Hey underyx! Would you mind referring me as well? (Email in profile). I'd love to give Superhuman a try! Way too many emails, and always looking for more efficient & effective ways to communicate well with everyone. (Happy to return the favor in any way!) Thanks!
ROS is definitely the way to go. Aside from the plethora of existing libraries for preexisting robots, its the 'industry-standard' for personal robots. Plus, its really quite easy to learn, well-documented and capable of really impressive things.
I have had nothing but problems with ROS. I've tried it with Lego Mindstorms and with a Turtlebot. Both experiences were painful beyond words.
I think the problems with ROS stem from two things:
1) Complexity - way too much complexity for the really simple stuff
2) Change - code samples and documentation you find on the web don't always work when you think they should. I've wasted hours getting simple stuff to work.
I strongly suggestion you think about why you need a robotics OS. If all you want is a library to move motors around, you don't need ROS or anything fancy. You don't need it if you just want to interface with a Kinect. Just use individual libraries and write the glue code.
I think people are seeing the products that Google has to maximize profit on (Youtube, AdSense, G+, etc...) and using those as the basis for the entire ecosystem that is Google. Google, as you pointed out, is much more than just the products that make money. I find it incredibly shortsighted to fault a company that tries to make money in order to pay for these great research projects.
I really don't mind ads. Its a free service to use, I can live with some ads, I still get my search that I like, I still get the experience that I like, and I patronize the company that provides this without any dime out of my pocket. Plus, Google is using these funds to research these multi-billion dollar initiatives like self-driving cars that I couldn't fathom to undertake on my own.
My droplet has been working fine in NY. There was an email earlier today about a problem detected and expected, intermittent downtime for tonight. Not sure if that is related.
It might be wise to contact DigitalOcean support (or on their forums) before posting this on a public forum that they probably will not read. Even if you are completely wrong, there is no problem in letting their support know.
I've received replies within a day or two from them. Depending if you sent yours during one of the bursts from an HN thread it might of got lost. Try sending them an email now?
As a current student, I think what you are doing is quite wonderful, and having just read PG's 'What You'll Wish You'd Known' Speech, I think that such a talk like this could be incredibly powerful and might make a difference in some lives. What I would stress is the abundance of possibilities available, just the sheer amount of magical discoveries that they can go on to accomplish, or discover an hour after your talk (on that point, stressing action now, what they can do as a student is paramount to reaching them and getting them to really take you up on your offer). Too many times, speakers come in and give these lackluster maxim-filled speeches about life, and roads ahead of them. I would try to really imbue within your audience the fact that they can act now, and grasp at openings that could propel them to discoveries 10..15 years from now.
I do think it is quite admirable to try to plant the seeds of this career and of possibilities in these fifteen year olds, and think you could really make a difference somewhere.
If you need anyone to bounce ideas off from the perspective of a current student or give any critiques, feel free to shoot me an email (in my profile), and I would be happy to look it over. Good luck!
Definitely check out Kyle Rush's report on the optimization of the Obama Campaign's donation page via A/B testing. Here's the link:http://kylerush.net/blog/optimization-at-th e-obama-campaign-ab-testing/
It would be interesting to correlate this to number of views it is likely to get. Hitting the first page at 3am is not nearly as valuable as hitting the first page at prime time despite it being easier to get there.
