e435 — Space Junk

starburst of stars
Photo by Casey Horner on Unsplash

Published 9 October 2023

Back at full co-host strength, Andy, Michael and Michael start off this show with a discussion about Andy’s recent Cybersalon event celebrating the Mosaic web browser’s 30th birthday.  After a short conversation about the newly announced Raspberry Pi 5, the team gets down to talking about space!  

First up, a first for the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) reported by an article in The Verge highlighting a fine of $150,000 issued to Dish Network for “not properly deorbiting it’s satellite.”  This launches a further discussion about the Kessler syndrome and Purrgils (#NoSpoilers).  The team returns back to terra firma with a song from Devo called Space Junk.  

Next are a series of stories on user experience, beginning with BetterTouchTool and the co-hosts’ experiences with Stage Manager.  Andy mentions that he still has a PowerMate controller (see show notes below to see one).  Apple’s CarPlay has been in the news recently with some automotive manufacturers eliminating it as an option, but Porsche is zigging in the direction of even greater integration with CarPlay.  

Staying on the UX theme, while rounding the bend to AI land, the team takes on stories from Humane and Rewind.  Coming across the finish line for this episode, the co-hosts consider the change in LEGO employees’ business cards.

How would you use a new Raspberry Pi 5?  What kind of AI wearable would you wear?  Have your bots 🤖 drop our bots 🤖 a line at @gamesatwork_biz (our home for now) and let us know! 

These show notes were lovingly hand crafted by a real human, and not by a bot.  All rights reserved.  That’s our story and we’re sticking to it.

Selected Article Links

I am at Newspeak House in London for Cybersalon, celebrating the 30th birthday of the Mosaic web browser (more or less)

— Andy Piper (@andypiper) 2023-10-03T18:05:49.782Z

Wikipedia article: Lynx (web browser)

Raspberry Pi News article: Introducing Raspberry Pi 5!

Junk, in Space

The Verge article: FCC issues first-ever fine for leaving junk in space

Wikipedia article: Kessler syndrome

Wookieepedia article: Purrgil Whales

UI/UX

MacStories article: Three Ways to Use BetterTouchTool to Enhance Window Management with a Trackpad

BetterTouchTool

PowerMate Controller on ebay

Ars Technica article: As some carmakers run from Apple CarPlay, Porsche embraces it

Cult of Mac article: Startup Humane will fully unveil its ‘Ai Pin’ in early November [Updated]

Hu.ma.ne

The decoder article: Rewind Pendant is a wearable AI microphone that records and transcribes your conversations

Rewind AI Pendant

Stealth Optional article: Make it so! Apple wants to create Star Trek’s communicator badge IRL

Bonus Link

Brick Fanatics article: It’s now much harder to get a LEGO employee minifigure business card

e434 – Breaking Virtual Bricks

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

Welcome back! After a brief break, Andy and Michael R. fight technical difficulties to chat through the latest happenings in the worlds of tech and gaming.

The big updates to Apple’s hardware and software – and voices – are discussed, along with the potential for USB-C now that the connector is (more or less) everywhere. Will you be adding a giant SSD to your phone any time soon?

On the gaming side of things, we dig into the trend for documentaries about classic videogames. Andy remembers Yie Ar Kung Fu rather than Karateka, but it is often interesting to look back at the history of gaming.

LEGO makes an appearance, with a brief mention of LEGO Brick Tales coming to the Meta Quest 3, along with reference to recent news that LEGO’s sustainability drive to improve their plastics hit a blocker.

Finally, we cover the huge Unity license change, and talk about how Michael can re-live his love for the universe for The Expanse, in gaming form.

Have you picked up any shiny new gadgets lately, or tried some new games or software we should know about? Let us know in the comments below, or via the Fediverse @gamesatwork_biz@botsin.space.

Selected article links

Apple Stuff

Bad watchOS UX choices – https://sixcolors.com/link/2023/09/craig-hockenberry-on-the-watchos-10-timer/

A luxurious new case – https://mastodon.social/@hotdogsladies/111130441640625085

CARROT in your own voice – https://techcrunch.com/2023/09/18/carrot-weather-for-ios-17-introduces-a-voice-impersonation-feature-and-more/

The big review – https://www.macstories.net/stories/ios-and-ipados-17-the-macstories-review/

Add an SSD to your phone – https://mastodon.social/@Bas/111104149303059538

Pixel Pals 2 – https://mastodon.social/@christianselig/111104750282466025

Gaming Stuff

Making of Karateka – https://www.pcgamer.com/the-making-of-karateka-proves-the-best-way-to-tell-gaming-history-is-with-a-game-and-the-rest-of-the-industry-must-follow-its-lead

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1163060/The_Making_of_Karateka/

LEGO on Quest 3 – https://www.theverge.com/2023/9/27/23892690/meta-quest-3-lego-bricktales-oculus

LEGO recycled bricks plans – https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-66910573

Unity … “oopsie” – https://venturebeat.com/games/unity-founder-says-we-fcked-up-with-price-increase-and-company-prepares-to-backpedal/

The Expanse returns, to get Michael excited – https://www.wired.com/story/telltale-games-the-expanse-studio-returns

e433 — Zooming While You’re Zooming

car moving at speed, perhaps even zooming
Photo by Alessio Lin on Unsplash

Published 18 September 2023

Michael and Michael start of this show with the National Public Radio Marketplace series on games and the business of games called “Skin in the Game”. 

