Games At Work dot Biz

Photo by Mihály Köles on Unsplash 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. Selected Links That’s Mr. Vader to you Wired article: Fortnite Players Are Already Making AI Darth Vader Swear Kotaku article: Fortnite In Legal Trouble After Adding AI Darth Vader AI 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 — Mike Elgan (@[email protected]) 2025-05-21T03:29:11.088Z 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) Super Vision UX 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’ Classic Games 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

Photo by WTFast on Unsplash 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. Selected Links AI Netflix will show generative AI ads midway through streams in 2026Netflix 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 (@[email protected]) 2025-05-14T20:49:34.591Z 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 Apple 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 Fun Stuff 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

Photo by Hande B. on Unsplash 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. Selected Links AI 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 Automotive Design 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 Moviemaking 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+ Fediverse RadioEins Global Solutions Summit – World Policy Forum interview with Felix Hlatky, Finanzvorstand der Social Plattform Mastodon Games 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 Metaverse Wired article: The Dream of the Metaverse Is Dying. Manufacturing Is Keeping It Alive Windows 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

Cartoon versions of Andy and Michael M, generated by ChatGPT Published 5 May 2025 e512 with Andy and Michael – E Ink monitors, Agent run companies & towns, winning arguments with AI assistants, pixellating reality and much more. While Michael R is away, Andy and Michael start off this episode continuing the E Ink theme from last week before shifting to AI and wrapping up with several cool makes.   It seems that there was a great deal of discussion on E Ink in the past couple of days, and the team touch on the BOOX Mira and Dashing Paperlike displays.  Andy also mentions being on a recent episode of the Bootloader podcast, where he talked about Glance – see the links below for more.   Moving along to AI, the co-hosts talk through the multiple themes embedded in the TechCrunch article dealing with Perplexity, the divestiture of Chrome, and the business of advertising.  Andy brings up a phrase giving a different name for AI, namely, Computational Text Generation Devices, and Michael shares a link to the Crystal Knows service he heard about during a recent interview.  Then, the co-hosts have a spirited, while still family friendly, conversation spurred on by an automobile journalist’s frustrating experience with a car’s assistant.  Next up was an article about how Carnegie Mellon professors staffed a virtual company solely with AI agents, which reminded Michael about Smallville – check out e428 and e412 from 2023 for more on AI agent interaction in a town setting.  Then, Andy touches on the Meta Ray-Bans story from Gizmodo. Wrapping up the show for this week, Andy and Michael take a look at a couple of really intriguing makes: PixLens for pixellating reality using a specifically machined acrylic lens, a cassette emulator, and a Sony Watchman brought back to life by a Raspberry Pi. What would you like to pixellate with the PixLens?  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. Selected Links E Ink, continued The Verge article: Boox launches its first color E Ink monitor BOOX Mira Pro E Ink Monitor Liliputing article: Dasung Paperlike 13K is a 13.3 inch E Ink color monitor Dasung Paperlike 13K E Ink Monitor grocery store price display for the Salisbury, North Carolina classic cherry flavored soft drink, Cheerwine The Bootloader podcast, e19 Welcome Andy Piper for Glance Glance Who’s chatting with whom?  TechCrunch article: Perplexity CEO says its browser will track everything users do online to sell ‘hyper personalized’ ads Amardeep Singh blog post: Humanities AI in 2025: Brief Reflections After a Conference CrystalKnows.com  USA Today article: Scolded by a car? My battle with an EV assistant going rogue Futurism article: Professors Staffed a Fake Company Entirely With AI Agents, and You’ll Never Guess What Happened Games at Work e428: Is you is, or is you AIn’t my AI? For Smallville ARXIV paper: Generative Agents: Interactive Simulacra of Human Behavior Games at Work e412: 3D or not 3D also for Smallville and NPCs Gizmodo article: Meta Is Turning Its Ray-Bans Into a Surveillance Machine for AI Hacks & Makes AdaFruit blog post: PixLens: Reality into 8-bit PixLens I've adorned my cassette emulator device with a hand whittled label. The top panel has some bumps from through-board solder pads, so nothing I can do about that. But overall it's alright, if you don't look too closely and/or judge too harshly. #ZXSpectrum — electron.greg (@[email protected]) 2025-04-29T19:51:00.721Z hackster.io post: A Sony Watchman Lives Again as the Display for a Dinky Raspberry Pi 3 Cyberdeck Wikipedia article: Sony Watchman Game preservation bonus links GOG Dreamlist The Verge article: GOG is adding some classic Star Wars games to its preservation program Web 11.0 mashup junkie, and co-founder / co-host of the GamesAtWork.biz podcast. My views are my own. Michael Martine

