Ask HN: Can you share websites that are pushing the utility of browsers forward? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Can you share websites that are pushing the utility of browsers forward?

#101

Post by greggman3 » Mon, May 16, 2022, 3:39 PM UTC

SpaghettiX wrote: post #44

greggman3 wrote: post #19

WebGL: Google Maps is arguably the #1 application. It's used to draw the line drawing based maps and to re-draw them with different things emphasized depending on your needs (as well as rotate, scale, zoom, smoothly) But also, of course the fact that it goes 3D. It feels like they've de-emphasized this feature because I suspect few people use or or even know it exists but demo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbxYG5Sb…

3D Buildings in Google Map like that was announced a few days ago at Google IO, it's called immersive view. https://blog.google/products/maps/three-maps-updates-io-2022... I don't think we can actually use it yet though. Edit: that video might be of a different 3D feature I have no idea of

The 3D view has been available since at least 2016

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHe3ag3i8v8

AFAICT the announcement is saying they made it even more detailed than it already was

Re: Ask HN: Can you share websites that are pushing the utility of browsers forward?

#102

Post by modeless » Mon, May 16, 2022, 3:56 PM UTC

sanketpatrikar wrote: post #89

modeless wrote: post #36

My site https://james.darpinian.com/satellites/ uses WebGL, Web Workers, WASM, Service Workers, Notifications API, Geolocation API, probably some other web platform features I'm forgetting. The use of workers and WASM is not obvious, but on page load it takes the current orbit parameters for every orbiting satellite that is potentially visible anywhere on Earth and calculates the future position of each satellite eve…

Not sure why it's happening, but ISS passes overhead for me multiple times every few seconds. I'm in India. Firefox 100.

I'm not quite clear on what the issue is. By design the site shows the next satellite to pass over, and it loops every 20 seconds like a looping video as suggested by the seek bar and play/pause button at the bottom. Are you saying that it is looping faster than once every 20 seconds?

Re: Ask HN: Can you share websites that are pushing the utility of browsers forward?

#103

Post by ZoomZoomZoom » Mon, May 16, 2022, 4:24 PM UTC

Gigachad wrote: post #53

whatatita wrote: post #32

https://webwormhole.io and https://file.pizza both use WebRTC for p2p file transfer. They differ quite a lot in UX but both are really useful: it's 2022 and sending files to one another still seems to be a pain without tools like these.

For the average user, file sharing is already solved. If it’s a small file, you just send it via an IM app. If it’s a large file, you upload it to cloud storage and share a link

Solved problem? Most free-tier cloud storages won't even hold a half-hour long 4k video.

Uploading Gigabytes of media via p2p takes minutes nowadays, but you have to either pay or use p2p software to actually send it to another person.

Re: Ask HN: Can you share websites that are pushing the utility of browsers forward?

#104

Post by MisterSandman » Mon, May 16, 2022, 4:31 PM UTC

amelius wrote: post #81

modeless wrote: post #36

My site https://james.darpinian.com/satellites/ uses WebGL, Web Workers, WASM, Service Workers, Notifications API, Geolocation API, probably some other web platform features I'm forgetting. The use of workers and WASM is not obvious, but on page load it takes the current orbit parameters for every orbiting satellite that is potentially visible anywhere on Earth and calculates the future position of each satellite eve…

It seems there is a bug. I see ISS passing by, then I rotate the view a bit, and suddenly ISS passes again, all within a few seconds.

That isn't a bug, the ISS isn't passing by at that moment, the time it will pass over you is at the top. The looped video is showing you how the ISS will pass over you. It isn't a live feed.

Re: Ask HN: Can you share websites that are pushing the utility of browsers forward?

#105

Post by leohart » Mon, May 16, 2022, 4:45 PM UTC

8th Wall https://8w.8thwall.app/welcome runs WASM on the web to perform SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping) and add Augmented Reality to your space without installing an app.

Everything runs on your device. Works in phone's browser and VR headsets' browser. Even has extra Computer Vision features like Image Target and face tracking as well.

Re: Ask HN: Can you share websites that are pushing the utility of browsers forward?

#106

Post by brrrrrm » Mon, May 16, 2022, 5:06 PM UTC

leohart wrote: post #105

8th Wall https://8w.8thwall.app/welcome runs WASM on the web to perform SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping) and add Augmented Reality to your space without installing an app. Everything runs on your device. Works in phone's browser and VR headsets' browser. Even has extra Computer Vision features like Image Target and face tracking as well.

This is really cool. Is the SLAM engine open source?

Re: Ask HN: Can you share websites that are pushing the utility of browsers forward?

#107

Post by mvolfik » Mon, May 16, 2022, 6:19 PM UTC

For me as a student tinkering with whatever comes to hands (employment wasn't one of such things yet haha), I was pleased that it was very simple to make a web app work fully offline after initial load (including images and everything). You just go to the URL in your browser, without internet connection, and it loads. Not sure if the users are ready for this though

Re: Ask HN: Can you share websites that are pushing the utility of browsers forward?

#108

Post by [deleted] » Mon, May 16, 2022, 6:22 PM UTC

akamoonknight wrote: post #26

I feel like this isn't exactly what you're asking for, but the storytelling in: https://www.sbnation.com/a/17776-football feels like it opened up new my thoughts on how something could be communicated via the medium of the Internet and just made me think to some extent how woefully underutilized the browser/internet has been used as a story telling medium (at least to my limited experiences of these things)

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Can you share websites that are pushing the utility of browsers forward?

#109

Post by son_of_gloin » Mon, May 16, 2022, 6:36 PM UTC

uggahaggauh wrote: post #91

Oooops, OT (not what you thought (really) but once there were a time...) > https://freezine.xyz/0/frustration/index.html (-;

Damn you, I just wasted like 20 minutes on this! :)

Re: Ask HN: Can you share websites that are pushing the utility of browsers forward?

#110

Post by Gigachad » Mon, May 16, 2022, 8:34 PM UTC

ZoomZoomZoom wrote: post #103

Gigachad wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For the average user, file sharing is already solved. If it’s a small file, you just send it via an IM app. If it’s a large file, you upload it to cloud storage and share a link

Solved problem? Most free-tier cloud storages won't even hold a half-hour long 4k video. Uploading Gigabytes of media via p2p takes minutes nowadays, but you have to either pay or use p2p software to actually send it to another person.

If you are sharing a long video file you likely either work with video or are sharing pirated media. If you work with video then the cost of cloud storage is nothing. It’s like $2/month for hundreds of gb storage which is more than worth the price. P2P is unworkable, you have to coordinate with the receiver to send the file while cloud storage is async. You upload it and email the link and your done.

Skype file transfer used to be p2p and it was a huge pain. If one side closed their laptop or something it would just kill the transfer.