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e474 — Scientists With Lasers

By Michael Martine | July 29, 2024 - 06:29 |July 28, 2024 Podcast

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Published 29 July 2024

Michael R and Andy get together to talk through this week’s stories while Michael M is away.

The cohosts start things off with a discussion on scientific discoveries stemming from tiny backpacks placed on giant (relatively) hummingbirds. Continuing the flying theme, next up is an article dealing with a drone that may well fly ‘forever’. Then a couple of stories about robotic dogs used cleaning and clearing obstacles.

Next up in this science-themed episode is a treatment on lasers and mathematics. NASA uses lasers for communicating with the international space station. An older Games at Work episode references the “sharks with lasers” from Austin Powers. And then a discussion on USA Swimming using mathematics to improve the Olympic swimming team’s performance. The team also dives into Bonnie Tsui’s book Why We Swim.

Rounding out this episode are points about Google’s use of reCAPTCHA and releasing VR source code.

What robots have caught your attention recently? Any other intriguing uses for lasers? Have your bots 🤖 drop our bots 🤖 a line at @gamesatwork_biz (our home for now) and let us know!

Selected Links

Robotics

BBC Wildlife Magazine article: Mini backpacks on giant hummingbirds? Wacky scientific experiment leads to two astonishing discoveries

BBC Wildlife Magazine article: Secrets Revealed by Bird ‘Backpacks’

The Register article: Chinese researchers create four-gram drone that might fly forever

404 Media article: DHS Has a DoS Robot to Disable Internet of Things ‘Booby Traps’ Inside Homes

Electronic Frontier Foundation post: EFF Awards 2024

New Atlas article: Watch: Vacuum-footed robot dog cleans up the beach

Lasers and Mathematics

The Verge article: NASA fired its space lasers to communicate with the ISS

Games at Work e164: Addictive AR

The Atlantic article: USA Swimming Has a Secret Weapon: Linear Algebra

Why We Swim by Bonnie Tsui

Swim Swam article: “Why We Swim”: A Review of Award-Winning Author Bonnie Tsui’s Book

Google

The Register article: Forget security – Google’s reCAPTCHA v2 is exploiting users for profit

hackster.io article: Google Drops Its Blocks VR Building Project — But Releases the Source Code to All

Gaming Exploits & Creativity

PC Gamer article: Baldur’s Gate 3 dev says it’s Larian’s philosophy to ‘fuel and reward’ player creativity: ‘They found a way to exploit the game, let them have it, it’s awesome’

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 38:40 — 53.7MB) | Embed

e473 — Powerball

By Michael Martine | July 22, 2024 - 06:14 |July 21, 2024 Podcast

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Number 13 billiard ball on an orange background — Photo by Atypeek Dgn: https://www.pexels.com/photo/billiard-ball-on-bright-orange-surface-5986316/

Published 22 July 2024

Michael R and Andy get together to talk through this week’s stories while Michael M is away.

The cohosts start things off with a discussion on The Sphere, the Las Vegas landmark which uses 1.23 million LED ‘pucks’ to put on an impressive video display powered by 150 NVidia GPUs according to the Hackaday article. Interested in seeing Dead & Company in this immersive experience? Check out the show notes and make your plans before August 10th.

After a discussion on OpenELM, the pair turn their attention to OpenSCAD and a conversation on how to tame that under desk tangle of cords with an open source solution called Underware.

Next up, a conversation on floppy disks still in productive use as well as a Windows emulator for iPhone, iPad and Apple Vision Pro devices.

Wrapping up the episode are conversations about other podcasts. Are there other podcasts beyond Games at Work? Apparently so. An interview with the “What If?” app creator is followed by the science of board games, with an intriguing factoid: that drunkeness helps you reach nirvana. At least in one particular chutes and ladders style game.

What strange rules or gameplay quirk have you exploited in a board game to help you win? Have your bots 🤖 drop our bots 🤖 a line at @gamesatwork_biz (our home for now) and let us know!

