💻Cool Websites, 100 Year Websites, and Emu OS

Do you like old web stuff?

Hey friends! Welcome to this week’s edition of The Land of Random

For those of you who are also stateside, I hope you have a great Memorial Day with your family!

I had an interview the other week with an awesome guest - I’ll be posting it here next week.

Did you hear that Randonautica is back? It’s honestly one of the most cursed apps that have ever come out.

Honestly, y’all be tempting fate.

Basically - it’s a GPS spinner that randomly picks a location for you to venture to, some vibey style “intents” (ie. I intend to find peace at the location I venture to) and people tend to find weird stuff . . . including bodies, abandoned creepy homes, and other deeply unsettling things.

oof.

In other news - the new Moto Razr has been leaked - and though cool, each new iteration feels more like a Galaxy Z Flip competitor.

The external screen is really fun - maybe I’ll pick one up when my Pixel dies in a few years.

Let’s jump on in, shall we?

💻Cool Websites

So you like cool websites eh? I was spurred on to do another batch by the new Diagram website. It’s so delightful!

Ironwood Solar

Ironwood Solar is completely powered by solar energy. You can even see the stats of batter life, CPU temp, weather, and more. (can you find the rickroll on the site?) Go check it out! Ironwood Solar Website

MMM.Page Explore

Mmm.page released a fun random page explorer - it will remind you of Geocities. or Neocities. From blogs to art, there’s all sorts of fun things to see. Explore mmm.page sites

Amie Calendar

Honestly one of the trippiest websites I’ve seen. It’s a calendar product that’s focused on optimizing your day. The landing page is cool - but the story page is mindblowing - an interactive calendar charting the development of the product - with mini blogs, podcasts, videos, pictures, and more. Amie.so landing page, Amie.so calendar page.

Ekrem Personal Website

Canvases are all the rage, but have you ever seen a personal website that is also a canvas? Scroll around Ekrems accomplishments to discover the portfolio. Ekrem’s website

Daniel Fosco Canvas

Ok, so Ekrems was really cool, but Daniel Fosco’s canvas style website is interactive and editable. It’s really neat! Daniels website

We Are Juliet

An agency with a penchant for brutalist modern vibes. Love the site. We are Juliet website.

🌱100 Years Website

How long will your website last after you die? That depends on many factors - where you hosted it, what platform you’re using, how many years you’ve paid for the domain . . .

Though we may love/trust services like Carrd or Webflow - there’s no guarantee our websites will last forever - even if we’ve bought many years of our domain name.

That’s the problem that Derek Silvers and Hundred Year Host is trying to solve.

At the moment - it’s just an idea, but a deeply intriguing one.

Here’s the goal.

This will be a not-for-profit entity, like a purpose trust whose sole legal purpose is to keep your website hosted at your existing domain name for a hundred years.

You pre-pay for the estimated cost of the domain renewals and hosting. All finances - all deposits, all expenses, all transactions - will be public and auditable. Your pre-payment will stay alotted for your own site only. The trust will have no employees, and will keep all expenses as low (sustainable) as possible. (source)

That makes sense - you pay ahead, and the Trust ensures that your website stays up.

Derek lists several different trust options that could work - like a South Dakota Trust, Nea Zealand not-for-profit entity, and a Wyoming Statutory Foundation.

In theory, it sounds like one of those could work - since they all allow for purpose trusts.

Across the world - there are trusts set up to protect buildings, property, art, and other cultural works - why not personal websites?

There’s thousands of insanely valuable websites that chronicle everything from 1930’s jazz music to the Google Graveyard.

The Internet Archive is the SOLE hope of many of these, once the owners have passed away.

Side note - I really wish there was a competitor of sorts to The Internet Archive - it’s always good to have multiple libraries of Alexandria.

I hope Hundred Year Host gets some traction.

Check out the manifesto at the link!

🥚Emu OS - Explore old programs

Do you miss Flappy Bird? Clippy? or perhaps Doom?

Emu OS is an interesting WIndows 97 emulator that’s PACKED with interesting games and programs.

It’s like stepping into an early 2000’s portal - complete with an unhinged active chat room.

Anonymous chat rooms are such a strange thing in the world of 2023.

There’s a overwhelming amount of things to do - from messing around with Winamp or Fluid Paint - to playing Super Mario.

It’s not just any Super Mario - this one has mods

It’s difficult to explain what’s happening here - but there’s an “Acid Trip” setting. The whole game trips nonstop.

There’s also a few of those “io” games where you play simple multiplayer games with others.

I’ve played agar.io before - but Skribbl.io is rather interesting - it’s pictionary but with a chat.

There are many random strangers on the internet who are way better at drawing than me. That’s for sure.

The 8 bit Palette Color Cycling program was pretty fun. Pop that on the screen with a Lofi Youtube window, and it’s actually pretty peaceful.

It’s easy to get lost in Emu OS - Just boot it up, and get exploring!

What will you find?

🐙The Land of Random

Random links for thee

Bot Eat Brain

Stay one step ahead of the bots with the Bot Eat Brain AI newsletter. Every issue is chock full of interesting links and tools from the world of AI. It would take HOURS of browsing Reddit and Twitter to get this much research on your own. Subscribe at the link!

Blackberry Style PC

It’s a phone! It’s a PC! It’s a . . . . handheld cyberdeck PC and looks like a giant Blackberry? Neat.

Neverending Music Video

The Vibes and Video never stop with this AI-generated eternal music video. It’s super trippy. The music is pretty decent too!

The Aboveground Vs the Underground

A fascinating essay about those who dwell within the rules, and those who dwell outside the rules. ONE OF THE MOST FASCINATING READS ABOUT TECH I’VE READ IN A WHILE.

The Nospia

A really neat chord-building instrument. More vibes here.

Wiby - Explore the Old Internet

Wiby is a search engine for old websites - It’s really fun to explore and see what sort of old things you can find. Some of these old websites are still updated . . . .

Lofi Japan

Enjoy a walk around different Japanese cities while listening to Lofi. When I say walk - yes the videographer is actually walking around the city. It’s a really interesting experience!

Set Up Your Very Own VPN

How to set up and run your own vpn! Pretty cool.

🎶TikToks You Can’t Miss

How to make a lot of money making bionic props

I love a good sword fight.

Please tell me Hyundai is taking this to production. Pleaseee.

Send this skit to your friends who climb

Bro is posting from the early 2000’s.

🤖AI AHHHHHHHHHH

Ah yes - Batman by Wes Anderson

Another AI model website where you can make free pictures - but this one compares images from a variety of different Stable Diffusion models. It’s really cool!

Scrape the web with AI? Interesting . . . . .

That’s all for this week! See you next time. :)