[HN Gopher] Doomscroller.xyz
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Doomscroller.xyz
Author : arfrank
Score : 274 points
Date : 2024-04-20 15:40 UTC (7 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (doomscroller.xyz)
(TXT) w3m dump (doomscroller.xyz)
| jerzmacow wrote:
| This is really neat, I wonder how hard it would be to retool for
| Android camera controls. There's an accessory for the iPhone to
| get physical camera controls, but it's thicc
| blfr wrote:
| Amazing. I'm glad you don't ship outside of the US 'cause I would
| be insanely tempted to buy this completely superfluous gadget.
| Love everything about it, from the idea and its negative utility
| to design and materials.
|
| Are there any details available? Dimensions, charging, etc?
|
| Actually, this can be used as a presentation clicker, right?
| There you go, business expense.
| enderfusion wrote:
| I looked at my site analytics and realized this is where it was
| coming from :-o
|
| I should turn on international shipment, but Stripe doesn't
| support auto calculate rates. CNC machined from aluminum. USB
| C. I did test it with powerpoint just now, works!
| enderfusion wrote:
| International turned on
| redbell wrote:
| Are you the author?
|
| I noticed you've been adding additional information in
| response to many comments, which led me to believe you might
| be the creator of this doomscroller. However, I didn't see
| any mention of you being the author.
|
| Typically, on Hacker News, when the original poster is not
| the author and the author discovers that one of their works
| is trending, they promptly join the discussion, usually
| starting with " _author here.._ "
|
| This isn't a strict rule but more of a best practice or
| convention.
|
| Anyway, excellent work!
| enderfusion wrote:
| Good to know, I'm new here!
| redbell wrote:
| You're very welcome!
| ncr100 wrote:
| > user: enderfusion > created: July 21, 2015 > karma: 419
|
| Interesting - and WELCOME!
| DiggyJohnson wrote:
| > I looked at my site analytics ...
|
| Is that not a way of saying "author here, ..."?
| daemoens wrote:
| It does ship internationally now.
| oooyay wrote:
| I really like imagining how people of the future (like hundreds
| of years in the future) looking at our current culture and
| technology will try to interpret things that I seem to get
| without thinking. Like, if they dug up my home and found this
| thing sitting in a drawer what kind of wild theories would they
| come up before they eventually realized, "This human valued
| something that actually did _less_ than nothing. "
| pwdisswordfishc wrote:
| But does it actually run Doom?
| WaxProlix wrote:
| Since it looks to be built on the ESP32 platform, the answer is
| likely yes (but you'd need a display...)
| https://github.com/espressif/esp32-doom
|
| I think actually there are a couple of DOOM ports for the
| platform.
| Nevermark wrote:
| You could pan through an epic Doom game video capture? If you
| like deterministic games.
| pogue wrote:
| I don't get it. What's it do?
| huvarda wrote:
| it just constantly scrolls down on your screen, its a gag
| product
| ataru wrote:
| On the website there is a demo, when you spin the wheel, it
| scrolls a screen on the right. The demo may be blocked by an
| adblocker.
| hombre_fatal wrote:
| Oh, the demo doesn't load with uBlock Origin.
| jakjak123 wrote:
| Ah, yes the demo is blocked by uOrigin
| marcodiego wrote:
| I'd love if my cellphone had a lateral button like old portable
| radios had to adjust the volume but with the sole purpose of
| scrolling. Scrolling on the screen is annoying, my finger covers
| the content and I must be careful not to click something. I
| really can't believe I'm the only one desiring such a thing.
| Nevermark wrote:
| A touch sensitive side would be great for thumb scrolling.
|
| With software detection of coherent scroll sliding, filtering
| out grip holds, bumps, and other irrelevant activity.
|
| But noooo! Apple stuck a touch sensitive screen on a keyboard!
| No justice.
| jh00ker wrote:
| My samsung phone has the fingerprint scanner in the side
| power button (the only location that makes sense, IMHO).
| Software should be able to read gestures from this same
| sensor, no?
|
| edit: Sorry, thinking out loud. A quick Google search
| confirms that my phone already has this feature in settings.
| Unfortunately, the gesture is mapped to showing/hiding the
| notification panel, instead of screen scrolling.