Photo by bill emrich from Pexels: Published 28 April 2025 e511 with Michael, Andy and Michael – Vibe coding with the Vision Pro, E Ink, ePaper, multi and single player MMORPGs, Minecraft London and much more. Michael, Andy and Michael get things off to a fast start continuing the vibe coding conversation.  The Vision Pro features prominently, with the idea that Siri was intended to allow for calling virtual objects into being in the Vision Pro environment without requiring the user to write code.  Then, the team discusses the different algorithms used by quantified self devices such as the Oura Ring and Apple Watch.  Next up, an intriguing concept of storing deleted data, with timestamps and user information for future potential use. Then the co-hosts take the Figment E Ink hardware and run with it on a journey of other E Ink devices.  While the Kindle provides an easy launch point, other E Ink / ePaper devices such as the Daylight computer, the ePaper Name Badge, the Remarkable 2, Air Lab, the Poem/1 (hail poetry!) and even grocery store price displays get their proverbial day in the sun. Switching gears to massive multi (and single) player games, Andy shares a story about the Minecraft digital twin of London built over the past 5 years.  In an MMORPG twist, the co-hosts discuss the simulated players in Erenshor, a single player version of an MMO.   Wrapping things up for the week, the team concludes with a couple of Nintendo stories repurposing older GameBoy and Wii hardware for fun experiments. If you could have a Windows enabled GameBoy, what would you most like to run on it?  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. Selected Links Wearables and Coding 9 to 5 Mac article: Apple wanted people to vibe code Vision Pro apps with Siri The Information article: Apple Devising Software to Help Anyone Build AR Apps, to Drive Headset Sales Tom’s Guide article: I wore my Oura Ring vs Apple Watch 10 to track my steps for a week — and this device was way off Scott Antipa blog post: YAGRI: You are gonna read it Wikipedia article: YAGNI Spilling e ink Liliputing article: Figment is another E Ink handheld game console made for text adventures (and maybe more) Games at Work article: e467- Total Recall for the Daylight computer and slow computing Daylight Computer Terrence Eden blog post: Gadget Review: 6-Colour ePaper Name Badge Remarkable 2 CrowdSupply post: Air Lab – A playful and portable air quality measuring device Kickstarter project: Poem/1: AI rhyming clock Poem/1 AI rhyming clock Wikipedia article: E Ink Games at Work e453 – Vision Pro a Pro-Pro for the Poem/1 Single and Multiplayer MMORPGs BBC article: Minecraft: ‘We’ve spent five years rebuilding London’ Build the Earth GamesRadar article: “I’ve had this idea for 25 years”: Solo dev behind single-player MMO with fake simulated players insists “I do not plan to add multiplayer” as it soars on Steam GamesRadar article: Erenshor, the ‘MMORPG’ with fake players that’s not actually an MMO at all, gets an imminent release date Erenshor on Steam Repurposed Nintendo Hardware Time Extension article: Someone Has Created A Version Of Windows For Game Boy, And Yes, It Includes Minesweeper Alex Haydock blog post: This blog is hosted on a Nintendo Wii Web 11.0 mashup junkie, and co-founder / co-host of the GamesAtWork.biz podcast. My views are my own. Michael Martine

Photo by Ádám Berkecz on Unsplash Published 21 April 2025 e510 with Andy, Michael and Michael – AI stories ranging from privacy, dolphin communication, open source models for robots, Game Transfer Phenomenon and much more. Andy, Michael and Michael get things off to a fast start with all things AI with a Bloomberg article reporting on Apple “analyzing data on customer’s devices in a bid to improve its artificial intelligence platform”.  Apple shares a deeper take on the differential privacy and how it is employed to improve on the synthetic data used to train Apple Intelligence.  Then, the team turns to a different way of training LLMs without forcing human language, which they found to be much more efficient, and potentially may unlock new chain of reasoning operations.  Andy’s “autocomplete for stuff” description of AI is amazing.  Next, is an intriguing AI model being developed to better understand dolphin communications.  The chain of thought from this article leads to the camera only recently recovered from Loch Ness, Star Trek, Star Wars and of course, Douglas Adam’s fictional treatment of dolphins.  After discussing open source AI robots and the challenges / benefits posed by AI geolocation sophistication, the team turns to OpenAI’s work on a social media platform.   After an article on Game Transfer Phenomenon, which describes how games and gameplay leak into the real world, the co-hosts wrap up with a PICO-8 demake of Warcraft III and a hearty endorsement of the Mythic Quest tv show.  Both Michael R and Andy have watched the entirety of Mythic Quest, and Michael M has put it on the list to watch. What do you expect the dolphins have to say to each other, and to humankind?  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. Selected Links AI Bloomberg article: Apple to Analyze User Data on Devices to Bolster AI Technology Apple’s Machine Learning Research Blog post: Understanding Aggregate Trends for Apple Intelligence Using Differential Privacy Quanta Magazine article: To Make Language Models Work Better, Researchers Sidestep Language ZD Net article: Google is talking to dolphins using Pixel phones and AI – and the video is delightful BBC article: Camera set up to catch Loch Ness Monster discovered Games At Work e495: Personal Planetarium for use of AI in translating animal communications The Hitchhiker’s Wiki entry: Dolphins The Hitchhiker’s Wiki entry: Mice IMdB: Star Trek: Lower Decks (dolphin navigators) Wookipedia entry: Purrgil (space whales) Wired article: An Open Source Pioneer Wants to Unleash Open Source AI Robots Huggingface: closed-vs-open-arena-elo ChatGPT's o3 model can pinpoint a location from a photo, and give a pretty good deduction as to the point the photo was taken from. It's no Rainbolt, but any photos taken at or near your home, even with stripped metadata, are no longer safehttps://flausch.social/@piegames/114352447253793517 — Steve Troughton-Smith (@[email protected]) 2025-04-17T15:11:54.594Z Reuters article: OpenAI is working on X-like social media network, the Verge reports Games Carrying Over IRL BBC article: Health bars and power ups: The ‘freaky and unpleasant’ world when video games leak into the physical realm Taylor and Francis Online article: Prevalence and Characteristics of Game Transfer Phenomena: A Descriptive Survey Study Making lexaloffle.com blog post: Picocraft – demake of Warcraft III itch.io Top Rated Games tagged Demake and PICO-8 Wikipedia article: PICO-8 Media The Verge article: Apple’s Mythic Quest has come to an end IMdB: Mythic Quest Web 11.0 mashup junkie, and co-founder / co-host of the GamesAtWork.biz podcast. My views are my own. Michael Martine

