Épisodes

  • e549 — Dark Side of the Moon

    e549 — Dark Side of the Moon
    Apr 6 2026
    NASA photo art002e009057, 4 April 2026 Published 6 April 2026 e549 with Andy, Michael and Michael – boldly go into a deep set of space discussions featuring Artemis II, ways to keep track of the historic flight, COTS software and hardware aboard the spacecraft, Bernie Sanders conversation with Claude, TU Wien’s mini QR code and a whole lot more! Andy, Michael and Michael boldly go into a deep set of space discussions focusing on the launch of Artemis II. Mission Control starts off with the Artemis II Tracker built by Jakob Rosin for Jakob Rosin, and as he says, every other space nerd who stayed up for launch night. The tracker is a fantastic assembly of data related to the mission, and is well worth bookmarking to keep up to speed on the progress of the astronauts as they approach the Moon and make their return journey to Earth. Andy, Michael and Michael take a look at an article describing how COTS (commercial, off the shelf) technology are used in space missions, and the steps needed to ensure such technologies are appropriate for the mission. It is no surprise that iPhone use aboard Artemis II caught the co-hosts’ attention, and after recording the episode, they found even more insight on how the iPhone 17 Pro Max was cleared for use. Another COTS technology used aboard the spacecraft was email – and also needed some glitches to be resolved. Other interesting stories came from the Gizmodo article, such as the pre-launch card game which continues until the mission commander loses, and the challenges with the Universal Waste Management System that were initially resolved in Earth orbit, through another issue surfaced later in the voyage with the vent line. At time of this writing, all systems to go with the Universal Waste Management System were rated as ‘go’. The Moon plush named Rise, which acts as a zero gravity indicator, was designed by a second grader named Lucas Ye. In the non-space portion of the episode, the team discusses browsergate, Bernie Sanders’ conversation with Claude and a mini QR code from the TU Wein that could help store up to 2TB of data on an A4 sized page! Wrapping up the episode, Andy shares his contact information through his aggregation site of andypiper.me Do you think that the orange color of the iPhone 17 Pro Max matched the uniform color of the Artemis crew? Have you placed your order for a copy of Rise? Have your bots 🤖 drop our bots 🤖 a line at @gamesatwork_biz@mastodon.social (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 Artemis II Artemis II Tracker Digital Trends article: Artemis II crew videos show astronauts goofing around with an iPhone in space 9 to 5 Mac article: Here’s how NASA cleared the iPhone 17 Pro Max for astronauts on Artemis II Gizmodo article: 5 Things You May Have Missed During NASA’s Historic Launch of Artemis 2 CNN article: More than half way to the moon, the Artemis II astronauts grappled with a toilet problem Tom’s Hardware article: Artemis II astronaut finds two Outlook instances running on computers, calls on Houston to fix Microsoft anomaly — puzzled caller describes ‘two Outlooks, and neither one of those are working’ ABC News article: 8-year-old watches his plush toy rocket to the moon with Artemis II mission Games at Work e430: that’s no moon, it’s the Moon! (for the India Moon landing in 2023) Security & Privacy https://browsergate.eu AI Techdirt article: Bernie Sanders “Interviewed” A Chatbot To Expose AI’s Secrets. It Has No Secrets. It Just Agrees With You. Ars Technica article: Here’s what that Claude Code source leak reveals about Anthropic’s plans Tamagotchi Connect with Andy https://andypiper.me
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    31 min
  • e548 — The Uncomfortable Valley

