Tag Archive for: marcus bronzy

Alcotraz

Alcotraz: Hide Your Beer!

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Marcus Bronzy recently attended Alcotraz pop up bar in London, the one place where you have to hide your beer! If you get found out by the guards there’s punishment!

This bar is a lot of fun, it’s definitely something different than what we have experienced before. It’s an immersive theatrical experience that gets you from the second that you arrive at the destination.

Alcotraz bar is inspired by Hollywood movies that have brought to life one of America’s most infamous prisons. Right in the heart of London. The bar is London’s very first immersive theatrical cocktail bar. It’s not an experience that stops once you get to the end, it’s a fully functional bar once it’s over. If you manage to escape the guards that is.

Alcotraz: Experience

Upon entering the venue you are given orange jumpsuits to get into the feel of Alcatraz. Then to get immersed further, you are thrown into real metallic cells. Making for an intimate place to perfectly enjoy a drink within an intimate environment.

When you’re sent to Alcotraz (or going there willingly) inmates (as you’re known) are sent into a world of exciting mischief as you smuggle in liquor. However, this is the liquor that will be used to make delicious cocktails, made entirely of your imagination! Why? As there isn’t a set of menus at Alcotraz, they’re all made up by the inmates!  Don’t forget this is a prison!

Alcotraz creates a range of tailored cocktails every night, it’s based on the liquor that is brought in by inmates. As well as your very own tastes. Again, just make sure that the warden doesn’t catch you! Don’t be too afraid though as there are some guards that are on the inside, on your side! They’ve got some creative ways of hiding contraband too, so take their advice!

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Alcotraz
Alcotraz

 All in all, we had a very enjoyable experience whilst at Alcotraz. Not Alcatraz, we don’t wanna go there!

To attend Alcotraz bar please click here!

To listen to the guys talking about Alcotraz please click here!

True Tone

iPhone True Tone Display

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What’s the benefit of this? It makes reading a lot more comfortable on your eyes and will help to use and the phone when in sunlight.

Your phone is able to do this as the sensors that are in your phone measure a lot of things! The ambient light, colour and brightness of the light around you. Takes a reading and then adjusts accordingly to what it feels will produce the best white light, thus showing the right setting for your eyes.

True Tone: However……

While this sounds awesome enough, the feature does have to be enabled!

To enable True Tone on your iPhone/iPad:

  • Settings
  • Display and Brightness
  • Turn on True Tone

Bonus

Don’t forget to also turn on Night Shift!

Night Shift is located in the same settings as True Tone and the phone also adjusts your phones display when using this.

The iPhone will use it’s clock and geolocation to adjust the colours to a warmer colour. The display will get dimmer when using this setting at a later time at night, to reduce the amount of blue light emitted from your screen. Making a more orange type hue to the screen.

The reason for this? Making the display easier to read when late night reading. Apple are looking out for your eyes when scrolling through instagram late at night!

To listen to the guys chatting about this please click here!

Oculus Gloves

Oculus Gloves: Immersion crazy!

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Oculus Rift are looking to make VR a lot more immersive and we cannot wait! If their latest patents come to fruition that is. Oculus Rift are said to be working on a set of Oculus Gloves that provide haptic feedback, throwing a user into a world of immersion never seen before!

Oculus Gloves: How they work

The patents describe “tendons” within the gloves that mimic and simulate the sense of a realistic touch. All within the virtual world, so they’d tense and relax based on what your doing. Such as picking up a glass of water, or opening a door. While this sounds super cool, it won’t be the same as holding something in your hand though. As your fingers and hands are able to sense that your holding something through pressure in your fingers. Yet these designs from Oculus work in a different way. They work opposite, in the sense that the tendons will run along the back of your hand. Using the haptic feeback to offer resistance to your own movements.  Thus mimicking that your touching an object. So not the same, but pretty darn close!

The Oculus gloves are described by the guys over at Digital Trends as having string tied to the backs of your hands. Pulling at you and making the action of clenching your fists a little bit different. Yet in real life, you’d see the effect with your own eyes. Therefore if you’re in a VR world, the input in your eyes you’d experience the action of pulling differently. Your brain would be tricked into believing that your holding the object.

Patents don’t always mean that the product will come to fruition. But it is quite cool to imagine how this would be implemented! Imagine Call Of Duty picking up a gun or Forza, holding a steering wheel whilst racing around Imola. How cool does that sound! What’s even more impressive is that Tesla want to take this one step further and make full body suits!

To listen to the guys chatting about this please click here!

