Games At Work dot Biz

Published 30 September 2024

Co-hosts Andy, Michael and Michael are reunited and start things off with thorough discussion on the “Clark Kent-esque” Meta Orion augmented reality glasses.  The Verge article on this subject brings several perspectives into focus from the cohosts.  One observation drew attention to the “neural wristband” used to capture gestures like fingers pinching to represent a click.  Another saw the puck as another object to keep track of, when in theory a phone may serve the same purpose to deliver the off-glasses compute power.  The team drew comparisons to the Ray-Ban Meta discussed on previous episodes, and used by Andy while recording this show.  While the Ray-Ban edition does not have the augmented reality capabilities, it does provide an on-the-go connection with an AI agent to ask questions.  Harkening back to prior episodes, this kind of human augmentation will most certainly have societal and behavioral changes in how people interact with one another.  Check out e192 from 2018 for one such example.  Interestingly enough, the point of Zuckerberg and Alex Heath using the Orion glasses to play an Augmented Reality version of Pong was not mentioned on this Games at Work episode!  Check out e400 for another story on AR Pong in the show notes!

The co-hosts discuss the repairability of the newest iPhone, the Halide and Panels apps before rounding out the episode with a conversation on how touchscreen kiosks have changed the nature of fast food ordering in some unexpected ways.

How do you expect new instances of AI and AR hardware to change how people interact with one another?  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: Meta’s Big Tease

@viticci yep. Also Meta admitting that they tried to make this a product but it's "years" away… is strikingly similar to Gurman's reports about Apple doing the same thing. Apple just doesn't show its prototypes.

It does make me think this is happening sooner than I expected, though.

Games At Work e192: PVP-Y with Mr. Mumbles

Meta Quest 3S

Games at Work e400: Quadringenti (for AR Pong)

ZD Net article: The iPhone 16 is the most-repairable iPhone yet, according to iFixit

Hackaday article: Hands-On With New iPhone’s Electrically-Released Adhesive

Ebay: Travel case for the 27” iMac

9 to 5 Mac article: Halide rejected from the App Store because it doesn’t explain why the camera takes photos

The latest Halide update was rejected because, after seven years, a random reviewer decided our permission prompt wasn't descriptive enough.

I don't know how to explain why a camera app needs camera permissions.

The Verge article: Marques Brownlee says ‘I hear you’ after fans criticize his new wallpaper app

Time Flies by Koen van Gilst

The Lost Outpost blog post: The Web, made by Humans

The Lost Outpost blog post: I love the Web

CNN article: McDonald’s touchscreen kiosks were feared as job killers. Instead, something surprising happened

Michael Martine

Published 23 September 2024

Co-hosts Michael and Michael start things off with several Apple software updates, beginning with visionOS 2.  The referenced article in the show notes below gives you the visual experience enhancements that the Apple software developers have incorporated into the update.  Michael R shares his experiences with visionOS 2, and his assessment of all of the usability and functionality improvements.  

Michael and Michael then turn their attention to the software updates for the AirPods Pro, which will allow these devices to act as hearing aids given the H2 chip and microphones.  The co-hosts have a spirited discussion about the social norm implications of people wearing their AirPods more, and how people will interact with one another if the assumption is that the wearer is listening to their AirPods.

After several articles dealing with the challenges posed by the Starlink and other satellites in Earth orbit, Michael and Michael touch on the new version of Flappy Bird.  Check out the show notes below for a hardware instantiation of Flappy Bird from e468.  

Rounding out the episode with, you guessed it, a Doom game contained in a keyboard keycap and a walking coffee table, reminiscent of the strandbeest kinetic sculptures from Theo Jansen.

What other furniture should be able to walk around?  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.

MacStories.net article: visionOS 2: The MacStories Review

ZDnet article: Apple says the iPhone 16 is a lot easier to repair than its predecessor. Here’s how

9 to 5 Mac article: AirPods Pro hearing aid upgrade hits stocks of major brands

Apple AirPods Pro 2

Astron.NL article: Second-Generation Starlink Satellites Leak 30 Times More Radio Interference, Threatening Astronomical Observations

futurism.com article: Researchers Say They Can Detect Stealth Aircraft Using Starlink Satellites

BBC article: Musk’s satellites ‘blocking’ view of the universe

Engadget article: Flappy Bird’s creator wants you to know he’s got nothing to do with the new version

Games at Work e468: Andy’s Fun Time

hackster.io article: Keyboard Warriors

Hackaday article: Mobile Coffee Table Uses Legs to Get Around

Michael Martine

Published 16 September 2024

Co-hosts Michael and Michael start things off with an article by Gizmodo reporting on a recent patent reportedly structured to listen to in-car conversations in order to serve up highly targeted advertising.  This common refrain over the years has taken on new focus given the recent reporting about the active listening for advertisement targeting.  An extreme view for how this such AR advertising may surface can be experienced in the “Hyper-Reality” YouTube video in the show notes, or the WayRay example from 2019’s CES discussed in e223.

