332221222 is up!

Back and busier than ever.

I'm back in NY/NJ and working for the apple store on 5th avenue. Things are crazy there, since the new iPhone 3G is out in stores.

At home, I'm working on my entry for the 2008 Parallax Propeller Design Competition. I don't think I should talk much about it here, but it's going to be a lot of fun, even if it doesn't work quite right.

I'm also doing a lot of reading from the NYU Library's AI section in order to gear up for a project I'll be doing this fall semester. I'm not sure which, but I'll either be programming a chatbot or a program that guesses at pictionary. Either one would be a blast. I'm leaning towards the latter, but my advisor for the project is going to be Professor Dougherty, (a computational linguistics professor), so I think he's going to lean towards the former. In any case, I'm giving myself a crash course in AI concepts and techniques, so I can be ready (and build my resume) for grad school in 1 year.

I hope you all are AOK.

A New Kind of Something?

I'm here at NKS Summer School and I'm learning a lot. There are about four lectures every day by very interesting people on very interesting topics. I'm also working on a very ambitious machine vision project. It's half modeling (of the human visual pathway) and half technology (I hope it will be useful).

I've met and talked with Stephen Wolfram a little, and he seems to be an intensely smart person (I guess there's a reason he got his PhD at 20). NKS makes a lot of broad pronouncements, but I think there is some truth to be found, and I hope to find it.

I've also made some friends, some of whom also go to NYU, but others who are scientists or programmers, or some combination thereof. I'm having a lot of fun, and working diligently on my project. Wish me luck.

Mac Specialist, Rob Lockhart

I got the job at the Apple Store and I spent the last week training. Tomorrow I'm moving back home to NJ. My life is changing very quickly, I hope for the better.

I am now a part time Mac Specialist. I am making my preparations for NKS Summer school the priority now, and putting the fabber off until I return.

There is also an Apple store project I would like to undertake, but I need to find a genius to work with me. As with everything specific at Apple, I can't talk about it.

Keep on keepin' on.

Time to Focus-- On What?

Wai's shoot is over, so I'm staring a month of free time in the face. I have obligations, of course, but I also have several projects lined up--

1. The Fabber. I may have an opportunity to get paid to do this. If not, I can't afford it.
2. Mathematica. I want to work on either image recognition or behavioral algorithms. Image recognition seems a lot more difficult, but more worthwhile in a way. Behavioral algorithms has the advantage of working in #3.
3. Sun SPOT. I won two of these amazing microcontrollers at an ACM meeting and I haven't done a damn thing with them. I feel that I should, and soon.
4. Propeller design competition. I haven't started my entry which is due in September.

in addition, I HAVE TO edit Thoroughly Modern Millie, a high school production I taped and which must go on sale soon.

Write me and let me know how you think I should prioritize these projects.

My Last Act as Film Student

I am currently helping with what could possibly be the last film I ever work on. That is not to say that this film is driving away, I have just decided on a different path for my life. A more robot-cluttered path.
Meantime, making the film is a lot of fun. The director is Wai Choy (yes, The Wai Choy), a close personal friend of mine, and a really good director. I am assistant directing and sound mixing (how can someone do both??) A side benefit is that my food expenses have decreased to zero. A side disadvantage is that I have no time to study or look for another job. In retrospect it was probably very unwise to help with this film, but I agreed to it long before I knew the problems I would be facing.
It's not easy being a robot guy in NYC. It's shocking how the tech entrepreneurship atmosphere is so different in California. If you have a good technology idea, you can pretty much crowdsurf to the bank.

The similarities between filmmaking and startups are notable: Both are based in California. Hollywood has Producers, Silicon Valley has it's VCs. A film and a great piece of technology both take thousands of man-hours and involve a technically-informed style of creativity. I can't think of any more, but there are likely many.

Back to Work

Right now I am living very much as I imagine an apprentice classical composer must have lived. I take on students, I do work for my maestro(s), and I try to fit in some time to work on my own projects- hoping that one day my work will have an audience.

-Rob