Comment by aliljet

4 years ago

This may not be the most valuable comment, but my goodness, the quality of this writeup and it's interactive descriptions of complex mechanical components AND their interactions is radically impressive. The treatment of complex topics in deeply visual and partially interactive ways, for me at least, is a remarkably helpful way to learn.

47 comments

aliljet

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causi  4 years ago

True multimedia is a lost art. We had it back in the 90s when software came on discs and it was a high-density, polished product that combined text, audio, video, and interactive elements on the same page. The internet taking over turned everything back into text, and then as bandwidth grew the only thing we thought to use it on was higher and higher bitrate video.

When I was a kid I thought the future was going to be fully-integrated data. Like I would be able to pause a movie and click on anything I was seeing to get more information. Click an actor, get his bio and interviews about the movie and bloopers. Click a vehicle and get its model. Click a special effect and see how it was done or an animal and learn about that animal. Imagine watching Lord of the Rings and being able to instantly read the original lore of any object, location, or character just by clicking/tapping it. Hell, even the smallest things can radically change your experience. Imagine if Wikipedia articles had appropriate background music. I guess there's just no market.

  • ghostbrainalpha  4 years ago

    There is absolutely a market for your LOTR example. I think a kickstarter made LOTR or Harry Potter Interactive applications like you are purposing could charge $1,000 maybe.

    And I 100% align with your 90's prediction. What we gained going from Encarta to Wikipedia was amazing, but we shouldn't forget that we lost some things too.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=po3yW-wdLr0

  • DeathArrow  4 years ago

    >True multimedia is a lost art. We had it back in the 90s when software came on discs and it was a high-density, polished product that combined text, audio, video, and interactive elements on the same page.

    This reminds me of Microsoft Encarta.

    • ghaff  4 years ago

      Microsoft sold a bunch of titles for things like music. They did quite a nice job as I recall during that period when it was really rather wondrous you could hold all this information in the palm of your hand.

      1 reply →

  • throwaway821909  4 years ago

    Last time I used Amazon Prime Video, around 2017, it would show info that Amazon deemed relevant for that bit of the show (apparently it's called X-Ray). Back then at least, it wasn't on the same level as what you described but still something.

    The danger was it made me want to pause all the time in case I missed something interesting, but by putting the user in control of what they get info on, you could avoid that.

    • reaperducer  4 years ago

      Last time I used Amazon Prime Video, around 2017, it would show info that Amazon deemed relevant for that bit of the show (apparently it's called X-Ray).

      X-Ray still exists, but the only way I've ever seen it used is to tell you what the background music is, and the names of all the actors in a scene. But even then, it is often incomplete.

    • mFixman  4 years ago

      The Kindle has a similar feature for some of its native book: if you long-click in the name of a character it would give you a short description and a timeline of where it appeared in prior parts of the books (with future parts hidden to prevent spoilers).

  • ezconnect  4 years ago

    That was also my dream when I first saw the CD encyclopedia and seeing the first demo of AR using google maps of pointing your phone to a building and seeing information about it and then the introduction of google glass, then it all suddenly disappeared.

  • reaperducer  4 years ago

    Like I would be able to pause a movie and click on anything I was seeing to get more information

    I remember the cable companies promising this when everything went "digital."

    I also remember when the movie studios promised us one of the big advantages of DVDs over VHS was that we could watch the scenes of a movie from any angle?

    Yeah, that never happened.

    • rapind  4 years ago

      And the director / talent commentary tracks, which were sometimes really great (Vanilla Sky comes to mind). I think that was only common for a really brief period unfortunately. To be honest I think it just failed from a market perspective (cost vs revenue). I could be wrong and maybe it still happens a lot?

      Suspect the angles thing was the same. Sounded cool but no one wanted it (or to pay extra for it).

      1 reply →

  • digisign  4 years ago

    There is a movie player that would highlight the character/actor on screen at the moment you hit pause. There is a link to find out more that would take you to the appropriate web page with the info.

    I want to say it was google play, but not completely sure.

tomtheelder  4 years ago

I almost couldn't believe the quality of this while reading it. Not just animations, but simulations? That perfectly illustrate the concept being discussed? Incredible. Not to mention the incredibly clear and articulate prose.

pcurve  4 years ago

This might be the single best work of art on the Web I've seen since 1995. Nothing else even comes close.

remarkEon  4 years ago

1000%.

Sent this to my dad, and can't wait to talk this weekend. When I was a kid we would tinker around with watches in the basement but, alas, I had different interests and never really got around to truly understanding these mechanisms. I don't really know web development beyond setting up basic pages, but how the CAD was integrated into this is wonderful and I'd love to see more posts going through things like human joints or ICE, or maybe weapons ... other things where we kind of intuitively grasp how they work, but don't know the details. This entire blog seems to do a lot of that. So cool.

bambax  4 years ago

Came here to say the same thing. This incredibly well done, well written, well executed, well... everything. How does one find, not only the talent, but the patience to do such incredible work... Mind boggling.

alimov  4 years ago

I think that the person(s) that created the interactive visuals would find this to be a helpful comment. Radically impressive is a fitting description. I don’t think I’ve ever seen and interacted with anything like it, although I imagine people working with CAD software get to see and mess around with this kind of stuff pretty frequently.

hamburglar  4 years ago

And in true HN style we react to such objectively awesome content by having a slapfight over whether the author wrote the code in the “right” way.

qorrect  4 years ago

My first thoughts were "This is what the internet was invented for".

So impressive.

soheil  4 years ago

To be 100% honest I found it very intimidating to even begin reading it. It's such a time sink (no pun intended) and a huge wall of text (with figures and interactivity nonetheless).

  • duderific  4 years ago

    I usually get about half way through his posts, see how much is left and just give up. Nonetheless I get a lot out of them.

    • lupire  4 years ago

      Dont give up. Pause between sections and come back tomorrow.

      Put a reminder on your calendar.

    • cardinalfang  4 years ago

      The end was the best bit. I have seen good explanations of the escapement and timing gears before, but not of the crown adjuster mechanisms.