Microsoft's New Attempt To Dominate Robotics 225
An anonymous reader writes "IEEE Spectrum reports that Microsoft's Robotics Group is announcing new world domination plans — at least for the robotics world. The company is making its Robotics Developer Studio (RDS), which includes Microsoft's CCR and DSS runtime toolkit, available to anyone for free. Why make it a freebie? Because the company wants to expand its RDS base and get a grip on the robotics development space, hoping big things will come out of it."
2 year old technology (Score:5, Informative)
Robotics studio was made a paid product 2 years ago.
Looks like they did not get enough buyers and its being offered for free now!
And looks like it hasn't been updated in last few years.
Regarding CCR, .Net 4.0 has made vast improvements in multi-core API. .Net and ConCRT for C++
I don't see how much relevant CCR will be given the release of Task Parallel Library (TPL) for
Re:Where can I get a robot? (Score:5, Informative)
Great, so where can I get a cheap compatible robot and what kind of stuff can I program it to do?
These are MSDN sites.
So be prepared for information overload.
Microsoft Robotics: 3rd Party Hardware [microsoft.com]
Microsoft Robotics Developer Center [microsoft.com]
This page is an introduction to robotic simulation, with some nice screen shots of the VSE sample environments: Simulation Overview [microsoft.com]
Re:Where can I get a robot? (Score:4, Informative)
This list seems more tidy [wikipedia.org]. And just below with links to fully free software with which MS tries to compete via this release, probably (doesn't mention one...worth mentioning [wikipedia.org])
Hey, in this case the users are small in numbers and "geeky" so typical MS adoption rules should not apply. OTOH parent poster seems specifically inspired by this MS release (and its promises) in asking for a robot to play with...
Re:But it has a basis in the business model. (Score:3, Informative)
Perhaps you have been really really REALLY lucky?
I hate Exchange with a passion that is hard to put into words. The attempt to express my feelings for it is best done by quoting Khan, "from Hell's heart, I stab at thee! For hate's sake, I spit my last breath at thee!"
I had nothing but problems with corrupting Exchange stores, failing services, installation compatibility issues, etc. Of course you can blame the server admin and just claim I did not have the skills or the understanding, despite working with Microsoft tech my whole life and computers before Microsoft even pushed out Windows 3.11 for Workgroups.
Getting modded informative is really just accessory to flamebait on the GP. Problems with Exchange are well known, and *most* people I know view it as a major pain in the ass to support.
However, you can go right ahead and claim operator error......