Published 28 July 2025

e522 with Michael M and Andy – stories about AI in multiple forms: bees that listen, a cat that chats, and then some fun with animating fish you draw, a GameBoy you build and a whole lot more.

Andy and Michael M get things rolling while Michael R is away with a story about Amazon acquiring Bee, the wearable AI company.  After a quick reference back to earlier wearable AI examples, the co-hosts turn to Lumo, the AI cat chatbot (catbot?) from Proton.  This sparks a rich conversation on search, and the need to find that receipt or email about the upcoming event.  A 404 media article covers Google’s AI Overview, and Michael shares how he routinely passes over the sponsored links, which is where the AI Overview currently resides.  Andy noted that Google announced Web Guide this week, and the pair give that a once over.  Andy also harkened back to his SearXNG aggregator and udm14.com. 

Next up, the co-hosts show that we can still have fun things, starting off with an(other) iteration of Doom.  This is followed up with Draw A Fish, a simple and fun experience where your drawn fish is animated by the site and placed in a fishtank for you to watch and feed.  Then, a delightful experience on Pointer Pointer, where the service gives you a picture with people pointing where you have your cursor.

Andy and Michael wrap things up with another LEGO video game exemplar – this time it’s the Nintendo Game Boy, which sadly doesn’t play a game, but looks very realistic down to the custom LEGO buttons.  And of course the pair is excited to see Spinal Tap 2: The End Continues when it comes out.  

Will Spinal Tap 2 go up to 12?  Have your bots 🤖 drop our bots 🤖 a line at @[email protected] (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.

The Verge article: Amazon buys Bee AI wearable that listens to everything you say

Bee.computer

Games at Work e502: Humane Rabbits (for the Humane AI Pin, Rabbit Agent, R1 and more)

9 To 5 Mac article: Proton throws shade at Apple Intelligence privacy as it launches AI chatbot

Proton post: Introducing Lumo, the AI where every conversation is confidential

Vivaldi post: #10 Andy Yen (Proton) – For A Better Web

404 Media article: Google’s AI Is Destroying Search, the Internet, and Your Brain

SearXNG

Tedium post: One Extra Click

Google’s The Keyword post: Web Guide: An experimental AI-organized search results page

udm14.com 

Draw a Fish

Pointer Pointer

The Verge article: Here is Lego’s official Nintendo Game Boy — with lenticular display

Entertainment Weekly article: Rob Reiner applauds Paul McCartney’s ‘really funny’ improv skills in first look at Spinal Tap sequel

IMDb: This Is Spinal Tap (1984)

IMDb: Spinal Tap II: The End Continues (2025)

Web 11.0 mashup junkie, and co-founder / co-host of the GamesAtWork.biz podcast. My views are my own.

Michael Martine

Published 21 July 2025

e521 with Andy, Michael and Michael – stories about expressive robots (Shoggoth Mini, Apple ELEGNT, SpiRob & facehugger), newly reengineered Commodore & Sinclair computer reboots, Seagate’s 30TB drives and a whole lot more.

Andy, Michael and Michael get things rolling with a story about what went into creating the hero image for last week’s show notes.  The team then turns to the Shoggoth Mini robot, and how it uses it’s antenna so expressively.  Inspired by Apple’s ELEGNT robot lamp, and SpiRobs’s tentacle system, Matthieu Le Cauchois started building the Shoggoth Mini.  Check out the links below for the videos and images to see how this robot interacts.  After touching on a robotic instance of a facehugger from the Aliens movies, the co hosts turn back to the future.

If you are nostalgic for a Commodore 64 computer, it is your lucky day.  Newly reengineered C-64s are available in several different models, and you won’t even need a cassette recorder or a floppy disk drive to load the software.  Unless you really want to.  After touching on a new version of the classic Sinclair ZX Spectrum, the co hosts marvel at the newly announced Seagate 30TB hard drives for $600.  

Rounding out the show for this week are an article on dropped customer service calls and some 1985 retro MacPaint art.

What kind of emotion would you want your robot to show, and how would the robot express the emotion?  Have your bots 🤖 drop our bots 🤖 a line at @[email protected] (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.

