'A SHARK attacked my ROBOT', gasps ex-Sun exec

A robot from a startup company helmed by a former Sun Microsystems executive was attacked by a shark in the Gulf of Mexico recently, according to reports. The Wall Street Journal has the story, recounting the tale of machine versus elasmobranch as told to it by Bill Vass, late of Sun. Vass is nowadays CEO of Liquid Robotics, a …

[Mad as a Bat]

Teeth marks?

Where were the frikin' laser scorch marks?

[BristolBachelor]

Lasers

What do you think drew the line of scratches?

[Thomas 18]

counter espionage roboshark?

Could it be a counter espionage robo-shark built by the Chinese? (hmn given where the gulf of mexico is, I guess a Cuban robot is more likely)

[Anonymous Coward]

Or it's mossad again...

http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?ID=198286&R=R1

[dr2chase]

I really wanted it to be Wayne Rosing

http://thenetworkisthecomputer.com/site/?p=389

or perhaps Andy Bechtolsheim

http://thenetworkisthecomputer.com/site/?p=712

[Alvar]

But what we all want to know...

Was the shark equipped with a frikking laser beam?

[Brian 39]

Shark?

Nahhh... It's a buy out attempt from Oracle.

[BristolBachelor]

What about it's rights?

What about Robofish's rights?

Captain cyborg says that if it had human brain cells in it, then it should have human rights...

http://eandt.theiet.org/magazine/2011/06/debate.cfm

↑ This for Captain cyborg because there isn't an icon of a nutter tagged with a cat RFID chip.

[Anonymous Coward]

This weekend on SyFy

Mega Shark vs. Mecha Surveyor...

...vs. the world's worst green-screen actors vs. the vocal talents of a PS1 playing Resident Evil.

[Matt Bryant]

Just curiosity.

If the shark had a bite-pattern larger than a foot then you're probably looking at a bull shark, which could have torn the deivice to ickle pieces if so desired. Most bull shark attaacks are a single bite to an extremity, quite literally the shark thinking to itself "Wonder what that is like to bite?"

The Wave Rider tech is very interesting, it could be good for surveys, but it does seem a bit vulnerable to sharks.

[Marvin the Martian]

Easy to say afterwards...

... and what about sperm whales / frigate birds / horny sea lions / ... ?

"Those threats were assessed in the environmental impacts report, but my dog ate it."

[Stuart Halliday]

Not shielded?

Not surprised. Sharks are attracted to electromagnetic fields. So it's back to the drawing board to find a way to reduce these?

Still, a good bet the shark got a surprise and won't be doing that again!

[nyelvmark]

More likely an octopus

...trained by the Germans. Octopuses are much smarter than sharks and easier to train.

Unfortunately, if I'm right, that means that the USA will win the next world cup...

[Marvin the Martian]

Sharks outlive them easily, tho.

An octopus lives 2-3 almost sedentary years, where a Great White doesn't even mature the first 30 years, and reef or hammerhead sharks patrols square miles repeatedly each day (or a Blue shark migrates thousands of miles).

Especially the hammerheads would be interesting for spotting tech, as they have electrosensitive noses.