Next up, is Lucas Martinic’s innovative example of a mixed reality pen to select a color from the environment, and then to draw in the mixed reality environment using the color of the pen.  It will be easiest to check out the show notes below to see precisely how this is done.  This reminds Michael and Michael of several other color picking and 3D drawing tools – check out the show notes to see these examples.  

Switching to games, it is nigh impossible for Michael and Michael (and Andy) to miss commenting on a Doom experience, and the exemplar for this episode uses a volumetric display to play the classic game.  A discussion on the therapeutic use of Dungeons and Dragons spurs a couple of additional sidebars including the fantastic When We Were Wizards podcast series – be sure to check this out after completing the Games at Work backlog.

Then, the co-hosts turn to another common theme across many episodes of the podcast – how generative AI will influence game experiences by customizing the experience of the player and tailoring the storytelling to their preferences.  An example of this with Dungeons and Dragons can be found in episode e412 from early 2023, and there several other examples over the run of the show.  The article from Rock, Paper, Shotgun deals with this theme as well, and provides fertile ground for Michael and Michael to discuss.

Rounding out the episode, the co-hosts discuss NYU’s Robot Utility Models, noticing the scratches on the drawers and a spacewalk that is not quite a spacewalk, but still a remarkable feat by civilian space travelers.

What example of Doom have you seen that Andy, Michael and Michael have not yet commented on?  How might you use Lucas Martinic’s creative use of an AR color picker and pen?  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.

Gizmodo article: Ford Seeks Patent for Software That Records Your Conversations to Serve You Ads

Patent US-20240289844-A1_I on documentcloud.org

Patent US20240289844A1 on Google Patents

Games at Work e479: Listen Up, Outlaws!

WayRay’s holographic windshield tech from CES 2019 – https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/videos/ces-2019-wayray-holographic-windshield-tech-will-grace-the-genesis-g80/

Games at Work e223: CES and C64

Creative Bloq article: Ingenious XR colour app is an exciting glimpse into the future of digital art

8/100 "What if you could extract the color from real objects around you?"

Part of the submission for the @xraihack in Stockholm.
Using the @Logitech MX Stylus pen.#XRHACK #XR #Unity #Quest #Meta #VR #PresentFutures pic.twitter.com/k5EhnmgzIS

— Lucas Martinic (@lucas_martinic) September 9, 2024

Present Futures

Benjamin Moore Color Match Tool

3Doodler 3D Pen

Games at Work e460: AskEmilyPost: AI etiquette

Upload VR article: Steam Decktop: Steam Deck & Meta Quest HDMI Link Make A Modular Gaming PC

Hackaday article: Doom on a Volumetric Display

Techdirt article: D&D, Once The Subject Of Moral Panic, Found Therapeutic In Autism Cases In Study

R&D Mag article: Virtual “SnowWorld” Help Burn Victims Cope with Extreme Pain

When We Were Wizards podcast

Wikipedia article: Mazes and Monsters by Rona Jaffe

Ctrl-C Club blog post: Holy smokes, I just released a MiniGolf game for Palm OS in 2024

Rock, Paper, Shotgun article: Peter Molyneux thinks generative AI is the future of games, all but guaranteeing that it won’t be

Games at Work e412: 3D or Not 3D

Threads post: Robot Utility Models

Robot Utility Models

CNN article: Four civilians on a daring SpaceX mission complete the first commercial spacewalk

Michael Martine

Published 9 September 2024

Co-hosts Michael and Michael start things off by reflecting on last week’s episode with a couple of articles related to last week’s episode on music streaming royalties.   

Next up, is a listener link on MiniMax, a new text to video GenAI capability, which sparks (✨) a conversation on individualized customized entertainment.  After touching on the Brave browser, the co-hosts marvel at a mycelia powered robot – another listener link.  Michael and Michael are reminded of how trees communicate with one another – check out the links below for Pando and the book Michael M couldn’t remember at the time, The Overstory by Richard Powers.

