e478 — Doomed, I Say!

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Games at Work in Doom font from https://c.eev.ee/doom-text-generator/

Published 26 August 2024

Co-hosts Michael, Michael and Andy start things off on a fun note – a website that creates text in Doom, Minecraft and other fonts. 

Next up, the team turns to Ian Hughes for two intriguing posts over the Feeding Edge.  First up is Ian’s blog and video showing the power of midjourney.com, runway.ml and luma.ai .  The second post deals with Ian feeding his two novels Reconfigure and Cont3xt into a local copy of Nomic.ai on his MacBook and conversing with his protagonist.  The Games at Work cohosts are all hoping that this jumpstarts the writing of third book.  Ian himself imagines how a generated metaverse could be created following the ingestion of the novels.

Sticking with the theme, the team then turns to the symbolism used by many firms to signify the application of AI.  According to the Wall Street Journal, sparkles ✨ are used by Google, Slack and more.  This sparks (heh!) a discussion on the power of such symbolism, and Andy shares a recent blog post he wrote on the subject, with a specific focus on a symbol for the Fediverse, specifically the asterism ⁂ unicode2042.  This reminds Michael M of the symbol for therefore ∴ unicode2234.

Then, the co-hosts discuss the SAG-AFTRA agreement to partner with Narrativ for the use of audio voice replicas, and the arrangement allowing the people whose voices are being used to have a significant amount of control over how and when their voices are ethically used.  Michael R points out that this may have some market limiting impacts for new voices.

Once the team completes the AI review, they spend a few moments on the world of games and gaming.  A Guinness world record of 444 consoles hooked into a single television is a marvel.  Tramsterfam is reminiscent of Townscaper.  Other games include the Smithsonian’s partnership with Crayola, the newest Sid Meyer’s CivVII and an upcoming television series called Secret Level.

What do you think about the symbolism discussed in this episode?  Do you have a favorite?  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

Doom Font Generator for Games at Work

Metaverse and AI

Ian Hughes’ The Feeding Edge blog post: A short video about Metaverse

Ian Hughes’ The Feeding Edge blog post: Talking with an AI of Roisin from my novels

Reconfigure Book

The Wall Street Journal article: How the Sparkles Emoji Became the Symbol of Our AI Future

Andy Piper’s The Lost Outpost blog post: On Symbols & Symbolism

⁂ Asterism

∴ Therefore

Procreate

Variety article: SAG-AFTRA Strikes Groundbreaking AI Digital Voice Replica Pact With Startup Firm Narrativ

The Animaniacs: Variety Speak song

Narrativ.ai 

Games

Guinness Book of World Records post: Gaming is serious business for man with 444 consoles hooked up to one TV

Tramsterdam

Townscaper

Andy Piper’s The Lost Outpost blog post: The Collage Atlas

Ars Technica article: Civilization VII hands-on: This strategy sequel rethinks the long game

The Verge article: Civilization 7 launches in February

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e477 — Build Your Own AI Hardware

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A wire crimper, particle IOT device, magnetic reed switch, laptop, and jumper wires at the start of an internet of things connected project
Photo by Clint Patterson on Unsplash

Published 19 August 2024

Co-hosts Andy, Michael and Michael start things off on a quantum note, where a particle can be two places at once.  Actually, according to the New Scientist article, the angular momentum could be disembodied from the particle.  In related news, the collapsing of the quantum field for whether a player is offsides or not in the Premier League will now be determined by a bevy of iPhone instead of VAR.  

Moving right along to the AI theme for the week, the co-hosts take a look at a build your own version of the Rabbit that the team over at Comfyspace have called the Rappit.  Then, they bring up the challenges associated with training LLMs, and the solution from ProRata.ai, which aims to compensate creators when GenAI results leverage the creator’s intellectual property.  This leads to a recent report in The Verge of ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s comments at a Stanford economics class.   

Next up are some examples of non-AI hardware, in the form of a wearable computer which takes advantage of XReal Air AR glasses and a Corne keyboard.  And there’s something just wonderful about the Carabiner Collection website.

Wrapping up this week’s episode, the co-hosts discuss the Pluralistic post about the DoJ’s decision on Google, and a browser based version of Diablo.

