Episode 313 — Tech Gripes

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Photo by Dennis Buchner on Unsplash

Michael R and Andy get together to have a conversation to talk (and gripe) about tech.

Starting off on a big discussion about small print and subscriptions, Andy shares his experiences with Cricut’s decision to limit the number of crafting projects via subscription and subsequent reversal of that choice given the user community outcry.

In cool tech, the airless shape memory alloy bike tires inspired by NASA’s space rovers is taking shape in the form of a startup called SMART.  

On the gripe side, the team talks about security challenges with two factor authentication, especially with accounts that have joint users.  Related, Dropbox is planning to offer a free password manager if you are using less than 50 passwords.  Andy suggests that 1Password should expand to have an Xbox client.  Hint hint!  

In Apple-related news, Michael and Andy talk about leaks & leakers, HomePod, the new Intel ads with Justin Long, and old school iconography. 

Andy shares his experiences in watching (and participating) in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s performance of Dream, and has written an excellent Medium post on this as well.  The cast did a special performance at 2am in order to expose their work to a broader global audience, and it was a fantastic way to integrate the audience with the performers.  

Have some tech that you’d like to grouse about?  Share it with the Games At Work team and perhaps it will surface on next week’s episode!  

Selected Links

The Verge article: Cricut completely unravels subscription plans that would limit its crafting machines — https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/18/22338801/cricut-crafting-machines-backlash-no-more-subscription-needed 

IGN article: Watch Dogs: Legion Review — https://www.ign.com/articles/watch-dogs-legion-review 

TechCrunch article: Startup founded by ‘Survivor’ champ debuts airless bike tires based on NASA rover tech — https://techcrunch.com/2021/03/16/startup-founded-by-survivor-champ-debuts-airless-bike-tires-based-on-nasa-rover-tech/ 

Cyclingtips article: SMART’s Airless Metal Tires Are Designed for Mars and Your Bike — https://cyclingtips.com/2021/03/smart-metl-airless-metal-tires-are-designed-for-mars-and-your-bike/ 

The Verge article: Dropbox will have a free password manager in April — if you’ve got 50 or fewer passwords — https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/16/22332829/dropbox-passwords-manager-added-free-basic-account 

Ars Technica article: $16 attack shows how easy carriers make it to intercept text messages — https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2021/03/16-attack-let-hacker-intercept-a-t-mobile-users-text-messages/ 

Apple HomePod mini — https://www.apple.com/homepod-mini/ 

MacRumors article: macOS Big Sur 11.3 Beta Adds Support for HomePod Stereo Pairs — https://www.macrumors.com/2021/02/03/macos-11-3-homepod-stereo-pairs/ 

The Verge article: Google will reduce Play Store cut to 15 percent for a developer’s first $1M in annual revenue — https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/16/22333777/google-play-store-fee-reduction-developers-1-million-dollars 

Apple Insider — Apple seeded disinformation about March 23 event to root out leakers, leaker says — https://appleinsider.com/articles/21/03/18/apple-likely-seeded-disinformation-about-march-23-event-to-root-out-leakers 

9 to 5 Mac article: ‘I’m a Mac’ star Justin Long pivots to Intel in new ads mocking M1 Macs — https://9to5mac.com/2021/03/17/im-a-mac-justin-long-intel-ads-mocking-m1-macs/ 

Cult of Mac article: Go old-school with iPhone icons inspired by 1984 Macintosh — https://www.cultofmac.com/737420/go-ios-old-school-with-iphone-icons-inspired-by-1984-macintosh/ 

Andy Piper blog post: Was it, a Dream? — https://andypiper.medium.com/was-it-a-dream-78a765b205f3 

Oculus Quest 2 — https://www.oculus.com/quest-2/ 

The Famous Grouse — https://www.thefamousgrouse.com/en 

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Episode 312 — Non-Fungible Token Slugs

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Photo by Kris Mikael Krister on Unsplash

This week’s episode is chock full of robots, books, movies and non-fungible memories, slugs and tokens.   Michael and Michael start things off with a robotic roundup, first with Amazon’s reported Vesta.  Then, the team goes into more detail with the Anki robot, submarine robots and medical robots.  The co-hosts are reminded of the 1966 movie Fantastic Voyage that blends submarines and medical robots.

