The first incarnation of my business' site went live a week ago. You can visit Ars Scientia, Inc at http://ars-sci.com. The site currently is a blog about the state of the art of science and how my company relates. In the future the site will become a rich interdisciplinary collaborative environment for scientists. My co-founders and I are working out the details for development of our products in these financially difficult times. Check the Ars Scientia website for updates on our progress (especially over the next six months).

RacerTX is one of the best open source cell phone games I've every played. The developers of this excellent game just announced that they've won a P-Body award. Congrats to the development team. It's a truly excellent game. The time and dedication have finally payed off!

From otherway.org: RacerTX is an open-source J2ME game for cell-phones. It pits the player against the ‘Ghost’ of his past best self. You can compete fiercely against your past self or with a friend for hours. The game is also free and easy to install. For this reason we give the P-Body Award to RacerTX.

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I think one of the best vectors for making money in robotics is mapping. Developing robots, algorithms and systems capable of accurate, highly detailed mapping would be worth hundreds of millions. Let me rephrase: It would be worth hundreds of millions without selling a robot. Mapping as a service.

What I'm thinking of is, essentially, a robotic survey crew -- augmented humans, human-robot teams, and/or autonomous robots depending upon the application. The advantage is that the robots can acquire more data than a survey crew. And this data can be processed to make more detailed maps. Here's an example: A human-robot team is deployed to map buildings on a college campus. As the human operators map the perimeter of buildings, autonomous robots wander the hallways simultaneously mapping the internal layout of the building, taking video and recording wifi signal strength. After post-processing, the result is a photo-realistic, accurate map that can be flown through. Further, we can overlay wifi signal strength as we fly through the building -- augmented reality-style.

Here's another example: We deploy a survey team to a new building site. Their augmented equipment captures images of the environment that can be used to accurately texture a 3-D representation of the space. Now, we take the data extracted from soil samples taken from the site, and overlay them with this 3-D model allowing engineers to visualize the different soil types while flying over the map, and allowing them to view below the surface. To top it off, they could also render the proposed building.

The nice thing about robots, is that they can go where humans cannot like, several miles below the surface of the ocean. A robot could be used to follow undersea pipelines or cables to map the surrounding terrain. I'm not sure what advantage this would serve, but I'm sure it's of interest to someone. Same deal with UAVs -- they could be used to obtain ground images, or acquire data for weather system mapping.

Back to the point: You build the robots, and the teams that can use them. Then deploy them around the globe for mapping purposes. Few people will want to purchase elaborate, expensive robots for mapping -- especially when specially trained personnel are required for operation and maintenance. Further, these robots' technology will rapidly become dated requiring technology updates and personnel re-training -- even more expense. And these expenses only cover data acquisition. What about post-processing? Very few companies will want to invest in the software and computer systems required to process their data into maps. Kill all the birds with a single package -- outsourced mapping as a service.

Here's what prompted me to write about this: The image on the right was taken in Quebec City after recent snow storms. The little box you see is a telephone patch panel (I believe). In this white landscape, how difficult do you think it was to locate this box? Do you think utility companies can easily locate all of their boxes? Even if the company has tagged each box with a GPS waypoint it would still be easier to locate the box if they had a map augmented with street-level views. How much do you think utility companies would be willing to pay a contractor to map the locations of objects like this patch panel? If there's a patch panel for every block and you charge a couple of dollars per patch panel found I think you'll make a good chunk of change for driving a vehicle augmented with sensors around. And that's only one city.

I was hosting my site with Godaddy shared hosting. After fighting with their server's poor performance and messy install scripts for a month I decided to relocate to a Joyent Accelerator. So far everything is snappy, and root access is great (I'm a system administrator again!). I'll update my impressions once my sites "burn in" a bit.

I wrote this poem when I was in sixth or seventh grade. I can recite it from memory because my teacher accused me of plagiarizing the poem (a traumatic experience for me).

I waited and waited in class today.
I almost paid the toll.
I went into the bathroom.
Everything was full.
I went into your stall.
Saw you waiting for me to go.
I deposited my days savings in your porcelain bowl.
Pulled your little lever to watch it swirl down the hole.

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I play a lot of slingshot paintball. My fellow warriors and I have been discussing the addition of artillery (water balloon launchers) to our capture the flag games. Having never used a water balloon launcher, I'm not sure how well the paintballs will break when raining down on enemies. I found another option when browsing the web the other day: DIY paintball grenades w/sabot.

The construction process is very simple and well documented here: http://forum.specialopspaintball.com/index.php?showtopic=80216

The gist is this: Take a 4-5 inch section of latex tubing. Bend one end over and clamp the bend with a small zip tie. Use a syringe to inject paint into the latex tubing (the tubing will balloon out). Kink the open end of the tube and slide a washer over the end. Slide a cotter pin through the loop. Slip the washer tight against the cotter pin.

To arm the grenade simply pull the pin. When thrown the washer will fall off causing one end of the tube to be un-kinked.

My primary problem with this design is that it uses non-biodegradable materials. When firing these grenades it is possible that they may rupture on impact (should be tested) making them difficult to clean up after (biodegradable paint must be used). In the very least, the washer would be lost in the wilderness. A simple modification would be to loosely tether the washer to the zip tie on the bottom.

After thinking hard I have decided not to ride the America's Most Beautiful Bike Ride (AMBBR) with Team In Training. I've opted out primarily due to fund raising. To ride with Team In Training requires $2300 in fund raising and a deposit of $125. The Team In Training keeps 1/4 of the $2300 for corporate overhead. The rest goes to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. This overhead pays for a hotel room, dinners, jersey and travel for each participant. By my calculations it does this and then some: Since we live so close to Tahoe everyone from the Reno area will be required to transport their own bike to the Ride. So, travel isn't even covered. Further, the $125 deposit will nearly pay the entry fee of $150 for the AMBBR Century Ride. This means that Team In Training is paying for a jersey, dinner (pasta) and hotel room for a night with for a little over $500/head. I'm sure their directors are well compensated.

One of the other issues I have is that I want to ride with a friend. Because we must raise at least $2300 each we will have to raise a total of $4600. After five months of training if one of us was incapable of raising the money he won't be able to ride -- B.S. The money is supposed to go to charity anyway...

My solution to all of these issues is to enter the ride as a "normal Joe" and fund raise on the side. 100% of my fund raising will be donated to charity -- probably the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Regardless of the amount raised we will be able to ride (to the benefit of the charity), and we will be out about the same amount of money.

If you're interested in riding with us please contact me.

I'm considering riding the 100 mile America's Most Beautiful Bike Ride with a friend. We attended the local Team In Training meeting tonight. This group raises money for blood cancer research. As of last year they claim to have raised a billion dollars. To ride with their team each of us will have to raise $2300. I am thinking of riding for my cousin who has Leukemia. The only thing standing in my way is the lack of a road bike. If I'm able to borrow or buy one before the end of the month I will definitely ride.