21–30 of 105 posts
Yes it can and we can.
Software has been a critical component of much progress we have made over the last few decades.
I understand the difficulty with the abstract many people have. Some may think Hilbert spaces are not real. For many they are as real as any space around them. Some live in them !
This is very interesting. But quite a lot of CS people -- well at least I hope it is not just me -- end up on the web development trajectory despite or because of having less than good enough understanding of e.g. trigonometry, geometry and calculus... all of which start to matter a lot when you are starting to make things; especially things that move and consume electricity. I am a good programmer but a weak mathema…
Web dev just has the best pay/perks for the amount of work.
But the pay/perks situation is dependent on putting up with a lot of corporate BS; if you're a solo developer, or the only developer in a small team, web stuff is hard, the task shrinks over time as things commoditise and you become more dependent on hosted offerings, and pays relatively poorly. I am tired and seeking a direction change before it is too late.
Literally the only topic on which I agree with Elon Musk is that more developers need to be persuaded to do something more interesting than getting dragged into web dev BS. And I wish I'd paid a lot, lot more attention in maths lessons away on topics that didn't have to do with logic.
(It is, nevertheless, amusing that it is web dev BS where Musk is getting his posterior handed to him)
This is very interesting. But quite a lot of CS people -- well at least I hope it is not just me -- end up on the web development trajectory despite or because of having less than good enough understanding of e.g. trigonometry, geometry and calculus... all of which start to matter a lot when you are starting to make things; especially things that move and consume electricity. I am a good programmer but a weak mathema…
Some trig and geometry is definitely useful—but it's quite limited to be honest. For most things you can use existing algebra libraries and for most things someone else has figured it out before!
My calculus is strongest; I can deal with that basically. My geometry is so poor that I am surprised I passed my maths A level.
These books excite me because they give back that, er, constructivist thing that has always appealed to me -- Piaget, Papert, Minsky.
I enjoyed your article, thank you for writing it.
Meh, maybe in a decade. ROS has no official support for it either. Robotics is still very much a C++ town and will probably remain as such for a long while as long as people remain stubbornly set in their ways. If you apply as a Rust only dev to a robotics company nobody will take you seriously.
Really wish the author would have commented on salary. I personally think the reason more people don't end up on the hardware/robotics side is that the questionable-value fintech/adtech/socialtech pure software side of the world pays so much better and most developers follow the money.
Nice article. As someone who's also gotten into robotics from the software side, I'd also suggest learning a bit about the hardware side. If you're doing anything with custom boards and board bring-up, you'll need to be able to read a schematic and data sheet at a basic level. Being able to use an oscilloscope and logic analyzer is also _very_ useful. None of this stuff is terribly hard, but it's nice to know what to…
What can you recommend to start experimenting at home with robotics? Raspberry Pi?
Really wish the author would have commented on salary. I personally think the reason more people don't end up on the hardware/robotics side is that the questionable-value fintech/adtech/socialtech pure software side of the world pays so much better and most developers follow the money.
There are certainly hardware companies that value software enough to pay well
I've occasionally thought it would be fun (not necessarily productive!) to do something like the experiments folks have done with Genetic Algorithms, having simulated robots learn to walk, etc. in a simulated physics environment. The interesting bit would be to do it with real legs, sensors, servos, etc., to try to build up a "naive physics" library that can deal with balance, etc., by learning from physical experien…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
What can you recommend to start experimenting at home with robotics? Raspberry Pi?
I guess that depends on your software background. If C/C++ is not a problem, I would recommend Arduino. I found it simpler to just upload your program as the sole brain of your MCU, rather than working with a Raspberry Pi with Linux and all the abstractions, devices, etc that goes with it.
Plenty of tutorials and libraries (often “working but not high-quality”) are available as well.
Even if c/c++ scares you a little, I’d still start there (I came from a long c/c++ background, but I’ve seen my kids be able to do it with not nearly as much help as I expected to give them).
Dirt cheap and readily available as well. Clones are fine; you don’t need the name brand Arduino boards.
Really wish the author would have commented on salary. I personally think the reason more people don't end up on the hardware/robotics side is that the questionable-value fintech/adtech/socialtech pure software side of the world pays so much better and most developers follow the money.
There are certainly hardware companies that value software enough to pay well