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
e530 — Vibe It! - Ready Player Chum [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 31:47
Photo by Kindel Media from Pexels: https://www.pexels.com/photo/white-robot-toy-on-gray-concrete-floor-9026299/ Published 29 September 2025 e530 with Michael and Michael – an AI extravaganza with vibe coding, AI gaming c…
e529 — Shake, Shake, Shake Your iPhone [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 29:12
Photo by Ravi Sharma on Unsplash Published 15 September 2025 e529 with Michael, Andy and Michael – stories about AR glasses & snarky AI wearables, Carrot Weather, Rabbit OS2, shaking to summarize, Doomscrolling and a who…
e528 — Monstrous Mice & Nano Bananas [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 30:59
ChatGPT 5 generated image of a banana in the midst of an atom cloudgenerated 31 August 2025 Published 8 September 2025 e528 with Michael, Andy and Michael – stories about AI image editing with Nano Banana, GAN enabled LL…
e527 — AI Taco Trolls [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 28:06
Photo by Daniel Hooper 🌊 on Unsplash Published 1 September 2025 e527 with Andy, Michael and Michael – stories about AI restaurant experiences, historical LLMs, zoetropes and a whole lot more. After Michael R gives his im…
e526 — Beans and Bricks [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 35:24
Photo by Michael Martine, Chapel Hill, NC August 2025 Published 25 August 2025 e526 with Andy and Michael M – stories about focus – finding things that are missing, reducing distractions with apps like Focus Friend and B…
e525 – See Thru Wooden Pixels [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 29:02
Photo by John Cameron on Unsplash The Michaels take some time to talk about AI, Apple and Gaming this week, while Andy is out. While we are not an all Michael podcast, we did see a few Mike posts on Mastodon from Mike El…
e524 — Googlenight, AI [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 28:14
Googlenight, AI virtual book cover Published 11 August 2025 e524 with Andy and Michael M – stories about AI generated goodnight stories, Med-Gemini, GPT-5, skeuomorphism, scrobbling, seeing through doors and a whole lot…
e523 — Two hundred and sixty six starlings [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 32:42
Photo by Pete Godfrey on Unsplash Published 4 August 2025 e523 with Michael R and Andy, possibly arriving via carefully-arranged starlings? – stories about AI again, obviously; iPadOS 26; games, old and new; and, an inno…
e522 — Pointing at Doomed Fish [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 32:58
Photo by David Clode on Unsplash Published 28 July 2025 e522 with Michael M and Andy – stories about AI in multiple forms: bees that listen, a cat that chats, and then some fun with animating fish you draw, a GameBoy you…
e521 — We Like Big Drives [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 29:35
Photo by benjamin lehman on Unsplash Published 21 July 2025 e521 with Andy, Michael and Michael – stories about expressive robots (Shoggoth Mini, Apple ELEGNT, SpiRob & facehugger), newly reengineered Commodore & Sinclai…