This is in the collections, The Complete Robot and Robot Visions.
I read all of Isaac’s robot stuff many, many years ago, long before the enchroaching AI calamity that is just arriving. Today, it is so crucially relevant to where we are in our relationship with machine intelligence.
I
Next up is True Love.
This is in the collection, The Complete Robot.
Sometimes, just maybe, when you’re not sure about something, you may consider asking a child for their
Next up is Think!.
This is in the collections, The Complete Robot and Robot Dreams.
Another great AI thought exercise by Isaac. It’s almost like he could see directly into our future with Alexa.
And one only has to listen to the way some people speak to Alexa to realise that Isaac was spot on with his prescience. So do remember, next time you talk to Alexa, to be nice and polite, because “SOMEDAY” Alexa might decide she’s had enough.
Next up is Point of View.
Need a safe place for your headphones but there’s no room on your desk?
Simple, make a hanger to go under your desk.
First you need to get the acrylic cut in 3mm thickness, which is plenty to support a pair of headphones, while being very easy to bend into shape. Download the .dxf file.
I use a really nice laser cutting company Lasercutz, if you’re in the UK. They’re super good. If you’re not in the UK then just find a laser cutting company that accepts .dxf files and you should be good to go.
Then, once you have the nice flat piece of acrylic in the colour you wanted it to match the decor under your desk you may wish to countersink the screw holes before you bend it. Then you’ll need to grab a hot air gun (the kind you use for paint stripping). If you haven’t got one, text all your friends and you should find at least one person who has one for you to borrow.
Then go to Youtube and have a good learning session before you start.
Do set your hot air gun on low to start and take your time bending it into it’s final shape . . .
Then screw it where ever you want it . . .
And in case you were wondering, they’re Sennheiser 280 HD Pro headphones with Wicked Cushions ear pads (which are super good and make these headphones sound even better than stock – IMHO).
This is in the collections, The Complete Robot and Robot Dreams.
Before you buy one of those new self driving cars, you may wish to read this story.
It’s a pity that Isaac didn’t realise that they’d all be running on electric, not fossil fuels. It just goes to show how deluded everyone was in the past in thinking that fossil fuels will last forever.
Next up is Someday.
The second book in The Fencer Trilogy.
All our favourite, and not so favourite characters have survived the downfall of Perimadeia and fate, or maybe someone tampering with The Principle, has brought them all back together again for another round of shenanigans, squabbles, battles, and all out war.
All good stuff.
And now it’s on to the third and last book in the trilogy, The Proof House.
This is in the collection, The Complete Robot.
The first of the Robot Series. It all begins here.
So you’re living on the moon, do you want your son to grow up with a real dog or a robot dog?
Does it even matter whether it’s real or robot to a child as long as the child loves it?
Next up is Sally.
An interesting read for those of us who enjoy all things Japanese.
It goes back and forward between the past and the present, giving us historic reasons for modern Japanese culture, and also how foreign influences have creeped in over the years as well.
17 days into my new keyboard and i’ve already surpassed my previous speed of 49.82 WPM . . .
Which is a pretty good speed increase, especially considering that i couldn’t type for the first 7 days of that due to me slicing the end of my thumb half off with a Stanley knife. It had a big chunky dressing covering it up making it impossible to hit any of the thumb buttons on the left side. Then once i got the dressing and Steri-Strips off, after the first week, the thumb took a few days longer before it felt under reasonable control again.
The other thing to consider in the speed difference between using
Ergo, my jump from just under 50 wpm to 53 wpm, while quite a good achievement, clearly demonstrates that this new 5t4n5-48 Rev 1 keyboard is way faster than the original 5t4n5-48, because, while my typing is slowly improving over time, it’s not improving at the rate that this shows.
The accuracy in the
So next time you see someone on
Anyway, i’ll update next when i improve a bit more.
Bye for now!!!
As the more perceptive of my (potential) 8 billion + readers will remember, a while ago i designed and built my very own fully custom bespoke keyboard, the
While i was more than happy at my first attempt at designing and making my own keyboard, there were a few things that i wasn’t quite happy with and felt needed improving upon. So i set about the first revision, the
My first task was to improve my CAD skills and design all the acrylic panels i would need cutting in .dxf format in 
And this is what i came up with . . .
The Perspex is 3mm thick “Lemon Bonbon” and “Raspberry Sherbet”, and the cutting was done by
The pcb’s were manufactured by
So with all my bits manufactured and delivered, i set about with the assembly.
First thing was to insert four M2 x 3mm brass heat-set inserts into the bottom plate. It was important to use 3mm long inserts in the 3mm Perspex so that they didn’t protrude on the upper side as the pcb’s will be directly above these four inserts with bolts going through holes in the pcb’s, and you don’t want brass inserts shorting out anything on the pcb’s.
The other holes have M2 x 5mm inserts put into them . . .
. . . but these are done with the centre plate in place so that the inserts stick the two plates together and align them perfectly to each other . . .
Then add some plastic washers to add a bit of support behind the pcb’s when it all gets bolted together . . .
Once that was done it was soldering the surface-mount diodes and the jumper leads onto the pcb’s . . .
And then solder the jumper leads onto the controller pcb . . .
Now some of you may be wondering why i didn’t just have one complete pcb made instead of using three seperate pieces: which is a totally valid wondering. Well, it’s because the minimum pcb’s you can order is 5 and i didn’t want to spend over £70 for one prototype keyboard, so i created a reversable pcb (that works on both sides) for the switches and had 5 of those made, plus 5 of the small controller pcb’s, which was much cheaper. I therefore have enough left to make one more keyboard at some point in the future (plus a spare if i need to replace one at some point), and maybe once i sort out the QMK thing i might get some full pcb’s made to offer them for sale if there’s any interest — so let me know if you are interested.
Next up was to countersink the 2mm holes in the upper plate which i did with a dremel using a
Then push all the
And solder them all into the pcb . . .
The controller is socketed in using mill-max pins and machine-pin sockets (also from Mechboards) — i forgot to take pics of that bit, sorry.
And then all that is left is to bolt it all together and put in the keycaps (which i bought from splitkb.com) . . .
And then figure out how to program it. Which will be the topic of another post because this one has gone on for far too long already.
Until then . . .
Bye for now!!!