Mike M. – Page 94

I Tried to Play VR With Friends on Quest and it was a Nightmare (Again)

Feature, meta quest, multiplayer, News, VR Gaming, vr multiplayer / Mike M. / October 12, 2023

It feels like every time I try to get friends to have some fun in VR with me, the experience is somehow horribly painful. This time I kept a journal of the entire experience to catalogue the struggles seen by real Quest users every day.

The advent of Quest was supposed to streamline the usage of VR. But what was once friction of complicated hardware and requirements has been replaced with a mess of usability issues that make people not want to come back.

As much fun as I know it is to play VR with my friends, there’s a little part in the back of my mind that dreads it. I’m so used to telling my friends about some fun new VR game we can play together, only to have to drag them through a string of frustrating issues to finally reach the fun I had promised. It’s such a problem that I don’t ask my friends to play anything but the very best looking VR games with me, because the amount of struggle has to be offset by a great experience.

This week when I decided that the newly released Dungeons of Eternity looked good enough that I could convince my friends to give it a shot, that feeling of dread crept in again. I decided from the outset to keep journal of the experience because I knew there would be strife. There always is.

These Aren’t Novices

So let’s set the scene. I asked two of my good friends to play the game with me. Both are life-long hardcore gamers who own multiple consoles, have built their own PCs, and regularly seek out and play the latest non-VR games. Friend 1, let’s call him, has owned multiple PC VR headsets before getting Quest 2. On the other hand, Friend 2 got Quest 2 as their first VR headset.

Both have owned their Quest 2 for more than a year, but neither had used the headset in the last six months (after reading this journey you’ll understand why).

Imagine This, But Without Expert Guidance

And let’s be clear here. I’m a highly experience VR user and know the Quest headsets and their software inside and out. I knew there would be struggles for them, so I anticipated and offered to walk them through the process of getting everything set up. With me there, they skipped any amount of googling for solutions to the issues they encountered. No normal VR user gets the benefit of an expert holding their hand through the process. This is to say: the experience that you read here is the absolute best case scenario—and it was still a struggle.

I knew since they hadn’t used their Quests recently that the headsets would need to get plugged in charged, updated, and controller batteries replaced. I told them both from the outset to make sure this happened before our planned play session (had they not realized they needed their headsets updated, it would have meant our planned play session would have begun with at least 15 minutes of updates, restarts, and game installs). In anticipation of stumbles along the way, I got Friend 1 into voice chat to make the process as seamless as possible. Here’s how that went.

Put on his headset to update. Controllers weren’t working and neither was hand tracking.

Fix: I walked him through the process of using the ‘cursor’ and ‘up volume’ button as a mouse click (an input modality most people in my experience don’t know exists on the headset). I had an inkling that hand-tracking might be disabled on his headset, so I told him to go to Settings and enable it.

Didn’t know where to find settings.

Fix: Told him to “click on the clock” then hit Settings at the top right. Mind you, the Settings ‘button’ at the top right does not have any visual indication that it is in fact, a button. It easily could be mistaken for the label of the panel.

Didn’t know where to find hand-tracking option.

Fix: He wandered through multiple sections of the Settings until finding it

With hand-tracking enabled, it was easier to guide him to the Software Update section of the Settings and have him hit the ‘check for update’ button.

Headset updated and restarted, but controllers still weren’t working.

Fix: I guided him through the process of holding two buttons on the controller to make the power LED flash. Had to tell him where to find the LED on the upper ring of the controller (it’s invisible when not active). Concluded that batteries weren’t charged, so he replaced them.

Now he needed to install the game. He had already purchased it online but couldn’t find it in his headset.

Fix: I told him to find the Store search and pull up the game and click the install button.

As we were going through this process, Friend 1 asked me about Dungeons of Eternity: “is the multiplayer pretty seamless?” I told him I didn’t know because I hadn’t tried multiplayer yet. Drawing upon his past experiences of VR he responded, “I’m guessing the answer is no.”

Installed and Ready to Play, Right?

So we got through the process required just to get the game installed and ready to play. But the issues didn’t end there, and not just for Friend 1 but also for me.

I had the foresight to start a party call in the headset with both friends so we could be in constant communication if when things went wrong. If I hadn’t done this we would have ended up separated, communicating by text or phone while in the headset trying to get all of the following solved, and that would have been far worse.

But when I first sent the party call invite to both friends, Friend 2 joined and I could hear him for a few moments, but then I got dropped out of the call. Friend 1 said he never got a notification to join the call in the first place.

Ok, so I hung up the call and tried again. This time Friend 2 got in and we didn’t get dropped out, but Friend 2 still got no notification about the call. So I walked him through how to find the headset’s notification section, from which he was able to join the party call.

Ok so we’re talking. Now how to get my friends into the game with me? I opened the Quest menu and found my way to the party call where I was able to choose to bring the party to the game lobby. When I clicked the button to do so, both friends got a pop-up asking to travel to the game. “Awesome! Something is going to work!” I thought to myself.

Of course not. All three of us loaded into the game, but we weren’t connected together into a lobby. Ok, well at least we’re all in the game now, so let me try inviting them directly into the game instead of using the party travel system.

I opened the Quest menu, found the ‘invite’ button on the game panel, and when I clicked it, nothing appeared. I knew a list of friends should have appeared, but there was simply nothing. I backed out of the menu and tried again. Nothing appeared. This wasn’t even a blank page… just… air.

Attempting to invite my friends to the game. After the normal invite button was broken I searched for invite buttons elsewhere but didn’t find any | Note: While attempting to retrieve this video from my headset, the Gallery section of the Quest smartphone app bugged out and had to be force-quit before the video would appear.

At this point my friends were getting impatient just standing around in their uncomfortable headsets. So I tell them both to run through the tutorial separately, and we’d all meet up when that was done.

In the meantime, I tried going through the party call interface to pull up each friend’s Quest profile to see if I could invite them that way. This is very standard stuff for every other game platform… navigate to a friend’s profile and click an invite button. But I could only call or message them from there. I also went to the ‘People’ tab in the Quest menu to see if I could find them on my friends list and invite them that way. Nada.

Ok so I quit and relaunched the game. Upon trying the regular invite process again, the invite panel actually appeared!

Can We Play Yet?

