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Show HN: Doomscroll the Goverment's UFO Files as One Gigantic Microfilm

26 points by keepamovin 5mo ago

keepamovin 5mo ago
If you don't remember microfilm - it's this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microform https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microform It's still (I think) used in libraries for viewing newspapers and other things. I built a "Windows File Explorer" type viewer for the May 8th released files that are hosted on WAR.GOV but felt a single giant "timeline" was interesting and new enough to do one more. Plus I think the problem of making the streaming of thumbs/full-size efficient and good UX for scrubbing, random seeking, and playback of documents and videos in one giant "reel" is interesting. Theoretically, it's a simple model: static files, fronted by CloudFlare, assisted by local browser cache and the goal is playback that uses bandwidth optimally. Perceptually, I think it's a great way to "grok" a large amount of information. Your eye can notice things in the scan and you can zero-in manually to seek. It supports cursoring, and YouTube controls (numbered jumps 0 - 9 and j,k,l plus . and , for seeks and toggling playback) - as well as a bunch of touch gestures to scrub.
Mechse 5mo ago
Just spent 30+ minutes scrolling through old documents without noticing :D Great work
- keepamovin 5mo ago
  That is so good. Thank you so much. The immersive experience of microfilm was what I was going for and there’s something about that sort of infinite Scroll that pulls you in. my job was to create the UX so that it could get out of the way and enable that experience. I’m so glad you had that.
- cursuve 5mo ago
  Same! This is really fun!
  - keepamovin 5mo ago
    Glad you enjoyed it :) Thanks for taking a look!
abstract257 5mo ago
these 55K pictures is soemthing i can get lost in. thanks for building.
- keepamovin 5mo ago
  You’re welcome! It’s a good way to present the information. I look forward to when the next 46 videos drop in a few days and adding those.
habitit 5mo ago
Wow there are gonna be a lot of people digging into this haha. I think it has so much potential like to add all other types of de-classified file sections as well. Maybe even a tying system to see like which files link to other files to draw things out in higher perspectives. Regardless its a cool one, one day soon enough well know the truth :) .
- keepamovin 5mo ago
  Yeah, I think just making everything, including future drops, one giant maybe chronological list of Files definitely opens up possibilities. And sounds like there could be some kind of annotation layer where people can mark it up somehow but not sure the right fit. The simplicity is what works right now I think so any additions would have to be similarly super clean. Thank you so much really appreciate your words and you taking a look.
bharatj97 5mo ago
[dead]
datagrasp-grcs 5mo ago
[dead]
archleaf 5mo ago
We should be able to find something that was missed! Did you let any LLMs search this?
- keepamovin 5mo ago
  Yeah, actually I think that’s really smart. Because after you convert everything to JPEG everything is just an image that you can ask LLMs to look at. Unfortunately, I don’t have the experience with local models, but if someone wants to point me in like the right direction or send me an email to collab.
  - vunderba 5mo ago
    There are actually a few capable VL models out there that can run on even modest hardware. If you want to keep things simple and process everything locally, I’d recommend something like Qwen3 VL [1]. It’s not the fastest model, but you can just let it chew through the docs over a weekend. In my experience, it takes about 15 to 30 seconds per image, but the quality of the results is quite good if a bit verbose [2]. [1] - https://huggingface.co/Qwen/Qwen3-VL-8B-Instruct-FP8 https://huggingface.co/Qwen/Qwen3-VL-8B-Instruct-FP8 [2] - https://mordenstar.com/other/vlm-xkcd https://mordenstar.com/other/vlm-xkcd
anthonycoslett 5mo ago
Wow. This is addictive. Loved quickly scrolling on the images beginning at 28539 and watching the UFO dart to and fro :O I have a feeling this is going to be widely accessed - and speaking of, thank you for making it so accessible. Very, very cool. <3
- keepamovin 5mo ago
  Thank you! Yes, the microfilm format is surprisingly good. I can’t take credit for that. I look forward to adding the next set of videos when they’re released. Really appreciate you checking it out and sharing :)

