Two new DrawBot links! And an update!

Thanks to Dan Royer, I’ve added two new links to my really huge list of DrawBots.  That brings the total to 28 drawing robots! 1  That’s a really incredible number of people who have shared documentation for their hard work.  Six months ago I wouldn’t have guessed there were more than a dozen such projects on the ‘net.  Clearly, the six-month-younger version of me is a fool.  Thank god I know better, eh?

So, Dan appears to be using an Arduino + Adafruit motor shield, much like I’m using, but he’s running custom Gcode software with a Java GUI.  It looks like Dan was wrestling with the problem of how to maximize drawing speed without causing his ‘bot to hang over the serial connection.  If he gets some decent speed out of his setup, I’m definitely going to give that a shot.

Unfortunately, I haven’t done much in the way of robotic drawings lately.  After experimenting with TSP drawings and finding out they would take an excruciatingly long time I set my drawbot aside for a little while.  Fortunately, Sandy’s been on the case and has worked out a new firmware version that might prove to be twice as fast as the one I’m currently using.

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  1. <queue thunder and lightning> 28! 28 drawing robots!  Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha! []

Funny dream the other night

In the dream I had a few GREAT ideas, so, naturally, I wrote them down.  When I have ideas in a dream and write them down, I find that about 75% of the time the ideas don’t make any sense in the full light of day.

I’ve heard that keeping a dream log helps with lucid dreaming.  I’ve also heard that jotting down ideas helps one keep new ideas flowing.  I’m in the habit of carrying a pen and small pad of paper at just about all times.  Most outgoing e-mails from my phone consist of little notes to myself – half-baked ideas and whatnot.

This particular incident the other night was an amusing combination of the two – jotting down dreams and jotting down ideas.

Except, I jotted down my great ideas in my notebook in my dream.  When I woke up I had no recollection of the ideas themselves, just that they were good enough to have written down.

Well, I thought it was funny anyhow.  :)

Not what I expected at all

I’ve never had to use crutches before.  I had always thought using crutches would be kind of like a super power – being able to swing forward and out.  I thought it might feel like being a money-man or perhaps a short giraffe.

For anyone who is wondering, it’s not like that at all.  It’s a lot more like being hobbled.