🌊 Water Tea Tables, The Auld Wikireader, and iMessage Fun
Get a table with water features
Hello friends!
Welcome to this week’s edition of The Land of Random.
We had some pretty bad weather here in Tennessee over the weekend - bad tornadoes, neighborhoods damaged, and at least 6 deaths.
Really tragic.
We didn’t have any damage here in Columbia, fortunately.
Tornadoes are crazy - you never know where they’re gonna land, or how much damage they might cause.
Did you see all the fuss about Beeper and iMessage working on Android for a few days?
That was pretty fun - reactions, typing indicators, and delivered/read notifications all worked!
but alas, Apple figured out how to stop it.
RIP.
I’ll talk a little bit more about it later.
Oh! I know it’s been a long while since I reviewed any Aliexpress products. I’ve got some new stuff coming soon - so I’ll hopefully have a new video by the end of December!
If you get a chance - read about the random background song clip from a X-files episode that got hunted down and discovered as a real song. A wild story!
Let’s dive in . . .
🌊 Water Tea Table
Have you ever seen one of these viral water tea tables?
They’re usually dining room tables that have literal flowing water, fish, and plants.
The aestheticcs are hard to beat, but do these actually exist - like - can I buy one or learn how to make one.
(If you want a good roast sesh of these tables - reddit obliged a few years ago).
There’s only a few “from scratch” water table videos out there.
This one by Liziqi focuses on aestheticcs pretty hard. I can’t say that I could figure out how to build one based on this video.
This creator John Malecki created one from scratch.
the great thing about this video is how he demonstrates all the “magic” that it needs to work.
Pond pump, filtering, epoxy, making sure the fish are safe, AN ENTIRE tulip poplar slab.
Without the entire backing of a woodworking shop, creating one is far beyond my current means.
(Fun fact - I couldn’t find many creators who’ve actually built one with flowing water. Here’s a fun one, and here’s another fun one).
However, could I buy one?
As a matter of fact - you can.
Not on Etsy - but on Aliexpress.
Here’s a circular one for $1288 plus over $500 in shipping.
And here’s one for $672 plus $392 in shipping? (and that’s just the table)
If you get one - let me know. I’d love to hear what it’s like.
Now you know a lot more about water tables then you’d ever know before! (and so do i - this is a rabbit hole I’ve wanted to explore for quite some time).
🛜 The Auld Wikireader
Did you know there used to be a physical version of Wikipedia?
It was called Wikireader, and you can still buy an old one, if you’d like.
The project debuted an offline portable reader for Wikipedia in October 2009.[1] Updates in multiple languages were available online[3] and a twice-yearly offline update service delivered via Micro SD card was also available at a cost of $29 per year. WikiReader versions of the English Wikipedia, Wikiquote, Wiktionary and Project Gutenberg can be installed together on a user-supplied 16 GB Micro SDHC memory card . . . In late 2014, the WikiReader website and project itself were shut down and abandoned for unknown reasons . . . Devices, professionally produced updates, and homegrown updates continue to be available from the secondary markets (e.g. eBay and Amazon), as well as from community efforts centered around the WikiReader subreddit. (source)
Sadly, it’s no longer made. I feel like it could’ve kept on in some niche capacity.
Check this thing out.
From an archiving perspective - having one of these sounds quite useful (This, and lots of AAA batteries . . . just in case).
From a pure “this is cool” tech perspective - it’s also just plain old cool.
Here’s a video review of the device from 13 years ago.
Per the Wikipedia article - I did a bit of looking, and indeed - the Wikireader subreddit does have occasional activity.
There’s even some unofficial yearly updates - like this 2023 update.
People sell the wikireaders - and the prices range from $120 - $200.
Something else that people use to locally store sites like Wikipedia is a tool called Kiwix - It allows you to store any website on your device locally.
I’ve never heard of it before - so I’m linking it here to explore.
