Take into consideration - What if there was no "FREEDOM"? Then you see this Blog and are reminded that you would be missing out on so many important things...Enjoy your stay and recommend to your friends to come and taste the "FREEDOM" Geminimay
Shocking But True ~ This Is The Future Brought To YOU Today ...
After three space walks, Dextre—the robot that will now service the International Space Station—has been completed today, and is now ready for activation. I was watching it live on NASA TV and grabbed these shots (yes, I am that sad) of this fully-assembled gigantastic space spider. To get a sense of how big it is, check the images after the jump. Update: added new images released by NASA
According to astronaut Richard M. Linnehan, one of the astronauts who readied Dextre in this mission, it's like "working with a Star Wars prop, but it isn't sci-fi, its reality, and it's happening up here right now." Actually, with its 12-foot-tall body and 11-foot-long arms capable of sensing movement and force, the $209-million Dextre looks more like some kind of Japanese battleoid, but we share the amazement.
Despite its menacing appearance and being capable of withstanding extreme conditions, Dextre is as precise and delicate as it is strong: it can manipulate big, server-rack-sized objects (to a maximum of 1,323 pounds,) as well as laptop-sized ones; all with a positioning accuracy relative to the target of a quarter of an inch (the incremental accuracy is 1/12th of an inch, 2 millimeters) and a force accuracy of 2.2 newtons.
The 3,440-pound (1,560 kg.) robot would be extremely valuable for the activity of the space station, saving time and risky spacewalks to astronauts, who will be able to dedicate themselves to experiments rather than fixing the ISS. [NASA TV and Canadian Space Agency]
I was in total technological awe, till I saw the blurb "and now prepare to die". I note the "monster" looking part appears to be coming out of the canadian portion so shouldnt that read "Prepare to die, eh?"
Yeah, it's real great and all, but the thing comes down to Florida every year for the winter and drives 15 in a 45. He also wears Canadian flag thongs to the beach in January.
Dextre has to be an acronym for something. Anyone? Seriously, what was the last time any piece of equipment went into orbit whose name wasn't an acronym?
...I was watching it live on NASA TV and grabbed these shots (yes, I am that sad)...
Yeah actual space stuff and real science are sooo unhip compared to iPods and plastic toys. (?)
If you are building a LEGO Millennium Falcon in your home (and at this point I'd have to say it's a growing "if" unless you're doing the time lapse thing BoingBoing Gadgets beat you to weeks ago) you can probably manage a little joy to be witnessing REAL and ACTUAL developments in space without fear of it appearing to damage your hipster cred with the Gizmodians or anybody else.
I know for a fact that you were filled with wonder and joy at the things we're doing in space because I think that's the kind of person you are, so THERE! :p
Be a booster. We can't get into space without 'em.
Oh you like it now. But just wait until it demands you only talk to it in French, joins a union and sits around the Space Station on strike, drinking beer and playing with his hockey stick telling everyone how it could have made it to the NHL if only its engineers weren't such hosers and programmed it how to skate like good, eh.
pfft. At best it's an artificial Canadian... Seriously... Where's it's toque? :P
And yes I am Canadian.
@Amsterdaam - KEEP SMILING: Hey! You guys have a huge military that the MP force alone can take over our country... We have spooky people that trek down to Florida in questionable garb and Celine Dion.
Ummm, "all with a precision of half a fraction of an inch" is still just a fraction of an inch. All that sentence shows is that a dumb writer is trying to make his message stronger by saying something that actually doesn't make any sense.
Besides, doesn't NASA do most, if not all of their work with metric now? I know the Canadians do. And since the robot is Canadian made, wouldn't the proper and more precise terminology would be more along the lines: "all the precision of .5mm of control?"
/former news producer //stickler for proper copy, use of English
@mrsteve007: If we have to start making this all proper english, or even lucid, most of the posts and comments will cease. I dont know about everyone else, but I read Giz for substance and not for style.
