Episode 316 — Omni Metaverse

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futuristic mixed reality scene
Photo by Drew Graham on Unsplash

3D printing, Metaverse & Omniverse platforms, lightsabers, Mercedes EQS and code for NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter.  This week’s episode with Andy, Michael and Michael has it all.

The team starts off with a story about how surgeons are using 3D models to visualize the planning for their procedures.  Duke takes this one step further – printing out those 3D models.

Epic Games makes news with a $1 Billion (insert Austin Powers meme) funding round to bring their vision for the metaverse to life.  This story, along with Nvidia’s Omniverse Enterprise and the Core multiverse provides ample discussion points for the co-hosts. 

The Cruel World game from the Games that Shouldn’t Be Games Jam gets the next spotlight in the episode, mainly because the players are actively trying to keep the game going, when the mechanics would have indicated the opposite.

Wrapping things up for the episode, The co-hosts discuss the new Mercedes-Benz EQS and NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter, marveling at the screens on the first, and the software bug fixes being sent to the latter.  By the time this episode is posted, Ingenuity may have achieved the first powered flight on another planet.  

Selected Links

DukeStories article: At the Heart of Research and Medicine — https://stories.duke.edu/at-the-heart-of-research-and-medicine 

Epic Games blog: Announcing a $1 Billion Funding Round to Support Epic’s Long-Term Vision for the Metaverse — https://www.epicgames.com/site/en-US/news/announcing-a-1-billion-funding-round-to-support-epics-long-term-vision-for-the-metaverse 

VentureBeat article: Epic Games raises $1B for long-term metaverse plans, with $200M from Sony — https://venturebeat.com/2021/04/13/epic-games-raises-1-billlion-to-fund-long-term-metaverse-plans/ 

Core — https://www.producthunt.com/posts/a-multiverse-of-games-created-by-you 

VentureBeat article: Nvidia reveals Omniverse Enterprise for simulating products and worlds — https://venturebeat.com/2021/04/12/nvidia-reveals-omniverse-enterprise-for-simulating-products-and-worlds/ 

Erik Brynjolfsson’s Machine Platform Cloud book — https://www.brynjolfsson.com/books 

Vice article: Players Were Meant to Make ‘Cruel World’ Unplayable, Now They’re Saving It — https://www.vice.com/en/article/5dbmmq/players-were-meant-to-make-cruel-world-unplayable-now-theyre-saving-it 

Games that Shouldn’t Be Games Jam — https://itch.io/jam/games-that-shouldnt-be-games-jam 

The Verge article: How Disney’s ‘real’ lightsaber patent actually works — https://www.theverge.com/2021/4/13/22380919/disney-real-lightsaber-patent-star-wars-ben-ridout 

The Verge article: The 2022 Mercedes-Benz EQS is a Declaration of Maximum Electric Luxury — https://www.theverge.com/2021/4/11/22375877/mercedes-benz-eqs-ev-s-class-specs-hands-on 

TechCrunch article: All the tech crammed into the 2022 Mercedes-Benz EQS — https://techcrunch.com/2021/04/15/all-the-tech-crammed-into-the-2022-mercedes-benz-eqs/ 

The Verge article: Ingenuity’s flight on Mars is delayed again as NASA fixes a software bug — https://www.theverge.com/2021/4/13/22381554/ingenuity-mars-first-flight-delayed-nasa-fixes-software-bug 

NASA Science Mars Helicopter Tech Demo — https://mars.nasa.gov/technology/helicopter/# 

Extended remix links for this week

Kotaku article: Hasbro Unveils $700 Self-Transforming Optimus Prime Robot — https://kotaku.com/hasbro-unveils-700-self-transforming-optimus-prime-rob-1846650442 

The Verge article: Google Earth’s historical 3D time lapse shows the ravages of climate change — https://www.theverge.com/2021/4/15/22383964/google-earth-3d-timelapse-climate-change 

The New Yorker article: The Unlikely Rise of the French Tacos — https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/04/19/the-unlikely-rise-of-the-french-tacos 

Boy Genius Report article: Disney might revive a long-lost ‘Star Wars’ show on Disney+ next month — https://bgr.com/entertainment/star-wars-detours-disney-plus-streaming-rumor-release-date-5919006/ 

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Episode 315 — Reeses McBoatface

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Ferry McFerryface from Australia
Photo by AussieActive on Unsplash

Reeses Puffs boat, AI pickup lines, AR map gamification, Doom on SLR & cross stitch, a water-cooled MacBook, clustering Raspberry Pis, classic games on Apple Arcade, advanced math and sneaky games.

