Episode 325 — Talking Heads

By | |
Comments Off on Episode 325 — Talking Heads
Games At Work cohosts talking heads
Together Mode – Games at Work cohosts, June 2021

WWDC21 in review, code documentation, lossless & spatial audio, AR autos, VR ads, Windows 10 (& 11), Flight Simulator buzzing the LEGO House in Billund.

The cohosts are reunited!  Starting off with a review of the announcements from , covering all manner of updates, from security, to code documentation, to universal keyboard shortcuts and more. The team takes a pause to consider the upgraded audio from Apple Music, and Michael M shares the 1970s kick he’s been on for the past few days, with tunes from Yes and Rush.  

An AR article describes how the technology could be used in both driving and visualizing a new vehicle in your driveway.  Another article highlights how ads could permeate VR, reminding the cohosts of how every surface could become a place for an ad.  After checking out the Portal between Vilnius and Lublin, the team discusses Microsoft Windows 10 and the possibilities of 11.  

A Fast Company article about a Talking Heads song from 1978 seems to predict TikTok.  The cohosts enjoy using Skype’s new Together Mode to be talking heads themselves during the episode recording.  And the team winds up this episode with the LEGO House in Billund, Denmark making an appearance in the latest Microsoft Flight Simulator update.  

Where would you like to fly in the MSFS virtual world?  And what lossless tunes would you play on your virtual airplane’s stereo system?

Selected Links

Doxygen — https://www.doxygen.nl/index.html 

The Elements of Programming Style — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elements_of_Programming_Style 

The Elements of Style — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elements_of_Style 

TechCrunch article: 7 new security features Apple quietly announced at WWDC — https://techcrunch.com/2021/06/12/7-new-security-features-apple-quietly-announced-at-wwdc/ 

Six Colors article: Think Globally: The iPad’s new universal keyboard shortcuts — https://sixcolors.com/post/2021/06/think-globally-the-ipads-new-universal-keyboard-shortcuts/ 

iMore article: Forget Apple’s Spatial Audio playlists – listen to this one instead — https://www.imore.com/forget-apples-spatial-audio-playlists-listen-one-instead 

iMore article: Best DACs for your Mac in 2021 — https://www.imore.com/best-dacs-your-mac 

CNET Road/Show article: Augmented reality will change the way we buy and drive cars — https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/augmented-reality-will-change-buying-and-driving-a-car/ 

TechCrunch article: Facebook will begin beaming advertisements into virtual reality — https://techcrunch.com/2021/06/16/facebook-will-begin-beaming-advertisements-into-virtual-reality/ 

FastCompany article: This magical portal connects people across two cities — https://www.fastcompany.com/90647761/this-magical-portal-connects-people-across-two-cities 

The Verge article: Microsoft to end Windows 10 support on October 14th, 2025 — https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/14/22533018/microsoft-windows-10-end-support-date 

Fast Company article: This eerily prescient 1978 Talking Heads song predicted TikTok — https://www.fastcompany.com/90647436/david-byrne-talking-heads-tik-tok 

TikTok — https://www.tiktok.com/en/ 

the brothers brick article: Get a bird’s-eye view of the LEGO House with Microsoft Flight Simulator’s latest update — https://www.brothers-brick.com/2021/06/18/get-birds-eye-view-of-the-lego-house-with-microsoft-flight-simulators-latest-update-news/

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (45.4MB) | Embed

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

Episode 324 — With Glorious Purpose

By | |
Comments Off on Episode 324 — With Glorious Purpose
Cape Fear River, Southport NC 2017
Cape Fear River, Southport NC – Picture by Michael Martine, 2017

SlothBot in ATL, row-bots in AMS, silly stringing drones, new functionality and iPad drops at , AI SlothBot in ATL, row-bots in AMS, AI discovers art with potential NFT monetization, NetHack, silly stringing drones, new functionality and iPad drops at , playdate, and a new old LEGO typewriter for glorious purpose.

Andy and Michael start off the show in a slow deliberate way with a discussion about SlothBot.  SlotBot conserves energy by moving slowly only to recharge the batteries via solar panels on its back, and therefore does not spook the wildlife it observes.  Moving from the SlothBot in Atlanta, the co-hosts then virtually visit Amsterdam, where AI-controlled electric vehicles are being tested in the canals.  