Swingers

Swingers Golf

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There’s quite a few golf pop ups in London and Swingers is one to take note of, as it incorporates drinking into the mix too! Swingers is a crazy golf venue that is located both in the city and also located in London’s west end. To show how crazy this venue is there is only a limited amount of walk up tickets available to punters. For the most part, it is a booking only venue, so make sure you book your tickets to avoid disappointment! One thing to note is that Swingers is an 18+ venue as there is alcohol served on the establishment.

Swingers is a crazy golf club that turns the traditional crazy golf ideology and turns it on it’s head. It has regular crazy golf of course, but it also has street food available to it’s punters and amazing drinks to create one incredible social experience.

Swingers: Venue

It is based on a 1920’s golf-club that was set in the bucolic English countryside. Step into the secret world of old-school clubhouses and enjoy the lush greenery and foliage around the holes. So it’s just like the heart of English countryside, right in the heart of the urban landscape of London’s cityscapes.  Swingers covers a HUGE amount of square feeterage, 16,000sq footage to be exact.

Within this area there are

  • 2 bespoke nine hole crazy golf courses (lighthouse and windmill)
  • Five cocktail bars
  • Three street food vendors
  • Clubhouse with gin terrace
  • Even nightly DJ’s!

This crazy golf venue is definitely is a lot of fun and it’s unlike any other crazy golf experience that we have done before.

If you like the sound Swingers and are interested in attending please click here

To listen to the guys talking chatting about this on How To Kill An Hour please click here!

Siri

Apple looking to make Siri better!

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As we have discussed on the show previously, the most impressive AI helpers are those from Amazon and Google. With Alexa and Google Assistant respectively. However, if you may recall that it was Apple who first introduced us to an AI that can help you in your day to day lives. Siri, was the first out of the gate. Yet, she is lagging behind her rivals when it comes to intelligence. Both Alexa and Google Assisstant can recall a lot more information and specific information. Siri on the other hand, sometimes can’t even answer basic questions. Only answering what you want if you ask her something in a very specific manner. She’s just not as good as her counterparts. With the release of Homepod, the lack of intelligence in Siri is even more obvious. Yet it’s vitally important to get this correctly, now more than ever, because of Homepod’s battle with Alexa and Google Home. That’s not to say that Siri isn’t intelligent, she can answer questions, she just isn’t good enough.

Siri Hiring

So to battle this, the guys over at Thinknum have noticed that Apple have been on a Siri hiring spree. Hiring as much as 161 different positions to help improve Siri. There’s been a steady increase in Siri related job positions since the summer of 2016, however, there’s been a surge, since February of 2018. The positions are for engineers. Engineers that are geared towards helping Siri answer her weaknesses in answering simple general questions. Other positions that are available are for Siri’s Proactive Intelligence. This is basically Siri’s ability to anticipate the type of info that you may need. A further two other positions are for SiriKit developer framework and speech generation. While it may be some time before we see any improvement on a consumer level, this definitely shows Apple’s intent when it comes to AI.

To listen to the guys chatting about this please click here!

EuropaCorp

Netflix purchasing Luc Besson’s EuropaCorp?

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Luc Besson he released a visually impressive film called Valerian last year. Releasing through his own film company, EuropaCorp. It is being touted as one of the most expensive independent movies ever made. However, on release the movie wasn’t well received by critics. Valerian didn’t show the same promise that the money that got put into it. As a result, according to Variety, EuropaCorps prospects of staying alive are dwindling.

Netflix, EuropaCorp Saviour?

However, there could be a lifeline in from Netflix. EuropaCorp are said to be in “advanced talks” according to reports gathered by Slash Film. Luc Besson’s EuropaCorp is one of Europe’s largest indie film studios. Founded in 1996 and has spawned many famous films. The thriller Taken is a EuropaCorp production, a favourite of many! The Sci-Fi film Lucy was well received by critics too, hitting 88% on Rotten Tomatoes. So EuropaCorp are no slouch when it comes to movies. However, the company is said to have taken on significant debt. Therefore have been downsizing American operations to return to French language films.

According to Slash Films reports the talks between the streaming giant and EuropaCorp began in January. With the intention of a multi picture deal being considered. However, Netflix are now said to be wanting the whole company and want a total acquisition of EuropaCorp. If the acquisition were to go ahead, Besson, would remain with the company as the central creative entity.

So, Netflix is serious about making movies. We may see Netflix either in the cinema. Taking on the cinema from people’s homes. Or both!

If this aquistion were to happen as scheduled in the summer. We’re very interested to see what Netflix can do with a movie studio under it’s wing. Netflix Originals have done very well on the platform and if they can replicate that success with films. That would be a very bold move from Netflix to Hollywood indeed.