They had finished their tutorials, so I sent them both an invite. And get this: it actually worked and they loaded into my lobby! Finally. Finally we’re going to play the game together.

If only.

I told them to drop out of our party chat so we could use in-game spatial audio. But they couldn’t hear me.

Eventually I saw an error pop up in the game, “attempt to login to voice chat timed out.”

Luckily I recalled that the first time I launched the game several days prior it had asked for permission to ‘record audio’. Since I had selected Solo Mode to play the game by myself, I didn’t initially understand why the game would want to ‘record audio’, so I reflexively denied the permission.

That meant when we tried to use in-game chat, it couldn’t connect me. Fixing this meant going into the Settings to find App Permissions, then toggle the microphone permission for the specific game.

Now you might think ‘oh that’s just user error you obviously should have accepted the permission in the first place.’

And yet… no. This was a contextless permission request that goes against every modern guideline. I had opened the game to play it solo, not even thinking of its multiplayer component at the time. The permission was requested after I selected ‘Solo Play’. Why would a game want to ‘record audio’ in a single player mode?

Not only was this the wrong time to ask for the permission, the permission itself is unclear. ‘Record audio’ is very different than ‘transmit your voice for multiplayer chat’. Had the permission asked with that added context, I might have better understood what it was asking and why, even though it had asked at the wrong time.

Ok so the permission is sorted out. Then I had to restart the game. Of course that meant I also had to re-invite them to my lobby. I braced myself for disappointment when I clicked the button for the invite menu… alas, it actually appeared.

Found the Fun

After all of that—maybe 20 or 30 minutes of trying to get it all to work—we were finally standing next to each other in VR and also able to hear one another.

Perhaps the most frustrating part of all of this is how much it hides the magic of VR.

Within minutes, maybe even less then one minute, from launching into a mission together we were laughing together and having an absolute blast just screwing around in the very first room of the very first tutorial mission. Multiplayer VR is magical like that, especially with good friends. But it can be so painful to get there.

And here’s the kicker. Even though we had a really fun time together, the repeated pain of finally getting to the fun burns into the subconscious like a scar that doesn’t go away. It had been more than six months since I was able to convince them to play a VR game together. The next time I ask them to play with me again, I won’t be surprised if they say ‘nah let’s play a flat gam’.

– – — – –

And last but not least, it’s important to point out here that I’m not just ripping on Quest. I’m not saying other VR platforms do social better. I’m saying Quest doesn’t do it well enough.

Am I alone in this or have you had your own nightmares trying to play VR with friends? Drop a line in the comments below.

I Tried to Play VR With Friends on Quest and it was a Nightmare (Again) Read More »

Taiwan’s semiconductor suppliers plan to invest in European chip factories

Ecosystems, Insider / Mike M. / October 11, 2023

Amid the global race for semiconductor chips, Taiwanese suppliers are considering investing in Europe, the Financial Times reports.

“We are planning investments in Germany, and the European market is going to be ours,” Vincent Liu, president and chief executive of LCY Group, told the newspaper. The company supplies cleaning agents and solvents to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) — the world’s biggest contract chipmaker.

Alongside LCY Group, three more chemicals suppliers to TSMC said they’re eyeing investments in Europe.

The interest appears to be related to the emergence of the first advanced chip factories in the bloc — a move supported by the EU’s Chips Act, which aims to mobilise €43bn in public and private investments. Its aim is to ultimately bring the union’s share in global production capacity from 10% to 20% by 2030.

Under the scheme, the EU is offering subsidies to incentivise foreign chip manufacturers to set up factories within its borders. Intel, for example, has pledged to invest €30bn in two chip plants in Germany, while it’s planning to build a €4.6bn semiconductor assembly and testing facility in Poland.

Meanwhile, TSMC has teamed up with European chipmakers Infineon and NXP and auto supplier Bosh to build a €10bn chip plant in Germany. Multinational chipmaker GlobalFoundries and European chip company STMicroelectronics are also planning a €5.7bn factory in France.

“The global race for leadership in chips is a fact and Europe must secure her active part in it,” said Věra Jourová, the Commission’s VP for Values and Transparency, when the Chips Act came into force in September.

Establishing domestic production and strengthening the supply chain will indeed be critical for the EU’s aim to tackle its heavy reliance on a few foreign suppliers, China and Taiwan for manufacturing, and the US for design.

And while experts claim semiconductor independence is “impossible” for the EU (and for any other country for that matter), such investments would in all certainty help boost the bloc’s competitiveness in the sector.

Published October 11, 2023 – 2: 48 pm UTC

Taiwan’s semiconductor suppliers plan to invest in European chip factories Read More »

Google’s AI could soon consume as much electricity as Ireland, study finds

Corporates and innovation, Deep tech / Mike M. / October 11, 2023

Amid the debate over the dangers of widespread AI development, an important concern may have been overlooked: the huge amount of energy required to train these large language models.

A new study published this week suggests that the AI industry could consume as much energy as a country like Argentina, Netherlands, or Sweden by 2027. What’s more, the research estimates that if Google alone switched its whole search business to AI, it would end up using 29.3 terawatt-hours per year — equivalent to the electricity consumption of Ireland.

The paper was published by Alex de Vries at the VU Amsterdam School of Business and Economics.

In 2021, Google’s total electricity consumption was 18.3 TWh, with AI accounting for 10%–15% of it. However, the tech giant is rapidly scaling the AI parts of its business, most notably with the launch of its Bard chatbot, but also the integration of AI into its search engine.

However, the scenario stipulated by the study assumes full-scale AI adoption utilising current hardware and software, which is unlikely to happen rapidly, said de Vries. One of the main hurdles to such widespread adoption is the limited supply of graphics processing units (GPUs) powerful enough to process all that data.

While entirely hypothetical, the study casts light on an often unstated impact of scaling up AI technologies. Data centres already use between 1-1.3% of all the world’s electricity and adding AI to existing applications like search engines could rapidly increase the share.

“It would be advisable for developers not only to focus on optimising AI, but also to critically consider the necessity of using AI in the first place, as it is unlikely that all applications will benefit from AI or that the benefits will always outweigh the costs,” advised de Vries.

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Croatia wants to turn this superhot underground lake into a 16MW geothermal power plant

Corporates and innovation, Government and policy, Startups and technology, Sustainability / Mike M. / October 11, 2023

A Croatian energy company has discovered an underwater lake of superheated water that could supply the country’s far north with clean geothermal electricity.