I saw some of this action on NASA TV live on the web too. They put a lot of work to put that thing together over the weekend and past couple of days. It's cool as hell to watch this live and also live-track the location of the shuttle and the ISS. It's freakin' flying right along at like 17000mph. Cool. Hey, I'm married okay. I get it all the time :)
I knew Canada was spending their military budget on something. I mean you can't be a huge country like that and not have a huge military budget. Now we know...
I for one welcome our new Canadian controlled Robot Overlords.
You can't understand. You're frightened because you can't understand it. I'm going to show you. I'm going to show all of you. It takes 430 people to man a starship. With this, you don't need anyone. One machine can do all those things they send men out to do now. Men no longer need die in space or on some alien world. Men can live and go on to achieve greater things than fact-finding and dying for galactic space, which is neither ours to give or to take. You can't understand. We don't want to destroy life. We want to save it.
@mrsteve007: Yeah, you are right. I was writing while I was listening to the comments from the presenter and just didn't do research for precise data. I should have, but I just wanted to put the images, which to me were the biggest thing as we have written about the bot and its technical features before. I'll add the info. Oh, yes, and you are banned for being a douchebag.
@strider_mt2k: Watching science is not sad. What I meant is that I spent two hours watching people moving in slooooooowmoooootion as the put the final touches on the bot. LEGO is still in construction. But it won't be time lapse. It will be another thing.
@Jesus Diaz: I quoted I was sourcing the CSA's public website for Dextre, which leaves it vaguely at "millimetre scale" (hence quotations). If I'd read the fact sheet initially, I would've quoted the exact numbers.
@Jesus Diaz: No, please, Mr. Jesus Diaz, please, oh, please, do not wield the deadly banhammer! Topcat is merely standing up for what he believes is right! I am sure he means no disrespect, Mr. Jesus Diaz! Spare him from the ugliness of the wicked blows of your banhammer! Put it back in its banhammer-hammock for another time! There will come a day, Mr. Jesus Diaz, when deadly banhammer may be loosed freely on the recalcitrant population, but Topcat is but a waif, a naif, a child among the fierce tigerousness of Gizmodo!! Spare him in the name of all that is sacred, Mr. Jesus Diaz!
@ps61318: Um, he banned the OTHER guy. I might remind anyone who dislikes the posts or form of Giz (I dont go to any of the other Gawker sites), that they CAN go the hell BACK to work and not read it.....
"I was watching it live on NASA TV and grabbed these shots (yes, I am that sad) of this fully-assembled gigantastic space spider"
Hey, thats not sad at all! I've been keeping the NASA TV feed running continuously on my second monitor ever since the launch last Tuesday, watched the ISS docking and all spacewalks so far. Some people could care less, I suppose, but to me, these dudes are friggin' floating around in OUTER SPACE, and we get to watch live! I could watch for hours on end, on pins-and-needles the whole time. There's no better reality TV.
'Dextre' is French, from the Latin word 'Dextra', meaning dextrous, or right-handed. I wonder if the space station's going to get a Sinistra arm as well?
@Beelzeboss: It also means demonstrating good skills. Like diestro in spanish (Diestro in spanish, btw, also means "bullfighter"). That's why they put that name to the bot.
Sinistra will probably be the name of the maintenance bot in Spectra's secret space station.
Of all the pundits that tried to call the console race before Christmas, few predicted the Nintendo Wii, with its modest hardware and oddball control system, would still be lining up the punters in March. 436,000 Wiis sold in January, beating the Xbox 360 and PS3 handily, and there's no sign of the pace slackening. The handheld DS is doing nearly as well, tightening Nintendo's 18-year stranglehold on the portable market and capitalizing on its first-rate software selection. A total of 635,000 new Nintendo systems made their way home with eager U.S. purchasers in the supposedly quiet post-holiday period.
Even with that quantity of systems moving through the retail system, both the Wii and the DS remain hard to find in stores nationwide, while the other two consoles are lining the shelves. If you're unfortunate enough to still be looking, your best bet is to keep your eyes on online trackers like ours or resort to the usual auction sites.
