e409 — Promptly VR

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Raspberry Pi circuit board
Photo by Vishnu Mohanan on Unsplash

Published 20 March 2023

Michael, Andy and Michael start things off for this edition of Games at Work with a series of virtual reality stories.  After discussing Spotify’s WonkaVision for how to create realistic depth from a webcam, the team considers whether VR influencers can “save the metaverse”.  Next up, it’s Second Life’s 20th anniversary!  The party is scheduled for June 23rd, and opportunities for performers are open at the SL website.   After talking about Microsoft Mesh 3D avatars being added to Microsoft Teams, the co-hosts turn to the increasingly hot topic of AI.

Stories include AI ethics, OpenAI’s transparency, instructions on how to run GPT-3 on a Raspberry Pi and an extensive treatment on the level of hype that is eclipsing crypto.  There’s even a new show launching this fall on Peacock with an AI as the central character – check out the trailer for Mrs. Davis in the show notes below.  What is her quest?  The Holy Grail, of course.

Disney’s quest to create a more realistic lightsaber has resulted in something quite special – and while it’s been around for a while, the video from SXSW is incredible.  Diablo IV is in an open beta right now, and in the US, you can get a chance to join in the fun by buying a special sandwich at KFC.

Who would you like to see perform at ?  What is your quest?  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.  That’s our story and we’re sticking to it.

Selected Article Links

VR

Hackaday article: Immersive Virtual Reality from the Humble Webcam


Spotify’s WonkaVision 

Spotify’s other Spatial Commerce Projects

BBC Article: Can VR influencers save the metaverse?

Second Life Community post: SL20B Applications Now Open for Music Fest & General Performers!

Ars Technica article: Microsoft Teams is adding 3D avatars for people who want to turn their webcams off

The Register article: Microsoft dips Teams in the metaverse vat with avatars ahead

The Verge article: Microsoft lays off team that taught employees how to make AI tools responsibly

AI

The Verge article: OpenAI co-founder on company’s past approach to openly sharing research: ‘We were wrong’

Pluralistic article: The AI hype bubble is the new crypto hype bubble (09 Mar 2023)

Ars Technica article:  You can now run a GPT-3-level AI model on your laptop, phone, and Raspberry Pi

USA Today article: Fact check: Audio of Bill Gates interview digitally altered to add vaccine, MIcrosoft discussion

The Verge article: The nun who wants to stop the AI

Misc

Kotaku article: Disney’s Fancy New Lightsaber Looks Like The Real Thing

The Verge article: Everything you need to know for the Diablo IV open beta

IGN.com article: People Are Freaking Out About KFC’s Diablo 4 Beta Codes

Bonus links

Battle for Libraries

🧐⏳⌛️🔁

— David August (@davidaugust) 2023-03-14T15:43:08.274Z

Formula 409

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e408 — Lunar Data Mining

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photo of Moon over Hatteras, NC, June 2011
photo by Michael Martine, Moon over Hatteras, NC, June 2011

Published 13 March 2023

Michael, Andy and Michael start things off for this edition of Games at Work with a new generative AI.  RoomGPT allows you to remodel an existing room and see what it might look like.  There is an option to specify the kind of room, and Andy suggests that his studio is in fact a bathroom.  The results are in the show notes below, and much like other AI exemplars, some strange artifacts emerge.  

Switching gear to the Lord of the Rings, the co-hosts discuss the Peter Jackson extended editions, and some scenes written, filmed and cut from the extended editions.  Michael R comments on the game opportunities (past & future) for the franchise, specifically remembering the LoTR Online game.  

Turning next to micro 3D printing, the team considers a mini Mac (not a Mac Mini) complete with an SD card for what would have been the disk drive in a palm sized Mac Classic format.  Check the show notes below for an Instructables on how to make your own.  And if an earlier exemplar of MacOS is more your speed, you can run an emulation of an 1991 Macintosh Quadra with a Motorola CPU.

After a stroll down the virtual streets of SimCity and Cities:Skylines, the co-hosts discuss an article about long term data storage on the Moon.  Last, the team wraps up this episode with a new LCARS emulation from Iconfactory.  

What are your thoughts on use cases for generative AI?  What OS would you like to have an LCARS UI?  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.  That’s our story and we’re sticking to it.