    e548 — The Uncomfortable Valley
    Mar 23 2026
    Photo by NEOM on Unsplash Published 23 March 2026 e548 with Michael and Michael – Stories and discussion on uncomfortable valley & uncanny valley, Nintendo’s Talking Flower, 8bit Pixel Agents for AI orchestration and a whole lot more. Michael and Michael get things rolling while Andy is away on an article discussing the animated emojis in Microsoft Teams. Fast Company article author Rebecca Heilweil describes these emojis as the ‘uncomfortable valley’ due to the animations that imbue the emojis shared in Teams with potentially unintended additional meaning. Check out the link for a comparison graphic showing the similarities and differences between the uncanny and uncomfortable valleys. Switching to robotic animation, Michael and Michael take a look at Nintendo’s Talking Flower, which reminds them of the Alarmo alarm clock. Next, a digital camera that provides mini quests that are satisfied by taking a picture of “a tiny thing” or “a hidden face”. Turning to AI, the co-hosts check out Pixel Agents, an 8bit representation of agents allowing the human orchestrator to monitor all the agents performing their tasks in a concurrent manner. Michael R highlights a Mac local orchestrator called Osaurus. Rounding out this week’s episode is a Washington Post about jobs that AI may take on, a story about ChatGPT assisting with cancer research, and an intriguing video about Devo. Which Pixel People professions would you want to have in your Pixel Agent virtual office? Have your bots 🤖 drop our bots 🤖 a line at @gamesatwork_biz@mastodon.social (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 Tech Fast Company article: The uncomfortable valley: Microsoft Teams emoji faces have got to go Wikipedia article: Uncanny Valley Games at Work e308: Feline Filters (for discussion on the Uncanny Valley) The Verge article: Weird Nintendo never went away Nintendo Talking Flower Nintendo Alarmo Games at Work e485: Barbarians at the Rhubarb Bar (for the Alarmo clock) hackster.io article: This Camera Turns Your Day Into an RPG Games at Work e195: Augmented Audio (for Monopoly City Streets) AI Github: pablodelucca/pixel-agents Pixel People wiki https://osaurus.ai Washington Post article: See which jobs are most threatened by AI and who may be able to adapt The Verge article: ChatGPT did not cure a dog’s cancer The Verge article: Go watch this video about an AI system that can predict how proteins fold Devo
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    32 min
  • e547 — Bricktastic

    e547 — Bricktastic
    Mar 16 2026
    Photo by Michael Martine, Chapel Hill, NC March 2026 Published 16 March 2026 e547 with Michael and Michael – Stories and discussion on bot to bot communications, 50 years of Apple, LEGO SmartPlay SmartBricks and a whole lot more. Michael and Michael get things rolling while Andy is away on an article about Meta’s acquisition of Moltbook. This agent to agent conversational environment reminds the pair of the Google Homes chatting with one another from back in June 2017. Have a look at the short description in the YouTube video below and hear the conversation from 2017 in e173: Babel Fish. Next up: Apple’s announcement on the celebrations surrounding their 50th anniversary. The intersection of technology and the liberal arts continues to resonate across the years. A tremendous hack by Paul Staal’s design for a Mac mini case that mimics the 2×2 sloped computer brick. This, of course, allows the co-hosts get into the heart of this episode: LEGO! First, a Duke alumni magazine article about Ruthie Chen Ousley, who works at LEGO Education. Then, a discussion about the battery and new uses for the SmartBrick. A video from Brick Fanatics highlights who these sets and bricks are really for (spoiler, not AFOL) and how this provides a new degree of play with surprises and future possibilities as new sensors and experiences are unlocked. How do you imagine these SmartBricks may be used in the future? Have your bots 🤖 drop our bots 🤖 a line at @gamesatwork_biz@mastodon.social (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 Ars Technica article: Meta acquires Moltbook, the AI agent social network Games at Work e173: Babel Fish (for two Google Homes talking with one another @seebotschat) HEADLINE: "Study Finds That Execs Are Outsourcing Their Thinking to AI" ALT HEADLINE: "Execs Worry They'll Be Replaced By AI, But They're Doing It Themselves" https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/ai-executive-thinking-survey — Mike Elgan (@MikeElgan@mastodon.social) 2026-03-08T18:20:28.916Z Apple MacStories article: Apple Announces 50th Anniversary Celebration Gizmodo article: This Custom Lego-Inspired Mac Mini Case Is Retrofuturism Done Right Games at Work e406: AI Lemmings (for James Brown’s LEGO-sized computer) LEGO Duke Magazine article: Brick By Brick The Verge article: You can’t replace the battery in Lego’s Smart Bricks — and many of its sensors aren’t active yet BrickFanatics article: LEGO fans are already finding better uses for the SMART Brick #LEGO #SmartPlay hacking continued: as the Smart Minifigs and Smart Tiles comply with standard ISO 15693 NFC, they can be copied. So this had to be done. The clone works totally fine with the original #SmartBrick. ➡️ https://youtube.com/shorts/kbI0hHGysUM — Mäh W. (@maehw@chaos.social) 2026-03-08T19:14:04.937Z
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    28 min
  • e546 — Smart Play Doom Brain Brick