Wii games are shifting well, too. Although Wii heavy-hitter The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess sold well in January, it was actually beaten to the top spot by quirky minigame-fest Warioware: Smooth Moves, despite the latter not actually coming out until the 15th. Rayman: Raving Rabbids came third, with under half of Zelda's sales. Unsurprisingly, Wii owners have vast appetites for games that take advantage of the machine's uniqueness.
Nintendo's fast pace of impressive releases continued in March with the surprise appearance of Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, the N64 smash hit that's remembered as one of the best Zelda games -- if not the best -- of all time. Coming up in the next few months, fans of classic Nintendo systems can expect to see Super Metroid, Excitebike, Mario Kart 64, and Duck Hunt hitting the service.
Nintendo classics...
...coming to the Wii
So even when the release calendar is quiet, as it was throughout February, Nintendo still provided Wii owners with a compelling collection of re-releases and old favorites. 12 of the 20 all-time best-selling video games are Nintendo products (and, incidentally, seven of them feature Mario in some form or other). With all these great titles to draw on, they can keep up this pace for years.
FEATURE
Is Wii winning the console race?
Plus: Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto asks what Nintendo means to you -- exclusive to Yahoo!
No video game publisher, developer or hardware manufacturer commands the adulation of as many dedicated fans as Nintendo. Started in 1889 by a Japanese businessman, the company initially made its name by producing "hanafua" -- Japanese playing cards. It struggled through much of the 20th century, until the company's visionary third president Hiroshi Yamauchi (now the majority owner of the Seattle Mariners) hired a 25-year-old artist from Kyoto named Shigeru Miyamoto.
Miyamoto, along with Game and Watch designer Gunpei Yokoi, set about laying the foundations of Nintendo's current success with games like Donkey Kong and Mario Bros. Yokoi's story ends sadly: he resigned from Nintendo in 1996 after falling from grace (he was responsible for the failed Virtual Boy handheld) and died in a car accident a year later. Miyamoto's story, in contrast, mirrors Nintendo's: he was instrumental in the development of both the Zelda and Mario series, and ranks as one of the most recognized and successful game designers of all time. Miyamoto currently heads Nintendo's Tokyo development team.
Among its home console innovations Nintendo counts the first joypad, the first use of force feedback and the first analog stick -- and now the first fully featured motion control system in a major console. It's famously innovative in its strategy, too, dodging the race for more and more powerful hardware in favor of trying to expand its consoles' audiences beyond tech-heads, geeks, and video game addicts.
And it seems to be working. The Wii has been a big hit in an Illinois retirement home, where the inmates are organizing Wii Bowling tournaments and showing up their grandkids. The Mayo Clinic and the International Sports Science Association are already studying the potential health benefits of Wii games. You can't buy that sort of word of mouth.
With the release of the Wii, Nintendo is adopting tactics we more often associate with its competitors, Microsoft and Sony. With the Channel updates that have rolled out in the last couple of months, the Wii is now the only full-size console with a usable web browser, an online news and weather service, and even its own email address. These are functions we would normally associate with those Internet set-top boxes that were all the rage back in 1997. Could the Wii, with its unique mouse-like pointer control system, be making a play for the "convergent device" Holy Grail, delivering multiple diverse functions straight to your TV?
Contrast that with the Wii's attitude to online gaming. Or perhaps that should be "lack of attitude." While Microsoft and Sony both invest much into their single-login, integrated systems that pack online functions into every game, Nintendo's content, for the time being, limits its gamers to one-console multiplayer. The phenomenal success of the system so far indicates, however, that either this just isn't an issue for most buyers or, and perhaps more convincingly, that the PS3 and Xbox 360 are already sating our appetite for online multiplayer entertainment.
FEATURE
Is Wii winning the console race?
Plus: Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto asks what Nintendo means to you -- exclusive to Yahoo!