Do you believe that Andy’s Logitech mouse has it in for him?  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

Quantum

New Scientist article: New spin on quantum theory forces rethink of a fundamental physics law

Gizmodo article:  The Premier League Is Ditching VAR in Favor of Dozens of iPhones to Call Offsides

AI Hardware & Software

Rappit

Games at Work e464: AI Piano Man

Wired article: Generative AI Has a ‘Shoplifting’ Problem. This Startup CEO Has a Plan to Fix It

ProRata.ai

The Verge article: Ex-Google CEO says successful AI startups can steal IP and hire lawyers to ‘clean up the mess’

Stanford Econ295 transcript Eric Schmidt

Non-AI Hardware

hackster.io article: This Wearable Computing Rig Combines Augmented Reality, Ergonomic Keyboards, and Cardboard

XReal Air Augmented Reality Glasses

Corne keyboard

Carabiner Collection

Google

Pluralistic: Daily Links from Cory Doctorow: The paradox of choice screens (12 Aug 2024)

Games & Other Software

Diablo web

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e476 — The Returns of the Pins

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assorted enamel pins including flags, NASA, Pokemon and more.
Photo by Cristina Hernández on Unsplash

Published 11 August 2024

Co-hosts Andy, Michael and Michael start things off with a couple of callbacks to last week’s episode, including Ian Hughes’ reply on exoframes, the Logitech Forever Mouse and the reports of the rate of returns on the Humane AI pin.

Switching then to a story local to Michael, Michael and Andy, the co-hosts talk about the University of North Carolina using Oxford Medical Simulation to teach nursing students in virtual reality.  This reminds Michael M of a rather old iOS game, Surgeon Simulator.

Sticking with the (quasi) medical theme, Andy then shares an experience of one of his recent blog posts going viral Hacker News.  Check out the images in the show notes below to see the detailed graphs.

After sharing Ian’s recent talk at the Chartered Institute for IT and Andy’s upcoming appearance on the TechGrumps podcast, the team turns to Mac hardware and software.

Beginning with NotchNook, and the reported challenges with payment systems, the co-hosts quickly turn to the SuperDrive.  Not surprisingly, all three co-hosts have a SuperDrive, though Michael M doesn’t know where his is.  Michael R shared a note about one of his favorite pieces of software, VinylStudio, which sparks a discussion on what it means to own media in this day and age.  

Wrapping things up this episode are several recommendations – Doom and a couple of intriguing podcasts not called Games at Work.  When We Were Wizards is a podcast dealing with an oral history of Dungeons & Dragons.  Acquired is a podcast that tells the stories and strategies in depth of great companies.

Do you know where Michael M’s SuperDrive is?  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

Andy’s phone answering glasses – Ray-Ban Smart Meta Glasses

@gamesatwork_biz fyi I can confirm I don’t have lots of exoframes filling up office or shed space 🙂 tempted a few times but maybe when I am a little more frail I might bother. Also the Rabbit R1, got it for that precise reason to see how it felt to have physical object doing AI not just an app, but it also looks great next to the playdate game machine. Annoyingly the roaming sim I put in it didn’t work on holiday (for translations etc) and no way to mess with the mobile settings.

— Epredator (@epredator) 2024-08-06T15:36:44.181Z

The Verge article: Now Logitech says the ‘forever mouse’ was just an idea

Mashable article: Humane AI Pins are being returned at a ridiculous pace

Medical VR

WUNC article: UNC-Chapel Hill gets funding to continue virtual reality pilot for nursing students

Carolina Nursing post: Virtual Reality Simulations Bring Real-World Healthcare Scenarios to the Classroom

Oxford Medical Simulation

Surgeon Simulator

Going Viral

The lost outpost blog post: MNT Pocket Reform: first impressions

July 31 2024 views & visitors
July 31 2024 views & visitors
August 7, 2024 views and visitors
August 7, 2024 views and visitors
Hacker News rankings over time
Hacker News rankings over time

Podcasts & Talks

Techgrumps 3.18

Mac Hardware and Software

iMore article: This MacBook app generated $100,000 in seven days, now Stripe won’t pay up

NotchNook

Games at Work e383: Notchy McNotchface

512 Pixels article: The SuperDrive

VinylStudio by AlpineSoft 

SuperDuper by Shirt Pocket Software

Alfred by Running with Crayons

Kelly Gallagher Sims blog post: Ownership in the Rental Age

I share my screen on Teams all the time, and I think drawing/design apps that want to sample colours outside of their windows with the eyedropper tool also need to use this API, so looks like I’m gonna be seeing this a lot…

Apple have made Mac OS into exactly the thing they made fun of Windows Vista for. After some time, no one is going to be reading these dialogues anyway, people will blindly click on “allow”, effectively working against the intent of better security.
mastodon.online/@9to5Mac/11291

— Tuomas Hämäläinen (@tuomas_h) 2024-08-06T20:49:16.328Z

Co-Host Recommendations

Bethesda post: DOOM + DOOM II Release Notes

When We Were Wizards podcast

Acquired podcast

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e475 — Hello, Friend

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blue neon light “hello"
Photo by Pablo Gentile on Unsplash

Published 5 August 2024

The co-hosts are back to full strength with Andy, Michael and Michael getting together to talk through the week’s stories.

