👟Hydraulic Shoes,Shoppable TV ads, and Personal Internet Archiving

Steel in your Step

I have great news! We’ll be closing on our house this week.

The best case scenario worked out!

The seller came down to the appraisal price - so it looks like we’re all set! We’ll save a bit of money each month too.

We’re so excited to own a home - well - I guess own it in 30 years.

Oy Vey that’s a long time - but at least it’s not a 50 year loan.

I’m planning to add some smart home features too . . . .

Yes. I’ve decided to choose - I’m going with Google products.

I’m already an Android fanatic - so i’m sticking with it.

I keep one Alexa around just in case they do some sort of crazy “voice access only” sale.

You never know.

Have you seen any of the new season of Only Murders in the Building?

SO GOOD.

We finished The Boys last week. THAT was a crazy finale.

The new season of What we do in the Shadows is fantastic so far too.

Well, let’s jump in, shall we?

👟Hydraulic Shoes

Have you ever snapped your ankle on a hike?

I did once - and I probably should have gone to a doctor.

I didn’t - I walked it off - despite the fact that my ankle actually swelled up pretty bad . . . . yeah. Big oof.

Then there was a period of several years where if I rolled my foot the wrong way, I’d fall over.

It’s been 7 years since then sooooooo . . . I’m ok.

There’s a new startup that’s adding hydraulics to hiking boots to help prevent problems such as mine - and they look really dope.

source

These look more techwear than anything Acronym or Nike have dreamed of in the last decade.

Here’s how it works

Their "adaptive ankle protection" is like an external ligament, but one that's made from a slim hydraulic piston concealed within a strap, connected to a second strap encircling the ankle. When the wearer places their foot down and the shoe wants to go wonky, the piston prevents it from rolling, "reacting three times faster than the human body," the company writes. (source)

Isn’t that cool?

The hydraulic piston activates to save your ankle from snapping when your foot goes wonky after that uneven step.

Here’s a video demo that shows the reaction in real time.

I really want a pair of these hiking boots now . . .

Go check out the site! The shoes aren’t for sale yet, but I imagine they’ll sell out fast.

They even have a partnership with the NBA. I think this company is gonna make some crazy bank.

📺Shoppable TV Ads

OK - Picture this.

You’re watching a movie on Tubi - and an ad comes up for a pizza place near you.

Get a pizza delivered now. Free Delivery.

So - you turn to your phone to look up.

Wait that’s SOOOOO 2022.

Why not check out directly on your TV FROM THE AD?

That’s exactly what Walmart and Roku are partnering up to do.

Roku viewers who are served Walmart ads via the streaming service can press the “OK” button on their remotes to be sent directly to a checkout screen. Orders can be purchased using Roku Pay and completed by pressing “OK” again. Walmart then sends the customer an email with their information and fulfills the order. (source)

That skips all the steps of the typical ad.

No more clicking “send to phone” or scanning a QR code.

Just buy directly from the TV.

That’s the most frictionless buying experience possible.

“We’re working to connect with customers where they are already spending time, shortening the distance from discovery and inspiration to purchase,” said William White, Chief Marketing Officer, Walmart.  “No one has cracked the code around shoppability, until now. By working with Roku, we’re the first to market retailer to bring customers a new t-commerce experience and seamless checkout on the largest screen in their homes – their TV.” (source)

Honestly - I don’t know how you can crack the code any better than this.

I’m very curious to see how companies begin to take advantage of this new ad offering from Roku. It would make most sense to start with very affordable items - in order to get people used to the experience.

For example - a $5 spice for steaks, or a box of really awesome cereal for $6.

Create a great enough ad - and those will sell themselves.

Oh - I can get this cereal shipped to me by tomorrow? Say no more.

I went on the hunt to find some examples - but wasn’t able to find any. Hopefully, we’ll be able to see some examples out in the wild soon!

🕸️Personal Internet Archiving

It’s a fact of life - we can’t trust the cloud.

We do every day - but we shouldn’t really.

One bad day at a server room - and your data could be lost forever.

Don’t believe me?

Go to this reddit thread - and start reading.

Use Icloud instead? Here’s a different thread to read

You’ll be setting aside a few hours this Friday to back up all your data to a physical harddrive.

I still need to do this.

I occasionally back up CSV’s of all my bookmarks that I use

The next step is to back up your internet browsing.

You never know when you’ll find something AWESOME.

and . . . you bookmark it.

and . . .you go back two years later to check it out again.

and - it’s gone.

You DESPERATELY go to Internet Archive - and it’s not there either.

As much as I love Internet Archive - it can’t be fully trusted. If its crawlers haven’t made it to a particular webpage, you’re out of luck.

That’s where irchiver comes in.

almost everything from the outside world now comes to us through our web browsers. we see it, we forget it, but sometimes it leaves an impression. what would it be like if we could recall it at any time, just as we saw it? Even though the web is constantly changing, even though web pages and entire hosting sites disappear, you still get to keep what you saw with irchiver. seeing is keeping. Irchiver aims to be your backup memory. (source)

Irchiver takes full page screenshots of every webpage you see - and saves them to your files.

It’s a researcher’s dream come true.

Check it out!

🐙The Land of Random

Randomness for Your Monday Cup of Coffee.

The Ant Colony

Ever wondered what an ant colony looks like? Check out this simulation. There’s a ton of really fun sliders to change things in the simulation too!

Tesla Coil Imperial March

This sounds pretty good, ngl

Retro Style Magazine

This website is pretty fun! It’s the blog for a German brand with fantastic aesthetics.

The Typewriter never Stops

Seriously, type or die.

Phone with Built in Earpods

Now make a version that has Android.

Missing the Weird Internet

A great article about what we lost after Myspace

Cyberpunk Homebrew

So cool! It’s like a typewriter laptop

🎵TikToks You Can’t Miss

I wish I got to witness this in real life

WAIT WHATTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

I’ve always wondered how they get dope shots like that

This is why the Vikings left North America no cap

Yeah, this underwater game looks really terrifying

This tortoise is so cute I’m gonna die

🕸️The Land of Web3

Average Creature 5148

This week, we revisit Average Creatures - a project that has delivered more value than many of the other projects I’m a part of. (Since buying my 2, I’ve been airdropped 2 NFT postcards, been able to mint 2 PFP’s for free, and get this really sick video). Average Creatures is a collection of NFT’s generated from real life elements. It’s delightful, whimsical, and really cool! If you’re looking for an affordable NFT project that is doing cool stuff all the time - Average Creatures is a great bet. Currently the floor is around 0.02 Eth. Go check it out!

• Track activity from a NFT collection with Telegram alerts

• Thanks to @gregyounger for finding this - Paragraph.xyz wants to be the Substack newsletter platform of Web3. Looks interesting!

• Bring your NFT to life in video chat with Hologram. Go sign up for the beta!

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