<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" width="1024" height="683" src="https://gamesatwork.biz/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/benjamin-lehman-GNyjCePVRs8-unsplash-1024x683.jpg" alt="inside a hard drive" class="wp-image-4723" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/gamesatwork.biz/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/benjamin-lehman-GNyjCePVRs8-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/gamesatwork.biz/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/benjamin-lehman-GNyjCePVRs8-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=300%2C200&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/gamesatwork.biz/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/benjamin-lehman-GNyjCePVRs8-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C512&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/gamesatwork.biz/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/benjamin-lehman-GNyjCePVRs8-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/gamesatwork.biz/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/benjamin-lehman-GNyjCePVRs8-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1365&ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/gamesatwork.biz/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/benjamin-lehman-GNyjCePVRs8-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=150%2C100&ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/gamesatwork.biz/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/benjamin-lehman-GNyjCePVRs8-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=225%2C150&ssl=1 225w, https://i0.wp.com/gamesatwork.biz/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/benjamin-lehman-GNyjCePVRs8-unsplash-scaled.jpg?w=1600&ssl=1 1600w, https://i0.wp.com/gamesatwork.biz/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/benjamin-lehman-GNyjCePVRs8-unsplash-scaled.jpg?w=2400&ssl=1 2400w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@abject?utm_content=creditCopyText&#038;utm_medium=referral&#038;utm_source=unsplash">benjamin lehman</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/photos/black-and-silver-turntable-on-brown-wooden-table-GNyjCePVRs8?utm_content=creditCopyText&#038;utm_medium=referral&#038;utm_source=unsplash">Unsplash</a></figcaption></figure>
<p>Published 21 July 2025</p>
<p>e521 with Andy, Michael and Michael &#8211; stories about expressive robots (Shoggoth Mini, Apple ELEGNT, SpiRob & facehugger), newly reengineered Commodore & Sinclair computer reboots, Seagate’s 30TB drives and a whole lot more.</p>
<p>Andy, Michael and Michael get things rolling with a story about what went into creating the hero image for last week’s show notes.&nbsp; The team then turns to the Shoggoth Mini robot, and how it uses it’s antenna so expressively.&nbsp; Inspired by Apple’s ELEGNT robot lamp, and SpiRobs’s tentacle system, Matthieu Le Cauchois started building the Shoggoth Mini.&nbsp; Check out the links below for the videos and images to see how this robot interacts.&nbsp; After touching on a robotic instance of a facehugger from the Aliens movies, the co hosts turn back to the future.</p>
<p>If you are nostalgic for a Commodore 64 computer, it is your lucky day.&nbsp; Newly reengineered C-64s are available in several different models, and you won’t even need a cassette recorder or a floppy disk drive to load the software.&nbsp; Unless you really want to.&nbsp; After touching on a new version of the classic Sinclair ZX Spectrum, the co hosts marvel at the newly announced Seagate 30TB hard drives for $600. &nbsp;</p>
<p>Rounding out the show for this week are an article on dropped customer service calls and some 1985 retro MacPaint art.</p>
<p>What kind of emotion would you want your robot to show, and how would the robot express the emotion?&nbsp; Have your bots 🤖 drop our bots 🤖 a line at @gamesatwork_biz@mastodon.social (our home for now) and let us know!&nbsp;</p>
<p>These show notes were lovingly hand crafted by a real human, and not by a bot.&nbsp; All rights reserved.&nbsp; That’s our story and we’re sticking to it.</p>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Selected Links</strong></h2>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading has-medium-font-size"><strong>Generative Video &#8211; A How To</strong></h2>
<p>The Decoder post: <a href="https://the-decoder.com/googles-veo-3-video-generation-model-launches-on-gemini-api-with-a-hefty-price-tag/">Google&#8217;s Veo 3 video generation model launches on Gemini API with a hefty price tag</a></p>