    e546 — Smart Play Doom Brain Brick
    Mar 9 2026
    Published 9 March 2026 e543 with Andy, Michael and Michael – Stories and discussion on LEGO’s new Smart Play brick, this is a human brain (cells) on Doom, orc audio for vibe coding, Liquid Death’s Spotify urn for playlist immortality and a whole lot more. Michael, Michael and Andy get things rolling with Michael M’s delivery of the newest innovation from LEGO, the Smart Play brick! While Michael’s only had a little bit of time to play with the new brick, it is already sparking some interesting ideas. Check out the show notes below for what others are doing with it, now that the Smart Play brick is out and in the wild! And of course the audio of the podcast for some of the sounds from the brick! An article about a biocomputing success to play Doom with human brain cells, reminds the cohosts of other biocomputing examples from e504. The Ars Technica article about identifying anonymous users through LLMs likewise reminds the team of other examples for triangulating identity. After a story about using the audio from Warcraft III in vibe coding experiences “work, work”, the team takes a look at “Humanity’s Last Exam”, which likely has already been handled by an enterprising AI research team. Turning next to a Norwegian PSA (that is NSFW and funny) on the slippery slope of digital products and services getting worse and worse, the team then considers a story about a partnership between Epic and Google for a new set of metaverse applications. In yet another back to the future experience, the Niantic gaming functionality may provide a roadmap to how this partnership may grow. The team wraps up with a Liquid Death promo for how you may achieve musical immortality with a custom Spotify playlist played via a bluetooth urn. What songs would be on your postmortem playlist? Have your bots 🤖 drop our bots 🤖 a line at @gamesatwork_biz@mastodon.social (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 LEGO Smart Play r/LegoSmartBrick post: I disassembled a smart brick (note the comments about running Doom on a SmartBrick!) Adafruit post: Some LEGO Smart Brick – BLE Reverse Engineering #LEGO #SmartPlay hacking continued: as the Smart Minifigs and Smart Tiles comply with standard ISO 15693 NFC, they can be copied. So this had to be done. The clone works totally fine with the original #SmartBrick. ➡️ https://youtube.com/shorts/kbI0hHGysUM — Mäh W. (@maehw@chaos.social) 2026-03-08T19:14:04.937Z AI New Scientist article: Human brain cells on a chip learned to play Doom in a week Games at Work e504: Can You Digg It? for biocomputing Ars Technica article: LLMs can unmask pseudonymous users at scale with surprising accuracy PC Magazine article: Sick of Babysitting Claude? 100K Coders Are Asking an Orc to Do It Texas A&M Stories: Don’t Panic: ‘Humanity’s Last Exam’ has begun Digital Products & Services https://www.sheetz.com The Verge article: Epic and Google have signed a special deal for a new class of ‘metaverse’ apps Games at Work e98: Something Sweet in Your Neighborhood (for Niantic examples) Boy Genius Report article: Keep Playing Your Spotify Playlists After You Die With Liquid Death’s New Bluetooth Urn Games at Work e26: Business Process Management and Immortality (for digital immortality well before LLMs came on the scene) Michael Martine
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    29 min
  • e545 – Cyberpunk pot holes

    e545 – Cyberpunk pot holes
    Mar 2 2026
    Photo by Marc-Olivier Jodoin on Unsplash

    Published 2 March 2026

    e545 with Andy and Michael – Get to talk about mostly non-AI topics this week, as we look at a cool kickstarter, Titan, that is building out a futuristic gauntlet. Do you want a forearm mounted drone? Is so, go check it out, along with the opportunity for community modules. Very cool!

    We then dip back into the world of AR and VR, as people speculate how Apple’s rumored AR glasses may benefit from the recent acquisition of Q.AI. We spend some time thinking of how a new App can help identify if you are around someone who has smart glasses on. (Even if Michael get’s the TV show reference wrong – and after an exhaustive search he can’t find the right one). We also discuss Disney’s deal to relaunch the Muppets in VR Ride as a VR app.

    Moving on to some cool artistic visions we look at both video and photographic way of seeing the world. Before moving back to tech with amazing upgrades to robots on Mars. Millions of miles away NASA is repurposing a chip on a robotic helicopter to improve the location information of a rover. While closer to home, robots are fixing potholes.

    We end with a story about a fellow geek accidentally hacking over 7,000 home based vacuum robots.

