Episode 291 — Coffee Code

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Photo by Michael Martine, Durham NC 2017

Michael and Michael have something special brewing for this week’s episode, starting off with an IoT thought experiment to determine how vulnerable consumer devices could be, and whether a device could be hacked without owning the network or the router.  The appliance of choice in this case the humble (internet connected) coffee machine, which researcher Martin Hron set to deliver a ransomware message, grind beans, turn on the water and beep until you decide to unplug it.  Not quite what you would want to have happen in the morning when you need that first cup of coffee.

Turning next to the robotic world, the co-hosts discuss an intriguing robot dreamed up by the team at the Toyota Research Institute that hangs from the ceiling to navigate around the kitchen.  Then, a disinfecting drone from Lucid.  Remember this North Carolina company from last year, that created a drone to wash windows?  This new one is designed to sanitize stadium seats.

Software stories for this week include a cool SwiftUI piece of code created to share information on the COVID-19 statistics for the UK which developer An Trinh has made open source.  And, in our continuing set of Microsoft Flight Simulator stories, we have a new interesting bug, this time a hole you can fly into.

Segueing to the world of fashion, Moschino partners up with Jim Henson’s Creature Shop to put on a special COVID-19 socially distant runway show for the Milan Fashion Week – with puppets, complete with models and spectators alike, with the newest fashions scaled to marionette sizes.

Wrapping things up this week, we have the Rolling Stone article on their top 500 greatest albums of all time.  See how many of these that you have in your collection and whether you agree with the rock critics choices for or #500! 

The team would love to know what IoT devices you’re intrigued by or what your favorite album of all time is.  Drop a line over on Twitter at @gamesatwork_biz and your topic may be on the agenda for next week’s episode! 

Selected Links

Gizmodo article: This hacked coffee maker demands ransom and highlights a key IoT flaw — https://gizmodo.com/this-hacked-coffee-maker-demands-ransom-and-demonstrate-1845191662 

Decoded avast.io article: The Fresh Smell of ransomed coffee — https://decoded.avast.io/martinhron/the-fresh-smell-of-ransomed-coffee/ 

The Verge article: Toyota’s robot butler prototype hangs from the ceiling lie a bat — https://www.theverge.com/2020/10/1/21496692/toyota-robots-tri-research-institute-home-helping-gantry-ceiling-machine 

The Verge article: Disinfecting drones will clean Atlanta stadium between events — https://www.theverge.com/2020/10/2/21498362/atlanta-mercedes-benz-stadium-falcons-united-nfl-mls-coronavirus-covid-19-disinfection 

D1 Disinfecting Drone by Lucid Drone Technologies — https://www.luciddronetech.com/disinfecting-drone/ 

Games At Work E255 — It’s A Wrap: with Lucid Drone discussion — https://gamesatwork.biz/2019/12/30/episode-255-its-a-wrap/

Mercedes-Benz Stadium — https://mercedesbenzstadium.com 

UK COVID-19 Statistics — https://atrinh.com/covid/ 

CNN Style article: Moschino sends puppets down the runway for Milan Fashion Week — https://www.cnn.com/style/article/moschino-milan-fashion-week-puppets-spring-summer-2021/index.html 

TechCrunch article: Everything Google announced at its hardware event — https://techcrunch.com/2020/09/30/google-hardware-event-roundup/ 

Kotaku article: That’s Not Right… — https://kotaku.com/that-s-not-right-1845218622 

Rolling Stone article: The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time — https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/best-albums-of-all-time-1062063/ 

Extended remix links for this week

Ars Technica article: Sourcegraph: Devs are managing 100x more code now than they did in 2010 — https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/10/sourcegraph-devs-are-managing-100x-more-code-now-than-they-did-in-2010/ 

CNBC article: Tesla Autopilot gets ‘moderate’ grade from European vehicle safety authority while Audi, BMW and Mercedes get top marks — https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/02/tesla-autopilot-moderate-driver-assistance-grade-from-euro-ncap.html 

9 to 5 Mac article: Monochrome iOS 14 icon set nets designer six figures in six days — https://9to5mac.com/2020/10/01/ios-14-icon-set/ 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 33:01 — 45.5MB) | Embed

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Episode 290 — Flying Cam

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flying camera
Photo by fotografierende on Unsplash

Michael and Michael are glad to have Andy Piper join in for this first fall episode of Games At Work, and start things off right with some AR and VR stories, an AR one from Fukushima Daiichi workers using smart glasses to conduct their work faster, and a VR one showcasing passthrough camera capabilities and Infinite Office integration.