The cohosts start things off with several examples of telepresence.  The Open-TeleVision project provides for teleoperation of a remote robot using VR headsets like the Meta Quest and Apple Vision Pro. This reminds the team of earlier telepresence examples of an iPad on a mobile platform.  Next is a story about Synchron’s brain implant to allow people to control an Apple Vision Pro.  This sparks a lively conversation among the co-hosts about the relative utility of such control, and also brings in a story about how Apple Vision Pro gestures may be leveraged across iOS, iPadOS and MacOS.

The co-hosts have another lively discussion about the new exoskeleton hiking pants from Arc’Teryx.  This reminds the co-hosts of an earlier episode of AI powered pants.  

Turning to AI, the team digs into a ChatGPT choose your own adventure game, where the user can push against the established guardrails.  This brings up the prior episode’s conversation on Baldur’s Gate, and how the Larian developers “fuel and reward” player creativity.  Then, it’s all about the new AI startup called Friend.  Andy references how a significant amount of the initial funding was consumed by purchasing the friend.com domain name.  The co-hosts take on the thought of how many of the recent AI startups have had a physical instantiation such has Humane’s AI pin, and the Rabbit R1, even though the AI could be supported through existing devices users carry around with them all the time such as their phones and smart watches.  The co-hosts can’t resist the temptation to include other “hello, Friend(s)” references – see the show notes below for some of them.  

Wrapping things up this episode is a treatment on a ‘forever mouse’ from Logitech.  

What is your perfect idea of an AI hardware device?  Would you buy a mouse as a service? 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

Hardware

Hackaday article: Re-Imagining Telepresence with Humanoid Robots and VR Headsets

Games at Work e270: Virtual Bricks

CNBC article: Neuralink rival Synchron’s brain implant now lets people control Apple’s Vision Pro with their minds

Synchron

Apple Insider article: Apple Vision Pro gestures may spread to the iPhone, iPad, and Mac

The Verge article: Arc’teryx’s new powered pants could make hikers feel 30 pounds lighter

Arc’teryx blog: Arc’teryx and Skip Partner to Introduce Mo/Go(tm): Revolutionizing Mobility With the World’s First Pair of Powered Pants

Games at Work e241: Smarty Pants

AI

Polygon article: We pushed this ChatGPT game to the limits, but playing it the right way is more fun

friend.com 

The Verge article: Your new AI Friend is almost ready to meet you

404 Media article: AI ‘Friend’ Company Spent $1.8 Million and Most of Its Funds on Domain Name

replika.com 

Star Wars Lola (L0-LA59)

Dulcé Sloan’s Hello, Friends!: Stories of Dating, Destiny, and Day Jobs

IMDB Friends TV Series

Ars Technica article: Outsourcing emotion: The horror of Google’s “Dear Sydney” AI ad

The Lost Outpost blog post: Art, and Algorithms vs AI

MIT Technology Review article: A new tool for copyright holders can show if their work is in AI training data

Games at Work e451: Fahrenheit 

Mouse as a Service

The Verge article: Logitech CEO Hanneke Faber wants your next mouse to last forever

Ars Technica article: Logitech has an idea for a “forever mouse” that requires a subscription

The Logitech "forever mouse" thing would be funny if it weren't so horrible.

"All Logitech had to do was keep making solid input devices."

Was there some investor you forgot to ask?

That's the problem. You cannot, in capitalism, just keep doing the same thing forever. The same thing forever is not growth, and therefore, is "death".

There's also the paradox of durable goods. That is, if you make them too well, you discourage repeat business because what's bought doesn't wear out fast enough. So, many companies turn to the oldest means to play capitalism on easy mode:

Rent-seeking.

— “Fedi’s Worst” Film Reviewer (@socketwench) 2024-07-31T16:10:13.654Z

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