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DIY ArduSpider robot battles household pets, beats other homemade gifts
So Christmas is coming and your daughter asks you to build her a robot after she sees you building so many for yourself -- what do you do? You could build a cute and simple robot, or you could do what Jose Julio did and build something like the Arduino-based ArduSpider robot (since nicknamed Sara), which he's now showing off for everyone to see. As you can see in the video after the break, the bot is able to both operate autonomously or be controlled remotely, and it packs a surprising number of tricks, including the ability to get tired or bored, and even some basic gymnastic and acrobatic skills. Interested in building your own? You can find all the details and code you need at the source link below.
Breakfast Topic: I am the lucid dream
Recently, I was talking to Matticus and Kinaesthesia on one of our podcasts about Ruby Sanctum. Toward the end of the discussion, Kina mentioned how much he loved Halion's voice actor, Matthew Mercer (granted, we didn't know that was his name at the time.) We agreed his voice acting was excellent, and Kina suggested Blizzard ought to keep bringing him back for more parts. To date, Mercer also has done the voice of General Vezax in Ulduar and Overthane Balargarde in Icecrown. Anyway, some days later while we priests were tossing the PoM around, the subject came up again, and Kina quoted the line Halion says when you enter phase 2: "You will find only suffering in the realm of twilight. Enter if you dare." He gushed at the inflection on the word "suffering," while I stated my preference for the way he taunts you with, "Enter if you dare." Our talk led to other memorable lines from Wrath. I immediately brought up Sara from Ulduar and quoted her haunting, "I am the lucid dream." Plus, who could forget a first visit to Ulduar? I remember my sleepy raid's wandering into the Antechamber around 1 a.m. the first night that patch 3.1 went live. After accidentally completing Crazy Cat Lady and distributing loot, we stood around deciding where to go next. Vent had gone quiet while we all tabbed out to read up on Hodir until a deafening scream cut through the silence of the Observation Ring. Everyone on Vent promptly freaked out: "What the hell was that!?!" I loved it.
Comcast Cisco/SA markets are finally getting the iGuide
Although only about 25 percent of Comcast markets use Cisco/SA equipment, there's good news for the minority as Comcast is finally rolling out the iGuide to you. We're not saying we're fans of Comcast's iGuide, but if you've been using the SARA guide for the past few years we don't have to tell you that anything is an upgrade. This project has been in the works for five years and just goes to show how slow the cable set-top box upgrade process is. To make matter worse, about 60 percent of Comcast Motorola customers already have access to a more advanced A28 iGuide that isn't available to Cisco/SA boxes yet, but this older version will work with the new EBIF based interactive features we've been seeing recently. In either case, we couldn't see using either for even a day and although we're not the biggest fans of TiVo, it is easy to see why some are when you consider the competition.
Ready Check: Yogg-Saron
Ready Check is a column focusing on successful raiding for the serious raider. Hardcore or casual, Vault of Archavon or Ulduar, everyone can get in on the action and down some bosses. This is the show stopper. The big guy, the final countdown. Yogg-Saron is the last normal boss in Ulduar. (The only other dude is a freaky guy made from stars. Let's stick to the Old Gods here.) Yogg-Saron is the second Old God raid boss in the game, and shares an important dynamic with his predecessor: in-order to kill Yogg-Saron, you have to go inside him and fight a vital organ. Pretty freaky, huh?Yogg-Saron is actually my favorite fight thematically. Perhaps as a purposeful shout-out to game mechanics from the Call of Cthulu, your raid members will have to manage a buff called Sanity. That dynamic was a signature, revolutionary aspect of the tabletop game, and Blizzard uses it very similarly in this boss fight. At least, I hope it's purposeful. It's possible they were simply inspired by Lovecraft's stories the same way that tabletop designers were. Still, I prefer my little world where those guys threw some dice and stared at their SAN score.Anyway, let's get to talking about the boss fight.