Selected Links

Power and Resources

Hackaday article: Las Vegas’ Sphere: Powered by NVidia GPUs and With an Impressive Power Bill

The Sphere

Games at Work e399: It’s CES Week

AI

9 to 5 Mac: Apple says its OpenELM model doesn’t power Apple Intelligence amid YouTube controversy

OpenELM on Hugging Face

3D Printed Organization

Hands on Katie: Underwear

Wikipedia article: OpenSCAD

Old Stuff

Ars Technica article: German Navy still uses 8-inch floppy disks, working on emulating a replacement

ByteCellar article: A Look at the Short-Lived 3-Inch Compact Floppy Disk

The Verge article: After initially rejecting it, Apple has approved the first PC emulator for iOS

UTM SE: Retro PC Emulator

Non Games At Work Podcast episodes

Upgrade e521: I Can Get Pineapple Into Anything

The Infinite Monkey Cage: Science of Board Games – Jess Fostekew, Marcus du Sautoy and Dave Neale

Nathan W. Pyle post

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 38:33 — 53.6MB) | Embed

e472 — Pixels, Prices and Pico

By Michael Martine | July 15, 2024 - 06:08 |July 14, 2024 Podcast

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Photo by Michael Martine, Fourth of July fireworks in Kenan Stadium, Chapel Hill, NC 2012

Published 15 July 2024

Michael R and Andy get together to talk through this week’s stories while Michael M is away. The co-hosts discuss Generative Reality, Renault’s gamification of automotive safety, AI algorithmic price segmentation, drones vs fireworks, the future of Futurama and more.

Starting off this episode, Michael R notices Andy’s new Ray Ban Meta Smart Glasses – while they are still very new to Andy, there will be certainly be stories beyond the purchase experience to hear in the coming days and weeks. After a quick recount of some impending game launches for the balance of 2024, the conversation turns to the concept of Generative Reality, whereby reality is generated on the fly and non player characters (NPCs) interact with a user in a metaverse meets spatial computing meets chatbots kind of way. Gareth and Bill in their final podcast posit Generative Reality as a way to solve the ‘lobster in a backpack’ problem with generated speech and images to create holodeck-esque experiences to be shared. Could it be that such computer generated experiences could be as compelling as lucid dreaming?

After touching on an article from Fast Company about drones used for skywriting, advertising and celebrations, Andy and Michael switch gears to discuss the Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA) warnings in Andy’s new car. Also up is an article on Renault’s automotive gamification which takes inputs like ISA to calculate a driver’s score. This reminds the pair of the OBDII black box driven insurance segmentation, which follows naturally to the next article of AI price segmentation and differentiation.

Wrapping up the episode is some excitement about the future of Futurama – with a new season’s worth of shows starting later in July. Bender selling an NFT of himself. Who’d a thought he would do that?

Have your bots 🤖 drop our bots 🤖 a line at @gamesatwork_biz (our home for now) and let us know!

Selected Links

Ray Ban Meta Smart Glasses

Let Go to Grow by Linda S. Sanford with Dave Taylor

The Gareth and BillCast, episode The End of the Cast Show

BBC’s Digital Planet Podcast

Games at Work e255: It’s a Wrap

Fast Company article: How the sky became a giant billboard

Business Insider article: AI is quietly being used to pick your pocket

The Sunday Times article: The ultimate backseat driver: the new car that gives motorists marks out of 100

European Transport Safety Council: Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA)

Games at Work e160: 3D OBD

The Atlantic article: Do Navigation Apps Think We’re Stupid?

Gizmodo article: Futurama’s Season 12 Trailer Wants to Take You to the Sci-Fi Disco

IMDb Futurama

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 30:00 — 41.8MB) | Embed

e471 — Ghost Jobs and AI

By Michael Martine | July 8, 2024 - 06:22 |July 7, 2024 Podcast

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Ray Ban Wayfarers lying on an orange airport lounge seat all by themselves — Photo by Iggy Love on Unsplash

Published 8 July 2024

Michael M and Michael R get together to talk through this week’s stories while Andy is away. In this episode, Michael and Michael dive deep into a variety of AI themes, including regulation, getting OpenAI to reveal instruction sets, mocap before turning to ghost jobs, new exoskeletons and Meta’s Ray Bans.

Michael and Michael share Andy’s recent guest podcast recordings from Open Source DevRel’s State of Developer Education to get things started before turning to all things AI.

The pair begin with MacStories’ open letter and quickly move to reverse engineering OpenAI’s instruction set. This reminds the pair of e429 when the Games at Work team discussed Lakera.ai’s Gandalf secret password challenge. Then they turn to another AI use case – improvements in motion capture.

Next up is a CBS News article about ghost jobs, with some unbelievable statistics about these ghost jobs. Then, a story about NC State’s latest exoskeleton innovation, followed up with Wajava’s solar innovation and then a discussion on why the Meta – Ray Ban collaboration works.

What are you thoughts about ghost jobs? Meta-enabled Ray Bans? Have your bots 🤖 drop our bots 🤖 a line at @gamesatwork_biz (our home for now) and let us know!