
Fireflies (2017) - j_b_s
https://ncase.me/fireflies/
======
modernerd
I revisit Fireflies from time to time, but everything on
[https://ncase.me/](https://ncase.me/) is wonderful. I particularly like
[https://ncase.me/door/](https://ncase.me/door/).

Nicky's site elevates the web beyond “magazines/newspapers/leaflets on a
network-connected screen”. It reminds you that the web can be a rich and
interactive medium with stories told and ideas taught with love and with care.

It feels like there's a gap in the market for tools that help people to build
richer experiences and “playable articles” like these.

So many content management systems and platforms seem stuck in the “your
website is a brochure but online” mindset. In the same way that PowerPoint
seems to encourage crappy presentations, traditional tools for website
creation often do the same for websites. Coupled with the sheer difficulty of
creating and maintaining a website, it's no wonder that blogs and personal
sites feel like they're in decline.

I'd love to see more tools that let users build sites that aren't just linked
pages whose most interactive feature is a contact form or search field. The
only one I can think of that's close is
[https://glitch.com/](https://glitch.com/). Are there others I've missed?

~~~
ThePadawan
Spoilers for /door:

I wondered how the author encouraged me to find a solution for the second map
that made reach the target by walking around the obstacle to the left side and
returning around the right side (and symmetric).

Turns out that if you try to walk back around the left side, the clock is
artifically made to run much quicker. Nice.

~~~
LeoPanthera
This actually annoyed me. Feels like the game is cheating.

~~~
modernerd
It would be kind of creepy (and confusing) if it allowed an “I C U” result,
though.

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dsalzman
Nicky Case is amazing. His interactive game to explain segregation in cities
is very eye opening as well.
[https://ncase.me/polygons/](https://ncase.me/polygons/)

~~~
tunesmith
I'd like to see a model like that adapted for vaccinations. So you can easily
see the risk (for infants/elderly) dramatically increase as vaccination rates
decrease a tiny bit.

~~~
mikk14
Have you tried this:
[http://vax.herokuapp.com/game](http://vax.herokuapp.com/game) ?

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anonytrary
This makes me really sad. Right after I went off to college, my parents moved
to a new, secluded neighborhood in its infancy -- only a handful of homes
there. Our house was the one right next to a tall meadow, protected by a deep
forest and a pond. During those summers, you could gaze into the meadow and
witness thousands of fireflies putting on a show --- every day, the 4th of
July. Occasionally, you could witness huge rafters of turkeys (many dozens)
slowly making their way through the fields, their true numbers hidden by low
hanging fog.

Then in my last couple years of college, the neighborhood matured further into
development. The developers slowly turned the woods into meadows, the meadows
into dirt fields, the dirt fields into streets, foundations, and lawns. That
was the end of the fireflies; the end of the turkeys; the end of the natural
beauty that once lurked there.

------
severine
Needs a (2017).

Previously on HN:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14452832](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14452832)

~~~
tlb
Added (2017), thanks.

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isoprophlex
What happens if you fix a couple of fireflies on one end of the volume to have
a slow clock speed, and a couple on the other side to have higher clock speed?
(Also freezing their random motion)

What do the fireflies in between do? Would the faster clockspeed win out and
entrain them? Do you get chaotic behaviour?

Very cool page.

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gigama
Cool js demo, certainly worth reposting. Since he credits Steven Strogatz
here's the link to Steven's 2008 TED on synchronicity and emergent behavior.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSNrKS-
sCE0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSNrKS-sCE0)

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JoeCortopassi
As cool as this is, and it is, this is probably the least interesting thing on
the [https://ncase.me](https://ncase.me) website.

It's well worth spending an afternoon just going through some of the stuff
presented there

My two favorites: [https://ncase.me/crowds/](https://ncase.me/crowds/)
[https://ncase.me/trust/](https://ncase.me/trust/)

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regularfry
20 or 30 years ago, Scientific American published (in the paper magazine) a
firefly circuit you could build to see this coupled oscillation happen with
physical hardware. I always wanted to build a couple of hundred or so and
plaster a room with them, but that's always been ETOOMUCHEFFORT.

It's probably worth an update.

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TrueDuality
Love this kind of complex behavior emerging from simple rules kind of thing.

