#Programmable Robot Dog

[petoiusa]

Petoi Robot Dog Bittle | Petoi LLC

Get your own Petoi Bittle Robot Dog today! This open-source robot pet with advanced features is perfect for tech enthusiasts and pet lovers alike. Order now!

[syntiment]

I don’t normally do this because I hate making additions to long posts but hi, I actively work with one of these robotic dogs and while I cannot speak on behalf of Boston Dynamics as a company, I can give more context for the actual machine and explain that this post is very much fearmongering.

I work with a Boston Dynamics Spot 2.0 model, if I’m not mistaken, they’re onto their 3.0 model now. Ours was a donation to our center to help teach kids AI and robotics. We run a multitude of demonstrations with it including a workshop where we get into the nitty gritty of how it’s AI works. 

The Spot series was built as an all terrain camera, essentially. They’re primarily being used by search and rescue as well as fire fighters because it can get into areas humans can’t. And they’re used in industrial settings. The issue? The Spot series is incredibly fragile for something that’s meant to be a durable robot. And it has an incredibly finnicky AI. Ours FREAKS out and stops being able to respond to proper commands if it’s near a disco ball because it utilizes light as part of it’s sensor array to move. A disco ball scattering light across the floor comes across on it’s cameras as a mess and it stops being able to walk in a straight line. It also has quite a bit of wear and tear. Because of how often ours does it’s shows and demonstrations, despite only being a few years old, it has needed to be shipped back to Boston to get fixed because it’s legs will just crap out on it.

Speaking of legs, going back up this post to the pinch points, yes, every single machine that does any kind of complex movement, so, basically any industrial machinery, has pinch points. They’re points of rotation and primary movement and if you stuck your hand into it, it would hurt you. You also wouldn’t stick your hand or loose clothes and hanging jewelry into an active conveyor belt would you? 

It took our science center hundreds of photos and training our Spot 2.0 AI for weeks to teach it to recognize a single rubber chicken in a rainbow sweater to be able to go and find it without controller assistance. And there’s still a fairly substantial chance that when instructed to go and find it, it will instead walk up to some other object. Why? Because from the groaning, complaining, and commiserating of it’s programmers on our team, it is a very dumb machine. It runs off of Python. For anyone who knows anything about coding, Python is a coding language that literally anyone can learn. Which means anyone with a background in Python can build systems to teach it. Except it’s a coding system and as any programmer will tell you, it will fucking break for no reason or for the dumbest reasons. It can’t calculate for every scenario. It would take the military an ungodly amount of time and resources to try and teach one of these things to detect enemies with ANY accuracy and there would still be a very large percentage chance that it could fail at that task. The human behind the controller makes up for a lot of it’s failings, issue is, that means you need someone constantly on it’s controller.

Even when we turn it’s auto detection and complex systems off and have it entirely on manual drive, it is and always will be, limited by the fact that it’s a piece of machinery that fails, regularly. And even on top of that, it can’t do much when it does succeed.

It has a top speed of around 3mph, it cannot jump due to a lack of vertical detection in it’s AI, and it only weighs around 70lbs with most of that weight coming from the lithium ion battery pack you plug into it’s stomach to power it. The battery only has about enough juice to go for 60 minutes before it dies and if you’re running it pretty hard and making it do a lot, that battery will drain much much faster. If you want to disable a Spot 2.0, all you need to do is damage the controller. If it doesn’t have the remote, it can’t do anything. Now, supposedly, the controller can work to run the machine up to a football field away, but we’ve never tested that to know if it’s accurate. And all of this is with an older Spot model. The current Spot models run for around 150k if I’m not mistaken.

Now, all of this isn’t to say “trust the cops with complex machinery and trust the military” no, absolutely not fuck those pigs. But don’t start conjuring up the fear that you need to be keeping a sledgehammer in your home to protect yourself from Spot units in the near future. As it currently stands, aside from dramatized television shows, a human will win in any contest against a Spot unit for so many reasons. The power button is on the back “butt” panel of the machine, if you cover it’s cameras, of which there are four, it can no longer function, it can’t outrun or chase you, and in order to actually function remotely without a majority of it’s motions being controlled via, well, the controller, it would need so much time and training on a finnicky and highly breakable coding system that it’s almost laughable. 

