e465 — Roblox Physical Fusion

By | |
Leave a comment
neon “Open” sign
Photo by Alex Knight on Unsplash

Published 6 May 2024

Andy, Michael and Michael squeeze into the virtual studio to talk tech.  In this episode, the team share some tech happy birthday wishes, takes a side trip down the Rabbit R1 hole, discuss screens and buttons in automobiles, check into real world implementations of video games and gaming versions of real world shopping and more.

The co-hosts start off this episode with the first happy birthday wish – sending congratulations to the BASIC programming language, which turns 60 this year.  They then turn to the continuing discussion on the Rabbit R1, in particular how it is an android app, wrapped up in a hardware shell.  This leads to the consideration of design, and how the blending of hardware and software can compliment one another even more effectively than just hardware or just software alone.  

After touching on the as-yet unannounced new version of iOS, the team takes on a story on Mercedes-Benz and CarPlay.  Michael M is reminded of a recent article from the Atlantic (see below) and a lively discussion ensues about which co-host may be the greatest automotive “Captain Slow”.

Next up is a story and video about Super Nintendo World at Universal, and how the experiences there allow one to feel as if they are physically placed into a video game.  This is followed up by an article about Walmart being the first brand in Roblox to enable physical purchases.  Then, some more birthday wishes, this time for SL21B, Second Life’s upcoming 21st birthday bash.

The team wraps up the episode with a story on the Razer Zephyr RGB face mask and the FTC’s fine. 

What was your first basic program?  Who do you think best exemplifies “Captain Slow” from this episode’s discussion?  Have your bots 🤖 drop our bots 🤖 a line at @gamesatwork_biz (our home for now) and let us know! 

These show notes were lovingly hand crafted by a real human, and not by a bot.  All rights reserved.  That’s our story and we’re sticking to it.

Selected Article Links

Ars Technica article: The BASIC programming language turns 60

10 print “* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *”

20 print “ * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ”

30 goto 10

AI

Daily Tech News Show Podcast Run, Rabbit, Run… On My Phone! – DTNS 4760

Hackaday article: Make 3D Scenes with a Holodeck-like voice interface

iOS & CarPlay

Forbes article: iOS 18—New Apple Overhaul Reveals Exciting iPhone AI Privacy Feature

The Verge article: Mercedes-Benz won’t let Apple CarPlay take over all its screens

The Atlantic article: Touch Screens Are Ruining Cars

Hertz NeverLost

Real & Virtual Worlds

Retail Technology Innovation Hub article: Walmart becomes first brand in Roblox to enable physical purchases as it goes live with groundbreaking pilot

Patent US8296196B2: Tag Along Shopping

Second Life Community blog: SL21B Applications Now Open for Performers!

Tech

Ars Technica article: FTC fines Razer for every cent made selling bogus “N95 grade” RGB masks

Games at Work e304:  Duly meh-ed

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 38:49 — 45.0MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Android | Podcast Index | Email | Youtube Music | RSS | More

e464 — AI Piano Man

By | |
Leave a comment
autographed picture of Billy Joel at Bullock’s Bar-B-Cue in Durham, NC
Picture by Michael Martine at Bullock’s Bar-B-Cue, Durham NC, April 2024

Published 29 April 2024

Michael and Michael get together to talk tech while Andy is away.  In this episode, the team focuses on a variety of AI topics including AI hardware in the form of the Rabbit R1, the new Logitech AI Mouse, smart gloves to teach piano playing.  Michael M shares a blog post dealing with reinforcement learning and empowerment maximization.  Michael R gives a rundown on his perspective of the current state of the Apple Vision Pro.  The co-hosts wrap up the episode with some gaming news.

