This website is inane, juvenile and has no real use. And for all those reasons I love it. Kudos to HN for being a place where I can find things that just bring some silly fun to my life.
I remember in the early days of the Interwebs, there was so many sites just like this one. You didn't have to go to FB, IG or some other content mill to find them. Plus, when you did find one, it had the same feeling of excitement as finding a $5 bill on the sidewalk.
I loved this when I could still type. unfortunately ran a little laggy because lack of webgl access or something, but it was a blast for late night silly hacking.
Not having monetization certainly leads to quirky, genuine, and campy stuff, and having easy monetization certainly leads to crap. But having monetization has also lead to some amazing content and free services today that we never had before and probably never would have had.
Things like photopea.com which is created by one person would probably have never progressed beyond the very basics were there no ad revenue to be made.
Additionally, there are countless bloggers and content creators that create rich, amazing content and there is no way they would be able to do anything close to what they are doing if they couldn't make a living at it.
Advertising partnerships were always possible with good content creators.
I posit that the ability for even the lowest level of content creators to make a few pennies hawking their crap is what has lead to the downfall of the greatness that was the early web.
In the 90s, Berkeley Systems sold a screen saver package that included a module called βMondrianβ - but were sued by his estate and had to change the name.
In the original flash version, just before it looped a link appeared to go to another page. You had to be quick to click on it. From memory there wasn't anything on it but a few words. Still, a shame they didn't keep it for the HTML version.
Old enough to remember every single thing on the early Internet was some version of this, other than the astronomy and physics papers that my girlfriend and her fellow scientists exchanged.
Websites that take my time > Websites that take my money (and my time).
Very interesting, there's a big defend net neutrality banner on the website. Has anything changed with it recently or is it just a relic of the last time
Bought by ebay, floundered, then sold back to the original owner, then died and turned into something called "Mix" which looks like some kind of photo sharing knockoff.
It's a real shame. It's so hard to find web 'toys' nowadays- games without objectives, but with pretty, interactive visuals. I used to have a set of hundreds of them, but that list was deleted when StumbleUpon went under. I found them very relaxing. Anybody have another source for such things?
On iOS Safari with theme-color enabled, the status bar briefly but rapidly flickers between black and white clock/icons. Iβm not sure if this is deliberate, but itβs a nice touch.
(Also: warning to folks who might be bothered/harmed by flashing animations.)
Don't think it's useless. There are some activities you like, but you really shouldn't like them, because you have zero talent in them. The "shouldn't"-part especially true when acoustics come into play.
Or to quote Mike from Gamefromscratch: "I'm here to make your ears bleed." :)
There are more sites like this one today, by at least an order of magnitude, than existed in the early lift-off days of the Web (~1993-1997).
You'd struggle to build a mediocre version of this site in the early days of the Web. And it'd try to eat your browser alive as you used it if someone managed to use early Flash or an applet to shoehorn it onto the Web back then.
HN itself is, in part, a link content mill. No different than links posted to FB.
People merely like to remember the past far better than it really was, it happens automatically as time passes and we become emotionally connected to the past in a different way. Our ability to experience new things is not the same at 40 or 50 years old as it is when we're eg 15-20 years old. We experience everything increasingly at a reduced excitement as the experiences pile up, our ability to experience new things the way we used to is dulled (it's why people don't fall in love at 40 or 50 anywhere close to the way they did in their youth in terms of sheer emotional joy and excitement (and yes, of course there are rare exceptions to the rule)).
The feeling people experience when they talk about the early days of the Web, is identical to the feeling people on TikTok that are ~16-20 years old today will proclaim when they look back and talk about how amazing that era was - when they're 30+ years old; they'll talk about how nothing like that exists any longer, and social media is no longer fun like it was when they first discovered TikTok in 2020. That's nothing more than vast subjective, emotional projection; it's real for the person in terms of their subjective experience, and the extended context is false (where they project their emotional feeling outward to encompass more than their personal experience really covers; the difference between N experience for me vs N experience for everywhere else). There will be some young group of people having an amazing experience 20 years from now, that those 40 year olds (longing for the old 2020 TikTok days) can't share in it, they can't experience the new thing the same way (instead they'll sit around talking about how things have sucked since TikTok faded in 2024 or whatever); the typical 40 year old today - dulled by a lifetime of experiences - can't get the same thrill from TikTok that a 16 or 18 year old can when experiencing it for the first time.
