e432 – Monitoring Pirated Cars

By | |
Comments Off on 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 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:16 — 30.7MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Android | Podcast Index | Youtube Music | RSS | More

e431 — Cooking With Gas

By | |
Comments Off on e431 — Cooking With Gas
gas stovetop with blue flames
Photo by Ilse Driessen on Unsplash

Published 4 September 2023

Michael, Michael and Andy start of this show with a story of a smart interconnected kitchen that feels both old and new at the same time.  After exploring smart stoves, dishwashers and fridges, the team turns to several stories of discovery.  

Adrian Schönig’s Longplay 2.0 takes center stage with it’s whole album focus.  Rediscovering music in context of an album, instead of individual songs, spurs a quick sidebar to Audio Technica’s Sound Burger (see notes below).  Then resurfacing important content, such as buried gift cards in your email bubbles up via Yahoo Mail.

In metaverse news, a job posting from Second Life is taken to mean that there is a second life for Second Life.  And then, breaking news from Meta: legs!  

Next up: several stories about messaging, including threats to iMessage in the UK and several alternatives.

How do you see your smart kitchen evolving in your smart home?  Interested in having a Sound Burger in your smart kitchen?  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

First Person Cooker

The Verge article: Can Samsung Food usher in a new era for the smart kitchen?

AdWeek article: This New Samsung Smart Fridge Comes With Apps… Including Twitter

F*** Yeah Internet Fridge by @rooreynolds

Discovery

Six Colors article: Longplay 2.0

Adrian’s Corner blog post: Introducing Longplay 2.0

Audio Technica AT-SB727 Sound Burger

The Verge article: Yahoo Mail isn’t dead and adds AI capabilities

metaverse

New World Notes article: Linden Lab Hiring Senior Product Manager Of Second Life To Shape The Original Metaverse’s Future For “Millions Of Customers”

Upload VR article: Meta Avatars Finally Get Legs In Quest v57 PTC

Blue vs Green Bubbles

Macworld article: Why Apple’s threat to kill iMessage and FaceTime isn’t a bluff

AirMessage

Tact Chat

Beeper

Adium

Extra

The Verge article: LG’s suitcase TV is as sturdy as it is bizarre

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 40:16 — 46.7MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Android | Podcast Index | Youtube Music | RSS | More

e430 — that’s no moon, it’s the Moon!

By | |
Comments Off on e430 — that’s no moon, it’s the Moon!
photo of Moon over Hatteras, NC, June 2011
photo by Michael Martine, Moon over Hatteras, NC, June 2011

Published 28 August 2023

Michael Andy and Michael get together for an out of the world show, starting with the Earth’s Moon.  They celebrate the successful landing of Chandrayaan 3 on the Moon and hope for the discovery of water.

Moving from the extraterrestrial to the virtual world, the co-hosts turn to a couple of articles about the state of development with Apple’s Vision Pro headset.  Developers have been invited to participate in expanding their iOS, iPadOS and MacOS apps in a dynamic and spatial computing manner.  The post about the Vision Pro Labs gives some tremendous insight into what those initial experiences have been like for these developers taking their existing code and seeing how it fits into the Vision Pro (virtual) world.  A 9 to 5 Mac article explores how a recent patent which details a “small, portable physical object for use in an extended reality system.” may be used.  After imagining a digital version of a golf ball marker which could be a physical representation of an AR object, the team also discusses the Star Wars holoprojector concept.

Switching gears, the co-hosts then discuss a blog post by Gergely Orosz on how games are built.  They continue with a couple of stories on the Kinect the new HDMI version of the Atari 2600+ and a handcrafted wooden computer.

Closing out this week’s episode is a new song by TenaciousD called Video Games and excitement about the 4K version of Star Wars:Dark Forces coming up.

What games do you want to play on your HDMI-enabled Atari 2600+?  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

The Moon

Ars Technica article: India becomes the fourth country to land a spacecraft on the Moon

Wikipedia article: Chandrayaan-3

space.com article: See 1st photos of the moon’s south pole by India’s Chandrayaan-3 lunar lander

Vision Pro

Apple Developer post: Inside the Apple Vision Pro labs

Fantastical

Slack

Wasted Time

9 to 5 Mac article: Intriguing Vision Pro accessory described by Apple: a digital ‘stone’

Golf Digest article: 25 ball markers that aren’t poker chips

Star Wars Holoprojector

Games and Machines that Play Them

Pragmatic Engineer post: How Games Typically Get Built

The Verge article: Microsoft kills Kinect again

Microsoft blog post: Microsoft’s Azure Kinect Developer Kit Technology Transfers to Partner Ecosystem

Atari 2600+

The Verge article: A visit to the one-man computer factory

Entertainment

Games at Work e192 – PVP-Y

Polygon article: A 4K remaster of Star Wars: Dark Forces is coming out later this year

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 28:57 — 33.7MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Android | Podcast Index | Youtube Music | RSS | More

e429 — Promptly Engineering

By | |
Comments Off on e429 — Promptly Engineering
computer keyboard
Photo by Chris J. Davis on Unsplash

Published 21 August 2023

Michael Andy and Michael get together for a show full of metaverse, AI and 3D topics.  After noting the metaverse team at Disney disbanding, the team switches gears to a couple of stories about large language models for summarization and rating.  A fun prompt engineering website from lakera.ai captures the co hosts’ attention.  What level can you reach?  Then, a story about the NYT and GPT takes center stage with licensing and LLM training implications.  A couple of 3D software capabilities from Kaedim and Feather prompt a conversation about how such software can help create new models faster.

Rounding out this episode, Michael M shares that he was interviewed for the Instructional Insider podcast.  Also there are cool technology examples of a song reconstructed from brainwaves, and an animatronic Muppet-esque robot driving around the city playing Vanessa Carlton’s famous song.

What kind of prompt engineering games could you imagine?  Do you have a better algorithm to parse reviews and star ratings?  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

Metaverse

Disney exits the metaverse

August 8, 2023
web3isgoinggreat.com/?id=disne

— web3 is going just great (@web3isgreat) 2023-08-10T17:03:49.759Z

Axios article: Gen Con gives Indianapolis first look at Disney Lorcana game

AI

CBS News article: Amazon is using AI to summarize customer product reviews

The Verge article: Amazon tests new star ratings that are even harder to read

Ars Technica article: Microsoft AI suggests food bank as a “cannot miss” tourist spot in Canada

The Gandalf prompt engineering game — https://gandalf.lakera.ai/ 

Ars Technica article: Report: Potential NYT lawsuit could force OpenAI to wipe ChatGPT and start over

3D

Kaedim

Feather 3D Sketchbook

The Verge article: 3Doodler Pro Plus is a refined version of the 3D-printing pen — https://www.theverge.com/2020/10/28/21539083/3doodler-pro-plus-pen-3d-printing-update-features 

Games at Work e295: Car Speakers

Bonus Links

Dr. Morgan Pittman’s Podcast Instructional Insider: Teaching, Learning, and Curriculum at NCSSM-Morganton

Science article: Hear a classic Pink Floyd song reconstructed from listeners’ brain waves

Ben Howard’s post: Vanessa The Robot

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 32:59 — 38.4MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Android | Podcast Index | Youtube Music | RSS | More