Then, games.  The new No Man’s Sky video is really impressive given the infinite number of worlds, which sparked a conversation on Spore.  The celebratory Microsoft Flight Simulator video going back to the original original version, also provided a short trip down memory lane with a reminder about the Battlezone arcade game.  My how far gaming has come in these last few years.  Almost so far that someone might make a podcast focused on the technologies used for gaming, and how they are applicable to business.  Hmm…  

Turning to AI, the Toonify app gets the conversation going on how this AI model takes an ordinary headshot and makes it look like a cartoon character.  See the show notes for the details and a link to try it out for yourself!  

After a discussion about the new Ring indoor camera drone named Always Home Cam, which seems just such an apt description of everyone’s 2020, so not sure why one might need such drone, Michael R shares a very cool open source project called MeetingBar which allows you to easily launch the next virtual video meeting you are in directly from the top of your screen.  And you know, you’re in at least a couple of such meetings every day!  

Rounding off this episode with a futuristic bicycle helmet, replete with lights, and messaging capabilities, an awesome lightsaber design and the requisite LEGO builds (new wall mountable Batwing, and baby Yoda!), Andy, Michael and Michael wrap up this week’s conversation.  

The team would love to know what you’re finding intriguing around the house, or around the web.  Drop a line over on Twitter at @gamesatwork_biz and your topic may be on the agenda for next week’s episode! 

Selected Links

NHK World-Japan article: Fukushima Daiichi workers use ‘smart glasses’ — https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20200920_17/ 

Venture Beat article: Oculus Quest 2 getting Infinite Office with Logitech keyboard and adjustable passthrough — https://venturebeat.com/2020/09/20/oculus-quest-2-getting-infinite-office-with-logitech-keyboard-and-adjustable-passthrough/ 

Microsoft Bob — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Bob

Spore — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spore_(2008_video_game)

The Verge article: This Microsoft Flight Simulator video highlights 40 years of PC gaming changes — https://www.theverge.com/2020/9/22/21450859/microsoft-flight-simulator-history-40-years-microsoft-ignite-video 

Battlezone — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battlezone_(1980_video_game) 

The Verge article: Microsoft is acquiring Bethesda Softworks parent company ZeniMax — https://www.theverge.com/2020/9/21/21448877/microsoft-bethesda-softworks-zenimax-acquisition-xbox-game-pass-series-x 

Gizmodo article: I Have Seen the Face of God — https://gizmodo.com/i-have-seen-the-face-of-god-1845133084 

Justin Pinkney’s Toonify Yourself blog post — https://www.justinpinkney.com/toonify-yourself/ 

Toonify Yourself webpage — https://toonify.justinpinkney.com 

This Person Does Not Exist — https://thispersondoesnotexist.com 

Gizmodo article: Ring’s New Always Home Cam Is Actually An Indoor Spy Drone — https://gizmodo.com/rings-new-always-home-cam-is-actually-an-indoor-spy-dro-1845170272 

MeetingBar — https://github.com/leits/MeetingBar 

Fantastical — https://flexibits.com/fantastical 


Calendar 366 — https://nspektor.com 

TechCrunch article: The Lumos Matrix is the ideal urban bike helmet for a smarter, safer day trip — https://techcrunch.com/2020/09/21/the-lumos-matrix-is-the-ideal-urban-bike-helmet-for-a-smarter-safer-day-trip/ 

Gizmodo article: Star Wars: The High Republic’s Answer to Excalibur Is Exquisite — https://io9.gizmodo.com/star-wars-the-high-republics-answer-to-excalibur-is-ex-1845168113 

Slashfilm article: Cool Stuff: New LEGO Batwing Set Lets You Build One of Batman’s Wonderful Toys — https://www.slashfilm.com/lego-batwing/ 

