caspian_maclean

An alternative/complementary trading system different from money can be created, taking inspiration from Ripplepay, LETSystems, Whuffie, and BitTorrent's tit-for-tat selection of peers to swap data with. I am working out how it could work.

It doesn't have all the advantages of money, so it could work better as a supplement than as a replacement.
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Ever since Peter Hillier showed me the youtube video Skeletonics showing an unpowered mechanical exoskeleton that roughly doubles the wearer's reach I've wanted something like that.

However I wanted it to be cheaper and quicker to make. I am starting with just a single arm. My first version was a roughly 0.5 scale prototype made from plastic straws held together with sticky tape at both the plain joints and the rotating joints. It worked remarkably well initially though the sticky tape joins didn't last that long. I think it took well under an hour to make.

My second version was made from bamboo with bamboo sticks as the rods ($4.60 at Bunnings for more than I've used so far), cloth tape for the joins, and a $26 worth of bicycle brake parts to substitute for a hand. It took maybe 4 hours to make at the Perth Artifactory which had clamps and saws to cut the bamboo to length.

Issues with the current version:
The bicycle brake hand has a very limited range of motion. But it can still grip a can of soft drink.
With no straps yet, I have to hold the shoulder joint in place with the other hand.
The cloth tape keeps coming loose.
Some of the joints need to be quite loose for the sticks to be able to rotate past each other.

Well I've made the straw version and the stick version, if this is the three little pigs the next version should be made of brick. Unfortunately it's too heavy and brittle.

Possible upgrades:
Straps so it's attached to my arm instead of just held by hand.
Bolts through drilled holes instead of cloth tape. This will require adjusting the design so the rods stay out of each others' way.
Aluminium tubes instead of bamboo. The bamboo's worked pretty well so far though.
Cover the mechanism so it looks more solid. Could use metal foil or fabric.
Also I should get some more pictures up online. Jason put a video of me lifting a drink bottle with the arm here

I haven't worked out how I'm going to upgrade the hand yet. It may end up being more work and than the whole rest of the arm, it's already the most expensive part.

I just watched My Neighbor Totoro and those kids really knew how to have fun and appreciate their surroundings (mainly by running around exploring it). I don't think I was that relentlessly playful when I was that age. *envy*. So I need a plan to become more playful (ha ha ha!)

Step 1: make silly faces.
Step 2: sing loudly in the car. (only by myself, or with others?)
Step 3: considering making farty noises, but some people don't appreciate the humour. I dunno.
Step 4: identify other playful people and copy them.

Running around doesn't work so well. Sometimes I run with impatience if walking is too dull. People might think I'm a criminal if they see me running down the street. Eating strange food mixtures is something I already do. Maybe I'll do it more often.

I'm not quite sure how serious I am with this plan. Partly serious I guess. But amused.

Oh yeah, step 5: solicit ideas from anyone who's reading. Not that I'll necessarily want to do any, I can be pretty self-conscious. But I like options. And it might be funny to think about.

Night's Edge could use some promotion,and is also looking for panelists and volunteers.

Date: 10th and 11th of November, 2007
Place: Emerald Hotel, Perth
Cost: $50 Full, $45 Concession
E-mail address: nightsedgecon@gmail.com
Blog where I got that info: http://nightsedge.blogspot.com/

I was informed last night that you can stick a cup in a shirt pocket. It's called ... pocket cup. It really works. Thanks karenanning (and credit to the Mighty Boosh for the idea)

I've long been interested in how stuff can be done without modern technology or expensive machines.
This guy moves enormous weights using wood and stone.

I've been trying out some of the new smaller
roguelike games, some which have been made for 7 day roguelike challenges.

ChessRogue was one I'd played before, but there's a newer version which allegedly makes it a bit easier on the later levels. It breaks a lot of the roguelike conventions. There's no hit points, you can see the whole level, there's no character levels (but there is character advancement) and there's several other differences. I think the character advancement is more interesting actually, it's very satisfying getting the new powers. The game feels partly like a series of puzzles: learn a way to defeat pawns until you get the power that makes that easy, then how to defeat the mobile bishops (some are easy since they're stuck in a corridor with no diagonal moves available). Defeat enough knights and they become easy, except in their ever increasing numbers they can be a challenge. I really like this one for its novelty relative to other games.

Quest for Pants I found this one a bit frustrating, and it reminds me of the original rogue. Not much more to say about it since I haven't played that much. Still quite impressive for a game made in 7 days.

Frozen Depths seems like it was made to demonstrate an alternative to food and hunger. The temperature system has some similarities and some differences compared to a hunger system, and it seems like much more of the focus for the game. Starting off naked is a little unrealistic but never mind. The monsters do somehow have a different feel to other games, but I wonder if it's just their names. The icey depths also feel a bit different from a regular dungeon. This one's interesting because it makes the setting different with lots of small differences.

Tried some of the windows games in wine, with two problems: two of the diagonal movement keys didn't work, and the most interesting one, Dwarf Fortress didn't work.

Played just a little bit of Z-Day the zombie-themed game, but I think I need to read the instructions to get much further.

I saw Mexican truffles on drhoz's LJ. That would be fun to offer people to eat. I wonder if it's available in Perth.

I heard the new Commodore Amiga being promoted on radio. In print they'd spell it Omega, and it's clear that it's a car from Holden, but it's still funny hearing the name.