The find was the result of a two-year study by state-run power company Bukotermal that sought to find suitable sites for the exploitation of the energy source, generated by heat from the Earth’s core.

The research verified the presence of a geothermal water source at Lunjkovec – Kutnjak field, located in the Varazdin County, close to the border with Hungary. The underground lake, located at a depth of 2.4 kilometres, has an average temperature of 142.03 degrees Celsius.

Varazdin County confirmed on Tuesday that the site meets all the requirements for the construction of a 16MW geothermal power plant. That’s enough energy to supply tens of thousands of homes.

To date, over €2.5mn has been invested in the project. However, according to Alen Pozgaj, CEO of Bukotermal, the total cost to build the plant would be around €50mn.

The news comes just days after the Croatian Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development awarded five licences for the exploration of geothermal waters to firms from Croatia, the United Kingdom, and Turkey.

The tender was issued by the Croatian Hydrocarbon Agency, has a value of over €40mn, and concerns five areas in the region’s north and northeast that already have existing wells, a legacy from retired oil and gas operations. Tapping these wells means companies don’t have to drill new ones, cutting the risk and costs for investors, said the Ministry.

Croatia has been ramping up efforts to exploit its extensive geothermal resources in recent years as it looks to wean itself off imported fossil fuels. The Balkan state, as well as its neighbours Hungary and Slovenia, sits on a geologically active area known as the Pannonian region. In this area, the water is boiling a little more than a mile down and gets hotter the deeper a well is drilled.

“Based on an extensive database, we know that the Pannonian area has perfect conditions for development of geothermal business, with geothermal gradient 60% higher than the European average,” Marijan Krpan, the head of the Croatian Hydrocarbon Agency’s (CHA) managing board, told Reuters.

In the EU, Italy is by far the largest electricity producer from geothermal energy with some 915MW capacity, followed by Germany (38MW) and Portugal (30MW). While Croatia’s installed capacity is much lower, but the government has committed hot water pools have the potential to supply one-third of the country with clean electricity if harnessed.

There are already projects underway in the country that pump hot water from under the ground to heat entire towns, and farmers are using the technology to warm their greenhouses. The country’s first geothermal power plant was put into operation in 2019.

The Velika Ciglena power plant has 10MW of installed capacity, which corresponds to the average consumption of 29,000 Croatian households. That’s equivalent to about the electricity generated by about 94 football fields of solar panels, on a plot of land that is less than a tenth that size.

The Velika Ciglena power plant pulls hot water from under the ground and uses the steam to spin turbines, generating 10MW of clean electricity. Credit: Truboden

The facility’s core technology was produced by Italy’s Truboden. The plant pumps hot water that has been heated by the energy of the earth’s core to the surface through a pipeline drilled two kilometres into the ground. The heat is used to make steam that spins turbines, generating electricity. Then the cooled water is pumped back down into the ground.

For backers of the technology, geothermal energy presents a source of 24/7 power that is more consistent than wind and solar, and less vulnerable to weather extremes — like hydropower dams that are sometimes forced to shut off entirely during periods of drought.

But there is wide variability from site to site, drilling wells is expensive, and often it’s impossible to know in advance whether a drill hole will yield good enough water. That can scare off investors. Using existing wells previously used for oil and gas exploration is one solution to cost-cutting, which is exactly the approach Croatia is currently taking.

For now, Bukotermal has a six-month timeframe to propose how it will exploit the newly discovered geothermal pool. The company plans to construct one or more geothermal power plants and heat utilisation facilities at the site, with construction expected to start within two years time.

Croatia wants to turn this superhot underground lake into a 16MW geothermal power plant Read More »

Cambridge aims to double its unicorns, plans support scheme for founders

Ecosystems, Startups and technology / Mike M. / October 11, 2023

Home to over 5,300 high tech companies, Cambridge is among the world’s leading university-based ecosystems. Ranked as the third most important science hub globally in 2022, the city counts 23 unicorns and its university-backed startups have raised over £3bn in research investment.

Now, Cambridges aims to more than double its unicorns by 2035 under a new scheme led by a partnership of local universities, government bodies, and industry players including Microsoft and AstraZeneca.

Announced today, the Innovate Cambridge initiative will seek to support business growth and double the number of multinational companies in the area to 40. The initiative has also partnered with Manchester to foster innovation in both cities, and create local hubs to facilitate the relationship between researchers and entrepreneurs.

Meanwhile, earlier this week, the University of Cambridge launched a new flagship programme to support spinout founders in their scaling and commercialisation journey. The initiative will combine capital, networks, and talent, while it will focus on founders (mainly active in deep tech) whose products are solving world-pressing problems such as the climate crisis and aging population.

Founders who join the programme are expected to raise over £700mn in the first five years.

“Cambridge already has a global reputation for producing world-leading technology businesses such as ARM Holdings, Darktrace, FeatureSpace, and Healx,” said Gerard Grech, the initiative’s managing director and former CEO of Tech Nation. “Creating fertile pathways for our top innovators to bring their game-changing solutions to market is vital.”

Both programmes are a breath of fresh air for the UK government, whose ambition to turn Cambrigde into “the science capital of Europe” has been facing a series of hurdles.

Earlier this year, housing secretary Michael Gove unveiled a £5mn “Cambridge 2040 Plan” in response to the problems delaying the city’s growth. But that plan has been hindered not only by local opposition to residential construction, but also by insufficient water and transport infrastructure.

“Cambridge needs to provide for its high tech growth,” Lord David Willets, the chair of Innovate Cambridge, told the Financial Times. “The good news is that it is already in the planning system. The bad news is actually getting all this through is tricky with a whole range of issues.”

Published October 11, 2023 – 12: 58 pm UTC

Cambridge aims to double its unicorns, plans support scheme for founders Read More »

5 space-age technologies that the EU just launched into orbit

Deep tech, Insider / Mike M. / October 10, 2023

A new EU mission has sent some suitably space-age tech into the cosmos. On a Vega rocket that launched from the European spaceport in French Guyana on Monday, the union sent six satellites and nine experiments into orbit for testing.

The programme aims to boost the EU’s space sector and broader tech innovations. According to the bloc, the mission is “closing the gap between the development of a technology and its commercialisation.”

