Aussie Spec Ops Robot Firing Range FTW!

This is the sort of thing you can imagine them coming up with at Fort Harmon base in Dogs of War for Zero Company to train with - but this is real, and it's for the Australian Spec Ops.

Robots. Armoured, behaviourally-programmable, spatially-aware robots, moving around on Segways. Robots that respond to the sound of gunfire by scattering for cover. Robots that can be programmed to behave like hostages, insurgents or hostage takers.

And when you shoot one ... it comes back.

The more advanced model shoots back, firing little curare poison darts at its opponents. Or am I thinking of an episode of The New Avengers? :D

Perhaps we should set these things up all over the place and line up our politicians on Segways turn them into a fantastic TV series substitute this for real warfare.

Edit:- More robotics FTW below!

Handwriting

I spent the afternoon in the Greggs, writing down some ideas for a review of William Gibson's Neuromancer trilogy for the Chester SF reading group's next meeting one week from Saturday.

I notice that one page of my review begins with the words "cheap ten dollar street whore." If the rest of my notepad got ripped away and that had been the opening page, with those opening words on the top, it would have raised some eyebrows as peeps wondered what I'd been on about. :)

I have nice handwriting. I had a look at it through a magnifying lens. Very soft, gentle curves, flowing across the page. Not the tangled wire I thought it would be.

Speaking of magnifying lenses, I went shopping for a new one. For many years, I have used a nifty little two inch swivel-hinged lens that came with its own little black case. Standard 2x magnification, but an excellent little magnifier.

Only yesterday, the damned thing slipped off the bed and bounced on the floor, cracking the frame that held the lens in place.

The lens was okay, but the armature holding it was b0rked. :(

So, shopping for lenses in town. I found a nifty little thing, barely 1 inch across, tiny black case, slides out. It'll do at a pinch. There was a traditional "Sharlock Holmes' Glass Lollipop" magnifier, 2.5", standard 2x magnification, in The Works.

But nothing remotely like the nifty little swivel lens.

So on the way home, I bought myself a tube of Loctite. My lens is still okay. It still works. But I've just bought it a little more time, till I can find a decent replacement and retire the swivel armature. But not the lens itself, though. That's solid glass. It's a good lens, and you don't throw away good lenses like that.

Edit: Superglue failed. The lens, once again, fell out. So that's that. :(

Decorating

I need some clear UV - luminescent ink or paint that dries invisible, a large bristly brush, a toothbrush for fine details and a UV lamp.

When you're using the brushes, scrape the ends of the bristles towards you, not away from you, because if you scrape the bristles away from you, the paint sprays right at you.

The aim of my efforts?



Some peeps are content with a little rag rolling, some decking. I want to decorate my place to look like the Apocalypse came a little early. :)

Where did all this come from? Well, in Waterstone's today, I spotted an individual who'd applied police crime scene tape to the strap of his shoulder bag. A highly individualistic gesture. I admired that. :)