The Thirsty Robot

 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 ...

Here's some of what you missed at The Thirsty Robot: Technical Musings Technology Topic - Role Model Barbie! There. Said it. The 'Barbie' word (a brand, actually).  Portrait photo by  Sandra Gabriel  on  Unsplash But there's lots more to Barbie than you might expect. Mattel have spent quite a lot of effort on broadening Barbie's career prospects (and her waist) for many years: Barbie Tech! Barbie Robotics Engineer Barbie Careers Barbie Musician   Keyboard: 6/10 (A Synth would have been better. A Modular synth would have got 11/10!).  Microphone with pop shield: 9/10 (Why does the microphone have to be pink?) Guitar 4/10 (Oh dear, pink and with a fret board that goes over the sound hole? Meh...) Missing? Guitar pedals ! A Pocket Operator ! (But not a Furby Organ ! Phew!) ( Quick aside for tech making music: Mario!    Queen! ) Fame-wise, Barbie is 43rd in the 101 Most Influential People Who Never Lived ! And is a major character in Toy Story 3 (...