That may prove a tricky task, as some of the concepts are straight out of a sci-fi movie. Here are our five favourite projects getting the in-orbit testing.

1. A ‘plasma brake’ to deorbit satellites

A mini satellite built by Estonian students will demonstrate de-orbiting with plasma brakes.

Named ESTCube2, the device uses an electric sail to repel plasma, which creates a drag to slow down dead satellites. As a result, the space junk loses altitude and burns up in the atmosphere — before causing a disaster.

The tech could even one day power spacecraft without fuel.

We dug into the details in a separate article. Click here for our full report on the cosmic decelerator.

A person holding the EST Cube-2 satellite — The ESTCube-2 is around the size of a shoebox. Credit: University of Tartu

2. A squad of satellites studying water

INTA, a Spanish research organisation, has supplied a novel water monitoring system.

The mission uses a cluster of minituarised satellites known as cubesats. Flying in formation, the cubesats will harness spectrometry to study the water quality of reserves in the Iberian Peninsula.

3. A plasma jetpack

Plasma is getting a lot of love from EU space boffins. Joining the brake in orbit is a plasma jetpack, which offers low-cost propulsion for small satellites.

Comat's plasma jet-pack — The jetpack is built to last for at least five years. Credit: Comat

The jetpack was created by Comat, a French space equipment manufacturer. By testing the kit in orbit, Comat plans to show the system can power satellites of between 15 and 30kg.

4. A mini star tracker

Another Spanish contribution is a mini star tracker. The device is the brainchild of Solar Mems, an aerospace firm based in Seville.

The tracker is designed for “attitude determination,” which calculates the orientation of spacecraft. Space will provide a true test of the system’s accuracy.

5. Radiation sensors

Two different radiation sensors will be put through their orbital paces.

One was invented at KU Leuven, Belgium’s highest-ranked university. Named RADIOX, the sensor applies an electronic memory, which monitors errors due to energetic particles. Radiation intensity is detected by measuring the number of errors in the memory.

The second sensor is the Spacepix Radiation Monitor (SXRM). Created by Esc Aerospace, a Czech aerospace company, the system is a radiation detector. In an orbital radiation field, the detector will measure the flux of electrons, protons, and heavy ions.

A photo of the Vega rocket launching — Credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace

EU officials have high hopes for the mission. They claim it will be the final step before the tech enters the market.

“It is demonstrating, once more, that the EU is playing an active role in space,” said Thierry Breton, the EU’s internal market commissioner.

“This is a concrete example of how we are supporting innovation, scientific knowledge, and the competitiveness of the European space industry and space startups.”

5 space-age technologies that the EU just launched into orbit Read More »

Even world’s biggest offshore wind farm can’t mask UK’s green energy failures

Government and policy, Next Featured, Sustainability / Mike M. / October 10, 2023

The world’s largest offshore wind farm has started exporting power to the UK grid after its first turbine came online this weekend.

The Dogger Bank Wind Farm, currently under construction in the North Sea, will comprise a total of 277 turbines once complete in 2026. The huge plant is expected to churn out 3.6GW of power — enough for 6 million UK homes.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak hailed the milestone as a boost to energy security and job creation. “Offshore wind is critical to generating renewable, efficient energy that can power British homes from British seas,” he said.

Dogger Bank is an attractive location for offshore wind farms because it is located far away from shore, avoiding complaints about the visual impact of wind turbines. The scheme is central to the government’s plan to ramp up offshore wind capacity from 13.7GW to 50GW by 2030 — enough energy to power every home in the country.

China (49%), the United Kingdom (22%), and Germany (13%) currently account for more than 75% of global offshore wind installed capacity.

While positive news for the UK’s energy transition, the powering up of Dogger Bank comes amid a watering down of climate policy by the country’s Conservative government.

Restrictions on onshore wind and solar

In the latest move against renewable energy projects, Sunak is planning to clamp down on solar panel installations across British farmland, which campaigners say will stall the UK’s green transition and raise bills, the Observer reported this week.

Under the plans, solar farms could be blocked by local authorities if officials believe a prospective project could “put food security at risk.” Downing Street is expected to cite food shortages in Europe and the war in Ukraine to justify the decision, with environment secretary Therese Coffey also reportedly backing the move.

The proposal will no doubt be welcomed by many Conservative MPs and rural residents, who have been campaigning against new solar farm developments, such as the proposed Sunnica Energy Farm, for years.

Despite concerns, ground-mounted solar panels currently cover just 0.1% of all land in the UK. Even government plans to significantly scale up solar in line with its net-zero target are expected to bring this up to just 0.3% of the UK land area.

Your regular reminder that solar farms take up less of the UK than golf courseshttps://t.co/hyoP2pvG9G pic.twitter.com/MJnvNB4KNx

— Simon Evans (@DrSimEvans) October 7, 2023

“Solar energy will help us move away from polluting fossil fuels, and in the long term protect UK farming from climate breakdown. Restricting ground-mounted solar would be gravely short-sighted,” Lydia Collas, senior policy analyst at Green Alliance, told the Guardian.

Some even took to social media to express their dismay at the proposal. “I guess Rishi’s rich landowner mates don’t want their country views spoiled,” said one commenter on Reddit. Another user rightly pointed out that you can easily farm and generate power on the same land — a system known as agrivoltaics.

The plans threaten to stifle the growth of solar power in the country by making it harder for new projects to gain planning permission.

It follows an almost decade-long policy that effectively banned the installation of new onshore wind turbines, one of the cheapest sources of electricity currently available.

The UK government’s aversion to onshore wind dates back to David Cameron’s stance in 2015, which Sunak vowed to uphold when he ran for the Tory leadership last year. Sunak said at the time that he instead wanted to pursue offshore wind due to the “distress and disruption” onshore wind farms can cause to local residents.

Even though the de facto ban was relaxed last month, onshore wind in England still faces higher planning barriers than anything else, including new coal mines, according to climate advocacy group Possible.

The point of all of this is that British policymakers are effectively stalling the energy transition by tying up key onshore renewable energy projects in the slow (and often right-leaning) legislative processes of local authorities.

This seemingly contradicts the UK’s future energy commitments, which aim to ramp up onshore wind and solar from, respectively, 14.5GW and 13.8GW today to 35GW and 53GW by 2035.