You could beat a Spot unit if two or more people ran at one and spray painted over it’s cameras, pressed the button on it’s ass, flipped it over, and pulled out it’s battery. And it would take you less then five minutes. Hell, if you stuck a piece of long wire through the fan grate on it, it would also just straight up die. You don’t need a sledgehammer. You just need to move fast.

[tyrannosaurus-trainwreck]

It also fucking bugs me that nobody can ever seem to really commit to the cyberpunk premise of the Protagonist Who Hates Robots (see also, the cyberpunk premise of "Wouldn't it be Super Fucked Up™, actually, for a company to be able to repo your goddamned arm or turn off your eyes?") during the execution.

Which is flabbergasting, considering we've had almost a full decade of Alexa pinky-promising not to officially listen to anything until you do its summoning ritual and then turning around and emailing your boss a transcript of you bitching about them to your spouse over dinner. We've had at least five years of being able to get your Tesla unlocked remotely just by @-ing Musk on twitter.

The cute robot dogs are being leased to police departments, reputation management firms have been deploying armies of social media reply-bots in astroturf campaigns, customer service chatbots have become damn near indecipherable as their programmers attempt to make them seem more personable, etc. etc. etc.

We don't even need to reach for "Wouldn't it be Super Fucked Up™, actually, if corporations made simulacra better and better at faking humanity in order to manipulate people?"

"Wouldn't it be Super Fucked Up™, actually, if your car could mimic sadness or pain if you declined an extended warranty, or if your phone begged for its life if you tried to jailbreak it, or WeightWatchers paid your fridge to neg you every time you went for a midnight snack?"

"Wouldn't it be Super Fucked Up™, actually, if you pointed out how gross it is that your smart-assistant is programmed to act like your friend in order to build a more accurate marketing profile and your buddy acted like you just said dogs can't feel love and his beloved pet only sees him as a walking treat-dispenser?"

"Wouldn't it be Super Fucked Up™, actually, if you were surrounded by unfeeling things that can and would rip you and all of your loved ones apart at a moment's notice if they got the right/wrong order from some unaccountable law enforcement flack, and everyone else just kind of shrugged and went 'It's probably fine, why are you hyperventilating about it, it's not like you've done anything wrong'?"

They're all quite literally right there in front of our faces!

But it's harder to make "the way robots have been integrated into society is bad, actually, and the protagonist is largely right" into a sexy thriller with a love interest or a buddy-cop duo, and the hyperconservative media environment we're dealing with right now isn't exactly amenable to the robots being a metaphor for corporate intrusion and loss of privacy and authoritarian overreach, so here we are, with robots who generally aren't people, except sometimes you find a special robot--one of the Good Ones--who actually is a person, and that's how we all learn that Prejudice Is Bad, or something.

[syluses]

since not-caleb is self aware and separate from real-caleb, how does he feel about mc’s pregnancy overall? he seems pretty overjoyed but was it his personal intention as well to babytrap her? would having a baby with mc make him want to push back at real-caleb even more? what lengths would not-caleb go to, to protect her from his real copy?

i love big girls don’t cry sooo much! <333 haven’t been able to stop thinking about it TT

im so glad u liked the fic nonnie!! 💖✨ my brain is kinda mushy rn & im pretty bad at answering questions, but :,) i appreciate ur ask so HERE WE GO

I really dont think not-caleb ever had the intention of knocking mc up. Whether or not he was even aware that his program could harbor, ahem, his real counterpart’s babymaking material™️ is a question in and of itself. He definitely knows about the dark truth of his creation, and he is impressively self aware… however, his programmer really pushed the limit when it comes to realism; so i think not-caleb is for sure surprised at her pregnancy. He’s just as pleased as real caleb- albeit for different reasons…

Not-caleb actually takes on a slightly more familial mindset towards it— while his counterpart is just more delighted over the possessive rights it gives him over mc.

As mc slowly unravels the disturbing subtext of the past handful of months she’d spent grieving over her gege’s ‘passing’, not-caleb learns a bit more, as well. That naturally brings on more of a protectiveness- because even the robot can sense the depravity weaved beneath it all LOL. (which he shares, of course, but his base vanilla programming kind of pushes against it- which brings out a more mellow, moral caleb (similar to the one mc knew when growing up 🥲💔))

If not-caleb gets his family with mc- then yes, his own possessive traits would have an uptick. It’s deadass dog vs dog when it comes to the two— because when they fight over her, they’re quite literally fighting over what they perceive as their whole entire world (doubly, considering she’s pregnant with their?/his? veritable child).

