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Thursday 10th June 2021

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:




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 (and was meant to be in Toy Story!)

Tech-wise, there is also, of course, the now almost mythical 'Barbie the Hacker' play-set, of which there are just a few echoes on the InterWeb: 



And finally, no discussion of toys can ever happen without the obvious question:


Hopefully, Mattel are already working on 'The Thirsty Robot' Special Edition Barbie Playset...

Technology Topic - Old Toy Technology

Tri-ang. A name from the past. Triggered by mention of stunt scooters. 

Yep. Stunt scooters. You might want to click here if you giggled back there. Or here. Or even here. But the editor's favourite just has to be this amazing example! (Multi-media: a trampoline and a scooter!)

Tri-ang (Lines Bros Ltd. for purists) was allegedly, in 1947, the largest toy manufacturer in the world!  

Which took us to fondly remembered technology toys from the past:




Note that the people who attend The Thirsty Robot are nostalgic about computers, toys, tv programmes, movies, and lots more...

Technology Topic - Best Error Detection/Correction Algorithm

Some topics need a warning. Once started they can get out of control. And they start out so innocently...


Almost Media - Top Level Domains

For some time now, you have been able to buy 'Top Level Domains'! (definitely tl;dr!) Yep, forget those boring (but hugely popular) .coms or .orgs, and the country codes... The ultimate tech status symbol is your own 'after the dot' name. 

Here is the current list!

Some notable entries: 

.aaa 
.afamilycompany 
.am and (of course) .pm
.cat
.cloud (well, of course!)
.dot (someone with a sense of humour!)
.et (Is a reboot of ET due soon?)
.forsale (probably not ironic?)
.int (but not .float)
.link (presumably the URL for a link, for a link, for a link...)
.live (but not .alive, and no .replay either))
.living (but no .dead)
.lol (or is it 'lots of love'?)
.mango (but no .womango or .boygo or .girlgo...)
.star (but no .trek to go with it!)
.sucks (kind of asking for it!)
.works 
.wow (obviously very good pages!)
.wtf (what does this mean?)
.zw (the last entry - for the country of Zimbabwe)

And some Top Level Domains that don't exist:

.aaaaaaa... (the war to be first!)
.broken (obviously for testing purposes only)
.cdn (curious?)
.dead
.float (and there is no .sink either)
.hack
.wars
.wierd (of course! but a common mistake...)
.weird
.zzzzzz... (the war to be last!)

Recommended Movies

[ Palm Springs - Currently streaming on Amazon Prime in the UK (do not visit this link beforehand) ]

We think that the best way to see a film is not to know anything about it before hand. Amazon Prime give away just about everything in the link above, so DO NOT go to it if you want to enjoy the film!


Recommended TV


[ Father Ted - Streaming on All4 in the UK ]

All4 is acquiring a reputation. It appears that the adverts are longer than the actual programme content.

[ Sapphire & Steel - Streaming on Britbox in the UK ]

This is an unusual classic series - it is almost immune to the 'Do not learn anything about it before watching.' recommendation. 


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapphire_%26_Steel


[ Shadow & Bone - Currently streaming on Netflix in the UK] 

A second season is already confirmed... There were mixed opinions in The Thirsty Robot...

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A lot of discussion happens at The Thirsty Robot. This blog is an edited, biased summary of just a small fraction of the conversation, links/URLs and references that were mentioned. It is an imperfect record and is definitely not complete - for that you should visit The Thirsty Robot!

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The next online meeting at The Thirsty Robot is on Thursday 24th June 2021 at 7:30pm GMT.







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