Photo by Josiah Farrow on Unsplash Published 14 April 2025 e509 with Michael and Michael – stories and discussion all around AI, LLMs, llamas, generated Quake, grokking, generalization and much more. Michael and Michael get things rolling while Andy is away with a series of AI stories, beginning with Siri, continuing on to the latest iteration of Meta’s Llama 4 models, Scout and Maverick.  Following on the llama theme, Michael R is reminded of the intro credits from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.  After reflecting on an AI generated version of Quake, Michael and Michael turn to an article from the MIT Technology Review, which explores how models would all of a sudden be able to complete a task without a clear explanation as to why.  This made Michael M think about a Ted Talk describing how some polyglots acquire languages – check out Lýdia Machová’s talk below for more. The team touches on the latest app from IconFactory called Tapestry.  Tapestry allows users to follow people across a multiplicity of social services, and eliminate duplicate posts.  Then, they consider the AR capabilities of the Zeiss Holographic Transparent Display technology.  Last up, is the Busy Bar, a device to help others know that you are not in an interruptible state.  Check out the bonus links below to find the Rube Goldberg marbles-powered device that influenced the name of the episode. What information would you most like to see in your airplane window?  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. Selected Links AI 9 to 5 Mac article: Craig Federighi’s leadership has already resulted in this major Siri pivot, per report Visual Studio IDE: AI-assisted development in Visual Studio The Verge article: Meta got caught gaming AI benchmarks Intro Credits from Monty Python and the Holy Grail The Verge article: Microsoft has created an AI-generated version of Quake Wikipedia article: Quake MIT Technology Review article: Large language models can do jaw-dropping things. But nobody knows exactly why. arXiv paper: DEEP DOUBLE DESCENT: WHERE BIGGER MODELS AND MORE DATA HURT arXiV paper: UNDERSTANDING DEEP LEARNING REQUIRES RE-THINKING GENERALIZATION Boy Genius Report article: This is the difference between how humans and AI ‘think’ OpenReview: Evaluating the Robustness of Analogical Reasoning in Large Language Models Cool Stuff :tapestry_app: Tapestry 1.1 brings a host of great new features: Follow individual accounts & lists on Bluesky & Mastodon, automatically remove duplicates from the timeline with Crosstalk, and quickly switch your timelines with Tapestry’s redesigned navigation. Learn more about these features plus dozens of other improvements in today's FREE update of Tapestry – Your personal timeline app. https://blog.iconfactory.com/2025/04/tapestry-whats-new-no-deja-vu/ #TapestryApp #Fediverse #OpenWeb — The Iconfactory (@[email protected]) 2025-04-08T15:33:42.712Z Iconfactory blog post: Tapestry: What’s New? No Déjà Vu! Popular Science article: Smart glass windows would beam in-flight info over scenic views Busy Bar Bonus Links: More Cool Stuff  The Verge article: Samsung is finally releasing Ballie The Verge article: You can build these marble runs and connect them to your smart home over Wi-Fi Wikipedia article: Rube Goldberg The Verge article: 22 years later, modders are keeping SimCity 4 alive Web 11.0 mashup junkie, and co-founder / co-host of the GamesAtWork.biz podcast. My views are my own. Michael Martine

Photo by Ben Griffiths on Unsplash Published 7 April 2025 e508 with Michael, Andy and Michael – stories and discussion on AI Conversational Swarm Intelligence, the Pokétax game and numerous Nintendo stories and much more. Michael, Andy and Michael get things started with a story about how large groups, well beyond the research ideal of 4-7 people, may have a simultaneous conversation with one another, sharing and evolving ideas.  Drawing inspiration from how schools of fish communicate with one another, a Carnegie Mellon and unanimous.ai paper illustrates the architecture behind Conversational Swarm Intelligence.  AI agents track groups of 7 humans for novel ideas and pass along those ideas to other groups of humans in order to more quickly propagate the evolution of ideas through an accelerated wisdom of the crowd manner.  Then, the co-hosts turn their attention to the experiences of the Wikimedia Foundation.  They note that there have been huge spikes in bandwidth for serving up multimedia files – not from humans seeking information, rather from scraper bots.   Nothing But Nintendo After an AR segue to look at a slingshot mechanism to change lighting colors (check out the video in the show notes), the team switches (see what we did there?) to all things Nintendo.  A story somehow escaped the Games at Work team back in 2012, when the Louvre museum replaced their audio guides with Nintendo 3DS consoles.  Well, that story is coming to an end, and those 3DS systems will be replaced by something new.  Continuing on the Nintendo theme, the accounting firm Open Ledger has created a game called Pokétax to make filing your taxes fun and exciting with a Pokémon experience.  Then, Andy, Michael and Michael talk about the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2.  Last, the team reminisces about playing Tetris on the Nintendo Game Boy, in discussing an article about how Tetris is a hack for people to get better at their jobs. Wrapping things up for this episode, the team continues the Nintendo theme a little more with 3d printed musical fidget toys that play classic Mario (and other) video game tunes.  Check out that video below for an example. Would you like to play a tax game?  Or maybe a round of Tetris to improve your problem solving?  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. Selected Links AI (Basketball IQ and More) VentureBeat article: I asked an AI swarm to fill out a March Madness bracket — here’s what happened ARXiV paper: Large-scale Group Brainstorming using Conversational Swarm Intelligence (CSI) versus Traditional Chat Unanimous.ai  Thinkscape.ai The Register article: Wikipedia’s overlords bemoan AI bot bandwidth burden Rachel Lee Nabors – https://toot.cafe/@rachelnabors  AR / VR (for a 3 point Slingshot) https://techhub.social/@ellenich/114279691712148125 Nothing but Nintendo The Verge article: The Mona Lisa is saying goodbye to the Nintendo 3DS. Games at Work e54: She Blinded Me, With Science! Retrododo article: Accounting Firm Releases ‘Pokétax’ Game To Make Filing Your Tax Fun The Pokétax Challenge Open Ledger Ars Technica article: Nintendo unveils Switch 2 ahead of June 5 launch Nintendo Switch 2 – How to buy  Business Insider article: The Weird New Work Hack Hacking (without fouling) Hackaday article: 3D Print (and Play!) the Super Mario Tune as a Fidget Toy Your eyes are not deceiving you… I got an Apple TV 1st Gen, the only x86 based model (it uses a Pentium M as its CPU) booting Windows XP Service Pack 3! For reals! This was possible through a small security flaw in the Apple TV's firmware and boot process… while the Apple TV looks for a boot.efi file on its boot partition and has it load a Mach-O binary to be able to boot, it doesn't actually care about the actual contents of the file! So by that note, you can wrap a kernel or bootloader from another OS into a Mach-O file and name it mach_kernel, and the Apple TV won't care and will happily boot it! So after this little escapade of cursed computing, you know Linux is next! 😁 More deets are in this video, along with a link to grab a premade disk image from the Internet Archive! https://youtu.be/v2w5MmiRHUo The entire project was done by distrohopper39b, who chronicles his work on the project from beginning to end here: https://youtu.be/YkjrEXtZoWM #HackThePlanet #CursedComputing — The 500 Hats of LambdaCalculus (@[email protected]) 2025-04-03T21:56:27.849Z Web 11.0 mashup junkie, and co-founder / co-host of the GamesAtWork.biz podcast. My views are my own. Michael Martine