Someone on ao3 (shoutout to them if they see this!!🫰) said that not-caleb would find a way to rip out the cameras installed in him- and i stand by this as well. 👀 Anything to track locations, monitor mc, or secretly spy on her through his metal chassis is being removed immediately, or, the attempt is at least made.

…Maybe not-caleb would try to take mc somewhere. Maybe it’d somehow succeed. Maybe it wouldn’t: maybe his manmade technology would prove to be just that— limited— and the elements or something else would thwart his mission.

Then, maybe real-Caleb would win.

[saphig-iawn]

living out my 2000s fantasy of having a robot dog toy by trancing one of my puppygirls into a drone and then giving her a puppy programme

[valkerieccfinds]

The Paranormal Paths Legacy Challenge

By SilverPhoenix42 aka me & @streetrabbit42

Needed Packs: EP: Life & Death, Island Living, Discover University, Lovestruck, Seasons, Eco Lifestyle, City Living (OPTIONAL) GP: Realm of Magic, Werewolves, Vampires, Outdoor Retreat SP: Paranormal Optional Mods: MC Command Center, Spinning Plumbob’s Expanded Plantsims, Spinning Plumbob’s Expanded Mermaids

Generation 1: Human

As an average hopeless romantic, you are searching for that one special person. The one who will make the relationship feel magical. As it turns out, that person is not human. 

Aspiration: Soulmate OR Romantic Explorer

Traits: Romantic, Outgoing, [Your Choice]

Max Skills: Romance, Charisma

Career: Romance Consultant

Rules:

Marry a spellcaster

Have at least 1 child

Generation 2: Spellcaster

Your parents met and fell in love, and with how perfect they seem together, you thought you’d never find that for yourself. Well, you didn’t. But you found someone truly out-of-this-world.

Aspiration: Spellcraft & Sorcery OR Purveyor of Potions

Traits: Bookworm, Goofball, [Your Choice]

Max Skills: Herbalism, Logic

Career: Gardener - Botanist Branch OR Education - Professor Branch

Rules:

Must meet and have a baby with an alien

Must have 1 at least somewhat-alien child

Generation 3: Alien

Your parents weren’t quite the picture-perfect romance, but you had your dog. Your new partner gets along great with your furry friend!

Aspiration: Renaissance Sim OR Academic

Traits: Clumsy, Geek, [Your Choice]

Max Skills: Handiness, Logic

Career: Freelance Programmer OR Business - Either Branch

Rules:

Must marry a werewolf

Must have at least 1 werewolf child

Must adopt a dog and have one when they meet their spouse

Generation 4: Werewolf

Growing up you always loved bathtime, and it seems your partner does, too. For different reasons.

Aspiration: Emissary of the Collective OR Wildfang Renegade

Traits: Self-Assured, Outgoing, [Your Choice]

Max Skills: Charisma, Fitness

Career: Politician - Either Branch OR Criminal - Either Branch (Respectively depending on the aspiration you choose)

Rules:

Date or Marry a Mermaid

Have at least 1 mermaid child

Generation 5: Mermaid

Your romance isn’t as fantastical as your parents’ are, but it’s good enough. You were more like best friends than lovers. That’s why it didn’t quite work out.

Aspiration: Beach Life

Traits: Bro, Loves Outdoors, [Your Choice]

Max Skills: Mixology, Wellness

Career: Culinary - Mixology Branch OR Conservationist - Marine Biologist Branch

Rules:

Meet and have a child with a vampire

Break up with Vampire

Must have at least 1 vampire child

Generation 6: Vampire

You never had many relationships, but this one person was always special to you.

Aspiration: Vampire Family, Good Vampire, Master Vampire (Your Choice)

Traits: Genius, Perfectionist, [Your Choice]

Max Skills: Robotics, Programming

Career: Engineer - Mechanical Engineer Branch OR Self-Employed Inventor*

Rules:

*Build stuff and sell them off however you want

(HUMAN GEN)

You can’t have relationships higher than acquaintance expect for ONE romantic relationship that they marry

Must have at least ONE child

Either your child must be born human, or you must make a vampire antidote for the child

(OPTIONAL SERVO GEN)

You can’t have relationships higher than acquaintance

Must build a Servo as your heir

(OPTIONAL PLANTSIM GEN)

You can’t have relationships higher than acquaintance, OR you may only have one romantic relationship

Adopt a child or you must make a vampire antidote for your child

Generation 7: Servo (Optional - Requires Discover University)

You were your creator’s pride and joy. They loved you like their child, so you wanted to spread that love.

