Odds and Ends, #5

A.  I am relieved to hear that the NBA lockout will be coming to an end.  I am missing the Bulls run to the championship and have had to fill in with watching episodes of the Wonder Years on Netflix streaming. It's a poor replacement, folks, and I need some real basketball to keep me going. Although the Big Ten - ACC matchup has been interesting this week, with Ohio State whacking Duke big time last night.     

2.  I made it to the Muppets Movie Saturday night with the whole family - it was as good as expected. If you or your kids grew up with the Muppets, this movie will be a delight for you. Lots of cameos by stars (we all love Neil Patrick Harris), lots of good jokes (when someone mentions September is 6 months away, Fozzie Bear tells everyone, "Once I had to wait almost a year for September.") Now that is a Muppet joke. And lots of goofy songs and dancing.    

Jim Henson's daughter Lisa is now CEO of the Jim Henson Company and she describes the movie: “I think the movie is like a big, glorious love letter to the Muppets,” she says. “The whole gist of the movie is, ‘These guys are important—let’s bring them back!’” Hear, hear!    

Next.   I've lost chances to do blog posts because of the online class I'm taking in Artificial Intelligence. Ten to twelve hours a week to keep up on video lectures and homework - much of it spent looking through Google because I didn't want to spend $145 on the textbook.  But I've learned a lot about how computer science people are building the next generation of robots. And recently a story appeared in Sky News about Google's attempt to get robot -  driven cars to be legal in Nevada.  

Last year the company traveled 140,000 miles across California to test the self-driving cars and was encouraged by its findings. Specially-adapted Toyota Priuses drove from Google's Mountain View headquarters in northern California and down the scenic Pacific Coast highway to Santa Monica.  They crossed the Golden Gate Bridge and drove down San Francisco's Lombard Street - among the steepest and curviest roads in the world.  The cars remained manned at all times by a trained driver ready to take control, as well as by a software expert.    

Google engineer Sebastian Thrun (who coteaches my AI class) said: "Our goal is to help prevent traffic accidents, free up people's time and reduce carbon emissions by fundamentally changing car use.  Our automated cars use video cameras, radar sensors and a laser range finder to 'see' other traffic, as well as detailed maps which we collect using manually driven vehicles to navigate the road ahead."    

So we are getting closer to the point where I don't have to feel guilty about texting while I'm driving. Wooo!    

Last.   For those of you with IPads, IPhones, or IPods, there is an APP called Geo Walk HD World Fact Book that is pretty interesting. From TechRadar. com comes this review:  

Encyclopaedias: not the most exciting of books. And that's a real shame. What if you could take the most interesting bits of knowledge and browse through them in a more visual, engaging way?    

As luck would have it, Geo Walk HD is a fun little app that does just that. Spin the globe interface and tap a hovering object to zoom into its image card; tap again to reverse the card for a brief commentary on the subject. Use the dock to switch to the carousel card mode or turn on a category filter (architecture, for example).   

For $2.99, it seems like a nice add-on to your Angry Birds player IPhone. And it also might help you find out where you are after you made a mistake putting your destination into your robot car. You know, there's a Lima in Peru, too, not just Ohio. That might explain why your drive took so long.