Photo by Braedon McLeod on Unsplash Published 31 March 2025 e507 with Michael, Andy and Michael – stories and discussion on AIs training humans, non-serindipious searching, doomed VR gaming, playlist portability and much more. Michael, Andy and Michael get things started with a couple of AI articles dealing with how AI is training humans, and AI search results are impacting serendipity. Michael R points out that search engines used to bring people to you – and now, search engines are summarizing to the point where there’s not a need to bring users to the content. After touching on a few of the Indy games from GDC2025, the cohosts talk about the latest article declaring that VR gaming is doomed. And not Doom – doomed. There are plenty of examples to the contrary, such as Civilization 7. The team discusses the new LEGO Lord of the Rings set for Bilbo Baggins birthday party.  It should be noted that there will be a designer signing event at the London flagship LEGO store at Leicester Square, next Saturday, 5 April for anyone who happens to be in town. For the last main topic of this episode, the co-hosts unpack some stories on music sharing and playlist portability.  First up is Napster, and the news that it will enable concerts in the metaverse.  Andy noted that in 506 episodes, we have not ever brought up Napster (or at least tagged or put in the show notes).   Last, the team discusses a couple of methods for moving your playlist from one streaming service to another. Is your search history an accurate representation of you?  Would you go to a concert in Napster?  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. Selected Links AI The New Yorker article: Your A.I. Lover Will Change You IMDb: Her Wikipedia article: Replicas https://replika.com Paul Stamatiou blog: Browse No More Ask Jeeves GDC, Games, and VR The Verge article: 7 cool indie games from GDC 2025 IMDb: Everything Everywhere All at Once The Verge article: MainFrames is a charming platformer that takes place inside computers Retrododo article: Prince Of Prussia Is A Free To Play Tribute To Wolfenstein & Jordan Mechner’s Prince Of Persia PC World article: Game developers are losing faith in VR as a gaming market Joseph Simpson, VisionPro blogger on Mastodon Civilization VII VR coming in Spring 2025 announcement LEGO Slashfilm article: New Lord Of The Rings LEGO Set Builds A Brick Version Of The Shire (And The Dragon Firework) Brickfanatics article: LEGO Icons The Shire designer signing event re-confirmed Music Ars Technica article: Napster to become a music-marketing metaverse firm after being sold for $207M Wikipedia article: Napster Obdura’s Playlisty Games at Work e357: Real Reality, or Something for music portability Last.FM Track My Music by scrobbling  Andy on Fireside Fedi Fireside Fedi e7: Andy Piper – Mastodon (audio version) Web 11.0 mashup junkie, and co-founder / co-host of the GamesAtWork.biz podcast. My views are my own. Michael Martine

screen capture of a presentation agenda with a photo of a painting of a mountain Published 23 March 2025 e506 with Andy and Michael M – stories and discussion on the attention economy, focus, pirated data used in training LLMs, snarky software and much more. Andy and Michael M get things rolling with an intriguing article dealing with focus and attention.  Part of their reaction was that there are so many competing sources for attention.  And that the pressure to respond with speed to these competing sources compounds the challenge.  The conversation reminded Michael of a memo that Steve Jobs wrote to his team at NeXT 39 years ago imploring them to have time of uninterrupted individual work.  Check that out in the show notes below.  Michael and Andy give a couple examples of what they suggest to bring balance and creativity back to the fore. Continuing on to the advances made with large language models, Andy and Michael take up the discussion on the data needed to train the LLMs.  The Atlantic article on the use of pirated books to train AI also includes LibGen, their search tool The Atlantic created for their analysis of the Library Genesis data set.  This subject has cropped up in earlier episodes – such as the discussion on the Sarah Silverman example.  Next, the team turns to an AI coding assistant named Cursor.  After a developer had spent an hour of vibe coding with Cursor, the AI reportedly gave feedback to the developer that he should complete the work himself to ensure he understands the logic and can maintain the code.  Computer applications with snark are nothing new – take Carrot Weather or the Talking Moose for example.  Cursor’s reply echos practically every geometry teacher who insists that going through the mathematical proof is crucial to understanding why A^2 + B^2 = C^2 is true.  Not necessarily a bad idea, yet surprisingly comes from an AI assistant.   After a surprising article about speed runner successes on aging and accelerating Super Nintendo hardware, Andy and Michael reflect on games embedded inside of other games from a How to Geek article.  This appeals greatly to Andy’s love of game preservation, and strikes Michael’s fancy for how art echos through the years, sharing a prior incarnation of this topic with paintings having paintings in them. Then, a story about the LEGO x Pokémon teaser.  The team wraps up this episode with a couple of stories about the challenges indy software developers face. What suggestions and techniques do you have for recapturing your time and attention?  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. Selected Links Attention Economy Wikipedia article: Daylight Savings Time ploum.net blog post: A Society That Lost Focus Games at Work e67: Free Bitcoins! for the attention economy Wikipedia article: Battle Chess Edward Tufte AI The Atlantic article: The Unbelievable Scale of AI’s Pirated-Books Problem The Atlantic article: Search LibGen, the Pirated-Books Database That Meta Used to Train AI Games at Work e443: In the Stone for the Sarah Silverman discussion Wired article: An AI Coding Assistant Refused to Write Code—and Suggested the User Learn to Do It Himself Cursor Games 404 Media article: Super Nintendo Hardware Is Running Faster as It Ages How to Geek article: These 15 Games Have Other Games Hidden Inside Them Daily Art Magazine article: Paintings Within Paintings: Time to Go Meta in the Art World The Verge article: This watch has Pong and Missile Command instead of apps Ars Technica article: Sobering revenue stats of 70K mobile apps show why devs beg for subscriptions Gamesradar article: “Valve knows it, I know it, and you need to know it”: Steam expert tells indie devs to “give away” demos, because actually playing a game beats all other marketing LEGO Oh hello, what do we have here? 👀 #pokemon #lego #leakhttps://retrododo.com/pokemon-lego-set-reportedly-leaked-by-lego-mexico/ — Daniel (@[email protected]) 2025-03-18T14:16:13.486Z Retrododo article: Pokémon LEGO Set Reportedly Leaked By LEGO Mexico Lego Germany Pokémon  Web 11.0 mashup junkie, and co-founder / co-host of the GamesAtWork.biz podcast. My views are my own. Michael Martine

