Quotulatiousness

July 14, 2009

The next step towards a robot-centric army

Filed under: Military, Technology — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 13:02

Stepping out of the Matrix back-story and moving to replace the human soldier, the EATR:

A Maryland company under contract to the Pentagon is working on a steam-powered robot that would fuel itself by gobbling up whatever organic material it can find — grass, wood, old furniture, even dead bodies.

Robotic Technology Inc.’s Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot — that’s right, “EATR” — “can find, ingest, and extract energy from biomass in the environment (and other organically-based energy sources), as well as use conventional and alternative fuels (such as gasoline, heavy fuel, kerosene, diesel, propane, coal, cooking oil, and solar) when suitable,” reads the company’s Web site.

That “biomass” and “other organically-based energy sources” wouldn’t necessarily be limited to plant material — animal and human corpses contain plenty of energy, and they’d be plentiful in a war zone.

Just a tad creepy . . .

H/T to Alex Haropulos for the link.

(Cross-posted to the old blog, http://bolditalic.com/quotulatiousness_archive/005581.html).

Update, 20 July: Oh, it’s okay. They claim it’s a vegetarian. It’s not going to snack on the battlefield casualties after all.

The iPhone: wrecker of the cell phone industry?

Filed under: Technology — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 12:26

Rather a bold claim, but Aidan Malley makes some good points:

Analyst Craig Moffett of Bernstein Research likens the relationship between Apple and AT&T as that between the former and music labels dating as far back as 2001, when Apple first had to ingratiate itself with labels as it incorporated music CD ripping into iTunes. Apple at first won important concessions and praise from its partners, only for them to regret it later as the iPod maker’s popularity left these companies at the supposedly smaller company’s mercy.

[. . .]

The attack is such that Apple has all but taken control of the partnership, according to the analyst. Now, the Cupertino company has “radically tilted” the normal balance of power against AT&T and cellular networks as a whole. If Apple preferred another carrier, many iPhone owners would switch to preserve the experience they already have; an incentive that forces carriers to keep the handset maker happy. At times, though, it also has the caustic effect of suggesting an conspiracy at the carrier to limit useful services, such as voice over IP calls, when cost or technical reasons are the real motivators.

And while the US government may be close to investigating exclusivity deals as possibly anti-competitive, Moffett argues that Apple’s presence in the marketplace has actually helped competition by forcing companies to keep reasonable service rates and let apps dictate business rather than network services. Government intervention could paradoxically hurt the industry by telling providers how much they could discount a phone and hardware developers which networks they would have to support.

I’d have to say he’s absolutely correct with the point on user loyalty . . . if Rogers stopped supporting the iPhone, I’d be moving my business to whoever took it over from Rogers. I’m certain that this is true of the vast majority of iPhone users. I was Bell customer for a long time, but the iPhone was enough inducement for me to switch cell phone companies.

That’s a pretty big club for Apple to use to get its own way in any negotiations with cell phone companies.

(Cross-posted to the old blog, http://bolditalic.com/quotulatiousness_archive/005580.html.)

Still working on the fiddly details

Filed under: Administrivia — Tags: — Nicholas @ 09:59

Not quite live here yet, which is why I’m cross-posting most items between the old blog (hosted at bolditalic.com) and this one. If you’ve just stumbled upon the site, feel free to also check out the old blog at http://www.bolditalic.com/quotulatiousness/ for several years of banality.

Random links of possible interest

Filed under: Randomness, Space — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 09:26

Just a few links to provide you with click-therapy:

(Cross-posted to the old blog, http://bolditalic.com/quotulatiousness_archive/005579.html.)

Monticello: Jefferson’s machine for living

Filed under: History, Technology, USA — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 08:48

While I enjoyed my visit and tour of Monticello, back in 2006, I didn’t get the full story. Wired tries to rectify that problem:

Thomas Jefferson loved new technology and modding his surroundings to his lifestyle. From food to comfort to efficiency, he was always looking for ways to improve his living space with inventions and hacks. If he were alive today, we like to think he’d be reading Wired.

Jefferson thought of his house, Monticello, as a machine for living. As such, it contains many insights into how a DIY gear-nut of today might have fared in the 18th Century.

“I would argue we are trying to debunk the madman-genius, nutty-professor image of Thomas Jefferson,” said Monticello curator Elizabeth Chew. “He is someone who was trying to adapt the latest technology in every realm of existence: science, how the house functions, in the garden. He is trying to put into use new ideas.”

(Cross-posted to the old blog, http://bolditalic.com/quotulatiousness_archive/005578.html.)

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