e566 — Making Fetch Happen

Published 31 August 2026

e566 with Michael M and Andy who strive to make fetch happen with AI podcast search and news aggregation, spoof computers (Mactini & MacBook Wheel), Doom ports & mods, Flying Toasters, falling Acme anvils and a whole lot more!

Michael M and Andy get together while Michael R is away, starting and ending the episode with some classic lines from stage and screen.  Michael M is freshly back from seeing the Cape Playhouse’s rendition of Mean Girls, which was such a delight.  

Turning then to AI – the cohosts start off with a story about making podcasts searchable and usable by AI agents.  This reminds Andy of Particle, an app that both he and Michael use occasionally to review the news.  Next, they both use the Cringebot 3000 to make up some LinkedIn posts.

Then, a series of hacks – beginning with a super fun one, the Apple Mactini, not to be confused with Dr. Dorian from Scrubs favorite drink – the appletini.  The Mactini is not a watered down cocktail, rather it is a one button computer that Tucker Osman made based on the spoof of an Apple TV commercial from 20 years ago, and that remained true to the spoof in it’s function.  The Onion made a spoof of a click wheel (from the iPod) Mac in 2009 – and you can see that video in in the notes below.  After checking out a number of LEGO gaming PCs, Andy shares the story of the eenk firmware for Xteink devices to create the choose your own adventure games we’ve been sharing on the podcast recently.

Longtime listeners will know that the Games at Work team collects Doom stories, and for this episode, there are a couple of new examples.  There’s a story about Doom running on the EMFCamp Tildagon Badge, a mod called Mr. Friendly whose objective is to help the monsters recover from the latest space marine rampage, and an article about Anthropic’s Claude playing the game.

Closing out the show, Andy and Michael take a look at a port of the After Dark screen savers which you can now experience again thanks to Afterglow.  They also look at a review of the Coyote vs Acme film that is premiering, and the linkage to Looney Tunes, and Ben Moor’s talk entitled “Pronoun Trouble”.

And, as mentioned at the start of the show notes, the ending for the episode ties everything up with an Elmer Fudd bow where we is hunting Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, and Daffy of course utters the classic line in his classic voice, “You’re despicable.”

What is your favorite Acme product?  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

Mean Girls @ The Cape Playhouse

Mean Girls 2026

AI

TechCrunch article: Radar makes podcasts searchable — and usable by AI agents

Particle.news

LinkedIn CringeBot 3000

Hacks

hackster.io article: The Apple Mactini Just Became a Real Computer

Games at Work e529: Shake, Shake, Shake Your iPhone (for the Onion MacBook Wheel)

Brick Fanatics article: New LEGO gaming PCs revealed, and you can make them at home

eenk custom firmware for the Xteink ESP32 series of e-ink reader devices

Doom

Mr. Friendly

Hackaday article: Claude Plays Doom

Miscellany

Afterglow for After Dark Flying Toasters

Games at Work e382: Know it when I see it (for the creepy AI generated flying toaster)

IGN article: Coyote vs. Acme Review

Ben Moor post: Pronoun Trouble

Rabbit Fire (1951) on r/looneytunes (for the Rabbit Season, Duck Season bit, which is such a classic)

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