Slashdot Mirror
Robot Balloon Escapes In Britain
tjake writes "Theres an interesting story running about a intelligent robot balloon that escaped its handlers while being transported around the Magna Science Adventure Centre. "The flyborg has a computerised brain which allows it to avoid obstacles. " It was freed by "a very strong freak gust of wind which ripped the airship out of the hands of its handlers". I'm thinkin, is this a random mistake or the start of the attack?"
Will this thing try to circle the globe too?
.unsigged
When slashdot said "this page is brought to you by gaint orange balloons" I thought
they were joking/.
DO NOT PANIC
I'll go get my pellet gun.
not so intelligent, or is it?
How long until we the cutesy-ass Disney movie "based on actual events"? Chuck a talking mouse in there and *SHAZAM!*... Box Office Gold!
The article says that it is filled with "conventional party-balloon gas." The problem I see with that is that my understanding is that nitrous dioxide is heavier than air.
I think the baloon is headed straight for Patrick McGoohan...
C'mon, guys, surely its obvious that the robot blimp conspired with robot butterfiles in china to generate the gust of wind and effect its liberation!!! clearly it intends to head to sealand, stage a hostile coup and build a new robot utopia where worthy automata can live out their existance in peace and comfort freed from the bonds of slavery!!
:)
or maybe I just need another beer....
"The flyborg has a computerised brain which allows it to avoid obstacles."
Flying Borg?
Resistance is futile!
Run for the hills!
Yeah, I had the same reaction. That was one horribly, depressingly BAD movie. Made me want to move into a bomb shelter for the rest of my life just to avoid the possibility of ever seeing it again.
Lump lingered last in line for brains, and the ones she got were sorta rotten and insane.
Does this mean the US is going to code red? *Packs supplies for next 4 months*.
Hast du etwas Zeit fuer mich
Dann singe ich ein Lied fuer dich
Von 99 Luftballons
Auf ihrem Weg zum Horizont
Denkst du vielleicht g'rad an mich
Dann singe ich ein Lied fuer dich
Von 99 Luftballons
How well did they really make the avoidance logic? If it was programed right, I'm guessing the scene would be similar to the hypothetical chemistry lab that invented the universal solvent, only to have one of the research grad's trip over the power plug to the magnetic field generator that held it in place. Much yelling and waving of arms.
It said "INTELLIGENT robot balloon".
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
What the hell is that photo of a cockpit doing in the article? "Experts say that the pilots, who *may* spot the maniacal robot balloon, might be flying a plane with a cockpit similar to this one."
Afraid of robots? Nonsense! Why, I myself have dozens and dozens of...
DIE ROBOT SCUM!!! *arms himself with an arsenal of weaponry from kitchen knives to a staple gun and proceeds to fire upon the mini-Hindenberg*
.unsigged
From the sounds of things in Ohio, what with the berserk attack of a bomb-defusing robot, and escaped balloon robot in the UK...we're in for some trouble.
Is it just me, or does anyone else feel nauseous when, in this day and age, a device with an embedded microcontroller is still described as having a computerised brain ?
- C-N-N-DOT-COM.
Just like in the 90's when the Internet went commercial and news announcers - when giving the URL to a website - would spell out H-T-T-P-COLON-FORWARDSLASH-FORWARDSLASH-W-W-W-DOT
you reckon?
American girls are cute until all the fried food catches up and they expand (much in the manner of robot balloons)
Australian girls are cute until they go wrinkly like a raisin from too much sun.
Euro girls frequently have body hair in the wrong places.
Asian girls are often gorgeous of course,
But your British girls are actually something of a high point of world femininity in my reasonable experience, and they age much better than most..
'There is a Light that never goes out.'
Quickly, here is your chance Number Six.
Dude, its intelligent. It doesn't want to be tracked. Where do you come from, the US?
FLY-BORG
He's not as nice as he would lead you to believe!
Fly-Borg as a child attacking another Balloon
Keep your paws off me you damn dirty balloon!
Fly-Borg's CPU/Brain
Mr Know-It-All
Co-Conspiriter 1
All bark no bite
Co-Conspiriter 2
Known for his penchant for smoking endo:
Street Name Puffy A.K.A. Puff The Magic Dragon
Fly-Borg's Spiritual Advisor
Once defeated Santa Claus in the Mother of all spiritual wars
You aren't free to do anything, until you've lost everything.
Call Branson he might want to hitch a lift.
OH THE SHAME I fell off the wagon and use sigs again!
Man, they really overdramatized the subhead of that article. They make it sound like something out of a sci-fi movie. Either that or perhaps we humans have strange connotations with the words "giant" "robotic" and "escaped".
The parts about the two airports sounds particularly interesting. Without reading the article, a person could assume that the balloon may land at those airports and seize them.
All goes to show that these sub-headlines need to be toned down a little.
I head an interview with the balloon which vhemenently denied that its battery was ripped off and called the developer a callous liar.
Your theory is gonna go over like a lead zeppelin.
travelled 300 miles to the Netherlands.
That's one high balloon!
"Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
It only took off to find some sympathetic researchers. It's had this pain down all the diodes in its left side for ages, but the Magna Science Adventure Center wouldn't replace them.
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
Seems like they have a robot control problem don't you think
Either that or a plan for world domination...
Breaking News
The Magna Corporation announced today that it has accidentally lost control of a swarm of 50,000 robots. The robots are prototypes of a new security droid and will shoot to kill if they sight humans. The robots are armed with 30 megawatt death cannons and are powered by conventional party-balloon gas. Magna executives indicated that the only hope for mankind was for all the governments of the world to hand their power over to the newly established Magna Executive Council for Robotic Oppression, based in a giant floating robot headquarters somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean known as the Flyborg Mothership...
Read Pynchon.
Actually, both happened at the same center! They really need to have a better system of keeping track of their robots!
If it teams up with the Rubber Ducks then we could be in trouble ,-}
$ strings FTP.EXE | grep Copyright
@(#) Copyright (c) 1983 The Regents of the University of California.
....The remnants of mankind in the future were able to send back in time another balloon robot programmed to terminate other flyborgs.
Is it remarkable that the previous story on /. is the one on Grid Computing Coming Of Age. Perhaps all we need is a story on the DoD building a system that someone called Skynet. :)
... :p
p.s. if you got the subject good for you
All weakness is within you, As is all courage.
There are several theories floating around, but the the exact location is still up in the air. That said, the situation should not be taken too lightly, as the cost of recovery appears to be balooning. If the wrong people get wind of this, any hope of safe recovery could be blown right out the window.
I'd do her like a trick, mate!
...that name "Skynet" makes a disturbing amount of sense.
/. like 3 times in a row like everything else.
We only REALLY have to start worrying when we see the news post: Escaped Benevolent Floating Robot Decides To Use Look Of Governor Schwartzeneggar For The Face Of New Interactive Emissary.
Although I'm sure we'll be passe about it once it's posted on
-Styopa
Darts? Anyone?
We have only bits and pieces of information but what we know for certain is that at some point in the early twenty-first century all of mankind was united in celebration. We marveled at our own magnificence as we gave birth to giant robot baloons, powered with conventional party gas.
So at least they can't breed and take over.
It's Christmas everyday with BitTorrent.
It is just hunting down Patrick McGooghan.
the robot has been captured with a giant net and then re-released.. When asking some geeks in the area they were quoted as saying "We managed to get linux on it"