Window-swap – open a new window somewhere in the world | Hacker News Reader

Window-swap – open a new window somewhere in the world

window-swap.com

244 pointslagniappe64 comments

Kinda have to dig a bit into the website to see what it is. Users can record and upload a 10 minute video out their window. The website allows one to view those videos. No site news since 9/21. Interesting idea, though.

Discussed numerous times on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23815460

I really like this site. I also wanted to call out the smart UI decision to map the space bar to the "new window" button (which is itself long like a space bar.) I discovered this intuitively after going fullscreen just because of the shape of the on-screen button.

Edit: I realized after using the site a while longer that the space bar is just activating the last button pressed, which is normal browser behavior. I still appreciate that the site uses the native browser buttons so that this behavior works out that way.

https://www.insecam.org/ (now dead) was fun while it lasted. It listed all unsecured security cameras by country, so you could stare at a forklift moving pallets around in a Chinese factory or people parking in a Japanese car park, and similar things.

Edit: It's not dead after all: http://insecam.com/

I cant remember them now, but there used to he some specific google searches you could do to get even more unsecured cams. Wont lie though, it was really creepy finding cameras people had in their houses, just unsecured.

Yeah I found one of those searches, must have been late 2000s, looks like most of them were in Asia. Mostly streets, supermarkets, but I found one in someone's bedroom (unoccupied) and promptly shat myself.

It bugged me that there was apparently no way to contact the owners and let them know, "hey you should probably do something about this..." This was like, first page of Google, so I'm sure I wasn't the first or the last to find it...

Thankfully, some of the cameras have a speaker you can play audio through. So you can let them know in band. Assuming you speak whatever language they know.

I love that the site isn't using HTTPS.

>If you do not want to contact us by e-mail, you can still remove your camera from Insecam. The only thing you need to do is to set the password of your camera.

If you like this kind of thing, search for “Slow TV” and get lost in the myriad of options.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_television

https://www.reddit.com/r/SlowTV/

https://www.youtube.com/c/RailCowGirl

https://explore.org/livecams

Thank you.

I'm working on a product that is the total opposite of this and I hope I can add a "Slow TV" option to it, so I don't feel that bad about exploiting people's FOMO

I’d love to see this idea but with 360° environments for Apple Vision. Choose your desk, your view, your ambience.

If anyone would like to fund me, I’d be happy to lug a desk and a 360° camera to remote locations: a rain forest, beaches, alps, tundra, a Scottish glen, beside a water tower on a rooftop in Manhattan…

Sounds like you will need help. Employee #1 reporting for duty.

I’m late to the party but can bring mad AI skills to locale determination and specifying the direction the desk should face. Where do I get my employee #2 badge?

Add complex metadata via on-site collection and AI. I’d like to choose a time and location that matches my location. Rainy 1 hour before sunset. Sunrise on a clear winter day. Lunch rush where most are in good spirits.

A couple of years ago, when this was last posted, it was really easy to extract the name and surname of the window-owner. Still, they had a privacy policy saying they would not share your identity... I have to investigate this again.

The window I watched had a name and surname printed in the top left corner. Maybe it's part of the design? I'd assume window-owners can submit whatever name they feel comfortable with.

Just opened a window and it was a video stream with audio from inside of the house (heard people talking, clearly).

Some people just simply don’t care, I guess.

From what I can tell, these are pre-recorded videos, not live. So yes, they must've decided they were OK with the audio.

All of these are easy to geolocate and then get names from address registers. There is no way to completely provide privacy to the window uploaders.

These are my favorite kind of websites. Really interesting to see real perspectives from around the world in this way. Thanks for sharing!

Gosh, this planet is big! Like, so, very, very big!

Yes! This idea! I so badly need a 4K stream of some downtown apartment where I can see the lights at night and hear the ambience.

I’d put it on a dedicated tv in my room.

