Posts by RoboGirl

One of the newest robots to debut is a “wine robot”. No, the wine robot does not de-cork wine bottles, although maybe its inventor will program it to take care of this manual operation next. And while a wine robot already exists as a wine tasting “tester”, this wine robot works in the vineyard. The wine robot machine is in the testing phases and was developed by French inventor, Christophe Millot, to be a specialized “food robot”.

Food Robots

Food robots are a new area of robotics where robots are taking over task work and labor that was previously performed by human hands or humans with tools related to food and beverage handling and production. Food robots can perform tasks efficiently, such as making espresso, rolling out dough and can handle complex operations, such as the wine robot does by trimming grape vines in vineyards.

Vineyard Wine Robot

The wine robot is a robotic machine which tackles grape vine pruning and other vineyard task work. This machine has been designed to replace the expensive manual labor required to maintain vineyards. Not only does the wine robot perform labor, but it is also equipped with GPS and special artificial intelligence features which records data about each plant in the vineyard, soil conditions and more information crucial to running and maintaining a successful and productive winery. The current cost of this specialty robot is $32,000 and while it is pricey, wineries could easily spend this on training laborers plus labor costs, soil analysis testing, plant botanists, etc. so its up-front expense could be recouped very quickly. Many famous French wineries are already interested in acquiring the wine robot known as Wall-Ye (yes, a pun on the Disney movie robot Wall-E). Robots are the future of food and beverage handling, food and beverage preparation and micro-farming.

If I had to choose one robots movie that I absolutely love, it would have to be the recently released “Real Steel” starring Hugh Jackman. In the future year 2020, robots have completely replaced humans in the sport of boxing. Boxing is no longer a human combat sport and much is like the robot toys game you might have played when you were growing up: Rock ‘em Sock ‘em Robots. There are still high stakes in boxing matches and this adds some intrigue to the story. However, as in most robot movies, the robots have human attributes, so you feel for the robots, especially the fighting robot trained by Jackman. Jackman’s robot was an underdog. People tend to root for the underdog in most movies. Think of “Rocky” as an example of a boxing movie where the underdog became the hero. In “Real Steel”, there seemed to be a “real” bond between man and machine, which is a common theme in many movies. But also there was a human interest story within the story of the fighting robots. And that was the story played out in the events leading up to Jackman’s character meeting the son he never thought existed. “Real Steel”, while being a robots movie, was in reality a movie about relationships, the different relationships in our lives and how they affect us.

The special effects of the robot fighting sequences were pretty cool. I saw the movie in the theater and then streamed it online, because I wanted to catch some of the details and nuances I might have missed when I first saw it and I also wanted to see the action sequences again. If you want to see a well written, well acted robots movie with a great story and superb FX, watch “Real Steel”.

Submitted by a Kiva Systems blog reader…

How can you take the ITIL Accreditation Exam Prep Online? If you are an IT professional and need to take the Information Technology Infrastructure Library a/k/a the ITIL exam for accreditation, you should prepare for your exam at ITILPrime.com. The site features an online training course, supplemented by live tutors, so that you can take your ITIL Foundation exam with confidence that you will pass. Many companies in the IT sector require that IT professionals in specific positions secure an ITIL accreditation. It would be nearly impossible to take the Foundation’s exam and pass without some level of preparation through online training coursework or live training coursework. Almost all IT pros agree that online training courses are the superior choice for exam preparation and ITIL Prime has developed their own highly successful bootcamp curriculum to prepare for taking the accreditation exam, and more importantly, passing the exam! The online courses are presented in a studio quality setting and feature the absolute latest syllabus, not an outdated training program. The affordable online training course fee covers materials, courses, live tutors for additional training support and practice quizzes to prep for the experience of taking the actual exam.