Michael and Michael start of this episode continuing the recent discussion on AI hardware, this time with the Rabbit R1.  Like the Humane AI pin, there are compelling elements about the R1, however, the overlap with other wearables (watches) and phones loom large.  Switching from the Rabbit to the Logitech mouse, Michael M brings up the bespoke AI button, likening the button to the Netflix button on TV remotes.  Michael R notes that his existing mouse could accomplish the same thing by mapping one of the existing buttons to call up the AI features, and points out the challenges arising from the Logitech software the new mouse requires.  For an intriguing new way of learning to play the piano, the co-hosts discuss “a textile-based wearable human-machine interface with integrated tactile sensors and vibrotactile haptic actuators”.  Staying on the AI theme, Michael M brings up a blog post dealing with reinforcement learning and empowerment maximization with an intriguing image to consider for creating an optimal number of future options and opportunities.  

Michael R gives his current take on the Apple Vision Pro, given the recent press on the sales figures and expectations on the future availability in countries beyond the US.

The team wraps up the episode with some gaming news.  These include an Excel-based Fallout game, a world record attempt of chess and the breakup of Embracer Group.

What do you think will be the physical form factor for the best AI enabled service?  Will it be your phone or watch?  Have your bots 🤖 drop our bots 🤖 a line at @gamesatwork_biz (our home for now) and let us know! 

These show notes were lovingly hand crafted by a real human, and not by a bot.  All rights reserved.  That’s our story and we’re sticking to it.

Selected Article Links

AI

The Verge article: A morning with the Rabbit R1: a fun, funky, unfinished AI gadget

Playdate

The Verge article: Logitech wants you to press its new AI button

Logitech Signature AI Edition M750 Wireless Mouse

Windows Experience blog: Introducing a new Copilot key to kick off the year of AI-powered Windows PCs

Scientific American article: ‘Smart Gloves’ Teach Piano Playing through Touch

Games at Work e281 — The Sound of the Present

Chip Huyen’s blog post: Measuring personal growth

Spatial Computing

Cult of Mac article: Apple cuts Vision Pro shipments as demand slows

The Verge article: Apple announces May 7th event for new iPads

Games & Gaming

The Storyteller blog: I made a Fallout inspired RPG game in EXCEL

CNN article: Nigerian chess champion Tunde Onakoya plays for 60 hours in Times Square, breaking marathon record

Kotaku article: Embracer Decides To Split Up, Names New Companies Things Like ‘Middle-earth Enterprises & Friends’

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 34:12 — 39.8MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Android | Podcast Index | Email | Youtube Music | RSS | More

E463 – Kickstarting Robo-Modding Mayhem

By | |
1 Comment
Robots defining a modding Kickstarter - generated via Diffusion Bee
Michael Rowe via DiffusionBee – Prompt – “Robots defining a Modding KickStarter, Realistic, Dynamic Lighting, by H.R. Giger”

This week, while Michael M is in the woods, Andy and Michael R. go thru the week’s links focusing back on our roots talking about various gaming stories, including: Life by You’s open approach to modding, dragon based table top games, and how one gaming studio is support Kickstarters from indie game developers.

We talk about listener Epredator’s contribution on adding micropayments to doom, and what show would be complete without a discussion of the latest robot from Boston Dynamics!?!

So check us out via the new Fediverse Podcast directory at https://podcastap.com.

Podcasts in the Fediverse https://indieweb.social/@tchambers/112284187620846728 

Andy talks Podcasting 2.0 and other platforms for podcasts on Fediverse on TechGrumps – https://techgrumps.wordpress.com/2024/04/15/techgrumps-3-14-ai-arbitrage/ 

History of Podcasting – https://www.descript.com/blog/article/history-of-podcasts 

Life By You encourages models – https://www.pcgamer.com/games/life-sim/life-by-you-director-says-modders-are-welcome-to-monetize-creations-however-they-want-go-for-ityou-dont-need-our-permission

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

Baldur’s Gate Studio supports game’s Kickstarter – https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/blasphemous-dev-reveals-that-baldurs-gate-3-studio-larian-quietly-backed-the-game-on-kickstarter-for-dollar1000-and-never-asked-for-anything-in-return

Micro-payments in Doom –

Epred- Listener link – https://mastodon.online/@epredator/112277232280250134 

https://www.threads.net/@guy_dupont/post/C5tskPDqy4W

Descent open sourced – https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2024/04/descent-3-has-been-made-open-source