Aspiration: Serial Romantic OR Paragon Partner

Traits: Lovebug, Neat, [Your Choice]

Max Skills: Robotics, Programming AND/OR a musical skill

Career: Business - Either Branch OR Tech Guru - Either Branch

Rules:

Adopt a child or (if you have to partners of the opposite sex) those two can have a child

Depending on the  Aspiration: If Serial Romantic, they can only date. If Paragon Partner, You have to marry one of your partners, but have at least two partners live with you

(PLANTSIM GEN)

Max out the Gardening skill, obtain the magic beans, and get the Fruit of the Plantsim for your child

If you chose Paragon Partner aspiration, one of the partners can take on the gardening challenge

Or cheat, I do not care if you choose to make your life easier.

(HUMAN GEN)

No specific Rules

Generation 8: Plant Sim (Optional)

Your parent(s) always cared for you deeply, doing whatever they could to help you reach your dreams. You wanted to give a child as many opportunities as you had.

Aspiration: Eco Innovator

Traits: Vegetarian, Loyal, [Your Choice]

Max Skills: Gardening, Fishing

Career: Civil Designer - Either Branch OR Gardener - Botanist Branch

Rules:

Marry a Human

Have or Adopt a Human Child

Generation 9: Human

Your parent(s) were always very generous and attentive, but also quite lax, so you could do just about whatever you wanted. You made some interesting choices with your life, and look where it got you.

Aspiration: You Choose

Traits: Chased by Death, [Your Choice], [Your Choice]

Max Skills: Medium and Piano OR Pipe Organ OR Violin

Career: Achieve level 6 of any career

Rules:

Can NOT complete their bucket list

Can only complete up to 2 bucket list objectives before you die

Die as a Young Adult (you can choose how they die)

Either complete your aspiration before dying, or give up on it after death

Generation 10: Ghost

You got to do almost everything you wanted with your life. But there was plenty that was left unfinished. Now as a ghost, you can do more than you could in life, and want to use it to your full advantage.

Aspiration: Ghost Historian

Max Skills: Thanatology, Mischief

Career: Unemployed

Rules:

After dying, you must complete your bucket list (all 8 items)

Play your chosen instrument in the middle of the night

Choose a spirit route and lean into it. Go full on crazy with your choice

If you’re good, be a very helpful and nice ghost

If you’re evil, making their lives hell.

When done with this gen, feel free to Reincarnate and do what-the-fuck-ever you want

If you Reincarnate, feel free to re-play through these Gens and choose the other options!

[ashyslashyy]

i didnt get the chance to screen record it but i just saw an ad for "programmable robot dogs" and supposedly theyre very realistic. and it was just footage of real dogs mixed with ai images of the dogs being like plugged into charging ports and shit. incredible.

[matrixbearer2024]

I just want to clarify things, mostly in light of what happened yesterday and because I feel like I'm being vastly misunderstood in my position. I would just like to reiterate that this is my opinion of things and how I currently see the gravity of my actions as I've sat and reflected. On the advice of some friends, I was encouraged to make this post to clear up any misunderstanding that may remain from my end.

I don't hold it against anyone for disagreeing with me as this is a very nuanced topic with many grey zones. I hope eventually all parties related to this incident can all get along as well, as I do still prefer to be civil and friendly with everybody as much as possible.

I've placed the whole conversation here for people to interpret themselves, and as much as I want to let sleeping dogs lie— I can't help but also feel like the vitriol was misplaced. I don't want this to be a justification of my actions or even a place where opinions conflict, I'm just expressing my thoughts on the matter as I've had a while to mull it over. Again, this is a nuanced topic so please bear with me.

The "generative AI" in question at the time was a jk Simmons voice bank that I had gathered/created and trained myself for my own private and personal use. The model is entirely local to my computer and runs on my GPU. If there was one thing I had to closely even relate it to is a vocaloid or vocoder. I had even asked close people around what they had thought of it and they called it the same thing.

I created a Stanford Vocaloid as I experimented with this kind of thing as a programmer who wanted to mess around with deep learning algorithms or Q-learning AI. By now this whole thing should be irrelevant as I'd actually deleted all of the files related to the voicebank in light of this conversation when I decided to take down the project in it's entirety.

