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e498 — Password to the Oregon Trail

By Michael Martine | January 20, 2025 - 06:11 |January 20, 2025 Podcast

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covered wagon with a password entry box on the side adapted from Photo by James Lee on Unsplash

Published 20 January 2025

e498 with Michael, Andy and Michael on #maps, #weather, #games, #gamification, #robots, #LanguageLocalization, #LEGO and a whole lot more!

Michael, Andy and Michael start things off with a discussion about the weather, and this time, it’s related to mapping technology and the integration of way finding with weather. Using the example of CARROT weather, the team takes a look at how this app integrates the two. During the show notes writeup, another app, Weather on the Way, surfaces as an example for how weather forecasts along with the directions can be pulled together.

This episode has a bonanza of games and gamification, with the Nintendo Switch 2 hardware announcement. Then, an (un)serious game like 1Crossword, which integrates with your password manager to create crossword puzzles to play and share on social media. Next, an RPG style command line interfaces enabling a rogue-like romp through your directory structure. Doom fans may rejoice at an example of the game played through a PDF. And there is an intriguing experience on the Oregon Trail where waiting down by the riverside for a long, long time will have surprising results.

After taking a look at the 25 year celebration of the Sims and a LEGO example of Tetris, the cohosts evaluate the micro robot from Robeauté.

Wrapping things up for the episode, Michael R shares the news that his Quick Localizer app has now hit the MacOS App Store Check out the link below for more details.

How long would you wait by the river? What other tasks would you want a mini robot to do? Have your bots 🤖 drop our bots 🤖 a line at @gamesatwork_biz (our home for now) and let us know!

Selected Links

Weather and Maps

9 to 5 Mac article: CARROT Weather adds new CarPlay app, plus upgraded Live Activities

CARROT Weather: Alerts and Radar

The Apple Geek post: Weather on the Way

Weather on the Way

Games and Gamification

Nintendo Switch 2

I couldn't find any good games for my password manager. So I made one.
1Crossword connects to your 1Password vault and generates a crossword entirely out of your passwords!
The crosswords are fun, simple, and great for sharing on social media when you finish. Enjoy!

— nolen (@eieio) 2025-01-15T18:27:27.910Z

eieio.games post: 1Crossword: Crosswords For Your Password Manager

olano.dev blog post: Deconstructing the Role-Playing Video Game

Github repo: facundoolano rpg-cli

DoomPDF

moral.net.au blog post: Can you complete the Oregon Trail if you wait at a river for 14272 years: A study

EA Sim4 post: Behind The Sims 25th Birthday Special

LEGO Ideas: Tetris Solid

Mini Robots

Fortune article: Exclusive: Startup pioneering tiny robots that can travel inside the brain gets $28 million in new venture funding

Robeauté

IMDB: Total Recall

Language Localization

Michael R’s New app on localization –

Web 11.0 mashup junkie, and co-founder / co-host of the GamesAtWork.biz podcast. My views are my own.

Michael Martine

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 35:49 — 49.8MB) | Embed

e497 — Rise of the Robots

By Michael Martine | January 13, 2025 - 06:06 |January 12, 2025 Podcast

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Apple Image Playground generated image: robot holding a sock, January 2025

Published 13 January 2025

e497 with Michael, Michael and Andy on #CES2025, #robots, #socks, #AI, #TalkingMoose, #ZaphodBeeblebrox, #LanguageLocalization, #LEGO and a whole lot more!

Michael, Michael and Andy are back in full co-host force once again, covering the robotics-filled CES innovations hitting the feeds this week.

The team starts things off this episode discussing a TechCrunch article covering Nvidia’s R2X avatar. The user experience for this avatar is through the computer desktop with a humanlike embodiment to provide assistance to users, seeing what they see on the desktop, or ingesting documents. This reminds Michael R of the Reallusion Crazytalk capability (discussed way back in e35 in 2013), Andy of Microsoft’s Clippy, and Michael M of the Talking Moose. The R2X puts “a face on agentic AI” according to Nvidia’s press release, and it is easy to imagine how Clippy, the Talking Moose or other embodiments might be a similar face.

Moving from virtual to physical, it is clear that CES2025 is chock full of robots, for all manner of purposes.

The uncanny valley resurfaces with the Realbotix humanoid robot Melody. The facial and body movements of the robot resemble human natural movement, but are still far enough away to create the emotional discrepancy described by the uncanny valley. In addition, Andy makes the point that the reported open source nature of the robot and its code does not appear to be substantiated.

Moving along from the humanoid form factor to other robots, there are many robot examples whose purpose is to vacuum, mop, deliver drinks or even pick up socks. Check out the show notes below for some of the CES robots, from those that attach to purses, to those that cool your tea.

Michael R shares a project he’s been working on dealing with language localization – check out the link below for more details.

Wrapping things up for the episode, the co-hosts turn to a couple LEGO innovations: the latest in the Nintendo-LEGO partnership, and an intriguing Hackaday omni-directional treadmill.

What tasks would you want a robot to do for you? Have your bots 🤖 drop our bots 🤖 a line at @gamesatwork_biz (our home for now) and let us know!

