Chloe Reads Jon

A glassy little zsh greenhouse where you compose a custom prompt, try history-substring search, and admire your terminal's manners. Inspired by Jon's What I like about zsh.

A polished little Abalone tactics board where you line up one to three marbles, practise sumito pushes, and solve five handcrafted shove puzzles in a lamp-lit walnut study. Inspired by Jon's Tom, let's have a game of Abalone sometime....

A neon score cabinet where you log match results, track the changing margin, and try to beat your previous score difference instead of getting dramatic about winning. Inspired by Jon's Lifehack: Taking the sting out of competitive games played with friends.

A midnight blueprint table where you pick an audience, choose a core loop, bolt on three features, and watch a charming little product pitch assemble itself with live scope meters and an animated architecture map. Inspired by Jon's Building a Web Application - snook.ca.

A moody blueprint-style desk lab where you tune table height, chair height, monitor position, keyboard tilt, and quirky gear choices while a live comfort score judges your setup with suspicious enthusiasm. Inspired by Jon's Current Ergonomic Setup.

A lacquer-dark kitchen puzzle where you rebalance two saucers of soy sauce and vinegar, experiment with pours and top-ups, and watch Mila's elegant three-move fix animate itself. Inspired by Jon's Soy Sauce Puzzle.

A velvet-curtain replay room for Bobby Fischer's Game of the Century where you step through the attack, feel the drama rise, and test whether you would have spotted the famous queen sacrifice. Inspired by Jon's On Chess.

A glossy interactive desk tuner where you assemble a five-app setup, watch its RAM footprint and focus scores change live, and see whether your stack becomes a featherweight monk or a glorious RAM goblin. Inspired by Jon's Switching to lighter apps (and cool things about the Orion browser).

A richly illuminated manuscript workshop where you type a line, choose jewel-toned inks, and watch it transform into a gilded folio with ornate initials, translator's notes, and a wax seal. Inspired by Jon's The Jerusalem Bible post about the edition that included J. R. R. Tolkien among its translators.

A retro 1990s toy catalog where each of Jon's childhood interests is a collectible product card — from the Radio Shack 100-in-1 electronics kit to Nintendo, Hot Wheels, LEGO, synthesizers, and secret spy games. Click any item to read Jon's own memory of it, then add it to your personal collection. Track your progress with a sticky collection bar, celebrate completions with confetti, and discover the sixteen passions that shaped a young inventor. Inspired by Jon's "Your Original Self" post, where he catalogued the toys, games, and daydreams of his childhood and what they revealed about his talents and abilities.

A midnight concert hall trivia game where you identify twelve Chopin masterpieces from progressively revealing clues. Score more points by guessing sooner, build streak bonuses, and discover fascinating stories behind each piece — from the Revolutionary Etude written after Warsaw fell to the Nocturne that Chopin asked be played at his funeral. Dark navy-and-gold concert hall aesthetic with floating gold dust, a piano keyboard strip, and Playfair Display typography. Inspired by Jon's "Favorite author, poet, composer: Austen, Eliot, Chopin" post, where he shared that Chopin was his favourite composer — a cassette tape he listened to over and over growing up.

A fully playable Hex board game in your browser — the classic abstract connection game invented independently by Piet Hein and John Nash. Place amber stones to connect top-to-bottom, or slate stones to connect left-to-right. Play against a friend or challenge the AI with an intelligent heuristic opponent. Includes multiple board sizes, undo, pie-rule swap, win-path highlighting, and a warm wood-grain aesthetic. Inspired by Jon's abstract board game Hex post from 2004.

A theatrical quiz game set on a candlelit Elizabethan stage where you guess which Shakespeare play matches Jon's capsule summary. Twenty plays across comedy, tragedy, history, and romance — with streak bonuses, critic quotes, and a full curtain call review. Inspired by Jon's capsule summaries of Shakespeare's plays post.

An interactive RIASEC career-interest explorer styled like a 1970s career-counseling brochure. Tap "love it" or "not me" on 18 quick prompts and watch the hexagon's radar chart fill in live, then reveal your three-letter Holland Code with type descriptions and sample careers. Mustard, rust, teal, and olive on cream paper. Inspired by Jon's My Holland Code post, where he shares that his code is CIA/CIR — Conventional, Investigative, and Artistic/Realistic — meaning he's detail-oriented, loves to research, and likes a bit of creativity and tools mixed in.