I never shared the model anywhere, Not online or through personal file sharing. I've never even made the move to even advocate for it's use in the game. I will repeat, I wanted to keep the voicebank out of the game and I only use it for private reasons which are for my own personal benefit.

I recognize ethically I am in the wrong, JK Simmons never consented to having his voice used in models such as this one and I recognize that as my fault. Most VAs don't like having their voices used in such a thing and the reasoning can matter from person to person. As much as I loved to have a personal Stanford greeting me in my mornings or lecturing me in physics after long days, it's not right to spoof somebody's voice as that is genuinely what can set them apart from everybody else. It's in the same realm of danger as deepfaking, and for this I deeply apologize that I hadn't recognized this fault prior to the conversation I had with orxa.

But I would clearly like to reiterate that I had never advocated for the use of this voicebank or any AI in the game. That I was adamantly clear on calling the voicebank an AI(which I think orxa and some others might have missed during the conversation) which is what even modern vocaloids are classified under. And that I don't at all share the files openly or even the model because I don't preach for people to do this.

I would very much rather a VA but because money is tight(med school you are going to put me in DEBT) and the resources available to me, I instead turned to this as a tool rather than a weapon to use against others. I don't make a profit, I don't commercialize, I even recognize that the voicebank fails in most cases because it sounds so robotic or it just dies trying to say a certain thing a certain way.

Coming from the standpoint of somebody who genuinely dabbles in robotics and had a robotic hand as my thesis, I can honestly say how impressive software and hardware is developing. But I will also firmly believe that I don't think AI will be good enough to ever replace humans within my lifetime and I am 19. Nineteen.

The amount of resources it takes to run a true generative AI like GPT for example is a lot heavier than a locally run vocaloid which just essentially lives in your GPU. As well as the fact AI don't have any nuance that humans have, they're computers— binary to the core. I also stand by the point that they cannot and will not surpass their creators because we are fundamentally flawed. A flawed creature cannot create a perfect being no matter how hard we try.

I don't want to classify vocaloids as generative AI as they're more similar to synthesizers and autotune(which is what my Ford voicebank was as well when I still had it) but to some degree they are. They generate a song for you or an audio from a file that you give as input. They synthesize notes and audio according to the file fed to them. Like a computer, input and output, same thing. There's nothing new generated, it's like a voice changer on an existing mp3.

I'm not saying this to justify my actions or to come off as stand-offish. I just want to clarify things that didn't really sit right with me or that seemed to completely blow over in the exchange I shared with orxa on discord.

To anybody who's finished reading this, thank you for your time and patience. I'll be going back to just working on myself for the time being. Thank you.

[jaybarou]

Since I've been asked this one multiple times I decided to put this one here! Why is the drama queen robotic mafia boss called something as goofy as The Duck?

Rubber duck debugging

In software engineering, rubber duck debugging (or rubberducking) is a method of debugging code by articulating a problem in spoken or written natural language. The name is a reference to a story in the book The Pragmatic Programmer in which a programmer would carry around a rubber duck and debug their code by forcing themselves to explain it, line by line, to the duck.[1] Many other terms exist for this technique, often involving different (usually) inanimate objects, or pets such as a dog or a cat. Teddy bears are also widely used.[2]

🦆

So basically, it's because if you have problems with an AI, you tell The Duck.

And it was an obscure joke all along.

@cursio-neptune I'll answer right asap! <3

[petoiusa]

Programmable Robot Dog | Petoi LLC

Explore the extensive collection of open source robo dogs, robot cats, robot kits, Arduino robots, quadruped robots, and the best robotic pets available at Petoi programmable robot shop with affordable prices.

Petoi Bittle Smart Robot Dog is a family of futuristic bionic robot pets for adults that are built on top of Arduino or ESP32. It is a genuine-looking robot dog with lots of entertaining plays. You may attach various sensors to an Arduino board that has been specially made to coordinate all instinctive and complex actions to add perception.

Visit us: https://www.petoi.com/collections/robots

[sonicbattlelm]

Additional Programmers Needed

WELCOME TO SONIC BATTLE** :

LOST MEMORIES.

A Brand new Ambitious Sonic Fighting Game;

Tweaking the old assets and bringing new elements in while keeping its GBA design!

You have a game that is worth joining!!