Selected Article Links

Designing with AI

RoomGPT.io

RoomGPT GitHub

bathroom generated by RoomGPT.io
bathroom generated by RoomGPT.io

On Thursday OpenAI launched their ChatGPT API. I was immediately intrigued, and within an hour I was able to make ChatGPT requests through Siri. Friday I spent the day in the emergency room, but on Saturday I asked @Soroush if he could help me with some backend work.

Short Circuit was feature complete within 48 hours, it spent more time in TestFlight review than it took to build the app. It's now available for testing and I'd love people's feedback, ChatGPT + Siri + Shortcuts, and more to come!

— Joe Fabisevich :verified: (@mergesort) 2023-03-07T20:14:03.481Z

Naturally the logo and app icon was also made by generative AI, thanks to Midjourney. Look at this cute lil AI helper. 🥺🥺🥺

— Joe Fabisevich :verified: (@mergesort) 2023-03-07T21:02:41.375Z

Lord of the Rings

CBR.com article: LOTR’s Most Dramatic Deleted Scene Nearly Ruined Sauron

ScreenRant article: Forget Hogwarts Legacy, It’s Lord Of The Rings’ Time To Shine

Tiny Technology

It’s working! Teeny Mac! 😄

— Dustin Mierau (@dustin@pdx.social) 2023-03-07T00:52:05.047Z

Mac Mini

Autodesk Instructables article: Making a Tiny Mac From a Raspberry Pi Zero

Macintosh.js

City Sims such as SimCity

PC Gamer article: SimCity launched a decade ago, and it was so disastrous it killed the series

Games at Work e22: Play for Free on Free to Play

Games at Work e60: Bubbly Bubblers in Gamified Buildings

Sims Community Info article: Studio behind “Cities: Skylines” is announcing a Life Simulation

Cities: Skylines 

To the moon

Gizmodo article: Florida Startup Moves Closer to Building Data Centers on the Moon

Lonestar

Star Trek LCARS

If you’re a fan, this would be a good week to check out our Patreon. My updated LCARS wallpapers are coming exclusively to Wallaroo & Patreon on Thurs.

LCARS 2023 Includes:
– Lock Screen IPhone variants for use with widgets
– Home Screen varants for use on iPhone & iPad
– Exclusive ‘Red Alert’ theme for Patreon subs
– Extra wide Mac desktop variants for Studio Displays

Subscribe at patreon.com/Iconfactory for all the perks or via Wallaroo in the App Store 🖖 apps.apple.com/us/app/wallaroo

— Ged Maheux (@gedeonm) 2023-03-06T22:05:07.653Z

Iconfactory

Wallaroo

Project Ritos:  LCARS for the U.S.S. Cerritos / California Class

Games at Work e392: Take Note

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e407 — Can’t Spell Pain Without AI

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mo-cap digital image of a person with a red circle on their back, hunched over while walking and a hand positioned close to that circle.
Photo by julien Tromeur on Unsplash

Published 6 March 2023

Michael, Michael and Andy start things off for this edition of Games at Work with an intriguing report on how a number of companies in Japan are founding a metaverse infrastructure called Ryugukoku.  It is envisioned that participants in this environment will encounter metaverse services and content that “takes on the form of a moving ‘city’, ‘castle’, or ‘vehicle’ that roams around the virtual world” according to a Fujitsu press release.  Furthermore, the metaverse infrastructure will have identity management, payment settlement, digital twins and a number of additional services provided by member companies.  It will be very interesting to see how this develops!  

Then, the co-hosts take on several headset stories, beginning with an MIT Media Lab project called X-AR, which provides x-ray vision to locate RF tagged items.  Then, the team takes a look at the German startup Tooz, who have created an implementation of AR lenses that fit in very normal looking eyeglass frames.   Next, the team considers a story from iMore about how the Apple VR headset may look, as well as the reported functionality of “air typing” as a user experience.

Then, the team turns their attention to generative solutions on several fronts.  Among them is a camera that translates to text what it sees and then feeds that text into an image generator to produce a picture.  Another example is Perilous Shores, which generates fantastic fantasy maps which could be used in role playing games.  Then, the co-hosts look at scenario.com which allows the easy and rapid production of game assets.  Michael R produces some cool potion bottles – see an example in the show notes below.

Wrapping things up for this episode, the team discuss the new APIs from OpenAI for ChatGPT and Whisper.  They also touch on Wired Magazine’s policy statement for how they will and will not use generative AI technology for the magazine.  

Do you have a philosophy for how you will (or will not) use generative AI?  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.  That’s our story and we’re sticking to it.