Go check out the old remains of the official Wikireader website at the link!
(last update of the Github was 7 years ago RIP).
💭iMessage Fun
I’ve been following Beeper ever since it came out. Maybe you have too!
One chat app to rule them all. One chat app to find them . . .
The initial idea behind Beeper is to host ALL your chats - whether it be Whatsapp, Telegram, SMS, IG DM’s, FB Messenger (etc, etc) AND iMessage.
They BLEW up onto the scene after they released their new Android app “Beeper mini.”
I think it’s because they’ve been an OG player in the “make iMessage work on Android” space and they weren’t about to let Nothing Chat / Sunbird / texts.com steal their thunder.
Nevertheless, last week Beeper released Beeper mini to allow iMessage on Android - and it WORKED TOO.
For a few glorious days.
As opposed to the typical attack on these sorts of “hacky apps” (Nothing / Sunbird chat is back to the drawing board because of unencrypted messages) Beeper promises encryption and safety.
All messages are end-to-end encrypted before being sent. Beeper (and Apple) cannot see your messages.
Encryption keys never leave your device.
Beeper Mini connects directly to Apple servers. There is no Mac server relay, like other apps.
No Apple ID is required. Beeper does not have access to your Apple account.
(source)
Beeper has a really fun deep dive into the technicals of the operation. The impression it gives is - by golly they’ve gone and done it.
Here’s a taste.
we built Beeper Push Notification service (BPNs). BPNs connects to Apple’s servers on your behalf when Beeper Mini Android app isn’t running. We can do this while preserving user privacy thanks to Apple separating the credentials needed to connect to APNs to send and receive content (the “push” credentials) and the keys needed to encrypt and decrypt messages (the “identity” keys). Push credentials can be shared securely with the Beeper Push Notification service, and BPNs can connect to APNs on your behalf. Whenever BPNs receives an encrypted message that it won’t be able to decrypt, it simply disconnects from APNs and sends an FCM push notification to wake up the Android app, which then connects to APNs, downloads, decrypts and processes the incoming message. BPNs can only tell when a new message is waiting for you - it does not have credentials to see or do anything else. (source)
I won’t lie - it’s pretty intense.
If you want more of that - check out this deepdive.
Apple figured out a way to break it after a few days - and even confirmed it too.
Eric Migicovsky isn’t backing down though.
Beeper mini might be working again soon. The question is - will Apple just yeet it after a few days?
Or - will Eric win? Will he craft a iMessage hack that even Apple can’t break?
Check out Beeper at the link.
🐙 The Land of Random
Let’s . . . . Get . . . .Random!
Wigglypaint
This is a fun little tool - Draw a word, or a smiley face, and it becomes instantly wiggly. It works right in your browser!
Google Fiber’s Failed City
Do I want to have Google Fiber someday? I used to - but then I read about this debacle.
Man Plays Saxophone Style with Rubber Band
I didn’t believe it until I watched it, but it slaps (literally?)
A - Z.com
x.com goes to Twitter but what about all the rest? This is a fun little substack article about what all those other letters of the alphabet direct to on the internet.
Nahbucks
Find the closest “Not Starbucks” coffee shop near you.
The Internet Shutdown Game
Learn more about how Governments can shut down the net . . . via a game!
The Importance of Physical Media
This little blog post connects some of the dots from the past decade or so of media loss. We’re gonna likely lose a lot of digital media in the next few decades . . .
🎵TikToks You Can’t Miss
Someone found the real backrooms
Every day, someone finds a brilliant new use for Pillsbury dough products.
I feel like this started as a joke, but got serious.
I actually wonder if I can play Ready or Not without nausea
This is called a “keep one in the chamber” adventure.
🤖AI AHHHHHHHHH
Give it a year (or two at most) and Animate Anyone will be used for real-time Vtubing.
That’s all for this week! See you next time.
Unless you want to see Doom on a ultrasound Scanner.