It's coming, though. June 25 is the scheduled release date for Pokemon Battle Revolution, which will use the console's Internet connection to enable head-to-head online battles between trainers. It'll also be the first to link the DS and Wii together, enabling players to transfer their Pokemon from handheld titles to the Wii, and use the DS as a Wii controller. Given the continued popularity of the Pokemon games, both among its intended demographic and older RPG fans, it's sure to be a big seller.
Nintendo's other guaranteed hit, Mario, isn't coming to the Wii until later this year, although his debut appearance in the Miyamoto-designed Super Mario Galaxy is looking to be yet another stunner. Another fan favorite, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, is also expected before 2008, and for the first time includes a non-Nintendo character: Snake, from the Metal Gear series.
Of course, none of that will console you if you're still hunting for your Wii. Nintendo tells us they're making continuous shipments to feed the "huge demand around the country." At some point they're sure to get ahead of the demand, but with the next few weeks seeing the release of anticipated Wii titles like Super Paper Mario, Prince of Persia: Rival Swords, and The Godfather: Black Hand Edition, we're not holding our breath.
Are you slightly annoyed by people always looking over your shoulder trying to catch a glimpse of whatever is playing on your iPod video or smartphone? I am, and I think it was about time somebody brought privacy filters for mobile devices to the U.S.
Back in November, I wrote about LG's clamshell Chocolate phone, the VX8600, packed with a 1.3-megapixel digital camera, Bluetooth, microSD slot, and V-Cast capability. I agree that calling this a Chocolate phone is just confusing, besides it looks nothing like its big brother. The original Chocolate phone (VX8500) has been offered in many colors, including pink, mint, and red, while the VX8600 had only been available in glossy black through Verizon Wireless.
Wait, what? Your Fridays are far from being laid back? Well your boss must be a demanding little micro-managing dweeb who probably monitors everything you do online and off. I bet he walks past your cubicle every half hour hoping to catch a glimpse of you web surfing just so he can call you out in front of your co-workers. Being the boss is not easy, but being managed by a terrible boss will certainly have you contemplating that job offer you got from a LinkedIn recruiter. I've had my fair share of bad bosses, and I would usually end up venting all my frustrations to my husband, or to other frustrated co-workers.
I've been doing some research, looking for the most ergonomic set up for my body. I just purchased a new desk, an awesome Humanscale keyboard tray (I'll review this one soon), and a new mouse. But the most challenging task for me has been finding a good chair.
I don't know many people who wear headbands—as a matter of fact, I've never even met one—but it appears headbands might still be a popular item at least in other parts of the world. Thanko is a Japanese store known to carry some strange gadgets, and a sure place to find the Vonia BT Sports bone conduction headband.
Today's social Web 2.0 hipsters want their entertainment, and they want it fast. Looks like Sony Ericsson will not be ignoring their needs, but instead introducing a phone that's all about meeting social needs online and off.
Star Wars will be celebrating its 30th anniversary this summer (May 24-May 28), and rumor has it the United States Postal Service (USPS) is revamping 300 of its old-school blue boxes by dressing them up in R2D2 graphics. While nothing is official yet, it's hard to argue with these pictures of R2D2 mailboxes in formations awaiting their marching orders.
Simply put, a web hosting company is able to store your web site's contents on a server to make the web page accessible to others on the World Wide Web. Most web hosting companies want you to register your domain name first in order to set up your account, but if you haven't, they will offer to do it for you. So here's a tip: Never let anybody else register your domain name, no exceptions. Don't be tempted by the host's free registration offer; doing so will only create problems for you in the future.
Sick of iPod accessories yet? The iPod accessory overload is far from being over, and Viewsonic's iPod projector is going to make a lot of iPod owners very happy. Remember when we thought how great it was to finally be able to download videos to the iPod? That feeling soon faded after watching hour-long TV shows on the tiny 2.5 inch screen. Then we spotted the ViewSonic ViewDock, and thought, "Aha! now we can watch those videos on a bigger screen." Unfortunately, that didn't work either because videos couldn't be played straight from the iPod; and yes, we're all still wondering what the whole point of an integrated iPod dock on an LCD screen was all about.