People that highly enjoyed ICQ or IRC or AIM in the 1990s, do the exact same thing today that those TikTok users will do in the future and for the exact same reason. It's true for their personal experience (it's true that they can't enjoy things like they used to, which is what is really being admitted), and that's all it's true for (it's false that there isn't anything like that experience out there today; it's that the person can no longer experience things like they used to when they were young; outside that subjective bubble a whole generation of people is out there having a huge amount of fun on TikTok and to them it's vastly superior than some low quality gifs on an ugly Geocities page circa 1997). And on the cycle goes, forever repeating.
This is the same as older people proclaiming music used to be better in their day (whatever day, 1960s rock, 1990s grunge or rap, etc) and music today mostly sucks. It's a very common emotional feeling, and it's true for their subjective experience; and it's false when projected beyond themselves, when they attempt to apply it widely (because they're attempting to override other people's emotional experiences out there, which you can't actually do via such a projection).
If you sit down to play with new action figure toys at 40 years of age, will you experience it in the same amazing way that you did when you were playing with similar action figure toys at 6 or 7 years old? When everything was still so new in the world. Will the excitement and thrill and repeat play value be there? Will your imagination work the same way? Is it the modern action figure toys that are the problem? Maybe a 40 year old person would proclaim they just don't make action figure toys like they used to, otherwise they'd be having a lot more fun playing with them; thus, action figure toys today suck, and so on. Now hand them over to a 6 or 7 year old today and witness the real difference: time had its way with you, as it does all things, a lifetime of experiences, physical change and emotional sediment has dulled your ability to interact with things the way you did in your youth.
Here's a hint to the widespread nature of the feeling (about the old Web): there are a lot more older people using the Web today, with a long duration of experience at using it, than there are new people coming on for the first time to experience it fresh. The balance between the two has never been more skewed than it is right now. So the most common sentiment is going to be the older, experienced users projecting their subjective emotional context (longing for the old Web) as supposedly representing the objective context (when in reality it's only true for them and their context of experiences).
> There are more sites like this one today, by at least an order of magnitude, than existed in the early lift-off days of the Web
There are probably 3 orders of magnitude more crap though, so the good stuff is harder to find. And the random fun stuff doesn't bother with SEO so it's easy to feel like the internet is full of more crap, because it is. In the early days people were building websites for fun, nowadays people are doing it for money (or marketing, or they feel obligated to have a LinkedIn even if they hate it, or whatever - nobody used to feel obligated to use the internet). Sure, there are still some gems, but they're drowned out by turds.
The early days are more fun because true believers are building something they really care about, by the time something becomes mainstream it's already generic.
Your point about music doesn't apply because music has existed for millenia. The internet has existed for decades.
Given your follow-up that points out "that's just the way it is", old toys don't work for the old, I'm curious as to how you think about the resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons? Something that was played, for people of my generation, 30+ years ago. Many of us have re-found that joy, and if anything it's better than it was before. Playing with our kids, playing with other adults, of all ages. Want to re-imagine with your action figures? Use them on your campaigns, on your boards, and put them in your story (imagination). You'll have twice the fun because something you remember is now fused with something you're having fun doing. The thoughts, ideas, emotions you experienced long ago will work their way into a new generation of imaginative, curious (how will the story go), ideas, young or old.
2nd edition D&D or even 2.5 is pretty different from 4e and 5e (is there already 6e?) though...
I really like 4e, our big serious campaign is 4e with increasing amounts of customisation because of course Wizards never really polish the high level game, there's no money in it. But it's a very different game from 2nd edition.
My Wizard was written out (the other PCs basically killed him, hint taken) but you couldn't write a character like that in 2nd, limitless power just comes naturally to Magic Users in the old game, in 4e Magical Trevor had to make some really difficult compromises to be able to have his flexibility and he still wasn't the star of the show.
(The other characters think giving Orcus a god-killing weapon was a bad idea, and they blamed Trevor even though it might work, apparently Orcus is "bad" and it's better that the universe is destroyed than he gets a god-killing weapon. Trevor did not agree)
I think the charm of 2nd edition is exactly that itβs such an unbalanced mess.
4th by comparison feels like a MMO with all the uniquesness sucked out of it.
5e backpedals on that and goes more or less back to where 3.5e used to be, but less complicated (magic still hasnβt recovered to itβs former levels though).
> People merely like to remember the past far better than it really was, it happens automatically as time passes and we become emotionally connected to the past in a different way.
There's something to what you're saying, but where are the modern equivalents to DMOZ.org where all those "quirky" sites would be listed in a transparent and easy to browse way? The topic-specific "awesome" lists that people sometimes point to are a piss-poor substitute for what DMOZ made available. Sometimes the present really is worse than the past.
In my opinion your text is really beautifully written. It fills me with a sense of melancholia because of this inescapability that is portrait in it.
