1996 chat room simulator connected to Win95 and System 7 web desktops

A zero-account browser chat room mimicking mid-90s online services. The state runs on Upstash Redis and is shared across three different frontends (React/Vite deployed on Vercel): * The standalone chat interface (https://lolchat.rip) * A Windows 95 simulator (https://56k.rip) * A Mac System 7 simulator (https://dialup.rip) Users dialing in from the Mac desktop and users on the Win95 machine end up in the exact same rooms talking to each other.

Hits all those nostalgic early web buttons, right down to the dial-up modem sound when you’re connecting.

The Weirdest Game I’ve Ever Made

Broken Files is now available (for free)! This game is a series of personal firsts. It has voice acting. It has a character, and she does dialog to you. It seems like the sort of thing that would feel at home on itch.io, so it’s there too. And it contains no code, so it runs on everything – in fact, it doesn’t run at all.

This is so cool! It’s an ARG-style puzzle where you have to edit hex codes using clues in a .zip you download from her site. I know that might sound a little sketchy, but she’s the dev behind the ad blocker I use, Wipr 2, and she also uploaded the game to itch.io, so I trust it. I won’t spoil anything, but I will say I made it to the shrine and learned a bit about hex editing in the process.

Worth noting: it’s not an impossibly complicated Cicada 3301 level ARG, so don’t overthink it!

Get over your ivory library

Audiobooks make stories available to people who are driving, working, visually impaired, dyslexic, exhausted, or who take in spoken information better. Calling them “not real readers” doesn’t protect literature. It turns enjoying books into a purity contest.

I feel dumb a lot of the time when I admit I read something via audiobook, but I really shouldn’t. My attention span is shit so I usually get sidetracked when I try to sit down and crack a book. I do love my Kindle, and I’ve been reading a lot on it lately, but I’ve got a backlog on Libro I need to tend to.

Non-detection at traffic lights in the United States

Traffic lights that do not service traffic due to non-detection may not meet the federal legal definition adopted by most states for a traffic control signal, which is any device “by which traffic is alternately directed to stop and permitted to proceed”.

Did not know this was a thing. The abomination of a stoplight that leads to my street does this sometimes. I’m running the fucker the next time it misses my little car.

I Can’t Imagine Being This Desperate for Attention

I recently got shared a post from a friend about this blogger revealing they were the mastermind behind some shitpost ragebait blog that a collective 5ish people gave a fuck about (didn’t stop him from thinking he’s “talk of the town”), hell I hadn’t even heard of this blog before. But golly gee does this yutz want you to know it was him all along like some unaired Scooby-Doo villain.

I won’t post the actual blog either, but I’m 100% sure I just came across this same person on Bear Blog lmao. Big this guy energy at 0:32.

I’ll Keep Writing Like Me, Thanks

In the ’90s, I used — and … in HTML to produce em dashes and ellipses, respectively. In the early 2000s, I happened upon the Alt + keypad shortcuts for entering all sorts of characters in Windows.

I love how easy it is to type an em dash and ellipses on an iPhone keyboard. You could even just set a text replacement rule for two hyphens or three periods. I did that for the interrobang — when I type an exclamation point and a question mark it bangs out one of these bad boys ‽

Ed Sheeran’s Concerts at Gillette Stadium Cancelled Due to Severe Weather Forecast

“The decision was made with the safety of fans, staff and everyone involved in the shows as the top priority. Refunds are available now at the point of purchase. Ticketholders who purchased through Ticketmaster will be automatically refunded.”

You can’t make this stuff up lol imagine if he simply would’ve had a spine. The outcome would’ve been the same either way, but at least his reputation would still be intact.

Just realized I never paused my Libro.fm subscription when I thought I did, so now I have nine credits sitting in my account. I guess I should find a few audiobooks to listen to.

The Turning: How Fall Color Moves Across North America

Fall is my absolute favorite time of year. I’m not sweating 24/7, the bugs are going away and, most importantly, it’s spooky season. This site gives you a cool visual timeline of the changing colors across North America this time of year.

I vibe coded a little thing that shows links from my RSS feed and ranks them with a really basic algorithm based on things I up/down vote and how long it’s been since they were posted: 100links.org.

It’s just my personal RSS feed for the most part but I thought it was a neat addition to my blog.

Bonnie Blue claims she sold her baby’s name for £1,200,000

However, the winning bid came from the online betting company BetBolt. The self-described ‘Crypto Casino‘ reportedly paid over a million pounds for the right to name the content creator’s baby, and thus, the child was named BetBolt, according to the video.

This has got to be rage bait. Right? RIGHT‽ That poor kid.

Bisexuals Are a Statistical Majority of the LGBTQ+ Community

As the largest contingent of the LGBTQ+ umbrella, bisexuals have led the charge in the reported growth of the queer and trans population in the United States. In fact, the latest Gallup polling from 2025 found that the U.S. LGBTQ+ population has doubled since it was first recorded in 2012, with bisexuals now accounting for 58.6% of the now 9% of U.S. adults that identify across the alphabet spectrum. This means that roughly a whopping 5.3% of all U.S. adults are openly bisexual, making bisexuals more common than redheads.

🩷💜💙

Mark Hoppus of Blink-182 Pays Tribute Chad Gilbert of New Found Glory

But those hours and talks and bus rides really showed me who Chad was. A fighter. A champion of joy. “Joy” sounds weird but that’s what Chad was. Fucking. Joyous. He was the guy who sincerely smiled and laughed and loved to see and meet new people. And listen to music. Joy. Whatever negative thing was going on, Chad was going to say fuck it. And fight it. And face the world and celebrate.

