blinry

Author here! :) This article is me sharing something that made me really happy, wanting to show others how they can do the same.

I see some comments pointing out that the clock wouldn't need to run in the browser. I picked this option to make it simple for folks around me to quickly prototype their own clock faces. This isn't supposed to be the cheapest or most efficient implementation, either; feel free to build your own LCD clock and then blog about how you did it!

Heya, author here! This was such a fun project, and I'd really recommend the "Make 50 Things of Something" technique to everyone!

Also, I gave a 10-minute talk version of this post at !!Con last year: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xic63tHw2Bo

Gladly! Automerge on its own is just a library that makes local-first data structures possible.

Ethersync uses this library for a concrete purpose: Collaborating on local text files. We wrote editor plugins and a daemon that runs on your computer, to enable you to type in plaintext files/source code together, from the editors you already know.

Hope that clears things up a bit.

We picked our name because of SubEthaEdit (and later, Etherpad)! :)

We keep a table of related project here: https://ethersync.github.io/ethersync/related-projects.html

Ping us if you feel like something's missing! (Looks like we could add Zed, for example.)

Yep! Daemons on multiple computers speak the Automerge sync protocol. Between daemon and editors, we use a "one-sided operational transform" approach, in an attempt to offload as much work as possible into the daemon (and out of the plugin). If you're interested, you can learn more about Ethersync's architecture in the documentation: https://ethersync.github.io/ethersync/

In addition, we keep a directory of "Architectural Design Decisions" here, which go more into depth: https://github.com/ethersync/ethersync/tree/main/docs/decisi...

There's also a 10-minute talk from this year's FOSDEM: https://fosdem.org/2025/schedule/event/fosdem-2025-4890-ethe...

Hey :) I don't know how familiar you are with Nix, but the process I describe in the blog post works almost exactly as you describe:

The command `nix shell nixpkgs#qemu` puts the qemu binaries in your $PATH temporarily, you can hit Ctrl-D to leave that environment. And the Nix flake I show works similarly – the specified tools are only available to you when entering the directory where the .envrc file is.

These techniques work without other special shell/terminal software, and you can use Nix on any operating system, not only on NixOS. This is my favorite introduction to the ecosystem, I think you might like it: https://zero-to-nix.com

Author here :) I paid $70 for the section from New York to Chicago, because I slept in the coach section there. For the section from Chicago to Emeryville, I treated myself to a roomette, and paid $775 – so $845 in total.

Yeah, I also think it's unfortunate that flying is so much more affordable. But, as another passenger said on the train, taking the train is also three times the experience!

And when you have a sleeper ticket, three meals a day are included.

Follow the corridor at the far right to get to some enemies! :D

It works for me on current versions of Firefox and Chrome! :) (On the desktop)

If you're into this, also check out @bryanbraun's "Checkboxland", which was a huge inspiration for this project! :) https://www.bryanbraun.com/checkboxland/

If you understand German, you might enjoy Volker Strübing's song on this topic: https://youtu.be/T4DWCJfkyzk?t=333

You might also enjoy Hamish Todd's (highly interactive) documentation on virus geometry: http://viruspatterns.com

I once translated the beautiful short story "The Egg" to Toki Pona: https://morr.cc/sike-mama/ The original was written by Andy Weir (of "The Martian" fame).

It features a side-by-side view and might be interesting if you want to look at a longer Toki Pona text.

This very cool video demonstrates what you can do with it on a touchscreen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LGnozlwU1o

Also, if you like this kind of interactive thingies, you might enjoy the explorables subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/explorables/

Shameless self-plug: If you like interactive explanations, check out http://explorableexplanations.com/ and the explorables subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/explorables/

If you like this, you might be interested in /r/explorables, a subreddit filled with interactive stuff:

https://www.reddit.com/r/explorables/

Shameless self-plug: I'm working on a similar tool for video files: http://nordlicht.github.io/

We're currently building a Reddit community around these kind of interactive explanations: https://www.reddit.com/r/explorables Lots of more examples there, have a look! :)

If you enjoy visual or interactive explanations, we're currently building a community for that on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/explorables/

I'd like to start a Reddit community around interactive explanations like this – wanna join? https://www.reddit.com/r/explorables/

If you liked that question, check out the Self Referential Aptitude Test: http://faculty.uml.edu/jpropp/srat-Q.txt

You're not alone :)

For many more "weird" articles, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Unusual_articles

I recently discovered the OpenSUSE build service, an automated build service for RPM and DEB packages: https://build.opensuse.org/

It builds the packages on virtual machines for many different distributions and 32+64 bit CPUs.

I did something similar in high school. You dropped a file named "System.java" into a Java project, which then intercepted all calls to System.out.println() and, for example, printed the text backwards, very slowly, or googled the text in Firefox:

https://github.com/blinry/fake-java-println

Note that if you want to optimize the quality of the candidate, not the probability of picking the best one, it's better to stop after sqrt(n) candidates: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secretary_problem#Cardinal_pay...

This app has a great set of features! Sleek, streamlined design, no ads, I don't feel forced to sign up or anything. Awesome! You should do a Kickstarter! I'm sure many people would contriubute zero dollars for further development!

This is based on Nikoli's number game called Arukone or Numberlink: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numberlink

Here are many more for you to enjoy: http://www.janko.at/Raetsel/Arukone/index.htm

Another inefficient command that I use way too much is "x".

Using those keys once or twice is, of course, perfectly fine. One could set up some mechanism that limits the number of repetitions in a row.