The Decoder post: Google’s Veo 3 video generation model launches on Gemini API with a hefty price tag

Matthieu Le Cauchois blog post: Shoggoth Mini

Apple Machine Learning blog post: ELEGNT: Expressive and Functional Movement Design for Non-Anthropomorphic Robot

Arxiv paper: SpiRobs: Logarithmic Spiral-shaped Robots for Versatile Grasping Across Scales

Games at Work e500: fünfhundert smooth operator (for discussion on the Apple Pixar robotic lamp)

Wikipedia entry: Horseshoe Crab

Robotshop community forum post: the Facehugger

Sixcolors post: Commodore, Apple, and the Early Computer Days

Commodore 

Mini-ITX post: We can build your Mini-ITX PC inside a Retro Commodore 64 Keyboard Chassis…

ESP32 Rainbow post: ESP32 Rainbow ZX Spectrum Reborn

TidBITS post: Seagate Ships 30 TB Hard Drives for $600

Seagate press release: Seagate Ships 30TB Drives to Meet Global Surge in Data Center AI Storage Demand

IMDb entry: The Cannonball Run (another big drive)

The Atlantic article: That Dropped Call With Customer Service? It Was On Purpose

Three sample MacPaint images from the decryption.net.au blog 

Internet Archive: Zen & the art of the Macintosh : discoveries on the path to computer enlightenment 

Web 11.0 mashup junkie, and co-founder / co-host of the GamesAtWork.biz podcast. My views are my own.

Michael Martine

Published 14 July 2025

e520 with Michael, Andy and Michael – stories about AI advertising, still photo animation, anime agents, Pollen Robotics, Unity tokamak fusion reactor digital twin and a whole lot more.

Michael, Andy and Michael get things off to a fast start with an article all about AI advertising.  And how including AI inside does not correlate with positive impressions.  The Google Veo3 capability to turn still image prompts into short videos is next in focus.  The hero image for this episode was made using Veo3.  On deck next are the open source Reachy robots from Pollen Robotics newly available on Hugging Face, along with associated demo code and AI models.  Then, on Kickstarter, the co hosts consider an AI 3D character pod.  The Dipal D1 on Kickstarter trumpets itself as the “world’s first curved 3D AI Character Pod”.  The intrepid Games at Work team digs up the Gatebox example from 2017 and the associated episodes shared in the links below.  This even includes a discussion from 2018 about “cross-dimensional” human-AI agent marriages, which foreshadows the game “Date Everything” from the Wired article. 

The next article is absolutely right in the wheelhouse for Games At Work:  South Korean scientists used Unity to create a digital twin of a toroidal fusion reactor.  And using the game engine’s physics engine, these scientists may have unlocked how to unleash fusion energy.

Rounding out this episode is the upcoming LEGO launch of a new Arcade Machine.  This fun kit has a number of cool easter eggs in it, and the team’s looking forward to building it.

What is your impression on “AI inside” advertising?  How do you think game engines may be used to further science (weird or otherwise)?  Have your bots 🤖 drop our bots 🤖 a line at @[email protected] (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.

Futurism article: Something Hilarious Happens When Potential Customers See That a Product Has AI Features

Terrence Eden’s blog post: Gadget Review: Thermal Imaging Camera – Topdon TC004 Mini

Axios article: Google AI’s new trick: Turn any image into a brief video

Google’s Veo3 

TechCrunch article: Hugging Face opens up orders for its Reachy Mini desktop robots

Hugging Face blog post: Reachy Mini – The Open-Source Robot for Today’s and Tomorrow’s AI Builders

Hugging Face Reachy Mini Spaces

Pollen Robotics Reachy Mini

Wall-E Eve (LEGO version, of course!)

Pollen Robotics Reachy 2

Wikipedia entry: Alien: Romulus (with face hugger poster – not as bad as spiders, but close!)

Kickstarter: Dipal D1 – World’s First Curved Screen 3D AI Character Pod

Games at Work e159: Virtually Secure (for initial Gatebox discussion)

Games at Work e218: Virtually Married (for “cross-dimensional” human-AI nuptials)

Popular Mechanics article:  A Video Game Engine Just Broke a Huge Barrier for Nuclear Fusion. This Could Be the Key to Unlimited Power.

Computer Physics Communication volume 309, April 2025: Development of novel collision detection algorithms for the estimation of fast ion losses in tokamak fusion device

Unity

Wired article: A Game Called Date Everything Literally Lets You Date Everything—Except People

Date Everything

I integrated my Pixels dice with Home Assistant!