Michael, Michael and Andy join forces to take on two weeks’ worth of stories after a much needed break.  Starting things off on a nautical note, the team contemplates the appearance of the Ever Given cargo ship that was blocking the Suez Canal appearing in Microsoft Flight Simulator.  Would make for a great Oculus experience!  Turning to starboard, the Reeses Puffs boat with the self-proclaimed first ever milkcuzzi is sold out.

Having enough of the water, the team moves to dry land.  There they evaluate the latest innovations in AR way finding, and how the process of keeping maps up to date could easily be gamified.  Then, the co-hosts discuss artificial intelligence with an article on how AI is being used to write pick up lines and even write songs.  This spurs a memory of the Music Genome Project, the underlying engine that powers Pandora.  

Next, the team has a couple of fun examples of Doom, both on a camera, and on cross stitch.  Brings new meaning to a photo shoot. 

Then, the team has a more detailed computing hardware discussion, first with a person who water-cooled their MacBook Pro.  Then, Andy shares his latest Raspberry Pi effort, a ClusterHAT setup with PiZeros. Check out the links below, and watch for his tweets on this cool project.

The team then muses on the latest games being added to Apple Arcade.  Winding things up for this episode, Michael, Michael and Andy conclude with the math behind crumpling paper, googly eye dice on Kickstarter, and the upcoming Gollum game.

Share your precious links with the Games at Work team on Twitter @gamesatwork_biz ! 

Selected Links

Gamesradar article: Someone has added the trapped Suez Canal cargo ship to Microsoft Flight Simulator — https://www.gamesradar.com/someone-has-added-the-trapped-suez-cargo-ship-to-microsoft-flight-simulator/ 

Reeses Puffs boat — https://reesespuffs.boats 

TechCruch article: Google Promises better 3D maps — https://techcrunch.com/2021/03/30/google-promises-better-3d-maps 

Vice article: A Scientist Taught AI to Generate Pickup Lines.  The Results are Chaotic. — https://www.vice.com/en/article/z3vjey/artificial-intelligence-ai-pickup-lines

Music Genome Project — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_Genome_Project 

PCGamesN article: Here’s Doom on a digital camera — https://www.pcgamesn.com/doom/camera 

ClusterHAT — https://clusterhat.com 

The PiHut Cluster HAT Case v3.0 — https://thepihut.com/products/cluster-hat-case 

Blink(1) — https://blink1.thingm.com 

TechCrunch article: Daily Crunch: Apple Arcade expands with classic AppStore games — https://techcrunch.com/2021/04/02/apple-expands-apple-arcade-with-classic-app-store-games/  

Fantasian — https://apps.apple.com/us/app/fantasian/id1517339045 

eurogamer.net article: Star Trek: Legends is a fun RPG caught between two worlds — https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2021-04-08-star-trek-legends-is-a-fun-rpg-caught-between-two-worlds 

Kotaku article: Star Trek Legends Is A Fun Time, Not An Annoying Grind — https://kotaku.com/star-trek-legends-is-a-fun-time-not-an-annoying-grind-1846613885 

Popular Mechanics article: The Math of a Crumpled Piece of Paper Is Insanely Important. No, Seriously. — https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/math/a35913950/crumple-theory-paper-creases/ 

Kickstarter: Googly Eye Dice — https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/theevergreenburrow/googly-eye-dice 

Ocean’s Thirteen — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean%27s_Thirteen 

Slashfilm article: ’The Lord of the Rings: Gollum’ Trailer Stealthily Slinks Around Middle-earth — https://www.slashfilm.com/lord-of-the-rings-gollum-trailer/ 

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Episode 314 — William Shatner AI

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Star Trek Enterprise street art
Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

William Shatner AI, drinkable Peeps, tech old and new – boot from a vinyl disk & use LEGO Toy Pad as NFC reader, Douglas Adams, and dice to roll a 42.

Michael, Michael and Andy are all together again for a tremendous show, starting off with the one of the most popular Easter confections on this side of the Atlantic, Peeps.  The hosts debate the merits and potential taste of the Pepsi + Peep mashup.  

For those of you who are interested in building a steampunk computer, consider following Jozef Bogin’s lead and boot off of a vinyl record.  