Sticking with AI, the team considers a story about the painter Modigliani, who like many of his peers, reused canvases, painting over their artwork.  AI systems are able to recreate what the underlying art looked like — something that has been more and more common in recent years.  This sparks an interesting idea about who owns the newly discovered old artwork, and whether NFT (non functional tokens) could be used to monetize the newly discovered works.  

Games have often been used to test AI systems – famous examples such as chess and go spring readily to mind.  There have been examples of AI learning to play video games that uncover unexpected win conditions (see example of Q-bert discussed in episode 225).  Andy and Michael talk about the Facebook AI team’s investigation of NetHack/Rogue.  They consider whether the AI may determine that the win condition for this unending generated dungeon game might be to never go downstairs and “stay in the village” so to speak.  Will be interesting to see what NetHack teaches the Facebook AI team as it learns the game.  

The pair discuss a simple and non-lethal way to down a drone with a silly string-like substance and a speculative article about Facebook watch with two cameras.  Of course, this reminds the co-hosts of the Dick Tracy 2-Way Wrist TV.

While Andy and Michael M are reserving most of the WWDC commentary to when all the co-hosts have reassembled next week, there were a couple of intriguing things to discuss.  The new Digital Legacy functionality to provide your next-of-kin the ability to access your content is no foreign subject to the Games At Work team.  In episode 247, a Wirecutter article prompted a good discussion on preparing ones’ digital accounts.  This may spark an interesting discussion for ownership of artwork, come to think of it.  The second piece of Apple news was a song & video made by the artist Jonathan Mann featuring a remix of Apple’s Craig Federighi’s WWDC21 keynote presentation.  

Winding things up for this episode, Andy and Michael talk about the playdate gaming device, drop in a reference to the Disney+ show about Loki and hit the carriage return on an awesome LEGO Ideas implementation of an old fashioned typewriter.  Give this episode a listen and check out the show notes.

No iPads were harmed in the making of this podcast. 

Selected Links

Popular Mechanics article: This Lazy ‘SlothBot’ Could Change Conservation Forever — https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/robots/a36356683/slothbot-conservation-robotics/ 

GA Tech News Center article: ‘SlothBot in the Garden’ Demonstrates Hyper-Efficient Conservation Robot — https://news.gatech.edu/2020/06/16/slothbot-garden-demonstrates-hyper-efficient-conservation-robot 

The Guardian article: How a ghostly outline revealed the secret of Modigliani’s lost lover — https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/jun/06/modigliani-lost-lover-beatrice-hastings?CMP=oth_b-aplnews_d-1 

Amedeo Modigliani — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amedeo_Modigliani 

Microsoft News article: A NFT for the ‘Nyan Cat’ GIF fetched nearly $500,000 (number of the day) — https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/lifestyle-buzz/a-nft-for-the-nyan-cat-gif-fetched-nearly-500000-number-of-the-day/ar-BB1dWDVM 

Non-fungible token — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-fungible_token 

TechCrunch article: Decades-old ASCII adventure NetHack may hint at the future of AI — https://techcrunch.com/2021/06/09/decades-old-ascii-adventure-nethack-may-hint-at-the-future-of-ai/ 

NetHack — https://www.nethack.org 

NetHack by Future Shock Software on iOS — https://apps.apple.com/us/app/inethack2/id962114968 

Rogue — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogue_(video_game) 

Rogue by gandreas software on iOS — https://apps.apple.com/us/app/rogue/id298113808 

Games At Work episode 225 — Ah ha — it’s AI! — https://gamesatwork.biz/2019/01/29/episode-225-ah-ha-its-ai/ 

Popular Mechanics article: America’s New Drone Killer Blasts Targets With Stringy Pink Stuff — https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/research/a36664341/darpa-drone-killer-mobile-force-protection/ 

Silly String — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silly_String 

Fast Company article: A Facebook wristwatch with cameras?  Hard pass.  — https://www.fastcompany.com/90645576/a-facebook-wristwatch-with-cameras-hard-pass 

Dick Tracy 2-Way Wrist TV — https://dicktracy.fandom.com/wiki/2-Way_Wrist_TV 

iOS 15 adds an iPhone feature you might never use – but you should set it up anyway — https://bgr.com/tech/iphone-icloud-access-digital-legacy-ios-15-wwdc-2021-5930590/ 

