robot magazines

[srobot]

hi,
Dose any body no of robot magazines besides

Robot magazine http://www.botmag.com

Servo magazine http://www.servomagazine.com

Thank's
--srobot

[pepperm]

Yep, you could look at Nuts and Volts, http://www.nutsvolts.com and Circuit Cellar http://www.circuitcellar.com.

Mark

[NullARC]

You can also find good information here: http://www.makezine.com/

There is lots of neat ideas published in this magazine! Many of them not directly for robotics, though some are, that can be used for our hobby.

[srobot]

Hi
Thanks! I jest looked at the sites and thay looked cool !
I might have to buy 'em!
thanks again,
--srobot

[srobot]

Hi
I was jest looking around the net and found some more magazines:

Robo Life http://www.robolep.jp in JP

http://www.excite.co.jp/world/english/web/?wb_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.robolep.jp&wb_lp=JAEN&wb_dis=2 in english

Robocon http://www.ohmsha.co.jp/robocon in JP

http://www.excite.co.jp/world/english/web/?wb_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ohmsha.co.jp/robocon&wb_lp=JAEN&wb_dis=2 in english

Real Robots http://www.realrobots.co.uk/magazine.html

I was also wondering if thay ship to the USA?

Thanks
--srobot

[srobot]

Hi,
I just went to the real robots site and saw that the magazine is not being printed anymore.

thanks
--srobot

[tempusmaster]

Robo Life http://www.robolep.jp in JP

Robocon http://www.ohmsha.co.jp/robocon in JP

I subscribe to both of them, so here's my highly biased opinion, for what it's worth:

Both magazines are excellent with very knowledgeable writers and staff. Azusa-san, a key reporter/writer for RoboCon, heads the current top KondoCup Robot Soccer team, and Takenishi-san, the managing editor, was one of the competitors in the Kyosho Athlete Humanoid Cup competition last weekend. RoboCon is one of the founding sponsors of the ROBO-ONE organization. Takenishi represents the company on the organizing committee and is often a judge at the events. Takahashi (Robot Garage) is a regular contributor to Robot Life.

As a general rule, RoboCon tends to provide a lot of technical details down to the bits and bytes and what size screws to use. The magazine is published monthly, has a strong reader base, and has been published for quite a few years now - I think the current issue is #47 or so. Their parent company focuses on technical titles and has published quite a few humanoid robot books including how-to's, material and component selection guidebooks, and even annual ROBO-ONE guides.

Robot Life, in contrast, tends to carry more general, macro level articles. It's the new kid on the block, is published six times annually, and the current issue is #3. It's great if you want a high level view of what's available, though you have to keep in mind that most of the content is supplied by the manufacturers so it's rare to read any negative or critical comments in their articles. They also had a team competing in the Kyosho event.

As far as availability outside of Japan, I'm not sure. There are companies that offer subscription services for Japanese magazines in the US, and I think in Europe, but the last time I checked them out - which was several years ago - the prices were about double what I pay here in Japan.

[NullARC]

I guess this is a bit of a silly question, but would either of these magazines be of any use to someone who can't read Japanese?

It would bee cool to get them, and I'm sure the pictures would be great, but the most important part, learning, might be lost in translation. (pun intended ) But who knows, the pictures might convey enough to learn something to make it worth it. (like a well illustrated Japanese manual - Manoi etc.) What do you think?? One thing is for sure, it would be cool to get in the mail!!

[tempusmaster]

I guess this is a bit of a silly question, but would either of these magazines be of any use to someone who can't read Japanese?

Not silly at all, it's a very good question. A lot depends on how hard you're willing to work at it. Trying to read and understand them has certainly helped to improve my Japanese language comprehension tremendously. Still, I had a lot of other motivation to study Japanese.

[srobot]

Hi,
thanks!!!

As far as availability outside of Japan, I'm not sure. There are companies that offer subscription services for Japanese magazines in the US, and I think in Europe, but the last time I checked them out - which was several years ago - the prices were about double what I pay here in Japan.

