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 #1 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 Dron...