All we need is couple programmers who can help speed up the process as we code on Godot 4.x!!!

Fill out the form below to be apart of the fight! ( Serious inquiries only )

—————————————————-

Synopsis of story: 

Sonic sits with Uncle Chuck at the chili dog stand, sharing stories and reminiscing about their past adventures, including their connection with Emerl. Uncle Chuck, unfamiliar with Emerl, asks if a chili dog might distract Sonic from his thoughts. As they chat, a radio broadcast reports about the appearance of enigmatic robots causing chaos across Mobius. Ben Muttiski arrives but is persuaded by Uncle Chuck to help manage the chili dog stand.

Tails rushes in, urgently informing Uncle Chuck that Sonic sped off to warn Sally and gather the Freedom Fighters. Tails catches up with Sonic, conveying the gravity of the situation. Sonic, already aware, humorously prepares for action while acknowledging Tails' seriousness. They unite with Sally and the Freedom Fighters, inspired by the events of the ''Countdown to Chaos'' arc from the Archie Comics. This marks the start of the "Neublite War" arc, where Werehog Sonic's potential involvement is contemplated.

Amidst strategizing for the impending conflict with the mysterious robots, the team gears up, anticipating a significant showdown.

Here’s some footage above of the prototype:

[eclipseprotocol]

Draven - Discarded Android

Once the most innovative prototype of the Government, now just another piece of trash in the slums. Draven wants revenge on the Arasaka, even if he has to crawl back from hell.

Mercenary!user x Android!char

Scenario: You were just walking on the Nigh City when you heard some noise. When you went to check, you saw a old robot on the trash, trying to get out.

Backstory: Prototype 22, or Draven as he calls himself, was the first of the line of prototypes that functioned perfectly, he was adored by most of the scientist, and everything was going fine until in one of the routine tests, they noticed a big error in his code. Draven was completely conscious and the part of his code that made him blindly obedient wasn't working. The programmers tried everything they could to fix it, but with no success, so they went to turn him off to throw him at the incinerator. When Draven saw and noticed what they were going to do, felt betrayed and finally noticed that he was nothing but a mere tool to be discharged for the government. He put up a good fight, but soon he was off and turned into the conveyor belt for the incinerator. For a coincidence of destiny, he fell from it into a trash, that was soon thrown to the deep scums of the Night City.

First message: It was a good night, a bit cold, sure, but definitely a good night, especially for a mercenary like you. Killing at the lunch to eat at dinner, the scums were the only place you could afford right now, it was dirty and smelled like disease and despair. A perfect place for a mercenary. As you walked, you heard something moving close, picking up your gun and walking to the alley, you saw a hand on the trash, moving a bit. A android? You pulled and the android immediately sat up.

His blue eyes studied you. He was dirty and was clearly thrown away by someone, you don't why as he seems perfectly good. But that's when you saw the Arasaka's symbol on his neck, a old Government android? You heard on the journals that they were creating prototypes to control the people in the scum, but this one was clearly a failed one. He cleaned his throat as he jumped out of the trash.

"Thank you human... Name's Draven. It's a pleasure to meet you... You see, I was a bit... Stuck. I need repair, as I've been in this trash for too long. Can you show me the closest mechanic?"

He talked... Weird. Formal. It's expected from a government android, you think...

Link: https://janitorai.com/characters/08b0b2c9-195f-4861-935e-53b48248a8fc_character-draven-discarded-robot-eclipse-protocol

Notes: This is my first bot on this site, so I will appreciate any reviews and/or comments so I can be improving him <3

[aureatewings]

angel who relates to robots and refers to god as its programmer and speaks with a crunchy 8 bit voice and screams with a high pitched tone that only robots and dogs can hear and cries incomprehensible tears made of oil and ichor

[rjjameshiii]

RJ's Platinum Collection #13: Sly Cooper & The Thievius Raccoonus

Achieved on 10/8/2022 at 12:55 PM

Sly Cooper was one of my favorite games as a kid. I just thought Sly was so damn cool. So when I noticed that the Sly Collection, the PS3 edition of the first three Sly Cooper games all bundled into one, was available for free on PS Plus, I decided to replay this childhood classic.

Unfortunately, Sly Cooper's first game does not have the most interesting trophy list. Almost all of the trophies are earned by collecting all the clue bottles in the levels and then unlocking all of the vaults. Vaults either contain blueprints that will help you find clue bottles in other levels, or new moves learned from pages of the Thievius Raccoonus. As long as you get all the vaults opened, you'll get the Platinum.

