Episode 336 — Pancaking Robots

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robot talking about pancakes
Composite photos from  수안 최 on Unsplash & Ariana Suárez on Unsplash

cargo ship canal drifting, drones that crash & get crashed into, co-designing rooms with Pancake, NFTs and the quantum tick tocks of clocks.

Michael and Michael start of this week’s episode with an interesting game that reminded Michael M of Desert Bus.  While there is nothing in the article or Steam game description of Whatever being a real time simulator, it’s fun to imagine that there might be a gameplay mode like Desert Bus.  Whatever allows you to take on the role of a cargo ship captain, and chart a course through increasing difficult rivers and canals, inspired by the Ever Given.

The co-hosts then deal with drones that crash into planes, and humans that crash into robots.  In the first story, a York Regional Police drone struck a Cessna coming in for a landing in Toronto.  In the second story, a driver clipped a Starship Technologies autonomous delivery robot that was attempting to cross an intersection.

A listener tweet from @Lxs inspires an interesting NFT conversation.  Michael R links this back to the hype cycle discussion from last week’s episode.  Michael M envisions exotic financial instruments based on NFTs.

Pancake provides furniture-as-a-service, linking consumers with designers to design their space in real time.  After uploading a room’s dimensions and scheduling a time, the client co-creates their space with the Pancake designer and can buy the furnishings with a single click at the end of their work.

Quanta Magazine quotes Dr. Gerard Milburn from the University of Queensland in Australia “A clock is a flow meter for entropy,” in an article outlining what clocks are, and what makes them tick (so to speak).  The relationship between entropy and accuracy is intriguing, as is the the example of a clock composed of three entangled atoms.

Rounding out the episode are stories about the new Philips Hue lights and Bud Light’s new hard seltzer flavors which include pumpkin spice as well as toasted marshmallow, maple pear and apple crisp.

Do you have a favorite seltzer flavor?  Let us know over at @gamesatwork_biz ! 

Thanks for listening!

Selected Links

Axios article: Finally, a video game about the Ever Given — https://www.axios.com/ever-given-video-game-8a884f1c-4153-47a7-858f-2c457d41e69f.html 

Whatever — https://store.steampowered.com/app/1734230/WHATEVER/ 

Desert Bus — https://desertbus.org 

MIT Technology Review — https://www.technologyreview.com/newsletter-preferences/ 

Persuasive Games — http://bogost.com/games/persuasive_games_1/  

Episode 17 — Things are weirder than expected with Ian Bogost — https://gamesatwork.biz/2012/08/26/episode-17-things-are-weirder-than-expected/ 

Gizmodo article: This Touchscreen Coffee Table Makes Digital Board Games a Blast — https://gizmodo.com/this-touchscreen-coffee-table-makes-digital-board-games-1847496122 

Techdirt article: Canadian Cops Blow Off Drone Operations Laws, Crash Their Drone Into A Landing Airplane — https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20210824/19471947428/canadian-cops-blow-off-drone-operation-laws-crash-their-drone-into-landing-airplane.shtml 

The Verge article: The time a human-driven car ran over an autonomous robot — https://www.theverge.com/2021/9/1/22652980/starship-delivery-robot-kentucky-car-accident 

Gizmodo article: Philips Hue Want to Put a Smart Light in Every Room in Your House — https://gizmodo.com/philips-hue-wants-to-put-a-smart-light-in-every-room-in-1847593336 

Pancake aims to make customers flip for its virtual home design platform — https://techcrunch.com/2021/09/02/pancake-aims-to-make-customers-flip-for-its-virtual-home-design-platform/ 

Pancake — https://www.pancake.live 

IKEA Place — https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ikea-place/id1279244498 

Quanta Magazine article: The New Thermodynamic Understanding of Clocks — https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-new-science-of-clocks-prompts-questions-about-the-nature-of-time-20210831/ 

CNN Business article: Bud Light is launching a pumpkin spice spiked seltzer — https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/31/business/pumpkin-spice-bud-light-seltzer/index.html 

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Episode 335 — Horsing Around

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carousel horses
Photo by Rusty Watson on Unsplash

Horses in games, HUD swim goggles, newest Gartner hype cycle, Jolla, a signature that’s not an autograph, and NC barbecue.

