Ask HN: What's the coolest website you know?
The definition of cool is, of course, at your discretion.
375 comments
Obviously wikipedia.org. Nothing better has been invented in 20-some years. I honestly feel relief when I research some topic and it has Wikipedia page on it, so I don't need to dig through some sh**y blogposts
Edit: I mean: it's one of the very few websites that actually provides sources of information. It's insane it's that rare these days. And most important facts are just placed in visible and easy to spot place, no need to dig through author's life story, thanks for subscribers etc. before getting to the point.
Edit: I mean: it's one of the very few websites that actually provides sources of information. It's insane it's that rare these days. And most important facts are just placed in visible and easy to spot place, no need to dig through author's life story, thanks for subscribers etc. before getting to the point.
The coolest website I'm using is a very practical one.
https://geizhals.de is a German search website that allows you to very narrowly specify all kinds of things.
Searching for a mainboard with minimum 4x SATA ports and 64GB RAM support in mini ITX format? Easy peasy.
For example, take a look at the laptop category and its filters: https://geizhals.de/?cat=nb
I wish every e-commerce website was built like this.
https://geizhals.de is a German search website that allows you to very narrowly specify all kinds of things.
Searching for a mainboard with minimum 4x SATA ports and 64GB RAM support in mini ITX format? Easy peasy.
For example, take a look at the laptop category and its filters: https://geizhals.de/?cat=nb
I wish every e-commerce website was built like this.
https://www.mcmaster.com/ is fast. I've never been to Georgia, I don't live in the US, I don't even need hardware. But I still enjoy just clicking on random links and seeing a swift response.
This mechanical watch explanation: https://ciechanow.ski/mechanical-watch/
http://worrydream.com/
Bret Victor's visual / interactive explanations of certain ideas or papers.
Two that I like in particular are his redesign of Strogatz's paper on small world networks and the 'ladder of abstraction'
http://worrydream.com/ScientificCommunicationAsSequentialArt...
http://worrydream.com/LadderOfAbstraction/
Bret Victor's visual / interactive explanations of certain ideas or papers.
Two that I like in particular are his redesign of Strogatz's paper on small world networks and the 'ladder of abstraction'
http://worrydream.com/ScientificCommunicationAsSequentialArt...
http://worrydream.com/LadderOfAbstraction/
Fast loading, authentic community, consistent experience, smart fresh perspectives
https://news.ycombinator.com/news
https://news.ycombinator.com/news
https://apolloinrealtime.org
Lets you listen to the full audio of three Apollo missions. Not only the official mix, but also behind the scenes stuff, like flight dynamics officer, computer supervisor, etc.
Not only is it interesting to hear what engineers on a mission sounded like in that somewhat early NASA environment, but it's also a pleasant background track.
Lets you listen to the full audio of three Apollo missions. Not only the official mix, but also behind the scenes stuff, like flight dynamics officer, computer supervisor, etc.
Not only is it interesting to hear what engineers on a mission sounded like in that somewhat early NASA environment, but it's also a pleasant background track.
The coolest website I've seen lately is http://howacarworks.com. It's a video course in which an experienced mechanic breaks down a car into all its constituent parts then puts everything back together piece by piece, explaining in detail how everything works and fits together.
I knew nothing about mechanics before starting this series and I'm very impressed by how informative and professionally made the content is. Well worth the price tag (currently discounted as it's still in prerelease, but lots of videos have already been published.)
(Note: I have no affiliation with the creator of this course and have nothing to gain by promoting him; I'm just a happy customer.)
I knew nothing about mechanics before starting this series and I'm very impressed by how informative and professionally made the content is. Well worth the price tag (currently discounted as it's still in prerelease, but lots of videos have already been published.)
(Note: I have no affiliation with the creator of this course and have nothing to gain by promoting him; I'm just a happy customer.)
https://www.gwern.net/index
No, I'm not trolling. This is one of the coolest websites I've ever seen, despite it being a personal blog and having no fancy animations. ps: the coolest "site", not the coolest content of the site. While it is very good too in this case.
No, I'm not trolling. This is one of the coolest websites I've ever seen, despite it being a personal blog and having no fancy animations. ps: the coolest "site", not the coolest content of the site. While it is very good too in this case.
The Cutting Room Floor - Research on unused and cut video game content. Definitely one of my all time favorite sites to spend spare time on.
https://tcrf.net
Ken Fern's Plant databases https://theferns.info/
U2-3 - The Famous 1000 copies of U2's first ever release https://www.u2-3.com/
Dana Countryman's Virtual Museum of Unusual LP Cover Art (may contain some albeit low quality NSFW artwork) http://www.danacountryman.com/danacovers/danacovers.html
One Terabyte of Kilobyte Age - Digging through the Geocities Torrent https://blog.geocities.institute/
and finally, The End Of The Internet https://hmpg.net/
I've kept a bit of a running list on my site here: https://jason.nabein.me/#links
Ken Fern's Plant databases https://theferns.info/
U2-3 - The Famous 1000 copies of U2's first ever release https://www.u2-3.com/
Dana Countryman's Virtual Museum of Unusual LP Cover Art (may contain some albeit low quality NSFW artwork) http://www.danacountryman.com/danacovers/danacovers.html
One Terabyte of Kilobyte Age - Digging through the Geocities Torrent https://blog.geocities.institute/
and finally, The End Of The Internet https://hmpg.net/
I've kept a bit of a running list on my site here: https://jason.nabein.me/#links
https://earth.nullschool.net/
By far and away my favourite site of all time.