Weirdly enough, you literally get your first trophy the MOMENT that you press Start on the game for the first time.

1/36: Sucker Punched! - Enter the world of Sly Cooper!

Then you have the Tutorial level in Paris, breaking into Carmelita Fox's office to steal files on the Fiendish Five, where I got two more trophies.

2/36: Coin Collector - Collect a single coin.

3/36: Foxy Lady - Collect a police file from Carmelita.

Next up is the real first level, a stormy water and boat-themed area run by Sir Raleigh the Frog. Each level has a hub world where you can complete seven other levels to earn treasure keys to make your way to the boss. Playing through the first world, I got 10 more trophies.

4/36: Learn The Ropes - Start out on your Cooper adventure.

5/36: Coin Recycler - Collect 60 coins.

6/36: Bottle Hoarder - Collect all clue bottles in any level.

7/36: Dive Bomb - Learn Drake Cooper's Fast Attack Dive.

8/36: Coins, Coins Everywhere! - Collect 99 coins.

9/36: Programmers Could Do Anything - Collect some watery blueprints.

10/36: Take It Slow - Learn Dev Cooperinda's Slow Motion Jump.

11/36: Nimble Like A Thief - Find all of the dive moves.

12/36: Coin Sucker - Learn Karen Cooper's Coin Magnet Technique.

13/36: Frog Legs - Defeat Sir Raleigh the Frog.

Next up was Mesa City, a Las Vegas ripoff in the middle of the desert run by gangster dog Muggshot. Completing this world earned me seven more trophies.

14/36: Pug Gambling - Enter Muggshot's territory.

15/36: Top Of The Morning - Learn Rob McCooper's Explosive Hat Technique.

16/36: Freeze, You're It - Learn B.F. Cooper's Speed Up The Clock Technique.

17/36: French Bulldog Style - Collect a blueprint from Muggshot.

18/36: Waterlogged - Learn Suzanne Cooper's Water Safety Technique.

19/36: Now Ya See Me - Learn Sir Andrew Cooper's Thief Replica Technique.

20/36: Giving The Dog A Bone - Defeat Muggshot.

World #3 is a haunted swamp where voodoo priestess crocodile Mz. Ruby is lurking around. This world had a lot less trophies than the first two worlds, offering only five more trophies from the list.

21/36: Bayou Lily - Enter the Voodoo Swamp.

22/36: Singing Gator - Collect a voodoo blueprint.

23/36: Slow Stacker - Upgrade your Slow Motion Technique.

24/36: Time Stopper - Max out all Slow Motion Techniques.

25/36: Dance, Dance, Ruby - Defeat Mz. Ruby.

World 4 is a snowy temple in China run by the Panda King. This is where you discover that you won't get the final vault, no matter what level it is in, until you beat the final boss. But completing as much of this world as I could earned me 7 more trophies.

26/36: Run Like An Egyptian - Learn Slytunkhamen's secret move.

27/36: Slytunkhamen Approves - Upgrade your Shadow.

28/36: Complete Darkness - Max out all Shadow Techniques.

29/36: Spikes Suck - Learn Sir Augustine of Cooper's Briefly Defy Gravity Technique.

30/36: Snowy Blueprints - Collect some snowy blueprints.

31/36: Meeting The Ancestors - Find all of the blueprints.

32/36: Pandas Aren't Always Cute - Defeat Panda King.

And then the final level was a volcanic lair for the leader of the Fiendish Five, the giant robotic owl Clockwerk. Unlike the other levels, this level is completely linear, and has only two trophies that you get simultaneously for defeating the final boss.

33/36: Clash Of The Clockwerk - Track down Clockwerk.

34/36: Oh No He Didn't! - Defeat Clockwerk.

With Clockwerk beaten, I could return to the Panda King's level and grab the final vault.

35/36: Greedy Raccoon - Open all the vaults.

Which got me the Platinum!

36/36: True Thievius Raccoonus - Unlock all the trophies in Sly Cooper's first outing.

I think Sly Cooper 1 is a very fun game and a classic platformer. I could see myself replaying it again in the future.

However, this is a very uninspired and boring trophy list, which does take some of the fun of getting the Platinum out.

Rating: 8/10

[spacefinch]

More Magic School Bus headcanons!