| janlukacs wrote:
| you're welcome:
| https://www.gsmarena.com/flashback_sony_ericsson_p910-news-5...
|
| lateral scroll wheel. awesome phone:
|
| https://fdn.gsmarena.com/imgroot/news/21/08/sony-ericsson-p9...
| lxgr wrote:
| Sony had these on their Clie (Palm OS) devices as well.
|
| I've only ever had first-party Palm handhelds, but the scroll
| wheel (Sony had some nifty name which is eluding me) always
| seemed very appealing for single-handed use.
| throwaway74354 wrote:
| >Sony had some nifty name which is eluding me
|
| Jog Dial
| lloeki wrote:
| Had a Palm III then a Clie back then. The Jog Dial was
| absolutely awesome.
|
| Then got a LifeDrive, missed every bit of the Jog Dial.
| Probably the most iPhone-esque thing before the iPhone was
| a thing though.
| BossingAround wrote:
| Oh man, these looked so awesome. I miss these phones
| sometimes. There was something cool about seeing what
| features different phones had. Nowadays, it's basically iOS
| vs Android, where both OSes do pretty much the same things,
| and it's all about the apps.
| darkwater wrote:
| I had a SonyEricsson P800 (the first of that series) and it
| had the same wheel, but IIRC was plastic made (just like the
| rest of the phone). Oh man I was barely 20yo back then and I
| feel bad for the hype I had while waiting the phone to
| actually come out and buy it. I also remember I paid an
| insane amount of money for it, which then became standard a
| few years later thanks to Apple.
| yaky wrote:
| Some old (pre-smart, pre-camera, chunky ones with small B&W LCD
| screens) cell phones had a side scrollwheel that was used for
| menu navigation. I think it was clickable too.
|
| The only more modern take on that that I know of was Marshall's
| "audiophile" Android phone [0] from 2015, which had a side
| scrollwheel for volume, but not sure if it was used for
| navigation.
|
| 0:
| https://m.gsmarena.com/marshalls_new_smartphone_is_every_aud...
| kqr wrote:
| Hm, I remember portable MP3 players with those. The wheel
| broke fairly easily. Maybe they used cheap wheels in those,
| and there are higher end wheels.
| jasomill wrote:
| The dials on all the "medium-end" digital cameras I've
| owned always worked reliably despite many years of regular
| use, as do mouse scroll wheels, so I gather you're correct
| about cheap components.
|
| Come to think of it, the scroll wheel on my Logitech G502
| -- three-way clickable, switchable between free-scrolling
| and traditional mode -- would work well in sort of handheld
| hardware scrolling device, and an electromagnetic scroll
| wheel of the sort used on some newer Logitech mice would
| work even better, as it could be configured in a free-
| scrolling mode with variable friction.
| andenacitelli wrote:
| Reminds me of when I jailbroke an old iPhone and the only thing
| I really actually used the jailbreak for was making a long
| press on the volume buttons a previous / next song button. I
| actually really miss it.
| Lorin wrote:
| I always wondered if one could repurpose side-mounted
| fingerprint sensors (ex. Samsung Galaxy Fold) as a swipe-to-
| scroll mechanism.
|
| There also used to be some lovely touchpad tech called "chiral
| scroll", which allowed for iPod-like scrolling. No idea where
| that went, patent hell?
| user_7832 wrote:
| > I always wondered if one could repurpose side-mounted
| fingerprint sensors (ex. Samsung Galaxy Fold) as a swipe-to-
| scroll mechanism.
|
| Given how fp sensors are capacitive, this should totally be
| doable. Several phones (including my pixel 5) allow using
| rear fp sensors for opening/closing the notification shade.
|
| > "chiral scroll"
|
| Aah.. I miss that on my framework laptop. I had it on my old
| HP ProBook in the Synaptics settings. Chiral and (1 finger)
| edge scrolling were amazing. I'd suggest using ZMK/QMK and a
| touchpad from mouser if anyone wants to DIY one today.
| imp0cat wrote:
| My last Samsung with a back-mounted fingerprint sensor (A40)
| could do that (there was an option in the settings to enable
| scrolling with the fingerprint sensor).
