e551 — ATProto Socials

e551 — ATProto Socials

Author: Michael Rowe, Michael Martine, Andy Piper April 20, 2026 Duration: 23:38
The exhaust plume left behind by the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket that launched Artemis II, NASA’s first crewed mission to the Moon since December 1972, dissipates in the Earth's atmosphere in this photograph from the International Space Station. NASA ID: iss074e0431736
Photo from the International Space Station 1 April 2026 of the exhaust plume from Artemis II in Earth’s atmosphere – NASA ID: iss074e0431736

Published 20 April 2026

e551 with Michael, Michael and Andy – a tour of the Atmosphere with ATProto, Sifa, Eurosky, Leaflet, a LEGO cacophonous karaoke of “Mad About Me” and a whole lot more!

Michael, Michael and Andy get things started with a series of applications powered by ATProto, the protocol powering Bluesky and many more.  Andy shares his experimentation & experiences with several of these applications, including a set curated on portal.Eurosky.tech such as Leaflet, Popfeed and Sifa.

Andy also shares Anisota, which is a gamified approach to Bluesky social media browsing where you may collect photos of moths and start expeditions.  Andy learned of Aetheros from from whitep4nth3r.com and takes Michael and Michael through it.  There is a nice capability in this service called Deckard, which provides a columnar view of Bluesky posts.

Rounding out the episode for this week, the co-hosts take a look at Aadam Jacobs’ collection of recordings on the Internet Archive. This is an impressive set of hundreds of live music recordings from 1984-2019.  Check it out in the show notes below.  And for a little more contemporary musical example, have a listen to a cacophonous karaoke of “Mad About Me” created with 7 of the Mos Eisley Cantina SMART Brick sets.  And to continue to set the mood for the upcoming #StarWarsDay, give a listen to the original via the YouTube embed.  Also, managed to get in an Artemis II reference for the third straight episode with the hero image.

What is your favorite Figrin D’an and the Modal Nodes song?  Have your droids 🤖 drop our droids 🤖 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

AT Protocol

AT Protocol

AT Protocol post: Understanding Atproto

The ATmosphereConf 2026

Bluesky

Wikipedia article: Personal Data Service (PDS)

Equals Drummond blog post: The Difference Between a Personal Cloud and a Personal Data Store

Smoke Signals

leaflet.pub 

Eurosky Portal

Eurosky’s Introducing Portal blog on leaflet

sifa.id 

Andy’s sifa.id post: https://sifa.id/p/andypiper.me 

anisota.net 

Aetheros.computer via (https://whitep4nth3r.com/)

Media

James Kottke blog post: Now Online: a Treasure Trove of 1000s of Secret Concert Recordings

Internet Archive: Aadam Jacobs Collection at the Live Music Archive

Brick Fanatics post: What can you do with £750 worth of LEGO SMART Play sets?

CBC article: 5 things you didn’t know about the Star Wars Cantina band (unless you are a total Star Wars nerd)

BBC article: LEGO’s new smart brick

Games at Work e546: Smart Play Doom Brain Brick (for the new LEGO SMART Brick)


The weekly conversation hosted by Michael Rowe, Michael Martine, and Andy Piper, Games At Work dot Biz, explores the intersection where our digital play and professional lives collide. This isn't just a review show; it's a deep dive into the technology that powers our hobbies, the business behind the leisure, and the cultural news shaping both worlds. Each episode feels like pulling up a chair with three friends who are as passionate about the craft of game development and the evolution of hardware as they are about the pure joy of finding a great new title. You'll hear specific discussions on everything from the latest graphics card impacting performance to the narrative design of an indie darling, all filtered through the lens of professionals who live in the tech space. The Games At Work dot Biz podcast operates on the belief that the games we play and the tools we use are inextricably linked, offering listeners a consistently thoughtful and engaging analysis that goes far beyond a simple score. Tune in for a regular dose of insightful commentary where the serious business of technology meets the serious fun of games.
Author: Language: en-us Episodes: 50

Games At Work dot Biz
Podcast Episodes
e550 — Moontella [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 23:42
Mashup of photo by Victor Serban on Unsplash & images-assets.nasa.gov/image/art002e009287/art002e009287~orig.jpg Published 13 April 2026 e550 with Michael, Andy and Michael – celebrating Moon Joy with the Artemis II crew…
e549 — Dark Side of the Moon [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 31:00
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 sof…
e548 — The Uncomfortable Valley [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 31:34
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 w…
e547 — Bricktastic [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 28:00
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…
e546 — Smart Play Doom Brain Brick [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 29:12
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 playlis…
e545 – Cyberpunk pot holes [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 28:42
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 ga…
e544 — Are We Bananas? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 28:35
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 hap…
e543 — Rent-a-Anything [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 31:08
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, artist…
e542 — Vibe Coding Vowels [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 30:01
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 dwell…
e541 — Invisible Llamas [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 29:33
edited picture from Lars H Knudsen: https://www.pexels.com/photo/a-close-up-shot-of-a-llama-7845603/ Published 2 February 2026 e541 with Michael and Michael – Stories and discussion on AI with local Claude (and Clawdbot,…