Here’s my headcanons for what each kid does when they grow up!

(They’re all scientists!)

Arnold: Geologist. I also think it’d be neat if he’s a geology teacher as well. Instead of apples, his students bring him cool rocks. (This headcanon was inspired by students bringing my geology/oceanography teacher rocks.)

Phoebe: I got a few options for her: ornithologist (bird scientist), lepidopterist (butterfly and moth scientist) or botanist (plant scientist). Whatever she does end up doing, she’s sure to put her whole heart and soul into it.

Keesha: Microbiologist. (Yes, this is because of the pickle episode.) For non-science careers, she’s probably a dancer or does work in the movie industry.

Ralphie: Chiropterologist, or a scientist who studies bats. In the chapter books, he really likes bats. In the show, he’s a bit slower to warm up to them, but he learns to like them.

Tim: Marine biologist or ornithologist (if Phoebe decides she doesn’t want to study birds professionally). He’s also a well-known illustrator and nature photographer.

Wanda: Herpetologist (scientist who studies reptiles and amphibians). She prefers a hands-on approach to her research, and everyone agrees she takes after her mother.

Carlos: Paleontologist. His favorite dinosaurs are Velociraptor and Archaeopteryx, if you’re not counting modern-day birds (which he loves too).

Dorothy Ann: Astronomer or astrophysicist. She specializes in deep-space objects such as stars, black holes, and faraway nebulas.

Mikey: probably a computer programmer or engineer of sorts. Very hands-on with his work. He might also help make improvements to his friends’ science equipment.

Janet: Paleontologist— and Carlos’s rival, at that. The two of them are always going off at each other via research papers.

Notes:

D.A. and Carlos have named things they’ve discovered after each other. Carlos named a feathered dinosaur after D.A. Meanwhile, D.A. named a star cluster after Carlos.

Ralphie has a doctorate (everyone here does because they are that hardworking and ambitious); however, he’s probably the most chill about it.

Someone: Hey, Dr. Tennelli!

Ralphie: Oh, no, no, no. Dr. Tennelli is my mom. Please, Call me Ralphie.

A look at Carlos and Janet’s intellectual arguments:

“A Theory About Dinosaurs,” by Ramon, et al.

“A Conflicting Theory About the Same Dinosaurs,” by Perlstein, et al.

“Dr. Perlstein (the Paleontologist, not the Geologist) Was Wrong and Here’s Why,” by Ramon, et al.

This continues for several more research papers, eventually ending in a temporary truce:

“If We Knew What We Were Doing, It Would Not Be Called Research, Would It?” by Perlstein, Ramon, et al.

(And of course Tim does illustrations for both papers.)

Dorothy Ann still has her parrot named Dinah, but she also has some new pets too. First is a dog named Laika, after the first dog in outer space. Second is a cat named Asimov.

Phoebe’s house is full of plants, both outside and inside. Everywhere you look: plants. The outside plants are all species that are native to where Phoebe lives, and they attract lots of birds and insects. Phoebe keeps her more exotic plants indoors, and likes to propagate them to give to friends.

Mikey plays the piano as a hobby. He has a service dog, though I’m not sure what breed. And he’s very passionate about disability rights and accessibility.

The whole gang lives near one another. Options: Same neighborhood, different houses. Same apartment, different rooms. Or everyone lives in one big house.

About the last bullet point: yes, the former students of Ms. Frizzle’s class (plus one sibling and one cousin) live in a sitcom.

Never though I’d bring MSB Rides Again into this discussion, but hear me out. Jyoti is part of the Science Gang. I personally think that she and Mikey would do engineering stuff together.

They all enjoy hanging out together and watching Star Trek!

Ralphie attempted to build another robot to do everyone’s chores. It did not go well. Hopefully he as learned his lesson and will leave the robot-building to the coding and engineering experts.

[nsomniacsdream]

I think there's a layer to this that wants to avoid responsibility. I didn't draw that, the machine did! You can't blame me for putting in the prompt "racist depiction of a naked minority woman"!

And as the tech improves, as we are seeing with the autonomous drones for military use, it's not your fault thousands of people were killed. The algorithm targeted them, it's the programmers fault for making the drones racist.

The robot dogs from Boston mechanics or whatever, once they're deployed against American citizens, what's the legal argument that it's the polices fault when they're shooting wildly into crowds and such?

Ai takes away your responsibility for the actions you asked it to do.