9 ms·
Automat
- VyseofArcadia 2y agoI tried for a while to spill the coffee on everything, but I was never able to make it happen.
- surprisetalk 2y agoMarek gave some helpful background for this project during a recent Future of Coding meetup (first demo in the stream). [0] https://mrogalski.eu https://mrogalski.eu [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7z77QGARLE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7z77QGARLE [2] https://futureofcoding.org https://futureofcoding.org
- chirau 2y agoI don't get it, what is this supposed to be? Another drag and drop? I am failing to understand the uniqueness of this. Also, if you put the cup on the tape and try to move the tape, the cup removes itself.
- nusl 2y agoDrag the floppy to the console and you'll get a download link for the tool.
- Mashimo 2y agoGot so far, but what does the tool do?
- stavros 2y agoIt looks like it's some sort of game-playing AI?: > Automat's objective is to be able to semi-autonomously play a variety of games. It's the first step towards a more general environment for interacting with computers. That's not what I got from the notebook, though. From the notebook, I thought it was some sort of new programming paradigm, so I'm confused.
- trebligdivad 2y agoThat was very touchy for me; it took 4 or 5 goes to get the floppy in, at least. The tape worked easily. (I didn't see the floppy or notebook being able to do anything)
- nuxi 2y agoOpen the notebook and flip through it. Drink the coffee (drag the mug downwards). Put the floppy in the device. Put the VHS tape in the device.
- nmstoker 2y agoThat's an illustration of the difficulties. I got the disk, video dvd and even drank the coffee but I initially thought the notebook was some sort of box for the video so didn't realise you could open it to read!
- nuxi 2y agoI think that's on purpose/by design, so that users are nudged into exploring. Things like these were pretty common in adventure games back in the days, which I probably spent too much time on playing...
- elric 2y agoI first tried to shake the coffee to see if I could make a mess, didn't work. When the mug is empty, the github logo becomes visible and you can click through to the github repo.
- huhtenberg 2y agoHow do you open the notebook? I can drag it around, no problem. The cursor also changes to a pointy hand when over notebook's right side, but clicking doesn't do anything. Nor does click-and-hold-then-dragging.
- nuxi 2y agoClicking on the right side (pointy hand) worked for me.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- SirFatty 2y ago"Automat's objective is to be able to semi-autonomously play a variety of games. It's the first step towards a more general environment for interacting with computers."
- tsunamifury 2y agoIt’s like a mini myst puzzle as an way of consuming content
- nusl 2y agoI like the easter egg where you can drink the coffee if you drag it to the bottom of the screen.
- the_third_wave 2y agoYou just came up with a good name for this type of interface: the Easter Egg Interface in which everything need to be discovered, a bit like walking through a forest with paths to the South, South-East and North and there is an old house there with a mailbox, the flag on the mailbox is raised.
- throwanem 2y agoThe name in vogue a few decades back was "mystery meat navigation."
- ileonichwiesz 2y agoThat just sounds like an interface without enough affordances to be understandable to the user. Reminds me of Snapchat (at least when I used it a couple years back) - to block a user just tap and hold their name, then swipe right twice, then turn your phone upside down.
- owlninja 2y agoA point and click adventure :)
- can16358p 2y agoIt was lovely until I double tapped and accidentally zoomed in with no apparent way to zoom back out again. Otherwise, lovely.
- throwanem 2y agoAn interesting experiment, very reminiscent of the early 90s' Magic Cap, Microsoft Bob, et al. But objects in physical space afford a discoverability that can't be replicated here, and the metaphor thus quickly and inevitably becomes a burden.
- ActionHank 2y agoAlso, in the Flash days, everyone and their dog had this sort of thing as their personal \ portfolio site.
- RedNifre 2y agoYou can't put the diskette into the device by pushing it in. Instead, you have to hold it at a position that makes an arrow appear and when you release it, it will push itself magically.
- sunbum 2y agoWhat even is it? I read the github repo but that explains nothing about what it actually is.
- harel 2y agoYes
- AnyTimeTraveler 2y agoFrom the Github Readme[1]: Automat's objective is to be able to semi-autonomously play a variety of games. It's the first step towards a more general environment for interacting with computers. Currently Automat's functionality is limited to keyboard macro recording & playback. It's fairly unstable but if you're lucky and it runs on your machine, it can be useful for automating some basic actions. [1] https://github.com/mafik/automat https://github.com/mafik/automat
- marcellus23 2y agoThat's not really helpful. It's software that plays games on its own? But also it's some sort of new GUI environment? But also, all it can do is record and playback keyboard macros? What actually _is_ it? edit: I haven't downloaded it because I don't have access to a Windows PC. But I guess, based on that description, it's basically AutoHotkey with a snazzy UI?
