Flying Robots! A little bit about what I do

So, this summer I'm doing a research project with robotics.  Some people have told me that this sounds really cool.  Now it's time for your disillusionment!

I'm working with flying robots called AR.drones.  You may have seen ads for them; they're marketed as a real-life flying/fighting video game that you can control with an iPhone/iPod/iPad.  But we want to do useful things with them.  My part in this so far is to configure them so that multiple can be controlled from one computer and to integrate a GPS, so that they know where they are.

So this was my day yesterday:  The new router just came in.  Step one: disable all auto-configuration and security features.  I'm t3h 1337 haxx0r, not some n00b, lol lol kok.  I connect to it wirelessly.  Already a step ahead of the old routers.  So then I disconnect and go to do my haxx0rz, logging onto it manually with iwconfig on Linux (man I wish I were wearing glasses so I could push them up my nose every time I mention Linux).  No good.  In fact, now I can't get on the wireless at all.  I give it to my professor.  By the end of the day, she gave it back to me, hopefully fixed.  I'll work on it today.

In the meantime, I also have GPS's to figure out.  They use a TTL output, and nothing in the world has TTL input.  So I get a TTL-USB adapter, and solder the GPS output wires onto a connector.  Yes!  I love soldering! (pronounced saw-der).  I plug that into my computer, power the thing with an external power supply, and it tells me... it's at latitude 0, longitude 0, and it's location fix is invalid.  Well, actually it told me $GPGGA,195018.000,0000.0000,N,00000.0000,E,0,,,,whatever, but I'm translating for your benefit.

Well, the thing's tiny and puny; it's not going to work inside.  So I grab my computer, (including wireless mouse; I hate the built-in thing) the GPS, the adapter, and throw a few batteries together to make a portable power supply, and head outside.  Now I'm in the middle of a courtyard, setting on a concrete bench in 100 degree heat, with freezing cold computer labs all around me, playing with my computer and a tiny chip.

Sometimes I wonder what people around me are thinking about me.  This was one of those times.  I hope I looked like I was doing something important.  It looks like I'm getting something, but I can't read the computer monitor because IT'S TOO BRIGHT OUTSIDE.  I save the data and go back inside.  Guess what?  Location data!  Google says it's about a mile off, but that's totally because I was in the middle of a courtyard, surrounded by buildings, and didn't move at all.  Please let that be the problem.

Next step: hack into the robot and reprogram it to interface with a GPS.  Oh yeah, and it runs on Linux.  *push up glasses*

I barely touch the actual flying robots.  Sometimes I log onto one with my iphone and play around.  They're actually really cool.

Thor, and the comic book/mythology nerds who love him

Movie review time!  I recently watched the film Thor, and it was pretty awesome.  First of all, it was really good to see Natalie Portman not in a mental institution- er, a ballet, with hair, and nowhere near Hayden Christensen.  And I, at least, find the smart girl appealing.

Marvel knows how to make us nerds happy.  Cute girls, check.  But also important to us is a smug sense of the value of our nerdy knowledge.  So when the professor mentions his friend who was investigating gamma rays, we all go "Oooh!" because we know he's talking about Bruce Banner.  And when the government spook asks about Tony Stark, we all go "Oooh!" because, hey, we saw Iron Man.  And when Samuel L. Jackson shows up at the end, we all go "Oooh!" because it's Samuel L. Jackson, then "Oooh!" again because we know he's Nick Fury and Nick Fury is the head of Shield and Shield has to do with lots of super heroes because they're bringing them all together in the Avengers which they're making and oh my gosh they're making Avengers and it's going to be amazing!  Yeah, we nerds get excited about stuff like this.  Very excited.

I'm not as buff on my Norse mythology as I am on my Greek, but I know a little.  I played Midgard in Dark Age of Camelot, so the names are familiar.  Mjolnir?  Oh yeah, I was a Thane; I called Mjolnir all the time to crush my enemies and see them driven before me.*  From what I've gathered, the Norse gods were all about battle and f-ing people up with their comically oversized weapons.  Or something like that.  So when the professor picked up the Norse mythology book, I half expected him to conclude that this guy definitely wasn't Thor, because he's much to nice and... not smashing everyone's face in.  I have this idea that the real Thor, trapped in a mortal's body, starts training like crazy and eventually becomes a Z-fighter shooting kamehameha waves at everyone.  But, to confine his options to the Marvel universe, he'd probably inject himself with super-soldier serum, or build a super-suit, or don a black suit, or gamma-irradiate himself, or do any of the other thousand things people have done in Marvel to become super-heroes.  That'd be cool: Hulk-Thor!  Make that next, Marvel.  We nerds would love it.

*speaking of which, they're remaking Conan the Barbarian.  Expect another review after that comes out.

So how did you like Thor?  Or any other Marvel movie?  Got a movie review you'd like to see?  Never heard of Dark Age of Camelot?  Comment away, or email me at lovedeathtrees@gmail.com.

First Post: Introduction

I have finally decided to start writing my own blog.  First, allow me to explain the name.

One day during 10th grade English, the teacher told the class  that all poetry is about death and trees.  I promptly asked, "well what about love?"  She replied that of course, it's all about love.  This blog is not about poetry, nor is it about everything.  But it is about life.  It is about the universe.  And it's about a few (maybe 42?) other things.

Speaking of which, I'm not entirely sure in what direction I want to go with this blog.  I have a lot of ideas.  I want to discuss politics, religion, literature, cinema, video games, nerdy humor, publish fiction, and discuss frivolities.  Most likely I'll just write whatever I feel like until I get bored.  That's one thing that will likely run throughout the blog: honesty and personality.

So, in the interests of making LDT (yes, I'm already abbreviating Love, Death, and Trees) interesting, what would you like to see?  Comment here or send an email to the address associated with this blog, lovedeathtrees@gmail.com.  Since the readers are the people who give the blog purpose, I want to know what you think.