Thursday 28th January 2021

Here's some of what you missed in the discussion at 'The Thirsty Robot':

Recommended Movies:

In the Shadow of the Moon Netflix UK

Crime with a twist...

Hotel Artemis Netflix UK

A little bit John Wick influenced...

Space Sweepers Netflix UK

Not 'Cleaners in Space' - more like a live action 'Planetes'...

As usual, we reckon it is best if you don't know anything before watching these films! So only click on the links if you want your experience to be potentially spoiled...

Recommended TV:

The Great All 4

Not quite the hyper-active comedy that the advance adverts suggested, more of a drama with bits of black comedy. As it says: 'Occasionally true' which seems to mean 'Not like what really happened in history'.

The Expanse Amazon Prime

Another Science Fiction series that changes publisher and ends up on Prime (This one started out on SyFy originally). Space opera and distopian future done nicely - kind of Altered Carbon meets EE 'Doc' Smith...

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The next online meeting at The Thirsty Robot is on Thursday 11th February 2021 at 7:30pm GMT.

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Thursday 24th June 2021

Here's some of what you missed at The Thirsty Robot: Technical Musings Technology Topic - Nostalgia & Alternative Universes Maybe it was the recent Summer Solstice, or the change of weather from 'too hot' to 'unsettled', or the leak of Windows 11 , but The Thirsty Robot attendees were in a nostalgic mood. Microsoft's 'Bob' user interface was mentioned, because it is one of those fascinating 'roads almost travelled' that is probably dominant in an alternative universe - but not this one. The idea of making a computer a 'simple to use' device is an old idea, but there are few good implementations... So, Bob was the classic 'use simple, familiar metaphors' approach. In this case, the inside of a house, where rooms were devoted to various tasks: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Bob This was back in 1995, and so high resolution, lots of colours and many other 2020's 'standards' just didn't exist then. To ...

Thursday 25th February 2021

Here's some of what you missed in the discussion at 'The Thirsty Robot': Technical Musings: Eye Tracking: So what are you looking at on the screen? We discussed the subject of 'Eye Tracking' and wondered if you could do it with the cameras built into laptops nowadays. Eye tracking can be achieved in a number of ways, but the main usual method uses Infra-Red light to illuminate the eye, and then track the reflection from the cornea (the front part of the eye). Other techniques include tracking the retina (the back) of the eye. Some methods require wearing a special pair of glasses... Eye tracking started out as a technique used by UI researchers to see what people looked at in user interfaces, but over time has been used in a number of other applications, including using it to enable disabled people to control things by moving where their eyes are looking (the senses of fighter aircraft pilots are used in many ways as well...). Good explanation... Wikipedia Eye Tra...

Thursday 14th May 2021

Here's some of what you missed at The Thirsty Robot: Technical Musings Technology Topic - The 5 Stages of Hacking Discussion turned immediately to Security this time. The fifth stage of Hacking was mentioned, in the context of digital forensics. Hang on, you might be thinking, the fifth stage of Hacking isn't Forensics! Photo of one of the 5 Stages by Antoine Julien on Unsplash Let's refresh our memories about those 5 stages first. No, not that sort of stage! - Reconnaissance - Scanning - Gaining Access - Maintaining Access - Cover(ing) Tracks Now, if you are talking about Ethical Hacking, then that fifth stage is often changed - to Forensics. And some people insist on calling it 'digital forensics', to differentiate it from dusting for fingerprints, looking at blood splatter patterns and all those other 'Witless Silence' tropes. (The long-used incorrect spoonerism of a famous BBC crime drama was first given a mass audience in the 1999 Easter Special epi...

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