larsklint.com

May 12, 2017 |

How to program a robotic brain

The field of robotics is often associated with either research or large manufacturing. Robots build cars or they attempt to do new things robots haven’t done before. Rarely do we think of robots as tools for education, but it is a field that is becoming more and more prominent. Universities around the world already offer courses and degrees to do with robotics, but where do we start before that? This article explores an easy way to get into robot programming and was first published for Pluralsight.

Ever since I saw “Alien” for the first time and the character of Ash turned out to be a robot (that went quite a bit mad), I have had a fascination for artificial humans and humanoid characters. The premise of being able to build machines that can do complex tasks for us independently is both scary and fascinating at the same time.

A recent article that outlined the ethics around robotics and their automation reinvigorated my interest in programming robots (to do my bidding). The article featured quotes from Bill Gates, Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking on how to manage automation in a modern society and posed interesting thoughts on how to make robots part of our day-to-day life. Some economists have suggested that 45 percent of all U.S. jobs could be performed and replaced by robots in the next 20 years, so this question will only become more urgent.

Robotic programming

Because of the often bespoke nature of robotics, their programming has also traditionally been completely bespoke. We haven’t had the “PC” of robots, which has made a single paradigm the norm for robotic programming, so each platform has, in essence, created their own standard. In recent years, a number of frameworks , such as dLife for the Java language and CLARAty from NASA, have sprung to life. Even Microsoft has their own Robotics Developer Studio.
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Cozmo robots

May 1, 2017 |

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HoloLens Development: Spatial Mapping

I have been doing HoloLens for a while now, and I am continually amazed of the ideas and projects the community is creating. A lot of the best ideas evolve from the desire to interact with digital assets in a physical world, which is what mixed reality (MR) is all about. This is enabled through spatial mapping, which is easy to use and difficult to master. This article first published at Pluralsight.

Interest in HoloLens, and digital reality in general, is growing rapidly. And a large part of that interest comes from developers wanting to know how to build software for HoloLens, the mixed reality device from Microsoft.

mixed reality spatial mapping

Apr 23, 2017 |

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How to Build a Personal Brand

[This article was first posted on gooroo.io]

I have been freelancing as a software developer and architect for almost two years now and I have got a lot of valuable experiences from it. The reason I was able to start being my own boss was a combination of things, but it was in large part due to a personal brand I have built up. I had for a long time been doing several things to build a brand that is me, but is also recognizable and opens doors in the right places. In this article I will describe some of the things that enabled me to do what I love and significantly propel my career in a direction of my choice. All of these topics might not apply to you, but they are part of my journey. Take what you can use and leave the rest.

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freelancing

Apr 15, 2017 |

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Holographic Programming: a HoloLens How-to in a Mixed Reality World

Most people are aware of virtual reality (VR) and to a lesser extent augmented reality (AR). I the last couple of years a new digital reality, mixed reality (MR), has emerged with Microsoft and their HoloLens as the front runner. I have been absolutely blown away by the capabilities and promise of the technology, hence the activity in the form of blog posts, conference talks, workshops and Pluralsight courses. This article explains the various digital realities and was first published by Pluralsight.

In the last couple of years, digital realities have become a more and more stable part of the software landscape. While these technologies aren’t as mainstream as apps for your iPhone or a website for your favorite pizza place, they certainly are pushing their way forward and popping up their digitally distorted face in all kinds of places. Companies like Oculus, Facebook, Google and Microsoft are all heavily involved in developing digital realities for the future of computing. We are talking billions of dollars invested in these projects, which mean as developers and consumers, we should take these products and technologies seriously. They aren’t going anywhere.

However, they aren’t all created equal. In particular, there are three main areas of digital reality.

Apr 11, 2017 |

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10 Tips to Winning at Freelancing

This article was first posted on gooroo.io

1. Don’t expect “normal” work hours

I worked in a 9-5 job for almost 15 years and you get used to “clocking on” and “clocking off”. When you are off work, you go home (or somewhere else) and work takes a backseat until the next work day. Being a freelancer, you have the freedom to plan your own day, your own week, your own month. You are in charge, but you will find that some days you have to work 14 hours, because you might have paid work, you need to quote on upcoming work, you are having lunch with a new connection, you are responding to an existing client, and the list goes on. Some days you won’t have any commitments at all, and it is up to you to make the most of the time. Most of your days will not be from 9 to 5, because you are no longer in a normal job. You are taking charge and creating opportunities, which leads me to….

freelancing

Apr 11, 2017 |

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New Pluralsight Course: Crafting a Brand for Growth and Prosperity

I am a geek. I like writing code, I like new toys, I like fast cars, and I like knowing how they work. I take iPhones apart to fix them and to see how they are put together. I am a geek. However, I am also a freelancer and sole proprietor of my little company that does everything from writing articles, to author Pluralsight courses to provide software development consultancy services. How do I find clients, and how do they find me? In part in comes down to my personal brand; the “Lars Klint factor” some might say.

[pullquote]Personal branding is the practice of people marketing themselves and their careers as brands.[/pullquote]

And that is exactly what I do. I market myself in order to open doors and opportunities. Being independent means that I am responsible for both winning the work in the first place, and then delivering it too. Having a strong personal brand means that I don’t have to be constantly fight to persuade people I can do a particular piece of work. It gives me a leg up in a very competitive market.

branding

Apr 9, 2017 |

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Scandinavia 2017 and HoloLens

For the last couple of years I have done the yearly pilgrimage to NDC Oslo in June. This is still the best developer conference I have ever been a part of. And guess what? I get to go again this year. I have been fortunate enough to be selected to participate in this amazing event again, and I can’t wait.

Because my heritage is Danish and all of my family is still in the old motherland, I usually combine it with a visit to my family and a holiday. This year I thought I would get a bit more out of the trip and organised both private and public workshops and presentations in Scandinavia.

Apr 6, 2017 |

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Using the HoloToolkit for HoloLens

This article was first posted on gooroo.io

Developing applications and experiences for HoloLens is not hard to get started with, but after you have started a number of projects and worked through the same setup and plumbing a few times, you wish there was an easier way to do it. Well, there is! Created by the team that produced Fragments and Young Conker, the HoloToolkit is a collection of scripts and components intended to accelerate the development of holographic applications targeting Windows Holographic.

The toolkit is all free and comes in two varieties: one for Visual Studio and one for Unity 3D. Developing for HoloLens means spending a LOT of time in the Unity editor, and the HoloToolkit is a simple .unitypackage file you can download and import into your Unity project.

mixed reality UWP

Mar 24, 2017 |

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Updating Website Performance with Cloudflare

As some of my readers know I am co-host of the podcast The Dane & The Pain, a weekly show on tech, life and my co-host’s beard. As our show grows, the traffic to the website increases and being a tech show we wanted to make sure we follow the latest web standard to a certain degree. I don’t mean go all NSA proof and fine tune every single thing, but rather have a good set of practices in alignment with the current industry benchmarks. To be honest I am okay with spy agencies getting unencrypted access to my joke of the week.

cloudflare daneandthepain

Mar 19, 2017 |

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Podcasting – Why Bother?

I have been toying with the idea to make the podcast I co-host (The Dane & The Pain) a weekly regular show, for some time. Going independent means that I can allow myself a little bit of time to dedicate to the project. So I have. And I love it.

I caught up with a friend this week and among other things he asked “Why do you bother doing a podcast and why so often?” With the latter part of the question, he was referring to our decision to do a weekly show. And it is a question I have been asked in other contexts and in other ways. So here is why.

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