Then, some speculation on the upcoming Apple Event next week – Ready to Glow.  Michael R points out that the Apple Watch announcement was 10 years ago, which is hard to believe.

Rounding out this episode is the announcement between Nike and LEGO which is fun to speculate on what this partnership may bring, and an MQTT / NodeRed enabled garage door home automation solution that does not require sharing data to any cloud.

What other biohybrid robots have you heard of?  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.

New York Times article: The Bands and the Fans Were Fake. The $10 Million Was Real.

Ars Technica article: FBI busts musician’s elaborate AI-powered $10M streaming-royalty heist

Games at Work e479: Listen Up, Outlaws!

ABA Journal post: Prominent 1970s musicians sue music companies for copyright infringement

Tom’s Guide article: Forget Sora — MiniMax is a new realistic AI video generator and it’s seriously impressive

Games at Work e478: Doomed, I Say!

Brave

Futurism article: Scientists Grew a Mushroom Into This Robot to Act As Its Brain

Cornell Chronicle Article: Biohybrid robots controlled by electrical impulses — in mushrooms

Wikipedia article: Pando (tree)

Smithsonian Magazine article: Do Trees Talk to Each Other?

The Overstory by Richard Powers

Finding the Mother Tree by Suzanne Simard

Macworld article: Ready to Glow! iPhone, Apple Watch, and everything else to expect at Apple’s event

Sixcolors post: Apple’s September event: The delight will be in the details

Apple Events

Random Thoughts blog post: WWDC 2024 Impressions and insights

Nike press release: Nike and the LEGO Group Unite to Elevate the Power of Sport and Creative Play

LEGO Group press release: The LEGO Group and NIKE, Inc. unite to elevate the power of creative play and sport

acquired.fm season 13, episode 1: Nike

Ars Technica article: I added a ratgdo to my garage door, and I don’t know why I waited so long

Ratgdo

Photo by Ruth Durbin on Unsplash

Published 2nd September 2024

Andy and Michael R. spend the show discussing advertising, AI, and games.

First up, there’s a shocking story from the excellent 404 Media that covers “the pitch deck” that Cox Media Group (CMG) uses to sell their clients on hyper targeted advertising using audio from our personal smart devices. Michael goes on to encourage us all to disable Automatic Content Recognition on our smart TVs with the help of a story from ZDNet.

In the AI segment, the co-hosts consider Midjourney’s move into hardware. Andy mentions a recent blog post of his own that looks at the good and bad ways that LLMs can be used. Bad folks are farming plays on Spotify and stealing revenue from real artists. And, why play a game that originally required a 33MHz i386 CPU with 4Mb of RAM, when you can use AI and burn megawatts of power to generate small parts of a new level?

To round things out, Michael and Andy talk the latest Star Wars game, a paper version of Oregon Trail, Dungeons and Dragons, and Michael’s desire to get a group together to play games in Demeo in VR.

These show notes were lovingly hand crafted by a real human, and not by a bot.  All rights reserved.  Since we post this sentence every week it does look a bit automated, though. Anyway! That’s our story and we’re sticking to it.

404 Media article: Here’s the Pitch Deck for Active Listening Ad Targeting

How to turn off ACR

AI

Midjourney makes Hardware

Andy’s post AI-ngels and Demons

Fake bands on Spotify

AI makes DOOM

Star Wars Outlaws

Oregon Trail Book

D&D Revolution

Demeo

Published 26 August 2024

Co-hosts Michael, Michael and Andy start things off on a fun note – a website that creates text in Doom, Minecraft and other fonts. 

Next up, the team turns to Ian Hughes for two intriguing posts over the Feeding Edge.  First up is Ian’s blog and video showing the power of midjourney.com, runway.ml and luma.ai .  The second post deals with Ian feeding his two novels Reconfigure and Cont3xt into a local copy of Nomic.ai on his MacBook and conversing with his protagonist.  The Games at Work cohosts are all hoping that this jumpstarts the writing of third book.  Ian himself imagines how a generated metaverse could be created following the ingestion of the novels.

Sticking with the theme, the team then turns to the symbolism used by many firms to signify the application of AI.  According to the Wall Street Journal, sparkles ✨ are used by Google, Slack and more.  This sparks (heh!) a discussion on the power of such symbolism, and Andy shares a recent blog post he wrote on the subject, with a specific focus on a symbol for the Fediverse, specifically the asterism ⁂ unicode2042.  This reminds Michael M of the symbol for therefore ∴ unicode2234.