Sunak’s anti-green agenda

Unfortunately though, the restrictions on new onshore wind and solar imposed by the UK government are pretty on brand.

In a speech on September 20, Rishi Sunak promised a “new approach” that in effect significantly waters down Britain’s climate policy.

In that speech, Sunak announced that the 2030 phase-out of new petrol and diesel cars will be pushed back to 2035, as well as weakening the 2035 gas boiler phase-out, confirming it will apply to far fewer homes.

Moving too fast on green policies, he said, “risks losing the consent of the British people.”

The move came just two months after the UK controversially granted 100 new licenses for oil and gas exploration and production in the North Sea.

Sunak has since faced mounting criticism for his alleged anti-green agenda, including from those within his own party.

Former US Vice President Al Gore described the changes as “shocking and disappointing” and “not what the world needs from the United Kingdom.” Britain’s weakening of climate policies comes at a time when extreme weather events are becoming more frequent across the world, including the UK, as a result of global heating. Only through the swift rollout of a variety of renewables can we avert even greater disaster, urge scientists.

Even world’s biggest offshore wind farm can’t mask UK’s green energy failures Read More »

What’s behind TikTok’s #lazygirljobs trend — and do you actually want one?

Future of Work / Mike M. / October 10, 2023

Earlier this year, TikToker Gabrielle Judge, aka the “anti-work girlboss,” posted a now-viral two and a half minute video.

The subject was the “Lazy Girl Job,” which captured the imagination of viewers to such an extent that Judge’s video now has more than 345,000 views. The concept then took on a life of its own and has spawned the proliferation of the #lazygirljobs hashtag, which has rocketed past 17 million views on the platform.

Judge was quick to quantify what a lazy girl job actually is. “A lazy girl job is basically something you can just quiet quit […] There’s lots of jobs out there where you could make, like, 60 to 80k, and not do that much work and be remote.”

Not working unsociable hours, and having time for childcare are two elements she flags as being essential to the quintessential lazy girl job, which, she says is more easily found in non-technical tech jobs, such as marketing associates, account managers, or customer success roles.

Typically these jobs offer decent pay and equity in the company. They’re safe, and represent, “an easy job that is extremely flexible,” Judge says. But, as the name suggests, this is a concept that is gendered, and without proper examination could be misconstrued as women wanting to sit back and be carried in the workplace.

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After decades of women striving to be treated equally, the gender pay gap in the EU stood at 12.7% in 2021, meaning women earn 13% on average less per hour than men. Given that context, it is important to consider that the idea of the lazy girl job is actually a reaction to the grind culture that has beset the workplace over the past number of years.

Judge has clarified that the term is not actually about laziness, or what she calls “mouse jiggling”—also known as being present, but doing little.

Reasonable responsibilities and expectations

Where Millennial workers popularised the idea of side hustles, and working all the hours there are, Gen Z is pushing back against these expectations. This cohort of workers want careers that support their work-life balance—and which don’t leave them wrung out at the end of the day.

Reframed in this way, there’s a lot to recommend a lazy girl job, for all genders. Or, as it is otherwise known, a job with reasonable responsibilities and expectations, decent pay and a manageable level of stress.

While Judge is from the US, and operating in an environment where paid time off, maternity leave, and social security protections are significantly less than those enjoyed by European workers, employees on this side of the Atlantic are also burned out and looking for better work options.

After a pandemic period where 44% of workers said that their work stress had increased as a result of the Covid-19 crisis, 46% said they’re being exposed to severe time pressure or work overload.

Work-related health issues have also increased in Europe, with 30% reporting at least one health problem such as overall fatigue, headaches, eyestrain, muscle problems or pain, caused or made worse by work.

Lack of engagement

That bloc-wide stress and fatigue has led to another trending topic: the phenomenon of quiet quitting, which is what happens when employees put in the minimum amount of effort to keep their jobs and get paid, but never go above and beyond.

McKinsey data has found that this is happening in Europe, and that workplace engagement is poor here too. It also says that 79% of Europeans who report low levels of engagement or support factors are likely to leave their jobs.

What workers want, says McKinsey, is more workplace flexibility, as well as a physically and psychologically safe workplace. According to Amy Edmondson, the Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at Harvard Business School, this, “means an absence of interpersonal fear. When psychological safety is present, people are able to speak up with work-relevant content.”

That sounds a lot like an engaged workforce—which really matters, because employees who are engaged with their roles are committed to not only their work, but are also more invested in their company’s success.

If that sounds good to you, browse for a new role with great pay and meaningful work on The House of Talent Job Board now

What’s behind TikTok’s #lazygirljobs trend — and do you actually want one? Read More »

Gaia spacecraft finds new jigsaw pieces for puzzle of the Universe

Deep tech, Government and policy / Mike M. / October 10, 2023

The Gaia spacecraft has unearthed a new treasure trove of secrets about our galaxy — and beyond.

The European Space Agency (ESA) mission plans to produce the largest, most precise 3D map of the Milky Way. To achieve this lofty goal, Gaia is surveying almost 2 billion celestial objects.

Using two optical telescopes, the satellite is monitoring their motions, luminosity, temperature, and computation. Every observation could unravel new details about Earth and the surrounding Universe.

The new release fills in some big gaps in the maps.

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Gaia had already provided a pretty comprehensive view of the Milky Way and beyond — but some areas of sky required further exploration.

Regions that are densely packed with stars required particular attention. One notable example is globular clusters.

This image shows a star cluster set against a dark background. The further in towards the cluster’s centre, the higher the density of stars. — A star cluster set against a dark background. The density of stars grows higher towards the cluster’s centre. Credit: ESA/Gaia/DPAC

Globular clusters are among the oldest objects in the universe, which makes them valuable sources for our cosmic history. Telescopes, however, struggle to scrutinise their bright cores crammed with stars.

To find new jigsaw piexes in the puzzle, Gaia targeted Omega Centauri — the largest globular cluster that’s viewable from Earth.

Typically, the spacecraft would focus on individual stars. But in this case, the observatory surveyed a wider stretch of sky around Omega Centauri core, which was mapped whenever the cluster came into view.

The technique exposed over half a million new stars in space — all within a single cluster.