Part of any online training course should be doing a test simulation with practice quizzes. It’s one teaching methodology to learn the subject matter via the course material, but a superior methodology to put the students to the test, literally, in mock exam practice. This is so that the students taking the online training courses will have the confidence in displaying their knowledge in the test format that will be required when they take the actual ITIL exam. ITIL Prime even displays their student community performance right on the home page of their website to illustrate the success rate of their online training courses and preparation.

There is live training coursework online and on demand courses depending on what would suit your schedule and training needs. ITIL Prime also features a highly popular prep book on Amazon.com for taking the ITIL accreditation exam, “ITIL V3 Exam Prep Questions, Answers, & Explanations: 800+ ITIL Foundation Questions with Detailed Solutions” in paperback format. This book is popular with students and company libraries as a reference and guide to prepping for the exam.

ITIL Prime also offers ITIL Intermediate exam prep coursework so that if you are looking for training that will support your efforts to be accredited at the next level, this online coursework is also available.

Router manufacturers pre-set the IP (Internet Protocol) addresses on their routers at default IP addresses. Usually these IP addresses are manufacturer specific, but not in all cases. For example, 192.168.o.1 is an IP address associated with the manufacturers: D-Link and Netgear. Most computer and internet users aren’t even aware of this default IP address when they purchase routers or when a broadband or cable internet provider installs home or small business routers. This is because many people aren’t aware of how their computer actually accesses the internet, how their computer interacts with information on the internet or how the router acts as the gateway point at which network connections are made.

It is helpful to read up on 192.168.o.1 if you have a D-Link or Netgear router or a router set to that IP address so you can have a basic understanding of what a router’s function is and what the default IP address is, especially if any issues arise with connectivity to the internet. You can also take a few simple steps to prevent any connectivity issues related to these default IP addresses now before a connectivity issue occurs.

There are even 192.168.1.1 IP address informational websites in languages other than English, such as German, so that people in other countries can read or refer to these info web pages in their native language. These info sites are ideal for people to learn about their router and router’s default IP address. Some of the 192.168.1.1 websites also illustrate how to begin to troubleshoot an internet connection issue related to the default IP address.

If you have multiple home or small business computers and you have noticed issues connecting with the internet such as error messages stating to “diagnose connection problems” or “there is an ip address conflict with another system in the network” then you need to literally “address” this issue. If you see no visible reason for connection problems and your router is functional with its flashing connection light “green”, the issue may be that you have a router set to its manufacturer’s IP address default setting of 192.168.o.1. This default setting creates IP address conflict for computers on the same LAN (local area network). Most people don’t realize that if they have more than one home computer, they essentially have a home LAN and have to act as network administrators over their LAN. And this is the same for small businesses with more than one computer who don’t employ an IT professional, they must manage their LAN.

Part of LAN management involves monitoring internet access and managing the functionality of computers and tech equipment such as routers. If you have a LAN and your router is set to 192.168.1.1 – if you visit the expert site www.192.168.1.1.com – you can read about how you might experience internet access issues. The only reason you may not have noticed IP address conflicts is if computer users are not on the internet at the same time. But it’s best to take care of IP address conflicts before they create internet access problems. You can read about these critical issues and prevent these conflicts before they happen by resetting the default IP address which the manufacturer configured for the router.

A Kiva Systems reader submits their list of Favorite Robot Movies…

1. I, Robot

“I, Robot” is one robot movie with one of my favorite actors, Will Smith. One of the subjects that this movie covers is the idea of a robot committing a crime against a human. No matter what fail safe measures are in place, we can never be sure about robots turning on us, and this makes this movie number one on my list.

2. Blade Runner

“Blade Runner” comes in a close second since; in my personal view this movie started the whole humanoid robot craze of today. Once again, this movie showcases what might happen, when robots commit crimes. Somehow to me all this sounds like humans have deep hidden fears of their creations turning on them.

3. Robocop

Looking at all the robot movies, “Robocop” comes into mind. This movie is older and some might not like the special effects that look outdated. Its theme brings to life what many scientists have long been dreaming about doing: Merging humans with robotic forms. Some Kiva Systems readers might disagree with me whether you are talking about a real robot movie since Robocop is half-man. However, I still believe this is a must watch if you are a fan of metal movies.