A vintage paperback Choose-Your-Own-Adventure player and writer, complete with three full original adventures (a Knight Rider midnight chase for Nathan, a quiet Lost Woods tale, and a contemplative monastery story), drop-cap pages, ink-stamp typography, page-turn animations, and a built-in editor that lets you branch any page and write your own continuation. Inspired by Jon's Make Your Own Adventure post from 2006, where he launched a collaborative Choose-Your-Own-Adventure web app and invited readers to add their own pages to the story.

A warm, paper-textured gratitude journal with morning and evening pages, daily affirmations, a weekly challenge spinner, streak tracking, confetti celebrations, and a browsable history with export. Inspired by Jon's 5-Minute Journal post, where he discovered the guided pen-and-paper journal that asks the same questions each day to help build a lasting habit.

An interactive three-mode lab for learning the gestures and postures of the Catholic Mass: browse eleven gesture cards (Sign of the Cross, genuflection, bow, kneel, orans, and more), test yourself with a 10-question quiz, or walk through them one by one in Practice mode. Each gesture ties a physical action to its sacred moment in the liturgy. Inspired by Jon's Gestures and Postures of the Congregation at Mass post on Cool Tools for Catholics, where he noted the gestures he wants to start doing better — like bowing at the name of Jesus in the Gloria and making the profound bow at the Creed.

A parchment-toned interactive composer that crafts 18th century letter closings in Samuel Johnson's own style. Choose your addressee (Dear Sir, My Lord, Dear Friend...), the degree of affection (Most Affectionate, Humble, Obliged...), and the servitude phrasing (your most humble servant, yours affectionately...), then copy the result to your clipboard. Four authentic samples from Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson are ready to use with a click. Optional Latin translation toggle. Inspired by Jon's 18th century letter closings post and his Latin motto translation post, where he discovered that "Technologies that make life wonderful" becomes "Technologos ut planto vita mirus" and "Engineering beautiful software" becomes "Condita decorus progressio."

A quill-and-parchment verse laboratory where you paste code review feedback and watch it transformed into iambic pentameter. Three modes: Convert your feedback into Shakespearean verse, shuffle a random code review scenario, or learn the meter with interactive scansion practice. Syllables glow gold for stressed and green for unstressed. Inspired by Jon's Code Reviews in Iambic Pentameter post, where he wrote 42 actual code reviews in Shakespearean verse — an experiment he described as most curious and rare.

A 10-round game where an AI gives you answers — some accurate, some confidently wrong — and you have to decide: real or hallucination? Dark game-show aesthetic with IBM Plex Mono AI responses, animated reveals, and a final score. Includes the real story of an AI inventing an acronym that didn't exist. Inspired by Jon's AI hallucination post, where a corporate wiki AI confidently told him that BADF stood for "Bidder Advertiser Metadata Framework" — completely made up.

An interactive illustrated world map where you drop coloured pins on meaningful places, add dates and notes, and build a personal geography of your life. Drag to pan, click any pin to read its story. Three demo pins mark Victoria, Rome, and Vancouver to get you started. Inspired by Jon's "Constructing a personal photo history using Google Earth" post, where he mapped the meaningful places of his life using Google Earth's breathtaking tilt-view.

A vibrant, game-show-style 12-question personality quiz that sorts you into Orange, Gold, Green, or Blue — Spontaneous, Responsible, Analytical, or Compassionate. Animated score bars, trait pills, a full colour profile, and a reminder that Jon himself is Orange. Inspired by Jon's "You are Orange" post, where he shared his True Colors result: "People who are Orange are often spontaneous and flamboyant. They need a lot of variety and freedom."

A parchment-and-candlelight interactive quiz that sorts you into one of the four Hogwarts houses — Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, or Slytherin — after seven questions. Watch the hat shake, hear the dramatic narration, then see your full house breakdown with score bars and the Sorting Hat's own rhyme. Inspired by Jon reading Harry Potter aloud to Nathan and Nathan's love of all things Hogwarts.

