I found an intriguing $1,500 robot-building kit from Evolution Robotics with an open platform architecture. It looks like a powerful hardware and software environment for creating autonomous machines, and I really wish I could get my hands on one.
I observed a passenger using a plastic safety kit wrapper to mount their phone behind an airplane tray table for eye-level viewing. It's a clever, low-tech travel hack discovered during a flight from Singapore to Chennai.
I explored low-cost robotics like SO-ARM100, optimized Docker images with multi-stage builds, and adopted Marp for Markdown slides. I also investigated Model Context Protocol (MCP) workflows and techniques for serving structured content to LLM agents.
I found the news of Panna Felsen defeating three robotic arms in an arm-wrestling match fascinating, as it proves electroactive polymers are still significantly weaker than biological human muscles.
I navigated corporate resistance to open source by demoing prototypes directly to business leads and avoiding the 'open source' label with IT. I learned to deliver the full stack personally while adapting to rigid infrastructure constraints and security policies.
I successfully deployed open source in a corporate environment by demoing prototypes to business leads before IT and pitching solutions instead of technology. I learned to build apps myself using Django, jQuery, and Persevere to bypass infrastructure roadblocks.