Then, the co-hosts discuss the SAG-AFTRA agreement to partner with Narrativ for the use of audio voice replicas, and the arrangement allowing the people whose voices are being used to have a significant amount of control over how and when their voices are ethically used.  Michael R points out that this may have some market limiting impacts for new voices.

Once the team completes the AI review, they spend a few moments on the world of games and gaming.  A Guinness world record of 444 consoles hooked into a single television is a marvel.  Tramsterfam is reminiscent of Townscaper.  Other games include the Smithsonian’s partnership with Crayola, the newest Sid Meyer’s CivVII and an upcoming television series called Secret Level.

What do you think about the symbolism discussed in this episode?  Do you have a favorite?  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.

Doom Font Generator for Games at Work

Ian Hughes’ The Feeding Edge blog post: A short video about Metaverse

Ian Hughes’ The Feeding Edge blog post: Talking with an AI of Roisin from my novels

Reconfigure Book

The Wall Street Journal article: How the Sparkles Emoji Became the Symbol of Our AI Future

Andy Piper’s The Lost Outpost blog post: On Symbols & Symbolism

⁂ Asterism

∴ Therefore

Procreate

Variety article: SAG-AFTRA Strikes Groundbreaking AI Digital Voice Replica Pact With Startup Firm Narrativ

The Animaniacs: Variety Speak song

Narrativ.ai 

Guinness Book of World Records post: Gaming is serious business for man with 444 consoles hooked up to one TV

Tramsterdam

Townscaper

Andy Piper’s The Lost Outpost blog post: The Collage Atlas

Ars Technica article: Civilization VII hands-on: This strategy sequel rethinks the long game

The Verge article: Civilization 7 launches in February

Published 19 August 2024

Co-hosts Andy, Michael and Michael start things off on a quantum note, where a particle can be two places at once.  Actually, according to the New Scientist article, the angular momentum could be disembodied from the particle.  In related news, the collapsing of the quantum field for whether a player is offsides or not in the Premier League will now be determined by a bevy of iPhone instead of VAR.  

Moving right along to the AI theme for the week, the co-hosts take a look at a build your own version of the Rabbit that the team over at Comfyspace have called the Rappit.  Then, they bring up the challenges associated with training LLMs, and the solution from ProRata.ai, which aims to compensate creators when GenAI results leverage the creator’s intellectual property.  This leads to a recent report in The Verge of ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s comments at a Stanford economics class.   

Next up are some examples of non-AI hardware, in the form of a wearable computer which takes advantage of XReal Air AR glasses and a Corne keyboard.  And there’s something just wonderful about the Carabiner Collection website.

Wrapping up this week’s episode, the co-hosts discuss the Pluralistic post about the DoJ’s decision on Google, and a browser based version of Diablo.

Do you believe that Andy’s Logitech mouse has it in for him?  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.

New Scientist article: New spin on quantum theory forces rethink of a fundamental physics law

Gizmodo article:  The Premier League Is Ditching VAR in Favor of Dozens of iPhones to Call Offsides

Rappit

Games at Work e464: AI Piano Man

Wired article: Generative AI Has a ‘Shoplifting’ Problem. This Startup CEO Has a Plan to Fix It

ProRata.ai

The Verge article: Ex-Google CEO says successful AI startups can steal IP and hire lawyers to ‘clean up the mess’

Stanford Econ295 transcript Eric Schmidt

hackster.io article: This Wearable Computing Rig Combines Augmented Reality, Ergonomic Keyboards, and Cardboard

XReal Air Augmented Reality Glasses

Corne keyboard

Carabiner Collection

Pluralistic: Daily Links from Cory Doctorow: The paradox of choice screens (12 Aug 2024)

Diablo web

Published 11 August 2024

Co-hosts Andy, Michael and Michael start things off with a couple of callbacks to last week’s episode, including Ian Hughes’ reply on exoframes, the Logitech Forever Mouse and the reports of the rate of returns on the Humane AI pin.

Switching then to a story local to Michael, Michael and Andy, the co-hosts talk about the University of North Carolina using Oxford Medical Simulation to teach nursing students in virtual reality.  This reminds Michael M of a rather old iOS game, Surgeon Simulator.

