Under the 2019 Christmas Tree

I got a couple of great robot surprises under the Christmas tree this year. I wasn't expecting either!

My wife, Dawnell, got me this cool long-sleeve T-shirt from Cafe Press. It is based, of course, on the Vitruvian Man drawing made by Leonardo da Vinci, but with a bot theme.

The other surprise was from my children. It is an inexpensive little bot called Novie.  It is available at lots of retailers (including Amazon and Walmart) for under $15. A feature-rich bot for the price - with multi-color LED eyes, IR distance sensors/receivers, a speaker for cool sounds (some naughty a bit rude!) - it has three "training" modes and you can teach it tricks using your hands. Tracy and Thomas got me the red model.

Here are some photos from the website, a couple of commercials for Novie (highlighting the "fart-nado" feature - spinning with sound), and a "training" video. You'll see that there is lots of fun for the price!

What a great Christmas! It is always nice to get a robotic treat under the tree. I hope you got something too!  

Merry Christmas from R.U.S.

Merry Christmas from Robotics Under the Stole - with hopes you find something robotic on or under your tree!

A new robot ornament on our tree this year!

Last Week's Video Friday!

Saw this first at IEEE Spectrum's Video Friday - Video Friday: These Robots Wish You Happy Holidays! - Your yearly selection of awesome holiday robot videos - By Evan Ackerman, Erico Guizzo and Fan Shi. Check all the videos out here!  Here are a couple of good ones...

Don We Now Our Gay Apparel!

Forget that ugly Christmas sweater. Check out these Robotic Christmas Ts from calamityware.com They have all sorts of fun robotic stuff - including fine chinaware!

Fa la la la la!

P2 Evaluation Board

Always fun when a package arrives from Rocklin, California, and Parallax! The limited-edition Propeller 2 ES Eval Board Rev B is designed for experimentation and characterization of the Propeller 2 multicore microcontroller engineering samples (2nd samples, Rev B silicon).  This P2 is the newest silicon from Parallax and has been 14 years in development.

Edit: It's alive! 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving from Robotics Under the Stole! I am thankful for all of you and all you've taught me, and all you've shared. Thanks for reading too!

Image Credit: Thanksgiving | Robot Turkey 2.0 - Wisconsin Magpie

Holiday News from Parallax!

Great holiday news from my friends at Parallax. First up, for Thanksgiving week:

Mark your calendar! BIG Savings start Wednesday, November 27th! Free shipping + discounts. You won't want to miss it! 🤖

And for the Christmas season:

Parallax Staff Picks are coming Tuesday, 11/26! Let us help you with your Holiday Gift Giving! Find out what our favorites are and why! 🎁 Our Holiday Gift - Giving Guide coming soon!

Ken Gracey said, "There’s some fun stuff in there! I’ll need your picks for the next newsletter, Whit and Carol and Eric and Nikos Giannakopoulos!"

My reply, I "Will make my list and check it twice...!" This reminds of when I was little and the Sears "Wishbook" would come out! Nothing like something fun to play with under the tree!