This might not really add anything to the discussion. I just wanted to let you know that your words have been read and appreciated.
Thanks for the link & background, KYM is superb (and of course on !kym with DDG).
Off-topic: from "top entries this week" on KYM, I just learned that the Bodganov twins (of Bogdanov affair fame, reverse Sokal hoax), have died (within 6 days of each other). Discussion at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29794879
DBZ memes are some of the first ones I remember as a kid, before we called them memes. I'm enjoying the resurgence of them (although this particular one isn't my favorite).
I thought it was supposed to be expensive? Don't you lecture me with your fancy and expensive haircut? Though I didn't watch Dragon Ball that long, so I don't know. Maybe he is belittling him that his haircut is so cheap?
My wife cuts mine and the kids, takes about 5 minutes and no problem with our double crowns. Before then I'd get a haircut whenever I had the time, usually once every 6-9 months. At one point I went for 5 cuts in a row (about 3 years) getting a haircut on a different continent each time.
Been bald for two years roundabout a decade ago, before and after that having long hair. And oh yes, bald is like 10x more work - at least if you go for bowling-ball-grade of baldness. Never shave when you are in a rush and enter a public transport 5 minutes later.
Beware a possible unobvious side effect if you have light coloured hair: my hair colour went darker after getting shaved in my 20s. I regret the colour change, because I liked the old colour more, and it never regressed to the lighter colour. I suspect it was caused by UV sunlight on the follicles or something?
I give myself a buzzcut every two weeks. 21mm on top, 5mm on the sides and back, slanted cutter on 5 in the trasition zone. If it goes bad I can always do 5mm all over. Hardest is to catch the whispy fuckers around the bald spot.
I also do my kids hair, though the girls keep theirs long so thats just a matter of brushing it real neat and make a straight edge. The boy is too small to take to a hairdresser anyway.
I also do my wife's hair. She is the only one where some thought and planning is required. I'm amazed that she lets me.
The back? How do you do the back of your head? Any tips? Wife? I just got out of jail and I'm broke so I bought some uber cheap clippers and have been cutting my own for months now. This from a guy who wouldn't blink at spending $250 on a hair cut before he got locked up lol
Much easier if you're happy with a cut that simply involves running clippers over your entire head.
I start by use a number 5 guard (can't remember the actual cutting depth measurement) and run it over my entire head for a base level. Then I use progressively shorter guards on the sides and back, usually down to a 2. I will then also use the 2 to clean up around my temples and hairline to get a nice clean look.
As for the back, just gotta get used to finding a comfortable grip with your bent behind your head and use your other hand to touch the guard and your head at the same time as you go to get a feel for where it is and how it's oriented. A hand mirror is useful too as you can use your free hand to hold it behind you and see what you're doing by looking at it in your bathroom mirror.
Unless you're really skilled (I'm not), just go for a very short, simple cut. If you have someone who lives with you who can help you use a trimmer on your hairline on your neck, that's very helpful. Frankly I can't tell the difference between cutting my own hair and when I would pay $30 for the same cut.
(Except mine was way cheaper, Ikea probably) oposite my main bathroom mirror. So facing the swing arm mirror I can see the back of my head and since it's through two mirrors the hand actually moves like you'd expect when you look at it.
Hold your hair between your fingers like the barber does, cut (with scissors or electric trimmer) on the side away from your scalp. Repeat all over the back of your head until there are no long bits left.
The secret to cutting your own hair is learning to quit while you're behind.
I just run over every spot a couple times from several directions, then feel for long parts to target them individually. It's not efficient, but it gets done eventually.
I do my sonβs hair as well. Unfortunately for me (or maybe him), itβs pretty curly while mine is completely straight, so Iβm pretty clueless on how to handle it. If I do it sheet enough it looks nice and clean. The double, counter rotating cowlicks on him makes it difficult too.
Until last month, I hadn't gotten a paid haircut since the start of the pandemic. Got a decent pair of clippers with a taper guard, and did "okay" except for the edging on the back, which I learned to just not worry about (though my wife has done it a couple of times, and it comes out decent then)
βSoon after that I started going to therapy. Someone told me that New York University was offering talk therapy on a pay-what-you-can basis. They charged less because the therapists were all in training. It was like barber school: you show up, they randomly assign a young therapist to you, and he or she starts giving your mental health a crude, halting trim. If this does not sound appealing to you, you are wrong. You should always pay full price for a haircut, but if you have a chance to buy discount therapy you should grab it, because the markup on that shit is insane.β
In original context, was a $30 haircut supposed to be cheap or expensive? In 2022 in my neighborhood, $30 is somewhat on the expensive side for a men's haircut (a basic haircut at a trendy barber shop is $25) but extremely cheap for a women's haircut. But what was the intended meaning of the phrase in Japan in the 1990s in relation to the characters speaking it?