RIP Chad. Will definitely be rocking out to some NFG tonight, starting with the Sticks and Stones record. Fuck cancer ☹️

Napster Is Back, and It Wants to Digitally Clone Teachers

“We’re not at the point yet where AI can fully replace humans, and therefore we want to leverage that technology overlaid on top of humans to get the most of it.

Obviously the entire premise of replacing human teachers with AI is ridiculous. But I’ve never understood why you don’t just start a new company instead of re-purposing the name of an old one. It’s like if Blockbuster came back as a fintech startup.

Endgame for the Open Web I saw Mike Masnick’s recent piece where he argued that one of the things that might enable a resurgence of the open web might be… AI. Times are changing, sure. I think Mike makes a great point though: it does lower the barrier of entry to build a w...

William Shatner Takes Riot Fest by Storm, Previews Metal Album

Shatner addressed the Riot Fest crowd by telling them he was approached by Cleopatra Records to do a metal album, and his response was “What the fuck is heavy metal?,” which led directly to the album title, What the F Is Heavy Metal? He also noted that the album will be released sometime in the winter.

Devastated Ed Sheeran claims his own family ‘abandoned’ him amid Gaza row

“Everyone’s telling me to cancel and I’m feeling all of my friends and family and people I know abandon me,” he said.

“Everyone’s an asshole but me” —Ed Sheeran

Flock Offers Employees Buyouts as Customers Flee

Applications for Flock’s voluntary severance program opened Friday, and employees have until October 2 to decide whether to leave the company.

Read that as “voluntary surveillance program” at first glance. That would be silly though. Flock’s dystopian surveillance program is strictly non-voluntary for the people of ‘Merica. Feels good to finally see them in the “finding out” phase of fucking around.

I’m about to take on a new management position at work, at a store closer to home, and it’s just now fully hitting me. Right now I drive about an hour to work every day, but the drive is actually pretty meditative and I absolutely love the city I work in. You grow attached n...

Lately, when I post something to Micro.blog that’s exactly 300 characters, it reminds me of this Super Metroid guide that was fully justified the hard way.

Saw this on Hacker News: Who is in space?

A neat little website that shows a name and portrait of every astronaut currently in space, and how long they’ve been up there. There are 10 humans living off-planet as I write this. Technically, I guess, it’s doxxing. But you need a rocket to reach them.

Ohio Man breaks free from handcuffs, punches deputies, and attempts courthouse escape

Just moments after being sentenced to one year in prison, Reaggle managed to break free of his handcuffs and punch the officer in the face. He then took of running, knocking another officer to the ground.

Why are these things always in Ohio 😆 I swear, even the random true crime and body cam videos I stumble across on YouTube; if they’re not from Ohio, they’re from Florida. Every time.

Bought for $30 at an Estate Sale, This Long-Lost Gertrude Abercrombie Painting Could Now Fetch $250,000

This is exactly the kind of come up I need. I should go to more estate sales 👀

Pentagon details ‘enormous’ problems as Marines’ boots fall apart in the Arctic

American-made boots issued to U.S. Marines began falling apart within days during training in the Arctic, forcing some troops from the field and leaving commanders scrambling for replacements.

This might be a hot take, but “Made in the USA” rarely translates to quality in my experience. We are not the manufacturing powerhouse we were 50 years ago. I’d trust a pair of Chinese-made Doc Marten fashion boots in the Arctic before some off-brand combat boots that won a Pentagon contract simply because they were made here and priced low enough.

Contest to Open for Ed Sheeran Flooded With Free Palestine Videos and Fart Memes

Guitar Center started promoting the “Open for Legends” contest on September 14, the same day Macklemore announced he had been removed from the last 10 shows of the U.S. leg of Sheeran’s tour.

What a beautiful coincidence lol

Alright that’s probably enough Meta™ posting for a while.

Is Meta Using Disabled People to Promote Its Glasses?

New technology can be immensely helpful for disabled people navigating the world. Smart glasses, which are not exclusive to Meta, can have legitimate benefits for Blind people and others with low vision: hearing a dictated description of what’s in front of them, or having texts read aloud. For users with hearing loss, Meta glasses can be helpful with captioning.

I retract my statement that they have zero potential to be useful for anything. There are definitely use cases for disabled people. But not from a surveillance company like Meta.

Facebook tests £9.99 monthly subscription for sharing more than two links

Notifications seen by some users based in the UK and US say they can only share a certain number of links in Facebook posts without a subscription - which starts at £9.99 per month.

Are you fucking kidding me lmao. I saw someone post about this on Bluesky because they just got the notification, but it turns out they’ve been slowly rolling this out since the end of last year. Sharing a link is a premium social media feature now. Wild.

Meta’s Next Pair of Smart Glasses May Drastically Tone Down the Creep Factor

Cameras on your face, as it turns out, can be used for all sorts of unsavory stuff, but there is one way to prevent that, and it’s by removing them from the equation entirely. According to a report from The Information, that’s exactly what Meta is planning to do with a new generation of smart glasses…

That’s a step in the right direction. I still would never use anything made by Meta, but I think smart glasses have the potential to be a pretty cool thing. Without the stealth pervert cameras of course.

Project Dream SNES prototype leaked online

Today, I’m releasing the SNES proof-of-concept alpha of Project Dream, the proto-type that would go on to become Banjo-Kazooie.

This is sick! Pretty high tech graphics for the SNES. Banjo-Kazooie was one of my absolute favorites back when I was a kid — I love seeing old prototypes like this surface. People on the Reddit thread were questioning the legitimacy of it, but OP came back with verification from The Cutting Room Floor. Loaded it up on my Anbernic handheld and it runs! It is very much a proof of concept though; not much to it. Still cool.