If you have Home Assistant with Bluetooth support, you can install my HACS component too: https://github.com/jaxzin/gamewithpixels-ha

The Verge article: Appeals court strikes down ‘click-to-cancel’ rule

The Verge article: Lego’s latest buildable arcade machine is packed full of fun hidden details

LEGO Arcade Machine 40805

Web 11.0 mashup junkie, and co-founder / co-host of the GamesAtWork.biz podcast. My views are my own.

Michael Martine

Published 30 June 2025

e519 with Michael, Andy and Michael – stories about AI conversations with pets and people, LLM data retention, AI slop, Clippy-esque prompts, AI workloads in space and a whole lot more.

Michael, Andy and Michael begin with an AI story about the possibility for translating what your pet has to say.  There have been similar stories, and certainly it is only a matter of time before there is a breakthrough to help humans talk to the animals. 

Next up, a video from John Oliver on AI slop for the masses, that interestingly enough starts off with cats.  The team then moves on to what LLMs know about those that use them.  A couple of articles from Schneier and Geeky Gadgets illustrate the challenges emerging with current data retention policies.  Andy asked ChatGPT to write his bio back in 2023, and the hallucinations from that experience is in the show notes below.

After a conversation on the future of Computer Science, the team considers AI workloads in space using the Syntilay example of designing shoes.  Then, a Mastodon post on the newest prompts from Microsoft Word reminds the cohosts of the fan favorite Clippy.  Next, there’s an AR example of advertising popup blockers where the cure may be worse than the disease of the number of ads and their content.

Wrapping things up for this episode, Andy, Michael and Michael take a look at the Microsoft Xbox branded Meta VR headset and The Confrontation LoTR tabletop game.  

What is your favorite AI slop example?  Have your bots 🤖 drop our bots 🤖 a line at @[email protected] (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.

Boy Genius Report article: AI could finally help us talk to our cats

Games at Work e495: Personal Planetarium for translating animal communications

Mashable article: John Oliver finds a creative way to get revenge on AI spam

Schneier on Security post: What LLMs Know About Their Users

Geeky Gadgets article: OpenAI’s ChatGPT Data Retention Policy Explained : Is Your Data at Risk?

Games at Work e406: AI Lemmings (for multiple versions of Andy’s bio)

Andy’s fun with ChatGPT from 2023 – multiple versions of his bio

The Atlantic article: The Computer-Science Bubble Is Bursting

Coolest Gadgets article: Reebok Co-Founder’s Startup to Design AI-Generated Shoe in Space

Syntilay AI designed shoes

me: there’s nothing worse than opening a blank document

microsoft word: hold my beer

PC Gamer article: Software engineer creates a real-life ad block using Snapchat’s AR smart glasses, but ultimately ends up making something far more distracting than ads

The Verge article: A week in Xbox VR with Microsoft and Meta’s new $399 headset

Wargamer article: This special edition Lord of the Rings board game comes with its own damn table

Gamefound: The Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation Ultimate Edition

Web 11.0 mashup junkie, and co-founder / co-host of the GamesAtWork.biz podcast. My views are my own.

Michael Martine

Published 23 June 2025

e518 with Andy, Michael, and Michael – stories about Atari adjacent AI, a new Emotiv experience, Midjourney video magic, Bondi blue, visionOS persona improvements, the Nex Playground and a whole lot more.

Andy, Michael and Michael begin with a couple of Atari AI stories.  First up, there’s a Hackaday article dealing with randomly generating Atari games, replete with a link in the notes below to the Github repo to check out.  Next is a Futurism article detailing how ChatGPT loses to the computing might encompassed by an Atari 2600 console.  Continuing on the ChatGPT theme, the co-hosts check out a post on the recent ChatGPT worldwide outage, and what happened as a result.  

Then, the team turns to a discussion on the recent Emotiv kickstarter, the MW20 Neuro Earphones, and are reminded about the Emotiv Insight.  Rounding out the AI section, Michael, Andy and Michael enjoy Ian Hughes’ Midjourney experiment to create a short video of Roisin Kincade from his book Reconfigure. 

After considering a cute iMac G3 inspired Apple Watch charging stand, the team charges into a conversation about the recent updates to visionOS 26, paying special focus to the Persona function.  Michael Rowe has a nice before-and-after view of his Persona posted in his blog, and Michael M finds the AI generated Dutch master painting of Michael from back in e240.  Check out the links below to see for yourself!

