Hellllloooo and welcome to this week's edition of The Land of Random
Another week - and more of the old internet crumbling away.
Omegle is dead, and Tumblr downsized some more.
(Basically life support for Tumblr).
I appreciated the long blog on the Omegle website - despite the many horrors that Omegle had, there were also bright spots.
Weāll get deeper into the subject in todayās first topic though . . .
The bright spot was the first few episodes of the new season of Invincible. Itās off to a really strong start!
Oh - if anyone is looking to hire an awesome writer / content marketer - look no further than Sonya Supposedly. Sheās looking for work!
Weāre finally feeling better here - that was one heck of a bad cold last week, but weāre finally back to normal.
And Fall is in FULL force here - so many pretty trees!
I will not be taking a chance to buy the Humane Pin - but Iām eager to watch reviews when the early adopters get their hands on āem.
Iād prefer to buy a cheap used folding phone first.
Letās dive on in!
Own your very own second at 24 Hour Homepage! This delightful website features a different link/image every second - with MANY links to explore. Own a second, and share a link/pic with the world. (Sponsored Ad)
š¦Another Dead Internet Canary
Omegle was more than just a weird website for random video calls.
It was a relic of the āold internetā - like 4chan, Chatroulette, or Pirate Bay.
A Canary in the Internet Coal mine. A site you could make back in the wild west of the internet . . .
Iām not here to defend Omegle - there was a sizable amount of disturbing content on there.
It takes a little bit of crazy to say āoh random video chats with anonymous strangers. Iām sure that will always go well.ā Lemme just hop on and assume I wonāt eventually be scarred by life by some weird dude.
There are plenty of examples of horrible stuff.
Thereās also fun and wholesome stuff like this.
You want more of that? Rob Landers also did the prank with an entire orchestra.
Like anything - Omegle could be used for good or ill.
but - I find it important to take note of when such sites cease to exist.
Like when Bestgore stopped operating, or other such āshockā websites.
or Grooveshark, Putlocker, Projectfreetv, or Kickass Torrents.
Remember when Grooveshark was so popular it was practically mainstream internet piracy?
The internet is slowly shifting - one decade at a time - towards sanitization and censorship.
The Wild West of the internet is in our rearview mirror. Weāre just watching the lights of the oleā town go out one by one.
The battle for Omegle has been lost, but the war against the Internet rages on. Virtually every online communication service has been subject to the same kinds of attack as Omegle; and while some of them are much larger companies with much greater resources, they all have their breaking point somewhere. I worry that, unless the tide turns soon, the Internet I fell in love with may cease to exist, and in its place, we will have something closer to a souped-up version of TV ā focused largely on passive consumption, with much less opportunity for active participation and genuine human connection. - Omegle founder. (source)
The free internet is slowly being broken - one decade at a time.
For example - France wants a state-sanctioned website block list at the DNS and web browser level.
You may say āso whatā but remember how far weāve come.
23 years ago - our parents and uncles/aunts were messing around with Napster like it was no big deal to casually pirate files.
One decade - itās the obvious stuff - the next it might be telling you that you canāt share a meme or link because itās bad.
*sirigpt* Hey Bob, thatās a pretty dark meme - you canāt share that.
Also Bob, VPNās are used for nefarious things 9 times out of 10 - Iām uninstalling it for you.
This interesting little speculative blog from Gazoche shows a hypothetical timeline for lots of potential censorship stuff.
Go read the letter on Omegleās homepage if you have time. Itās worth reading!
šØBuild A Tech Typewriter
I saw the coolest build for a cyberdeck typewriter on Hackaday.
Itās essentially just a small vertical display and a mechanical keyboard, but the raw minimalism is inspiring.
one of these would be awesome for writing an essay, or fiction.
The creator says
I wanted a distraction free digital typewriter with nice clacky mechanical keys and a thin wide screen. I built this funky thing with a raspberry pi running the software focuswriter and libreoffice. It's made out of plywood and I rapidly realythat carpentry is hard, so I covered the lopsidedness and stray nails with decoupage. It can save/load easily, and I can transfer files easily with a USB drive. (source)
I guessed the Raspberry pi - but what about the screen?