Then, they turn to the Apple Wonderlust event from last week, dialing in on the focus on carbon neutrality and the way of communicating that focus.  

Next up, a story from Business Insider for how generative AI is used to create software in minutes for a $1.  The image and part of the story reminds the co-hosts of Smallville, discussed in August’s episode 428.

Rounding out the episode this week are a couple of automotive stories – how hackers are exposing functionality in cars following on last week’s episode.  Also, a story about videoconferencing in cars, which may make a great deal of sense in autonomous vehicles, or perhaps when the vehicle is parked.

Would you want to have videoconferencing in your vehicle?  What software would you have a company comprised of chatbots create for you?  Have your bots 🤖 drop our bots 🤖 a line at @gamesatwork_biz (our home for now) and let us know! 

These show notes were lovingly hand crafted by a real human, and not by a bot.  All rights reserved.  That’s our story and we’re sticking to it.

Selected Article Links

Skin in the Game

Skin in the Game series by Marketplace

Gameheads

Here’s Your Change game by Gameheads

Apple Week!

Apple Newsroom post: Apple unveils its first carbon neutral products

Daring Fireball article: Thoughts and Observations on This Week’s ‘Wonderlust’ Apple Event

The Verge article: Apple’s first ‘carbon neutral’ products are a red herring

Apple’s Polishing Cloth

AI

Business Insider article: AI chatbots were tasked to run a tech company. They built software in under 7 minutes — for less than $1.

Games at Work e428 Is you is, or is you AIn’t my AI?

ARXIV paper: Generative Agents: Interactive Simulacra of Human Behavior

Cars

The Atlantic article: Car Hackers Are Out for Blood

Boy Genius Report article: See what it’s like to take a Zoom call in the new Mercedes E-Class

e432 – Monitoring Pirated Cars

Photo by Samuele Errico Piccarini on Unsplash

Published 11 September 2023

This week, Michael R and Andy hold the fort while Michael M is on secret missions! The show kicks off with regulation around tech in the UK and in the EU. Andy is still able to use of iMessage and WhatsApp for a little while longer after the UK Government backs down from breaking end-to-end encryption – but for how long?

Moving on to the car industry. BMW has been in the news again, choosing not to require consumers to subscribe in order to use hardware capabilities (like, heated seats). More worryingly, the Mozilla Foundation has published an extensive review into the privacy policies of a huge number of car manufacturers, and the results are… not good…

There’s a brief chat about American sports players and wearables, Rockstar Games selling pirated / cracked copies of their own games via Steam, and a look at 3D tech from Magic Leap and Lenovo.

We round out the show with a couple of fun links about using a Gameboy Camera over USB-C with iPadOS 17, and what our digital assistants get up to in the break room at the office when we’re not asking them questions.

Let us know what you think in the comments, or via Mastodon @gamesatwork_biz@botsin.space – and join us for more, next time!

Selected Article Links

Bad regulations

Andy’s safe – For now – https://www.theverge.com/2023/9/6/23861030/imessage-bing-european-union-commission-digital-markets-act-dma and https://www.wired.co.uk/article/britain-admits-defeat-in-online-safety-bill-encryption

Auto roundup

BMW – https://www.theverge.com/2023/9/7/23863258/bmw-cancel-heated-seat-subscription-microtransaction

BWW and Amazon –  https://www.theverge.com/2023/9/5/23859450/bmw-aws-cloud-autonomous-driving-data 

BMW EV Concept – https://mashable.com/article/bmw-neue-klasse-electric-concept-car

Cars suck at privacy – https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/articles/its-official-cars-are-the-worst-product-category-we-have-ever-reviewed-for-privacy/

Gadgets in sport

FSU Apple Watch –https://9to5mac.com/2023/09/06/apple-watch-lsu-fsu-game/

Piracy and video game preservation

Rockstar and DRM – https://www.dsogaming.com/news/rockstar-just-proved-how-important-piracy-is-for-game-preservation/

3D stuff

Magic Leap end of life – https://techcrunch.com/2023/09/01/magic-leaps-original-headset-will-stop-working-at-the-end-of-2024/ 

Lenovo 27 inch 3D monitor – https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/09/lenovo-adds-glasses-free-3d-to-a-27-inch-monitor-for-2999/ 

Fun

Gameboy Cameras and FaceTime! https://9to5mac.com/2023/09/07/ipados-17-game-boy-camera-for-facetime-calls/

Behind the scenes – AI Assistant server break room (watch to the end!) – https://sfba.social/@jonathankoren/110991484729591248