A new to the cohosts gaming console called Nex Playground (not Next – that was a different company!) has a modular form factor, and makes use of a camera for the gameplay.  The Creative Bloq article references Homecourt as the origin for the Nex Playground — “the eye in the sky does not lie!” is a common refrain from sports analytics enthusiasts.  It is intriguing how sophisticated the AI motion detection has come in this consumer space.

What games can you imagine playing where your body is the controller?  Have your bots 🤖 drop our bots 🤖 a line at @[email protected] (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.

Hackaday article: Randomly Generating Atari Games

Finite Atari Machine GitHub repo

Futurism article: ChatGPT “Absolutely Wrecked” at Chess by Atari 2600 Console From 1977

Robert Caruso’s LinkedIn Post: 🧠🤖 Atari 2600 Pulls Off the Upset!!

Wikipedia article: TRS-80 Color Computer

ChatGPT goes down — and fake jobs grind to a halt worldwide

https://pivot-to-ai.com/2025/06/11/chatgpt-goes-down-and-fake-jobs-grind-to-a-halt-worldwide/ – text
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=889fSJTRZlg&list=UU9rJrMVgcXTfa8xuMnbhAEA – video

Pivot to AI post: ChatGPT goes down — and fake jobs grind to a halt worldwide

Kickstarter post: Emotiv MW20 Neuro Earphones: Hi‑Fi Audio + Brain Insights

Emotiv

Games at Work e37: Sticky Games (for Emotiv reference – perhaps the first?)

IMDb: Minority Report

Loving midjourney new video generation. Ran the opening still from http://reconfigurebook.co.uk through it and Roisin really came to life. I last did this in 2023 with Runway. As I wrote https://www.feedingedge.co.uk/blog/2023/07/25/reconfigure-the-movie-nearly/

Feeding Edge post: Reconfigure – The Movie, nearly

Midjourney post: Introducing Our V1 Video Model

The Verge article: Charge your Apple Watch on this tiny iMac G3 replica

Wikipedia article: iMac G3

iColorpaltte Bondi blue

Six Colors article: visionOS 26 keeps pushing Apple’s newest platform toward the future

Random Thoughts post: WWDC 2025 – Liquid Glass (for the AI Dutch master version of Michael Rowe in the initial visionOS)

Games at Work e240: Game of Life (for Michael R’s generated portrait)

Creative Bloq article: Nex Playground review: an Apple-like active games console for the family

Nex Playground

Homecourt.ai

Games at Work e327: Virtually Athletic

Nintendo Wii Sports

CNET article: I Downloaded Crazy Taxi on My iPhone for Free Before Sega Discontinues It

Web 11.0 mashup junkie, and co-founder / co-host of the GamesAtWork.biz podcast. My views are my own.

Michael Martine

Published 9 June 2025

e517 with Michael, Michael and Andy – stories about Atarino microcomputing, AI through movie and television metaphor, AR running, screens and zombies, Skyrim Grandma, and a whole lot more.

Michael, Michael and Andy start off with another teeny tiny computer after last week’s Pico Mac Nano.  This coin-sized “Atarino” computer is the size of a postage stamp! 

Next, the co-hosts take a look at a Wall Street Journal article on the current state of AI through movie and television metaphor.  Then, they consider an IGN article predicting AI prompting providing the capability of creating a game like Breath of the Wild with a small development team.

The Sightful Spacetop AR display prompts an interesting discussion about how cramped spaces like airline coach seats could actually be made productive.  A Runner’s World article continues the AR crossover, using examples such as Can You See Me Now and Zombies, Run! 

The team turns the crank to wrap up this episode with i-Zombie, Skyrim Grandma and the excitement of the new Playdate games.

What do you think the next micro computer might be?  Have your bots 🤖 drop our bots 🤖 a line at @[email protected] (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.

Ars Technica article: Polish engineer creates postage stamp-sized 1980s Atari computer

Retrododo article: Polish Engineer Creates Atari Computer The Size Of A Coin

Wikipedia entry: Atari 8-bit computers

Wall Street Journal article: The AI Experience Is Going From ‘50 First Dates’ to ‘Cheers’

IMDb entry: 50 First Dates

IMDb entry: Cheers

Wikipedia entry: grok

Dextero article: AI company files for bankruptcy after being exposed as 700 Indian engineers

IGN article: AI Prompts Will Soon Let a 10-Person Team Build a Game Like Breath of the Wild Where the AI Is Doing All the Dialogue and You Just Write Character Synopsis, Tim Sweeney Predicts

Games at Work e515: Seeing Through Walls for AI NPCs

PC World article: Sightful Spacetop review: Impressive AR display… until the bugs show up

Sightfult

Runner’s World (Apple News Link) article: Adventures in the Running Metaverse

Blast Theory post: Can You See Me Now?

