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Pastimes : Don't Ask Rambi -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JF Quinnelly who wrote (53389)	7/15/2000 2:30:08 PM
From: Rambi	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 71178

We met Virgil, the Rice Robot yesterday. And it was really amazing. BUt also funny- as it was the next chapter in Voices From the Back Seat... remember when CW wired the car radio with his Radio Shack components and talked to me from the back of the van? How through the years he has rewired and programmed and rebuilt anything with parts? Here he is all grown up, and he's still doing the same thing- playing with his toys- just bigger, more expensive ones- and getting well-paid for it. Virgil gave us a tour around the Engineering Quad. He is about 3 feet x 2ft and is powered by two car batteries. He has a computer of course, and once outside, he is programmed to whistle "Bridge over the River Quai" (which was what the SHort Circuit robot whistled in the movie) and then take people on a tour- all by himself. He gets his directions from a GPS ( I think that's right- global positioning satellite?)- He lectures and answers questions. ANd he is very witty. There is a remarkable resemblance between Virgil's sense of humor and CW's. CW is the one working on the databank searches and all the voice recognition components, the GRS and a lot of the programs so when you ask who is Christian, Virgil has only good things to say. He did a demo for the Houston Chronicle Wed. and had the reporter ask, What is the H. Chronicle? SUcky Virgil said, "THe Houston Chronicle is a very great paper. I read it every day." It had a few hitches- When he first started (Virgil was at one end of the quad and we were about 150 feet away) he whistled and we were applauding and CW was bowing, when Stacy's dad said,"Virgil is leaving." CW took off running- Virgil was going backwards toward the ENgineering bldg. CW told us later that if he gets off balance and tips over, it's hard to get him back up. He weighs about 300 pounds. But before CW could get there, Virgil started spinning in circles ("He's dancing!" cried Stacy, impressed) and finally started toward us, with CW chasing him. Sample of the tour- Around the engineering quad are huge stone geometric shapes- I think they represent angles. Virgil--- "If you look around , you will see large stone shapes. THese were built by Druid priests thousands of years ago...wait- error- that was Stonehenge." That's when I knew who had written the script. Stacy's dad, who has his PhD in engineering from Stanford, got all excited and knew all the right questions to ask, S's brother is a computer major at Stanford right now, and had met Virgil last week. Luckily for me, Stacy is an English major. She and I can talk about books and roll our eyes at CW and her father. I think both families will be very disappointed if these kids break up. If I sound happy with my son- well, I am awfully proud of him. Not just because he is doing such neat wonderful things, but because he is also a neat person. He met me at the airport with flowers and took me to lunch and we argued and talked and had the BEST time together; I don't think it gets any better..