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Thursday 26th August 2021

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

Technical Musings

Technology Topic - Robust mobile phones

Photo by Ashkan Forouzani on Unsplash

The world is a dangerous and challenging place for technology. Not only do batteries run out of power, but places to recharge them are not always easy to find (or afford!). Gravity has a nasty habit of taking technological devices and smashing them into zillions of little pieces - or worse, just wrecking one essential component so that the usefulness (or the pose value) is forever tainted (screens on mobile phones, for example.) Water and other liquids used to be a major problem for portable electronics, with caffeinated fizzy drinks, coffee, and anything else bad being seemingly inexorably attracted to keyboards regardless of the presence of gravity or not. 

Advances in sealing phones now give us the dubious luxury of phones which can survive momentary immersion in water, or contact with water, but unlike the adverts, the caveats are numerous and hugely limiting: only so many seconds, only less than a specific depth, no boiling liquids, lava, acids, alkalis, solvents, and other exclusions, and on and on they roll.

The glass on the front of mobile phones seem to have swallowed a zoo, as well as a materials scientist and a marketing guru. Gorilla glass might sound like the strongest possible adjective to describe something that is fundamentally clear and brittle, whilst giving it an implied strength and durability that seem at odds with reality. I've never ever imagined that putting a large primate inside my pocket is going to protect it from damage - I associate gorillas with gentle, peaceful, vegan dwellers in leafy tropical places. But surely a rhinoceros has better implications of strength, or a giant tortoise for durability? And what about an elephant? Does elephant glass sound like it won't crack into a million pieces under the slightest provocation? Perhaps a different approach would be better: rubbery glass, anyone?

On top of the glass, then there are 'protectors', 'films', 'shields', and other thin, expensive and fiddly things to stick onto it. Without leaving air bubbles underneath, or permanently leaving fingerprints on display. And around the mobile phone, then a surrounding 'case' is essential, to protect that expensive screen protector that protects the Blue Whale glass that isn't rubbery at all and is prone to shattering if a drop of rain hits it.  Unfortunately, that case has to have some way of letting the light from the screen out, and pressure from grubby little fingers in, as well as sound in and out - all so that the mobile phone works! it would be so much better if the case was just a sphere made of titanium, or even better, if you could just leave it at home...

You can imagine the scene. The alien ship lands, and the aliens step out and approach the chosen representative of the whole of the planet Earth (Greta Thunberg, perhaps? But very unlikely...). The representative pauses to take a selfie with the aliens, who seem ever so slightly perplexed...

"So, thank you for welcoming us to your planet. What is that strange, annoying, delicate little thing that you are holding in your hand and moving around all the time? Why is it more important than we are? And why can't you shake hands with us whilst you are also trying to hold it? Oh, and now it has fallen on the floor and broken. Why is something so casually valuable and apparently essential so badly made? Never mind, you obviously aren't ready for joining the Galaxy Alliance, so goodbye." 

And off they go. Forever remembered as part of the only ever brief visitation from the aliens who were first photographed using the Super Portrait mode on the ZippityDooDah XYR14222-5sz mobile phone, which was eventually partially repaired and is now on display at the 'First and Last Contact' commemorative park.

Animal Corner - Spiders

Gorillas - tick
Elephants - tick
Rhinos - tick,
Blue Whale - tick
Giant Tortoise - tick
Human Representative - tick
Aliens - tick
Spiders - <sound of alarm sounding> Missing!





Special Feature - Aspiring Bands








Data Protection (or lack of it) post-Brexit

Remember the GDPR? Remember how it messed up sending all our contact data to other countries, particularly the USA?  Well, it looks like things are about to change... yet again.



One newly minted phrase that strikes fear into the hearts and minds of some people is: 'Data Adequacy', which seems to be defined as something like: 'How can we lower the apparent importance of data so that people don't worry when we sell it for huge amounts of money to anyone who can mis-use it?'

Technology you should perhaps be thinking about...


News you probably didn't see on Mainstream Media...

It is very interesting how some stories just don't seem to get featured nowadays...



https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/current-affairs/tv-signal-issues-north-east-bilsdale-fire-newsupdate/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-58331959 Wow, a crypto-currency article that isn't positive and full of hype!


Satellites (as dots!)


https://www.ashbysoft.com/presentations/diy-satellites/All-sats.png

This is not the view from the Moon!

Is it a satellite or a fast-moving planet?

Probably the worst alternative to Google Earth ever... :)

https://www.cleareyes.com/eye-care-blog/201804/why-pirates-use-eye-patches


How to Test Anything!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Test_Anything_Protocol

Gone and mostly forgotten...


Not Very Convincing Technology...

https://youtu.be/HUP6Z5voiS8?t=47 (It's a person in a costume!)


Very Convincing Technology!

https://bricknerd.com/home/how-to-build-a-lego-cottage-in-the-most-illegal-way-possible-8-1-21

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wmUjy3Qn0s

https://ideas.lego.com/projects/dfe078bf-3259-4f7f-b493-085a2c5fb857

https://brickset.com/article/59784/review-21327-typewriter

https://area51.stackexchange.com


Media Moments

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_(2010_film) (Currently streaming on MUBI in the UK) Trailer!

The trailer flagrantly breaks the rule that this blog has about not revealing anything about a film before watching it!



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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 in 2021 at 7:30pm GMT.

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