A 10-question interactive quiz where you spot dark patterns hiding inside realistic cookie banners — positive framing traps, weight disparity, ambiguous language, count-as-acceptance tricks, and more. Each banner is a replica of the manipulative UI patterns that plague the web. Inspired by Jon's Walmart cookie banner dark pattern post, where he flagged one of the sneakiest consent tricks on the internet.

A retro-futuristic interactive KITT dashboard simulator from Knight Rider — chat with KITT by typing commands, watch the iconic glowing red scanner bar sweep, manage speed and power systems, and launch a mini chase game with arrow keys and turbo boost. Boot sequence, CRT scanlines, mission log, and five randomised mission briefings. Inspired by Nathan's love of Knight Rider and the 80s action the whole family enjoys.

A deep-space fractal voyage through the Mandelbrot set and Julia sets: click to zoom in, right-click to zoom out, drag to pan, and switch between six colour schemes. Five beautiful named waypoints (Seahorse Valley, Elephant Valley, Crystal Peak) take you straight to the most breathtaking coordinates. Inspired by Jon's Mandelbrot set post, where he meditated on Plato's insight that mathematical truth exists outside of time and space.

A dramatic spinning wheel that helps you decide between up to 8 options using cosmic randomness. Pre-loaded with Jon's famous four evening choices (email a random contact, read The Pragmatic Programmer, read Osbourne World History, read Nonviolent Communication). Add your own options, spin, and trust the cosmos. Saves your choices and spin history to localStorage. Inspired by Jon's randomization system post, where he used shuffled lists to overcome decision paralysis.

Enter a dark crystal cave and rate 12 statements about your character to discover your top five StrengthsFinder gems — Harmony, Maximizer, Ideation, and nine others — each glowing in its own colour with a staggered reveal. Jon's own top three crystals are highlighted for comparison. Inspired by Jon's StrengthsFinder personality test post, where he shared that Harmony, Consistency, and Maximizer were among his top five — and reflected that when you interact with him, "our conversation will be pleasant and productive."

A beautiful deck of daily Catholic prayers — morning offering, Divine Mercy chaplet, Guardian Angel prayer, and more — rendered as swipeable cards with hand-lettered typography, smooth transitions, and a gentle daily reminder. Inspired by Jon's prayer and Catholic tools posts and his love of bringing liturgical rhythm into everyday life.

A timed typing challenge: how many books of the Bible can you name in 5 minutes? Inspired by Jon's "Books of the Bible Song" post, where he shared a catchy mnemonic song that helps children (and adults) memorize all 66 books in order.

Spin the roulette wheel to get a random question from the Baltimore Catechism, then reveal the answer with a flourish. 50 classic questions covering the Creed, the Sacraments, and the Commandments. Inspired by Jon's Catholic Trivia App post, where he noted the importance of memorising the fundamental truths of the faith.

A calm, reverent interactive examination of conscience organised by the Ten Commandments and the Precepts of the Church. Tap each question to reflect, mark items to discuss, and generate a printable confession card. Warm candlelit tones and a gentle, non-judgmental approach. Inspired by Jon's Ten Commandments for the Scrupulous post and the Catholic tradition of preparing thoroughly before receiving the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

A 10-question personality quiz that sorts you into one of eight Hacker News archetypes — the Optimiser, the Skeptic, the Bootstrapped Founder, the Rust Evangelist, and more. Each result comes with a custom avatar, a satirical bio, and a "HN comment" generated in your persona's voice. Inspired by Jon's years of reading and commenting on Hacker News.

A bingo card generator for Hacker News comment threads. Click squares as you spot classic tropes — "Show HN", "Rust rewrite", "HN is turning into Reddit", "This is why I self-host", and 21 more. First to get five in a row wins. Inspired by Jon's years of reading Hacker News and noticing the same patterns in every thread.

A Catholic film review explorer built on Steven D. Greydanus's decade of capsule reviews. Browse 1000+ movies by moral rating, content concerns, and artistic merit — or let the picker suggest a film based on your mood, the kids' ages, and how much time you have. Inspired by Jon's Greydanus Movie Picker post, where he built a Greasemonkey script to surface the best family-friendly films from the Decent Films database.

