Ross Oliver


Sunnyvale, CA

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  • 6 Favorited Articles

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  • 95 Comments
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  • "A weapon that uses electricity as its ammunition would solve a multitude of logistic and economic problems. Star Wars seemed to take a step backward in this regard. In one of the later movies I recall a scene with heavy shipboard guns firing, and a metal shell would come clanking out after every round."
    on: Laser Weapons, IRL: Less "Star Wars," More Like Burning Ants with a Magnifying Glass
  • "I have a more general question: why do people design robots to be humanoid? A robot should be optimized for the task or set of tasks it is intended to perform In almost no cases does this require a humanoid shape. It is misplaced anthropomorphism, taking your design requirements from sci fi books and movies."
    on: Tesla Reveals Progress on Optimus Humanoid Robot
  • "Aside from being very bulky, immobile, and and only able to move the box in one axis, the biggest problem I see is it needs access to two opposing sides of the box. What if you only have access to one side, the top or the front? It seems most box handling robots have converged on suction grid manipulators. This video shows a very interesting evolution at Boston Dynamics through three configurations of box handling robots: Atlas, Handle, and Stretch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WZoVJIV9V0"
    on: Outside-the-Box Thinking: This Robot Picker Uses Giant Chopsticks to Handle Packages
  • "So there actually is a reality TV show right now, "Stars on Mars." Take a bunch of D list celebrities and put them together in a simulated Martian habitat somewhere in the Australian outback. Big Brother meets The Martian. I watched the first episode prepared for it to be stupid, but it's actually fairly entertaining. The producers have come up with some interesting missions, and the participants seem to be taking it fairly seriously."
    on: Volunteers Move Into NASA's BIG-Designed 3D-Printed Mars Habitat for One Year
  • "Kraft Singles are NOT CHEESE. Read the label: "Pasteurized Prepared Cheese Product" They're not allowed to call it "cheese." Yes that infernal wrapping sucks, but I would wager the main reason for decline in popularity is a shift toward Real Food (and also eschewing dairy products in general)"
    on: Package Design: Kraft Singles Target Gen Z /Millennials with "Easier to Open" Wrapping
  • "I recently read the Making of Star Wars book, in which they described there was a great deal of discussion and evolution of the nose of the X-Wing so that it wouldn't appear too phallic. In 45 years it never once occurred to me that it might be phallic, but of course after reading that, now that's all I can see."
    on: Original X-Wing Fighter Model to Auction for $400,000
  • "I dare you to sit on that Line Chair. I dare you. Where's design roast when you really need it?"
    on: Get Your Insane Objet D'Art Furniture Fix Here
  • "I commend this designer not only for the final outcome, which is very innovative, but also for the ability to shift and adapt when his initial iteration didn't work."
    on: Forest - primary school desk partitions to help students with attention struggles
  • "Yes and what WIDTH plank? From the width of the seat, I would estimate a least 10 inches, and quarter sawn, no less. So from a 22-25 inch diameter tree you will get four of those planks. How is that reducing waste? Building up from 3-4 inch wide stock would go much further toward reducing waste. Also it's just plain ugly."
    on: Beautiful, Waste-Minimizing Chair Design Cut from a Single Board
  • "Unfortunately the business did cease operating sometime around May of this year: "not sustainable in the long term."https://web.archive.org/web/20220525124736/https://lumasuite.com/ultima-noticia-lumasuite-cierra-definitivamente/"
    on: Stylish Carbon Fiber Cases for Musical Instruments
  • "Once again, designer solving the wrong problem. If the pan/pot is that heavy, it should have handles on both sides and be lifted with two hands. Easier as well as much more stable and safer. Even the cast iron skillet shown on the stove top has handles on both sides, for exactly that reason."
    on: An Ergonomic Aid for Lifting Heavy Pots and Pans
  • "I don't have a record player, but I bought a vintage copy of Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass album "Going Places" at Goodwill, just for the album cover. If I ever find a copy of "Whipped Cream and Other Delights" I will buy that too. Does new vinyl have any interesting cover art?"
    on: Half of People Who Buy Vinyl Records Don't Own a Record Player
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