zoomkat:
If you're interested in building a giant hexapod - you might just do a google search for "Jamie's Robot Spider"...
I hope you are not refering to the person below.I could only stand to watch about the first half of the video.
Yeah - that's the guy; he's got tons of videos about his project. He started out with a small plastic working model (radio-controlled) he built; it uses two motors, and is fairly ingenious in the mechanism (he might've been smarter to patent and sell it as a toy). He ended up then moving to a plot of land out in the middle of nowhere, which could only be hiked to, then carving out a patch of land and setting up this stange three story "home" in the wilderness (totally off the grid - collects rainwater for drinking and such). Occasionally he builds strange alt-energy contraptions (wind generators and such) - those are documented too.
Other times, he seems to travel back "home" (to his parents and such?) - he seems very "nomadic" or something; I can't explain it, but it certainly is fascinating to watch him build this thing over time. Somehow he has managed all this, but I have yet to find out how or where he gets the money to do any of it. A lot of the materials he uses are "scrounged", but then again that land - while cheap - still had to cost -something-. Maybe he has a trust fund - or maybe he begs off his parents - or maybe he has "disability" and uses our tax dollars - I dunno.
I'm also trying to figure out - should he get the machine fully working and walking - how he plans to get it "off the mountain"; he has to hike a good distance from where his car is to where his house (hovel?) in the trees is, thru somewhat dense forest. So - unless he plans to cut all the trees in his way down (I wouldn't put it past him), he's going to have to take it apart and move it (with the help of friends - which he seems to have a lot of) - but I think he built it to be taken apart, so he may already have it all figured out.
Yes - his videos are hard to watch; he has a very "twitchy" personality, and it comes thru on the videos (ADD/ADHD? Something else? All of the above? Who knows!); apparently, though, he has it together enough to build this machine, and a place in the woods from junk/scrap, and still get gas, food, water, etc - and stay alive in the woods with little or nothing else - other than some friends.
In a way - he's living a very free and comfortable (for himself, if nobody else) life - without having the "rat race", thinking about a "career", etc - and still has access to the internet.
I envy his lifestyle a bit; my wife and I talk about "moving to 40 acres in the middle of nowhere and living off the grid" (in a steel building, or something made from shipping container, or a manufactured home - I dunno) - but I keep thinking "how will we pay for property taxes" and "what about the internet" - because all I know is software development - and at the minimum (ie, contract coding from home) you need some kind of internet for that. I also fantasize about having an "off the grid robot shop" - or some other weird thing to pay the bills; I'll have to come up with something if I want this to be a reality.
At any rate, its fun to see what Jamie is up to - I have a friend who's a little bit like him (the guy who was helping with my UGV project) - I just don't know how they do it (part of my problem is I "collect" things - I have a lot of "things" - and in a way, that holds me back in certain ways from doing something like this - I also have a house that I am paying on - but can't sell because of the current market - etc)...
/still smiling!