Zombies, Run!

Novelty Automation

Tim Hunkin post: i-Zombie

Tim Hunkin post: Making i-Zombie

GameSpot post: Skyrim Grandma Ends Streaming Retirement To Play Oblivion Remastered

Playdate post: Season Two, OUT NOW.

Web 11.0 mashup junkie, and co-founder / co-host of the GamesAtWork.biz podcast. My views are my own.

Michael Martine

Published 2 June 2025

e516 with Michael and Michael – AI prompts, browsers, model collapse & automation along with a teeny tiny pico Mac nano, and a whole lot more.

While Andy is away, Michael and Michael start off with an article from Ars Technica that explains the system prompts for Anthropic’s Claude 4 models.  This leads into a discussion on prompt engineering, and how solutions like Ollama allow users to download LLMs and create their own prompts.  After a quick sidebar on AI browsers like Opera, the team takes a look at Sky, an AI automation app.  This app shows a great deal of promise as a desktop AI assistant, and will be very interesting to try out once it is generally available.  Then, the team turns to a story on AI model collapse.  And next up is a blog post about consenting to updated terms and conditions.

Round things off for this episode, Michael and Michael enjoy a teeny tiny Mac classic – the Pico Mac Nano – a new take on 3D monitors and a local North Carolina story about Pokemon card game competitions.

What would you want to run on a Pico Mac Nano?  Sky’s the limit!  Have your bots 🤖 drop our bots 🤖 a line at @[email protected] (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.

Ars Technica article: Hidden AI instructions reveal how Anthropic controls Claude 4

Wikipedia article: Prompt Engineering

OLlama

Games at Work e429: Promptly Engineering

The Verge article: Opera’s new AI browser promises to write code while you sleep

Opera AI Browser

MacStories article: From the Creators of Shortcuts, Sky Extends AI Integration and Automation to Your Entire Mac

Sky.app 

Phrase of the moment: "model collapse" https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/27/opinion_column_ai_model_collapse/

The Register article: Some signs of AI model collapse begin to reveal themselves

"Technology should only ever do exactly what we have explicitly given it our consent to do"

This blog post 👉🏻 https://www.anildash.com//2025/05/27/2025-05-27-internet-of-consent/ by @anildash is just superb! 👏🏻 👏🏻 👏🏻

And the last sentence, a massively poignant call-to-action that won't leave people indifferent, specially, those who can't understand #ConsentMatters

#Respect #FairUse #SocialWeb #OwnTheWeb

Anil Dash blog post: The Internet of Consent

TechRadar article: Someone just built the world’s smallest working Mac – and at this price, I desperately want one

Pablo Picasso

Wired Article: 3D Is Back. This Time, You Can Ditch the Glasses

The Assembly article: More Than a Card Game

Web 11.0 mashup junkie, and co-founder / co-host of the GamesAtWork.biz podcast. My views are my own.

Michael Martine

Published 26 May 2025

e515 with Andy, Michael and Michael – the Fortnite Darth Vader NPC, IO, both from Google and Open AI, AI hardware, an intriguing Vision Pro use case, infrared contact lenses, Car Play Ultra, Microsoft’s GamePass set of retro classic games (Pitfall said to be coming!), and a Warhammer typing game.

Andy, Michael and Michael start off with stories about Darth Vader in Fortnite.  One article deals with how players have gotten the Darth Vader NPC AI (non-player character) to say questionable things and another on the rights Fortnite secured to do so.

The team then turned to a summary of the top 15 announcements from Google’s I/O 2025.  The cohosts were impressed by the fact that Google created a NotebookLM from the content of the conference.  Less impressive was how interacting with the NotebookLM did not create the personalized results expected.  Moving along to a different IO; the OpenAI acquisition of Jony Ive’s company, the cohosts note that reimagining what it means to use a computer (AI or otherwise) is an enormous undertaking. 

Rethinking how spatial computing could be used, Michael R walked Andy and Michael through a  use case to see through walls, floors and ceilings in an intuitive and easy way.  Another example of superhuman visual powers are contact lenses that provide the wearer with infrared vision.  According to the article, these lenses work even better when the wearer closes their eyelids to help block out more of the (previously) visual spectrum to allow for the infrared to be more easily discerned.

