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Hacking the Tux Droid

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the cutest-robot-ever dept.

Rockhopper writes "Ars Technica has a combo review/hack guide for the Tux Droid, a programmable penguin. 'Tux is completely programmable at practically every level, and all of the source code of the firmware and software used by the droid is available from Kysoh's version control repository. There are several ways to program the droid's behavior, ranging from modifying the firmware to coding a gadget in Python.' There's a sample Python script that will cause Tux to speak IRC messages out loud when the user's name is mentioned."

6 of 87 comments (clear)

  1. Yes but... by Hatta · · Score: 5, Funny

    Does it run Linux?

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    Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
  2. Re:Yet another... by larry+bagina · · Score: 5, Funny

    no shit. How many other people thought about shoving a greased up tux droid up their ass? well, you're thinking about it now!

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    Do you even lift?

    These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.

  3. Re:Droid! by Tablizer · · Score: 5, Funny

    Maybe it can even be... a friend?

    You plan to glue tits on it, don't you?

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    Table-ized A.I.
  4. Re:Seriously? by sumdumass · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Th problem with rebooting to solve problems is that it doesn't solve the problem, it just lessens the symptoms. In the windows world, the problem was typically memory management. But just like in the linux/BSD world, it can be other things like programs having rogue functions with unintended consequences when other programs or services are running.

    Anyways, Rebooting doesn't fix the problem, it only removes the symptom which mean you should still look for the cause whether your running windows or linux. In linux, or any *nix stile OS, there should be little reason to restart the system because of something your doing. It is just designed that way.

  5. Link for those who don't actually know what it is by sleeponthemic · · Score: 5, Informative

    I didn't know. http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/rc/9df0/

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    I record my sleeptalking
  6. you'd think it runs Linux by gradedcheese · · Score: 5, Informative

    I was curious so I looked up the embedded system inside the robot, it's an 8-bit Atmel AVR with supporting hardware. I figured that the Tux-shaped robot would at least be running Linux internally, for example they could have used a Gumstix board or the like. That said, AVR development is pretty fun (and you get to use gcc rather than some vendor tools) and this thing looks like a neat embedded toy.