The Verge article: Lego is making a Baby Yoda set. and I love him already — https://www.theverge.com/tldr/2020/9/21/21449221/baby-yoda-lego-set-the-mandalorian 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 36:49 — 50.7MB) | Embed

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Episode 289 — Mysty AI

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Misty Alaskan landscape
Photo by Michael Martine, Alaska 2012

Starting things off right with an augmented reality automotive repair use case, Michael and Michael remember similar examples discussed years ago.  What is interesting now is that these stories are not limited to technology websites and magazines, but is showing up more and more mainstream press.  Moving right along to VR, we have a story to share about Myst, returning in a virtual reality format with the Oculus Quest 2 headset.  

Michael and Michael share their thoughts about generative adversarial networks and fake data (aka synthetic data) being used to train machine learning algorithms in a way that surprisingly removes bias.  Staying on the development front, the co-hosts talk through the challenges associated with having one day between announcement and deployment of a new operating system.  Michael R points out that his app, Wasted Time, was ready to go on announce day for iOS 14.  The Ford-developed pickup truck emoji for iOS 14 also get’s some time in the sun – check out the fun video from the Ford team on what went into the development of this “iconic” F-150 emoji.  

Closing things off for this week’s episode, Michael and Michael discuss the importance of vacation time, which is not wasted time at all, even if you’re not traveling.  Michael R shares a game that he is playing on Apple Arcade, and Michael M shares a Netflix show that has surfaced three times in the past three days, so it must be a sign that he needs to watch it.

Share with the Games At Work team what you’re watching, whether in AR, VR or TV, and your topic may be part of next week’s episode, right here on Games At Work… dot… bizzzzzz.

Selected Links

LuxuryLaunches article: Mercedes-Benz technicians in the US will now use Microsoft HoloLens 2 and Augmented Reality to fix cars — https://luxurylaunches.com/gadgets/mercedes-benz-technicians-in-the-us-will-now-use-microsoft-hololens-2-and-augmented-reality-to-fix-cars.php 

The Verge article: The original Myst is coming to VR — https://www.theverge.com/2020/9/16/21436681/myst-trailer-cyan-worlds-remake-vr-oculus-quest-announcement 

Slate article: Fake Data Could Help Solve Machine Learning’s Bias Problem — if We Let It — https://slate.com/technology/2020/09/synthetic-data-artificial-intelligence-bias.html?mc_cid=5fc04732dc&mc_eid=44a4490b90 

Six Colors article: Apple Launches New OS Versions on One Day’s Notice — https://sixcolors.com/link/2020/09/apple-launches-new-os-versions-on-one-days-notice/ 

The Verge article: Apple developers are scrambling over accelerated iOS 14 release — https://www.theverge.com/2020/9/16/21439674/ios-14-developers-iphone-surprise-release-golden-master-beta-development 

TechCrunch article: New iOS 14 widgets you can try today — https://techcrunch.com/2020/09/16/ios-14-widgets-you-can-try-today/ 

Random Thoughts blog post: Wasted Time for Apple TV – Available — https://michaelrowe01.com/index.php/2020/09/19/wasted-time-for-apple-tv-available/ 

Jalopnik article: Apple’s New iOS 14 Will Have A Pickup Truck Emoji Designed By Ford But It Has A Big Problem — https://jalopnik.com/apples-new-ios-14-will-have-a-pickup-truck-emoji-design-1845068468 

Chevy El Camino — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_El_Camino 

Wired Article: You’ve not used up your holiday allowance and now it’s too late — https://www.wired.co.uk/article/annual-leave-coronavirus-holiday 

Pocket Gamer article: Towers of Everland, a stylish first-person dungeon crawler, is this week’s Apple Arcade game — https://www.pocketgamer.com/articles/083091/towers-of-everland-a-stylish-first-person-dungeon-crawler-is-this-weeks-apple-arcade-game/ 

Cobra Kai sequel to the hit “Karate Kid” films — https://www.netflix.com/title/81002370 

We are now available via Amazon Music’s Podcasts — https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/763c3757-6283-4eea-9a7e-28e5999d881e/Games-At-Work-dot-Biz 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 43:05 — 59.3MB) | Embed

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