will give you the reduction you need, but hours of driving between scrap yards and surplus stores yields nothing. Now, you can just make one.
In fact, you can make just about anything. Gears, hinges, struts, eyelids, shields, faceplates, actuators, fingertips, grippers, spacers, levers, buttons, bumpers, and more.
The alternative has been the CNC milling machine where you can cut the shape you need out of a block of material. There are desktop varieties like this one but they are expensive and can waste a lot of material. The Maker Bot Thing-O-Matic creates an object from scratch using hard plastic thread feed. This is the same plastic used to make Lego and when was the last time you broke one of those?
For $1300 USD, this is a must-have for any custom developer / bot-hacker / gear-head shop.
Be awesome. Change the world.
Friday, May 20, 2011
It's the end of the world as we know it
According to Harold Camping's 2011 end times prediction, the rapture begins tomorrow May 21st at 6PM precisely. Pack appropriately and don't be late or you will miss the bus.
If you are not already marked as one of the 200 Million select pre-millennial Christians signed up for the rapture, please disregard the above notice - you are going to burn in the aftermath ... or you will be able to make your tee-off time at the club - the prediction is not really clear for the non believers. In any case the rapture is apparently scheduled for Saturday at 6PM so it will be very convenient for everyone to make it and not miss any work in case Mr. Camping is wrong... again.
If you ARE planning on being all rapture'd up and accepted into the heavenly fold on Saturday, it is not too late to take care of those you leave behind. You can always sign over the deed to your house to me and I will make sure it is appropriately used to house the sadly fallen remnants of this world. After all, you will not be needing it after 6:01PM Saturday anyway. That goes for your cars and bank accounts too. Really. Honest. I will make sure your no-longer-needed worldly possessions are well taken care of. Just write up a quick note saying that all your worldly possessions will be signed over to Tom Mairs as of May 22nd 2011, and send that with copies of your property deeds and vehicle insurance to Tom Mairs, Suite 341, 7620 Elbow Drive, Calgary, AB, Canada, T2V 1K2. Really, I promise.
Lou Reed's "Busload of Faith" plays in the back ground as I write this. Ominous?
I was recently in the Mayan Riviera and had a chance to talk with locals about the December 2012 predictions, end of the world issues, and misconceptions. Apparently Hollywood is good for business but they don't listen very well. I am looking forward the the sunset season of 2012 and the dawning of a new age as they have predicted. Quite frankly I am more apt to believe Mayan scholars over crackpots like Harold Camping. In the later case, I think there is a misinterpretation where "end of the world" should be read "end of the way we live". There is definitely something afoot in the universe, but I prefer to think it is a good thing, not the fire and brimstone version.
Of course Canadians have know about the end of the world for a while - just ask the boys of Great Big Sea. It's all a matter of perspective. Take a pill Harold, the world will still be spinning on Sunday so you can go to church and apologize to everyone. If I am wrong, ...well, ...it's been a great ride. :)
Be awesome. Change the world.
If you are not already marked as one of the 200 Million select pre-millennial Christians signed up for the rapture, please disregard the above notice - you are going to burn in the aftermath ... or you will be able to make your tee-off time at the club - the prediction is not really clear for the non believers. In any case the rapture is apparently scheduled for Saturday at 6PM so it will be very convenient for everyone to make it and not miss any work in case Mr. Camping is wrong... again.
If you ARE planning on being all rapture'd up and accepted into the heavenly fold on Saturday, it is not too late to take care of those you leave behind. You can always sign over the deed to your house to me and I will make sure it is appropriately used to house the sadly fallen remnants of this world. After all, you will not be needing it after 6:01PM Saturday anyway. That goes for your cars and bank accounts too. Really. Honest. I will make sure your no-longer-needed worldly possessions are well taken care of. Just write up a quick note saying that all your worldly possessions will be signed over to Tom Mairs as of May 22nd 2011, and send that with copies of your property deeds and vehicle insurance to Tom Mairs, Suite 341, 7620 Elbow Drive, Calgary, AB, Canada, T2V 1K2. Really, I promise.
Lou Reed's "Busload of Faith" plays in the back ground as I write this. Ominous?
I was recently in the Mayan Riviera and had a chance to talk with locals about the December 2012 predictions, end of the world issues, and misconceptions. Apparently Hollywood is good for business but they don't listen very well. I am looking forward the the sunset season of 2012 and the dawning of a new age as they have predicted. Quite frankly I am more apt to believe Mayan scholars over crackpots like Harold Camping. In the later case, I think there is a misinterpretation where "end of the world" should be read "end of the way we live". There is definitely something afoot in the universe, but I prefer to think it is a good thing, not the fire and brimstone version.Of course Canadians have know about the end of the world for a while - just ask the boys of Great Big Sea. It's all a matter of perspective. Take a pill Harold, the world will still be spinning on Sunday so you can go to church and apologize to everyone. If I am wrong, ...well, ...it's been a great ride. :)
Be awesome. Change the world.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
The robots are back!
Ah... Yes... Spring!... Birds are singing , plants are blooming, snow is melting, and robots are roaming. Robots? Really? YES!