- tantalor 2y agoFinally, I can automate Factorio.
- philote 2y agoYeah I had no clue what this site was until reading the comments. I saw you could move things on the page around, then gave up because I had no idea what the point was. I didn't even find the github link until I saw your comment and decided to play around more.
- gtsnexp 2y agoIs this something like LabView for hippies?
- itronitron 2y agoInteresting, there is a short description of the project in the Moleskine book that you can click through after dragging it into view.
- andai 2y agoMan, I thought that was a dead tablet! The notes within are interesting, though it's not clear to me if Automat itself meets those ideals? (Or even tries to? From what I understood, the notebook seems to first praise tech that is ubiquitous and enduring, but then rejects web apps due to bloat?)
- donalhunt 2y agoWhat is this wonderful device that takes VHS tapes and floppies? :)
- sevensor 2y agoThe old skeuomorphism used analog analogies. I like that this demo uses older computing technology. Generally I think the time is right for a reversion to richer textured interfaces. GUIs are pretty pointless for 90% of the desktop software I use, but if you’re not going to do the decent thing and give me a good textual interface, at least give me some eye candy instead of these stale, dreary flat interfaces.
- sourcepluck 2y agoAh, I guess then that this is unrelated to the 1978 Brazilian electronic music LP? https://www.discogs.com/release/443321-Automat-Automat https://www.discogs.com/release/443321-Automat-Automat "in the beginning there was the "MACHINE" the survival and the organization of the planet depended upon the "MACHINE" the future an the past depend upon the "MACHINE"... the past? but who wanted the "MACHINE"... ?"
- pessimizer 2y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automat
- ufo 2y agoI thought that was an italian album?
- defrost 2y agoIF Discogs is accurate (often is but does have some errors) THEN it's Italian artists, Italian management releasing via a Brazilian record subsidiary (a number of UK groups, for example, recorded and pressed in the Carribean) Automat Italian one-album duo with veteran songwriters - producers from the progressive rock era. Their album is an electronic disco-tinged suite with an alien - futuristic concept. Sites: italianprog.com Members: Claudio Gizzi, Romano Musumarra EMI-Odeon Fonográfica, Industrial e Eletrônica S.A. Brazilian record company and wholly owned subsidiary of EMI Ltd. operating from 1974, successor of Indústrias Elétricas E Musicais Fábrica Odeon S.A..
- sourcepluck 2y agoAh yes, indeed, my apologies, discogs threw me a loop. Wikipedia says it was Romano Musumarra and Claudio Gizzi, two Italian fellows.
- andai 2y agoDelightful! I wish there was more.
- protocolture 2y agoI like how the website is a great visual description of why skeumorphism is terrible. Its also fun to use.
- creativenolo 2y agoThis style of website will be rife soon - there’s more and more popping up. Even yesterday, I was looking at https://comancheindians.tilda.ws/en https://comancheindians.tilda.ws/en These websites would have been super hard to resource the assets, but now with Gen AI it’s simple.
- pixelatedindex 2y agoI can’t imagine the way you build this website is the same way you build your static sites or a landing page. Is it WebGL? Looks extremely complex to be honest.
- Onavo 2y agoThe trick is to use a game engine or something similar (not vanilla CSS/HTML). Flutter web would work well here, once Safari's WebAssembly GC support gets merged, you will have a lot of options.
- treflop 2y agoThis website can be written with vanilla JS, HTML and CSS on any framework or in a raw HTML file. If this was still 2004, you could have gone to DyanmicDrive.com and stolen some sample code. https://web.archive.org/web/20040117050039/http://dynamicdrive.com/ https://web.archive.org/web/20040117050039/http://dynamicdri...
- mafik 2y agoAuthor here :) There is no trick here actually. It's just HTML / JS / CSS. Browsers are pretty good at compositing CSS transforms - and know how to handle DOM updates coming from event handlers & requestAnimationFrame. There is one CSS hint that speeds it up a little "will-change: transform". Another important ingredient is to update the object position in the (pointermove) event handler - so that the responsiveness is low - physics engines also could do this, but it's usually an overkill. You can take a look at the script in the website's sources - it's inline.
- Karawebnetwork 2y ago
- BJones12 2y agoThere's a name collision with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automat
- timdiggerm 2y agoOnly if the context in which you're writing/speaking is such that you are likely to be referring to a historical restaurant genre or whatever this thing is
- alex_young 2y agoAutomata were super common in popular culture in the 50s and 60s. The way of the future. I think many people would first think of them, especially without context.
- rdlw 2y agoAutomat is a common European word for 'machine' or 'vending machine', many languages have it.
