Comments on: Angry roboticist drops science

By: Markus Schäfer

Markus Schäfer — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 13:17:00 +0000

And her brain ist still more beautiful than the dress. I wish I could have been the hat.

By: Markus Schäfer

Markus Schäfer — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 13:16:00 +0000

And a linguist. Respect indeed :)

By: SkyAuror3

SkyAuror3 — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 12:37:00 +0000

“I got a lot of shit last year for doing a talk in a dress, so this year I wore a fancier dress” – my philosophy on Dressing As An Engineer.

By: elix

elix — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 07:10:00 +0000

The only thing I particularly would suggest is tightening up preparation a bit for the “um, um” gaps and the blips in remembering things, but once the vodka starts all bets are off anyway. I can see how some people might find the pause-for-cute-photo technique to be unnecessary/a distraction, but I have no complaints about it.

That being said, this isn’t Toastmasters, this is fucking DEFCON. You’re passionate about robotics (this is the biggest understatement on the Internet for the next five minutes) and you’ve been selected to give a talk about it . If you want professional and ultra-slick and rehearsed, look at academic presentations (the serious kind where people are in suits, not the practical-demo kind), not DEFCON.

Also, of course you’re hung-over. It’s DEFCON.

By: falcifer

falcifer — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 10:03:00 +0000

I really enjoyed this, it was most refreshing to see so much emphasis on good old-fashioned engineering like analogue control theory and dynamics to get things done elegantly and intelligently rather than by throwing lots of code at problems.

I was most impressed at the ablity to explain complicated things so well while pished, a talent I can only dream of having. I did find all the nerd humour cliches all too familiar and tiresome, however. Ms. Levinson is a steel actuated fist in the face of stereotypes associated with women in science, but she doesn’t assure me that being in science doesn’t necessarily mean being “from the internet lololol!” Does she care? Probably not, and neither should you.

Cracking work!

By: Singe

Singe — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 05:59:00 +0000

Oh man I wanna marry her. I got fired from NASA Ames too. -_-

By: Markus Schäfer

Markus Schäfer — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 02:49:00 +0000

Man, I find smart and funny people incredibly attractive.
I guess I should start saving money to get to see the next talk in that vein :)

By: humanresource

humanresource — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 02:23:00 +0000

Just so you know, you got an arts/law graduate to sit through an hour-long robotics lecture. Respect.

By: katylevinson

katylevinson — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 01:41:00 +0000

Please keep sending the stories, photos and videos of failbots! These are amazing, and if you guys are cool with it, I’d love to share your experiences with everybody next year!

By: Simone Davalos

Simone Davalos — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 01:32:00 +0000

True that. You can cut and paste code. It’s hard to cut and paste life experience.

By: katylevinson

katylevinson — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 23:36:00 +0000

Even when you package it as entertainment, it’s pretty hard to get people to RTFM.

By: Firm Warez

Firm Warez — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 23:19:00 +0000

Fun as a video, but it was much better in person.

By: jacoblyles

jacoblyles — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 22:56:00 +0000

this made me want to build more robots, drink more alcohol, and wear more fancy dresses. Inspiring!

By: oasisob1

oasisob1 — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 22:52:00 +0000

We have open source libraries for telling robots how to move forward, backwards, how to turn left or right. Why not have open source libraries for roboticists, telling them how not to destroy walls or start fires? For that matter, open source libraries of lessons learned ought to be everywhere for everything.

By: oasisob1

oasisob1 — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 22:48:00 +0000

Someone was upset you wore a dress to an earlier appearance, so at this appearance you wore a fancier dress. That’s beyond awesome. Kicking that topic to the curb, I loved the whole talk. You were maybe just a little bit energetic, but we learned what ought to be valuable lessons in building robots and some fun stuff about NASA and the less obvious challenges of doing stuff on the moon. Worth an hour of my time, thanks!

By: Jeff House

Jeff House — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 22:46:00 +0000

As a software guy who keeps coming back to hardware, iterating closer and closer to making something vaguely robotish, it’s great to see examples of where things go wrong — so when I am finished facepalming — or perhaps even before then — I’ll think “Wait, wasn’t there some drunk woman ranting about that…if only I can remember where and in what capacity…” and it will come back to me.

Also, awesome.

By: katylevinson

katylevinson — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 22:12:00 +0000

I’m super interested in learning more about this (I’ve never designed for a longer-term project, so the areas of stress over time and corrosion are things we haven’t touched yet). Can you point me to some science?

By: katylevinson

katylevinson — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 22:10:00 +0000

It was actually meant to remind newbie roboticists (who frequently have almost no mechanical background whatsoever) that normal bolts off the shelf aren’t meant to be put into sheer. Software people picking up physical design for the first time tends to be facepalmy.

By: katylevinson

katylevinson — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 22:02:00 +0000

Super open to suggestions on improving. :)

By: katylevinson

katylevinson — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 22:02:00 +0000

I’d really like to hear where you think I can improve too :)

By: katylevinson

katylevinson — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 21:58:00 +0000

Sometimes the stuff that you care about and need to make work isn’t fixed with code. :/

By: katylevinson

katylevinson — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 21:54:00 +0000

You got me. In this video I actually am being used as a puppet with a cleverly hidden exoskeleton (controlled by men who actually understand robots).

By: bcsizemo

bcsizemo — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 21:04:00 +0000

I haven’t watched the video either, but zinc plated bolts are more or less self defeating if used in a heavily corrosive environment since the nut cuts into the threads and wears off the zinc…

Bare aluminum (like metal on metal contact) also has issues with binding due to aluminum oxide formation.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 20:08:00 +0000

Could oasisob1′s comment have been more obviously ironic?

By: Katrina van Malksvig

Katrina van Malksvig — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 19:46:00 +0000

a proud moment for shouty drunk chicks everywhere!

By: RJ

RJ — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 18:54:00 +0000

The bit about zinc-plated turds piqued my interest, but not enough to watch a 49-minute lecture on robotics. I presume she’s referring to how zinc-plated hardware can still corrode, given enough wear and tear. Stainless steel and aluminum are probably better choices, when TIG welding isn’t practical.

By: Damian Barajas

Damian Barajas — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 18:35:00 +0000

Did you understand what she said? Did it make sense?

Depending on the answer to this question you can talk about efficacy. Oh wait, your talking about style!

(Yes, it was a bit rough at moments I’ll give you that much, but I was able to follow the presentation, it made sense and I learned a few things)

By: Melissa S

Melissa S — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 17:40:00 +0000

I am in love!

She almost made me wish I had done engineering (like everyone thought I would) for about 10 seconds…

By: nixiebunny

nixiebunny — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 17:09:00 +0000

Good idea for a new TED series:

TEDbooze. Famous people doing “My Drunk Kitchen.”

By: bocomo

bocomo — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 17:09:00 +0000

Presentation style? What presentation style?

That was painful

I don’t doubt she’s brilliant, but she’s not so good at presenting (like having a prof in college who is a leader in her field, but doesn’t really have a knack for teaching)