Selected Links

AI

TechCrunch article: Nvidia’s AI avatar sat on my computer screen and weirded me out

Nvidia press release 6 Jan 2025: NVIDIA Launches AI Foundation Models for RTX AI PCs

Reallusion’s Crazytalk

Games at Work e35: Pirates of Pizzazz

Wikipedia article: Office Assistant (Microsoft Clippy)

Wikipedia article: Talking Moose

Uli’s Moose

Robots, Robots, Everywhere

Interesting Engineering article: Melody: New humanoid robot companion that packs into a suitcase unveiled

Realbotix

Wikipedia entry: Uncanny Valley

The Hitchhiker’s Wiki article: Zaphod Beeblebrox

9 to 5 Mac article: These are the silliest robot cleaners at CES – including one that carries drinks

TechRadar article: This furry clip-on robot is the strangest thing I’ve seen at this or any CES

TechRadar article: Roborock’s new robovac has a mechanical arm that can pick up your socks and maybe also play with your cat

Roborock

The Verge article: SwitchBot is bringing a Rosie the Robot wannabe to CES

CES article: Stop Scalding Your Tongue: This $25 Cat Robot ‘Blows’ on Your Drink to Cool It

Yukai Engineering: Yukai Engineering to Debut ‘Nékojita FuFu,’Attachable Mini-Robot That Cools Hot Drinks/Food, at CES Unveiled

Leveraging Language Localization

Michael Rowe’s Random Thoughts blog post: Coming Soon – Quick Localizer

LEGO

Brickfanatics article: LEGO Nintendo Game Boy officially announced for 2025

Hackaday article: Gaze Upon This Omni-directional Treadmill’s Clever LEGO Construction

Games at Work e412: 3D or not 3D – Virtuix Omni treadmill

Games at Work e451: Fahrenheit – Disney Holotile treadmill

Web 11.0 mashup junkie, and co-founder / co-host of the GamesAtWork.biz podcast. My views are my own.

Michael Martine

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 40:46 — 56.6MB) | Embed

E496 – The Starting Square

By Michael Rowe | January 6, 2025 - 06:30 |January 3, 2025 Podcast

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Andy and Michael R are checking out the upcoming FOSDEM 2025 conference (Free and Open Source Developers European Meeting). This got them thinking about Episode 494 – License to Brick, where they talked about how the makers of the Moxie emotional support toy for kids were shutting down. But guess what? The CEO decided to let a team of developers create an Open Source version of the server and make it available for everyone!

After both of our hosts find the same Toot on Mastodon, about how a town in Poland is using Clams to monitor their water supply. While the story is not new, there is a very interesting documentary available for free on Youtube. This discussion takes us into the world of home automation and brilliant example – Operation Toilet!

A quick pivot takes us to a tool that has been created to allow Open Street Map data to generate MineCraft worlds. Perhaps this new world could be used to test out the new VR glasses that scientists have created for mice. Andy and Michael spend time enjoying the sentences in the article, as it appears that there may be a whole industry of “standard mouse VR”. Is this really common? Really?

We wrap up the show with a few preannouncements from LG for the upcoming CES. It appears that they will continue to add more and more screens in the house. We are sure the main use case is for new ads. We can’t wait to see what else is announced as CES.

Show Links

Moxie works on open sourcing their servers – https://www.techdirt.com/2024/12/30/embodied-is-actually-trying-to-release-moxie-robots-to-the-open-source-community/

Poland city uses 8 clams to secure their water supply – https://hear-me.social/@tylerknowsnothing/113743591435484939

Generate MineCraft Replicas based on Open Street Map – https://www.tomshardware.com/video-games/pc-gaming/minecraft-tool-lets-you-create-scale-replicas-of-real-world-locations-arnis-uses-geospatial-data-from-openstreetmap-to-generate-minecraft-maps

VR Goggles for Mice – https://gizmodo.com/scientists-built-tiny-vr-goggles-for-mice-2000543775

LG Announces microwave with 27 inch screen – https://www.theverge.com/2024/12/30/24331994/lg-microwave-27-inch-display-speakers

LG Announces new monitors for gaming – https://www.theverge.com/2024/12/29/24331748/lg-ultragear-gx9-bendable-oled-5k2k-monitors-specs

Our friend Roo’s Connected Fridge Tumblr – https://www.tumblr.com/fuckyeahinternetfridge

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 34:07 — 47.5MB) | Embed

e495 — Personal Planetarium

By Michael Martine | December 30, 2024 - 06:41 |February 7, 2025 Podcast

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Photo by Michael Martine, Morehead Planetarium Sundial, Chapel Hill Sept 2019

Published 30 December 2024

e494 with Michael and Michael on personal planetariums, digital doppelgängers, agentic AI acceleration, and a whole lot more!

Michael and Michael start this episode off with a full dome sized bang, Sandwich Vision’s Theater app. In addition to replicating famous theater spaces via Apple Vision Pro, Theater 2.0 also introduces a planetarium experience. Michael R makes a North Carolina tie to the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center in Chapel Hill. Michael M is reminded how the planetarium VR experience has surfaced on the podcast before. See the link in the show notes to e177 from 2017 for one such example.

The team calls back to last week’s episode, dealing with AI discovering the rules to games thousands of years old with a new story from Nature. This article explores the use of AI in translating animal communications from birds, whales, elephants and more, as well as identifying unique animals. Additional use case for AI and GenAI include Apple’s Image Wand in iOS & iPadOS 18.2, a physics engine called Genesis, and creating a meeting doppelgänger via HeyGen. The idea of sending an agentic version of yourself to a meeting sparks a lively discussion about responsible AI and what this bodes for the differentiation that the human may bring. The trustworthiness (truthiness?) of chatbot responses surfaces via a pair of stories where people say “I asked ChatGPT …” or how the chatbot itself tends to follow mechanics similar to how mentalists interact with their audience.

Wrapping things up for the episode, Michael and Michael anticipate the upcoming CES with a couple of hardware stories: a supremely expensive transparent television and a MagSafe gaming controller.

If you could talk with the animals, what would you say? What new consumer electronics do you hope to see from CES 2025? Have your bots 🤖 drop our bots 🤖 a line at @gamesatwork_biz (our home for now) and let us know!