| mrexroad wrote:
| The Blackberry 7100t had a side scroll/job wheel like this
| along with a body narrower than other blackberries thanks to
| its 20 key qwerty-ish keyboard (2 characters per key). It still
| ranks as one of my favorite mobile devices. Great ergonomics
| paired with just enough web browsing capability to be helpful
| during emergencies; I would spend my morning Metro ride touch
| typing email drafts on it. It had its flaws of course, but the
| side jog wheel and narrow physical keyboard added up a "spark"
| of feeling like it was on to something.
|
| Non sequitur: Another long forgotten device that still bounces
| into my thoughts every so often is the Psion REVO. 8MB RAM,
| 36MHz ARM processor, and full QWERTY keyboard that fit into
| your (back) pocket --- better paper specs than the hand-me-down
| 386sx I was using a few years before! One of these days I'll
| dig though storage and see if I can resurrect it.
| pwiecz wrote:
| Another cool example is Nexus One's trackball. It had advantage
| of being able to scroll in any direction.
| jonhohle wrote:
| You could make a device like the doom scroller that would
| look like a roll on deodorant stick.
| ciwolsey wrote:
| Site doesn't even work on Android.
| ffsm8 wrote:
| It's not responsive, but it does work.
|
| You just need to first click on the scroller element and then
| you can start dragging it. And start by dragging up, not down.
| Otherwise the refresh might override the interaction
| hsavit1 wrote:
| have you raised any capital for this project? i think a lot of
| incubators could be interested in helping you enshittify this
| idea.
| enderfusion wrote:
| And end up like Humane? No thanks! It's at optimal shittiness
| levels currently.
| jrflowers wrote:
| Product needs the ability to brick itself if a subscription
| to the scrolling service expires
| enderfusion wrote:
| The whole thing cost me a few hundred bucks to put together.
| Max-q wrote:
| Is it legal to sell a device with radio in the US without FCC
| certification?
|
| In the EU it's illegal to sell without external certification
| if the product is a medical device, is made for children or
| contains a radio.
|
| Certification will typically cost you $5,000-$15,000
| depending on which lab you use.
| littlestymaar wrote:
| How does that works if you're just reusing off the shelf
| bluetooth component? (that's likely already certified)
| enderfusion wrote:
| Off the shelf radio module, ain't nobody got time for
| certs.
| numpad0 wrote:
| Modules like ESP32-WROOM, Seeed XIAO ESP32C3, and ES2810AA2
| comes certified, re-certifications should not be
| needed(IANAL).
| fbdab103 wrote:
| I know a few doom scrollers for whom this would be incredibly
| tempting. The video looked like it requires a lot of rotations
| per screen tick. Can that be adjusted?
|
| Now I am wondering if you can connect a bluetooth mouse to a
| phone to achieve the same effect, albeit in a less convenient
| package.
| Nevermark wrote:
| Tempting. But the addition of an upper/downer mash-safe
| minimal-profile/motion post-to-post navigating trigger pair
| would be a deal maker.
| Nevermark wrote:
| Every band of builders in a garage needs a variety of classes,
| but at least one Doomscroller. While everyone else's attention is
| down, in, focused, the Doomscroller looks outward.
|
| They are the teams eyes and ears, continuously maintaining the
| indespensible information grounding signal. A streaming infinite
| scrolling HTML connection to the garage, from the real world.
| lelandfe wrote:
| ," said Load Letter, finally looking up from their plughack
| console.
| dlachausse wrote:
| > Only works with Android/PC. Sorry iOS
|
| If this was implemented as a Bluetooth mouse with just a scroll
| wheel, wouldn't you get support on all recent operating systems
| for free?
| enderfusion wrote:
| I thought that when I started this thing. Turns out, every
| device implements slightly different flavors of USB-HID in
| their drivers. It's a complete shitshow under the hood. I'm
| trying to get iOS working, but it's so opaque compared to
| Android. I have achieved limited functionality with iOS, but
| it's not the buttery smooth action I can get on PC or Android.
|
| https://x.com/andrewmccalip/status/1781674889679982991
| outofpaper wrote:
| Just clone the scroll messaging from any old generic that
| works already. MiM for the easy win.