Michael Rowe’s WWDC21 blog post — https://michaelrowe01.com/index.php/2021/06/07/wwdc-2021-day-1/ 

Cult of Mac article: Craig Federighi’s impressive WWDC iPad catch gets set to toe-tapping music — https://www.cultofmac.com/744572/craig-federighis-impressive-wwdc-ipad-catch-gets-set-to-toe-tapping-music/ 

The tiny Playdate handheld gets a price bump but double the games — https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/4/22466184/panic-playdate-handheld-price-double-season-one-games-update-preorder 

playdate — https://play.date 

Time Variance Authority — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Variance_Authority 

The Washington Post article: ‘Loki’ is a dark and tricky delight that continues Marvel’s success at Disney Plus — https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2021/06/08/loki-review-disney-plus-marvel/ 

Kotaku article: Lego’s Vintage Typewriter Is A Work Of Art — https://kotaku.com/lego-s-vintage-typewriter-is-a-work-of-art-1847064925 


LEGO Ideas Typewriter — https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/typewriter-21327

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (83.6MB) | Embed

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

Episode 323 — Bots & Bricks

By | |
Comments Off on Episode 323 — Bots & Bricks
Photo by Pascal Bernardon on Unsplash

Netflix as the Netflix of gaming services, robots for logistics & loneliness, AI image creation, all-online WWDC21 & LEGO Con.

Michael and Michael get together for an abbreviated recording session dealing with robots, AI, games and conferences a-plenty!  Starting things off with a story about how Netflix intends to be the Netflix of subscription-based gaming, Michael and Michael then turn to robotics.  DHL is poised to put into service 2,000 Locus Robotics units.  On a much smaller scale, a recent New Yorker article goes deep on how robots can stave off loneliness on an individual level.  

Going very local (for Michael and Michael), researchers at NC State University have made intriguing advancements in the field of AI.  You can check out the source code from the show notes below to see how robots could use this functionality to ‘imagine’ what a completed task should look like.

Michael R is very excited about his upcoming participation in Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, starting on 7 June.  He shares some of his experiences as a user of he 2021 Apple Design Award winners.  Michael M shared the news of the upcoming LEGO Con, likewise coming to a browser near you on 26 June.  Between these two conferences, it’s a sure bet that everything will be awesome.  

See something that you think is awesome too?  Drop us a link over on @Gamesatwork_biz and the co-hosts could bring it into a future episode.

Selected Links

Firstpost article: Netflix planing to enter the gaming industry with subscription-based gaming service — https://www.firstpost.com/tech/news-analysis/netflix-planning-to-enter-the-gaming-industry-with-subscription-based-gaming-service-report-9681531.html 

TechCrunch article: DHL will deploy 2,000 Locus Robotics units by 2022 — https://techcrunch.com/2021/06/02/dhl-will-deploy-2000-locus-robotics-units-by-2022/ 

Locus Robotics — https://locusrobotics.com 

The New Yorker article: What Robots Can — and Can’t — Do for the Old and Lonely — https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/05/31/what-robots-can-and-cant-do-for-the-old-and-lonely 

WRAL TechWire article: NCSU researchers report breakthrough in creating images through artificial intelligence — https://www.wraltechwire.com/2021/06/03/ncsu-researchers-report-breakthrough-in-creating-images-though-artificial-intelligence/ 

IEEE Xplore publication: Learning Layout and Style Reconfigurable GANs for Controllable Image Synthesis — https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9427066 

GitHub iVMCL / LostGANs — https://github.com/iVMCL/LostGANs 

TechCrunch article: Indivisible is training an army of volunteers to neutralize political misinformation — https://techcrunch.com/2021/06/01/indivisible-truth-brigade/ 

Skittish blog post: May Updates: Text Chat, Event Privacy, Channel Zones, and More — https://new.skittish.com 

MacRumors article: MBUX now with Apple Music — https://www.macrumors.com/2021/06/04/apple-music-coming-to-mercedes-mbux/ 

2021 Apple Design Awards — https://developer.apple.com/design/awards/ 

Apple’s all-online Worldwide Developers Conference kicks off June 7 with keynote address — https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2021/05/apples-worldwide-developers-conference-kicks-off-june-7/ 

LEGO Con is coming — https://www.lego.com/en-us/lego-con 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (10.4MB) | Embed

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

Episode 322 — Shiny Happy People

By | |
Comments Off on Episode 322 — Shiny Happy People
smiley face on asphalt
Photo by Jacqueline Munguía on Unsplash

Gamification of Ts & Cs, virtual social entrepreneurship & developer conferences from Google & Apple, physical (Catan) and online (Stadia) gaming, AR Spectacles.

