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am i alive?

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wtf bro, what be the problem

test test

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yes just a test

am i alive?

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Strange ... I finally upgraded the blog, but the first post after fixing the blog seems to have disappeared ... and we're back on an older version of WordPress. What's up?

test test.

-the Centaur

still not dead, but blog updates must wait …

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Okay, so some people are worried about me since I haven't posted in a while, so I thought I'd weigh in on what's going on - and explain why this will be the last update of the blog for a while, but hopefully, not forever.

As I mentioned earlier, I unexpectedly ran out of space to upload images to the blog - my reported quota was 35 gigabytes, but in practice the system craps out at 25. (And believe you me, it took a lot of debugging to figure that out).

This charming discovery happened right around the time that I spilled water on my laptop, which was a one-and-a-half week fix; that itself came in the middle of June, where I took 5 trips (Con Carolinas, the Nebulas, a Logical Robotics trip, CVPR/EAI, and Seattle) and was followed by July, where my wife and I, after almost five months of being mostly apart, had just two short weeks to catch up before her trip to go help her mother deal with the death of her stepfather. Not to mention the Unsolved Problems in Social Navigation Workshop, and The Neurodiversiverse copyedits and sensitivity edits. And Camp Nano, of course, far behind.

Good times, good times.

So, during all that, I didn't have time to update the blog's backend. Sorry.

Now, I've got a little free time, and I've started to do that - but it involves moving to a new provider, and that, itself, comes with a wrinkle. I'm going to have to copy all the data from the old provider, which is a painstaking process, since ~25GB and +25K files is far too large a file system for any normal FTP client to download without crashing. (And believe me, I've tried). So I have done the bulk of this copy now, but still have to verify that the files have correctly downloaded, which will actually involve writing a program to compare the trees, as I haven't found anything yet that will do that on a file tree this size over a connection this flaky.

Presuming success on that ... the next step is downloading the Library of Dresan database and migrating to the new provider.

So, if I blog any more here, I'm going to have to download that again. I already need to re-download this blogpost's image, as it wasn't in my first capture; but I wanted to test whether deleting the log files would have given me space to upload more images (it did). But downloading the database multiple times just because I can't stop blogging is a bridge too far.

SO! Until the migration is complete, I'm going to blog very sparingly, if at all. Sorry about that.

Hopefully it won't take too long.

-the Centaur

Pictured: A (mostly) vegan breakfast sandwich (except for the honey bread, since my favorite vegan bread was out at the store) - toasted bread, Just Egg, black salt and pepper, and two vegan patties from a new company whose name I can't remember; the ensemble of which always looks to me like a scream. Does that sandwich look right to you?

Unsolved Problems in Social Robot Navigation at RSS 2024

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Hey folks! I am proud to announce the Workshop on Unsolved Problems in Social Robot Navigation, held at the Robotics, Science and Systems Conference in the Netherlands (roboticsconference.org). We are scheduled for 130 pm and will have several talks, spotlight papers, a poster session and discussion.

I'm an organizer for this one, but I'll only be able to attend virtually due to my manager (me) telling me I'm already going to enough conferences this year, which I am. So I will be managing the virtual Zoom, which you can sign up for at our website: https://unsolvedsocialnav.org/

After that, hopefully the next things on my plate will only be Dragon Con, Milford and 24 Hour Comics Day!

-the Centaur

Pictured: Again, from the archives, until I fix the website backend.

[twenty twenty-four day one seven two]: i prioritize my marriage

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SO! I am behind on blogging. But my wife and I have been traveling so much this year (near constantly for five months between the two of us) that, frankly speaking, we need to focus on us time more than I need to focus on the blog. So it's going to take a little longer to get things rolling ... because other things come first.

-the Centaur

Pictured: an anniversary picture, from years ago (since the blog image uploading is still borken).

[twenty twenty-four day one seven one]: better late than never

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Welp, by my calendar, I'm about two weeks behind on blogging every day posts, but better late than never, eh? The Embodied AI Workshop went off quite well - we had standing room only three deep by the end - even though I was frazzled from 7am to 10pm trying to make sure things went off as planned.

And the next day, we had CVPR, which was quite the fun adventure! But, then, that evening, I spilled water onto my laptop. It promptly rebooted, then shut down, never to turn on again. Not only did that make me feel like an idiot, it put a serious crimp in the work I was planning to do during the conference.

