Kitchen Remodel
Several of you had asked me about my kitchen remodel where I had posted the renderings on my social feeds:
Well you wanted actual pictures and while I refrained from blogging about it (I stick to technical hacky stuff) my mother-in-law sure took lots of pictures and blogs about it (since it is her husband doing the work 
)
Here is her blog were you can keep up with the remodel: Merry Heart Crafts
They finished what we contracted them for on Friday. All we have to do now is get the painter to come out (My sister) and finish it up.
A typical Sunday morning at the bates house. Two brothers that love their sister. Iftttb
A typical Sunday morning at the bates house. Two brothers that love their sister.
My father in law (who lives with us) would love nothing more than to have a Dodge Ram 1500. He sa…
My father in law (who lives with us) would love nothing more than to have a Dodge Ram 1500. He says the entire thing at once… "I want a Dodge Ram fifteen-hundred". This commercial made his day. It also made mine as we saw it together and he said something remarkable that resonated with me enough to share.
He is a vietnam war vet and he wears his army jacket every-were, He sleeps with a quilt that looks like the american flag and say's a prayer over every meal. He is a true american in my eyes. I can only wish to be as patriotic as he is.
He said after the commercial, that is why you buy from american companies. They have a genuine interest in the success of our country. They share our successes and our failures and we theirs.
If you think about the history of Daimler Chrysler you can notice a pattern.
Buy American, or American Made.
David Bates – Owner of a PT Cruiser deemed the most unique car in america that is now worth as much as my computer system
iftttb
The Landscape of Robotics, Technology, and the DIY age
The Landscape of Robotics, Technology, and the DIY age
10 years ago people feared robots, artificial intelligence, and in general automation. If you think about it when robotic assembly lines were first introduced thousands of American’s lost their jobs to these machines. They didn’t like them. The machines could work for hours without a break, they didn’t have a union, and basically were seen as slave workers who performed the same jobs that the American’s did but did it cheaper, faster, and better than any human could.
This was seen as magic to many people, in fact, I remember talking to an ex-miner whose job was replaced by an automatic excavator. He described the machine as though it was a beast. Without heart, not needing rest… relentlessly gnawing at the dirt he said.
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from MAGIC.
– Arthur C. Clarke
These average workers didn’t understand that the machines made their lives easier; they didn’t want to train on how to use or repair them. They were happy doing the labor that they had been doing. Working for an honest pay. Hollywood saw this and decided to take advantage of it.
Movies like Terminator and War Games they showcased to the general public how bad computers could be. Even though it was all science fiction it still hit at a time when people could relate to it.
If we continue to develop our technology without wisdom or prudence, our servant may prove to be our executioner.
–Omar N. Bradley
Now fast forward to 2002 when the world got it’s first look at the Roomba. A household robot that actually helped make lives easier for people. Just about everyone had a computer. Artificial intelligence was only heard about from brainiacs and skynet was the Internet. Hollywood still was trying to push out a new Terminator or Battlestar Galactica and there were still holdouts that had either retired or were going to school to retrain on how to use computers. America had come out of a labor country and into a new age where everyone had jobs that required more brainpower and less brute force. Robots are seen as helpers not the evil overlords / magical beast we thought they were.
Technology is making gestures precise and brutal, and with them men.
–Theodor Adorno
Now fast forward to the present. Technology and robotics are accepted. We have more illegal immigrants doing the “hard labor” jobs in this country than we have American’s and high school students are graduating with an associate’s degree. We are in debt up to our eyeballs and the average entrepreneur has to take out a huge loan to get a business of the ground because of the level and cost of technology involved in everyday life.
However, we now mass-produce everything the same across a thousand units. We work in micrometers for accuracy in machining and yet anything hand-made is deemed to be better quality. Machines help us in every way from vending machines to arthroscopic surgeries.
Social Media brings the internet to the last few holdouts and we are now living in a time deemed the “Internet of Things” or as the Terminator crowd would put it “SkyNet”… but hey computers are dumb, they require an operator, right? We are reaching a time when every segment of technology is advancing faster and faster because everyone has a basic knowledge set and can speak the same language and if they can’t they at least know how to use “the Google”.
So with everyone knowing about robots, computers, programming, and sharing information the next phase is the DIY (Do It YourSelf) phase. Robot parts are cheap; you can buy a kit, or build it from scratch. The latest innovations are no longer coming from corporations or investors but rather 15-30yr old’s who just built something cool and want to share it with the world. Anybody today can be an inventor. Robots are seen as essential and robotic innovation is seen as a personal challenge.
As technology advances, it reverses the characteristics of every situation again and again. The age of automation is going to be the age of 'do it yourself.'
–Marshall McLuhan
Movies like WALL-E and Real Steal make robots emotional and cause us to be come attached. I would not be surprised if sometime before I die I have a Rosie the robot (Jetson’s) in my kitchen cooking breakfast, reminding me to brush my teeth, and kissing me on the cheek before I leave the house.
Just a random thought
David Bates
iftttb
I just got back from the doctors office
I just got back from the doctors office. And they said my knee is now realigning itself. Which is the reason I’m in a ton of pain. Now I have to wear this sexy knee brace. But I’m rocking it like a 13-year-old would braces. 
