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
e520 — Cold Fusion Gaming [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 26:13
original photo, by Michael Martine, Sandwich MA June 2025. Animated by Google Veo3 July 2025 Published 14 July 2025 e520 with Michael, Andy and Michael – stories about AI advertising, still photo animation, anime agents,…
e519 — Clippy Kittens [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:56
Photo by Mike Stimpson on Unsplash Published 30 June 2025 e519 with Michael, Andy and Michael – stories about AI conversations with pets and people, LLM data retention, AI slop, Clippy-esque prompts, AI workloads in spac…
e518 — The Old Ones Are The Best [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 32:19
Photo by Boris Langvand on Unsplash Published 23 June 2025 e518 with Andy, Michael, and Michael – stories about Atari adjacent AI, a new Emotiv experience, Midjourney video magic, Bondi blue, visionOS persona improvement…
e517 — Where Every AI Knows Your Name [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 34:07
Photo by Hasnain Sikora on Unsplash Published 9 June 2025 e517 with Michael, Michael and Andy – stories about Atarino microcomputing, AI through movie and television metaphor, AR running, screens and zombies, Skyrim Gran…
e516 — Model Behavior [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:06
Photo by insung yoon on Unsplash Published 2 June 2025 e516 with Michael and Michael – AI prompts, browsers, model collapse & automation along with a teeny tiny pico Mac nano, and a whole lot more. While Andy is away, Mi…
e515 — Seeing Through Walls [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 28:52
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 conta…
e514 — Leroooooy Jenkins! [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 36:50
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 M…
e513 — Not Dead Yet [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 39:26
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…
e512 — Sounds Good, On Paper [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 26:58
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 mu…
e511 — Vibing in London [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 28:36
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, An…