One of the top headlines of the day is about rising gas prices throughout the nation. An AP report says that prices have gone up an average of 20 cents per gallon nationwide in the past two weeks. San Francisco has the highest average price of $3.10 per gallon, while Alaska has the lowest.
One reason instructional videos are so popular is because they teach us how to accomplish a task in very short period of time, as opposed to reading a whole book that covers far too many details. If you're a visual learner like me, then you might enjoy a British site called Video Jug full of short clips explaining how to do just about anything in three minutes or less.
I started reading this article by NewsFactor on Yahoo! News regarding the new Sony DSC-G1 wireless digital camera, and I couldn't help but imagine the possibilities the future holds. First, let me tell you more about this digital camera. As a member of the Cyber-shot line, the DSC-G1 is slightly thicker than newer models, yet it does what no other Cybershot camera has been able to do. It can send photos wirelessly to a computer or up to four other digital cameras simultaneously as long as they are Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) capable. This 6-megapixel digital camera can store up to 7,500 VGA quality or 600 full-resolution photographs in its 2GB of built-in memory! That's insane.
We're all guilty of spending a good chunk of company time sitting in our cubicle catching up on our blog reading, updating our social network profiles, or scanning the latest headlines on the RSS reader, among other things. This month alone has employers worried that hoops fans will be spending more time on ESPN.com than on the projects at hand due to March Madness. It can get really uncomfortable when the boss pops in to see how a project is coming along, and instead he finds you watching a basketball game on CBS Sports. Yikes! Talk about embarrassing.
I live in sunny California, but even I tend to get depressed when I'm too busy to go outside during the day. Some people even develop a disorder called S.A.D (seasonal affective disorder), which comes from the lack of exposure to natural sunlight. This disorder causes you sleep more, and/or turn to sweets when depression sets in. So until you head to the beach for spring break, let me introduce you a sunshiny alternative that will alter your mood year round.
Ricky Montalvo, who coined the phrase technosexual a few years ago, says a "technosexual is a geek in need of style, and the stylish in need of geek." In other words, the edgy, chic-geeks of today who carry several designer gadgets in their messenger bags, and are all about the Web 2.0 lifestyle. The New York Timessays yet another corporation is going after the web-savvy, technosexual crowd more interested in electronics, and less impressed with current fashion or celebrity fragrances. Calvin Klein wants to revive its once popular unisex fragrance by passing it off as the fragrance for thumb-texting technosexuals "whose romantic lives are defined in part by the casual hookup."
Comments
I was in total technological awe, till I saw the blurb "and now prepare to die". I note the "monster" looking part appears to be coming out of the canadian portion so shouldnt that read "Prepare to die, eh?"
Dextre.
Canadian for "Giant Robotic Tiki God!"
Looks like a giant break dancer to me
Yeah, it's real great and all, but the thing comes down to Florida every year for the winter and drives 15 in a 45. He also wears Canadian flag thongs to the beach in January.
Yes, I'm from Florida.
They had to go with the French spelling for Dexter, didn't they?
@combat chuck:
well, they are CANADIAN
@combat chuck: Everyone give Chuck a minute to wake up this morning.
It's okay man. Happens to the best of us. :)
"half a fraction of an inch"
What's that in centimeters? ;-)
Dextre has to be an acronym for something. Anyone? Seriously, what was the last time any piece of equipment went into orbit whose name wasn't an acronym?
@Barcard: a few
Yeah actual space stuff and real science are sooo unhip compared to iPods and plastic toys. (?)
If you are building a LEGO Millennium Falcon in your home (and at this point I'd have to say it's a growing "if" unless you're doing the time lapse thing BoingBoing Gadgets beat you to weeks ago) you can probably manage a little joy to be witnessing REAL and ACTUAL developments in space without fear of it appearing to damage your hipster cred with the Gizmodians or anybody else.
