Today I want to present a video about a different robotics concept: Softbody shape shifting though jamming. I haven’t heard about that before and personally think that it’s movement is creepy.

The video explains the concept and in the end you’ll see it move.
This is a very interesting concept if you think of bots on microscopic scale, lust like amoeba.
The less complex mechanical parts you have in a a machine, the less likely something will brake.

This video was taken from the worlds second largest fish tank.
From the youtube info, I know that the Song is “Please don’t go” from “Barcelona” and that it’s available on iTunes.

Be shure to watch this video in HD and full screen.

Even the biggest problems are microscopic if you see them in an astronomical context.

Some people know that vertigo is a problem I have to deal with. For me it’s less of a problem in planes or steel constructions – but old brick made buildings above ten levels scare the hell out of me.

I spent this january in Dubai and was quite happy, that our room was only at the 5th level. But today i found this video on youtube that even makes me feel bad by simply looking at it.
It’s taken by some guy on top of the Burj Dubai at 818 meters and the tower is wobbling…

My current project involves some jQuery code.
I needed to alternate the background color for a html table with subtables and i wanted to do it in javascript.

So if your table looks something like this, use my Javascript code to color the rows:

<table>
   <tbody class="Alternate">
        <tr><td>I'm a row</td></tr>
        <tr><td><table><tr><td>I'm a subtable for whatever purpose...</td></tr></table></td></tr>
        <tr><td>I'm a row</td></tr>
        <tr><td><table><tr><td>I'm a subtable for whatever purpose...</td></tr></table></td></tr>
        <tr><td>I'm a row</td></tr>
        <tr><td><table><tr><td>I'm a subtable for whatever purpose...</td></tr></table></td></tr>
        <tr><td>I'm a row</td></tr>
   </tbody>
</table>

Here’s the the JavaScript.
It’s a one liner, but i wrapped it for better readability

	//Nice trick to get zebra tables with subtables
	$("tbody.Alternate > tr").filter(function (index) {
                  return index%4==0;
				  }).addClass("Dark");

Finaly the CSS.

.Dark {background-color: green;}

I’ve seen this video linked on reddit today.
As some of you know, I am totaly into machine vision these days and this 3d tracing software that imediately caught my attention.

Think about putting your face into your favorite video game – the term “Headshot” needs to be redefined then.

I installed Java 6 on a Strato V-Server today that a default installation of Ubuntu 8.04 LTS.
Per default, the multiverse packages are all disabled, so you need to edit the file /etc/apt/sources.list to make it look like this:

# See sources.list(5) for more information, especialy
# Remember that you can only use http, ftp or file URIs
# CDROMs are managed through the apt-cdrom tool.

deb ftp://ftp.stratoserver.net/pub/linux/ubuntu hardy main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src ftp://ftp.stratoserver.net/pub/linux/ubuntu hardy main restricted universe multiverse

deb ftp://ftp.stratoserver.net/pub/linux/ubuntu hardy-updates main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src ftp://ftp.stratoserver.net/pub/linux/ubuntu hardy-updates main restricted universe multiverse

deb ftp://ftp.stratoserver.net/pub/linux/ubuntu hardy-security main restricted universe multiverse

deb-src ftp://ftp.stratoserver.net/pub/linux/ubuntu hardy-security main restricted universe multiverse

Then don’t forget to run

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

You may have mentioned that my blog loads way faster now.
I moved my WordPress installation to the new server.

The migration was smoth. The only thing I didn’t find covered in the tutorials was that I needed to  reactivate the plugins in the administration. After that everything was ok.

I love wordpress.