Next, the team gets into a constructive conversation around 3D home printing.  And not printing at home, rather printing a home.  3D printing homes is becoming more feasible, and there are even communities of 3D printed homes being extruded in Texas and California.  There is even a show on AppleTV+ called Mexico that deals with this topic.

In the world of old(er) technology, Jorge Cohen has written a PalmOS app for Twitter, and Bob Wulff has ported the recent movie Tenet to Game Boy Advance cartridges. Talk about interesting media consumption patterns!  In other news, Apple’s HomePod is being discontinued in favor of the HomePod mini.

Turning then to NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, a funny tweet by Eric Brynjolfsson got Michael and Michael thinking about setting up an NFT opportunity of their own.  Check out the show, and if you would be interested in the Games at Work team offer, give them a shout on Twitter @gamesatwork_biz ! 

And in a science fiction imitates nature kind of story, check out how the sea slug manages to regenerate their entire body.  Amazing to think about what evolutionary advance caused this biological capability, and what it may mean for modern medicine.  Michael M can’t resist making a Star Trek Enterprise saucer separation analogy to this story.

Michael and Michael conclude this week’s episode with an interesting set of stories about Steve Jobs shared by the Computer History Museum in honor of what would have been his 66th birthday.  Have a look at the YouTube link below in the show notes.

Selected Links

Concert for Charlottesville — https://www.concertforcharlottesville.com/index.html 

Tucows — https://tucows.com 

The Verge article: Amazon’s secret home robot Vesta reportedly in ‘late-prototype stage’ of development — https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/10/22322813/amazon-home-robot-vesta-alexa-project-rumors-specs-report 

TechCrunch article: Eye, robot — https://techcrunch.com/2021/03/11/robotics-roundup-3/ 

Fantastic Voyage — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantastic_Voyage 

Digital Dream Labs — https://www.digitaldreamlabs.com 

The Verge article: These new 3D-printed homes in Austin are going for $450k — https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/11/22325004/new-3d-printed-homes-austin-price-icon-housing 

CNBC article: 3D-printed housing developments suddenly take off – here’s what they look like — https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/12/3d-printed-housing-developments-suddenly-take-off-heres-what-they-look-like.html 

Icon — https://www.iconbuild.com 

Mighty Buildings — https://mightybuildings.com 

AppleTV+’s Mexico — https://tv.apple.com/us/episode/mexico/umc.cmc.vw8qwc1j4ld8jr3itsc0b3wy?showId=umc.cmc.5xjrgoblr5l5i1ypamtayuhe9 

The Verge article: Four years later, we are all BBC Dad — https://www.theverge.com/tldr/2021/3/11/22325564/bbc-dad-kids-interrupt-zoom-video-call-anniversary-covid-19-pandemic 

Gizmodo article: Someone Totally Ruined the Memory of PalmOS by Putting Twitter on It — https://gizmodo.com/someone-totally-ruined-the-memory-of-palmos-by-putting-1846457707 

CNN Business article: We bought an NFT.  Here’s what we learned — https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/14/tech/nft-art-buying/index.html 

WUNC NPR story: Scientists Discover Sea Slug That Can Regenerate Body After Being Decapitated — https://www.wunc.org/2021-03-13/scientists-discover-sea-slug-that-can-regenerate-body-after-being-decapitated 

The Code Breaker by Walter Isaacson — https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Code-Breaker/Walter-Isaacson/9781982115852 

The Verge article: A Game Boy Advance might be the best way to watch Tenet, actually — https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/11/22321473/tenet-game-boy-advance-christopher-nolan-bob-wulff-youtube-mod-cartridge 

Tenet film — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenet_(film) 

mGBA open-source Game Boy Advance emulator — https://mgba.io/downloads.html 

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson — https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Steve-Jobs-Special-Signed-Edition/Walter-Isaacson/9781476776408

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Episode 311 — Mesh Networks

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Photo by Alina Grubnyak on Unsplash

Michael and Michael enjoy spending an extended Saturday afternoon discussion with their friend Ian “epredator” Hughes on a wide variety of topics.