Michael and Michael start out with a story about how horses are misrepresented in video game designs and some possible solutions.

Michael R shares that he’s participating in the FORM Smart Swim Goggles beta.  Michael M has an idea about using the HUD during a race to show each participant data on their competitors.

Then, the co-hosts have a discussion about the current emerging technology on the recently released Gartner hype cycle.  This leads to a conversation about Jolla’s Sailfish OS for mobile devices.  Next up, is another situation where user records are exposed, and a public service announcement to change the ADMIN password to something other than ADMIN.

Wrapping things up for the episode, Michael and Michael take on a news story about a person who requested and autograph from Steve Jobs, and instead received a letter from him saying that he doesn’t give autographs.  With a signature.  It is interesting that Steve Jobs signature (not an autograph) is in lower case, as is the “hello” on the unveiling of the original MacIntosh, and lends more credence to the importance of typefaces and fonts in the original MacOS.

What’s your favorite font?  Let us know over at @gamesatwork_biz ! 

Thanks for listening!

Selected Links

The Mane Quest article: 8 Common Horse Mistakes I Want Game Designers to Stop Making — https://www.themanequest.com/blog/2021/8/22/8-common-horse-mistakes-i-want-game-developers-to-stop-making 

The Verge article: Amazon’s New World MMO is getting an open beta on September 9th — https://www.theverge.com/2021/8/25/22640656/amazon-games-new-world-mmo-open-beta-date 

ScreenRant article: These Goggles Give You A HUD While You Swim — https://screenrant.com/smart-swim-goggles-hud-form/ 

FORM Smart Swim Goggles — https://www.formswim.com 

ZD Net article: Gartner releases its 2021 emerging tech hype cycle: Here’s what’s in and headed out — https://www.zdnet.com/article/gartner-releases-its-2021-emerging-tech-hype-cycle-heres-whats-in-and-headed-out/ 

TechCrunch article: Jolla hits profitability ahead of turning 10, eyes growth beyond mobile — https://techcrunch.com/2021/08/25/jolla-hits-profitability-ahead-of-turning-ten-eyes-growth-beyond-mobile 

Jolla — https://jolla.com 

Sailfish OS — https://sailfishos.org 

The Verge article: Check your permissions: default settings in Microsoft tool exposes 38 million users records online — https://www.theverge.com/2021/8/24/22639106/microsoft-power-apps-default-permissions-settings-user-records-exposed-38-million-upgard 

Newsweek article: Steve Jobs Letter Saying He Doesn’t Sign Autographs Sells for Almost $500k — https://www.newsweek.com/steve-jobs-letter-saying-he-doesnt-sign-autographs-sells-almost-500k-1621951 

Digital Trends article: Steve Jobs: The godfather of fonts as we know them — https://www.digitaltrends.com/apple/steve-jobs-the-godfather-of-fonts-as-we-know-them/ 

TED talk: Steve Jobs | Stanford University — How to live before you die — https://www.ted.com/talks/steve_jobs_how_to_live_before_you_die 

History and Culture of Barbecue with John Shelton Reed — https://alumni.unc.edu/events/the-history-and-culture-of-barbecue-with-dr-john-shelton-reed/ 

Extended remix links for this week

The Campaign for Real Barbecue — http://www.truecue.org

a few of the topics discussed during John Shelton Reed’s History and Culture talk

Wilson County Barbecue — https://wilsoncountybarbecue.com 

Mabel’s Barbecue — http://www.mabelsbbq.com 

Ocracoke Oyster Company — https://obxguides.com/ocracoke/ocracokeoystercompany 

Big Bob Gibson’s Bama Birds With White BBQ Sauce recipe — https://amazingribs.com/tested-recipes/chicken-recipes/big-bob-gibsons-bama-birds-white-bbq-sauce-recipe 

Midwood Smokehouse — https://midwoodsmokehouse.com 

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Episode 334 — Robux – NoBux

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in-game currency
Photo by Suzy Hazelwood from Pexels

Challenges with in-game currency exchange, ROMs, creating real-life webshooters, and HBD number 100 to Gene Roddenberry!