Photo by Max Böhme on Unsplash Published 17 March 2025 e505 with Michael and Michael – stories and discussion on AI technical & security challenges, a Metallica augmented concert, Dungeons & Dragons and much more. Michael and Michael get things started off while Andy is away with a discussion on the security challenges and technical complexity for AI implementations for Siri and in upscaling video.  They then turn to another set of AI game generation and playing experiences using Pac-Man and Super Mario Bros.  There have been many such stories in the past years where the level of AI sophistication has been tested by either developing game code or leveraging machine learning to play a game.   Moving into the augmented experience world, Michael R gives his firsthand impressions of the new Apple Vision Pro Metallica immersive concert. He was very impressed – listen into the episode for the specific vignettes that were most intriguing to him.  This spurred a conversation between Michael and Michael about ways to potentially interact with such immersive experiences in the style that the 1983 game Dragon’s Lair used to highlight choices for the player.  Take a look at the YouTube video below for this game mechanic.  In another story, Lowe’s Home Improvement is using the Apple Vision Pro to help you visualize your kitchen design.  This also reminds the co-hosts of similar experiences from Ikea. The team then heads over to the Pokemon Go Gym to exercise the story the recent sale by Niantic of the game (and the game’s data) to Scopely.  Michael and Michael imagine how in-game rewards could generate immensely valuable (near) real time location data collection.  Last, the team wraps up with a couple of Dungeons and Dragons stories – one on the tabletop augmented experience and another on a colossal D20. How would you like to experience a concert or sporting event from the comfort of your living room?  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. Selected Links AI 9 to 5 Mac article: Apple commenter John Gruber launches blistering attack on ‘rotten’ Apple over Siri vaporware Vice article: Netflix Used AI to Upscale ‘A Different World’ and It’s a Melted Nightmare The Guardian article: ‘A lot worse than expected’: AI Pac-Man clones, reviewed Pac-Man history Games at Work e504: Can you Digg It? for fly.pieter.com  Boy Genius Report article: Claude-3.7 outperforms other AI in Super Mario Bros, but it’s still no gamer Super Mario Bros history Games at Work e225: Ah-ha, it’s AI! for AI playing Q*Bert AR MacStories article: Metallica Is Coming to the Apple Vision Pro Wikipedia article: Dragon’s Lair 9 to 5 Mac article: Apple Vision Pro demos expanding to new Lowe’s stores Games at Work e336: Pancaking Robots for Pancake “furniture as a service” and Ikea Apple App Store: Magic Room: LiDAR Environment AR / VR Games TechCrunch article: Pokémon GO maker Niantic is selling its games division to Scopely for $3.5B 404 Media article: Saudi Arabia Buys Pokémon Go, and Probably All of Your Location Data Games at Work e503: Death Watch for Scaniverse Polygon article: After years in development, D&D’s Unreal-powered virtual tabletop still feels off Hello Mastodon! I'm a power engineer who is trying out solo game development and on the way to release Power Network Tycoon – a game where you build and manage your own electrical grid with real physics simulation. If you've ever wondered how power systems actually work (or why they fail), this might be your jam. I built it to be technically accurate while still being fun. To say it's been a challenge is an understatement https://store.steampowered.com/app/2429930/Power_Network_Tycoon/ #GameDev #IndieGame #Simulation #Gaming #Energy — David Made This (@[email protected]) 2025-03-10T17:11:40.896Z Tindie post: Massive Light Up D20 Web 11.0 mashup junkie, and co-founder / co-host of the GamesAtWork.biz podcast. My views are my own. Michael Martine

