The Thirsty Robot

Here's some of what you missed at The Thirsty Robot: Technical Musings Technology Topic - Expensive Outings Even technologists need down-time! There was a lot of discussion, in this virtual but newly-'opened up' world, about the cost of various 'attractions' or 'trips out' - zoos, theme parks, castles, etc. Maybe being in lockdown or self-isolation for something like 18 months has changed memories or the perception of costs, because there was a definite groundswell of opinion that paying almost £100 for a family ticket was a lot of money. Dinosaurs! Colchester Zoo A more unusual trip out! Photo by  Florida-Guidebook  on  Unsplash There was a suspicion that there might be some sort of 'cost recovery' going on, to try and get back some of the money 'lost' in the last year and a half. This does seem to be predictable, expected, and normal after a major event, and might even be a contributory part of the recent reported increase in the inflation ...

Here's some of what you missed at The Thirsty Robot: Technical Musings Technology Topic - Open Source Privacy... Discussion started with the hot topic of Audacity , specifically the changes that will be made to the privacy policy in the forthcoming 3.0.3 version, as well as giving it a PG-13 rating. The general opinion was that it would be forked, and the Muse Group 's acquired version would be consigned to obscurity.  Here's some of the media coverage: https://news.itsfoss.com/audacity-fiasco-fork/ https://gizmodo.com/audacity-s-privacy-policy-doesn-t-make-it-spyware-bec-1847235025 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-57721967 A little bit of research shows a media feeding frenzy which seems to have been triggered by bad timing from the Muse Group, then more bad timing, then GDPR, then the US child protection legislation (As in you now have to declare if your YouTube video upload was 'Made for children' or not...) , and then the media attention kicked in. All in a...

 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 (...

 Here's some of what you missed at The Thirsty Robot: Technical Musings Technology Topic - Patents Protecting intellectual property is one of those fascinating backwaters of technology. Hugely important, and capable of bringing even the biggest of companies to their knees, but also very likely to be immediately ignored when a 'tech news' headline mentioning PS5s, or GPUs appears. You can see this with NFTs : combine Cryptocurrencies with Art and you have that strangest of strangenesses: a topic where the number of people who actually know something useful about both is only just above zero.  The Thirsty Robot has a way of doing right angle turns (Not like the recent US news, where the Department of Defense said that the UFO/UAP (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena) VIDEOS they had released were real, which was immediately misinterpreted by the news media as meaning that UFOs were real...), which is how patents came up. Someone mentioned a monopoly, someone else mentioned the bo...

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...