Michael and Michael start off this week’s episode with some happy birthday wishes for Gene Roddenberry and a story about how NASA is transmitting his voice into space. 

Next up, an article about RomUniverse and a court decision requiring the site to shut down because of mass copyright infringement.  

Then, a story about how video games are used for health benefits, which is right in the wheelhouse of this podcast.  This reminded the cohosts about the virtual snow world (called SnowWorld) that helps burn victims cope with their pain using the game, instead of drugs.  The BrainQ story is also reminiscent of the Emotiv headset, which both Michaels have used.  

The cohosts then turn to a story from SixColors about the People Make Games video about Roblox.  This video spells out in detail how digital content creators in the Roblox world have the opportunity to create in-world experiences that other Roblox players may participate in, and pay for using in-world Roblox currency.  The trick is getting the in-world currency out of the virtual world and available outside of the virtual world.  Michael R compares and contrasts with other virtual world currency (Linden dollars, etc) in his summary of the video and highly recommends the Games At Work audience watches the video.

Stories about real-life Spider-Man webshooters innovations, robbers using an Apple Watch to track their mark, an autonomous sub by Bedrock, Tesla’s AI day, and the team winds up with the recent update to Skyrim.

Speaking of Bedrock, several of the Hanna-Barbera characters surfaced in this week’s episode!

What’s your favorited Hanna-Barbera character?  Let us know over at @gamesatwork_biz ! 

Thanks for listening!

Selected Links

Slashfilm article: ‘Star Trek’ Creator Gene Roddenberry Would’ve Turned 100 Today, and NASA is Transmitting His Voice Into Space — https://www.slashfilm.com/star-trek-creator-gene-roddenberry-wouldve-turned-100-today-and-nasa-is-transmitting-his-voice-into-space/ 

Techdirt article: Court Orders Injunction Against RomUniverse To Permanently Shut Down, Destroy Nintendo ROMs — https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20210817/11120647378/court-urders-injunction-against-romuniverse-to-permanently-shut-down-destroy-nintendo-roms.shtml 

Techdirt article: Video Games, Once Demonized, More Regularly Utilized For Positive Health Benefits — https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20210818/10062947382/video-games-once-demonized-more-regularly-utilized-positive-health-benefits.shtml 

TechCrunch article: BrainQ raises $40m to transform stroke patient rehabilitation with its home therapy device — https://techcrunch.com/2021/08/16/brainq-raises-40m-to-transform-stroke-patient-rehabilitation-with-its-home-therapy-device/ 

Games at Work Episode 213 — Solar Heartbeat — https://gamesatwork.biz/2018/10/01/episode-213-solar-heartbeat/ 

R&D Mag article: Virtual “SnowWorld” Help Burn Victims Cope with Extreme Pain — https://www.rdmag.com/article/2017/08/virtual-snowworld-helps-burn-victims-cope-extreme-pain 

SixColors article: How Roblox Exploits Young Developers — https://sixcolors.com/link/2021/08/how-roblox-exploits-young-developers/ 

Second Life Community: Buying and selling Linden dollars — https://community.secondlife.com/knowledgebase/english/buying-and-selling-linden-dollars-r46/

iMore article: Robbers use Apple Watch to tail their victim before taking $500,000 in cash — https://www.imore.com/robbers-use-apple-watch-tail-their-victim-taking-500000-cash 

TechCrunch article: Bedrock modernizes seafloor mapping with autonomous sub and cloud-based data — https://techcrunch.com/2021/08/19/bedrock-modernizes-seafloor-mapping-with-autonomous-sub-and-cloud-based-data/ 

iRobot Scooba — https://store.irobot.com/default/scooba-floor-scrubbing/irobot-scooba-450/S450020.html

TechCrunch article: Top four highlights of Elon Musk’s Tesla AI Day — https://techcrunch.com/2021/08/19/top-five-highlights-of-elon-musks-tesla-ai-day/ 

The Verge article: Skyrim is getting a next-gen upgrade exactly 10 years after its original release — https://www.theverge.com/2021/8/19/22633130/skyrim-next-gen-upgrade-update-anniversary-special-edition-bethesda 

Hanna-Barbera — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanna-Barbera 

Scooby-Doo — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scooby-Doo 

Yogi Bear — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yogi_Bear 

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Episode 333 — Space LARP

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astronauts on Mars
Photo by Mike Kiev on Unsplash

NASA & Star Wars space simulations, immersive Minecraft & Fortnight experience, metaverse musings and a smorgasbord of stories.

