Sub Ubi

The MDI AirCar prototype is a toy I want. (Full article at Edmunds.com.)

It runs on compressed air. If you have a renewable source for compressing the air (eg. hydro or wind turbines), it is a truly zero-emission vehicle.

It has a 180cc, two-cylinder engine that runs on compressed air.

You can see the air cylinders underneath the seat.

How awesome would that be for in-town driving? All we have to do is get all the bullshit Hum-Vees off the road so I don’t get killed the first time someone talking on a cell phone while yelling at their kids in the backseat loses track of the red light they’re approaching…

For the next three weeks, I have to friends and colleagues here in town. We’re busy hacking away, laying some foundations for the “next steps” in the work that we do surrounding concurrent and parallel programming languages.

It does mean that we have a very full house, but on the flip side, we’re eating well (everyone likes to cook or bake) and getting good work done so far. That, I suspect, will continue.

Especially the eating well part.

Speaking of which, I’m no longer frying, but instead burning, the mushrooms I have in the pan…

Twenty years ago, CNC machining was a black art. CAD-driven solutions were expensive, and program-at-the-machine was just becoming available. My first experiences with this technology were with my father’s 1986 Hitachi Seiki CNC lathe with Fanuc 5T control. It had a punched tape reader, and editing (once a program was loaded into memory) was on a per-line basis using a 9-key numeric keypad.

What looks like a Hitachi Seiki 3NE CNC lathe

Today is a different world. It is possible to draw, using free/open-source software, a 2D part and have it sent out to be laser cut by companies like Ponoko. You can take 3D designs and have them printed, or you can have them produced (on-demand, one-off) by CNC. You can even have them turned into molds through the same process for short-run (10-1000) injection-molding. For that matter, you can build your own 3D printer from open-source designs, or buy a kit that gets you moving in the world of personal fabrication.

I am fascinated by this space, in part, because of my experiences in my father’s shop. It is also as a computer scientist, and in particular someone who is fascinated with languages and robotics, that I see a great deal of potential. As these tools become more affordable (for play and exploration), they become not just tools of manufacture, but of art and creativity. Likewise, I can begin to think about how I would create a mid-sized, affordable robotics platform for use in and out of the classroom—without being entirely constrained by what I can purchase off-the-shelf. That is, I can actually design, and have produced, low-cost bracketing specific to my needs, if necessary.

So many toys, so little time…

Very insightful.

In two weeks, I’ll be giving a talk (along with Christian Jacbosen) at USENIX ‘09 entitled Towards Designing Usable Languages. We’re excited about the talk, and it should be very, very exciting.

I believe the talk will be on-line when we’re done, so I’ll make sure to point to it. If you’re in the San Diego area, and want to try and get together, drop a note—the schedule will be tight, however. We’re in-and-out like a burger.