Rounding out this episode, the cohosts take a slightly deeper look at Car Play Ultra beyond the Aston Martin experience described last week, enjoy the Microsoft Game Pass offering for retro classic games, as well as the Warhammer typing experience.  Perhaps some of these user experience and interaction mechanisms from such games will surface in the IO AI computing device. 

What do you think is the next computing paradigm – both in hardware and software?  How will the user experience become so transparent, that all that is left is creativity, augmented in the flow of the creative process? Have your bots 🤖 drop our bots 🤖 a line at @[email protected] (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.

Wired article: Fortnite Players Are Already Making AI Darth Vader Swear

Kotaku article: Fortnite In Legal Trouble After Adding AI Darth Vader

The Verge article: The 15 biggest announcements at Google I/O 2025

Google I/O: About I/O

Google created a NotebookLM notebook with everything they announced at Google I/O. So instead of slogging through thousands of hours of video and other content, you can just ask NotebookLM questions, listen to a podcast, or get a FAQ, etc. https://notebooklm.google.com/notebook/953b658a-579b-4b3c-b280-43b3781babf3

Wall Street Journal article: What Sam Altman Told OpenAI About the Secret Device He’s Making With Jony Ive

OpenAI post: Sam and Jony introduce io

Cafe Zoetrope – where the io introduction video was made

HP IQ

Games at Work e371: Legacy Games & New UX (for early discussion on Humane in 2022)

Reddit post: How I use my Apple Vision Pro to retrofit Unifi Access Points in finished homes

The Guardian article: Seeing infrared: scientists create contact lenses that grant ‘super-vision’

The Verge article: Microsoft adds over 50 ‘Retro Classics’ to Game Pass

The Verge article: Warhammer’s free new game makes typing grimdark

Web 11.0 mashup junkie, and co-founder / co-host of the GamesAtWork.biz podcast. My views are my own.

Michael Martine

Published 19 May 2025

e514 with Michael R and Andy – generative ads & LEGO, Aston Martin x Apple CarPlay Ultra, new Vision Pro UX, an Internet Roadtrip, Leroy Jenkins and so much more.

While Michael M is away, Michael R and Andy start off with some generative AI topics: advertisements and LEGO.  Per the Ars Technica article, Netflix has announced it has created GenAI advertising that it will show during streaming video in 2026.  And some exciting news in the GenAI space for LEGO – a model that generates stable (not diffuse!) LEGO structures from text prompts.

Next up: several Apple stories, starting with Aston Martin working with Apple’s CarPlay Ultra, which combines data and visualizations from the car as well as from the iPhone. Then, some articles on Apple’s Vision Pro, since the launch, and new capabilities allowing scrolling in a new way.

Then, Michael R and Andy share a cornucopia of fun.  A website with the first few of 10,000 drum machines.  A fixer of broken QR codes.  A web-based team driving game called Internet Roadtrip, reminiscent of Twitch Plays Pokemon, and a little like Desert Bus too.  And especially a reflection on the 20th anniversary of Leroy Jenkins.  Do check out the article in the show notes  below, and see also the embedded story from 20 years ago.

What’s your favorite Leroy Jenkins story?  Have your bots 🤖 drop our bots 🤖 a line at @[email protected] (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.

Netflix will show generative AI ads midway through streams in 2026
Netflix is trying to grow ad revenue quickly.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/05/netflix-will-show-generative-ai-ads-midway-through-streams-in-2026/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

Ars Technica article: Netflix will show generative AI ads midway through streams in 2026

PC Mag article: LegoGPT Eliminates AI Weirdness, Creates Brick Designs You Can Actually Build

arXiv paper: Generating Physically Stable and Buildable LEGO Designs from Text

Huggingface: LegoGPT Demo

Wall Street Journal article: They Paid $3,500 for Apple’s Vision Pro. A Year Later, It Still Hurts.

Bloomberg article: Apple Readies Feature That Lets Vision Pro Users Scroll With Their Eyes

The Verge article: Apple will let the Vision Pro ‘see’ for you

10k Drum Machines

HumanQR

Adafruit blog post: Need to get away? Take an Internet Roadtrip!