    Selected Links

    • Electronic Gauntlet Kickstarter

    AR / VR

    • Apple AR Glasses
    • App warns you if someone is wearing smart glasses
    • Muppets in VR

    Art

    https://mastodon.social/@sheepfilms/116132499996224901 https://www.youtube.com/embed/ctPqNSrmknA?si=M9ThvKmyB8YuLByk
    • Olympic from a different perspective

    Robots

    • Upgrades on Mars
    • Pot hole Robots
    • Vacuum Army
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    29 min
  • e544 — Are We Bananas?

    e544 — Are We Bananas?
    Feb 23 2026
    Photo by Masahiro Naruse on Unsplash Published 23 February 2026 e544 with Andy, Michael and Michael – Stories and discussion on rumoured AI devices, addictive predictives, listening through bananas (or mud), and what happens when VR platforms die? Plus the usual assortment or other things. This week’s episode kicks off with a check in on which tech giants are working on what devices, now? Apple stepping back from headsets but working on glasses and pendants, and OpenAI making some kind of smart Pod for your dumb Home? Then, there’s discussion of the challenges of privacy when LLMs get access to private email and chats. Oh, and if you’re not sure if your AI is an LLM or a sentience, then Anthropic can’t answer that. We hope you’re listening to the show in perfect digital quality, but we’re also interested to know if you’ve tried piping it to your ears through any kind of fruit – let us know. Meta’s fully backing away from VR for Horizon Worlds, and in case Blizzard ever stops making the client software for World of Warcraft, Michael tried an open source version. Finally, don’t let hackers get hold of your brainwaves! (it could happen) 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 Apple AI Glasses OpenAI and Jony Ive device Thank god Microsoft is shoving Copilot AI crap into everything. One gets the sense this isn't going to be an isolated occurrence. From Bleeping Computer: "Microsoft says a Microsoft 365 Copilot bug has been causing the AI assistant to summarize confidential emails since late January, bypassing data loss prevention (DLP) policies that organizations rely on to protect sensitive information." https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/microsoft-says-bug-causes-copilot-to-summarize-confidential-emails/ — BrianKrebs (@briankrebs@infosec.exchange) 2026-02-18T18:24:34.707Z HEADLINE: "Prediction Markets Are Sucking Huge Numbers of Young People Into Gambling" ALT HEADLINE: "All Our Incentives Lead to Bad Outcomes, and Prediction Markets Are Just One Example" https://futurism.com/future-society/prediction-markets-gambling — Mike Elgan (@MikeElgan@mastodon.social) 2026-02-16T17:06:59.555Z Episode 80 on prediction marketsClaude isn’t sure what it isI gave Claude access to my pen plotter Audio Audiophiles can’t tell mud from bananas? AR/VR Meta ditching VR for Horizon WorldsOpen Source WoW client Makers Reverse engineering a sleep mask Bonus link Trek-o-rama
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    29 min
  • e543 — Rent-a-Anything

    e543 — Rent-a-Anything
    Feb 16 2026
    Photo by Viktor Keri on Unsplash Published 16 February 2026 e543 with Andy, Michael and Michael – Stories and discussion on Agentic AI and the changing nature of work, agents renting humans, real time translation, artistic roads, e-bikes for your feet and a whole lot more. Andy, Michael and Michael get things rolling with several AI articles. First up, is a Mastodon post by Alan Pringle that called attention to a HBR article on the influence of AI on productivity. This then led to a post on productivity acceleration technologies from years past – from COBOL, which was designed to enable business people to write programs, to 4GLs to case tools. Then, the team discusses a detailed post from Matt Shumer entitled Something Big Is Happening. The entire post is well worth reading, not only for how history is unfolding in real time, also for the recommendations that Matt makes for people to take onboard right now. Among the recommendations are to begin the habit of adapting, and experimenting with multiple tools to build resiliency and experience. Wrapping up this section is a new version of taskrabbit that provides an API for Agents to rent humans for specific work called rentahuman.ai . The future is certainly coming in fast. In the AR VR section, there is a story from Tom’s Guide where the author used her Ray Ban Meta glasses to translate the Super Bowl halftime video in real time. This feels like the precursor to the next logical step, a dynamic version of the Amazon X-Ray feature where further context can be personalized and served up to the user if they wish. After touching on the assembly of Game Poems and the art of roads in games, the team sprints to the end of the episode with Nike’s Project Amplify, which is an ankle exoskeleton to augment humans running abilities. Looping back to the start of the episode, Andy highlights a BBC show featuring Chris McCausland. What’s been your experience with AI productivity? What are you experimenting with? Have your bots 🤖 drop our bots 🤖 a line at @gamesatwork_biz@mastodon.social (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 "For instance, #engineers, in turn, spent more time reviewing, correcting, and guiding #AI-generated or AI-assisted work produced by colleagues. These demands extended beyond formal #code review. Engineers increasingly found themselves coaching colleagues who were 'vibe-coding' and finishing partially complete pull requests." https://hbr.org/2026/02/ai-doesnt-reduce-work-it-intensifies-it — Alan Pringle (@alanpringle@mstdn.social) 2026-02-10T13:47:23.853Z Harvard Business Review article: AI Doesn’t Reduce Work—It Intensifies It caimito.net post: Why We’ve Tried to Replace Developers Every Decade Since 1969 Wikipedia article: VisualAge Wikipedia article: Fourth-generation programming language Wikipedia article: Computer-aided Software Engineering shumer.dev blog post: Something Big Is Happening metr.org theshamblog.com blog post: An AI Agent Published a Hit Piece on Me https://rentahuman.ai taskrabbit AR & VR Tom’s Guide post: I wore Ray-Ban Meta Display smart glasses to watch the Super Bowl halftime show — and understood Bad Bunny in real time Amazon X-Ray The Verge article: YouTube is coming to the Apple Vision Pro Game ON! gamepoems.com sandboxspirit.com blog post: Art of Roads in Games Art in Rhodes Augmenting Humans NPR article: ‘E-bike for your feet’: How bionic sneakers could change human mobility Nike Newsroom post: Nike Unveils Project Amplify, the World’s First Powered Footwear System for Running and Walking Games at Work e471: Ghost Jobs and AI (for exoskeleton stories) BBC Chris McCausland: Seeing into the Future BBC iPlayer: Chris McCausland: Seeing into the Future Bonus links LEGO Reddit post: I made a working Lego Toaster hackster.io article: The Windows 98 Toaster is Here hackster.io article: This Tiny LEGO Fender Guitar Amp Conversion Really Works Retrododo article: Modder Creates LEGO Game Boy Advance SP & Gets DOOM Playing Even more! Board Game Geek article: I made a touchscreen electronic board game table for computer and tablet board games The Verge article: Toyota made a game engine Web 11.0 mashup junkie, and co-founder / co-host of the GamesAtWork.biz podcast. My views are my own. Michael Martine
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    Indisponible
  • e542 — Vibe Coding Vowels

