« September 2005 | Main | November 2005 »
October 12, 2005
Sodaplay!
We were thinking of starting out the year with some LEGO Mindstorms play, but they do take a lot of effort to cart all the way across the building. Also, the machines in the Multimedia Lab won't yet run ROBOLAB correctly, so it involves a bit of fiddling to get programs onto the Mindstorms. So, Christian suggested we play with Soda Play. This wacky microcosm of a universe allows you to create "creatures" with nothing more than point-masses, springs, and "muscles" that drive those springs. Fortunately, my housemates invaded CSCS this week to deliver birthday cake and gifts, so we had two "impartial" judges to bestow the prizes for the "best" creations. Not that there were any criteria for "best"; mostly, Katerina and Poul just decided what they liked, and awarded the fair-trade chocolate bars I had purchased earlier as prizes. (They were white chocolate with crunchies for fourth place, milk chocolate, milk chocolate with crunchies, and dark chocolate for first place. This ordering is because I like white chocolate the least, dark chocolate the most, and milk chocolate is more palatable if it has crunchies in it.)Posted by mjadud at 12:53 PM