Years ago we did an event with the Boulder Public Library for Computer Science Education Week. One of the robot projects included making BiBli powered Raspberry Pi robots sing jingle bells.
Jalali Hartman
Fun Command Line Lessons for Beginner Programmers (Windows)
It’s an eye opening thing to understand how the command line works. Much of modern development especially that involving Linux – uses the command line. Hard core developers should be on a Linux (or Apple) computer but there are also plenty of exercises you can do with younger students to show them the basics – or to learn yourself if you are just starting out.
Every Windows computer comes pre-installed with a Command Line tool.
1. In the Windows search bar type ‘cmd’. This will bring up the command line application to run.
2. In the prompt type ping domain.com. Your computer will attempt to send that website a ping and show the results.
3. In the prompt type tracert robauto.ai. Your computer will display the network hops and time at each hop.
These 2 quick demos get students (9 years and older generally) thinking about how computers and networks connect and serve as a basis for additional learning and exploration.
What does Machine Learning have to do with SEO
Whether you like it or not, or even want to think about it, robots are already controlling your website. I can’t get into all of the different ways that a bot is probably impacting your revenue right now, but I do want to delve into Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for a minute.
SEO is one ways that for years ‘experts’ have supposedly been able to game search engines like Google and Bing in an effort to make their website rank higher than another.
The truth is – you can impact your SEO. By sending signals such as page speed, meta content, external validation and keyword focus you can actually train an SEO bot to view your site a certain way.
The algorithms that calculate the search results run very quickly to provide us with fast search results, but they run very slowly in terms of indexing the web.
Here is a very quick example:
The robauto.ai domain at the moment has a domain rank of 15. It’s indexed in Google very quickly because the content is always new and many people reference it.
We can signal Google’s Machine Learning that another website is valuable or interesting by linking to it in a certain way.
For example, let’s say we wanted to rank #1 for pressure washing jacksonville but our website is about pressure washing in sarasota.
Easy fix. Just signal the machine that it’s also about jacksonville by linking to it from other sites with authority in general, particularly pressure washing authority.
The Digitization Gap and Why You Need to Get Your Business Automated
I can’t remember when I first heard that term digitization gap but it was from Caleb Eastman. It refers to this gap where an organization can’t automate and digitize their business fast enough. There’s usually a gap between the skill set, expertise and budget that an organization has and the distance they need to get to in terms of automation, intelligence and general digital streamlining.
I don’t totally understand the market economics that have caused this to accelerate, I would guess less skilled people, aging infrastructure and more demand for online products and services.
I wrote in another post about how data is the new oil.
What to do it about?
That’s a great question and I am sure there consultants out there who have varying opinions. Consultants can help because they bring a skill set and extra resource that generally is required. Your organization still needs to adapt as a whole but Robauto for example does this type of work and we stay really busy.
There are a couple of steps you can take and questions you can ask as a leader:
1. How can I augment my team? Through hiring, re-training and outside contractors with specific experience.
2. Establish a baseline. You are embarking on a major shift in your business. It’s important to know where you are now so you can measure changes and make data-driven decisions.
3. Solution vs. Technology. Be wary of a platform that says it does it all. Instead think of the core dashboards, workflows and automations you need, and work to develop a seamless integration even using tools like Zapier to make new connections and visualizations of data.
Artemis Launches
NASA’s Artemis is a go.
At 1:47 AM Eastern Time the Artemis Rocket lifted off on what is a precursor for a future moon landing. The rocket housed Orion, which in this case doesn’t have any astronauts, only dummies.
NASA has provided some great resources on their website including what’s onboard, the flight path and information about the mission and technology and you can watch the official Artemis launch on their YouTube channel.
Elon Musk Deepfakes and the coming A.I. Tsunami
The face on this fake Elon Musk TikTok is pretty good. But as soon as the video starts you can see it’s a fake. The English is off and Elon doesn’t throw money around in TikTok videos.
A.I. isn’t to that point and may never be. But one thing it is good at already is this type of funny and strange content.
Here is the video:
How to ssh into a raspberry pi – or any computer
ssh is a secure protocol using port 22 on most computers to connect from one computer to another. To connect you simply need a username, IP address and password. For example, to connect to a raspberry pi I might use an IP sniffer app such as Fing to find the IP and then try default known usernames and passwords.
ssh pi@198.168.34.21
Pw: raspberry
Cellular Connectivity Options for IoT and Robotics
Cellular connectivity is harder than it should be in 2022. I’m not talking about your phone, these are devices (and platforms) that are already highly optimized to get online and stay online. But what if you have a basic need to get your IoT device or robot online – outside of the lab or range of wi-fi.
Of course, at an enterprise level there are numerous options for staying connected via cellular.
1. CradlePoint R1900 Series: This will keep your remote device connected anywhere. But at $2000 each it’s not for every application.
2. Arduino MKR 1500: This is a tricky one. While you can run a cellular plan (we use Hologram), it’s not going to give you an access point. Your application will need to run on the Arduino to have any chance. We found a number of issues with this so we made a cellular shield and software package for it here.