May 14th 2011 will mark the 22nd Western Canada Robot Games and will be held at the Calgary AeroSpace Museum. I am so excited. Young and old robot enthusiasts all over western Canada are gearing up for the event, building robots, testing them in home-baked arenas, competing with friends and looking forward to game day. The Robot Games is run by the Western Canadian Robotics Society (WCRS) which has been around since about 1990 and started in Calgary, Alberta.
When I first connected with the Western Canadian Robotics Society in 1997, the annual games were already 7 years old. You can read about the games early history here. There were only about 40 actual members back then and robotics was a very new frontier. Today, there are thousands of members in the on-line community and many show up for the weekly build events and meetings. By 2004 I had become so involved that I landed a seat on the executive (VP) and had an opportunity to help plan the games - I can tell you it is no small task. As much work as it was to put on the event, it was ten times more fun to be there and watch amateur robot builders create something cool. It was extremely rewarding to help young students learn electronics, mechanics, and physics, then build a working robot and watch it compete for prizes in the ring.
Even if you are not able to get to the games, you can get a lot of value out of watching the web site or joining the society. The members are always working on something cool and interesting, particularly at this time of year. One of the most popular events is mini-sumo where you build a robot to fit inside a 10 cm cube, then have it compete autonomously in a ring with another person's similar bot - the goal being to push the opponent out of the ring. This one is fun for builders and spectators alike. A few years ago I had an opportunity to work as a judge at the games and the mini-sumo competition was like being at a UFC title match. Extremely exciting.
I have been building robots for almost as many years as I have been building computers (that's a really long time) and it is great to see clubs like this grow and gain new followers every year. Robotics is no longer in it's infancy, we no longer have to tear apart old hardware to salvage components (although that is still fun) and we no longer have to make up new circuits to do what we want (also still fun). Being a roboticist does not mean you need a degree or special knowledge any more, you just need a passion for cool things that move. There are numerous resources and clubs that can help you experiment with robotics any time any where at any skill level. I once taught a class of 10 year old students how to build working robots for less than $20 each and in the process taught them electronics, physics, mechanics and design philosophy - all in about 3 days. The result was priceless.
If you want to compete at the games there is still time, but you need to register now. If you want to be a spectator, I am sure there is room for you. If you are just interested in finding more about robotics, take a look at some of the cool links below.
http://www.robotgames.com/
http://www.asmac.ab.ca/aerospace/default.asp
http://www.jcminventures.com/
http://www.solarbotics.com/
http://www.parallax.com/
http://www.robotshop.com/
Be awesome. Change the world.
May 14th 2011 will mark the 22nd Western Canada Robot Games and will be held at the Calgary AeroSpace Museum. I am so excited. Young and old robot enthusiasts all over western Canada are gearing up for the event, building robots, testing them in home-baked arenas, competing with friends and looking forward to game day. The Robot Games is run by the Western Canadian Robotics Society (WCRS) which has been around since about 1990 and started in Calgary, Alberta.
When I first connected with the Western Canadian Robotics Society in 1997, the annual games were already 7 years old. You can read about the games early history here. There were only about 40 actual members back then and robotics was a very new frontier. Today, there are thousands of members in the on-line community and many show up for the weekly build events and meetings. By 2004 I had become so involved that I landed a seat on the executive (VP) and had an opportunity to help plan the games - I can tell you it is no small task. As much work as it was to put on the event, it was ten times more fun to be there and watch amateur robot builders create something cool. It was extremely rewarding to help young students learn electronics, mechanics, and physics, then build a working robot and watch it compete for prizes in the ring.
Even if you are not able to get to the games, you can get a lot of value out of watching the web site or joining the society. The members are always working on something cool and interesting, particularly at this time of year. One of the most popular events is mini-sumo where you build a robot to fit inside a 10 cm cube, then have it compete autonomously in a ring with another person's similar bot - the goal being to push the opponent out of the ring. This one is fun for builders and spectators alike. A few years ago I had an opportunity to work as a judge at the games and the mini-sumo competition was like being at a UFC title match. Extremely exciting.
I have been building robots for almost as many years as I have been building computers (that's a really long time) and it is great to see clubs like this grow and gain new followers every year. Robotics is no longer in it's infancy, we no longer have to tear apart old hardware to salvage components (although that is still fun) and we no longer have to make up new circuits to do what we want (also still fun). Being a roboticist does not mean you need a degree or special knowledge any more, you just need a passion for cool things that move. There are numerous resources and clubs that can help you experiment with robotics any time any where at any skill level. I once taught a class of 10 year old students how to build working robots for less than $20 each and in the process taught them electronics, physics, mechanics and design philosophy - all in about 3 days. The result was priceless.
If you want to compete at the games there is still time, but you need to register now. If you want to be a spectator, I am sure there is room for you. If you are just interested in finding more about robotics, take a look at some of the cool links below.
http://www.robotgames.com/
http://www.asmac.ab.ca/aerospace/default.asp
http://www.jcminventures.com/
http://www.solarbotics.com/
http://www.parallax.com/
http://www.robotshop.com/
Be awesome. Change the world.
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