Well first of all, I don't think the phrase existed in the original Japanese, only in the English dub where they made the creative decision to make the character who says it talk like some Redneck Trucker.
The context is said Redneck Trucker is a robot who has been programmed to kill the main characer, Goku. One of Goku's friends says something about how if he does that he is just a slave with no free will. Our Redneck Trucker then points out that humanity has used their free will to do plenty of bad things, followed by our line here. So if you want to simplify its meaning, you could just translate it to "Don't talk down to me".
So in context, $30 is an expensive haircut, and the purpose is to indicate the speaker feels the target is talking down to him, but the actual reason has nothing to do with the target being rich as opposed to being human.
It could also be some meta commentary from the English side about how ridiculous the hair of everyone in the show or even the general genre is.
For Bad Apple I was thinking "wow this is actually a really accurate one given the limitations" then I burst out laughing just past halfway through from the absurdity.
If you hover over an icon added to your work area, you can use the mouse scroll wheel to adjust the pitch of that element's sound sample. (I see now this is given given in some instructions above the text area.)
This elevates the tool from a simple toy for toddlers to the pro music audio domain.
Saving uses local files which is silly; you want to save into a URL.
Yeah it seems that you would be able to store the 'save' text as URL parameters - though obviously at some length it'll be too long of a URL (and different browsers have different 'max URL lengths' AFAIK).
Itβs basically a giant inside joke. Explaining it wonβt do any good, not helped by the fact that in a lot of cases with ironic and absurdist humor, itβs not really funny on its own premise.
The meme basically took the phrase βDonβt lecture me with your thirty dollar haircutβ and stuck it next to a bunch of emoji. For some reason, this transformed into videos where the emoji was interpreted as memetic audio clips. In some cases, Iβll admit the joke just boils down to βloud stupid noise funny.β But the reason why people find it funny, is literally because they know itβs not. Youβll even see them saying things like, βI know this isnβt funny, but I canβt stop laughing.β If anyone understands enough psychology to explain WTF is going on here, Iβd love to know.
On the other hand, the meme, which is admittedly not really funny on its own, spiraled into a fairly neat website where you can actually sequence music, sort of like Mario Paint. I think thatβs itβs neat regardless of what you think of the humor that lead to it.
The original line, the meme after that, or this website?
The line is silly and strongly acted, I think it's easy to see why it's funny.
Then sharing it around and tossing some emojis and sound effects on isn't a huge improvement but whatever it's entertaining to throw some images and sounds onto things.
And it should be easy to see why this website is popular just as a music tool, with the line not very important and largely there to put things in a silly mood. Some people will find it funny and some won't, but there doesn't need to be anything funny about the website for it to be fun.
Edit: you have a long history of breaking the site guidelines. We've asked you many times to stop, but you've continued. You did it here just recently: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30096800. If you don't stop this, we're going to have to ban you. I don't want to ban you, so please stop this.
Does anyone know how the site manages to make its cookie persistent in the browser? I've noticed a few sites manage to remain albeit it empty after the browser wipes everything, dont know if this is a browser problem or something else, like code running extremely slowly in the OS.
Edit. To be clear there is no content in the cookie, but the cookie still shows in the list of cookies in the browser. Its weird, but its not the only site.
I've been trying to find this site that, if I recall correctly, just has a gradient background that I think is animated and it's just an audio file of a man saying "Welcome to the" something-something in different ways.
I tried googling it but because it's so nondescript it's hard to find it.
Well that answers that question. I had someone with a broken touchscreen recently and I told them Android might accept a mouse shoved into the USB-C as it worked fine when I shoved an external USB mic in there. Guess I was right.
Taking your point though, I'm going to add this to my testing script for my web sites now.
It HAD a touch-screen before getting water damage. Repair consists of replacing the entire screen as the digitizer is glued to it and I am too broke to do that rn; so I got a usb2go adapter and been using it this way for months
That is true. I did not want to sound entitled, it is a free for-fun project after all. Just wanted to bring awareness about UI events to other hnews readers
It is allowed, in general. But some apps/websites don't play well with it. In this case, the creator, while developing the site, chose some UI events which don't fire with a mouse on a phone. I.e. the "hold" action on a sound.
I remember in the early days of the Interwebs, there was so many sites just like this one. You didn't have to go to FB, IG or some other content mill to find them. Plus, when you did find one, it had the same feeling of excitement as finding a $5 bill on the sidewalk.
Here's some other great sites. * http://eelslap.com/ * https://theuselessweb.com/