Programming robots at home: almost like work.

Inspired by Tjaart,  I convinced Carina that the Mindstorms NXT 2.0 Lego robot kit is and excellent birthday present. The following is a video of game designed and programed over two weekends. I will also say that the programming can also be done in a variant of C++, and therefore programing robots it is almost like work.



R

Geocaching

This weekend we tried out a new hobby/activity, geocaching (http://www.geocaching.com/). Geocaching is a "real-world outdoor treasure hunting game". Thousands of people around the world hide "treasures" named caches, and put the coordinates on the geocaching website. The aim is then to find the cache. The cache usually is some kind of small trinket, which you can either leave there or replace with something of a higher or similar value. Also in the "treasure chest", usually a small lunch box, is a log book, where you can record your name and the date you found it. You can then also update your online profile and register your finds. Most treasures have a short description of the history or significance of the site in which it is hidden. This Saturday we located 6 caches in the Norby forest and Hågadalen, not far from our home. It was not always easy to find the caches but we enjoyed the experience a lot and will surely do it again. It gives you the opportunity to go out in nature and learn a bit more about the places.

Thanks Marcin for recommending this to us!

Below are a few pictures from the outing.

C&R

A visit to the homeland

We visited South Africa during July. We thought that by experiencing the extreme cold of Sweden, that winter in South Africa would be easy to handle. We, however, forgot that the houses in SA are not at all prepared to handle cold weather; and when its 5 degrees outside, the inside temperatures are around 11. Thus we had 2 very cold weeks and now we know again why winters in South Africa IS cold... its the houses.

Even though we were cold most of the time, we had a very nice time seeing our family and friends again. We visited a holiday resort "Klein Kariba" in the bushveld that is a bit more north and thus a bit warmer, we stayed with Ronnies family in Boksburg (close to Johannesburg) and stayed for a while with my family somewhere in the central parts of SA (close to nowhere in particular). The video clip below show some of the highlights of our visit with interesting animals and interesting family :)



R&C

Plans for Summer: Going to the Southern Hemisphere.

During summer in Sweden, we have the feeling that the world is depopulated. This effect is due to everyone going to some secluded summer cabin or island, or just leaving the country for a holiday abroad. We decided to join and will be going to South Africa for two weeks. This however meant that the last few weeks we were quite busy preparing to our trip, finishing off a lot of work and planning things after our return. The amount of work is also slightly more since Carina went to Denmark for a week, I am going to a conference in August and we are moving in September. We are therefore looking forward to a bit of a break and will post again once we are back in the North.

R&C

Quick trip to Denmark.

I went to Denmark for a workshop last week. Here are three photos of this beautiful harbor city. We plan to go again and wil spend more time exploring the city and experiencing Danish culture.

C

Rennes (3 of 3): Eating in France

This is the last (and slightly delayed) post on our trip to Rennes during May 2011. It will be only about the food we had. It is well known that we like to eat and that France has good food. It is difficult to describe how we feel about eating especially where they have some talent for fresh well prepared food so we recommend the following video (in full screen) to convey some of our experiences:



For more information on the rest of out trip click here or here.

R&C

p.s. many thanks to Francois and his parents for hosting us with an excellent barbecue.

p.p.s. thanks again to Weronica, Xia and Zheya for the photos.

Rennes (2 of 3): St. Malo and Rennes.

After our visit to Mont St. Michel we went to St. Malo. Here we spent the afternoon walking on the fortification wall of the city, enjoying the seaside view. We also had some ice-cream at Sanchez's ice-cream parlor (more about this in the next blog). St. Malo is about an hours drive from Rennes. Below are some photos of the afternoon.

 

 Fortified wall.

View of the sea (note the old sailing ship in the bay).

Zheya on the wall.

Francois and Maria.

 

Apartments where you could keep an eye on the English-channel.

The conference we attended was in Rennes. This is a lovely city and also the capital of Brittany. Some of the buildings date back to the 15th century and we spent a lot of time wandering between the wooden/concrete/modern buildings, all flowing into each other. Many of the shops sell stuff to eat and the whole next blog will be dedicated to the reason why we love France…food :) Below are some pictures of Rennes.

View from the street.

 

Beautiful old church. 

Old fortified city gates with drawbridge.  

Both St. Malo and Rennes are well worth a visit.

R&C

p.s. Again many thanks to Weronica, Xia and Zheya for the photos, Francois and Maria for hosting us, as well as everyone else for providing a very entertaining time (see also our adventures at Mont St. Michel).

p.p.s. leave a comment if you can't wait to see food :)