4. The Terminator

The movie that launched the career of Arnold Schwarzenegger and has kept people saying the phrase “I’ll be back” for years is none other than “The Terminator”. Many people still refer to this as the cyborg robot movie to watch and with all the spin-offs from this movie; it’s not really hard to see why. But for hardcore action cybernetic robot movies, the original is one to watch.

5. A.I.

A.I or the full name Artificial Intelligence is one heart wrenching story, the question of can a robot learn to feel is addressed in this movie and it show cases robots in a new light. Are they nothing more than things to discard once we are done with them? That question will be asked by anyone after watching this movie.

6. Wall-E

Fun for the whole family, “Wall-E” is a story about a robot, but somehow along the way, the cuteness of the movie overcame the meaning they were trying to convey. However, to be fair this movie will keep your kids glued to the screens, as everyone will fall in love with Wall-e.

7. The Iron Giant

Thinking about animations brings the movie “The Iron Giant” to mind. Although this movie is a little older, it will still entertain the kids as it tells the story about a boy and a robot on the run from the government. This movie tries to bring a new human side of robots into the picture.

8. Real Steel

One of the newer movies to come out with robots in them is “Real Steel”. Now I have to say although there are robots in this movie, the story line is more about a little boy and his father. This would have been a great movie, if the main focus was on robots instead of their owners. Honestly, it would have been a lot better, if the robots could talk in this movie to tell the humans what they felt.

9. Iron Man

Sneaking into this list will be “Iron Man”. Now before all the hardcore robot fans start saying this movie has nothing to do with robots; I would say that the human would be nothing without the suit. Now granted that this movie is about a “Robotic Suit” it still makes this list since it is a cool movie.

10. Transformers

Last, but not least is “Transformers”. The only real reason that this came last on this list is because the very thought of robots taking over the world is scary. The worst thing about this is the fact that humans can’t do anything about this without help from other robots. This just goes to show how fragile humans really are.

Have you ever seen the sequence of numbers: 192.168.1.1 ? No, it’s not a Skype number or a lottery pick. It’s a private IP address. An IP address is an Internet Protocol address through which data is communicated on the internet between computers. The majority of computers access the internet through broadband or cable network routers or routers set up via IT network administrators. Router manufacturers have to configure their routers with an IP address at the factory before they are shipped to broadband or cable company suppliers, tech wholesalers or retailers. Manufacturers preset the IP addresses of their proprietary routers and 192.168.1.1 is one of the standard Internet Protocol addresses used by router manufacturers, especially on Linksys routers.

Are you wondering how this IP number impacts you? If you took your router right out of the box and plugged everything in or your cable or broadband installation technician installed your router for you, you are probably still running the factory Internet Protocol address. You can change the number yourself if you want to. It isn’t difficult to follow instructions using your internet browser service (such as Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox) or even follow instructions in your router’s manual.

192.168.o.1 is another private IP address used by router manufacturers, especially featured on Netgear and D-Link routers. The private IP addresses are generally contained within a certain numerical range. Where keeping your router’s IP address could be an issue for you is if you have multiple computers using the same router. This situation can create network access issues if you keep any of the popular private router IP addresses.

How AI: Artificial Intelligence ends in a different, better universe io9 Unlike other robot movies that are about exceeding your limitations, the robots in AI are defined by the limits humans have put on them. David will always be a little boy; Gigolo Joe will always be a sex-bot — I mean it's right there in his name!

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Navy opens 'Hunger Games' arenas for military robots msnbc.com A new US Navy lab can track every movement of battlefield robots as they struggle to survive arenas built to resemble scorching deserts, wave-pounded shores and tropical rain forests. The lab's biggest environment has high-speed video cameras that … Navy Opens 'Hunger Games' Arena for Military RobotsDiscovery News all 6 news articles »