| SushiHippie wrote:
| From his twitter:
|
| (I'll copy and paste the text here, as I don't know how much
| you see of this text logged out)
|
| > Why couldn't I just emulate a standard mouse and scroll
| smoothly? Sounds easy. Unfortunately there is a holdover from
| two decades ago in the way mouse drivers are written into USB.
| Because mice used to use low resolution encoders, a single
| "detent" event would be about 22.5 degrees. Hard coded into the
| kernel level of Android and Windows is the instruction to
| interrupt this single detent as a 40 pixel scroll for generic
| devices. This is what results in the chunky style scrolling on
| a PC.
|
| > Only recently have specialty devices like the Logitech mice
| used custom drivers to bypass this and offer high resolution
| single pixel scrolling instructions. Unfortunately these
| drivers were not rolled into the Android kernel, so even when I
| sniffed the BLE traffic with Wireshark and impersonated a
| Logitech device, I wouldn't get that silky smooth scrolling on
| mobile. No go.
|
| > The slightly hacky workaround was to go one level deeper than
| the standard Arduino libraries.
|
| > A quick description of how USB devices work. HID stands for
| Human Interface Device and is a protocol implemented over USB
| protocol. HID devices do advertise their capabilities through
| the HID report descriptor, a fixed set of bytes describing
| exactly what HID reports may be sent between the device and the
| host and the meaning of each individual bit in those reports.
| For example, a HID Report Descriptor may specify that "in a
| report with ID 3 the bits from 8 to 15 is the delta x
| coordinate of a mouse". The HID report itself then merely
| carries the actual data values without any extra meta
| information.
|
| > My goal was to use a customized descriptor to send the byte
| package of a one finger touchpad with absolutely coordinate
| system and 1 button to the host. This way I could perform the
| digital emulation of a finger making contact with the screen,
| performing a Y axis movement while remaining in contact, and
| then lifting off the screen before reaching the top. This
| movement would have to be repeated hundreds of times seamlessly
| to provide the illusion of smooth scrolling.
|
| > Additional complications arose from the fact that Bluetooth
| low energy has a minimum latency of 8milliseconds, with most
| hosts negotiating an even slower rate such as 20 milliseconds.
| Simply blasting commands at a few hundred hertz doesn't work.
|
| > The internet is filled with unanswered forum questions about
| how to do all of this. I think I'm probably the first one to
| achieve a working implementation of this particular smooth
| scrolling solution. This single problem occupied much time than
| the rest of the project combined. No doubt that Logitech or
| Apply could achieve a more elegant solution. My hope is that a
| big company takes interest in Doomscroller takes it off my
| hands.
|
| https://x.com/andrewmccalip/status/1781674889679982991
| marcosdumay wrote:
| Jump from completely out of context here... Wait, bluetooth
| devices are USB ones tunneled over bluetooth?
|
| If that's the case, why does audio work so badly? (I'm
| guessing there's a list of exceptions that BT supports
| natively, none of which work.)
| enderfusion wrote:
| Yeah, surprised me too. There are different categories
| inside of Bluetooth, classic and low energy. LE has a low
| rate, no more than 100hz.
| SushiHippie wrote:
| (I'm not a SME, but I looked a bit into this while buying a
| bluetooth headphone)
|
| Audio works with some bluetooth specific codecs like SBC,
| Qualcomm aptX (adaptive/HD), LDAC, ... or Opus and AAC
|
| These codecs need to be supported by both sender and
| receiver.
|
| And for example many bluetooth speakers only support SBC as
| they don't want to pay the fees for aptX and LDAC (which
| are both codecs that sound and work very well, LDAC even
| supports up to 96 kHz sample rates with 32 bit depth).
|
| So I suppose (i don't know for sure) problems could be a)
| audio is more of a special case with all its codecs b) SBC
| is widespread, but does not sound good c) codec support on
| operating systems and bluetooth chips varies widely.
| SeanAnderson wrote:
| I hate it. I love it.
|
| I've been thinking of removing the scroll wheel from my media
| PC's mouse to make doom scrolling harder. Love to see the
| innovation in going hard the other direction.
| enderfusion wrote:
| You're meant to hate it. It's dumb. I'm actively making the
| world a worse place by the invention of it.
