So very very cool

I was over at Mick's place yesterday, and apart from listening to discussions about how ugly the new Ford Mustang is (it is ugly as sin) we went on the ThinkGeek site. I found two things of extreme interest.

The first one is the humble Trebuchet. Back in my younger, sillier days I was extremely interested in making one. I actually found some plans on how to make a full scale model and it wasn't that expensive. But now that I work in an office very much like the Dilbert World (including pointy haired boss) I find the need to enliven Club Ed a little. A trebuchet is the very thing. For those who don't understand why they built them instead of catapults (which are much simpler devices) is their longer range and increased accuracy. Which catapults, ballistas, et al which rely on the tension in either wood or gut for their power don't have. Trebuchets rely on gravity. I won't go into the physics of it. But it fires up to 20 feet. Accurately. And for a reasonable price.

Secondly, and the thing which has shot to the top of my must have list (including all car related equipment) is the SRV-1 Mobile Surveillance Robot. At uni I did programming and AI. Using Java. This thing operates using Java. I must have it. The possibilities are not quite endless but there are a lot of them. I wont enumerate them all but the fact I'm using words like enumerate means that I'm thinking quite heavily about them.

Someone else out there has to share my enthusiasm for the project surely. I haven't felt this geeky in a long long time. I feel the need to play DnD and talk about Star Trek and learn Klingon. To never see natural sunlight again. To live off pizza. To wear black and watch re-runs of science fiction shows. Start a buffy fan site. It's almost like I'm back at uni again :)