Schade aber auch, dass jeder dieser Kommentare als Spam klassifiziert wurde. Könnte daran liegen, dass neben den unglaublichen Wortspielen ein Link zu einer Seite zu finden war, in em “viagra” vorkam. Naja, diese neue Art des Spams ist so schlecht, dass ich sie nicht einfach unter Verschluss halten kann (zu meiner Schande muss ich gestehen, dass ich einige der Wortspiele sogar gut finde ;-) ). Falls jemand den Link zur Viagra-Seite haben will: den kann ich euch leider erst geben, wenn wieder neue Spam-Kommentare eintrudeln. ;-)

A joke for you! Why did the big moron fall off the roof and the little moron didn’t? Because he was a little more on.

I have a fresh joke for you) What’s a chimney sweep’s most common ailment? The flue.

Nice joke! What did one wall say to the other wall? Meet you at the corner.

Do you want a joke? :) What day does a fish hate? Fry day.

I have a joke for you =) What do you call cheese that isn’t yours? Nacho cheese.

Nice joke! What do snowmen eat for breakfast? Snowflakes.

Wanna good joke? What do you call four bull fighters in quicksand? Quatro sinko.

I have a nice fresh joke for you people) What do Eskimos get from sitting on the ice too long? Polaroids.

A JOKE! ) What do you call a nun who walks in her sleep? A roaming Catholic.

A joke for you! What happens to illegally parked frogs? They get toad away.

Do you want a joke? :) What do you call a boomerang that doesn’t work? A stick.

Oh, good joke) What has more lives than a cat? A frog. It croaks every night.

I have a good fresh joke for you! Why are there so many Smiths in the phone book? They all have phones.

I have a nice fresh joke for you people) What did the fish say when he hit a concrete wall? “Dam.”

Do you want a fresh joke from net? What magazine do cats like to read? Good Mousekeeping.

Oh, good joke) What do you call a crazy baker? A dough nut.

I have a joke for you =) What do cats like on a hot day? A mice cream cone.

Good joke :) How do crazy people go through the forest? They take the psycho path.

Oh, good joke) How can you tell if there is an elephant in the fridge? The door won’t shut!

Wanna good joke? Why do hurricanes travel so fast? If they traveled slowly, we would have to call them slow-i-canes

I have a nice fresh joke for you people) Why can’t a woman ask her brother for help? Because he can’t be a brother and assist her too.

I have read a good joke in internet ;) What is a zebra? 26 sizes larger than “A” bra.

Good joke :) What makes a bowling alley so quiet? You can hear a pin drop.

Do you want a joke? :) Did you hear about the bandit that held up a Chinese restaurant? Half an hour later he was broke.

I have a nice joke. Where does satisfaction come from? A satisfactory.

Fresh joke! Why are cowboy hats turned up at the sides? So three cowboys can ride in a pickup truck.

Fresh joke! Why is an evil witch like a candle? They are both WICKED

CogSci Logo 2006

Right now, I am doing my neurocybernetics homework. Using a nice little simulator which is beeing developed at our university, I try to create different kinds of neural networks to control a humanoid robot. In the end (at least I hope so), the robot should do something that looks like walking.

Yes, I know, at the moment it looks more like a robot on drugs in space… But I hope the guy will walk more naturally in some days (i.e. tomorrow). Ans I hope to have the time to also create a system that really walks. For humans, walking is a quite simple activity – at least in most cases. We can step forward automatically, and, normally, do not stumble or fall down. But modelling this simple behaviour is not that easy. Taking into account the influence of physics, such as friction of the ground, inertia and gravity, and making a robot react adequately actually is a hard task. In the simulator we use, the robot is entirely controlled by neural networks. They get input from some sensor neurons (measuring angle and acceleration of some limbs and joints) and can output to neurons to set a desired angle or torque of the limbs and joints. So it is impossible to directly write a control program or mathematical function to create the movement. Instead, the function needs to be encoded in a neural net. One advamtage of this approach is that we can use evolutionary algorithms to create better control networks. Designing a net by hand which controls the 48 output neurons and finding the right parameters to let the robot walk human-like would maybe take some years. (That is at least my naive impression after having worked with this stuff for some months now.) But if you can design a suitable, but nevertheless simple initial network and specify a criterion for networks being good or bad, you can use evolution to do the job. For this, a population of several networks is created. These networks ore slight mutations of your original net, varying for example in the number or strength of synapses, or number of hidden neurons of the net. Then, all networks of the population are tested and rated by a fitness function. This function could, for example, reward nets that make a robot walk and punish the ones that let him fall down. After all networks have been tested, the best individuals are selected and form the parents of a new generation, which again may contain mutations of these networks. After some time – depending on the difficulty of the task, the initial net and the chosen parameters – evolution may create networks which let the robot walk human-like.

However, there is another point I wanted to make (if anyone who reads this is interested in some of the concepts mentioned above, just drop me a line in the comments – then I’d write something more about the specific topic). When I read thepost at Neurotopia this afternoon, I was remembered that we do not build the robots. Unfortunately. It would have been nice to see how such a little toy would be controlled by the programs we are developing. Some more or less little neural networks controlling a one-ton 18-foot tall robot. Maybe we should ask the guy to collaborate with our department. That would be definitely more fun than programming humanoid robots that are as big as a small dog – or not even real ¹ . Anyone out there who has a spare giant robot to donate to some curious students? Maybe Owens gives away his first prototype when having finished the new one. Then, does anyone know how much a one-ton packet from Canada to Germany via airmail costs?