This slider image compares two views of a star cluster, which appears as a collection of bright stars against a dark background. On the left, the roughly circular cluster appears like a doughnut with an empty centre. On the right, this emptiness has been filled, with so many stars present that the core appears to be almost solidly bright rather than comprising individual stars. — Two Gaia views of Omega Centauri. On the left, the cluster to have an empty centre. On the right, the space is filled with so many stars present that the core appears almost completely bright. Credit: ESA/Gaia/DPAC

With the new data, scientists can study the cluster’s structure, as well as the distribution and movements of the constituent stars. Together, these details could produce a complete large-scale map of Omega Centauri.

“It’s using Gaia to its full potential — we’ve deployed this amazing cosmic tool at maximum power,” Alexey Mints, a member of the Gaia collaboration, said in a statement.

In fact, the findings exceed the initial objectives for Gaia. To discover the stars, the researchers used an observing mode that was designed only to keep the spacecraft’s instruments running smoothly.

“We didn’t expect to ever use it for science, which makes this result even more exciting,” said the study’s lead author, Katja Weingrill, a researcher at the Leibniz-Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP).

Gaia is now using the technique to explore eight more regions. The results will deepen our understanding of what happens in the ancient bodies.

According to ESA, the data will help scientists confirm our galaxy’s age, locate its centre, and determine whether it ever experienced any collisions.

Astronomers could also verify changes to stars and constrains models of galactic evolution. They could even infer the possible age of the Universe.

This image shows the plane of the Milky Way cutting horizontally across the frame, with many colourful dots overlaid – each representing a star. The dots are either red, green or blue, with the colour representing the star’s type and motion (the larger and darker the dot, the more the star’s velocity is changing throughout its cycle). — The plane of the Milky Way cutting horizontally across the frame. Each colourful dot that’s overlaid represents a star, with the colours representing the star’s type and motion. Credit: ESA/Gaia/DPAC

Another new finding from Gaia concerns gravitational lenses.

These lenses form when a large quantity of matter, such as a galaxy cluster, sits between Earth and a distant light source. The mass then creates a multiple-image effect.

By studying the configurations, scientists can uncover new information about the Universe’s history.

Gaia revealed that certain objects in gravitational lenses aren’t what they appear to be. While the bodies look like stars, they’re actually distant lensed quasars — extremely bright, energetic galactic cores powered by black holes.

“With this data release, Gaia is the first mission to achieve an all-sky survey of gravitational lenses at high resolution,” said Laurent Galluccio, a member of the Gaia collaboration.

This image shows many looping and overlapping orbits encircling the Sun, all of different colours (to differentiate between asteroids). The centre of the image – representing an area within the orbit of Jupiter – is very densely packed with orbits, while the outer edges remain clearer, showing the background plane of the Milky Way. — The looping and overlapping orbits encircling the Sun have different colours to differentiate between asteroids. Credit: ESA/Gaia/DPAC

Further studies published today pinpointed the positions of asteroids and mapped the disc of the Milky Way. Another paper characterises the dynamics of 10,000 pulsating and binary red giant stars.

“This data release further demonstrates Gaia’s broad and fundamental value – even on topics it wasn’t initially designed to address,” said Timo Prusti, Project Scientist for Gaia at ESA.

“Although its key focus is as a star surveyor, Gaia is exploring everything from the rocky bodies of the Solar System to multiply imaged quasars lying billions of light-years away, far beyond the edges of the Milky Way.”

Gaia spacecraft finds new jigsaw pieces for puzzle of the Universe Read More »

Apple’s Approach to Immersive VR on Vision Pro is Smarter Than it Seems—And Likely to Stick

apple vision pro, News, vision pro full screen, vision pro immersive space, vision pro immersive vr, vision pro vr / Mike M. / October 8, 2023

One of the most interesting things about Vision Pro is the way Apple is positioning its fully immersive capabilities. While many have interpreted the company’s actions as relegating VR to an afterthought, the reality is much more considered.

Vision Pro is somewhat ironic. It’s an incredibly powerful and capable VR headset, but Apple has done extensive work to make the default mode feel as little like being in VR as possible. This is of course what’s called ‘passthrough AR’, or sometimes ‘mixed reality’. We’re not quite there yet, but it’s clear that in Apple’s ideal world when you first put on the headset it should feel like nothing around you has even changed.

Apple doesn’t want Vision Pro to take over your reality… at least not all the time. It has gone to extensive lengths to try to seamlessly blend virtual imagery into the room around you. When floating UI panels are created, the are not only subtly transparent (to reveal the real world behind them), but the system even estimates the room’s lighting to cast highlights and shadows on the panels to make them look like they’re really floating there in front of you. It’s impressively convincing.

But none of this negates the fact that Vision Pro is a powerful VR headset. In my hands-on demo earlier this year, Apple clearly showed the headset is not only capable of fully immersive VR experiences, but that VR is a core capability of the platform. It even went so far as to add the ‘digital crown’ dial on the top of the headset to make it easy for people to transition between passthrough AR and a fully immersive view.

Much of the commentary surrounding Vision Pro focused on the fact that Apple never actually said the words “virtual reality,” and how the headset lacks the kind of dedicated controllers that are core to most VR headsets today. It was reasoned that this is because the company doesn’t really want Vision Pro to have anything to do with VR.

As I’ve had more time to process my experience of using the headset and my post-demo discussions with some of the people behind the product, it struck me that Apple doesn’t want to avoid fully immersive VR, it’s actually embracing it—but in a way that’s essentially the opposite of what we seen in most other headsets today. And frankly, I think their way is probably the approach the entire industry will adopt.

To understand that, let’s think about Meta’s Quest headsets. Though things might be changing soon with the release of Quest 3, up to this point the company has essentially used VR as the primary mode on its headsets, while passthrough AR was a sort of optional and occasional bonus mode—something apps only sometimes used, or something the user has to consciously toggle on.

On Vision Pro, Apple is doing the reverse. Passthrough AR is the default mode. But fully immersive VR is not being ignored; to the contrary, the company is treating VR as the most focused presentation of content on the headset.

In short, Apple is treating VR like a ‘full-screen’ mode for Vision Pro; the thing you consciously enable when you want to rid yourself of other distractions and get lost in one specific piece of media.

If you think about it, that’s exactly how we use full-screen on our computers and phones today.

Not every application on my computer launches in full-screen and removes my system UI or hides my other windows. In fact, the majority of apps on my computer don’t work this way. Most of the time I want to see my taskbar and my desktop and the various windows and controls that I use to manipulate data on my screen.