To listen to the guys chatting about this please click here!

Four Thieves

Four Thieves – A whole lot of fun!

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Four Thieves is like no pub you have seen before! It’s unlike anything we have seen before, we’ll say that much! If you want fun on a Friday night head down to the Four Thieves pub as we can guarantee if you’ll have fun! There is so much to do there besides drink copious amounts of alcohol. So much more, if you’re a big kid, you’ll love it. Ok I’ll stop hyping it up now and actually tell you why we think that it’s so good. It’s impressed us. Can you tell?

This pub has a lot of games inside it, there’s a whole room dedicated to it! There’s Moonshine Racing which is remote controlled car racing, Virtual Reality Booths, Mini-Golf and Retro Arcade games! The beers that the guys sell here are all brewed from their own on-site brewery. Great food available, lots of different events on weekly, it’s no surprise that the pub picked up a best pub nomination from Time Out just two weeks after opening!

Food

Four Thieves Food

Four Thieves Food

The guys over at Four Thieves have created great dishes taking influence from great British pub food and also the vibrant street food scene made with seasonal, fresh locally sourced ingredients! It’s so good it’ll make you want to stop gaming to grab a bite to eat.

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s a bit more about those games we were telling you about:

Moonshine Raceway

Four Thieves Raceway

Four Thieves Raceway

The Moonshine Raceway is an intense RC car race against 10 other players, in a game that’s described as the hottest “true to life motorsport experience”

 

VR

Four Thieves VR

Four Thieves VR

The VR venue at Four Thieves is the UK’s only dedicated virtual reality installation, available to the public! There has a range of different games available to you whilst at your time at the pub.

Brookhaven Experiement

In this game you step into a deserted town square, at night and a lone. Fight a swap of Zombies armed with just a pistol and a flashlight. You can even change the theme with this one, ask the guys there to be put into the storm drains, or the reservoir.

Longbow

This game is a classic! It’s a simple protect your castle with a bow and arrow game. Shoot hoards of enemies as they attack your castle with your trusty bow and arrow.

Slingshot

Your tasked with making sure that a giant is fully functional. You’re the technition and it’s your job to make sure it works. The twist. The way you check that it works is by firing bowling balls at towering stacks of crates in the warehouse.

 

 

Plonk Golf

Four Thieves Golf

Four Thieves Golf

Plonk Golf is a crazy golf game in the middle of a pub that’s dark, but it’s filled with a lot of colour to keep things crazy. (Alongside the obvious when it comes to crazy golf) The crazy golf does cost £6 a game, no pre-booking though, just turn up and get swinging.

 

Lady Chastity’s Reserve

Solve the sordid secrets of Lady Chastity’s vineyard in time to win her fabled bottle of aphrodisiac wine, but hurry, she doesn’t suffer idiots lightly. This new immersive gaming experience promises to be an entertaining and exciting challenge for you and your friends.

The game has been described as ‘the next generation of the ‘escape room’ format, offering surprising challenges throughout, while involving a ‘Punchdrunk’ twist with a comedic tale of mystery. This immersive story plunges players into the action, much like a dark ‘Secret Cinema’. Lady Chastity’s Reserve is proud to be dubbed as ‘the Crystal Maze on crystal meth’.

 

Events

Four Thieves Events

Four Thieves Events

Four Thieves hosts different events each week, so there’s always something on for you to check them out! They host the very best comedians and even take part in an you-have-to-see-it-to-believe-it quiz hosted by Boogaloo Stu!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brewery

Four Thieves Brewery

Four Thieves Brewery

So, the guys over at Four Thieves brew their own beer, a whole 40 casks! That’s 1440 pints! So therefore there’s a steady flow of craft ale at the Four Thieves Pub. The Four Thieves has its own Keg pale ale and their own brewer fresh lager – a Czech style pilsner, served straight into the glass in the bar.

 

 

 

To attend Four Thieves please click here!

To listen to the guys chatting about this please click here!

Cloud Gaming

Xbox Cloud Gaming

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In what has seemingly sneaked under the radar. Microsoft recently announced that it’s launching a cloud gaming division. Marking out to the rest of the gaming industry that they’re entering the world of game streaming. They’re taking it seriously too.

The verge are reporting that it’s something that’s been building up for quite some time. Recently the huge computing giant acquired small gaming focused cloud companies. PlayFab who focus on game development in the cloud are now a Microsoft company. Will we see an Xbox that’s solely focused on cloud gaming?