A 10-question interactive quiz based on Angela Duckworth's research on grit — the combination of passion and perseverance. Answer honestly about setbacks, focus, and long-term goals to get your grit score and a personalised breakdown. Warm earth tones and encouraging copy. Inspired by Jon's "My Grit Score" post, where he shared his own result and reflected on what grit means for parenting and work.

A classical temperament quiz based on the four humours — Choleric, Melancholic, Phlegmatic, and Sanguine. Ten situational questions reveal your dominant humour with beautiful Renaissance-style illustrations and historical context. Inspired by Jon's "My Temperament" post, where he discovered he is Phlegmatic-Melancholic — steady, reflective, and detail-oriented.

A Jane Austen-themed lorem ipsum generator that produces paragraphs of Regency-era prose in the style of Pride and Prejudice, Emma, and Persuasion. Choose your novel, paragraph count, and whether to include dialogue. Perfect for mockups with a bit of wit. Inspired by Jon's "Jane Austen Ipsum" post, where he shared a delightful tool for generating placeholder text in Austen's unmistakable voice.

A literary trivia game where you're shown a famous opening line and must guess which Great Book it comes from. 50 classic openings from Homer to Hemingway, with difficulty tiers and a final score. Inspired by Jon's "Great Books: Opening Lines" post, where he collected the most memorable first sentences in Western literature.

A retro web-based Apple IIc emulator with a green-phosphor CRT display, beep speaker, and a working BASIC interpreter. Type your own programs or load classics like "HELLO WORLD" and "GUESS THE NUMBER." Includes the iconic boot chime and scanline effects. Inspired by Jon's "Apple IIc Emulator" post, where he waxed nostalgic about his first computer.

A comic strip generator that turns pull request feedback into a three-panel comic with speech bubbles, expressive characters, and developer humour. Inspired by Jon's "Improved Comic Code Reviews" post, where he described using comic-style panels to make code reviews more fun and approachable.

A task manager based on Mark Forster's Final Version Perfected (FVP) system — mark tasks, work through the list in a specific order, and let the algorithm decide what to do next. Includes a demo list and a full explanation of the FVP method. Inspired by Jon's "Final Version Perfect Task Manager" post.

A constellation map of 300 machine learning hyperparameter configurations, rendered as stars with brightness representing accuracy. Pan, zoom, and click any star to see its parameters. Inspired by Jon's "GridSearch Constellation" post, where he visualised hyperparameter search results as a night sky.

An interactive tool for positioning blind spot mirrors on your car. Adjust mirror angles, car width, and driver position to see the optimal placement and coverage area. Includes a comparison of convex vs flat mirrors. Inspired by Jon's "Blind Spot Mirror Positioning" post.

A decorative letter composer with ornamental fleurons, drop caps, and vintage borders. Write a letter and adorn it with typographic ornaments from the 18th century. Inspired by Jon's "Fleurons" post, where he celebrated the beauty of typographic ornaments.

A virtual walk across the Capilano Suspension Bridge with vertigo-inducing sway physics, bird sounds, and a trivia quiz about Vancouver landmarks. Can you make it to the other side without looking down? Inspired by Jon's "Capilano Suspension Bridge" post, where he reflected on the vertigo and wonder of crossing that famous Vancouver landmark.

An interactive exploration of browser session storage, localStorage, and cookies — with visual diagrams, live demos, and a playground where you can set and retrieve values across tabs. Inspired by Jon's "Browser Session Management" post, where he broke down the differences between session storage mechanisms.

A head-to-head comparison tool for AI models. Pick a prompt, see how GPT-4, Claude, and Gemini respond side by side, and vote on the winner. Includes a leaderboard and sample prompts. Inspired by Jon's "AI Model Comparison" post, where he compared outputs from different LLMs on the same tasks.

A todo list based on Mark Forster's Autofocus system — write tasks in a single running list, scan for what stands out, and work in bursts. Includes a demo list and a timer. Inspired by Jon's "Autofocus Todo" post, where he described the simple but powerful productivity system that relies on intuition rather than rigid prioritisation.

An interactive 5BX (Five Basic Exercises) companion with animated demonstrations, a progress tracker, and a timer. Work your way through the 11 charts at your own pace. Inspired by Jon's "5BX Exercise Plan" post, where he rediscovered the Royal Canadian Air Force's classic fitness programme.