But if I’m going to watch a movie or play a game? Full-screen, every time.

That’s because these things are focused experiences where we don’t want to be distracted by anything else. We want to be engrossed by them so we remove the clutter and even let the application hide the mouse and give us a custom interface to better blend it with the media we’re about to engage with.

In the same way that you wouldn’t want every application on your computer to be in full-screen mode—with its own interface and style—Apple doesn’t think every application on your headset should be that way either.

Most should follow familiar patterns and share common interface language. And most do not need to be full-screen (or immersive). In fact, some things not only don’t benefit from being more immersive, in some cases they are made worse. I don’t need a fully immersive environment to view a PDF or spreadsheet. Nor do I need to get rid of all of my other windows and data if I want to play a game of chess. All of those things can still happen, but they don’t need to be my one and only focus.

Most apps can (and should) work seamlessly alongside each other. It’s only when we want that ‘full-screen’ experience that we should give an app permission to take over completely and block out the rest.

And that’s how Apple is treating fully immersive VR on Vision Pro. It isn’t being ignored; the company is simply baking-in the expectation that people don’t want their apps ‘full-screen’ all the time. When someone does want to go full-screen, it’s always a conscious opt-in action, rather than opt-out.

As for the dial on the top of the headset—while some saw this as evidence that Apple wants to make it quick and easy for people to escape fully immersive VR experiences on the headset, I’d argue the company sees the dial as a two way street: it’s both an ‘enter full-screen’ and ‘exit full-screen’ button—the same we expect to see on most media apps.

Ultimately, I think the company’s approach to this will become the norm across the industry. Apple is right: people don’t want their apps full-screen by all the time. Wanting to be fully immersed in one thing is the exception, not the rule.

Apple’s Approach to Immersive VR on Vision Pro is Smarter Than it Seems—And Likely to Stick Read More »

The Biggest Announcements at Meta Connect and What it All Means for the Future of XR

Connect 2023, Feature, Meta, meta connect 2023, News, VR Industry / Mike M. / October 5, 2023

Meta Connect 2023 has wrapped up, bringing with it a deluge of info from one of the XR industry’s biggest players. Here’s a look at the biggest announcements from Connect 2023, but more importantly, what it all means for the future of XR.

Last week marked the 10th annual Connect conference, and the first Connect conference after the Covid pandemic to have an in-person component. The event originally began as Oculus Connect in 2014. Having been around for every Connect conference, it’s amazing when I look around at just how much has changed and how quickly it all flew by. For those of you who have been reading and following along for just as long—I’m glad you’re still on this journey with us!

So here we are after 10 Connects. What were the big announcements and what does it all mean?

Meta Quest 3

Obviously, the single biggest announcement is the reveal and rapid release of Meta’s latest headset, Quest 3. You can check out the full announcement details and specs here and my hands-on preview with the headset here. The short and skinny is that Quest 3 is a big hardware improvement over Quest 2 (but still being held back by its software) and it will launch on October 10th starting at $500.

Quest 3 marks the complete dissolution of Oculus—the VR startup that Facebook bought back in 2014 to jump-start its entrance into XR. It’s the company’s first headset to launch following Facebook’s big rebrand to Meta, leaving behind no trace of the original and very well-regarded Oculus brand.

Apples and Oranges

On stage at Connect, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg called Quest 3 the “first mainstream mixed reality headset.” By “mainstream” I take it he meant ‘accessible to the mainstream’, given its price point. This was clearly in purposeful contrast to Apple’s upcoming Vision Pro which, to his point, is significantly less accessible given its $3,500 price tag. Though he didn’t mention Apple by name, his comments about accessibility, ‘no battery pack’, and ‘no tether’ were clearly aimed at Vision Pro.

Mixed Marketing

Meta is working hard to market Quest 3’s mixed reality capabilities, but for all the potential the feature has, there is no killer app for the technology. And yes, having the tech out there is critical to creating more opportunity for such a killer app to be created, but Meta is substantially treating its developers and customers as beta testers of this technology. The ‘market it and they will come’ approach that didn’t seem to pan out too well for Quest Pro.

Personally I worry about the newfangled feature being pushed so heavily by Meta that it will distract the body of VR developers who would otherwise better serve an existing customer base that’s largely starving for high-quality VR content.

Regardless of whether or not there’s a killer app for Quest 3’s improved mixed reality capabilities, there’s no doubt that the tech could be a major boon to the headset’s overall UX, which is in substantial need of a radical overhaul. I truly hope the company has mixed reality passthrough turned on as the default mode, so when people put on the headset they don’t feel immediately blind and disconnected from reality—or need to feel around to find their controllers. A gentle transition in and out of fully immersive experiences is a good idea, and one that’s well served with a high quality passthrough view.

Apple, on the other hand, has already established passthrough mixed reality as the default when putting on the headset, and for now even imagines it’s the mode users will spend most of their time in. Apple has baked this in from the ground-up, but Meta still has a long way to go to perfect it in their headsets.

Augments vs. Volumes

Several Connect announcements also showed us how Meta is already responding to the threat of Apple’s XR headset, despite the vast price difference between the offerings.

For one, Meta announced ‘Augments’, which are applets developers will be able to build that users can place in permanently anchored positions in their home in mixed reality. For instance, you could place a virtual clock on your wall and always see it there, or a virtual chessboard on your coffee table.

This is of course very similar to Apple’s concept of ‘Volumes’, and while Apple certainly didn’t invent the idea of having MR applets that live indefinitely in the space around you (nor Meta), it’s clear that the looming Vision Pro is forcing Meta to tighten its focus on this capability.

Meta says developers will be able to begin building ‘Augments’ on the Quest platform sometime next year, but it isn’t clear if that will happen before or after Apple launches Vision Pro.

Microgrestures

Augments aren’t the only way that Meta showed at Connect that it’s responding to Apple. The company also announced that its working on a system for detecting ‘microgestures’ for hand-tracking input—planned for initial release to developers next year—which look awfully similar to the subtle pinching gestures that are primarily used to control Vision Pro:

Again, neither Apple nor Meta can take credit for inventing this ‘microgesture’ input modality. Just like Apple, Meta has been researching this stuff for years, but there’s no doubt the sudden urgency to get the tech into the hands of developers is related to what Apple is soon bringing to market.

