Episode 277 — Virtual Fans

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stadium
Photo by Alex Motoc on Unsplash

Michael and Michael are glad to welcome Andy back for this week’s episode and get things rolling with some automotive stories.  First off is an article about some innovative ideas on what auto manufacturers are designing into their vehicles based on the pandemic changing needs.  Ideas like anti-viral surfaces, increasing the heat of the car’s interior and ultraviolet light are some of what is being considered.  Speaking of automotive design, the crew reflects on the variation and similarity (red!) of the car emoji across various platforms.

With sports beginning to reopen around the world, a number of world class athletes are playing in empty stadiums, however, for broadcast television, piping in virtual crowd noises seems to be gaining fans.  Listen in to hear what Andy, Michael and Michael think about the sports equivalent of a laugh track.

This discussion of soccer / football causes a stroll down memory lane with Andy recollecting Sensible Soccer

Michael R is getting excited about the upcoming Apple World Wide Developer Conference, and we are sure that there will be much to learn.

Selected Links

Autoblog article: Coronavirus fears will influence car design, according to Kia — https://www.autoblog.com/2020/06/06/coronavirus-will-alter-car-design-says-kia/ 

The Drive article: Car Emojis Are Broken — https://www.thedrive.com/news/33977/the-car-emoji-must-be-changed

Mashable article:  This bricklaying robot can construct a house in 48 hours — https://mashable.com/video/handrian-x-bricklaying-robot-48-hours/ 

The Verge article: Spanish soccer returns with computer-generated crowds, and it actually works — https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/12/21288963/la-liga-fake-crowd-noise-betis-sevilla 

Sky Sports article: Premier League restart: Crowd noise option part of Sky Sports innovative coverage — https://www.skysports.com/football/news/21564/12001299/premier-league-restart-crowd-noise-option-part-of-sky-sports-innovative-coverage 

The Vice article: Why ‘Sensible Soccer’ Is Still Gaming’s Friendliest Soccer Sim — https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/vdq479/why-i-adore-sensible-soccer-gamings-friendliest-football-sim-407 

Sensible Soccer — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensible_Soccer 

retrogamer.net article: The Making Of Sensible World Of Soccer — https://www.retrogamer.net/retro_games90/the-making-of-sensible-world-of-soccer/ 

Apple’s upcoming WWDC — https://developer.apple.com/wwdc20/ 

Extended remix links for this week

Kotaku article: And Now, Realistic Trash for Animal Crossing: New Horizons — https://kotaku.com/and-now-realistic-trash-for-animal-crossing-new-horzi-1843992702 

Bass 808 Synth + AUv3 Platinum — https://apps.apple.com/us/app/bass-808-synth-auv3-platinum/id1502480224 

Slash Film article: The Quarantine Stream: ‘Josie and the Pussycats’ Hilariously Rocks the Socks Off Crass Consumerism — https://www.slashfilm.com/the-quarantine-stream-josie-and-the-pussycats-hilariously-rocks-the-socks-off-crass-consumerism/ 

9 to 5 Mac article: Apple discontinuing iBooks Author and iTunes U, here’s what you need to know — https://9to5mac.com/2020/06/10/apple-is-discontinuing-ibooks-author-and-itunes-u/ 

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Episode 276 — Pizza Pi

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Pizza with Raspberry Pi
Photo by Kristina Bratko on Unsplash

Michael and Michael get together to talk about IoT feeding chickens, vending machines, staying sociable during social distancing, innovations in 3D printing, photo background and foreground obfuscation, Pi-hole security and iPad functionality.  

A Pizza ATM was installed at the University of North Florida in February, before all of the social distancing went into effect.  It’s as easy as preparing the dough and put it into the cold storage and bake a fresh pie for the hungry students at 3am right in that kiosk.  This reminded the co-hosts of the automat in New York City.


Guest Ian Hughes was among the featured webinar speakers on how to remain socially active during this time of social distancing, with suggestions such as engaging in the arts and in virtual meetings in other environments such as Fortnite and Animal Crossing.

Michael R describes the new innovations in 3D printing which allows for faster processing and shape forming.  Have a look at the link below for all the 4D deets.