<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" width="480" height="270" src="https://gamesatwork.biz/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Rotate_slowly_around_202507121352.gif" alt="Animated by Google Veo3 July 2025 with the following prompt: rotate slowly around the sphere in the image, then dive into it as you would with Google Earth. come into focus on a clear water ocean teeming with fish, octopi and lush green plants Original photo is of Josh Simpson’s 1998 #Megaportal glass artwork, a deep glass sphere that looks like a planet with a colorful atmosphere, air pockets and land masses." class="wp-image-4710"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">original photo by Michael Martine, Sandwich MA June 2025.  Veo3 animation July 2025.</figcaption></figure>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading has-medium-font-size"><strong>Robot Maker</strong></h2>
<p>Matthieu Le Cauchois blog post: <a href="https://www.matthieulc.com/posts/shoggoth-mini/">Shoggoth Mini</a></p>
<p>Apple Machine Learning blog post: <a href="https://machinelearning.apple.com/research/elegnt-expressive-functional-movement">ELEGNT: Expressive and Functional Movement Design for Non-Anthropomorphic Robot</a></p>
<p>Arxiv paper: <a href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/2303.09861">SpiRobs: Logarithmic Spiral-shaped Robots for Versatile Grasping Across Scales</a></p>
<p>Games at Work <a href="https://gamesatwork.biz/2025/02/10/e500-funfhundert-smooth-operator/">e500: fünfhundert smooth operator</a> (for discussion on the Apple Pixar robotic lamp)</p>
<p>Wikipedia entry: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horseshoe_crab">Horseshoe Crab</a></p>
<p>Robotshop community forum post: <a href="https://community.robotshop.com/forum/t/mechanical-facehugger-build/21164/52">the Facehugger</a></p>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading has-medium-font-size"><strong>Technology Old And New</strong></h2>
<p>Sixcolors post: <a href="https://sixcolors.com/link/2025/07/commodore-apple-and-the-early-computer-days/">Commodore, Apple, and the Early Computer Days</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.commodore.net">Commodore</a>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Mini-ITX post: <a href="https://www.mini-itx.com/store/c64x">We can build your Mini-ITX PC inside a Retro Commodore 64 Keyboard Chassis&#8230;</a></p>
<p>ESP32 Rainbow post: <a href="https://esp32rainbow.com">ESP32 Rainbow ZX Spectrum Reborn</a></p>
<p>TidBITS post: <a href="https://tidbits.com/2025/07/16/seagate-ships-30-tb-hard-drives-for-600/">Seagate Ships 30 TB Hard Drives for $600</a></p>
<p>Seagate press release: <a href="https://www.seagate.com/news/news-archive/seagate-ships-30tb-drives-to-meet-global-surge-in-data-center-ai-storage-demand-pr/">Seagate Ships 30TB Drives to Meet Global Surge in Data Center AI Storage Demand</a></p>
<p>IMDb entry: <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082136/">The Cannonball Run</a> (another big drive)</p>
<p>The Atlantic article: <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/06/customer-service-sludge/683340/">That Dropped Call With Customer Service? It Was On Purpose</a></p>
<p>Three sample MacPaint images from the <a href="http://decryption.net.au">decryption.net.au</a> blog </p>
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" src="https://blog.decryption.net.au/images/macpaint/dali.png " alt=""/></figure>
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" src="https://blog.decryption.net.au/images/macpaint/mac_market.png " alt=""/></figure>
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" src="https://blog.decryption.net.au/images/macpaint/planet.png " alt=""/></figure>
<p>Internet Archive: <a href="https://archive.org/details/mac_Zen_the_Art_of_Macintosh1986/page/n29/mode/2up">Zen & the art of the Macintosh : discoveries on the path to computer enlightenment</a> </p>
<div class="wp-block-post-author">
<div class="wp-block-post-author__avatar"><img alt='' src='https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/413b204bea2a9cb455940cdcb1580892e0777e4b07485d1ebbdf43db70375711?s=48&#038;d=retro&#038;r=g' srcset='https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/413b204bea2a9cb455940cdcb1580892e0777e4b07485d1ebbdf43db70375711?s=96&#038;d=retro&#038;r=g 2x' class='avatar avatar-48 photo' height='48' width='48' decoding='async'/></div>
<div class="wp-block-post-author__content">
<p class="wp-block-post-author__byline">Web 11.0 mashup junkie, and co-founder / co-host of the GamesAtWork.biz podcast. My views are my own.</p>
<p class="wp-block-post-author__name">Michael Martine</p>
</div>
</div>


Podurama

Home

Trending

Personal

Your Podcasts

New Episodes

My Files

Favourite Episodes

Tags (Folders)

Recently Played

Bookmarks

Followed Playlists

e521 — We Like Big Drives

Games At Work dot Biz

AI Chapters

AI Insights

Reviews