The Xkcd thing, now interactive

(editor.p5js.org)

495 points | by memalign 3 hours ago

31 comments

  • BoppreH 2 hours ago
    I would suggest adding the /r/ProgrammerHumor version too: https://www.reddit.com/r/ProgrammerHumor/comments/1p204nx/ac...

    The AI crank always cracks me up.

    • sumo89 1 hour ago
      The shark biting the cable is what gets me
    • Projectiboga 1 hour ago
      I like that the hand crank is going counter-clockwise
    • b3lvedere 53 minutes ago
      Oh wow! :)

      Thank you for the laughs. I needed that!

    • SideburnsOfDoom 51 minutes ago
      given the events of the last few days, one could add a Shahed drone too.
  • jfkimmes 1 hour ago
    Here's a little more context about the author's motivation: https://mathstodon.xyz/@csk/116162797629337132
  • panzi 2 hours ago
    Register the mousemove event handler on window, then you will still get the events when the mouse moves out of the window/frame while dragging and it won't be that buggy.
    • DaanDL 2 hours ago
      Was about to comment the same. It's a common mistake/gotcha.
      • benrutter 1 hour ago
        Possibly dumb question, but does that still hold inside p5js?
        • virgil_disgr4ce 1 hour ago
          p5 is just a wrapper that adds the setup() and draw() functions, so yes
  • PenguinRevolver 12 minutes ago
    I love that clicking the empty space and just doing nothing at all still causes the blocks to fall apart after some time.
    • tosti 0 minutes ago
      What blocks? What's the big deal here? I don't get it
  • knowtheory 1 hour ago
    I love that the initial state itself isn't stable.

    The world keeps moving around us. Can't choose staying still.

    • LanceH 7 minutes ago
      That's the javascript effect.
    • tyleo 1 hour ago
      Interesting! It's stable on my machine. I wonder if this is due to floating-point differences.
      • andai 58 minutes ago
        On my machine, the initial state isn't simulated. It only begins simulation when I touch it. At which point, the weight causes the bottom blocks to intersect each other significantly.
        • FireInsight 51 minutes ago
          For me, bottom blocks stay still while those on the very top fall down.
        • tyleo 35 minutes ago
          Maybe that's what I'm seeing.
        • rob74 20 minutes ago
          One more pedantic nitpick: when a block gets wedged between two blocks at an angle, it gets slowly pushed out, although there is a lot of weight resting on the top block. That would be realistic only (maybe) if the blocks were made of ice, but not for other materials...
          • withinboredom 3 minutes ago
            Another reason not to let ice on the internet.
  • fallingmeat 2 hours ago
    oh look at that. removing IBM enterprise apps really doesn’t break anything and the whole stack got lighter. science.
    • rob74 16 minutes ago
      Did you actually manage to remove a block without everything collapsing (eventually)? Then you must have an incredibly steady hand, it's nearly impossible to do as far as I can see. Which can also be interpreted as a metaphor for the state of the tech stack, I guess...
  • briansm 1 hour ago
    Just to mention the original was cited in the most recent Veritasium video:

    "The Internet Was Weeks Away From Disaster and No One Knew"

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoag03mSuXQ

    (at about the 9:50 mark)

  • seydor 30 minutes ago
    without touching the block, after a while it begins collapsing, which makes it an even better representation of infrastructure
  • jascha_eng 1 hour ago
    This is oddly fun to play with. Has that angry birds vibe
  • mezod 2 hours ago
    this is the best thing internet since the last best thing in the internet
  • aanet 3 hours ago
    Too delightful. Like a reverse jenga tower you like to topple over.

    Of course, glad to see it was another @isohedral project.

  • merryocha 39 minutes ago
    I knew exactly what this would be before even clicking it. Someone had to make it!
    • rererereferred 6 minutes ago
      There is so many xkcd things, I didn't know which it would be.
  • bbx 1 hour ago
    I was expecting it to open the FFmpeg website at the end.
  • louisbourgault 2 hours ago
    Really cool! To be honest, when I clicked on this I had a hope that it would be possible to add things to the stack like the ongoing memes of just putting different things in there (maybe live with other people as a collaborative editor).
  • 9dev 45 minutes ago
    I hope Randall reads HN and sees this, he’d love it.
    • mghackerlady 40 minutes ago
      I'd be surprised if he didn't read HN at least occasionally
  • 1e1a 2 hours ago
    It looks like the stroke/border is not taken into account in the physics simulation.
  • palad1n 1 hour ago
    THIS IS THE BEST THING EVAR!
  • normie3000 1 hour ago
    It's like open source Angry Birds.
  • inanutshellus 48 minutes ago
    Feature request - be able to change the text and re-share it.

    Half the fun of this xkcd is referring to it in context of whatever just went haywire.

    • withinboredom 1 minute ago
      The source code is right there ... just change the background image to whatever you want.
  • CivBase 50 minutes ago
    It'd be really cool (and probably useful) if someone could figure out a way to generate diagrams like this for any software project.

    You'd first need to figure out a way to generate a complete dependency tree. For each box, I interpret its height as a measure of its complexity and its width as a measure of the support it receives. The hardest part would probably be figuring out a way to quantitatively measure those values.

    • BoppreH 7 minutes ago
      Ask and you shall receive: https://stacktower.io/
    • TonyStr 47 minutes ago
      One naiive solution could be to cloc the dependency and use the size as the height, and fetch number of github contributors as width
  • egorfine 2 hours ago
    We absolutely need a "whatever Microsoft is doing" object in that.
  • lwhi 1 hour ago
    Who are the big blocks that survive the collapse though?
  • MagicMoonlight 49 minutes ago
    The blocks feel a little bit too slippery
  • _nivlac_ 2 hours ago
    Now we just need a generated version of this based on a package.json!
  • tobylane 2 hours ago
    I'd like a medal for clearing the screen of all debris. What's that you say, some of it is still useful? oh
  • josefritzishere 1 hour ago
    This is very real.
  • efilife 2 hours ago
    If only it wouldn't collapse by itself after clicking anywhere (clicking seems to activate physics) this would be 10/10
    • koolba 2 hours ago
      > If only it wouldn't collapse by itself after clicking anywhere (clicking seems to activate physics) this would be 10/10

      I think that's the other metaphor here.

      It's not just standing on the tiny shoulders of one forgotten maintainer. The entire system only appears stable because we're looking at a snapshot of it.

      In reality it's already collapsing.

      • glkindlmann 2 hours ago
        but I came here for amusement, not existential dread.
        • gchamonlive 2 hours ago
          Nobody expects ~the Spanish inquisition~ existential dread
    • upsuper 1 hour ago
      And that tiny thing is actually one of the last to collapse...
    • moebrowne 2 hours ago
      Yeah. Seems like there is ~0 friction.
  • crokie123 2 hours ago
    What’s the Nebraska project?
  • wink 2 hours ago
    the weird physics are mildly infuriating. still funny though
    • eastbound 1 hour ago
      That is the joke, I think. The game is to touch anything and try to not make the rest fall down.
      • wink 1 hour ago
        Not sure. It's not it being unstable, it's small bricks moving bigger stuff to the side and maybe even upward. If I missed the joke I just don't find it funny.
      • seba_dos1 1 hour ago
        Simply clicking on the empty background already makes things fall down.
  • venusenvy47 1 hour ago
    Is this website intended to break HN on Android? I've never had a website lock up the HN app like this. I couldn't back out, and I was stuck in a loop when the app restarted on the same page.
    • andai 1 hour ago
      App?
      • Telaneo 57 minutes ago
        There are a few HN readers out there, but none of them are official as far as I know.