Any links?

thanks
--srobot

[Tohm]

I just purchased 3 Robocon magazines (47, 48 and 2007 Dynmizer on the cover) from www.amazon.co.jp. They have an english translation of the site avaliable with the click of a button.

To purchase and have them sent to the US was about $45. I was really suprised that it only took two weeks.

Can't read a word but can get the gist of the articles by examining the pictures.

[srobot]

Hi,
Thanks tohm I just went on and found them!!!! It look like robocon mag is $15 USD (1500 yen) (Is that right Lem? ) each. And have ishyous 32-47! I could not find subsripoins thow. I was wondering Lem if thare is any other books or mags I should buy! And it looks like shiping is $15 USD to the USA. Is ￥ and 円 the same thing as yen ?

http://www.amazon.co.jp/%E3%83%AD%E3%83%9C%E3%82%B3%E3%83%B3%E3%83%9E%E3%82%AC%E3%82%B8%E3%83%B3-No-37-37/sim/4274200124/1/ref=pd_sexpl_esi/249-2884088-5153909

thanks
--srobot

[NullARC]

Hi,
Thanks tohm I just went on and found them!!!! It look like robocon mag is $15 USD (1500 yen) (Is that right Lem? ) each.

1500 yen is about $12.75 USD.

Here is a good and easy to use currency calculator:
http://www.x-rates.com/calculator.html

I keep it saved in my bookmarks so that I can make quick conversions.

Is ￥ and 円 the same thing as yen?

I think what you were seeing was Windows using a default character (in this case a "?") to represent a character that it does not have proper font for. (in this case the "yen" symbol.)

[NullARC]

I was wondering Lem if thare is any other books or mags I should buy!

I thought this was a good question. Does anyone have any good book recommendations? Preferably English!

Also, since some Robocon issues are available, are there any issues that might be particularly informative or interesting? There seems to be a couple of other Japanese books available on the link that 'sRobot' posted. Although they are in Japanese, they might be informative or interesting like the Robocon magazines.

I guess this is a bit of a silly question, but would either of these magazines be of any use to someone who can't read Japanese?

Not silly at all, it's a very good question. A lot depends on how hard you're willing to work at it. Trying to read and understand them has certainly helped to improve my Japanese language comprehension tremendously. Still, I had a lot of other motivation to study Japanese.

Unfortunately, I don't have any background in Japanese. Where might you suggest to begin to learn enough to decipher a Japanese written magazine?

I had a couple of ideas.

First, there are many language translators on the web. This might take a while, but you could type the Japanese text (provided you had the proper keyboard and fonts installed) into one of these translators and whalla, you have the English text. Although a literal translation, which is at times difficult to understand, is much easier to understand than a bunch of characters you can't comprehend. Who knows, if you searched long enough, you might find a translation site that has an actual cabon based life form doing the translating, and you might get a proper translation!

Second, some news stand magazines can be bought in an electronic format. (kind of an e-Magazine) Servo and Nuts & Volts both have this option. If you could obtain these Japanese magazines in an electronic format, all you would have to "copy and paste" the text into one of these translators and once again, whalla, English text! Does anyone know if any of these magazines come in an electronic format?

[tempusmaster]

I just purchased 3 Robocon magazines (47, 48 and 2007 Dynmizer on the cover) from www.amazon.co.jp. They have an english translation of the site avaliable with the click of a button.

To purchase and have them sent to the US was about $45. I was really suprised that it only took two weeks.

Can't read a word but can get the gist of the articles by examining the pictures.

That's great it worked for you. I usually do it the other way around - look up the book on the US site, copy the ISBN, plug it into the Japanese site, and order on this end.

The 2007 book you bought, is that the same one I posted about on Robots Dreams recently? It has a super two page back/front view of Dynamizer with notations inside. Anyway, it's the Robocon components/materials/parts guidebook that covers a whole range of different robot types. They publish and update it every year. This time around Sugiura was the editor for one of the key chapters - the one with the section on Retro's design towards the end.