A Leg Up for Developers

Meta’s legless avatars have been the butt of many-a-joke. The company had avoided the issue of showing anyone’s legs because they are very difficult to track with an inside-out headset like Quest, and doing a simple estimation can result in stilted and awkward leg movements.

But now the company is finally adding leg estimation to its avatar models, and giving developers access to the same tech to incorporate it into their games and apps.

And it looks like the company isn’t just succumbing to the pressure of the legless avatar memes by spitting out the same kind of third-party leg IK solutions that are being used in many existing VR titles. Meta is calling its solution ‘generative legs’, and says the system leans on tracking of the user’s upper body to estimate plausibly realistic leg movements. A demo at Connect shows things looking pretty good:

It remains to be seen how flexible the system is (for instance, how will it look if a player is bowling or skiing, etc?).

Meta says the system can replicate common leg movements like “standing, walking, jumping, and more,” but also notes that there are limitations. Because the legs aren’t actually being tracked (just estimated) the generative legs model won’t be able to replicate one-off movements, like raising your knee toward your chest or twisting your feet at different angles.

Virtually You

The addition of legs coincides with another coming improvement to Meta’s avatar modeling, which the company is calling inside-out body tracking (IOBT).

While Meta’s headsets have always tracked the player’s head and hands using the headset and controllers, the rest of the torso (arms, shoulders, neck) was entirely estimated using mathematical modeling to figure out what position they should be in.

For the first time on Meta’s headsets, IOBT will actually track parts of the player’s upper body, allowing the company’s avatar model to incorporate more of the player’s real movements, rather than making guesses.

Specifically Meta says its new system can use the headset’s cameras to track wrist, elbows, shoulders, and torso positions, leading to more natural and accurate avatar poses. The IOBT capability can work with both controller tracking and controller-free hand-tracking.

Both capabilities will be rolled into Meta’s ‘Movement SDK’. The company says ‘generative legs’ will be coming to Quest 2, 3, and Pro, but the IOBT capability might end up being exclusive to Quest 3 (and maybe Pro) given the different camera placements that seem aimed toward making IOBT possible.

Calm Before the Storm, or Calmer Waters in General?

At Connect, Meta also shared the latest revenue milestone for the Quest store: more than $2 billion has been spent on games an apps. That means Meta has pocketed some $600 million from its store, while the remaining $1.4 billion has gone to developers.

That’s certainly nothing to sneeze at, and while many developers are finding success on the Quest store, the figure amounts to a slowdown in revenue momentum over the last 12 months, one which many developers have told me they’d been feeling.

The reason for the slowdown is likely a combination of Quest 2’s age (now three years old), the rather early announcement of Quest 3, a library of content that’s not quite meeting user’s expectations, and a still struggling retention rate driven by core UX issues.

Quest 3 is poised for a strong holiday season, but with its higher price point and missing killer app for the heavily marketed mixed reality feature, will it do as well as Quest 2’s breakout performance in 2021?

Continue on Page 2: What Wasn’t Announced »

The Biggest Announcements at Meta Connect and What it All Means for the Future of XR Read More »

A New Category of VR Game is Slowly Emerging Right Before Our Eyes

arm based locomotion, arm based movement, echo arena, echo ve, gorilla tag, lone echo, News, VR Gaming, VR Locomotion / Mike M. / October 5, 2023

The much lauded Echo VR might no longer be with us, but one of its innovations is living on in a new wave of VR games.

Echo VR (and its single-player counterpart, Lone Echo) were among the first major VR games to build a game around a virtual movement system based entirely on the player’s arm movement. While most VR games used (and continue to use) thumbsticks to allow players to glide around on their feet, the Echo games actually gave players no control over their feet, and instead had them floating around exclusively in zero-G environments with only their hands to push and pull themselves around the game space.

While other early VR games definitely contributed to the idea of arm-based movement rather than sliding thumbstick movement (shout-out to Lucid Trips Climbey, Sprint Vector and many more), the Echo games did a lot of heavy lifting to popularize this novel locomotion concept.

And from there, the idea has grown and evolved.

Gorilla Tag (2021), whose creator specifically says he was inspired by Echo VR, has become one of VR’s most popular games, bringing its spin on arm-based locomotion to a much wider audience. With that exposure, more and more players are learning how this particular way of moving in VR can be fun, making them more likely to try games with similar mechanics.

And this goes far beyond the smattering of Gorilla Tag clones you can find on Steam.

Nock (2022) went several steps further with a much faster type of sliding and gliding arm movement, while also weaving in bows and arrows, challenging players to both navigate and shoot with their hands in a continuous flow.

Space Ball (2023) took the Gorilla Tag movement and fused it with a Rocket League style game, letting players bound around the arena and launch themselves to dunk a huge ball into a hoop.

It’s not just multiplayer games either. Arm-based locomotion systems are popping up in single player adventures like Phantom Covert Ops (2020) which had a very literal take on arm-movement in VR—asking players to paddle themselves around in a covert kayak. It sounds silly on the surface, but there’s no doubt the game’s arm-based movement was both unique and successful.

In 2023 alone we’ve seen more arm-based movement games like No More Rainbows, Toss!, and Outta Hand. If you peruse the reviews of these games, you find a common theme of advice from reviewers: ‘if you liked Gorilla Tag, check this out!’. Clearly the players enjoying these games want more like them, with the desired similarity being the use of arms for movement.

And there’s more to come. One of the most intriguing upcoming Quest titles, Underdogs, takes the concept in a different direction, where a player brawls it out in a mech using their arms to pull themselves around the arena.

And in a truly full-circle moment, the creators of Gorilla Tag (which were inspired by Echo VR) are building a spiritual successor to Echo VR. Currently codenamed ‘Project A2’, the game will revisit arm-based movement in zero-G in an effort to revive the very game that popularized arm-based movement to so many in the first place.

It’s apparent that VR developers and players alike are beginning to find that controlling your arms with… your arms, is much more engaging than controlling your legs with… a thumbstick. I have a feeling that this new wave of games built entirely around arm-based movement is here to stay. The question on my mind is if they will remain as their own genre within VR, or perhaps come to define the way movement works in most VR games.

A New Category of VR Game is Slowly Emerging Right Before Our Eyes Read More »

Author name: Mike M.