BitChat can send messages over Bluetooth, and it uses a mesh network to relay messages across nearby devices. This allows messages to hop from one phone to another, extending coverage beyond the normal Bluetooth range, though the number of hops is limited and depends on nearby devices. When a device in the mesh has an internet connection, certain messages can be published to Nostr, allowing them to move from the local mesh to the global network. Not all messages are automatically sent online, and purely mesh-local chats remain local. Messages sent via Nostr can also be accessed through clients like NYM (Nostr Ynstant Messenger). BitChat combines offline mesh networking with a decentralized protocol to enable both local and global communication.
I’ve been working on building my own tool to view replies to my comments and posts on Hacker News. I wanted a cleaner, more custom way to do it instead of relying on existing tools, so I made one myself.
I went through a bunch of HTML pages, but most didn’t have much worth keeping. The main .warc I pulled had a ton of profiles and other data, though it looks like most of the site didn’t get scraped in time. I managed to extract 63,993 songs from the various .warc files. If you’ve got a way to reach you (Twitter or email works), I can share the torrent and instructions on how to rebuild and sift through everything.
I haven’t had a chance to download The Barge yet; it’s still on my to-do list. A few months ago, back in July, I went through the PureVolume archives and built a handy searchable database and app. It ended up being about 181GB, so I didn’t want to host it myself, but I did make a torrent.
Yes, this game is quite similar to JezzBall, or to a more modern example, Just Fillin’, which used to be available on the iPhone. I remember playing JezzBall back in the day on a floppy disk, and Just Fillin’ during the early days of the iPod Touch. It’s no longer available, but when I mentioned it, my 11-year-old son tried to recreate it, and honestly, I think he did a pretty great job.