AR.Drone: Roomba meets Skynet.
I got one of these -- it is ridiculously fun! Also, shockingly easy to fly, for a helicopter. When you take your hands off the controls, it just sits there. Then you smack it, and it wobbles, and just sits there.
It's only fun for ten minutes at a time, though. Predictably terrible battery life.
I see that there are a bunch of people hawking their own non-free control software for it -- do any of those do anything interesting that Free Flight doesn't?
Surprisingly, I find it easier to control with the iPhone than iPad; it seems more responsive, which is weird, because I understand the motion sensors on the iPad are better than on the 3gs.
They also have an SDK, which is awesome. Soon it will be weaponized. Though, with its light weight, the only practical weapon is probably SCORPION STARE.
Here's a whole series of videos that could be entitled, "how to be a dick with your UAV."
You guys, we live in a future where you can be a dick with your UAV. How awesome is that?
Tags: firstperson, mad science, mpegs, reviews, robots, the future, toys
paper spam on the rise.
Dear Lazyweb,
Years ago I signed up with greendimes.com, and that worked very well for keeping the spam out of my physical mailbox, but it seems that A) they no longer exist, and B) I'm getting a lot more paper bullshit lately. I wonder if these two are related.
Anyway, is there some technique that will stop this new influx of newsprint circulars from shitheels like Safeway and Radio Shack from filling up my mailbox? (You know, the same crap that used to fill up the middle of newspapers, back when people still read newspapers.)
Likewise, is there any way to block the glossy ads from the various scumbags running for local office?
Tags: firstperson, lazyweb, spam
