e550 — Moontella

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mashup of Victor Serban’s photo of a Nutella jar from Unsplash with an Artemis II photo of the Moon.
Mashup of photo by Victor Serban on Unsplash & images-assets.nasa.gov/image/art002e009287/art002e009287~orig.jpg

Published 13 April 2026

e550 with Michael, Andy and Michael – celebrating Moon Joy with the Artemis II crew, Nutella in space, AI, an isomorphic reboot of Wolf3D and a whole lot more!

Michael, Andy and Michael get things started for this episode with stories Artemis II mission, recorded just a few hours ahead of the splashdown off the California coast.  The Artemis II mission has captured the attention of many and reignited interest in space and space exploration.  NASA has leaned into the Moon Joy and the celebration of the Artemis II crew has inspired and touched the co-hosts. Check out the Artemis II moon wallpaper, and the LunarWall shortcut courtesy of Federico Viticci.  In addition to the Rise mascot floating around the Artemis capsule, the world certainly took note of the floating Nutella jar.  This was not the only COTS product aboard.  In addition to the photos shot on iPhone and Nikon D5, Jessica Alba’s Honest lotion also had its moment.

NPR had an entertaining story about all of the Moon movies – at least those that had Moon in the title.  This of course missed examples such as the Austin Powers film (with Moon Unit Alpha and Moon Unit Zappa).  Fortunately, Wikipedia has a set of movies set on the Moon.

In the AI section, which persisted throughout the episode, actually – “AI!” – the co-hosts talk about the 3D models created by Google’s Gemini.  They also take a moment to consider the reported cybersecurity vulnerability discoveries from Anthropic’s project Glasswing.

Rounding out the episode for this week, the crew takes a look at the Android XR capability for turning 2D websites, apps and more into 3D experiences.  And a fun reboot of Wolfenstein 3D in  isomorphic form – though a bit of a challenge without remapping the keys.

What can you think of that do not have moon in the title?  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 Links

Artemis II Splashdown & More

Mashable article: How NASA made ‘moon joy’ a space-age catchphrase

Cult of Mac article: How to put stunning Artemis II moon wallpapers on your iPhone, iPad or Mac

Futurism article: Lone Jar of Nutella Drifts Around Cabin of Moon Spacecraft

Nutella at Costco

NPR article: The most memorable moon movies aren’t even about space

Wikipedia article: Category:Films set on the Moon

Games at Work e549: Dark Side of The Moon (for discussion & show notes on Artemis II)

AI

The Verge article: Google’s Gemini AI can answer your questions with 3D models and simulations

The Verge article: A new Anthropic model found security problems ‘in every major operating system and web browser’

Le Chat by mistral.ai 

3D

The Verge article: You can now turn 2D apps into 3D while using the Galaxy XR headset

Isowulf Wolfenstein 3D Mod

Wikipedia article: Wolfenstein 3D

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e549 — Dark Side of the Moon

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The Nearside of the Moon, which includes a part of the dark side, NASA photo art002e009057, 4 April 2026
NASA photo art002e009057, 4 April 2026

Published 6 April 2026

e549 with Andy, Michael and Michael – boldly go into a deep set of space discussions featuring Artemis II, ways to keep track of the historic flight, COTS software and hardware aboard the spacecraft, Bernie Sanders conversation with Claude, TU Wien’s mini QR code and a whole lot more!

Andy, Michael and Michael boldly go into a deep set of space discussions focusing on the launch of Artemis II.  Mission Control starts off with the Artemis II Tracker built by Jakob Rosin for Jakob Rosin, and as he says, every other space nerd who stayed up for launch night.  The tracker is a fantastic assembly of data related to the mission, and is well worth bookmarking to keep up to speed on the progress of the astronauts as they approach the Moon and make their return journey to Earth.  

Andy, Michael and Michael take a look at an article describing how COTS (commercial, off the shelf) technology are used in space missions, and the steps needed to ensure such technologies are appropriate for the mission.  It is no surprise that iPhone use aboard Artemis II caught the co-hosts’ attention, and after recording the episode, they found even more insight on how the iPhone 17 Pro Max was cleared for use. Another COTS technology used aboard the spacecraft was email – and also needed some glitches to be resolved.

Other interesting stories came from the Gizmodo article, such as the pre-launch card game which continues until the mission commander loses, and the challenges with the Universal Waste Management System that were initially resolved in Earth orbit, through another issue surfaced later in the voyage with the vent line.  At time of this writing, all systems to go with the Universal Waste Management System were rated as ‘go’.  The Moon plush named Rise, which acts as a zero gravity indicator, was designed by a second grader named Lucas Ye.

In the non-space portion of the episode, the team discusses browsergate, Bernie Sanders’ conversation with Claude and a mini QR code from the TU Wein that could help store up to 2TB of data on an A4 sized page!

Wrapping up the episode, Andy shares his contact information through his aggregation site of andypiper.me 

Do you think that the orange color of the iPhone 17 Pro Max matched the uniform color of the Artemis crew?  Have you placed your order for a copy of Rise?  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 Links

Artemis II

Artemis II Tracker

Digital Trends article: Artemis II crew videos show astronauts goofing around with an iPhone in space

9 to 5 Mac article: Here’s how NASA cleared the iPhone 17 Pro Max for astronauts on Artemis II

Gizmodo article: 5 Things You May Have Missed During NASA’s Historic Launch of Artemis 2

CNN article: More than half way to the moon, the Artemis II astronauts grappled with a toilet problem

Tom’s Hardware article: Artemis II astronaut finds two Outlook instances running on computers, calls on Houston to fix Microsoft anomaly — puzzled caller describes ‘two Outlooks, and neither one of those are working’

ABC News article: 8-year-old watches his plush toy rocket to the moon with Artemis II mission

Games at Work e430: that’s no moon, it’s the Moon! (for the India Moon landing in 2023)

Security & Privacy

https://browsergate.eu

AI 

Techdirt article: Bernie Sanders “Interviewed” A Chatbot To Expose AI’s Secrets. It Has No Secrets. It Just Agrees With You.

