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Mechanical Watch

ciechanow.ski

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Re: Mechanical Watch

#91

Post by soheil »

ThePhysicist wrote: post #31

I was curious how he did those visualizations so I looked at the source code. Turns out he codes everything by hand in WebGL [1]. Absolutely impressive stuff. Source code is non-minified so you can have a look and understand everything as well. [1]: https://ciechanow.ski/js/watch.js

Can you point to what libraries he could have used that would have made it simpler? I doubt anything like would benefit from any type of abstraction that currently exists, unless it was a more interactive application that would incorporate user input etc.

Re: Mechanical Watch

#92

Post by JohnBooty »

elorant wrote: post #78

I'd gladly pay for content like this. It's so informative. I've watched yt channels of people who disassemble and fix automatic watches, but never understood all the intricacies in such detail. This is what journalism, or writing in general, should be about. Explain things and go into details.

The author has a Patreon, so we really can pay for his content. =)

https://www.patreon.com/ciechanowski/posts

Re: Mechanical Watch

#93

Post by sarang23592 »

What an insanely cool demo of the workings. This is so informative. I mostly dismiss such stuff thinking I won't understand it but this one was easy to follow even for me. Loved it

Re: Mechanical Watch

#95

Post by kevincox »

10000truths wrote: post #47
panzerboiler wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He does it "the right way™". Use the platform. Don't use any framework or generic library. Go straight to the point and code what you need, when you need it. Don't minify or bundle anything, and let the people who are learning and courious a straightforward way to connect the dots, without forcing them into a github repository with 90% of the code unrelated to the thing and existing just to glue 1000 pieces written b…

I mostly agree with you, but I don’t mind minification when appropriate, as it can serve a functional purpose with tangible end-user-friendly benefits (less downloaded over the network = faster response times). But if you want to be friendly to the tinkerers, you could always host both the *.js and *.min.js versions, and have the webpage just pull the latter - anyone who wants the unminified source can remove the “mi…

A discoverable version would be to include source maps that link to the original as well. That way a browser console will automatically pull up the original.

Re: Mechanical Watch

#96

Post by nintendo1889 »

I always thought a compass that floats in water, and is also a sundial would be neat. Not super accurate but very good for military, offgridders and preppers, wherever there's limited access to power.

Re: Mechanical Watch

#97

Post by ThePhysicist »

soheil wrote: post #91
ThePhysicist wrote: post #31

I was curious how he did those visualizations so I looked at the source code. Turns out he codes everything by hand in WebGL [1]. Absolutely impressive stuff. Source code is non-minified so you can have a look and understand everything as well. [1]: https://ciechanow.ski/js/watch.js

Can you point to what libraries he could have used that would have made it simpler? I doubt anything like would benefit from any type of abstraction that currently exists, unless it was a more interactive application that would incorporate user input etc.

Three.js maybe, but it doesn't abstract too much away in my opinion, it has a lot of functionality around more complex topics (textures for example), but since he doesn't seem to use those it's probably not worth the hassle.

Re: Mechanical Watch

#99

Post by gman83 »

ghostbrainalpha wrote: post #41
causi wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 b…

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

Couldn't the Wikimedia Foundation raise some money to produce these kinds of videos? I wonder why they don't.

Re: Mechanical Watch

#100

Post by michael1999 »

What great work. The only thing I had to read twice was how energy is restored to the oscillation. The text doesn't discuss the role of the slope on the jewel fork teeth. But everything else was so clear as to be transparent. What a loving gift.
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