WrymSpan TableTop game – https://stonemaiergames.com/games/wyrmspan/ and https://tabletopia.com/games/wyrmspan

We Have Goats TableTop game – https://www.wehavegoats.com

Boston Dynamic’s latest robot – https://techcrunch.com/2024/04/17/techcrunch-minute-new-atlas-robot-stuns-experts-in-first-reveal-from-boston-dynamics/

One Plus Watch Two – https://www.theverge.com/24132998/one-plus-watch-2-review-smartwatches-wearables

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 37:00 — 43.0MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Android | Podcast Index | Email | Youtube Music | RSS | More

e462 — Generating Both Sides

By | |
Comments Off on e462 — Generating Both Sides
two sides of a caution cleaning in progress sign.
Photo by Oliver Hale on Unsplash

Published 15 April 2024

Michael and Michael get together to talk tech while Andy is away.  In this episode, the team focuses on a variety of AI topics including AI assistants, the Humane AI Pin, LLM training and deepfakes before touching on several AR topics and concluding with a couple of games.

The first story deals with human forgetfulness vs AI assistants ability to remember everything.  Luckily the co-hosts remember dealing with this topic long ago.  One “lifelogging” article from 2014 references Steve Mann’s work, and intriguingly, the recording device looks very similar to the Humane AI Pin.  Humane’s AI Pin has had a number of reviews in the past days, and the one from The Verge gives a very thorough treatment.  Check it out in the show links below.

An article from ZD Net reports that transcripts from YouTube videos were used to train LLMs. Now that the Games at Work podcast is available on YouTube, Michael and Michael wonder if the podcast may be on the ingest list for training the next set of LLMs.  

After considering a WSJ article about financial companies actions to counteract potential identity deepfakes, Michael and Michael take a look at a LEGO powered AI security system.

Switching gears to AR, Michael and Michael enjoy a story about the Dyson CleanTrace which allows you to see in AR where you’ve already vacuumed and where you still have to.  Making cleaning a game is not new for the Games at Work crew but this is a new take on how to combine AR, gaming and cleaning that may have many other possibilities.  After taking a look at CT scans of Apple’s Vision Pro and Meta’s Quest, Michael R shares some insight on the updated Persona for the Vision Pro. 

The team wraps up the episode with a couple of games.  Michael R shares a 8 bit (or 1 bit) game called Nothing Door.  Michael M shares an article about the recent Sims expansion pack that allows the player to take on the role of a landlord or tenant.  

Do you think that tracking vacuuming is the killer app for AR?  Perhaps extreme ironing?  Have your bots 🤖 drop our bots 🤖 a line at @gamesatwork_biz (our home for now) and let us know! 

These show notes were lovingly hand crafted by a real human, and not by a bot.  All rights reserved.  That’s our story and we’re sticking to it.

Selected Article Links

AI

Wired article: Humans Forget. AI Assistants Will Remember Everything

Games at Work e157: Through the 2016 Looking Glass

SingularityHub article: Lifelogging Gear Is Small, Cheap, and Powerful, So Like It Or Not, You’re Going To Be Recorded

The Verge article: Humane AI Pin review: not even close

ZD Net article: OpenAI and Google reportedly used YouTube transcripts to train their AI models

Wall Street Journal article: Deepfakes Are Coming for the Financial Sector

AR / VR

iMore article: Dyson turned this viral Apple Vision Pro vacuuming concept into a feature, and it’s coming soon

Wikipedia article: Extreme ironing

Games at Work e60: Bubbly Bubblers in Gamified Buildings

Chore Wars

9To5Mac article: Apple Vision Pro scans show meticulous array of cameras, sensors, and more

Lumafield article: Apple Vision Pro and Meta Quest Non-Destructive Teardown

Upgrade podcast e507 – Differently Social

Games

NothingDoor on the App Store

Slate article: The Sims: For Rent Allows Millennials to Turn the Tables

The Sims 4 For Rent Expansion Pack

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 39:58 — 46.4MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Android | Podcast Index | Email | Youtube Music | RSS | More