Neal.Fun Internet Road Trip

Games at Work e77: (Hive)Mind Blowing for multiplayer Pokemon

NPR All Tech Considered article: Here’s What Happens When Thousands Play Pokemon Together

Desert Bus Express 2025

PC Gamer article: WoW’s Leeroy Jenkins, one of the internet’s oldest memes, turns 20 years old—and after looking back on what we wrote in 2005, I feel like we’ve failed Leeroys everywhere

Rock Paper Shotgun article: Doom: The Dark Ages review

Web 11.0 mashup junkie, and co-founder / co-host of the GamesAtWork.biz podcast. My views are my own.

Michael Martine

Published 12 May 2025

e513 with Michael and Michael – Clippy + LLMs, social AI, first person video, Duck, Pong & other games, and so much more.

While Andy is away, Michael and Michael start off this episode with good friend Clippy, the Microsoft Office Assistant from the early 2000s.  Felix Reiseberg has made a version of Clippy that can use a variety of LLMs while retaining the look and feel of the 2000s user experience.  Meta has enabled or borrowed – you pick your favorite – the capability of making user interactions with it’s AI app public, in much the same way you can browse other people’s exchanges on Venmo.  And for the sports fans, there is a new AI capability that produces play by play and color commentary.  This example highlights the thrill of victory in a match of Pong.

The Games at Work switches gears to the automotive world, where an article examines the (triumphant) return of the Yugo.  Michael R remembers the Adobe parody from Saturday Night Live, and also shares news of the return of the Karman Ghia with Michael M.  The story of the return of physical buttons from Wired reminds the cohosts of an earlier Games at Work episode where this comeback has been in the making since at least 2023.

A comedic triumph turns 50 years old this year – Monty Python’s Holy Grail, and somehow, we’re not quite sure how, Michael and Michael refrain from going through all of the quotable quotes from the movie.  After this amazing restraint, the pair turn to the Apple Vision Pro Adventure series, with an in-depth article about the making of these feats of moviemaking.  Michael R has experienced them on the Vision Pro, and describes how he felt while viewing them.  The Pike’s Peak race takes Michael M back to a 1972 film about a race through the streets of Paris called C’etait un Rendezvous.

After a discussion about the games of Duck, Eco Dolphin, and Minecraft removing support for VR, the co-hosts reflect on a Wired article about how industry is keeping the metaverse and 3D Internet dream alive through digital twinning.  

The team wraps up this episode with a reflection on the end of support for Windows 10 – or is that really the case?

Clippy, the Yugo, the Holy Grail and Windows 10 are among the things that are not dead yet.

Are you more excited about the return of the Yugo or the Karman Ghia?  Is there a vehicle you would dearly love to see come back in a new form?  Have your bots 🤖 drop our bots 🤖 a line at @[email protected] (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.

Clippy

Wikipedia entry: Office Assistant (Clippy)

Business Insider article: Meta has a new stand-alone AI app. It lets you see what other people are asking. I’m confused.

Garbage Day article: Meta has a cool new slop feed

Venmo article: Who can see my Venmo payments?

Hackaday article: AI Brings Play-By-Play Commentary to Pong

Google NotebookLM

Motortrend article: The Yugo—One of the Worst Cars Ever—Is Attempting a Comeback

Wired article: Rejoice! Carmakers Are Embracing Physical Buttons Again

Games at Work e415: Pushing Our Buttons

Wall Street Journal article: Coconuts Still Clopping, ‘Monty Python and the Holy Grail’ Turns 50

IMDb: Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Digital Camera World article: “I very much believe that the future of entertainment will be immersive!” – We speak to award-winning filmmaker and series director of Apple TV’s ‘Adventure’, Charlotte Mikkelborg

AppleTV Press release: Apple Original Films announces groundbreaking new documentary event “Bono: Stories of Surrender,” premiering globally on May 30 on Apple TV+

RadioEins Global Solutions Summit – World Policy Forum interview with Felix Hlatky, Finanzvorstand der Social Plattform Mastodon

Duck, the game

Duck, the North Carolina Outer Banks town

Go, the game

DuckDuckGo, the search engine and browser

Polygon article: Ecco the Dolphin is getting two remasters and one new title from its original creators

The Verge article: Minecraft’s VR support is now gone

Wired article: The Dream of the Metaverse Is Dying. Manufacturing Is Keeping It Alive

End of 10

0Patch

Web 11.0 mashup junkie, and co-founder / co-host of the GamesAtWork.biz podcast. My views are my own.

Michael Martine