- kerblang 2y agoAaaand I'm still stuck on the anachronistic idea of hierarchical menus with text that explains what you're about to do, along with keyboard shortcuts and - in the non-mac world - "mnemonics" (sequential keyboard shortcuts). High-efficiency symbolic communication, in other words.
- jszymborski 2y agoKinda wish the coffee mug left a coffee ring when you set it on the napkin.
- mafik 2y agoYes! I wish CSS had decals support!
- thih9 2y agoIs there a way to play with the app presented in the video? Edit: Looks like you have to pick the blue 3.5 floppy, insert it into the video player and then you see the links to download windows / linux binaries[1]. [1]: https://github.com/mafik/automat/releases https://github.com/mafik/automat/releases
- DrDeadCrash 2y agoAfter ignoring the download links I ejected the floppy, drank some coffee, and read from the notebook. What did you try?
- tills13 2y agoSo let me get this straight, not only does it not explain what it is, it's a bit of a puzzle to even get to the download links, and then it straight up downloads an .exe which you expect me to run on my computer? Give me more info without me having to pry it out of you through finding your github which honestly isn't much more descriptive.
- DrillShopper 2y agoI wish web designers would understand they do not have unilateral, unchecked power to make my browser do what they want - if they want that power they're going to have to ship a PDF or a program. The accessibility for this site additionally looks like it's a goddamn nightmare.
- diggan 2y ago> I wish web designers would understand they do not have unilateral, unchecked power to make my browser do what they want They don't have that power, which is why they cannot do that. What they can do though, is use the provided checked powers (HTML, CSS and JS APIs) to deliver whatever damn experience they want. And if you don't like it, you can close the page. > if they want that power they're going to have to ship a PDF or a program. The comment you're replying to, seems to say the website is literally doing that.
- vivzkestrel 2y agoif I have to sit and think about what to do on your website without reading a manual, then it has already failed the user experience department
- aaronharnly 2y agoIf you click on the moleskine notebook, you can read seven pages of "handwritten" notes, though they are full of analogies and exhortations that still don't actually explain what it is.
- lancewiggs 2y ago
- outlore 2y agoperhaps off topic: for many months i’ve been thinking about creating tactile buttons. are there any APIs to produce vibration in the phone via the browser? i’d like a way to create a vibration response curve when toggling a switch. i’d like to feel the friction and resistance like a real-life switch. is this within the realm of possibility with current browser APIs?
- shepherdjerred 2y agohttps://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Vibration_API https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Vibration_A... Not supported on iOS
- outlore 2y agothanks will look into it, pity about iOS
- tolerance 2y agoIt's interesting to observe how something so outwardly trivial or whimsical can elicit a visceral agitation borne from ignorance.
- magamanlegends 2y ago[dead]
- distalx 2y agoI think it’s got a unique, nerdy charm that stands out in the best way.
- recursive 2y agoI appreciate the whimsy, but also, I don't have the patience to figure out how to do anything with this.
- alamortsubite 2y agoI was really hoping for a web ode to Horn & Hardart [1] or at the very least FEBO [2]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horn_%26_Hardart https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horn_%26_Hardart [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FEBO https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FEBO
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- lowbloodsugar 2y agoIts 1998 again!
- jollyllama 2y ago> "Future proofing means to run on any computer, regardless of its form factor. From PC to VR goggles..." > "Some devices will require headless operation. They should still be accessible over some web-based interface." > Running on any hardware (let's but (sic) the bar at Raspberry PI (sic)) means that every megabyte counts. > "This elliminates (sic) browser-based solutions at the get go" How does that conclusion follow from anything that was said?
- rougka 2y agoReminds me of Spycraft: The Great Game I am pretty sure it had this kind of interface complete with the sound effects, or maybe i am confusing it with another game from that era
- mplewis 2y agoThe splash page is nearly illegible. The only textual description of what this product is renders partially outside of the viewport. The splash video has a fake-LCD effect and is so small that I can't see what it is demonstrating. What is this thing?
- sgerenser 2y agoAnyone else who was a child of the early 90s get immediate Myst vibes when flipping through the notebook? I think it’s the page turn sound effect.
- cbxyp 2y agoReminds me a little bit of widget workshop from the 90s
- infostud 2y agoThis is like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etoys_(programming_language) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etoys_(programming_language). About fifteen years ago I used to teach high school students that came along to my university to get a taste of IT a session called "How to Write a Computer Game in Ten Minutes" using Etoys. I found this was the fastest way to get all of those "Tech Savvy" (ugh) teenagers an experience of writing computer programs instead of learning word-processing and spreadsheets they did in Design & Technology. As an extra I got them adding track sensors to control steering with "Artificial Intelligence". So isn't this a fancy version of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scratch_(programming_language) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scratch_(programming_language)?
- zackha 2y agohey everyone