Sticking with the (quasi) medical theme, Andy then shares an experience of one of his recent blog posts going viral Hacker News.  Check out the images in the show notes below to see the detailed graphs.

After sharing Ian’s recent talk at the Chartered Institute for IT and Andy’s upcoming appearance on the TechGrumps podcast, the team turns to Mac hardware and software.

Beginning with NotchNook, and the reported challenges with payment systems, the co-hosts quickly turn to the SuperDrive.  Not surprisingly, all three co-hosts have a SuperDrive, though Michael M doesn’t know where his is.  Michael R shared a note about one of his favorite pieces of software, VinylStudio, which sparks a discussion on what it means to own media in this day and age.  

Wrapping things up this episode are several recommendations – Doom and a couple of intriguing podcasts not called Games at Work.  When We Were Wizards is a podcast dealing with an oral history of Dungeons & Dragons.  Acquired is a podcast that tells the stories and strategies in depth of great companies.

Do you know where Michael M’s SuperDrive is?  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.

Andy’s phone answering glasses – Ray-Ban Smart Meta Glasses

@gamesatwork_biz fyi I can confirm I don’t have lots of exoframes filling up office or shed space 🙂 tempted a few times but maybe when I am a little more frail I might bother. Also the Rabbit R1, got it for that precise reason to see how it felt to have physical object doing AI not just an app, but it also looks great next to the playdate game machine. Annoyingly the roaming sim I put in it didn’t work on holiday (for translations etc) and no way to mess with the mobile settings.

The Verge article: Now Logitech says the ‘forever mouse’ was just an idea

Mashable article: Humane AI Pins are being returned at a ridiculous pace

WUNC article: UNC-Chapel Hill gets funding to continue virtual reality pilot for nursing students

Carolina Nursing post: Virtual Reality Simulations Bring Real-World Healthcare Scenarios to the Classroom

Oxford Medical Simulation

Surgeon Simulator

The lost outpost blog post: MNT Pocket Reform: first impressions

Techgrumps 3.18

iMore article: This MacBook app generated $100,000 in seven days, now Stripe won’t pay up

NotchNook

Games at Work e383: Notchy McNotchface

512 Pixels article: The SuperDrive

VinylStudio by AlpineSoft 

SuperDuper by Shirt Pocket Software

Alfred by Running with Crayons

Kelly Gallagher Sims blog post: Ownership in the Rental Age

I share my screen on Teams all the time, and I think drawing/design apps that want to sample colours outside of their windows with the eyedropper tool also need to use this API, so looks like I’m gonna be seeing this a lot…

Apple have made Mac OS into exactly the thing they made fun of Windows Vista for. After some time, no one is going to be reading these dialogues anyway, people will blindly click on “allow”, effectively working against the intent of better security.
https://mastodon.online/@9to5Mac/112916905882020099

Bethesda post: DOOM + DOOM II Release Notes

When We Were Wizards podcast

Acquired podcast

Published 5 August 2024

The co-hosts are back to full strength with Andy, Michael and Michael getting together to talk through the week’s stories.

The cohosts start things off with several examples of telepresence.  The Open-TeleVision project provides for teleoperation of a remote robot using VR headsets like the Meta Quest and Apple Vision Pro. This reminds the team of earlier telepresence examples of an iPad on a mobile platform.  Next is a story about Synchron’s brain implant to allow people to control an Apple Vision Pro.  This sparks a lively conversation among the co-hosts about the relative utility of such control, and also brings in a story about how Apple Vision Pro gestures may be leveraged across iOS, iPadOS and MacOS.

The co-hosts have another lively discussion about the new exoskeleton hiking pants from Arc’Teryx.  This reminds the co-hosts of an earlier episode of AI powered pants.  

Turning to AI, the team digs into a ChatGPT choose your own adventure game, where the user can push against the established guardrails.  This brings up the prior episode’s conversation on Baldur’s Gate, and how the Larian developers “fuel and reward” player creativity.  Then, it’s all about the new AI startup called Friend.  Andy references how a significant amount of the initial funding was consumed by purchasing the friend.com domain name.  The co-hosts take on the thought of how many of the recent AI startups have had a physical instantiation such has Humane’s AI pin, and the Rabbit R1, even though the AI could be supported through existing devices users carry around with them all the time such as their phones and smart watches.  The co-hosts can’t resist the temptation to include other “hello, Friend(s)” references – see the show notes below for some of them.  

