All the comments hating on the audio is hilarious, I have to admit the audio is definitely louder than normal. It seems to have been tampered with to increase its loudness. Combined with the fact that the browser wouldn't have played it if it wasn't for the click interaction for "back to the top", which is of course the whole point of this demo. If intentional, clever and definitely deserves a HN front-page recognition.
Elevator.js (2015)
61–70 of 88 posts
Re: Elevator.js (2015)
#62It’s funny how sites used to play music all the time and now people are on the phone with the FBI to report any site with audio
I was the accidental instigator of an incident where Mosaic for Windows ended up with April Fool's jokes embedded in it.
It was probably the first time I noticed what others have noticed since then, which is that I have a way of asking questions that causes other people to react (often more than my attempts to directly influence).
All I said was, "Isn't this going to be our last release before April 1?" Everyone got quiet for a minute, their eyes glinted, and we went from releasing at a reasonable hour for once to deploying at 1 am. Unfortunately the lead engineer (who ended up putting an audio clip of himself knocking on his CRT and saying, "hello? Is anybody out there?" on an idle timeout) and I had worked out all of the off-by-one errors on date calculations in Win32 early in the evening when we were still sharp, only for him to change the numbers in a crisis of faith later in the evening. So the whole thing fired on April 2. Which luckily was a Sunday, so few people using it at work or for classes were affected.
It was all fun and games until the emails started coming in informing us that we may have been hacked. I like easter eggs in my games, but I've only ever mentioned this to coworkers as a cautionary tale about impulses and judgement when tired.
Re: Elevator.js (2015)
#63It’s funny how sites used to play music all the time and now people are on the phone with the FBI to report any site with audio
websites are now meant to be "content" for google or social media. Social media are allowed all the permissions, websites no.
We only like audio or video on a page when the point of the page is audio or video. Youtube. Conference slides. Podcasts.
And even then I have a bad habit, in part due to multiple monitors, of trying to mix tabs and windows and sometimes I cannot for the life of me locate the tab that is playing when someone needs me for something. I may need a new rule about where such tabs need to live (separate window, one monitor, virtual desktop, something).
Re: Elevator.js (2015)
#64A very cute bit of coding. But: I've always wondered who uses these "back to the top" buttons, and why? Until quite recently I hardly ever had reason to go back to the top of the page—I was much more likely to click a link or click the back button—and if I did a quick tap of the home key or flick of the touchscreen usually did the trick. Conveniently, both gestures work even if you've not gotten all the way down to t…
On iOS, tap the top of the screen to automatically scroll to the top.
There's usually some combination of the Home key that does the same on most desktop browsers, but the control key varies by OS and sometimes browser.
What there isn't on iOS as far as I'm aware is a way to scroll to the bottom. On infinite scroll pages accidentally navigating away as one can easily do with touch screen results in a lot of frustration.
Re: Elevator.js (2015)
#65This is so fun! Great work
Re: Elevator.js (2015)
#66Re: Elevator.js (2015)
#67It’s funny how sites used to play music all the time and now people are on the phone with the FBI to report any site with audio
I miss the whimsy of the old web. I suspect even the folks who participated in that whimsy and now turn their nose up at a site with an odd design, or sound are to blame. Whimsy is still out there to some extent but just not as prevalent.
Auto-playing music was obnoxious then and it's obnoxious now. I didn't think there was anything whimsical about it. About as whimsical as getting an air horn blown in my face when I walk into a room.
Re: Elevator.js (2015)
#68The Factorio blog [1] does a similarly fun thing with it's return to top functionality. It's a fun little easter egg.
Hint: rockets go up
Re: Elevator.js (2015)
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
websites are now meant to be "content" for google or social media. Social media are allowed all the permissions, websites no.
We only like audio or video on a page when the point of the page is audio or video. Youtube. Conference slides. Podcasts. And even then I have a bad habit, in part due to multiple monitors, of trying to mix tabs and windows and sometimes I cannot for the life of me locate the tab that is playing when someone needs me for something. I may need a new rule about where such tabs need to live (separate window, one monitor…
then you have messaging apps that need to make notifications and they can't. The way google blocks audio at this point is not good.
Re: Elevator.js (2015)
#70Expected the music, was pleasantly surprised by the great comedic timing of the bell. Very nice.