[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":420},["ShallowReactive",2],{"project-42963346":3},{"id":4,"name":5,"line":6,"line_source":7,"title":8,"url":9,"domain":10,"maker":11,"posted_at":12,"year":13,"points":14,"comments":15,"rank_in_year":16,"shown_in_year":17,"top":18,"tier":19,"category":20,"subcategory":21,"format":22,"keywords":23,"reception":28,"sentiment":29,"stance_mix":30,"scored_comments":35,"aspects":36,"strip":43,"post_text":45,"what":46,"said":75,"maker_in_thread":187,"shape":197,"grid":202,"attempts":384,"same_week":385,"maker_shows":40,"maker_hidden":413,"reader_version":414,"card":415},"42963346","Kaos","An homage to Tom Dowdy's 1991 screensaver, \"Kaos\"","title","Show HN: An homage to Tom Dowdy's 1991 screensaver, \"Kaos\"","https:\u002F\u002Fthestrikeagency.com\u002Fkaos\u002F","thestrikeagency.com","noduerme",1738856132,2025,153,75,478,3837,13,"notable","creative","screensaver","web_app",[21,24,25,26,27],"kaos","procedural art","javascript canvas","retro mac","curious",0.2,{"positive":31,"neutral":32,"mixed":33,"critical":34},7,11,0,2,20,{"idea":37,"design":39,"docs":41,"execution":42},{"positive":38,"critical":33},1,{"positive":40,"critical":34},3,{"positive":33,"critical":33},{"positive":38,"critical":33},[33,33,33,33,33,33,33,33,33,33,40,44,40,33,33,33,33,38,40,33,33,33,33,33,33,44,40,40,38,44,40,44,44,40,44,40,33,33,33,33],5,"So, I was about 11 years old and just got my first Mac, a IIsi, and of course everyone had AfterDark, but there was this other screensaver program called \"Dark Side of the Mac\". And within it was, I think now, the most beautiful screensaver ever written. It was called Kaos.\n\nKaos would take anywhere from 10 to 30 seconds to slowly iterate on a single image, starting with a few colored dots and growing into webs within webs of algorithmic beauty.\n\nI'm not sure how Tom Dowdy actually wrote the program. What I've done here is to try to reverse engineer how it might have worked, but to animate it ",{"problem":47,"audience":53,"pricing":53,"motivation":54,"time_to_build":61,"stack":65,"openness":72,"stage":73,"team_size":74},{"value":48,"source":49,"evidence":50},"Recreates the nostalgic look of the 1991 Kaos Mac screensaver","maker",[51],{"id":52},"post",null,{"value":55,"source":49,"evidence":56},"Nostalgia for the original screensaver the maker loved as a kid",[57,58],{"id":52},{"id":59,"by":11,"text":60},"42964689","You would not be wrong. It was really just a short project to reproduce something I was very nostalgic for. Which I definitely did not expect to rank highly on HN! But I guess it…",{"value":62,"source":49,"evidence":63},"A few hours",[64],{"id":59,"by":11,"text":60},[66],{"value":67,"source":49,"evidence":68},"JavaScript",[69],{"id":70,"by":11,"text":71},"42963520","Thank you! This has no libraries, it's just pure javascript rewriting a big array of r,g,b,a pixels and posting it up to a canvas as quickly as possible. Very much the way I…","open_source","launched","solo",{"praise":76,"objections":104,"requests":123,"questions":141,"alternatives":158},[77,93],{"value":78,"source":79,"evidence":80},"Nostalgic and beautiful, evokes the original screensaver","commenter",[81,85,89],{"id":82,"by":83,"text":84},"42963482","duxup","Great job! I don't think it's just nostalgia... but whatever it is I love a lot of the retro \u002F past days of computing UI, UX and graphics. IT feels better than the current state…",{"id":86,"by":87,"text":88},"42973335","Aldipower","Great job! Also has 10% CPU usage, like the original back in the days. ;-) My favorite screensaver was \"Diatoms\" from 1994 (?) on a SGI Irix machine. Still fire it up sometimes,…",{"id":90,"by":91,"text":92},"42964830","evan_","Yep!",{"value":94,"source":79,"evidence":95},"Interesting connection to Hopalong fractals and Qix",[96,100],{"id":97,"by":98,"text":99},"42963923","egypturnash","Your description plus the name makes me suspect the original program was rendering a variety of \"hopalong fractals\": https:\u002F\u002Fjolinton.co.uk\u002FMathematics\u002FHopalong_Fractals\u002FText.pdf…",{"id":101,"by":102,"text":103},"42965470","at_a_remove","This is strongly reminiscent of the main