Hacking the Tux Droid

Rockhopper writes "Ars Technica has a combo review/hack guide for the Tux Droid, a programmable penguin. 'Tux is completely programmable at practically every level, and all of the source code of the firmware and software used by the droid is available from Kysoh's version control repository. There are several ways to program the droid's behavior, ranging from modifying the firmware to coding a gadget in Python.' There's a sample Python script that will cause Tux to speak IRC messages out loud when the user's name is mentioned."

Yet another...

attempt of Linux to enter the porn toy market. Sqwuaak!

Re:Yet another...

no shit. How many other people thought about shoving a greased up tux droid up their ass? well, you're thinking about it now!

Re:

Ah yes, whoever could forget the Debildo, with its demo video featuring famous porn stars moaning "apt-get INSTALL!"

on a more serious note, some of this tech is Very Real [wikipedia.org].

Tux' voice

I wonder if any hacks include changing the Tux Driod's idiotic voice. Imagine how much cooler the Tux Droid would be if it sounded like Clint Eastwood or even Shaft!

Re:

I wonder if any hacks include changing the Tux Driod's idiotic voice. Imagine how much cooler the Tux Droid would be if it sounded like Clint Eastwood or even Shaft!

Wallll-Eeeeee
   

Re:Tux' voice

Probably, but with difficulties. See TTS Voices section in http://www.tuxisalive.com/downloads [tuxisalive.com] ...

Has to be said...so lets get this one out of the w

I, for one, welcome our robotic Tux overlords.

Yes but...

Does it run Linux?

Re:Yes but...

Yes, but does it blend?

Mine's being ornery

When I told it to get the Gentoo wireless drivers to work properly on my old laptop, it ran across my desk, and flipped me off as it started humping my Opus doll.

ObDouglasAdamsQuote

"Your plastic pal who's fun to be with!"

Non Programmer

Being a network and security kind of guy, the first thing that went through my head was:

- Finally, a fun way for me to really learn some Python

Re:Non Programmer

and have it scream "code red" whenever a windows laptop is connected on the inside of the firewall?

Link for those who don't actually know what it is

I didn't know. http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/rc/9df0/ [thinkgeek.com]

you'd think it runs Linux

I was curious so I looked up the embedded system inside the robot, it's an 8-bit Atmel AVR with supporting hardware. I figured that the Tux-shaped robot would at least be running Linux internally, for example they could have used a Gumstix board or the like. That said, AVR development is pretty fun (and you get to use gcc rather than some vendor tools) and this thing looks like a neat embedded toy.

Re:

Gumstix boards are expensive. Their online store sells the cheapest barebones one for $99. ThinkGeek sells the Tux Droid for $99. The goal of an embedded system is to use the resources as efficiently as possible, with the smallest footprint possible. E

Perfect cadget to connect to the integrationserver

And, have it scream, while flapping its wings, "Dudes! <devname> broke the build with commit <svnrev>!", whenever appropriate.

I reckon it will be no problem getting the bosses to pay for that :-)

Or, "its time for lunch", "remember the team meating in 5 minutes", and other stuff.

I am halfway serious, actually. :-)

Re:Perfect cadget to connect to the integrationser

We might just do that. After all, we are already announcing broken builds on a LED sign and with sound effects [f-secure.com]. :-)

Re:

Can you make it speak swear words? That'd rock.

Why the hell would you wanna do something shitty like that, fucktard!

-1 Flamebait

         

Re:Droid!

Maybe it can even be... a friend?

You plan to glue tits on it, don't you?
     

Re:Droid!

Stop stealing my ideas.

Re:Droid!

"It's only a matter of time until some demented furrie uses tux's "talk" feature for the purpose of fellation."

Tuxjob?

oh my admin that feels so good
oh yeah, oh oh slow down, oh yeah
oohh yeah!
who's your data! who's your daataa!
oh my admin
oh now play with my tarball, play with my tarball
ohhh that feels so good
now just compress them into a gzip
ohhhh my admin I love it when you
uh-oh slow down

u.. u.. ooooooooohhhhhhhhhhh

don't mv
I'll go get you an fsck

Re:

HAHAHAHHAAHAH! For those of you who don't get it, the parent's comment was an allusion to duckjob [audio4fun.com].

Re:Seriously?

Th problem with rebooting to solve problems is that it doesn't solve the problem, it just lessens the symptoms. In the windows world, the problem was typically memory management. But just like in the linux/BSD world, it can be other things like programs having rogue functions with unintended consequences when other programs or services are running.

Anyways, Rebooting doesn't fix the problem, it only removes the symptom which mean you should still look for the cause whether your running windows or linux. In linux, or any *nix stile OS, there should be little reason to restart the system because of something your doing. It is just designed that way.

Re:

Th problem with rebooting to solve problems is that it doesn't solve the problem,

That depends on the problem, there are dozens of easy ways to mess Linux up in a way that a reboot will fix the problem.

Simple example, take a USB harddrive, make LVM on it and then unplug it and then try to plug it in again. LVM thinks the thing is stil