Photo by Sixteen Miles Out on Unsplash Published 10 March 2025 e504 with Andy, Michael and Michael – stories and discussion on #vibecoding #AI, #biocomputing,  #philosophy, #Digg, #MWC25, #LaserRot and much more. Michael, Andy and Michael get things started off with a 404 Media story about creating software with AI, specifically focusing on Pieter Levels’ “vibe coding” methodology.  Levels created a flight simulator game using AI and per the article, this free to play game is bringing in a very healthy income from in-game advertising and purchases. Next up, is a story about a company called Cortical Labs who offer the CL1, which they describe as “the world’s first code deployable biological computer”.  Amazingly, Cortical Labs also offer a biological cloud service.  This reminds Michael R of his experiences in the biocomputing space, and Michael M of the Swiss startup FinalSpark. Then the team turns to the discussion of whether a large language model can produce philosophical and ethical output sparked by an article entitled “The questions that ChatGPT shouldn’t answer”.   An article on a new version of Monopoly which features a mobile app to handle the banking tasks gets the three co-hosts energized. After the Monopoly discussion, the team turns to the reboot of Digg – something that inspired the creation of Dogear Nation, the precursor to the Games At Work podcast.   Wrapping up this episode is a discussion of exoskeletons, a quick fly over of some of the technology introduced at Mobile World Congress 2025, and a conversation on Warner Brothers DVDs with laser rot showing that even if you have physical media, it is not immune to degradation. What you would like to “vibe code”?  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. Selected Links AI 404 Media article: This Game Created by AI ‘Vibe Coding’ Makes $50,000 a Month. Yours Probably Won’t fly.Pieter.com  Wikipedia entry: Vibe coding slither.io  Solterra Guardians MIT’s Scratch This is… uhh… deeply disturbing, tbh. https://newatlas.com/brain/cortical-bioengineered-intelligence/ More: https://corticallabs.com/cl1.html — Sean Heber (@[email protected]) 2025-03-04T17:01:25.421Z New Atlas article: World’s first “Synthetic Biological Intelligence” runs on living human cells Cortical Labs’ CL1 Games at Work e470: Two Marvelous Mini Brains for biocomputing Science Alert article: Swiss Startup Connects 16 Human Mini-Brains to Create Low Energy ‘Biocomputer’ FinalSpark Neuroplatform The Verge article: The questions ChatGPT shouldn’t answer IMdB: The Good Place Simon & Schuster book: How to Be Perfect by Michael Schur Monopoly The Verge article: A new version of Monopoly replaces cash and math with a mobile app Wikipedia article: Lizzie Magie The Guardian article: The secret history of Monopoly: the capitalist board game’s leftwing origins Games at Work e195: Augmented Audio for Monopoly City Streets and Digg Reader ABC News article: Monopoly City Streets Launches on Google (2009) Can You Digg It? Yes, I can! The Verge article: Digg is coming back, thanks to its founder — and Reddit’s Digg TechCrunch article: Alas, Digg Reader is shutting down at the end of March (2018) Mobility Tech and DVD Laser Rot The Verge article: I wore a one-horsepower exoskeleton to the world’s biggest tech show Games at Work e241: Smarty Pants for exoskeletons and smart shorts MIT Technology Review article: These bionic shorts help turn an epic hike into a leisurely stroll (2019) Wired article: The Weird and Wacky Gadgets We Saw at MWC 2025 Mobile World Congress catchpad.com  Wikipedia article: Simon  JoBlo article: Hundreds of your Warner Bros DVDs probably don’t work anymore; updated with response from WB Web 11.0 mashup junkie, and co-founder / co-host of the GamesAtWork.biz podcast. My views are my own. Michael Martine

Photo by Amr Taha™ on Unsplash Published 3 March 2025 e503 with Andy, Michael and Michael – stories and discussion on the #DeadInternet, #AI, #recipes, #crowdsourcing #VR, #VirtualWorldsMuseum, #watches such as the #Pixel3, #CasioRingWatch and much more. Andy, Michael and Michael get things started off with a couple of detailed articles on the state of AI.  They focus first on a post outlining on how historical records could be changed, using the example of PhysicsForums where backdated posts have appeared.  This leads to a conversation on human creativity and community, with examples from music and film.  A Techdirt article continues on this theme, featuring the technique dubbed SNARF, an acronym for “stakes, novelty, anger, retention and fear” used in the attention economy.  After these deep discussions, the team turns to Ed Ross’ AI created game called “Solterra Guardians” as a practical example of what can be done with AI at speed, which harkens back to episode 458 detailing an example of an AI that creates a full fledged websites from a prompt. In the AR and VR space, Andy, Michael and Michael touch on Niantic’s Into the Scaniverse app for the Meta Quest 3 and 3S VR headsets.  Content for this can be created by people with the Scaniverse app to record their experiences.  Curation and recording of the multitude of metaverse experiences is the goal of the Virtual Worlds Museum – a kickstarter aiming to reach it’s funding goal in March 2025.  This reminds the team of the OpenSimulator project for flexibility for navigation and portability between virtual worlds. Wrapping things up for this episode, the co-hosts consider a pair of timekeeping devices.  The Pixel Watch 3 has a has a feature called “Loss of Pulse Detection”, which can reach out to emergency services on behalf of the wearer.  The Casio Ring Watch is exactly what it sounds like, a Casio watch that is shrunk down to a ring form factor.   Would you want to wear a Casio Databank Ring Watch?  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. Selected Links AI Hall of Dreams post: PhysicsForums and the Dead Internet Theory Wikipedia article: Dead Internet Theory Everyone is wasting all this money betting huge amounts on “AI” (aka large statistics models, really clever parrots) when they should be investing in the human communities around their product, which are the source of… everything. 🧠 — Jeff Atwood (@[email protected]) 2025-02-26T00:50:01.637Z Open Terms Archive Internet Archives Blog: Learning from Cyberattacks NBC News article: 1,000 musicians release a silent album in protest of U.K.’s proposed AI copyright law changes IMDb: Wag the Dog plot summary Techdirt article: Buzzfeed CEO Aims To Solve AI Slop Problem With More AI Slop Wikipedia article: Snarf (from Thundercats) @gamesatwork_bizHere's a game I made with AI (specifically ChatGPT) over the last few weeks https://edaross.codeberg.page/(it'll work on mobile if you have a keyboard connected, otherwise a standard computer is needed). — Ed Ross (@[email protected]) 2025-02-25T08:19:13.336Z Solterra Guardians Games at Work e458: Generative Podcast for AI software engineering to code websites by itself Cooking with Apple News The Verge article: Apple’s News app is getting a recipes section AR / VR Niantic Labs post: Explore the World Up Close in Vivid 3D – Step Into the Scaniverse on Meta Quest Kickstarter: Virtual Worlds Museum OpenSimulator project Which Watch is Which? Ars Technica article: Pixel Watch 3 gets FDA approval to alert you if you’re dying The Verge article: The Casio Ring Watch is extremely silly, and that’s why I love it Web 11.0 mashup junkie, and co-founder / co-host of the GamesAtWork.biz podcast. My views are my own. Michael Martine