animation in the arcade video game Qix.",[105,112],{"value":106,"source":79,"evidence":107},"Looks like hardly visible lines, nostalgia driven",[108],{"id":109,"by":110,"text":111},"42964371","Workaccount2","I can't tell if I am missing something or if the beauty of this screen saver is largely of function of nostalgia rather than it's attributes. It just looks like hardly visible…",{"value":113,"source":79,"evidence":114},"Scrollbars appeared in fullscreen, later fixed with overflow hidden",[115,119,122],{"id":116,"by":117,"text":118},"42963707","entropie","This is really nice but for some reason i have horizontal and vertical scrollbars, which clouds the experience especially in fullscreen. (Tested on brave\u002Fwindows)…",{"id":120,"by":91,"text":121},"42964473","Just add css style `overflow: hidden;` to your `body`.",{"id":90,"by":91,"text":92},[124,131],{"value":125,"source":79,"evidence":126},"Fill screen with black for OLED use",[127],{"id":128,"by":129,"text":130},"42971962","forgotacc240419","Looks great! Could you fill the screen with black? It'd be a great OLED screensaver (I don't get why this isn't something people want more tbh, they look amazing with things like…",{"value":132,"source":79,"evidence":133},"Add adjustable sliders",[134,138],{"id":135,"by":136,"text":137},"42963587","lovegrenoble",">> simplicity: https:\u002F\u002Fcs16.samke.me Nice UI, can you add more elements?",{"id":139,"by":11,"text":140},"42963684","Hah. Thanks, that's not a UI ;) But I did kind of yak-shave as I did it to make the saver its own loadable class with adjustable inputs. so I'll probably add a few sliders…",[142,152],{"value":143,"source":79,"evidence":144},"Is the source code available",[145,149],{"id":146,"by":147,"text":148},"42964402","metadat","Is the code for this available? The minified Javascript is a touch difficult to make heads or tails of: https:\u002F\u002Fthestrikeagency.com\u002Fkaos\u002Fassets\u002Findex-7Wh69ljd.js Edit: Thanks…",{"id":150,"by":11,"text":151},"42964659","I haven't, like, made a repository for it or anything, but here you go: https:\u002F\u002Fthestrikeagency.com\u002Fkaos\u002Fsrc\u002F There's a bunch of extra experiments and junk in there that didn't…",{"value":153,"source":79,"evidence":154},"How the original algorithm worked",[155],{"id":156,"by":11,"text":157},"42963762","Yes! The original does run in emulation. And to be honest, this attempt at cookery doesn't do justice to the beauty of the original. I'm still not sure what the secret sauce was.…",[159,166,173,180],{"value":160,"source":79,"evidence":161},"XScreensaver",[162],{"id":163,"by":164,"text":165},"42964746","self","> I miss having a wide selection of screensavers on my Mac. i've used https:\u002F\u002Fwww.jwz.org\u002Fxscreensaver\u002F for over a decade on macos (currently on 15.3).",{"value":167,"source":79,"evidence":168},"Mystify",[169],{"id":170,"by":171,"text":172},"42964172","ChrisArchitect","Reminds of similar lines\u002Fpolygon screensaver on Windows - \"Mystify\" aka \"Mystify Your Mind\", which still exists!",{"value":174,"source":79,"evidence":175},"Electric Sheep",[176],{"id":177,"by":178,"text":179},"42967589","dylanz","\u002Fme reinstalls electric sheep",{"value":181,"source":79,"evidence":182},"Iconic",[183],{"id":184,"by":185,"text":186},"42964978","rezmason","The Mac screensaver ecosystem's going through some interesting shifts in recent years. The permissions and stated capabilities of 3rd party software are much more delineated now,…",{"comments":188,"answered":40,"key":189},16,[190,193,196],{"id":191,"text":192},"42964137","OMG. I remember that. I did not put that together!",{"id":194,"text":195},"42964127","Hey, first of all, it's awesome to hear that. I miss screen savers and procedural animation so much... I mean, I used to zone out on them for hours, and try to write my own as