There are a lot of streams like that on YT. I am partial to nature, but I am sure you will find something for yourself.

https://youtu.be/gFOYZuuNSZI

The YouTube channel of Nomadic Ambience might be interesting for you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OSidavbRDI

Found a window from a running train https://www.window-swap.com/share.html?id=864272322

This is a brilliant idea that seems to lack execution.

FWIW I think execution could've been way worse. I mean it actually works! I can click a button and look out of someone else's window.

In what way?

Is this not live? I got London in day time and Southampton at night time.

My wife ask why I share a programming site with her … not interested in programmming. So deep is the window not even real window is not real window.

This really hit the mark during COVID. Now, less timely.

Pity that it requires a login. I would submit my fantastic view if it was more convenient for me to do so.

All that it takes to prepare the video for submission seems less inconvenient than the login.

Oh, thank you, neat idea! The site is not new, but I never heard about it until now.

Have had this #2 in my bookmarks bar since this first hit HN. Really fun site!

I discovered this during the height of COVID. It was oddly calming to me.

I literally thought about phisically opening a window somehow smh.

Dope idea!

start with a printer carriage ?

work it up to "alexa open the bathroom window"

(2020)

Bunch of discussion from around the time it launched:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23815460

So many cats

At first, I thought this would be an app that opens a new browser window on another random user's computer somewhere in the world.

Same!

I remember an app that had a recycling bin so when you added a file… someone else got it so they could “re-use it”.

Fun and similarly random idea.

That gives me an idea to add several recycling bins to desktop and forcing user to sort their trash.

Lol, I’ll get that malware floppy out

Yeah the app didn't last long. I suspect it was as much a sort of temporary amusement / not expected to last.

me too, but was pleasantly surprised with some of the window views!

I also thought this. Collectively, asking HN, how would you implement something like "for fun and profit"? (Without making it an RCE machine)

xhost +

:-) I also thought the same.

I thought the same, and then thought "the most efficient goatse spreader ever".

It's a socially interesting idea, but what would be the use case (provided it can be achieved securely and without compromising the host)?

I thought something similar, but it said "swap" so I was wondering what we were swapping, and I thought "I give you a commandline window onto my box, and you give me a commandline window onto your box, and we see who can create more mischief/mayhem most quickly"

but then I came up with a cool "network war" game: there's a shared window on our two boxes over the net (one window on your box, one window on my box) but inside the window are bash cmdlines for both of our boxes. Whatever commands you type get executed on both machines; whatever commands I type get executed by both shells too... stdout outputs are intermingled? atomic interspersed? it should be confusing but not impossibly so

Hmm... You can run different CTF environments i to a VM, wouldnt take much to stream input back and forth to both machines. I just saw another item featured on HN for piped keyboard streams between multiple users on the same shell.

Sounds like glorious chaos.

How can someone justify spending $5/month on a premium windows video service

Can't wait for the GeoGuessr folks to dox all of these people.

Really cool concept!

Yeah I would do it in a big apartment complex maybe because it would be hard to tell which unit you are in. But from a house probably not

The site keeps repeating video. Try the share button, copy the link, past and open it and you’ll see the same footage again and again. I’m not convinced it is live at all.

Definitely isn't live as it has shown me Paris which is in the same time zone as I am and it's already way past midnight and it's been bright daylight there

if it is live, oh man they better have a good moderation system

TikTok Live can be interesting for this. I always run across this Australian DJ jamming on his balcony at about 3AM EST and its always amusing watching his sunset at that late hour.

There is also a trend of morning news TV hosts doing a Live of their broadcast. Its odd seeing the morning news of some other city/country at midnight my time. Also interesting seeing the behind-the-scenes and from their perspective.

Yeah they seem to be all 10 minute clips from vimeo, probably all unlisted uploaded by the same "window swap" user:

https://vimeo.com/880269938/1f51d3a0f4

So these "views" are not live webcams that just sit there, that would be more interesting. Just pre-recorded 10 min videos.

They charge $5 a month for this and do the creators actually see any of this money? Let me guess, no ;)

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