Look Mom, no hands... kinda.

This evening's lecture was Fun with a huge, big, fat capital "F".



On my way to the meeting, I stopped at the supermarket and bought the largest
slab of chocolate I could find to offer as a prize for tonight - thinking that I
would be enjoying that chocolate all by myself later tonight when I write this
blog entry - boy was I wrong. Matthys Keyter snatched it from me with his
nimble modified fingers. :-)


On the agenda for today was:

1. Taking Register
2. Outstanding permission slips
3. Outstanding/Invalid codenames
4. Name badges
5. Stehan's name badge designs
6. Computer Club logo designs
7. ThinkQuest passwords
8. Robotics Lesson part 1

Again - a big thank you to the parents. All the members were present and on time. Your support is immensely important to the SCC (Sunridge Computer Club) and greatly appreciated.

After the matter of invalid codenames, full inboxes, and outstanding permission slips were taken care of, Stehan Krause presented us with 6 designs to be printed on our name badges once we have received everybody's codenames. Thank you Stehan! We also decided on a logo for the SCC. But, more about that next time.

I managed to sort out the ThinkQuest problem and gave everybody their usernames and temporary passwords. The members were told to take it home and complete the registration process, changing their passwords, and becoming familiar with the ThinkQuest website.

Then onto our first official supper-dooper, cool, interesting lecture.

ROBOTICS - Part 1.

The question: "What is a robot?" was thrown in there for discussion. We classified robots into groups such as: TV & movie robots, industrial robots, space exploration and military robots, and of course commercial robots - as we saw on in the short movie clip we watched of "Titan the Robot".

We discussed what robots are good for and why. We also investigated what robots lack and how they don't compare to their human counterparts.

Then another question was brought up: "Robots perform their functions without feeling, thinking independently, or learning". What are your thoughts on this?" This was a heated discussion. Everything came out, from how robots could be so much more useful if they had these qualities, to the threat robots could pose to the human race if they were able to learn, have feelings, and could think for themselves. Where would it end?

This was a good time to discuss Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics which basically says that robots must obey humans, protect itself, but above all not injure a human or cause a human to be injured through its inaction. A fourth -somewhat unknown - law referred to as "Law Zero" was mentioned which in short protects humanity as a whole.

Now for the really fun part. We talked about how 'what robots can do' are limited by their own bodies/casings. We used the following activity to demonstrate this. 4 Members were lined up, each assuring me that they can tie their shoelaces fast. BUT, to their surprise, there was a catch. One member was given a pair of thick winter gloves to wear. The second member wore oven mitts. The third member had to use two pairs of long-nose pliers. And the fourth member had ice-cream sticks taped to the tips of his fingers. And as a crowd formed around the contestants, the race was on to see who could tie their laces the fastest. I did not think anybody would be able to do it. Believe me, if I did, I would have bought a smaller chocolate and purchased one for myself too. But Metthys showed us how its done. Hmmmm. Perhaps the Keyter family eats a lot of Chinese food giving him the unfair advantage he gets from using chopsticks. :-)

That's all for now. By the way - the members were given notices which details the dates of the next two SCC meetings. Please make sure you get these from them.

This is Motherboard signing off.

Ps. Please Email me @ glen@sunridge.co.za with any comments you might have. As it is I work on Monday, present the SCC lecture in the evening and then rush home and stay up till late writing this blog before the clock strikes 12 but, I don't even know if anybody is reading this blog. Thank you.