One of the comments on the post suggests the Waveshare 11.9in IPS touch display
Between that, a hand made case, a cheap mechanical keyboard, mouse, and a Raspberry Pi - youāre probably looking at around $180 - 200 all in.
āWoah!ā You might say - āIām not spending that much on a cyberdeck typewriter.ā
May i gently remind you that the premium version of this idea (cool computer typewriter) - the Freewrite - will cost you about $500.
This is a lot cheaper - and fulfills the same kind of aesthetic.
If youād like to go FULL DEGEN in this space and money is no issue - might I recommend the USB Typewriter.
Top tier price - and the top tier aesthetic of a genuine restored Typewriter.
After those two options, the Cyberdeck typewriter sounds a lot more reasonable.
Thereās even cool 3D printable cases - what are you waiting for?
Go check out the cyberdeck typewriter at the link!
š¤ The Amo App
Have you heard about the upcoming iPhone app Amo?
I only heard about it the other day from this tweet.
āOh just another appā i thought - and then I saw who was behind it.
Zenly folks like Antoine Martin or Michael Goldstein. Zenly was a cool app. Lots of neat ui/ux interactions. interesting ideas. A genuine desire to get friends to connect IRL.
Zenly may not have been as popular here in the States (we were too busy scrolling IG and FB) - but it was HUGE overseas in places like Europe or Japan.
(but Snapchat killed it)
We donāt know much about amo yet - but what we do know is that itās geared towards friends.
We want to get back to what social networks initially set out to accomplish ā strengthening real relationships first and foremost before the mission statements became connecting the world. We want to help people without consuming all of their time behind screens and we want to give them a platform to be themselves without needing to compete with brands and celebrities. In doing so, we believe that we can create a stronger business than Meta or Bytedance and one that is net positive to society.
Iām curious as to how Amo will accomplish this mission.
How will it connect us with our friends? Is the UI/UX/functionality revolutionary enough to accomplish this?
So many of the apps weāve discussed lately all are geared towards moving to a small group.
The question of the decade is - which of them has that special spark to stand out and steal Tiktokās limelight?
Maybe Amo has what it takes - maybe itās something else we havenāt even seen yet.
Itās currently available for preorder - and itās expected to release on November 19.
Check out the website here, or pre-order the app at the link!
š¦The Land of Random
Random links 4 u!
Own your very own second at 24 Hour Homepage! This delightful website features a different link/image every second - with MANY links to explore. Own a second, and share a link/pic with the world. (Sponsored Ad)
Generative Modular Ambient Music
This stuff is so fascinating - like a space ship soundtrack. Boot it up for todayās soundtrack - maybe let the video play on your second monitor.
The Crap Cast
A weather forecast to determine if itās likely whether a bird will poop on you or not.
Make a Highway Sign
Surely youāve wanted to make custom highway sign in your life?
Reservation Bot
scene at an entrepreneur resort
āBRO - nice Yeezys. What niche are you in?ā
āBro I flip reservations to restaurants using an army of bots.ā
ābro thatās sick bro.ā
āBro for only 1K a month I can get you start-ā
Google Is Stopping its Web DRM API
GOOD NEWS does happen sometimes.
Unfortunate Tales
A dark little tale with every click - likely to give you a chuckle.
Make Some Tunes
Crank up the vibes with this web FM synthesizer
š¶TikToks You Canāt Miss
oh dang - even Lamborghini made this edit
Anon. That is not safe. Anon.
Ah so weāve officially entered āsimulacrum land.ā Got it.
š¤ AI AHHHHHHHHHHH
Ah yes - I need to research products with a chatbot
Coming soon - apply to 100,000 jobs in one click!
the Great Coke + Pepsi War
Thatās all for this week unless you agree with this energy.