Including blogging! Not only was it difficult to post on my phone, it was also practically impossible to start down the path of upgrading the dresan.com backend to deal with the file storage issue - and what computing time I had needed to be spent on The Neurodiversiverse. So everything ground to a halt.

So I'm not dead. But it is taking a bit of time to get things back on track. By my count I'm about two weeks behind on blogging and a week behind on art, and it looks like it will take several weeks to get caught up, back up to speed and on a regular posting schedule.

Stay tuned.

-the Centaur

Pictured: The backdrop for Embodied AI #4's scheduling poster, produced with several layers of generative AI combined in Photoshop and extended with Photoshop's own generative fill tools into the poster size. While I'm convinced we don't want to use generative AI for regular art, for this client, which was a workshop on AI featuring generative AI, we wanted the generative AI look.

not dead, still just recuperating

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yeah, it turns out spilling water into your laptop is not great for your productivity. back at home, still working through recuperating from all the travel (including some unexpected bits there at the end).

more soon. i go zzz now.

-the Centaur

Pictured: me from a decade and a half ago, because blog images are still down. Hard at work on Jeremiah Willstone and the Watchtower of Destiny though, and am making progress.

still not a real blogging every day post …

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... trying to catch up on the to-do list, stay tuned.

-the Centaur

Pictured: Past to-do lists, since one of the things to-do is to fix the blog backend.

Not Dead

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Tangled connections ...

CVPR and EAI took a lot out of me, and some unexpected stuff came up. Regular blogging will resume next week, once I return to sanity land.

-the Centaur

[twenty twenty-four day one seven oh]: embodied ai #5

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Today is Embodied AI #5, running Tuesday, June 18 from 8:50am to 5:30pm Pacific in conjunction with CVPR 2024's workshop track on Egocentric & Embodied AI.

Here's how you can attend if you're part of the CVPR conference:

  • The physical workshop will be held in meeting room Summit 428.
  • The physical poster session will be held in room Arch 4E posters 50-81.
  • The workshop will also be on Zoom for CVPR virtual attendees.

Remote and in-person attendees are welcome to ask questions via Slack:

 Ask questions on Slack

Please join us at Embodied AI #5!

-the Centaur

Pictured: Our logo for the conference.

[twenty twenty-four day one six nine]: t minus one

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The Fifth Annual Embodied AI Workshop is tomorrow, from 8:50 to 5:30 in room Summit 428 in the Seattle Convention Center as part of the CVPR conference!

You can see our whole schedule at https://embodied-ai.org/, but, in brief, we'll have six invited speakers, two panel discussions, two sessions on embodied AI challenges, and a poster session!

Going to crash early now so I can tackle the day tomorrow!

-the Centaur

Pictured: More from the archives, as I ain't crackin' the hood open on this website until EAI#5 is over.

[twenty twenty-four day one six eight]: what ISN’T embodied AI?

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two hangry cats

The Embodied AI Workshop is coming up this Tuesday, starting at 8:50am, and I am busy procrastinating on my presentation(s) by trying to finish all the OTHER things which need to be done prior to the workshop.

One of the questions my talk raises is what ISN'T embodied AI. And the simplest way I can describe it is that if you don't have to interact with an environment, it isn't embodied.

Figuring out that the golden object on the left and the void on the right is a tremendously complex problem, solved by techniques like CNNs and their variants Inception and ResNet.

But it's a static problem. Recognizing things in the image doesn't change things in the image. But in the real world, you cannot observe things without affecting them.

This is a fundamental principle that goes all the way down to quantum mechanics. Functionally, we can ignore it for certain problems, but we can never make it go away.

So, classical non-interactive learning is an abstraction. If you have a function which goes from image to cat, and the cat can't whap you back for getting up in its bidnes, it isn't embodied.

-the Centaur

Pictured: Gabby, God rest his fuzzy little soul, and Loki, his grumpier cousin.

[twenty twenty-four post one six six]: what is embodied AI?

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big red stop button for a robot, i think from bosch

So, as I've said, Embodied AI is just around the corner. But what is this workshop about? Embodied AI, of course! It says so on the tin.

But the key thing that makes "embodied AI" different from computer vision is that you must interact with an environment; the key thing that makes "embodied AI" different from robotics is that technically it doesn't need to be a real physical environment, as long as the environment is dynamic and there are consequences for actions.

SO, we will have speakers talking about embodied navigation, manipulation, and vision; generative AI to create environments for embodied agents; augmented reality; humanoid robots; and more.

