Kathryn's Comments

Kathryn Huxtable

Kathryn Huxtable

Southwest Potatoes

Servings: 6 Source: Mark Bittman/NYTimes 2010-09-10 Ingredients 5 tablespoons olive oil (more as needed) 2 tablespoons fresh jalapeño, minced, to taste 1½ cups corn kernels, fresh or frozen (maybe a bit less) salt black pepper 2 pounds new potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks 1 teaspoon chili powder,

New Robot picture

I’ve got a picture now with the Ping))) ultrasonic rangefinder installed. I also added some collision switches in front of the wheels. Here’s a link (finally) to my project files.

Grilled Lebanese Flatbread

Servings: 8 breads Source: Mark Bittman/NY Times 2010-08-27 Ingredients 2 teaspoons salt 1 teaspoon sugar 1 tablespoon instant yeast 3 cups all-purpose flour Extra virgin olive oil as needed 2 tablespoons zatar optional Directions Whisk together the salt, sugar, yeast and 1 cup warm water in a large bowl.

New robot pictures

Here are some new robot pictures. I have a much better mount for the sensors now and they are working as well as they can. Unfortunately, I don’t think passive infrared motion sensors will work for what I want. They’re too erratic for use on a robot. They’

Not with a bang...

So Michael Lind of Salon has a column in Salon saying what I’ve been saying for the past twelve or so years. We’re moving from a Republic to a Principate. I would add that the executive branch has been figuring out ways to get more power pretty much

My cat-chasing robot now has sensors

I now have sensors. They’re a bit lopsided, but they function. It’s worse that they’re a bit off-center. My code needs work. It tends to find a cat (or me) and then move forwards a bit, then start spinning.

My cat-chasing robot

This is very early. The robot doesn’t yet have any sensors. It has two front wheels and a caster in the center back. My plan is to put some thermal motion detectors on it and go towards the motion. At the moment it just goes in squares. Forwards for

Reason vs fear in Daily Kos by Mark Sumner

Mark Sumner had an interesting post today in the Daily Kos. He makes some points that I’ve thought about for some time, that the current “right wing” in the US has become the party of anti-reason demagogues that do not necessarily even believe what they are saying. I’ve

Dithering about phones and tablets

Those who know me know that I’ve been dithering about mobile phones and internet tablets for some months now. I’d like a larger screen than my iPhone 3G has, but I consider the iPad a bit large. And it doesn’t make calls. I was rather hoping for

Arduino is fun

So I have long been irritated at the lack of flexibility of the sort of programmable thermostats you can get through the retail market, e.g. Home Depot, Lowe’s, etc. I’ve wanted to make my own. Now, thanks to the Arduino platform I can do it with a