Wrapping things up this episode is a treatment on a ‘forever mouse’ from Logitech.  

What is your perfect idea of an AI hardware device?  Would you buy a mouse as a service? 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: Re-Imagining Telepresence with Humanoid Robots and VR Headsets

Games at Work e270: Virtual Bricks

CNBC article: Neuralink rival Synchron’s brain implant now lets people control Apple’s Vision Pro with their minds

Synchron

Apple Insider article: Apple Vision Pro gestures may spread to the iPhone, iPad, and Mac

The Verge article: Arc’teryx’s new powered pants could make hikers feel 30 pounds lighter

Arc’teryx blog: Arc’teryx and Skip Partner to Introduce Mo/Go(tm): Revolutionizing Mobility With the World’s First Pair of Powered Pants

Games at Work e241: Smarty Pants

Polygon article: We pushed this ChatGPT game to the limits, but playing it the right way is more fun

friend.com 

The Verge article: Your new AI Friend is almost ready to meet you

404 Media article: AI ‘Friend’ Company Spent $1.8 Million and Most of Its Funds on Domain Name

replika.com 

Star Wars Lola (L0-LA59)

Dulcé Sloan’s Hello, Friends!: Stories of Dating, Destiny, and Day Jobs

IMDB Friends TV Series

Ars Technica article: Outsourcing emotion: The horror of Google’s “Dear Sydney” AI ad

The Lost Outpost blog post: Art, and Algorithms vs AI

MIT Technology Review article: A new tool for copyright holders can show if their work is in AI training data

Games at Work e451: Fahrenheit 

The Verge article: Logitech CEO Hanneke Faber wants your next mouse to last forever

Ars Technica article: Logitech has an idea for a “forever mouse” that requires a subscription

The Logitech "forever mouse" thing would be funny if it weren't so horrible.

"All Logitech had to do was keep making solid input devices."

Was there some investor you forgot to ask?

That's the problem. You cannot, in capitalism, just keep doing the same thing forever. The same thing forever is not growth, and therefore, is "death".

There's also the paradox of durable goods. That is, if you make them too well, you discourage repeat business because what's bought doesn't wear out fast enough. So, many companies turn to the oldest means to play capitalism on easy mode:

Rent-seeking.

Published 29 July 2024

Michael R and Andy get together to talk through this week’s stories while Michael M is away. 

The cohosts start things off with a discussion on scientific discoveries stemming from tiny backpacks placed on giant (relatively) hummingbirds.  Continuing the flying theme, next up is an article dealing with a drone that may well fly ‘forever’.  Then a couple of stories about robotic dogs used cleaning and clearing obstacles.  

Next up in this science-themed episode is a treatment on lasers and mathematics.  NASA uses lasers for communicating with the international space station.  An older Games at Work episode references the “sharks with lasers” from Austin Powers.  And then a discussion on USA Swimming using mathematics to improve the Olympic swimming team’s performance.  The team also dives into Bonnie Tsui’s book Why We Swim.

Rounding out this episode are points about Google’s use of reCAPTCHA and releasing VR source code.

What robots have caught your attention recently?  Any other intriguing uses for lasers?  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.

BBC Wildlife Magazine article: Mini backpacks on giant hummingbirds? Wacky scientific experiment leads to two astonishing discoveries

BBC Wildlife Magazine article: Secrets Revealed by Bird ‘Backpacks’

The Register article: Chinese researchers create four-gram drone that might fly forever

404 Media article: DHS Has a DoS Robot to Disable Internet of Things ‘Booby Traps’ Inside Homes

Electronic Frontier Foundation post: EFF Awards 2024

New Atlas article: Watch: Vacuum-footed robot dog cleans up the beach

The Verge article: NASA fired its space lasers to communicate with the ISS

Games at Work e164: Addictive AR

The Atlantic article: USA Swimming Has a Secret Weapon: Linear Algebra

Why We Swim by Bonnie Tsui

Swim Swam article: “Why We Swim”: A Review of Award-Winning Author Bonnie Tsui’s Book

The Register article: Forget security – Google’s reCAPTCHA v2 is exploiting users for profit

hackster.io article: Google Drops Its Blocks VR Building Project — But Releases the Source Code to All

PC Gamer article: Baldur’s Gate 3 dev says it’s Larian’s philosophy to ‘fuel and reward’ player creativity: ‘They found a way to exploit the game, let them have it, it’s awesome’