What did I tell you?
Whenever I listen to doomsagers and get nervous, things turn out all right. K2 and Gh1f, those practitioners of the “Dismal Profession”, told me to calm down, and things did, after all, turn out all right.
(So far…)
So I’ve been struggling with TurboTax and my file of goodies from the year. I really wanted to have a video of Robert Cray singing the 1040 Blues. But, alas, I can’t find it. Let me just say “job move”, “house sale”, “one spouse working for an employer in an income tax state” and a variety of other things. It’s getting quite complex. Oh, we don’t owe; in fact, we’ll get lots back. Of course, we’ll have to refund a major portion of that “lots back” back to OmegaDad’s employer, because it gave us a “withholding allowance” to cover extra taxes.
In the meantime, while I’m still waiting for the bottom to drop out of the various markets (what can I say–a doomsaging addict I am), I wanted to pass on these three items:
Texas Instruments has demonstrated a way kewl proof-of-concept neckband that will transmit unspoken words over a phone line. They are busy working on a commercial version for use by folks with MLS; having had a coworker whose husband has had a rapid decline over the past two years in his ability to speak due to MLS, I know this one would have proven a godsend to her family. Right now the process is veeeeery slow, but give them a few more years.
Then we have the video of BigDog, a robot designed by Boston Dynamics on a DARPA grant. This has to be seen to be believed–it can climb rock piles, regain its balance after being bashed by a person or after slipping on ice, and is generally rather uncanny. Though at one point, it looks like something from Mummenschanz (that’s when it looks like two men carrying a mattress and walking downhill).
Another DARPA grant was to DEKA, the company run by Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway. The grant was to develop a modern, superior prosthetic arm. I’ve seen the clips from last year, when it was early days; the IEEE came out with a video about it from a month or two ago. They hope to have this commercially available within the year.
I love living in a time when such amazing things are happening, and when it’s easy to find news about them.
Oh, yes, and if you see a “If you love this blogger, take this survey” popping up to your left, please do take the survey…
