Petaluma You Ask? Part One
Petaluma You Ask? Part Two
By the time that Friday rolled around, I was tired. I was beginning to question whether I was making a fool of myself by spending so much time hanging around the studio. I was even thinking about not returning for the other shows I had signed up for to see. Friday the studio was closed to visitors. That was a little disappointing since the in studio guest on Triangulation was Bill Atkinson, who was the principal designer and developer of the graphical user interface (GUI) of the Apple’s Lisa computer. He worked the Apple Macintosh development team, and was the creator of MacPaint and QuickDraw, He also was one of the main designers of the Lisa and Macintosh user interfaces, which set the standard for what we now think of as we imagine interacting with a computer or smartphone. Atkinson also conceived, designed and implemented HyperCard.
As it turned out, having a day off from visiting the studio was just what I needed. I paid for a day of internet on my Skyroam Solis, Mobile WiFi Hotspot, and worked most of the day catching up on banking and other stuff that isn’t convenient to do on my phone. Since needed a second pair of shoes, because the shoes I had picked for travel were not as comfortable to wear for long walks as I would have liked, I went shoe shopping. I bought a pair of tennis shoes what were the best I could do, though they were no more comfortable than the ones I had. I figured that if I alternated between the two, I could eventually get my feet used to be in inclosed shoes.
Saturday morning, I still had time on my Skyroam connection, so I used it up on video calls. I made what I thought was my last run to the grocery store, before heading over to the studio to watch The New Screen Savers being recorded. When I came into the studio, Mo, the security guard waved me through saying, “Go on back, you practically work here now.” I headed back to the studio, but was intercepted by John, who led me back to Leo’s office where he was still recording his radio show The Tech Guy. I set and watched alongside another fan while Leo finished up the show. It was sort of weird to sitting so close to Leo’s desk while he was broadcasting.
When the show was over I left Leo having his photo taken with the other fan and went over to the big studio. I took a chair out of the way of John and the guys setting up for the show. They were having enough trouble setting up with two little robots rolling around the floor.
The robots were terribly cute
A screenshot of what the Robot was seeing.
At first I thought they were just toys of the staff before I realized that they were guests on the podcast. Well the actual guest was Jillian Ogle, Founder and CEO of Let’s Robot. Let’s Robot is a live streaming platform where anyone can take control of other people’s homebrewed robots over the internet. It wasn’t until the show was being recorded that I understood that the robots were being controlled by the internet, and that they had cameras.
The voices of the robots were not easy to understand but this one came up and said, “Hi Lady, with the phone! Who is that? I think it is Jill’s mother!” I was a little irritated, before I had to admit that I was old enough to be her mother.
Jason ignoring one of the robots while setting up for the podcast.
Both robots rolling around under the table. That one with the red eyes seemed to have an inordinate interest in me.
Leo joins Jason in ignoring the robots. By this time I had figured out about the Let’s Robot website and had it on my phone so that I could see what the cameras of the robots were seeing.
You can’t see Jillian Ogle, Founder and CEO of Let’s Robot sitting behind Jason. The robots were hers. Sitting on the table in front of Jason was a small robot that waves a paper hand around.
The audience and the studio staff had a great time watching the robots rolling around during the recording of the podcast.
Leo and Jason have moved over to the other set used for The New Screen Savers. Between them on the table you can see the vintage Mac things which were set up for Bill Atkinson’s visit.
I was given the honor of rolling the mailbag (It is really a mailbox) out to Leo during the letters from the viewers segment.
Jason and Leo answer the letters
I found the robots to be a lot of fun and was glad that I hadn’t decided to cut my visit to TWIT.tv short. After the podcast was finished. Leo introduced me to Jason, who told him that we had already met. After Leo had left the studio, Jason and I had a long conversation about our mutual interest in real estate investment. He walked me to the door, where we said our goodbyes.
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