Selected Article Links

metaverse + AR

The Register article: Fujitsu, Mitsubishi, pals proclaim ‘Japan Metaverse Economic Zone’

Fujitsu Press Release: Launching Industrial Applications of the Metaverse for a Digital Twin Society

EurekAlert article: Augmented reality headset enables users to see hidden objects

MIT Media Lab project: X-AR is an augmented reality (AR) system that gives humans “X-Ray Vision”

Wikipedia article: X-Ray Specs

Boy Genius Report article: Tooz AR glasses finally add AR to eyeglasses that look normal

Tooz 

iMore article: Apple VR headset won’t require an iPhone, will have “in-air typing”

Games at Work e192 – PVP-Y (Mr. Mumbles)

AI

Hackaday article: This Camera Produces a Picture, Using the Scene Before It

Perilous Shores generative maps

Games at Work e370 – Driving with the Queen (map generation)

scenario.com AI generated game assets

fluorescent potion vial with a dragon encircling it
Michael Rowe’s generated vial from Scenario.com

Dogear Nation e158 Vile in a Vial from June 2010 

Engadget article: ThinkGeek is selling Mana Energy Potion if you want it

Ars Technica article: ChatGPT and Whisper APIs debut, allowing devs to integrate them into apps

Wired Magazine article: How WIRED Will Use Generative AI Tools

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e406 — AI Lemmings

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multiple exposure photo of a chess pawn
Photo by Elia Pellegrini on Unsplash

Published 27 Feb 2023

Michael, Michael and Andy start things off for this edition of Games at Work with an 25 year old example of the metaverse: Ultima Online.  The MIT Technology Review article on UO describes some of the experiment in the massively online world and likens the developers to a government that created laws through code and in-game economics.  

Then the co-hosts into a discussion on Andy’s recent experiment with ChatGPT.  Andy asked ChatGPT to write a professional bio, and as in many other well documented examples, the initial examples were filled with inaccuracies.  Patiently and politely, Andy corrected those inaccuracies through the conversational experience, and landed with something quite good after several iterations.  This kind of was the subject of a recent Washington Post article as well.  A Wired article focused on how AI is employed to author more believable phishing email – so watch out for more sophisticated, grammatically correct scams in your inbox.  And Midjourney was used to create realistic images of Gaudí architecture that was never built.  

Next up is Andy’s recent AR acquisition, the Brilliant Monocle.  This device has a small screen to provide information through a lens that attaches to an eyeglass frame.  Speaking of small screens, James Brown (no, not the Godfather of Soul) made a functional Doom-playing computer using one of LEGO’s computer bricks.  This reminded the co-hosts of e372 where another such example of a functioning LEGO-sized computer was discussed. 

Then, the co-hosts talk about Humanity, a Lemmings-esque game that will be released in May.  The currently available demo (available 23 Feb through 6 Mar) shows the interesting gameplay alongside a level builder.  Wrapping things up for this episode, the co-hosts take a look at the latest edition of Gran Turismo, which features a VR mode. 

What other games should the LEGO computer brick be able to play?  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.  That’s our story and we’re sticking to it.

Selected Article Links

Metaverse OG

MIT Technology Review: Welcome to the oldest part of the metaverse

Ultima Online

fun with AI

Andy’s fun with ChatGPT – multiple versions of his bio

The Washington Post article: Tech’s hottest new job: AI whisperer. No coding required.

@drewharwell an intriguing concept, especially when secondary education is so focused on the technical that literature, history and the arts are in fact quite intertwined and necessary for this kind of work. Much has been said about uncommon expertise in search being a differentiating skill set. is a natural extension. Also discussed on the episode of gamesatwork.Biz that will be published on Monday.

— Michael Martine (@michaelmartine) 2023-02-25T16:47:35.966Z

Wired article: AI Wrote Better Phishing Emails Than Humans in a Recent Test

Architectural Digest article: See the Fantastical World Antoni Gaudí Never Built

hacking

Brilliant Monocle

hackster.io article: James Brown’s Tiny LEGO Brick Computer Is Now Truly Self-Contained, with a Playable Doom Port

Games At Work e372 – Metaverse & LEGO Standards

games

The Verge article: Humanity tasks you, a Shiba Inu, with guiding humans through Lemmings-like puzzles

Humanity

Wikipedia article: Lemmings (video game)

Wikipedia article: Lemming

Wikipedia article: Shiba Inu

The Verge article: Sony shares details on Gran Turismo 7’s VR mode and 10 new PSVR 2 launch games

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