After a couple stories about video alteration, from PhotoRoom’s background removal to Signal’s ability to blur images, we take a clear look at how Pi-Hole treats DNS1 vs DNS2.  

Rounding things out for this episode, Michael and Michael talk about how the newest iPad is more than a consumption device, and Michael R has been using his extremely creatively, such as doing all the processing for this podcast on it.  See his blog post below for exactly how.

Selected Links

Solar Chickens — http://www.solarchickens.com 

Delish article: College Students Can Now Withdraw Fresh Pizza From An ATM During Their Late Night Study Sessions — https://www.delish.com/food-news/a30767988/pizza-atm-machine/ 

Pizza ATM — http://pizzaatmllc.com/pizza-atm/how-it-works 

Automat wikipedia article — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automat

The Verge article: A restaurant in the Netherlands is using creepy robot waiters for social distancing — https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/31/21276318/restaurant-netherlands-robot-waiters-social-distancing-pandemic 

The Chartered Institute for IT webinar: Cultural enrichment: 15 ways to use IT to stay sociable — https://www.bcs.org/content-hub/cultural-enrichment-15-ways-to-use-it-to-stay-sociable/ 

3DPrint.com article: 4DTexture: Holistic Computational Design for 3D Surfaces — https://3dprint.com/267028/new-4dtexture-system-offers-holistic-computational-design-3d-surfaces-texture/ 

TechCrunch article: PhotoRoom automagically removes background from your photo — https://techcrunch.com/2020/06/05/photoroom-automagically-removes-background-from-your-photo/ 

Signal — https://www.signal.org 

Roy Tanck blog post — Using Pi-Hole to investigate DNS 1 vs. 2 usage — https://roytanck.com/2020/05/30/using-pi-hole-to-investigate-dns-1-vs-2-usage/ 

Raspberry Pi — https://www.raspberrypi.org 

The Verge article: Apple is testing a better way to change iPad keyboard brightness — https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/5/21281334/apple-ipad-keyboard-brightness-shortcut 

Random Thoughts blog post: iPad only Podcast Editing — http://michaelrowe01.com/index.php/2020/05/31/ipad-only-podcast-editing/ 

9 to 5 Mac article: How iPads have transitioned from consumption devices to productivity devices — https://9to5mac.com/2020/06/07/ipad-productivity-transitioned/ 

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Episode 275 — Virtual Chickens

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LEGO Chicken Man
Photo by Michael Martine, May 2020

Michael and Michael are joined for this episode by both Andy Piper *and* Ian Hughes from across the pond to be virtually together and a romp through some amazing stories.  

Starting things off with bang, Ian shares his impressions of the recently concluded Augmented World Expo, which like many (all) of the other conferences in 2020 have gone fully virtual.  One would think that if any conference could succeed in this social distancing world, AWE would be the one, and it did not disappoint.  One of the especially intriguing things about the conference was the exhibits and socialization at the Museum of Other Realities, which does need a VR headset to experience the art in the appropriate scale and interaction of the exhibits.

Minecraft has an upcoming music festival from June 25 – 28th called Electric Boogaloo, um, Electric Blockaloo featuring more than 300 artists, in the virtual space with ample room for virtual stages.  Could this be the 2020 equivalent of Woodstock?  Time will tell.  The BBC’s “BBC Together” service is designed to bring people together virtually to experience content with one another.

Check out the discussion on the importance of music to the human condition, and how mixed reality spaces are taking advantage of all music has to offer to bring people together.  Keeping people appropriately socially distant from each other, however, is a new AR innovation by Google, where the 2m / 6 foot distance visualized on the Android platform.

Wrapping things up is a story about how a real life father/son felted chicken tossing game turned into an app.  This is a chicken that you have to try tossing!

There were so many more stories than we had time to cover, so please check out the extended remix links below.  What fun it was to have everyone together for this episode! 