a…",{"id":70,"text":71},{"commenters":198,"max_depth":199,"maker_replies":188,"first_comment_mins":200,"lifespan_hours":201},44,9,10,81,[203,205,208,209,211,212,215,218,220,223,226,229,232,233,237,240,242,244,247,249,252,255,257,259,261,262,265,268,270,273,275,278,281,282,284,286,289,291,293,296,299,301,303,305,307,309,312,314,318,320,323,326,328,329,330,332,335,336,338,339,341,343,345,348,353,356,360,364,367,371,374,376,378,380,382],[97,33,33,204,98,33],"other\u002Fneutral\u002Fnone",[206,33,33,204,207,33],"42964086","fogleman",[191,33,33,204,11,38],[194,33,33,210,11,38],"project\u002Fneutral\u002Fidea",[163,33,33,204,164,33],[213,33,33,204,214,33],"42964801","thinkingtoilet",[216,33,33,204,217,33],"42967602","petepete",[219,33,33,204,164,33],"42970491",[221,33,33,204,222,33],"42964817","IncreasePosts",[224,33,33,204,225,33],"42964945","mig39",[227,33,33,204,228,33],"42964973","jamie_ca",[230,33,33,204,231,33],"42967053","DonHopkins",[184,33,33,204,185,33],[234,33,33,235,236,33],"42969618","commenter\u002Fneutral\u002Fnone","jimmydoe",[238,33,33,235,239,33],"42970971","mnky9800n",[241,33,33,204,185,33],"42976076",[243,33,33,204,98,33],"42979937",[245,33,33,204,246,33],"42964988","spot",[248,33,33,204,231,33],"42967074",[250,33,40,210,251,33],"42966056","dexwiz",[253,38,33,204,254,33],"42964061","CharlesW",[82,34,44,256,83,33],"project\u002Fpositive\u002Fdesign",[70,34,33,258,11,38],"project\u002Fneutral\u002Fexecution",[135,34,40,260,136,33],"project\u002Fneutral\u002Fdesign",[139,34,33,260,11,38],[263,34,33,204,264,33],"42965228","jonhohle",[266,40,33,204,267,33],"42963598","hoherd",[156,40,33,269,11,38],"project\u002Fcritical\u002Fexecution",[271,40,33,204,272,33],"42963803","Eduard",[274,40,33,204,11,38],"42963866",[276,40,33,204,277,33],"42963884","ocal5",[109,279,38,280,110,33],4,"project\u002Fcritical\u002Fdesign",[59,279,33,210,11,38],[283,44,33,204,231,33],"42967136",[170,285,40,210,171,33],6,[287,285,33,204,288,33],"42964567","mfro",[290,285,33,210,11,38],"42964880",[292,285,33,204,288,33],"42965489",[294,285,33,235,295,33],"42965960","kstrauser",[297,285,33,235,298,33],"42967495","recursive",[300,285,33,235,11,38],"42968624",[302,285,33,235,295,33],"42969427",[304,285,33,258,11,38],"42971036",[306,285,33,235,295,33],"42974340",[308,285,33,204,11,38],"42981172",[310,285,33,204,311,33],"42970073","acedio",[86,31,44,313,87,33],"project\u002Fpositive\u002Fnone",[315,316,44,317,185,33],"42964811",8,"maker\u002Fpositive\u002Fnone",[319,316,33,204,11,38],"42968708",[321,199,40,210,322,33],"42963455","boriskourt",[324,199,33,204,325,33],"42963654","dhosek",[146,200,40,327,147,33],"project\u002Fneutral\u002Fdocs",[150,200,33,327,11,38],[116,32,38,280,117,33],[331,32,33,260,11,38],"42963812",[333,32,44,256,334,33],"42963952","hassleblad23",[120,32,40,260,91,33],[337,32,33,260,11,38],"42964755",[90,32,44,256,91,33],[128,340,40,260,129,33],12,[177,18,44,342,178,33],"project\u002Fpositive\u002Fidea",[101,344,40,210,102,33],14,[346,344,40,210,347,33],"42968218","msephton",[349,350,44,351,352,33],"42964583",15,"maker\u002Fpositive\u002Fexecution","Peacefulz",[354,188,33,204,355,33],"42963536","swayvil",[357,358,40,260,359,33],"42968774",17,"aussieguy1234",[361,362,40,363,277,33],"42964043",18,"project\u002Fneutral\u002Fnone",[365,362,33,366,11,38],"42964347","commenter\u002Fpositive\u002Fnone",[368,362,33,369,370,33],"42969629","other\u002Fneutral\u002Fpricing","kalleboo",[372,362,33,235,373,33],"42971829","morphle",[375,362,33,235,370,33],"42979620",[377,362,33,204,373,33],"42980565",[379,362,33,366,370,33],"42990691",[381,362,33,204,373,33],"42991192",[383,362,33,366,370,33],"42995595",[],[386,391,396,400,405,409],{"id":387,"name":388,"points":389,"category":390},"43000303","pdfsyntax",451,"dev_tools",{"id":392,"name":393,"points":394,"category":395},"42975803","theretowhere",321,"consumer_social",{"id":397,"name":398,"points":399,"category":390},"42965198","sqlite-page-explorer",288,{"id":401,"name":402,"points":403,"category":404},"43027335","Game Bub",274,"hardware",{"id":406,"name":407,"points":408,"category":390},"42974378","trre",263,{"id":410,"name":411,"points":412,"category":390},"42984420","FlashSpace",255,false,"v2",{"id":416,"name":5,"line":6,"ai":413,"cat":20,"year":13,"points":14,"comments":15,"rec":28,"s":29,"top":18,"kw":417,"maker":11,"domain":10,"tier":19,"attempts":33,"strip":418,"url":9,"mix":419,"praise":78,"objection":106,"sub":21},42963346,[21,24,25,26,27],"0000000000353000013000000533153553530000",[31,32,33,34],1793991112442]