Michael, Andy and Michael start of this week’s show with a serious persuasive game about “the deviousness of websites and apps” where the objective is to not accept the terms and conditions of the site.  After 29 questions, none of the co-hosts successfully avoided accepting all of the terms and conditions, notifications and cookies — see if you fare better by trying out the link in the show notes below!  This is followed up by a Forbes article on the Chrome browser & FLoC tracking.

Next, Andy shares with Michael and Michael his experiences at the Roomkey Social Entrepreneurship Festival virtual conference.  This reminded Andy of the Skittish virtual event space that the team first discussed in episode 309, and Microsoft Mesh.  Google created I/O Adventure to allow people to virtually interact with one another.  Apple put a little easter egg into the WWDC announcement graphic in the reflection of one of the developer’s glasses.

There are a few quick hitters in the mix to close out this week’s episode — a deepfake with Robert De Nero speaking German, a highly detailed version of the board game Catan, a discussion on the pricing of Stadia games, a reflection on the new Spectacles from Snap and remarks about the upcoming Portal movie.

All in all a pretty good set of materials for a bank/holiday weekend for the UK and US-based co-hosts!  

Selected Links

Gizmodo article: ‘Terms & Conditions Apply’ Is a Game That Dares You to Opt-Out — https://gizmodo.com/terms-conditions-apply-is-a-game-that-dares-you-to-op-1846956990 

Terms & Conditions game — https://termsandconditions.game 

Forbes article: Why iPhone, iPad And Mac Users Should Stop Using Chrome Instead Of Safari — https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2021/05/22/apple-iphone-ipad-and-mac-users-should-never-use-google-chrome/?sh=5bd57b5557bd 

Security Now 811: What the FLOC — https://twit.tv/shows/security-now/episodes/811 

Roomkey — https://roomkey.co/apply/ 

The Verge article: Skittish is a virtual event space built from the lessons of the pandemic — https://www.theverge.com/2021/2/17/22286520/skittish-virtual-event-space-online-andy-baio 

Games at Work episode 309 — Cardboard Doom to Khazad-dûm — https://gamesatwork.biz/2021/02/21/episode-309-cardboard-doom-to-khazad-dum/ 

The Verge article: Microsoft Mesh feels like the virtual future of Microsoft Teams meetings — https://www.theverge.com/22308883/microsoft-mesh-virtual-reality-augmented-reality-hololens-vr-headsets-features 

ArsTechnica article: Google’s I/O Adventure was almost as good as being there — https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/05/googles-i-o-adventure-was-almost-as-good-as-being-there/ 

Google’s I/O Adventure — https://events.google.com/io/adventure?lng=en 

WWDC21 — https://developer.apple.com/wwdc21/ 

Cult of Mac article — https://www.cultofmac.com/743279/wwdc-2021-tip-hint-new-macbook-pro/

Wired article: This AI Makes Robert De Niro Perform Lines in Flawless German — https://www.wired.com/story/ai-makes-de-niro-perform-lines-flawless-german/ 

Kotaku article: The New 3D Edition Of Catan is Freakin’ Gorgeous — https://kotaku.com/the-new-3d-edition-of-catan-is-freakin-gorgeous-1846963044 

Terrence Eden’s Blog post: Yo! Stadia! How much do your games cost? — https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2021/05/yo-stadia-how-much-do-your-games-cost/ 

The Verge article: Snap’s new Spectacles let you see the world in augmented reality — https://www.theverge.com/2021/5/20/22445481/snap-spectacles-ar-augmented-reality-announced 

Slashfilm article: Valve’s ‘Portal’ Movie is “Finally on the Rails,” J.J. Abrams Says — https://www.slashfilm.com/valve-portal-movie-update-jj-abrams/ 

Edge of Tomorrow — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edge_of_Tomorrow 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (23.5MB) | Embed

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