Selected Links

AWE USA 2020 — https://www.awexr.com 

Museum of Other Realities — https://www.museumor.com

GamesSpot article: Minecraft Gets Dance Festival Electric Boogaloo Starring Diplo — https://www.gamespot.com/articles/minecraft-gets-dance-festival-electric-blockaloo-s/1100-6477647/ 

Electric Blockaloo — https://electricblockaloo.com 

MacRumors article: ‘BBC Together’ Service Lets UK Users Enjoy BBC Content With Others Remotely — https://www.macrumors.com/2020/05/19/bbc-together-lets-uk-viewers-enjoy-bbc-with-others/ 

Mashable article: Google launches new AR tool to visualize social distancing rules — https://mashable.com/article/google-sodar-social-distancing/ 

Sodar — https://sodar.withgoogle.com 

Couch Chicken — https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/couch-chicken/id1237593923 

Extended remix links for this week

VR and Fun article: Learn to Create Pottery in VR — https://www.vrandfun.com/learn-to-create-pottery-in-vr/ 

VR Focus article: Unity’s Dedicated AR Creation Studio MARS is Available Next Week — https://www.vrfocus.com/2020/05/unitys-dedicated-ar-creation-studio-mars-is-available-next-week/ 

Sports Illustrated article: To Beat Techmo Bowl: One Man’s Modest Quarantine Quest — https://www.si.com/nfl/2020/05/22/quest-to-beat-tecmo-bowl-with-help-from-expert 

PC Gamer article: Formula E driver fired by Audi after letting an esports pro take his place in an online race — https://www.pcgamer.com/formula-e-driver-fired-by-audi-after-letting-an-esports-pro-take-his-place-in-an-online-race/ 

Guru 3D article: Pac-Man Recreated with AI by NVIDIA Researchers — https://www.guru3d.com/news-story/pac-man-recreated-with-ai-by-nvidia-researchers.html 

Wired article: Gamemakers Inject AI to Develop More Lifelike Characters — https://www.wired.com/story/game-makers-inject-ai-develop-more-lifelike-characters/ 

The Verge article: Minecraft Dungeons is a lighter, more family-friendly take on Diablo — https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/26/21270311/minecraft-dungeons-reviews-xbox-pc-switch-ps4 

gamesindustry.biz article: Xbox boosts responsible gaming strategy with Family Settings app — https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2020-05-27-xbox-boosts-responsible-gaming-strategy-with-family-settings-app 

Nintendo Soup article: The Famous Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers Intro Is Recreated In Animal Crossing New Horizons — https://nintendosoup.com/the-famous-mighty-morphin-power-rangers-intro-is-recreated-in-animal-crossing-new-horizons/ 

BBC article: Trading Standards squad targets anti-5G USB stick — https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-52810220 

Brickset article: 42115 Lamborghini Sián FKP 37 Revealed — https://brickset.com/article/51617/42115-lamborghini-sián-fkp-37-revealed 

Terence Eden’s blog: Building a physical <blink> tag! — https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2020/05/building-a-physical-blink-tag/

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Episode 274 — Beautiful Virtual World

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photo by Michael Martine, Columbia SC 2017

It’s a beautiful world we live in, and the virtual aspects make it even more so.  A happy 40th anniversary celebration to Namco’s Pac-Man and 30th for Microsoft Solitaire.  Amazing to think about how games such as these have been around now for so long, and are part of the fabric so many people’s computer experiences.  Infocom’s text based adventures pop up in the discussion, and Michael M finds the scratch-n-sniff page from Phobos in his collection – see show notes for a picture!)

Microsoft’s GW-BASIC has now been open sourced, which prompts the expected memory lane conversation between Michael, Michael and Andy, and even lands on an audio description of the “snow” code in BASIC, faithfully reproduced for the listeners here:

10 print “* * * * * * * * * * * *”
20 print “ * * * * * * * * * * * *”
30 goto 10

With many people knowing of Michael R’s Devo fandom, the surfacing of the power dome face shield on Club Devo had many reaching out to him.  There is indeed something for everybody in the Devo store!  

The story about Eschaton as a virtual maze of twisty passages and rooms, all unalike spurs a discussion on Secret Cinema, and the breaching of the 4th wall where the viewer becomes the viewed, and possibly a participant in the event.

The reality of AR glasses represented by North Focals, and the rumors of what Apple is working on continues to inspire “spec”ulation on what the breakthrough app will be for AR.  Apple’s rumored Gobi puts an emphasis on business, and the idea of using AR for Apple’s Find My app for directing the user to find the lost device feels like a great way to bring AR to life for people who are unaccustomed to the technology.