Photo by Michael Martine, Chapel Hill, NC July 2023 Published 24 February 2025 e502 with Michael and Michael – stories and discussion on AI for career recommendations, game generation, enabled devices such as the Humane AI Pin and Rabbit R1 and Agents, as well as Kindle eBook DRM while Andy is in transit to RubyJam. Michael and Michael get things started off with a story about Google’s Career Dreamer AI enabled tool to help people explore career possibilities, discover strengths and develop skills.  Turning next to AI Agents, Michael and Michael take a look at the Rabbit Agent and the functionality the software provides.  The team then focuses on the news about HP acquiring Humane, and especially on the AI Pin servers shutting down at the end of the month, putting a severe crimp in the functionality of the hardware devices.  This also signals that HP sees significant value in the Humane software, and reminds the co-hosts of earlier episodes dealing with technology companies shutting down services for hardware, such as the Jibo robot. Next up is a discussion on the latest eBook DRM situation with books on the Amazon Kindle, and what people can do right now other than back up books before February 26.  Then the While Waiting game spurs a broader conversation on boredom and screen time before the next topic of AI to generate games spins up.  Michael R wraps up this episode with a discussion on the Swift on Android working group, and language portability. Do you have another solution to purchasing (or licensing) books to share? 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. Selected Links AI PCMag article: Google ‘Career Dreamer’ Tool Uses AI to Help You Explore Career Options Google’s Career Dreamer Google AI for Developers Gemini API Additional Terms of Service Pandora Music Genome Project The Verge article: Rabbit shows off the AI agent it should have launched with Rabbit Tech: LAM playground The Verge article: Humane is shutting down the AI Pin and selling its remnants to HP Humane News: HP Accelerates AI Software Investments to Transform the Future of Work HP Newsroom press release: HP Accelerates AI Software Investments to Transform the Future of Work Games at Work e464: AI Piano Man, touching on both the Rabbit R1 and the Humane’s AI Pin Games at Work e230: Dance this AR Around, touching on the shut down of Jibo Surreal. This #StarTrek com badge “toy” that uses Bluetooth and costs around just $80 has more functionality than the more expensive #Humane #AI pin will in a few days. — David Bisset (@[email protected]) 2025-02-20T13:21:18.755Z Books – eBooks and paper You can back up all your Kindle books using this script – https://federatedfandom.net/@villainousfriend/114009999021828439 A lot easier than manually downloading them all. After that, install the Calibre eBook Manager https://calibre-ebook.com/ Install the noDRM plugin for Calibre https://github.com/noDRM/DeDRM_tools Give the plugin your Kindle's serial number. Import your Kindle books into Calibre. Done. You now have a DRM-free copy of all your purchased eBooks. You can copy them to your eReader, convert to ePub, save on a backup disk, etc. — Terence Eden (@[email protected]) 2025-02-16T09:23:51.268Z Treetrum Github repo: amazon-kindle-bulk-downloader Michael Rowe’s Random Thoughts blog: 10 years of Podcasting Discover Durham: Books Do Furnish a Room Bookshelf app Tom’s Guide article: No Kindle? No problem: 5 places to buy DRM-free e-books Crowd Supply article: Ink Console Ink Console Wikipedia article: Chose Your Own Adventure books Wikipedia article: Infocom Games – for waiting and for generating The Verge article: While Waiting is a playful reminder of the joys of boredom While Waiting on Steam metro.co.uk article: Xbox is using AI to make games in a disturbing vision of next gen gaming The Verge article: Microsoft’s Xbox AI era starts with a model that can generate gameplay Software Development swift.org forums: Swift on Android Working Group Web 11.0 mashup junkie, and co-founder / co-host of the GamesAtWork.biz podcast. My views are my own. Michael Martine

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash Published 17 February 2025 e501 with Michael R and Andy – all about outsourcing intelligence to #AI, protecting your #data after #death, #AR #glasses, #Diablo & #Civ game ports, #backdoors and more! So many articles these days have a headline such as “what happens to your body when you <fill in the blank>”.  Michael R and Andy start off the episode exploring what happens when you outsource some, or too much, of your cognitive energy to an AI.   Then, the team turns to a discussion on a hardware + software solution for protecting your data when you shuffle off the mortal coil and join the choir invisible.  Check out the In Case of Death Case, replete with the pulse detecting In Case of Death Smart Ring and associated software.  Next, some speculation on what the team in Cupertino is doing with glasses-based AR.  Then, a story from the UK on the mandate to provide a backdoor for end-to-end encrypted data for Apple and other companies.   On a lighter note, Michael and Andy discuss how to run Diablo 1 on a variety of hardware and software.  And speaking of ports, Civilization VII will be made available on Meta’s Quest later this spring. The team then wraps things up with The Wheel of Time.   What steps have you taken to protect your data?  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. Selected Links AI A new paper from researchers at Microsoft and Carnegie Mellon University finds that as humans increasingly rely on generative AI in their work, they use less critical thinking, which can “result in the deterioration of cognitive faculties that ought to be preserved.” https://www.404media.co/microsoft-study-finds-ai-makes-human-cognition-atrophied-and-unprepared-3/ — Kevin Beaumont (@[email protected]) 2025-02-10T16:02:56.509Z 404 Media article: Microsoft Study Finds AI Makes Human Cognition “Atrophied and Unprepared” New Scientist article: Using AI tools like ChatGPT can reduce critical thinking skills Boy Genius Report article: We just started using AI like ChatGPT, and it may already be making us dumber Microsoft Research article: The Impact of Generative AI on Critical Thinking: Self-Reported Reductions in Cognitive Effort and Confidence Effects From a Survey of Knowledge Workers Apple Stories Macworld article: Any case can protect your iPad. This one protects you when you die Zugu’s The In Case of Death Case Games at Work e218: Virtually Married 9 to 5 Mac article: Report: Apple’s plan for standalone AR glasses ‘remains intact’ Six Colors article: UK Orders Apple to Implement Secret Global Backdoor for End-to-End Encryption Games at Work e416: Lawsuits and Swimsuits Entertainment PC Gamer article: The best way to play Diablo 1 on pretty much anything just got an update for a 20-year-old Apple OS that runs on a dead chipset, one lunatic somewhere presumably rejoices Diasurgical’s Github for DevilutiuonX The Verge article: Civilization VII is getting a Quest VR port this spring Ars Technica article: Wheel of Time S3 trailer tees us up for Last Battle Web 11.0 mashup junkie, and co-founder / co-host of the GamesAtWork.biz podcast. My views are my own. Michael Martine