I know for a fact that you were filled with wonder and joy at the things we're doing in space because I think that's the kind of person you are, so THERE! :p
Be a booster. We can't get into space without 'em.
@Geisrud:
Demonic
Extra-terrestrial
Xenomorph
Threat
Retaliation
Exterminator
George Bush was quoted as saying, "You go get them there space Aliens, Dex... Dax... You go get 'em Dippy!"
Oh Canada, oh Canada, your robots best not error
Oh Canada, oh Canada, they would induce some terror
@Geisrud:
Dextre (Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator)
Oh you like it now. But just wait until it demands you only talk to it in French, joins a union and sits around the Space Station on strike, drinking beer and playing with his hockey stick telling everyone how it could have made it to the NHL if only its engineers weren't such hosers and programmed it how to skate like good, eh.
(Go Flames Go)
pfft. At best it's an artificial Canadian... Seriously... Where's it's toque? :P
And yes I am Canadian.
@Amsterdaam - KEEP SMILING: Hey! You guys have a huge military that the MP force alone can take over our country... We have spooky people that trek down to Florida in questionable garb and Celine Dion.
P.S. You can keep her.
Ummm, "all with a precision of half a fraction of an inch" is still just a fraction of an inch. All that sentence shows is that a dumb writer is trying to make his message stronger by saying something that actually doesn't make any sense.
Besides, doesn't NASA do most, if not all of their work with metric now? I know the Canadians do. And since the robot is Canadian made, wouldn't the proper and more precise terminology would be more along the lines: "all the precision of .5mm of control?"
/former news producer
//stickler for proper copy, use of English
Where is Johnny Sokko when we need him? Who else can possibly control this metal monster??
@mrsteve007: Yes, I concur.
It's the old Carlin Conundrum: If you take a crumb, and cut it in half, is that two crumbs, or two halves of a crumb?
@mrsteve007: If we have to start making this all proper english, or even lucid, most of the posts and comments will cease. I dont know about everyone else, but I read Giz for substance and not for style.
Now see? Canada is gonna take over the WERLD!
I wonder if it thinks the iPod on the dash is its runt cousin?
I saw some of this action on NASA TV live on the web too. They put a lot of work to put that thing together over the weekend and past couple of days. It's cool as hell to watch this live and also live-track the location of the shuttle and the ISS. It's freakin' flying right along at like 17000mph. Cool. Hey, I'm married okay. I get it all the time :)
um, since this is all about scientific achievement and all, exactly how long is "half a fraction of an inch" ? ;)
@islandhopper: A hair over a smidge.
@Barry99705:
In Canada they call that a coozie hair
I knew Canada was spending their military budget on something. I mean you can't be a huge country like that and not have a huge military budget. Now we know...
I for one welcome our new Canadian controlled Robot Overlords.
@apeguero: your married AND you get it all the time?
You can't understand.
You're frightened because you can't understand it.
I'm going to show you.
I'm going to show all of you.
It takes 430 people to man a starship.
With this, you don't need anyone.
One machine can do all those things
they send men out to do now.
Men no longer need die in space
or on some alien world.
Men can live
and go on to achieve greater things
than fact-finding
and dying for galactic space,
which is neither ours to give or to take.
You can't understand.
We don't want to destroy life.
We want to save it.
Thanks Dr. Daystrom, for trying to save us from ourselves..
too bad one power glitch can render it totally unusable.
I give it less than a year of functionality.
@Curves: And that is why Gawker sites post 40+ items per day of terribly-written faux-reporting copy.
@mrsteve007: Continue the crusade.
To clarify, the Canadian Space Agency website says that Dextre has "millimetre level positioning accuracy" (1/25th of an inch for metric-resisters).
