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CNC Robot Factory

Adam — Thu, 21 May 2009 01:36:52 +0000

Since Aviva decided to post about it (and credit me, thank you) on her new and burgeoning blog, I thought I might make a rare post and add some thoughts about the Lumenlab micRo. The micro is a low cost CNC machine available in variously complete kits up to a fully assembled and tested package. It very standards compliant and uses a PC as a controller; cheap old Dell minitowers preconfigured with Ubuntu and design and control packages.

Let’s get this out of the way: it is great and geek lust worthy; I have spent the better part of today not buying this kit. That said, it has issues. I suppose it is a consequence of the size (which is wonderfully tiny), but the work area is too small and it could use at least one more axis (i.e. object rotation). If the base were extensible (hinged foldover or a notched edge with a lay in extension) with the rails thread tapped for extension rails, this would be much more valuable. Additionally, It would be nice to not need the PC as a controller: take an Arduino and slip it a SD card with G-Code on it, and there is no reason to need to have the computer next to it. Or even networked: HTTP POST via Ethernet, anyone?

(As an aside, how does the title of this post only result in six Google hits as of this writing? So obvious.)

A butterfly clicks on a web page in Florida and causes a storm in New York.

Adam — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 05:44:12 +0000

The UAL story – as a parable – is too good to be true. (As fact, it seems patently unfair to UAL.)

As a cautionary tale, it got even better – expanding on the chaotic complexity of interacting state machines:

Single Web Hit Led to UAL Glitch, Tribune Says – WSJ.com

Your last hope

Adam — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 21:02:59 +0000

Missed Last HOPE? Wanted to hear the OpenSSL lecture but couldn’t get into Turing?

The ridiculously overpriced DVDs ($20 per talk, $100 for ten) of the lectures are being ripped and tracked here.

Note that the video quality issues (poor color and contrast) are DVD issues, not a consequence of the ripping.

xkcd is right

Adam — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 05:27:48 +0000

Despite my problems with Wikipedia and the “wisdom of the masses,” xkcd is entirely correct that List of problems solved by MacGyver is a wonderful article.

(If you don’t know what I am talking about, even after following the link, allow your mouse to hover over the comic image to display the alt text. As of FF3, the text is no longer truncated. Yay. Now go back and re-read all of xkcd.)