26 points by keepamovin 5mo ago

If you don't remember microfilm - it's this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microform https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microform It's still (I think) used in libraries for viewing newspapers and other things. I built a "Windows File Explorer" type viewer for the May 8th released files that are hosted on WAR.GOV but felt a single giant "timeline" was interesting and new enough to do one more. Plus I think the problem of making the streaming of thumbs/full-size efficient and good UX for scrubbing, random seeking, and playback of documents and videos in one giant "reel" is interesting. Theoretically, it's a simple model: static files, fronted by CloudFlare, assisted by local browser cache and the goal is playback that uses bandwidth optimally. Perceptually, I think it's a great way to "grok" a large amount of information. Your eye can notice things in the scan and you can zero-in manually to seek. It supports cursoring, and YouTube controls (numbered jumps 0 - 9 and j,k,l plus . and , for seeks and toggling playback) - as well as a bunch of touch gestures to scrub.

Mechse 5mo ago

Just spent 30+ minutes scrolling through old documents without noticing :D Great work

keepamovin 5mo ago
That is so good. Thank you so much. The immersive experience of microfilm was what I was going for and there’s something about that sort of infinite Scroll that pulls you in. my job was to create the UX so that it could get out of the way and enable that experience. I’m so glad you had that.
cursuve 5mo ago
Same! This is really fun!
- keepamovin 5mo ago
  Glad you enjoyed it :) Thanks for taking a look!

abstract257 5mo ago

these 55K pictures is soemthing i can get lost in. thanks for building.

keepamovin 5mo ago
You’re welcome! It’s a good way to present the information. I look forward to when the next 46 videos drop in a few days and adding those.

habitit 5mo ago

Wow there are gonna be a lot of people digging into this haha. I think it has so much potential like to add all other types of de-classified file sections as well. Maybe even a tying system to see like which files link to other files to draw things out in higher perspectives. Regardless its a cool one, one day soon enough well know the truth :) .

keepamovin 5mo ago
Yeah, I think just making everything, including future drops, one giant maybe chronological list of Files definitely opens up possibilities. And sounds like there could be some kind of annotation layer where people can mark it up somehow but not sure the right fit. The simplicity is what works right now I think so any additions would have to be similarly super clean. Thank you so much really appreciate your words and you taking a look.

bharatj97 5mo ago

[dead]

datagrasp-grcs 5mo ago

[dead]

archleaf 5mo ago

We should be able to find something that was missed! Did you let any LLMs search this?

keepamovin 5mo ago
Yeah, actually I think that’s really smart. Because after you convert everything to JPEG everything is just an image that you can ask LLMs to look at. Unfortunately, I don’t have the experience with local models, but if someone wants to point me in like the right direction or send me an email to collab.
- vunderba 5mo ago
  There are actually a few capable VL models out there that can run on even modest hardware. If you want to keep things simple and process everything locally, I’d recommend something like Qwen3 VL [1]. It’s not the fastest model, but you can just let it chew through the docs over a weekend. In my experience, it takes about 15 to 30 seconds per image, but the quality of the results is quite good if a bit verbose [2]. [1] - https://huggingface.co/Qwen/Qwen3-VL-8B-Instruct-FP8 https://huggingface.co/Qwen/Qwen3-VL-8B-Instruct-FP8 [2] - https://mordenstar.com/other/vlm-xkcd https://mordenstar.com/other/vlm-xkcd

anthonycoslett 5mo ago

Wow. This is addictive. Loved quickly scrolling on the images beginning at 28539 and watching the UFO dart to and fro :O I have a feeling this is going to be widely accessed - and speaking of, thank you for making it so accessible. Very, very cool. <3

keepamovin 5mo ago
Thank you! Yes, the microfilm format is surprisingly good. I can’t take credit for that. I look forward to adding the next set of videos when they’re released. Really appreciate you checking it out and sharing :)