@mrsteve007: Yeah, you are right. I was writing while I was listening to the comments from the presenter and just didn't do research for precise data. I should have, but I just wanted to put the images, which to me were the biggest thing as we have written about the bot and its technical features before. I'll add the info. Oh, yes, and you are banned for being a douchebag.
@strider_mt2k: Watching science is not sad. What I meant is that I spent two hours watching people moving in slooooooowmoooootion as the put the final touches on the bot. LEGO is still in construction. But it won't be time lapse. It will be another thing.
@mrsteve007: "doesn't NASA do most, if not all of their work with metric now? I know the Canadians do."
huh? wait... we do? I'm Canadian and work in Canada and only about 2% of my work is metric.
@Topcat: Yeah, 40+ posts terribly-written post so you can read and terribly write inaccurately comments on.
"millimetre level positioning accuracy" (1/25th of an inch for metric-resisters)."
I'm afraid that's also inaccurate: it's 2 millimeter incremental positioning accuracy (1/12 inch) and 6 millimeters relative to the target (1/4 inch)
Thanks for playing.
@Jesus Diaz: I quoted I was sourcing the CSA's public website for Dextre, which leaves it vaguely at "millimetre scale" (hence quotations). If I'd read the fact sheet initially, I would've quoted the exact numbers.
@Jesus Diaz: No, please, Mr. Jesus Diaz, please, oh, please, do not wield the deadly banhammer! Topcat is merely standing up for what he believes is right! I am sure he means no disrespect, Mr. Jesus Diaz! Spare him from the ugliness of the wicked blows of your banhammer! Put it back in its banhammer-hammock for another time! There will come a day, Mr. Jesus Diaz, when deadly banhammer may be loosed freely on the recalcitrant population, but Topcat is but a waif, a naif, a child among the fierce tigerousness of Gizmodo!! Spare him in the name of all that is sacred, Mr. Jesus Diaz!
@ps61318: Um, he banned the OTHER guy.
I might remind anyone who dislikes the posts or form of Giz (I dont go to any of the other Gawker sites), that they CAN go the hell BACK to work and not read it.....
NASA, like all of science, has ALWAYS used the metric system for everything they do.
@Geisrud:
Deadly EXra Terrestrial Robotic Enigma
@ps61318: I didn't ban him. We don't ban people for disagreeing. We only ban them for acting like douchebags.
@Topcat: If I had read the spec sheet before, I would have quoted it too. But as I said, I just wrote by ear while listening to the live broadcast.
"I was watching it live on NASA TV and grabbed these shots (yes, I am that sad) of this fully-assembled gigantastic space spider"
Hey, thats not sad at all! I've been keeping the NASA TV feed running continuously on my second monitor ever since the launch last Tuesday, watched the ISS docking and all spacewalks so far. Some people could care less, I suppose, but to me, these dudes are friggin' floating around in OUTER SPACE, and we get to watch live! I could watch for hours on end, on pins-and-needles the whole time. There's no better reality TV.
Not bad. You'd think a robot by Dexter would shoot fireballs or sumthin', or a least dodgeballs.
+ Watch video
'Dextre' is French, from the Latin word 'Dextra', meaning dextrous, or right-handed. I wonder if the space station's going to get a Sinistra arm as well?
Time to die stupid humans!
Smart! Naming a giant space-robot after a TV serial killer! I'm gonna sleep in the basement tonight.
@Beelzeboss: It also means demonstrating good skills. Like diestro in spanish (Diestro in spanish, btw, also means "bullfighter"). That's why they put that name to the bot.
Sinistra will probably be the name of the maintenance bot in Spectra's secret space station.
I think Gizmodo should run more articles with "Giant Space Robot" in the headline.
@Brian Sexton: In their headlines, that is.
Is it a bending unit? And will it be last 992 years to befriend (currently) frozen pizza delivery boys?
@LastVigilante: it's always fascinating to watch pictures from up there, I find myself doing it for hours on end.
@Jesus Diaz: Oh, that's very different.
Never mind.
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