Following some links, I managed to get sucked into a black hole of intelligence where only the indescribably stupid can survive.  I felt myself devolving the longer I stayed.  It was like a Barney episode with a repetitive techno soundrack.

On my way out I found this guy's website [link removed by request].  On it he states:

no offence, but this site looks and works better with the following requirements met (sorry no IE). If this is not to your liking, please, feel free to make comments about why we should design for an inferior browser...

"Feel free" eh?... So I did.    (continued...)

The government is subsidising breast prostheses for mastectomy patients to the value of $400.  That's well overdue, and a really positive move that has attracted the support of the opposition as well.

So say thanks -- flash your local member of parliament.

I'm a big fan of interoperability, but there's a point at which your investment in a particular vision or statement starts to suffer.  I'm slowly doing all the things I want to, to this site, but there's one thing I'll never be able to achieve efficiently, and I have to admit it bugs me!

If you visit this website using Internet Explorer you'll notice a distinct lack of colour until you drag your mouse over any of the images.  This doesn't happen in Firefox (or any other browser), and it can't unless I force everyone to download all the feature images twice (which would be stupidly inefficient, so I'm never going to do that).

This is kind of a small thing unless you happen to really like it that way.

Too much colour can be distracting.  What I wanted was as site which is on the opposite extreme to most colour-packed blogs.  When viewing my site in IE you get the full impact of a solitary colour image just by putting your focus on it with the mouse.  I think it allows the viewer to better appreciate each one, as well as ultimately making my site seem more cohesive to me.  It's a design choice; an expression of my values; something which defines the concept of personal blogging and yet something which only IE allows me to fully achieve.

A colourless website also happens to befit some of my personal philosophies.  It makes a statement about shades of gray and our tendency to 'colour' events with our own perceptions.  I'm really disappointed that a good chunk of potential viewers will never be exposed to that.

So, if you have IE on your computer do me a favour and load it up.  Then by all means comment here to abuse me for wasting your time.

Of course it doesn't really matter, and I'd have never done this on a website that was important to anyone but myself, but this is my personal blog after all -- I really should get my way here of all places.  Fuck you other browsers!

Vodafone was the first in Australia to implement a general assistance service.  I've been using it for years, it's really very cool.  So cool that Telstra has followed suit, only about a decade too late... but I digress.

'123' is great because you can call them about anything at all.  If you need the price of an item on a website; the latest currency exchange rates or the hottest item from your favourite fashion blog while you're out shopping -- they'll look it up.

In fact it has been my experience that the staff really like that kind of thing, because most people just call for boring old directory assistance.

Anyway, yesterday, after some difficulty connecting to GPRS on my iPAQ I remembered that Voda sent a notice informing customers about changes to value-added services, so I called 123 just to check whether GPRS was still active on my account.  I was taken aback by the guy who took the call.

Here's the paraphrased conversation:

This is when he sighs in frustration and I give up on him and hang up.  I really hope they use my call for 'quality and training purposes' because that guy's a fucking arsehole and should have someone breathing down his neck for the next few months telling him to stop asking stupid questions.

I'm sure he thought he was being helpful, but really he was just unwilling to accept that someone might not want to do things his way.

Anyway I called back immediately and spoke to a nice young lady whose first response was "bear with me just a tick sir..." closely followed by "yes, your account shows GPRS is active, may I have your email address so I can send you the settings?"

I was off the phone with her in less than 30 seconds, including her thanking me for calling Vodafone.

I'm not a huge fan of multi-part blog posts, but this topic is such a big one for me that I'll have to make an exception.

The name stands for Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility, but it's difficult to ignore the obvious relationship to the surname of renowned science fiction author Isaac Asimov, author of the famous Three Laws of Robotics.  Reportedly partly inspired by Astro Boy, the project started in 1986 and has made remarkable strides [cough] since then. 

ASIMO is the latest model in Honda's ongoing realisation of the dreams of science fiction.  The "world's most advanced humanoid robot" is the latest in a long line of bipedal robots each with their own model designation.  The smallest of them all is the only one to bear the name ASIMO, though it has undergone numerous revisions since its inception in 2000, while retaining the same shape.

ASIMO is intended to bridge the gap between technology and human interaction in the most natural way possible, which is part of the reason for the decision to reduce its stature.  Honda's pragmatic reasoning is that at four feet tall, ASIMO stands at eye-height to sitting humans, making it ideal for office use and assistive applications for the immobile.  I'm inclined to think there's a little more to it than that.

If you look around the 'net at people's comments on ASIMO pictures and videos, the most common reaction is "just wait 'till it takes over the world".  While this is often said in jest, there's certainly something a lot more menacing about an ugly six-foot mindless automaton with big square shoulders and a huge backpack full of god knows what (P2) than there is about a four-foot child-like shape, with a school bag on.  Honda also routinely give it a child's voice in demonstrations, to further reinforce the image.  I think it's quite appropriate, but only because it still requires very gentle treatment and has a hell of a lot of learning left to do.

So what makes ASIMO so great?

Computers can perform certain tasks much more efficiently than people.  Despite this, replicating human motion and interaction remains one of the more difficult computational and design challenges.  The reasons for that become obvious when you examine the mechanics of standing on one foot.  The muscles around your ankle constantly twitch to compensate for shifting body weight as you instinctively adjust your posture to create a more stable centre of gravity.  We do this without thinking about it, but even we don't do it particularly well.  Imagine having to write down the precise parameters of every single twitch, adjustment and sensory cue.  The challenges these programmers have overcome are enormous.

While pre-programming ASIMO to stand on one leg actually requires less ongoing processing than it does for humans, ASIMO's movements aren't just pre-programmed.  ASIMO is capable of navigating unfamilar terrain and responding to its environment -- a much greater programming challenge than achieving a static pose.  With that in mind, Honda's achievements with ASIMO are nothing short of spectacular.

ASIMO's repertoire is quite extensive.  It can maintain balance while cornering and carrying a tray, or pushing a cart.  It can place items on tables.  It can climb and descend stairs, and perhaps more incredibly, it can run.

A robot that can walk and navigate entirely unassisted is incredible enough, but running requires that both feet be off the ground; that the robot be airborne between strides.  I think it's amazing that this machine has both the balance and propulsion to launch itself off the ground and land with sufficient control for it to corner at the same time.

The latest version of ASIMO (produced in 2005) is capable of running at 6km/h, or 5km/h while cornering.  Though this isn't particularly quick (due to its diminutive stature and short stride) it's still quite a dynamic event to witness.

Though primarily focused on mobility, ASIMO has many other cool features.  It's able to access networks wirelessly either to receive instruction or to collect information, and it has a wealth of sensory features.

It can detect and identify several moving objects simultaneously, and is capable of recognising faces as they enter its field of view.  ASIMO can also recognise postures or gestures and respond accordingly.  If you wave to ASIMO, it will wave back and greet you using your name.  In fact, ASIMO can be directed by gesture, and also guide humans by making gestures itself.

ASIMO is also capable of identifying sounds.  It can respond to its name and it will turn toward you when you speak to it, which is decidedly more polite than a lot of humans.

Over the years, I've mentioned ASIMO to a few people, and I have to say I'm really struggling with how little people seem to care, or how generally disinterested they are in the whole topic.  I just don't understand how people can be underwhelmed by the prospect of such a dramatic change in the way we interact with technology... and that's ignoring the blindingly obvious applications this technology has in prosthetics.

I hope that my enthusiasm is at least a little contagious.  People should stop wondering whether they'll own a robot and start thinking about what they'd like it to do once they have one.  Science fiction isn't that far away.