Next, an intriguing discussion about William Shatner’s work with Storyfile to create an interactive storytelling experience for people to interact with his AI agent.  Intermingled with a retrospective of selected elements in his career, the team reflects on the digital immortality such an experience could create.  Boston’s Leonard Nemoy day is a natural bookend to the Storyfile story, and reminds Michael R of his kickstarter support for The Love of Spock, a documentary about Leonard Nemoy.  Check out the show notes below for links.  

Powered flight takes control of the next few stories, from the drone footage of the volcano near Reykjavik to NASA’s martian helicopter.  Ingenuity, as the copter is named, carries with it a piece of fabric from the Wright brothers’ flyer and will hopefully will have a similar successful flight on Mars in the coming days.  

Another kickstarter of note deals with the writings of Douglas Adams, who in addition to his humor was able to envision the future in so many ways.  Michael M shares his excitement about supporting this upcoming book, and is looking forward to reading it.  Could it be the the Infinitie Improbability Drive may somehow become real?  

Wrapping up this week’s episode, the team takes a look at the impending launch of another space vehicle, namely LEGO’s rendition of the Space Shuttle Discovery and Dennis Mellican’s NFC jukebox reader using the Dimensions toy pad to trigger what music is played.  The Daft Punk minifigs are particularly good.

And for the saving throw, Andy found a cool Etsy potion of healing comprised of d4, and Michael R shares one more kickstarter – the Pixels electronic dice.  Check them out, and see if you can roll a 42!

Selected Links

People article: Pepsi and Peeps Have Joined Forces to Create Marshmallow Soda — https://people.com/food/pepsi-and-peeps-have-joined-forces-to-create-marshmallow-soda 

Peeps — https://www.peepsbrand.com 

Bogin, Jr post: Booting from a vinyl record — http://boginjr.com/it/sw/dev/vinyl-boot/ 

Entertainment article:  William Shatner celebrates 90th birthday by creating an AI version of himself for future generations — https://ew.com/tv/william-shatner-90th-birthday-ai-storyfile-video/ 

Storyfile — https://storyfile.com 

Games at Work Episode 26 — Business Process Management and Immortality — https://gamesatwork.biz/2012/11/04/episode26/ 

Star Trek: Generations — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek_Generations 

T.J. Hooker Full Cast & Crew — https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083486/fullcredits 

The UnXplained — https://www.history.com/shows/the-unxplained 

Warp 11 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warp_11 

Slashfilm article: The City of Boston Declares March 26 to Be Leonard Nimoy Day — https://www.slashfilm.com/the-city-of-boston-declares-march-26-to-be-leonard-nimoy-day/ 

For the Love of Spock — https://fortheloveofspock.com 

The Verge article: Amazon delivery drivers have to consent to AI surveillance in their vans or lose their jobs — https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/24/22347945/amazon-delivery-drivers-ai-surveillance-cameras-vans-consent-form 

TechCrunch article: NASA plans first flight of Mars helicopter Ingenuity on April 8 — https://techcrunch.com/2021/03/23/nasa-plans-first-flight-of-mars-helicopter-ingenuity-on-april-8/ 

The Verge article: NASA’s new Mars rover is about to spawn a tiny helicopter — https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/22/22345034/nasa-mars-rover-perseverance-ingenuity-helicopter 

CNet article: NASA helicopter brought a piece of the Wright brothers’ plane to Mars — https://www.cnet.com/news/nasa-helicopter-brought-a-piece-of-the-wright-brothers-historic-plane-to-mars/ 

The Verge article: YouTube is testing automatic product detection in videos — https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/22/22344553/youtube-shopping-recommendation-products-instagram 

42: The Wildly Improbable Ideas of Douglas Adams — https://galactichitchhikers.com/2021/03/22/42-the-wildly-improbable-ideas-of-douglas-adams/ 

Kickstarter for 42 — https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/unbounders/42-the-wildly-improbable-ideas-of-douglas-adams 

Infinite Improbability Drive — https://hitchhikers.fandom.com/wiki/Infinite_Improbability_Drive 

The Verge article: LEGO announces its biggest and most detailed Space Shuttle set yet — https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/22/22345026/lego-space-shuttle-nasa-discovery-columbia-hubble-telescope 

Raspberry Pi makes LEGO minifigures play their own music — https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/raspberry-pi-makes-lego-minifigures-play-their-own-music/

Etsy Potion of Healing dice shaker — https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/974451127/potion-of-healing-dice-shaker-with-d4 

Kickstarter: Pixels – The Electronic Dice — https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pixels-dice/pixels-the-electronic-dice

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Episode 313 — Tech Gripes

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grouse
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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