Staring off with the recent space news on the Perseverance rover being powered by the same processor as a 1990s iMac and the SpaceX Starship, the team quickly gets into Microsoft Mesh, with a detailed assessment of what Microsoft’s latest announcement means to mixed reality experiences.  With an HTTP-esque approach to incorporating multiple technologies, Microsoft’s latest foray clearly builds upon the HoloLens experience and moves the state of the art forward with many different hardware devices such as laptops, VR headsets from Oculus and HTCVive as well as mobile phone operating systems to draw people into the such virtual and augmented experiences.  A proof of concept experience for Pokemon Go gets attention from the panel, as do a number of other user experiences in other technology settings, from Volkswagen’s new ID.4 UX, to bananas being used for control devices.  The banana reminds Ian and Michael R of the Makey Makey experience, which just so happens to have a banana in their logo! 

Drones inspired by nature and efficient electrical engines as well as games such as Doom and Diablo II are discussed.  Apple’s DTK return program gets a few minutes, as does the reported 1,200 new German words from the Coronazeit.  LEGO brings this episode to a close with an animatronic version of Jeopardy! and a reminder where to find epredator online (hint, it’s at Feeding Edge with the link below!) and a promise not to let it be another year before this team gets back together to record another episode.

If you like what you heard, please take a moment to rate the podcast, and share your stories & ideas with the Games At Work team.

Selected Links

Gizmodo article: A 1990s iMac Processor Powers NASA’s Perseverance Rover — https://gizmodo.com/a-1990s-imac-processor-powers-nasa-s-perseverance-rover-1846380844 

The Verge article: NASA’s latest Mars rover has the same processor as an iMac from 1998 — https://www.theverge.com/tldr/2021/3/2/22309412/nasa-perseverance-mars-rover-processor-cpu-imac-1998 

The Verge article: SpaceX lands Starship prototype for the first time — and then it blows up — https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/3/22311916/spacex-starship-prototype-landing-successful 

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 

Microsoft Mesh — https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/mesh 

AltspaceVR — https://altvr.com 

OceanX — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OceanX 

I Wonder Where That Fish Did Go — https://www.lyricsmania.com/i_wonder_where_that_fish_did_go_lyrics_monty_python.html 

The Verge article: Microsoft and Niantic demo a HoloLens version of Pokemon Go — https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/2/22309466/pokemon-go-hololens-prototype-microsoft-ignite-niantic 

Mashable article: Volkswagen’s new ID.4 EV soothes drivers with a subtle (and literal) guiding light — https://mashable.com/article/volkswagen-id4-electric-vehicle-suv-light-bar/ 

Volkswagen ID.4 — https://www.vw.com/en/models/id-4.html 

TechCrunch article: Firms backed by Robert Downey, Jr. and Bill Gates have funded an electric motor company that slashes energy consumption — https://techcrunch.com/2021/03/03/firms-backed-by-robert-downey-jr-and-bill-gates-have-funded-an-electric-motor-company-that-can-slas/ 

Turntide — https://turntide.com 

TechCrunch article: MIT’s insect-sized drones are built to survive collisions — https://techcrunch.com/2021/03/02/mits-insect-sized-drones-are-built-to-survive-collisions/

Festo Robotics blog: Taking a close look at wings in nature — https://www.festo.com/us/en/e/journal/taking-a-close-look-at-wings-in-nature-id_44627/ 

MacRumors article: Developers Start Receiving $500 Credits for Returning DTK Mac Minis — https://www.macrumors.com/2021/03/04/developers-apple-credit-returning-dtk-mac-mini/ 

Apple’s Universal App Quick Start Program — https://developer.apple.com/programs/universal/ 

The Verge article: Sony announces six PlayStation VR game, including Doom 3 for VR — https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/3/22311254/sony-psvr-showcase-vr-games-doom-3-i-expect-you-to-die-ps4-ps5 

The Verge article: Diablo II: Resurrected will let you import your 20-year-old savegames — https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/4/22314085/diablo-ii-remastered-original-save-files-savegames 

Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metal_Gear_2:_Solid_Snake 

Kotaku article: Sony Imagines A Future Where A Banana Is A Video Game Controller — https://kotaku.com/sony-imagines-a-future-where-a-banana-is-a-video-game-c-1846401203 

Makey Makey — https://makeymakey.com 

NBC News article: This grandma will kill you with kindness — and in ‘Call of Duty’ — https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/video-games/grandma-will-kill-kindness-call-duty-rcna339 

iMore article: Microsoft brings official Apple silicon support to Visual Studio Code — https://www.imore.com/microsoft-brings-official-apple-silicon-support-visual-studio-code 