It’s a beautiful example of representing complex data in a manner that’s easy to digest, viscerally understand, even.
It’s also the first time I heard of the Misery Index, which was fun to learn about.
By far and away my favourite site of all time.
It’s a beautiful example of representing complex data in a manner that’s easy to digest, viscerally understand, even.
It’s also the first time I heard of the Misery Index, which was fun to learn about.
I love this:
https://river-runner-global.samlearner.com/
Click on any spot on Earth and see where a raindrop there will flow until it reaches an ocean.
https://river-runner-global.samlearner.com/
Click on any spot on Earth and see where a raindrop there will flow until it reaches an ocean.
One of my engineering professors still has a Web 1.0 site, "best viewed in Netscape Communicator 4.0 or higher at 16 or 24-bit color". It's actively updated, but hasn't fundamentally changed since the late 90s - some pages still have the Netscape Composer generator tags in them. (For further frame of reference: I last had a reason to go to it over ten years ago now, but still bring it up as a talking piece.
https://people.rit.edu/meseec/
https://people.rit.edu/meseec/
The coolest website I know right now is https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/.
It’s a solar powered, self hosted version of Low Tech Magazine. The articles are always interesting, but there’s also a ton of good information about efficient website design as well [0].
[0] https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/about.html#how
It’s a solar powered, self hosted version of Low Tech Magazine. The articles are always interesting, but there’s also a ton of good information about efficient website design as well [0].
[0] https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/about.html#how
* The Perseus Project: searchable Classical texts in the original language or in translation. Etymological and philological study tool from the gods.This thing has looked this way since at least 2003. Show me a more awesome website, I dare you: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/collections
* Nietzsche Source. Searchable, digitized collection of the complete works, as well as scans of original manuscripts, etc! http://www.nietzschesource.org/#eKGWB
* WebSDR - control a short-wave receiver located at the amateur radio club ETGD at the University of Twente, complete with chatbox: http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/
* Nietzsche Source. Searchable, digitized collection of the complete works, as well as scans of original manuscripts, etc! http://www.nietzschesource.org/#eKGWB
* WebSDR - control a short-wave receiver located at the amateur radio club ETGD at the University of Twente, complete with chatbox: http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/
If the Moon Were Only One Pixel [1] is my go-to data visualization to share with people who haven't thought about the scale of the solar system that much.
[1] https://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem....
[1] https://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem....
https://www.thiswebsitewillselfdestruct.com
Wholesome, fascinating insight into the inner thoughts of some people, and shows us how tenuous the human connections we make on the internet can feel sometimes.. how lonely some of us can be.
Wholesome, fascinating insight into the inner thoughts of some people, and shows us how tenuous the human connections we make on the internet can feel sometimes.. how lonely some of us can be.
https://dannyreviews.com/ (ramblings of a pathologically eclectic generalist) has a vast range of book reviews for the intellectually curious.
All reviews by Danny Yee
All reviews by Danny Yee
Yamauchi No.10 Family Office: https://y-n10.com/
Ian’s Shoelace Site: https://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/
https://arngren.net/
I like how insane this Norwegian mail order website is.
I like how insane this Norwegian mail order website is.
https://everynoise.com
Search for your favorite bands using the bar at the top right corner. Find the associated playlist on Spotify via "The Sound Of X" where X is the genre name.
If you have (or would like to have) diverse musical tastes this is the best way to do it!
Search for your favorite bands using the bar at the top right corner. Find the associated playlist on Spotify via "The Sound Of X" where X is the genre name.
If you have (or would like to have) diverse musical tastes this is the best way to do it!
Solar-powered website: https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/about.html
The Best Page In The Universe is pretty cool: http://maddox.xmission.com/
The USGS LIDAR maps. https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/what-lidar-data-and-where-can-i-do... ... direct links from https://prd-tnm.s3.amazonaws.com/LidarExplorer/index.html#/ then click an area and on the right click an icon to bring up a point cloud viewer... it's fiddly, but incredible.
This site for its depth on a niche subject (nike missiles): http://ed-thelen.org/
and for military telecom: https://www.electrospaces.net/p/index_15.html
similarly, for another niche (very old computers): http://bitsavers.org
Evan Amos pictures of game consoles on wikipedia are pretty cool because of how comprehensive they are. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Evan-Amos
nostalgia http://16colo.rs
This site for its depth on a niche subject (nike missiles): http://ed-thelen.org/
and for military telecom: https://www.electrospaces.net/p/index_15.html
similarly, for another niche (very old computers): http://bitsavers.org
Evan Amos pictures of game consoles on wikipedia are pretty cool because of how comprehensive they are. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Evan-Amos
nostalgia http://16colo.rs
https://oskarstalberg.com/Townscaper/
thrillingly designed, and amazing what can be done in WebGL
thrillingly designed, and amazing what can be done in WebGL