Photo by Thiago Giardini on Pexels. Published 10 February 2025. Incredible scenes as the co-hosts celebrate the milestone 500th episode of your weekly technology podcast! … or, is it season 5, episode 00? The team kicks off by thinking back to some of their favourite episodes from the past: Michael M: e060, Bubbly Bubblers – https://gamesatwork.biz/2013/09/08/episode-60-bubbly-bubblers-in-gamified-buildings/ Michael R: e191, Return of the Piper – https://gamesatwork.biz/2018/01/15/episode-191-return-of-the-piper/ Andy: e292, Elite British gaming – https://gamesatwork.biz/2020/10/12/episode-292-elite-british-gaming/ After these reminiscences, the show gets down to reviewing the links from the past couple of weeks, across many of the usual topic headings: AI, Apple technology, Gaming and Making. There’s also a brief discussion of Andy’s recent visit to FOSDEM 2025. Let us know what you think of our musings – have your bots 🤖 drop our bots 🤖 a line at @[email protected] (our home for now) and let us know! Selected Links AI OpenAI’s Operator Agent https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/01/technology/openai-operator-agent.html Apple Apple’s ELEGNT robotics https://machinelearning.apple.com/research/elegnt-expressive-functional-movement https://www.theverge.com/news/607663/apple-smart-home-robot-research-video Downloading personalities http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Science-Fiction-News.asp?NewsNum=4482 AirTags and AirLines https://www.fastcompany.com/91267549/lost-luggage-apple-airtag-airline-share-item-location-united-delta Gaming Super Mario World in Unreal Engine https://www.creativebloq.com/3d/video-game-design/super-mario-world-got-remade-in-3d-using-unreal-engine-5-and-the-result-is-so-much-fun DOOM in.. a search bar https://www.pcgamesn.com/doom/google-search-bar a Lightning to HDMI adapter https://appleinsider.com/articles/25/02/04/doom-can-even-be-played-on-apples-lightning-to-hdmi-adapter Making / Makers uCritter https://www.ucritter.com/ FOSDEM https://fosdem.org/2025/ Pigeon air patrol https://inhabitat.com/pigeons-with-backpacks-are-tweeting-about-londons-notorious-pollution/pigeon-air-patrol/ Hey, I did another thing!! Please check out "Harmony," the latest addition to swift-embedded-examples. Harmony is a Bluetooth speaker with a builtin ferrofluid music visualizer. Everything you need to build Harmony from scratch is either open sourced now, or will be available soon. This includes the embedded swift firmware, the bill of materials, electrical schematics, and the 3d models. https://github.com/apple/swift-embedded-examples/tree/main/harmony #EmbeddedSwift #Swift #SwiftLang #FOSDEM — rauhul (@[email protected]) 2025-02-01T17:59:11.909Z Ignite OSS Swift based Site generator https://github.com/twostraws/Ignite Here’s to another 500 episodes! 🥳

Photo by Matthew Jones on Unsplash Published 3 February 2025 E499 with Michael and Michael – all about #AI with #DeepSeek, #coldstart, #hallucinations, #BerlinWall, #AttentionEconomy, #IntentionEconomy and a whole lot more! Michael and Michael start the AI train off with a discussion about DeepSeek, which has been all over the news this past week. This leads into a conversation about generative AI’s propensity to hallucinate, and per the Schneier article, how AI mistakes are very different from human mistakes. Michael M gives an example of his recent experience using Ollama to run LLMs on his laptop, and the GenAI inaccurate description of some of the events leading up to the fall of the Berlin Wall, which in and of itself was precipitated by a human mistake. Next up is a discussion on methods used to trick AI scrapers that ignore the robots.txt file – and a callback to e451 where other data poisoning techniques were front and center.  Remember Nightshade, anyone?  Wrapping things up for the episode, Michael and Michael go deep on a discussion on the migration from the “attention economy” to the “intention economy”.  Check out the discussion from 2013, e67 about the attention economy!   Have we entered the “intention economy”?  How can you protect your data from being harvested for the intention economy?  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. Selected Links AI Boy Genius Report: Here’s another reason not to use DeepSeek AI IEEE Spectrum article: What DeepSeek Means for Open-Source AI Its new open reasoning model cuts costs drastically on AI reasoning DeepSeek.com  Schneier on Security article: AI Mistakes Are Very Different from Human Mistakes ollama.com TheWorld.org article: How a mistake at a press conference helped topple the Berlin Wall Ars Technica article: AI haters build tarpits to trap and trick AI scrapers that ignore robots.txt Games at Work e451: Fahrenheit  Fast Company article: Frustrated with today’s ‘attention economy’? You’re really going to hate what comes next Harvard Data Science Review: Beware the Intention Economy: Collection and Commodification of Intent via Large Language Models Games at Work e67: Free BitCoins! Web 11.0 mashup junkie, and co-founder / co-host of the GamesAtWork.biz podcast. My views are my own. Michael Martine