Steve, Author at Nomadic Research Labs

This piece was filmed about halfway through my first year in the Silicon Valley Microship lab sponsored by Apple, and I was working with my partner of the epoch, Faun Skyles. The project substrate was a 30-foot folding trimaran that we picked up in Southern California after fiddling for a couple of years with kayak-based…

My favorite speaking gigs where the ones where I learned as much from the audience as did they from me, and this one certainly qualified… especially with the 2 days I spent hanging out at this fascinating school. What a creative playground! I was already deep into the Microship project and BEHEMOTH had been off…

by Steven K. Roberts Nomadic Research Labs Santa Clara, California September 19, 1996 There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about. paraphrased (by Anomalous) from Anonymous Gizmology Attack The above quote, which brought an amused smile to my lips when I first saw it on Henry Cate’s humor…

Microship Status Report #111 by Steven K. Roberts Nomadic Research Labs Santa Clara, California September 6, 1996 “Nothin’ too strong ever broke.” — Maine proverb Rig Arrival And Glasswork Yikes! This is scary. There is now a 40-foot aluminum mast, with matching 16-foot boom, lying here in the Microship lab, poised for installation. One of…

“The time required to complete a task is inversely proportional to the number of words required to express it.” — The Roberts Law of Creeping To-Do List Complexity ABSTRACT: This is the complete design for a microprocessor-controlled, environmentally sealed 8″ video turret with two cameras, remote or autofocus, zoom control, sun damage protection, 450-degree azimuth…

by Steven K. Roberts Nomadic Research Labs Santa Clara, California August 12, 1996 Law Number XLVIII: The more time you spend talking about what you have been doing, the less time you have to spend doing what you have been talking about. Eventually, you spend more and more time talking about less and less until…

by Steven K. Roberts Nomadic Research Labs Santa Clara, California July 31, 1996 “A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” Antoine de Saint-Exup’ery Hubnode, Power Tracker, And More The three weeks since issue #108 have been a busy…

(Microship Status #108) by Steven K. Roberts Nomadic Research Labs Santa Clara, California July 9, 1996 I’ve been so thoroughly immersed in hacking and writing that I’m becoming confused about the nature of that broad-spectrum light source that floods the front end of the building during about 60% of every 24-hour cycle… any theories? There…

by Steven K. Roberts Nomadic Research Labs Santa Clara, California June 20, 1996 With every passing hour our solar system comes forty-three thousand miles closer to globular cluster M13 in the constellation Hercules, and still there are some misfits who continue to insist that there is no such thing as progress. — Ransom K. Ferm…

King of the Information Highway by Mike Cassidy, SV Dispatches San Jose Mercury News Sunday, June 2, 1996 Photo above: “Steve Roberts and his talking, computer-equipped bicycle have traveled thousands of miles together.” RICK E. MARTIN — MERCURY NEWS Steven Roberts is an analytical man who knew better than to become too attached. He and…

Posts by Steve

Microship Project on Cyberlife – Discovery Channel, 1996

BEHEMOTH at Art Center College of Design

Microship Status 112 – Mast Step Fab

Hogfish Rig Arrival and Wireless Control

The Video Turret

Microship Status 110 – Hogfish Demolition

Microship Status 109

Early 3D Printing – the Hogfish Model

Microship Status 107 – Turret Complete

Farewell BEHEMOTH