What Was on Your Desk Thirty Years Ago?

Gates envisions controlling relatively inexpensive robots with the processing power of PCs...

I think that may have already been achieved . I think that may have alre........

Joking aside , will household robots evolve the same way as home PC's ? ie

Renewal is a 'must-do' each year.

The latest model hikes the price.

More useless skills are included with each new generation.

Robots become harder to understand (and break the human lifetime-knowledge barrier) , so that an individual human can no longer understand them.

Robots need more outside security help in order to run safely.

etc , etc.

I'd keep a close eye on the new souped up 'vacuum-cleaner' folks.

I dunno, but its still there and its starting to grow, its moving, its its its reaching out to.............AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAggggggggggggggggggggggggggh.

I thought you Mongoose were pretty good at tackling Snakes !

Yes but robotic titanium cobra's are another matter. B. Gates is renowned for his out of the blue thinking, anything to turn another dollar. $$$$$$.?

And people are asking Bill Gates for his opinion on robotics because?

For the same reason people look towards Al Gore for definitive global warming information ...er propaganda.

~Electron Oasis

A few years ago I worked as an instructor for a large press company that sold presses to the auto industry. They could blank 2 doors or equivalent at one time. They were all motor controlled with every motion operated by stepping or other type of motors. It was really amazing, to operate 24 hours a day making parts. So I don't think Gates worry is a problem unless you are running several robots from one computer, which at the price of computers is not practicable.

One reason digital and distributed control is so commonplace is because computers are so affordable.

For my dissertation, I ran 4 PUMA 560s with one PC running Linux, programmed in C.

Is this the agenda for the next generation of mobile telephones?

Whatever next?

A pretty and sexy secretary would have been nice......

....That's probably what Bill Clinton thought !

Regardless of where or how robotics develops for the home - away from the shop floor - Bill Gates and Microsoft have to be kept out of it. I've had that organization remotely seize control of a mainstream PC claiming the operating system it came with was pirated - and offering to release the PC only if I paid a ransom. I finally paid the fee just to put an end to it and then had to jump through hoops over the course of weeks to get them to release the computer from their bug.

Additionally, if the internal computer controlling a robotic system has concurrent inputs from sensors and is running the current MS OS – it WILL bog down. Microsoft/Bill Gates advertising says "The WOW starts now!" - What they don't make clear is it's a "WOW, how clunky can it get!?!"

Just a thought , but are you sure microsoft held you to ransom ?

MS does it every day. Well they used to! eg. I purchased
a retail copy of NT4 way back, and it wouldn't install.

So I 'phoned MS (after the retailer) and they said, quote.

" They require a charge to my credit card of £100 or the
technical staff would/could not speak to me about it."

I replied that I would return the software for a refund.

How's that for blackmail?

jt.

Have a Free Notice Board on http://www.mfnb.at