CNN Business article: Inside the complicated business of disguising 5G equipment — https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/02/tech/5g-concealment/index.html 

The Guardian article: Coronaangst ridden? Overzoomed? Covid inspires 1,200 new German words — https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/23/from-coronaangst-to-hamsteritis-the-new-german-words-inspired-by-covid 

Slashfilm article: VOTD: Moving ‘Jeopardy!’ LEGO Set Brings the Greatest of All Time Tournament to Life — https://www.slashfilm.com/custom-jeopardy-lego-set/ 

Brick Nerd article: A Tribute To Trebek — https://bricknerd.com/home/a-tribute-to-trebek-25-2021 

Fischer Technik — https://www.fischertechnik.de/en/ 

Feeding Edge — http://feedingedge.co.uk 

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Episode 310 — Electric PotterVision

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Photo by Ajeet Mestry on Unsplash

The co-hosts get together to marvel at the newest videos from NASA’s successful landing on Mars, and the secret message encoded into the Perseverance parachute.  Going from the extraterrestrial to the augmented (or artificial) reality, team considers an Apple II plus emulated in the Unreal Engine 4.

An AR diorama museum experience brings people together to see extinct animals in their own habitat on your kitchen table, narrated by Sir David Attenborough.  Gamification then takes center stage with the Harbor emergency prep startup, which tells you what you should do when an emergency strikes, and helps you get ready beforehand.  

Reminiscent of the Daily Prophet from Harry Potter, MyHeritage uses “deepfakery” to animate pictures of your relatives and allow you to see the people move in a natural way.

A sleek solar battery powered car which looks much like the Batmobile captures the team’s attention.  Speaking of batteries, a new invention allows wearables to be powered by people, which is shocking to the cohosts.  

And to bookend this episode with another diorama, the Guinness Book of World Records award for the “Largest Interlocking Plastic Brick Diorama” is given to an amazing Lord of the Rings build in Shenzhen, China that you have to see the video to believe.  

Selected Links

The Verge article: NASA’s Perseverance rover beams back first images from its wild landing — https://www.theverge.com/2021/2/19/22291412/nasa-perseverance-rover-first-images-landing-skycrane 

TechCrunch article: Watch Perseverance’s harrowing descent to the surface of Mars — https://techcrunch.com/2021/02/22/watch-perseverances-harrowing-descent-to-the-surface-of-mars/ 

Sixcolors article: Secret Binary Message Embedded In Mars Perseverance Parachute — https://sixcolors.com/link/2021/02/secret-binary-message-embedded-in-mars-perseverance-parachute/ 

Input Mag article: The Apple II has been emulated inside Unreal Engine 4 — https://www.inputmag.com/gaming/someone-emulated-the-apple-ii-inside-unreal-engine-4 

Choplifter — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choplifter 

The Verge article: Museum Alive is dioramas but AR, with narration by David Attenborough — https://www.theverge.com/22299611/museum-alive-iphone-app-david-attenborough-augmented-reality 

The Blue Planet — https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b008044n 

Tech Crunch article: Gamified emergency prep startup Harbor inks ADT partnership — https://techcrunch.com/2021/02/24/harbor-adt/ 

Harbor — https://www.helloharbor.com 

TechCrunch article: MyHeritage now lets you animate old family photos using deepfakery — https://techcrunch.com/2021/02/26/myheritage-now-lets-you-animate-old-family-photos-using-deepfakery/ 

The Verge article: The Framework Laptop is an upgradeable, customizable 13-inch notebook coming this spring — https://www.theverge.com/2021/2/25/22299938/framework-laptop-features-upgrade-release-date-price 

Washington Post article: It looks like the Batmobile, works on solar energy, and could be the future of cars — https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/interactive/2021/solar-car/ 

Boy Genius Report article: Scientists invented a wearable that recharges in the most incredible way — https://bgr.com/2021/02/25/wearable-battery-power-generator/ 

Futurism article: Boston Dynamics Mad Someone Used Their Terrifying RoboDog as Intended — https://wordpress.futurism.com/boston-dynamics-mad-someone-using-terrifying-robodog-as-intended 

Slashfilm article: VOTD: This Massive ‘Lord of the Rings’ LEGO Diorama Set a Guinness World Record — https://www.slashfilm.com/guinness-world-record-setting-lord-of-the-rings-lego-diorama-set/

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