Okay, now I really am going to crash because I have to fly tomorrow.

Onward!

-the Centaur

Pictured: An e-stop (emergency stop) button from a robot. Looks a little jury-rigged there, Chester.

[twenty twenty-four post one six five]: embodied ai is almost here

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Ok, the image is from ICRA, but I am still traveling, and have not fixed the problem on the website backend. BUT, Embodied AI is this coming Tuesday, so please drop in if you are at CVPR!

More later, I had several long days at the customer site and I am going to go crash now.

-the Centaur

[twenty twenty-four post one six four]: it’s not every bite, but their sum

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So I had a really good set of meals in Vancouver over the last few days - one at old favorite Gotham Steakhouse, one at my consulting client's office where they ordered Persian from Shishlik Grill in for lunch, and one vegan meal at my other old favorite, the Lebanese restaurant Nuba in Gastown.

And it struck me, as a foodie, that while these meals were good, their sum was better than their individual bites. In particular, the hummus-tabbouleh-falafel-pita combo at Nuba was solid all around - definitely good but not the best I've ever had - but the sum of all of them into a meal was extraordinarily satisfying.

This is true even in the case where the food itself is extraordinary. One of my favorite meals is the blackened salmon quesadilla at Aqui's - it's off-menu, so you have to know that you can order it, and how - and while that quesadilla is one of the best food items ever, it's the whole plate - the mango salad, the tropical tea, and the special combination of salsas and pickled jalapenos that I add to it - that takes it over the top.

I mean, in one sense, I knew that - I knew a great meal wasn't just one great dish - but walking out of Nuba today, with a really great, really satisfying Lebanese meal in me - really struck that home.

Blogging every day.

-the Centaur

Pictured: Three great meals (or drinks) from the archives: a cauliflower steak (which they also have, in another form, at Nuba), a Page One or Cafe Salzburg from Cafe Intermezzo, and the blackened salmon quesadilla at Aqui's (mango salad, with my custom four-flavor salsa combo on the side).

[twenty twenty-four post one six three]: paranoia will ensure ya

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Okay, I was flying Tuesday, so I'm just going to pretend this was an abbreviated post, something something busy busy something something flying to Vancouver something something robot consulting.

At least I didn't try to fly on an expired passport ... this time. Strange how paranoid a mistake can make you! Like how I missed a flight - two days in a row - trying to leave London, ~30 years ago, the first time due to my mistake, the second due to a train stoppage, so I now try to go to airports ~2 hours early ... and missing my flight to Comic-Con due to traffic made me paranoid enough to leave ~3 hours early in LA's rush hour traffic so I'd have time to make it through any unexpected snafus with my international flight.

But that paranoia got me there safely and on time ... this time.

-the Centaur

Pictured: Me, at some event in 2015 ... wait, I owned this scarf in 2015???

Embodied AI and Unsolved Problems in Social Robot Navigation

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Hey folks! One more sticky post reminding y'all that coming up next week is the Fifth Annual Embodied AI Workshop, Tuesday, June 18th, at CVPR, the Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Conference. I am the lead organizer, though you'll probably only hear me yapping for any extended length of time if you show up in the first ten minutes - I give the intro talk at 8:50am.

Next is the Workshop on Unsolved Problems in Social Robot Navigation, held at the Robotics, Science and Systems Conference. Our paper deadline is coming up June 7th, and the workshop itself will be held July 19th at RSS in the Netherlands. I'm an organizer for this one, but I'll only be able to attend virtually due to my manager (me) telling me I'm already going to enough conferences this year, which I am.

After that .... Dragon Con!

-the Centaur

Pictured: Again, from the archives, until I fix the website backend.

[twenty twenty-four post one six two]: behindiness

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Super far behind, because we're in "the stretch" leading up to Embodied AI Five - which also happens to be the week of a site visit at one of my consulting clients. So, this past Monday, I met with them online, took care of some Neurodiversiverse stuff, met friends for dinner, then started packing to fly.

And, while I did draw, I forgot to blog. Mucha-girl disapproves.

Still, blogging every day, even if I have to backfill.

-the Centaur

Pictured: Detail of Alphonse Mucha's poster for Princess Hyacinth, incorporating, when you look more closely, a disturbingly strong right arm on the princess there - in my mind, probably symbolizing both her father, the blacksmith, and probably echoing Mucha's pro-Slavic symbolic interest in the goddess Slavia.