| buzer wrote:
| Honestly, I'm a bit tempted. I read quite a bit on my laptop
| while lying down and my arms are always in a bit of awkward
| position in order to scroll. I have been thinking of getting one
| of those presenter tools.
|
| The only downsides are price & lack of click.
| roblh wrote:
| I love it. I think it would be even funnier if you made it only
| scroll in one direction (downwards) to remove any possible
| semblance of being useful.
| enderfusion wrote:
| Tempting. never_look_back.bin firmware?
| flemhans wrote:
| A hardware limit would be more funny even
| bagels wrote:
| A loud audible ratchet mechanism. Just to add to the
| annoyance.
| teaearlgraycold wrote:
| A ratchet that physically prevents reversing, but still
| have the firmware support reverse scrolling. I love the
| idea of a digital product that if broken in just the
| right way behaves as expected given intuition from the
| physical world.
| ncr100 wrote:
| Or if it had a mood sensor, and scrolled >>rapidly<<
| downwards if distress detected, with the logic that the user
| would never be satisfied with the amount of dopamine
| generated from any amount of doomscrolling performed.
| lifedayx wrote:
| This was brilliant, I played with it longer than I really should
| have
| tudorw wrote:
| Surface Dial's mutant cousin.
| enderfusion wrote:
| I'm using Dial's PC drivers :)
| tudorw wrote:
| I love my dial, how about a gear stick style one where you
| can push forward and back for your next project :)
| 3PS wrote:
| Joke or not, this could be a pretty ergonomic way to read long
| form content. Currently I rebind my mouse side buttons to page
| up/down which serves much the same purpose, since scrolling
| endlessly on a mouse doesn't feel great for your hands.
| p0w3n3d wrote:
| One of the best UIs I've ever used was on Sony phone with a
| scroller-button. Scroller was to choose the option and button
| underneath (you pushed the scroller) was to select. Very fast,
| easy to learn and usable.
| enderfusion wrote:
| Same story with original ipod. Hugely underrated interface.
| nsagent wrote:
| the site just needs some subdomains, like
| https://ai.doomscroller.xyz for an extra bit of charm
| genewitch wrote:
| abc.doomscroller.xyz
| geor9e wrote:
| There's plenty of wireless standalone scroll knobs out there if
| this sounds like your cup of tea https://www.amazon.com/Razer-
| Wireless-Control-Pod-Customizat...
| enderfusion wrote:
| That looks way better for PC, didn't know that existed.
| geor9e wrote:
| Yeah, there are some neat PC input devices outside of
| keyboard and mouse. Since I do a lot of 3D work I use a 6
| axis knob in my left hand while I drag my mouse with my right
| https://www.amazon.com/3Dconnexion-3DX-700059-Spacemouse-
| Com...
| password4321 wrote:
| Another was discontinued in 2018:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griffin_PowerMate
| Aspos wrote:
| Got myself USB pedals on Amazon specifically for Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V
| and quickly got addicted.
| fatbird wrote:
| Needs knurling.
| smusamashah wrote:
| Add a number lcd displaying how many miles you have scrolled so
| far
| pier25 wrote:
| Honestly I've always wanted something like this for reading
| ebooks.
|
| After many iterations (and neck injuries) I've found the best
| position for me is simply laying horizontally with a normal
| sleeping pillow. Then using a stand with an arm to hold the
| device at the perfect position/distance (I use progressive
| glasses).
|
| Typically I only lift my arm to scroll to the next page. But
| sometimes I skim sections of technical books and keep my arm
| lifted to move quickly. Holding the arm up for 5-10 minutes
| becomes annoying.
| justsomehnguy wrote:
| Just use a BT mouse.
|
| Edit: or BT ... scroll:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40099700
| pier25 wrote:
| Thanks. Great tip for iPads but probably doesn't work with
| Kindle devices.
| alanbernstein wrote:
| For Kindle, there are wireless page-turner attachments.
| Supposedly you can use a Bluetooth dongle to connect to a
| standard Android remote clicker, after jailbreaking.
| Jailbreaking my Kindle was a very frustrating project, so I
| gave up on that in favor of using an android device, so I
| could read lying on my back as you described.
| rishikeshs wrote:
| If somebody could invent something like this to turn my kindle
| pages
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