First Lego League

This week the Newlands Primary School team completed their first challenge of the competition. They programmed the robot to release the syringe and get it back to base - with the robot returning to a well-defined position on the board. There's still some refinement needed to the construction of the tool that pushes the release handle, but that should be our first 25 points in the bag. Only another 375 points to go......

The boys don't seem very interested in the project element of the challenge. Some of the girls came up with a list of possible research areas and voting seemed to stick around "constipation". I wonder if they will come up with any solid ideas about how to design an innovative solution. Hmmm.

Bookshelf blues

My bookshelves filled up years ago, but there's no end to my acquisition of books. There's a steady flow of technical books to the attic, where they gather dust and are never thought of again. Fiction, on the other hand, gets lent out almost as quickly as it arrives.

This week my Kindle 3 arrived, heralding respite for bookshelf and attic (and a less open lending regime for fiction). First impressions are good - it's small, light, really easy to read. The Wi-Fi and 3G work as advertised and the web browser is basic, but usable.

The cost of Kindle books isn't significantly different from the cost of the print versions, though, so it's not financially feasible to replicate my reference collection on the Kindle. It be nice if you could exchange your print copy for an electronic version. I'd be happy to pay a modest upgrade price even. Could this be a business model waiting to be developed?