Ars Technica article: Here’s what that Claude Code source leak reveals about Anthropic’s plans

Tamagotchi

Connect with Andy

https://andypiper.me

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e548 — The Uncomfortable Valley

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Desert valley
Photo by NEOM on Unsplash

Published 23 March 2026

e548 with Michael and Michael – Stories and discussion on uncomfortable valley & uncanny valley, Nintendo’s Talking Flower, 8bit Pixel Agents for AI orchestration and a whole lot more.

Michael and Michael get things rolling while Andy is away on an article discussing the animated emojis in Microsoft Teams.  Fast Company article author Rebecca Heilweil describes these emojis as the ‘uncomfortable valley’ due to the animations that imbue the emojis shared in Teams with potentially unintended additional meaning.  Check out the link for a comparison graphic showing the similarities and differences between the uncanny and uncomfortable valleys.

Switching to robotic animation, Michael and Michael take a look at Nintendo’s Talking Flower, which reminds them of the Alarmo alarm clock.  Next, a digital camera that provides mini quests that are satisfied by taking a picture of “a tiny thing” or “a hidden face”.

Turning to AI, the co-hosts check out Pixel Agents, an 8bit representation of agents allowing the human orchestrator to monitor all the agents performing their tasks in a concurrent manner.  Michael R highlights a Mac local orchestrator called Osaurus.  Rounding out this week’s episode is a Washington Post about jobs that AI may take on, a story about ChatGPT assisting with cancer research, and an intriguing video about Devo.

Which Pixel People professions would you want to have in your Pixel Agent virtual office?  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 Links

Tech

Fast Company article: The uncomfortable valley: Microsoft Teams emoji faces have got to go

Wikipedia article: Uncanny Valley

Games at Work e308: Feline Filters (for discussion on the Uncanny Valley)

The Verge article: Weird Nintendo never went away

Nintendo Talking Flower

Nintendo Alarmo

Games at Work e485: Barbarians at the Rhubarb Bar (for the Alarmo clock)

hackster.io article: This Camera Turns Your Day Into an RPG

Games at Work e195: Augmented Audio (for Monopoly City Streets)

AI

Github: pablodelucca/pixel-agents

Pixel People wiki

https://osaurus.ai

Washington Post article: See which jobs are most threatened by AI and who may be able to adapt

The Verge article: ChatGPT did not cure a dog’s cancer

The Verge article: Go watch this video about an AI system that can predict how proteins fold

Devo

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e547 — Bricktastic

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LEGO SmartBrick and charger
Photo by Michael Martine, Chapel Hill, NC March 2026

Published 16 March 2026

e547 with Michael and Michael – Stories and discussion on bot to bot communications, 50 years of Apple, LEGO SmartPlay SmartBricks and a whole lot more.

Michael and Michael get things rolling while Andy is away on an article about Meta’s acquisition of Moltbook.  This agent to agent conversational environment reminds the pair of the Google Homes chatting with one another from back in June 2017.  Have a look at the short description in the YouTube video below and hear the conversation from 2017 in e173: Babel Fish.  

Next up: Apple’s announcement on the celebrations surrounding their 50th anniversary.  The intersection of technology and the liberal arts continues to resonate across the years.  A tremendous hack by Paul Staal’s design for a Mac mini case that mimics the 2×2 sloped computer brick.

This, of course, allows the co-hosts get into the heart of this episode: LEGO!   First, a Duke alumni magazine article about Ruthie Chen Ousley, who works at LEGO Education.  Then, a discussion about the battery and new uses for the SmartBrick.  A video from Brick Fanatics highlights who these sets and bricks are really for (spoiler, not AFOL) and how this provides a new degree of play with surprises and future possibilities as new sensors and experiences are unlocked.  

How do you imagine these SmartBricks may be used in the future?  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 Links

AI

Ars Technica article: Meta acquires Moltbook, the AI agent social network

Games at Work e173: Babel Fish (for two Google Homes talking with one another @seebotschat)

HEADLINE: "Study Finds That Execs Are Outsourcing Their Thinking to AI"

ALT HEADLINE: "Execs Worry They'll Be Replaced By AI, But They're Doing It Themselves"

futurism.com/artificial-intell

— Mike Elgan (@MikeElgan) 2026-03-08T18:20:28.916Z

Apple

MacStories article: Apple Announces 50th Anniversary Celebration

Gizmodo article: This Custom Lego-Inspired Mac Mini Case Is Retrofuturism Done Right

Games at Work e406: AI Lemmings (for James Brown’s LEGO-sized computer)

LEGO

Duke Magazine article: Brick By Brick

The Verge article: You can’t replace the battery in Lego’s Smart Bricks — and many of its sensors aren’t active yet

BrickFanatics article: LEGO fans are already finding better uses for the SMART Brick

hacking continued: as the Smart Minifigs and Smart Tiles comply with standard ISO 15693 NFC, they can be copied. So this had to be done. The clone works totally fine with the original .

➡️ youtube.com/shorts/kbI0hHGysUM

— Mäh W. (@maehw) 2026-03-08T19:14:04.937Z

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 28:00 — 39.1MB) | Embed

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