Greetings and welcome to another week in The Land of Random!
July is nearly over, and August is just around the corner . . .
How is fall nearly here?
Well we don’t really get Fall in Tennessee until end of October, but I do look forward to temps being in the 70’s again.
Did you get a chance to mess around with Llama 3.1 yet? I’m excited to give it a spin soon! Insane Rare Meta Win.
I don’t know how many of you watch dark cartoon comedy, but Exploding Kittens (yes - based on the CARD GAME) is an unhinged show lol. If you seek unhinged, give the first episode a try.
We’re almost at the 5 year anniversary of The Land of Random. I probably won’t be able to have anything cool “ready” by then but what would you like me to work on?
Note: Voting in this poll will have real tangible results
Please vote if you can! I’d really appreciate it.
Just click an option you’d like to see.
Do it.
DOOO IITTTT.
Awesome! Thanks.
📝Write Fun Docs
A fun little doc editor called Leaflet.pub is being developed by Brendan Schlagel (of Hyperlink Academy) which will make writing quite fun!
I think it could even be a replacement for hosting a blog - a la to users who prefer carrd.co or neocities or mmm.page
Here’s a screenshot from something I’ve written. (I’ll share the post at the end).
You can edit the background colors, add gifs to the background, insert images, and do typical doc things.
It’s a stripped-down Google Docs BUT fun.
Crazy background gifs? wacky colors? That’s fun.
You can also insert cards as whole new pages. Yeah. pages within pages.
So, hypothetically - you could create a doc style landing page on leaflet, add cards as blogs, and just share the leaflet link.
Now - I will say that this is currently in super beta. If you’re editing a link - you need to keep that link somewhere safe. If you lose the editing link - it’s GONE.
The editing link is the link when you first open the site and start writing. Save that link.
I bet this will change soon, but just a word of caution nonetheless.
I’m really curious to see where leaflet goes - and if Brendan’s tweets are any indication - we’re gonna see some cool stuff!
I wrote out a little “Alternative Internet” manifesto at the link to explore the capabilities of Leaflet.
Try out Leaflet at the second link!! (Don’t forget - always save your editing link)
🕶Wear Smart Glasses
I know, I know - we talked about smart glasses back when the new Meta Raybans came out.
and wayyyyyy back when I discussed the poorly reviewed Vue Smart Glasses.
Reviews have been getting stronger on it the last 6 months or so. I think it’s gonna end up being a really good product.
Here’s a fun Youtube review of it.
Out of all the ones I’ve seen so far - the Meta Raybans are still my favorite.
A few other smart glasses competitors have popped up though. This new product category finally seems like it’s coming together.
Frame AI glasses
I’ve mentioned these before - they’re essentially AR Google search (through Perplexity AI) in your frames. You can even generate images! However I’m not sure how well these work, a la this review. Frame is the “open source do whatever you want” smart glasses option. Check em out.
Even Realities G1
These look really cool. Instead of some CRAZY ar screen - you just get a Matrix-feeling green text that’ll pop up in AR in front of your eyes. You can take notes, translate, navigate, and more - all from the AR in the glasses!
They look like totally normal glasses - to the point that you probably couldn’t tell if they were “smart” or not.
I could see these being useful for someone who’s always “on the go” and having directions in front of their eyes or having a visual teleprompter would be “killer features.”
Check them out at the link!
🖥Windows9X
What if you could create any Windows program you desire?
Meet Windows 9X - the Windows that never existed.
A magical wonderland where you create the programs.
Yeah - just type in whatever you’d like and it creates a program for you.
Oh - you can login with Google too - so you can “save” your programs.
I was only able to create one program before I ran out of tokens (I’m not quite sure how they work to be honest. You’d be able to go crazy with a Claude 3.5 API key - I can tell you that)
However - what I did generate was an unhinged Windows notepad.
I highlight some text with the “cool Text” button. Now EVERYTHING IS BLINKING I CAN’T TURN IT OFF.
This is amazing :)
I can honestly say this is the first time I’ve ever been tempted to pay for AI, and I might just sign up for a month of Anthropic just so I can see what I can build in here.
Go check out Windows 9X at the link!
🐙The Land of Random
Random internet things . . .
Bizarre Winamp Skin Secrets
Dive with Jordan into the mysteries of old Winamp zip files, and their secrets. This is an AWESOME blog post. There are so many bizarre things . . .
A Decaying Poem
Living and dying, these poems faddeeeee over time.
Dehydrated Gourmet Meals
A really cool design project for hikers who want to enjoy homecooked meals.
Make Funky Wave Photos
Make super cool pics for ur Myspace profile.
The Chord Machine
I don’t need this. I don’t have time for this - yet - I desire this.
The Canvas TV
Hisense made a competitor to Samsung’s Frame TV. That’s pretty cool! Hopefully all TVs become frames haha.
The Floorp Browser
A interesting Firefox-based browser from Japan.
Exploring An Abandoned Casino Ship
A fascinating trip aboard an old rotting casino boat.
That’s all for this week! Unless . . . you’re curious to see what a Greek Mac looks like.