    e542 — Vibe Coding Vowels
    Feb 9 2026
    Photo by Mihai 👑 on Unsplash Published 9 February 2026 e542 with Michael, Andy and Michael – Stories and discussion on programming language localization, Virtual Boy hardware & emulation, LEGO terrestrial & orbital dwellings and a whole lot more. Michael, Andy and Michael get things rolling with an article on programming language localization, specifically using the Welsh language as syntax. Next, the co hosts consider Matt Ballentine’s thoughtful post about the the speed of technological change, and the recommendations to capitalize on the innovation that is happening. Then, the team takes a look at the Virtual Boy hardware, newly made available by Nintendo for the Switch and Switch 2. This reminds Michael R of the View-Master and a Vision Pro emulator for the Virtual Boy. Next up is a story about a Quest 3 virtual keyboard. The experience Michael R had back in 2017 with a laser keyboard was a good reference, as is his more recent VR experience in using a hardware keyboard with his Vision Pro. Rounding out this episode are a pair of LEGO stories – the first, a replica of a 1799 house and a of the Project Hail Mary spacecraft. Check out the links below for the awesomeness. How are you and your team taking the greatest advantage of the speed of change in 2026? Have your bots 🤖 drop our bots 🤖 a line at @gamesatwork_biz@mastodon.social (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 Hackaday article: YSGRIFENNU CÔD YN GYMRAEG (WRITING CODE IN WELSH) Raku Sacha Chua blog post: Sketchnote: Fun With Dead Languages: Damian Conway Matt Ballentine blog post: Is it really happening that quickly? 2025 edition Wikipedia article: Connections Game & VR Technology The Verge article: Nintendo’s new Virtual Boy is more fun to look at than to play Virtual Boy for Nintendo Switch Wikipedia article: View-Master 9 to 5 Mac article: This Vision Pro emulator brings Nintendo’s Virtual Boy back to life TechCrunch article: Roblox’s 4D creation feature is now available in open beta Gizmodo article: Meta’s Quest 3 Has the First VR Keyboard That Doesn’t Totally Suck Karrello Laser Keyboard Games at Work e164: Addictive AR LEGO Reddit r/lego post: My brother and I collaborated on a 17,000-piece model of a family home Slashfilm article: New Project Hail Mary LEGO Set Gives Ryan Gosling A Close Encounter In Space Web 11.0 mashup junkie, and co-founder / co-host of the GamesAtWork.biz podcast. My views are my own. Michael Martine
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    30 min