Michael and Michael start off this episode with stories about space.   NASA is recruiting for people to live in a 1,700 square foot 3D printed habitat to simulate year-long stays on Mars.  Instructions for people to register to be considered for the crew of these missions is in the show notes below.  

Another example of earthbound space simulations comes from Disney.  A family of four can spend the weekend in an immersive Star Wars experience at the Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser for only $5,999.  

Speaking of immersive experiences, check out the fantastic Minecraft builds, many of which have taken years to construct.  Also worth noting is the Ariana Grande concert in Fortnight.  Metaverse musings from Michael and Michael continue, inspired by a Niantic Labs blog post.  

A smorgasbord of stories capture the co-hosts’ attention including Nvidia Canvas AI to build lush landscapes, how AirTags have been used to find stolen scooters, giant dragon-like fossils in Australia, cool car tech such as the Mazda swing button, and Razer’s new mask.

Winding things up for this week, Michael and Michael touch on how 3D animation informs costume creation, make a spoiler-free point about The Bad Batch, and get excited about Season 2 of the Animaniacs and Star Trek: Lower Decks.  

Been playing any LARPs?  Making massive Minecraft builds?  Let us know over at @gamesatwork_biz ! 

Thanks for listening!

Selected Links

NASA CHAPEA How to apply — https://www.nasa.gov/chapea/participate 

Gizmodo article: It’ll Cost $6,000 to Star Wars LARP With Your Family at Disney World — https://gizmodo.com/it-ll-cost-6-000-to-star-wars-larp-with-your-family-at-1847420860 

Live action role-playing game (LARP) — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_action_role-playing_game 

Wired article: These Astonishing Minecraft Builds Were Years in the Making — https://www.wired.com/story/best-minecraft-builds/ 

TechCrunch article: Contact, a platform for creatives backed by Maisie Williams, raises $1.9M seed led by Founders Fund — https://techcrunch.com/2021/08/12/contact-a-platform-for-creatives-backed-by-maisie-williams-raises-1-9m-seed-led-by-founders-fund/ 

9 to 5 Mac article: Hidden AirTags enable cybersecurity CEO to recover stolen electric scooter — https://9to5mac.com/2021/08/12/hidden-airtags-stolen-electric-scooter/ 

Smithsonian Magazine article: Giant, Dragon-Like, Flying Reptile Fossil Discovered in Australia — https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/giant-dragon-flying-reptile-fossil-discovered-australia-180978411/ 

Jalopnik article: What’s The Coolest Car Tech That Never Went Mainstream? — https://jalopnik.com/whats-the-coolest-car-tech-that-never-went-mainstream-1847472450 

The Verge article: Razer will let you sign up to beta test its RGB face mask — https://www.theverge.com/2021/8/6/22613139/razer-zephyr-n95-rgb-mask-project-hazel 

Slashfilm article: The Morning Watch: How Pixar Movies Advanced 3D Animation (Part 2), Making ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Costumes & More — https://www.slashfilm.com/the-morning-watch-evolution-of-pixar-animation-part-2-making-star-trek-discovery-costumes-and-more/ 

Dorkside article: The Bad Batch: Why Crosshair doesn’t deserve a redemption arc — https://dorksideoftheforce.com/2021/08/11/the-bad-batch-crosshair-doesnt-deserve-redemption/ 

Slashfilm article: ‘Animaniacs’ Season 2 Will Keep Things Totally Insane with New Episodes in November — https://www.slashfilm.com/animaniacs-season-2-is-going-totally-insaney-with-new-episodes-in-november/ 

Star Trek: Lower Decks — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_Lower_Decks 

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