🎶The New Winamp, Clay Cups, and Pirate FM Radio
Yar harr where be the tunes?
Ahoy! and welcome to this week’s issue of The Land of Random
How was your week? Did you do anything cool?
This week started off on a wild note - with Twitter going after Substack. Definitely made for a fun day.
I made a thread about the rise of AI relationships if you’re interested.
It’s really only a matter of time until some percentage of the population is in a digital romantic relationship with an AI-generated Vtuber - 2 years away maybe?
It’s crazy stuff.
Just Like Lofi Girl launching a Synthwave channel. Very cool launch!
Anywayyyyy -
I realize that I accidentally forgot the link to the Stadio AI website last week! I’m so sorry. Here it is.
Have you heard the Batman Unburied audio drama podcast?
It’s really, really good. almost as good as the Harley Quinn one.
I really love a good audio adventure - I really hope they do more of these Batman-themed ones!
I’ve also been watching the John Wick movies - THOSE are awesome. I can’t believe this is my first time watching them??
Fantastic action movies - with a plot that gets surprisingly more complicated with each film.
Let’s dive in, shall we?
🎶The New Winamp
is Lame. Boring. A shell of a fragment of its former glory.
I normally try to be pretty charitable - but I simply can’t be here.
This is not Winamp. This is just a Spotify UI/UX clone with aspirations to be the next bandcamp / soundcloud.
This . . . . I don’t even have words.
The best I can do is say in my opinion whoever bought Winamp did the equivalent of this horror slasher style Gravedgr music video.
Below - is winamp.
That’s what we hoped for - in some form or another.
If you’re feeling some nostalgia - I recommend visiting
or going “full degen” and downloading Wacup.
The only benefit I could see to messing around with the new Winamp is to discover some new artists - but that’s it.
Go check it out!
☕Clay Cups
Have you ever just wanted to smash a cup?
Not out of anger or anything - just the fun of smashing it against the wall and shouting Huzzah!
Well . . . we might be able to soon.
GaeaStar, a startup based in Berlin and San Francisco, thinks it can do better with just clay, water, salt and sand. After piloting disposable clay cups and bowls in Germany, GaeaStar says it is gearing up to introduce its products to the U.S. via a trial with Verve (the California coffee chain, not the band).To make the disposable containers, the startup says it developed a special 3D-printer that churns them out in “30 seconds or less.” (source)
Totally brilliant - and a return to humanity’s roots.
Why hasn’t anyone else thought of this? Why aren’t all of our goods made of clay?
“It’s the reality of Western culture that people are constantly on the go and are now accustomed to disposability vs. carrying around a reusable mug,” Mankotia told TechCrunch over email. “We know recycling doesn’t work and our vessels can go right in the trash guilt-free.” When Mankotia says “recycling doesn’t work,” the CEO is referencing how most plastic is never recycled. (source)
The clay cups are “geo-neutral” meaning that it “will have no impact on the environment . . . It comes from earth and returns to earth in essentially the same form.” (source)
Better than plastic or aluminum - Both of those need to be transported to facilities for melting down.
These can be smashed right in the backyard.
It calls to the same single-use convenience that current cups invoke - except without the small underlying knowledge that the great trash mountains grow ever taller.
I hope GaeaStar gets soooo much funding. They may singlehandedly have a product capable of defeating plastic cups / plates / bowls for restaurants and coffee shops.
GaeaStar also aims to establish cup-printing centers near its customers and source clay locally. Calling this a micro-factory model, GaeaStar said in Germany it even delivers vessels using e-bikes. One day, the startup aims to offer a tabletop printer to restaurants so they can “print the cups on demand at the point of sale.” (source)
With this model - you can print ONLY what you need at a business. Just add an extra minute or so to each person’s order. Heck, that’s a spectacle in and of itself.
Watch your coffee cup print in real time.
Go read more about them at Techcrunch, or check out the website below.
You can actually order bowls and plates now!
🏴☠️Pirate FM Stations
Did you know that there are still Pirate FM radio stations?
I stumbled across an article from InsideRadio describing a pirate radio station operating in Portland.
The operator - a man named Thomas Barnes is under threat of several large fines.
Thomas isn’t shy about his radio either - with a LinkedIn profile that proudly displays “Pirate Radio Eastern Oregon.”
Pirate Radio stations have been around for decades - including the famous English pirate radio station Radio Caroline. (Here’s some of its fun jingles).
There’s even documentaries about them - like this one “Pirate Radio USA”
Many videos about hunting pirate radio stations tend to be quite old - like this one.
If you think you’ve found a pirate radio station - try checking it against the FCC FM query list.
Click that link - it’s absolutely fascinating, a gem, and a great reason to treasure Youtube.
The dude literally has a freaking spectrum analyzer in his car.
He runs a legit radio station which is still in business - and even has its own chat room.
Unsurprisingly, Pirate Radio enthusiasts/researchers actually discuss just how to set up a pirate radio station - which I share only for educational purposes.
This Youtube channel - Ringway Manchester has A TON of cool videos about them.
Want to check out some CURRENT Pirate radio stations?
Here’s some current ones that have been mapped out in New York.
and some current ones in London. (Some of them have websites!)
and a cool article on Red Bull’s site about other modern ones.
and a list of shortwave pirate radio stations to check out.
Compared to other niches - pirate radio is pretty active. Look no further than the subreddit. Though relatively small, it has at least one post a day.
Want to try hunting down a pirate radio station?
This fun video is a great place to start!
🐙The Land of Random
Into the random we gooooooooo
Footnotes Newsletter
Footnotes is a fantastic newsletter for discovering awesome writing tips, interesting links, and more! Leslye is a award-winning self-published author - with her novel Song of Blood & Stone on Time Magazine’s 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time! (So cool) You won’t want to miss her weekly newsletter. Subscribe at the link!
Sony Should Bring back the Xperia
I want a PSP phone still, and it could certainly hold its own these days. Remember the Xperia Play? That was a dope phone.
The Googly Eyes Follow U
Draw a face for the eyeballs so they feel more alive?
Play Cards in Your Browser Against Yourself
This is a smooooottthhhhh HTML5 website.
Dead Space Demake
Dead Space, but PS1 style. Much aestheticc.
Vegan Fluffy Eggs
It looks like egg and fluffs like egg!
Synthwave Radio
Lofi Girl’s brand new station.
The Swarm
One of the most mesmerizing websites I’ve found in a while.
🎶TikToks You Can’t Miss
Looks like that Superbowl commercial worked
Coolest old dude ever
Wendys is being savage dang.
WHATTTTtttTTTTTtttttTTTTTTttttTTT
💻AI AHHHHHHHHHHHH
AutoGPT is all the rage now - until next week I think.
This build a website with AI tool definitely has potential. Type an idea, get the code. Very cool.
Yep. This definitely won’t make the dead internet theory stronger. Training LLM’s on text messages with friends is gonna lead the world to strange places.
Cars with AI assistants- First it starts with kawaii pets like Spike in these European cars, next it’ll be Hatsune Miku in your phone.
I really really want to learn how to do this - this is what takes AI art to the next level. Create a simple drawing, then render it with Stable Diffusion.
That’s all for this week! See you next time.