Web Wanderings #24
Rediscover the joy of online exploration! Web Wandering shares a hand-picked selection of the most awesome websites you won't find anywhere else.
A warm welcome to new and old readers (funny, because it’s summer and it’s actually too warm, but welcome anyway).
It’s been a great week, because after years of having basically the same frontpage, Cloudhiker got a little makeover. Some fresh paint for the rusty ship. But even though this site is now more than six years old, it’s still calmly sailing the internet seas. There’s still no invasive algorithm, there’s no AI dictating what sites are added. It’s all just me, a human like you, and the great Cloudhiker community, collecting the best websites of the web. 🤗
And today you get another round of the best of the best websites with this edition of Web Wanderings. By the way: if you have ideas, wishes, or sites you would love to see here, drop me a mail.
This edition is also available on Cloudhiker as a Collection so you can find, like and collect the sites of this Edition: Web Wanderings #24
Diego Goldberg’s Arrow of Time
https://www.diegogoldberg.com/arrow
When I first visited this website I was like: yeah some personal page of a photographer or so. But then I realized: this very man captured the development of his family across decades with photos of their faces. Every year from 1976, he took shots of himself, his wife and then, just after birth, his children. And that’s not even the end: his three sons started the same project. It’s both wonderful and heartbreaking to see how people get older and older.
Passport Photos
https://maxsiedentopf.com/passport-photos
Photos. Again. Boring passport photos. Well, have a look. This is not what you think it is. 😏
The age of average
https://www.alexmurrell.co.uk/articles/the-age-of-average
Have you ever went to a new friends home, stopped right in the middle of his living room and wondered why it looks familiar?
Hm, have you been here before? No.
Has he shared a photo of his flat? Nah.
And then it clicks: you are standing in an IKEA living room.
And the why is easy: we are living in the age of average. Art, infrastructure, living rooms, cars. Almost everything looks kind of the same.
Air Sickness Bag Museum
There are many website museums for all kinds of stuff. Some are a bit exotic. This is one is either a really weird fetish or… I don’t know. People collect weird stuff. And airline sickness bags is definitely a weird thing to collect. But scrolling through the site is funny though.
Prohibition: an interactive History
https://prohibition.themobmuseum.org
Politicians sometimes have wonderful ideas on how to run a country, establish laws… and then everything backfires in the most spectacular way. The Prohibition is probably one the best bad examples for this. Good intentions aside, banning alcohol has only led to people drinking even more.
Do you like all those websites and want to explore more? Cloudhiker has 32,000+ sites all waiting for you to be discovered! Totally free, no account needed.
The Phone in Your Hand
https://everythingmachine.io/phone
I love websites that take just one seemingly simple topic and tear it apart up to the most detailed level. Funnily enough, this website virtually tears apart your smartphone.
The world around us has become so incredibly complex, that we are not even aware of how f**king advanced we are as a human species right now. Your smartphone could effortlessly power 1 million Apollo space rockets. 1 MILLION!!! Those things brought men to the moon and back!
And this is just the regular chip performance. We are not even talking about antennas, radio chips and the miracle modern cameras have become. Just to put this into perspective: modern smartphone cameras deliver better pictures than a $3000 digital camera from 2005.
This fantastic website was shared by William. Thanks!
200ms
You know what, let’s stay with in-depth articles. And this one is even crazier, although it’s just scratching the ice berg of the internet has become. Few of you will probably get all the details of this article, but that’s not the point. The point is what happens when you click a button and somewhere else on this globe a computer receives your action, computes whatever should be done, and sends back a response… in 0.2 seconds.
I have reached about a third of the article (and I am a tech person, some would say), and I am still baffled by the depth and the speed. Things today are just unbelievable. Just imagine how tech will look like in 30 years… 😳
Frame of Preference
https://aresluna.org/frame-of-preference
I honestly did not intend to make this edition a collection of in-depth essays about specific topics, but here we are and I want to share this with you.
Tech always evolve, and so does software. Are you old enough to remember the squeaky, colorful interface of Windows 7? And now look at a modern Windows 11 machine. I mean it’s a bad example for things getting worse, but the evolution is still interesting. This website takes a look on how the settings of Apple Mac operating systems changed over time.
To build a better Ballot
https://janwillemtulp.github.io/parallel-lives
Voting has become an important topic for modern political systems. And it has always been a critically discussed topic, because it decides the fate of modern societies. And of course, politicians try to gamble the system and change it to their favor.
Over the past centuries, different voting systems have established, all with some pros and cons. Just think about the implications: if the US just had a different voting system, Trump would likely have not become president. This great sites goes deep into the topic of voting mechanics, with great interactive examples. And that’s why it’s worth sharing with you.
Title Drop
Last but not least, another website going deep into a topic. But this time it’s all about movie titles!
Did you know that most of the movies do not mention the actual movie title at least once in the movie itself? Two dudes sat down and analyzed thousands of movies and their subtitles to find out which ones mention the title. And the statistics are great! but see for yourself.
Did one of these finds make you smile? Chances are a friend would enjoy it too. Forward this email or hit the share button. Word of mouth is the only way this newsletter grows.
Got thoughts, or found a site I should feature? Just hit reply. I read every message.
Until next time, happy exploring 👋
Kevin