Microsoft basically have something similar with Xbox Game Pass. Think Netflix but for gaming. However, instead of streaming the games you download them, keeping the license for x amount of months until you stop paying the £15 a month. There aren’t many good games on there at the moment, but that will soon change. Microsoft recently announced that alongside catalogued games, games like Sea Of Thieves, State of Decay 2 and Crackdown 3. All HUGE titles for Microsoft are being made available on their subscription service.

Cloud Gaming Direction

Consequently, Microsoft’s announcement almost proves that they want to move away from their users downloading their games to streaming them. As that was a major criticism of many users. Not enough up to date games available on the Game Pass. The two recent announcements could hint at the direction Microsoft are taking.

While OnLive a cloud game streaming service, failed. Other platforms game streaming is alive and kicking. Playstation Now From Sony allows users to play PS4 games on their PC’s and Nvidia has GeForce Now (Beta) Microsoft obviosly isn’t saying anything to anyone. However Kareem Choudhry Corporate VP of Xbox hints that they want users to play content on any device.

To listen to the guys chatting about this please click here!

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AI

AI could have common sense? We’re Doomed.

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Ready to be scared by AI? Well you may just be about to be scared silly.

Virtual assistants and chatbots aren’t the most intelligent beings around at the moment. That’s because they lack the common sense that us humans have. Most of us anyway. These types of machine learning programmes rely on specific situations that they’ve encountered previously. Thus they react accordingly to the data you input.

However, this may be about to change. Researchers at the Allen Institute for AI (Ai2) have come up with a brand new test. This test is called Arc Reasoning Challenge (ARC). This test will determine whether artificial intelligence has the ability to ‘learn’ common sense. By testing it’s understanding of the way that our world operates.

The easiest way to explain why machines don’t have common sense is as follows. Human’s see a problem or are faced with a problem. Humans then use common sense to fill in the gaps of any problems that they are faced and then act on that problem accordingly. Machines only act on the data that’s put in to them. They can’t see a problem, pull information from their memory and then solve it. They have to be told ‘this is the way to solve this problem’ ‘solve it’ (execute programme)

AI Test

The researchers will throw basic multiple choice questions at the machines. These questions will put their general knowledge to the test. One of the questions is “Which item below is not made from a material grown in nature?” The answers are ‘cotton shirt, wooden chair, plastic spoon, grass basket’ If researchers from the Allen Institute can make the machine pull information from previously learned data. This will prove that the system can grasp common sense. Which no other AI technology can do.

So, what does this say about the future of AI if it can learn? What will it be taught is right and wrong? Will we see a Terminator?

To listen to the guys chatting about this please click here!

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social ranking

Social ranking: Black Mirror predicting the future again!

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Black Mirror continues it’s eery trend of predicting the future. This time with the terrifying episode of ‘Nosedive’ With Social ranking.

For those who haven’t seen Black Mirror or Nosedive, the episode explores how we’re all obsessed with ‘likes’ The episode delves into the way that we use social media in our daily lives and how what we do is determined by how many ‘likes’ we get. Including how upset we get when our online popularity takes a ‘nosedive’

The episode’s plot revolves around how people are rated out of five after every interaction that they have with one another. Thus each person has a real social ranking, that we can all see. Furthermore, ratings of a ‘person’ are affected by where you live, who your friends are and how you travel. So kinda like we all do now, but with a tangible element to it. Whether you like it or not, do it consciously or not, we all make prejudgements based on the above.

In the episode we see Lacie a young woman who is looking to climb to the top of her social ladder. We won’t spoil the episode too much. However, she does a lot to impress others and make her rating better. Until, you guessed it, things go from bad to worse and her social ranking takes a ‘nosedive’ If you have instagram mixed with an Uber rating, this is how your ratings are shown to others in this world.

Social Ranking: Real Life

This nightmare of all prejudging others may become a reality in China. Soon. 2020. Soon.

According to the Telegraph, it’s citizens will be given a ‘score’ the lowest of these scores being 350, highest being 950. To get a higher score, citizens can give blood, do charity work or by sending positive messages about China on social media. Cancelling a reservation for something having friends with unsavory people. Boom. Ratings nosedive.

Being a good member of society gets you bonuses! Cheaper public transport, free gym membership. Plus you may even get a fast pass for waiting times in hospitals. (My words not theirs, I just thought it sounded funny, really call it fast pass) All you lowly people at the bottom of the totem pole. SLOWER INTERNET SPEEDS! So if one day you realise your internet is super slow. Blame you. Not the ISP. Go out an give blood and maybe, just maybe, your internet will get faster.

 

 

 

 

To listen to the guys chatting about this please click here!

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