Bird Chargers & Lime Juicers resurface as a remote job possibility, where riders can hail a GoX scooter that will be remotely driven to their desired position by a teleoperator driver.  This, coupled with the high demand for package and food delivery may be the interim step for autonomous vehicles, collecting detailed route data that can be fed into the AI corpus needed for fully autonomous vehicles.

We continue to hope that everyone is safe, healthy and well.  The team is looking forward to reassembling again for another episode next week!  Drop us a line with what you expect to be the next ways people will get together, whether for business or fun.

Selected Links

The Library Blog: The Origins of Bank Holidays — http://libraryblog.lbrut.org.uk/wordpress/2016/12/origins-bank-holidays/ 

The Verge article: Microsoft Solitaire turns 30 years old today and still has 35 million monthly players — https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/22/21266718/microsoft-solitaire-30-years-old-history-birthday-record-attempt 

The Guardian article: The game that ate the world: 40 facts on Pac-Man’s 40th birthday — https://www.theguardian.com/games/2020/may/22/pac-man-video-game-40-years-old

The Verge article: Pac-Man will be playable on Twitch starting this June — https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/22/21266881/pac-man-live-studio-playable-on-twitch-june 

Wikipedia article: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Pilgrim_vs._the_World 

Wikipedia article: Pixels — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixels_(2015_film) 

ZDNet article: Microsoft takes you back to 1983: It’s just open-sourced its GW-BASIC interpreter — https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-takes-you-back-to-1983-its-just-open-sourced-its-gw-basic-interpreter/

Club Devo: http://www.clubdevo.com 

Wikipedia article: Devo album “Something for Everybody” — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Something_for_Everybody_(Devo_album) 

The Verge article: Eschaton is a surreal Zoom nightclub — and a theater for the age of social distancing — https://www.theverge.com/21266127/eschaton-chorus-productions-immersive-theater-zoom-nightclub-experiment 

Wikipedia article: Devo album “Something for Everybody” — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Something_for_Everybody_(Devo_album) 

The Verge article: Eschaton is a surreal Zoom nightclub — and a theater for the age of social distancing — https://www.theverge.com/21266127/eschaton-chorus-productions-immersive-theater-zoom-nightclub-experiment 

Secret Cinema — https://www.secretcinema.org 

Cult of Mac article: Take a peek at Gobi, the shopping-oriented AR app coming in iOS 14 — https://www.cultofmac.com/711135/augmented-reality-viewer-app-ios-14-gobi/ 

Forbes article: What North’s Focals AR Glasses Taught Me About Augmented Reality — https://www.forbes.com/sites/moorinsights/2019/12/12/what-norths-focals-ar-glasses-taught-me-about-augmented-reality/#320da5373fe5 

North — https://www.bynorth.com 

Josh Constine’s Moving Product blog: Leaked pics from Apple’s AR app Gobi — https://constine.substack.com/p/leaked-pics-from-apples-ar-app-gobi 

MacRumors article: Jon Prosser Claims Apple is Working on ‘Steve Jobs Heritage Edition’ AR Glasses, Gurman Calls Rumor ‘Complete Fiction’ — https://www.macrumors.com/2020/05/21/steve-jobs-heritage-edition-ar-glasses/ 

TechCrunch article: Remote operators in Mexico are driving scooters to riders in this Atlanta suburb — https://techcrunch.com/2020/05/20/remote-operators-in-mexico-are-driving-scooters-to-riders-in-this-atlanta-suburb/ 

Go X Self-Driving Electric Scooter Sharing — https://goxapollo.com/index.html 

Games At Work Episode 236 — A Magic Leap for Botkind (including Lime Squeezers & Byrd Catchers) — https://gamesatwork.biz/2019/06/17/episode-236-a-magic-leap-for-botkind/ 

Snapdrop — https://snapdrop.net/#about 

TechCrunch article: Help Wanted: Autonomous robot guide — https://techcrunch.com/2020/05/17/help-wanted-autonomous-robot-guide/ 

objc blog post: SwiftUI: Running a Mac App Without an Xcode Project — https://www.objc.io/blog/2020/05/19/swiftui-without-an-xcodeproj/

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