Cool Link: TownSquare, a tiny presence layer for websites

This is so cool! TownSquare adds a small virtual square at the footer of a website, on which visitors can walk around, jump, high-five and talk to each other. And this can connect multiple websites together!

Strongly considering adding this somewhere on my website.

Open

About Cool Links

Cool links are a collection of interesting things I find around the web. They can range from fun dumb websites to deep thought-provoking essays, or more commonly something in between. The feed here updates frequently, and I compile everything into a blog post on the last day of each month.

View all cool links

Or check out other stuff I've posted recently:

Matt shared a Cool Link

A 3D museum in which you can walk on all about the history of WordPress, with displays for each release, some of the history behind them, all that. Really cool!

Open

Matt posted a Quick Review

Backrooms

2026, Kane Parsons

Reviewed on Jun 27, 2026

Didn't like it

Decent

I like it

Loved it!

There is no way a movie with this concept would be good, but I gotta praise that this movie isn’t afraid of being weird, and went in a totally different direction than I expected a bad horror-ish movie to go.

Movie

Matt shared a Cool Link

Half Life 2 running fully through your browser? Sure! Why not?

Definitely not the best way to do it, but walking around in one of the best games ever on my browser is a pretty cool concept. Especially since there’s no way to run it natively on a Mac nowadays.

Open

Matt shared a Cool Link

I often look at my own posts and think, “There’s nothing novel, or important, or deep in here at all — is this even worth saying?”

Yes! Me too! Lots of drafts got abandoned because I eventually caught myself thinking that while writing it. Past couple years I’ve been trying to detach myself from that way of thinking but it’s a slow process.

Sometimes a blog post will only have a target audience of one (the writer) and that is perfectly fine.

Open

Matt posted a Quick Review

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

1979, Douglas Adams

Reviewed on Jun 23, 2026

Didn't like it

Decent

I like it

Loved it!

I remember loving this book when I was a pre-teen so perhaps this rating is a bit unfair. I was looking for some light reading before bed and landed on this one, but I guess the humor doesn’t work on me anymore. Some good quotes here and there, but most of it felt like an adult’s attempt at saying things kids would find funny. It probably works for a lot of people but I think I outgrew this specific kind of silliness (but not silliness altogether, mind you).

I read the pt-BR version, if that matters.

Book

Matt shared a Cool Link

Incredible visual demonstration of how the absurd size of modern SUVs turns them into even deadlier machines. Not only the hood height makes them deadlier in a possible collision, but the vastly increased blind spots make collisions more likely to happen.

Open

Matt shared a Cool Link

Strongly considering adding this somewhere on my website.

Open

Matt published a Blog Post

Infin

Picture of the audience in an Iron Maiden concert in the San Siro stadium

Infinite Dreams

2 min read

Not even in my wildest dreams did I think I'd hear this song live.

Personal

Read

Matt posted a Quick Review

Baldur's Gate 3

2023, Larian Studios

Reviewed on Jun 19, 2026

Didn't like it

Decent

I like it

Loved it!

Hard to review this one. On one hand, it’s one of the best (if not the best) stories and set of characters I’ve ever seen in a video game. Not only that, it’s something only a game can offer: it was my story, I always felt like my choices mattered and saw them affecting the world and characters in some way.

On the other hand, I didn’t enjoy much of the rest. My playthrough lasted 99h, and by hour 30 I was already tired of combat and exploration and couldn’t wait for it to end. I ended up lowering the difficulty so I could just get combat over ASAP and get back to the story bits which was the only thing I cared about.

Game

Matt published a Blog Post

A tri

A cluster of terracotta-roofed houses with chimneys and antennas in Feltre's old town, set against a large green mountain under a cloudy sky.

A trip through Veneto (and history)

9 min read

We didn't have a tight plan, just a list of towns and surnames, but that was more than enough for a good time.

Trip

Read

Matt shared a Cool Link

This is so good! Overworld is a gaming news aggregator that is actually usable. It groups together all news for a single topic under a single headline, and also curates gaming-related stuff (that’s not necessarily news) in a “worth your time” section. And it looks great too!

Open

Matt shared a Cool Link

Yesss! I’ve waited for this for so long! One of the worst parts of my job is trying to implement those kind of separators (really common in designs) without this functionality being an actual thing yet. So many hacks, complex calculations, for something so visually trivial.

And even if it takes a while to get to other browsers, it’s mostly a visual drawback if not supported; so I can already start thinking about using it.

Open

Matt shared a Cool Link

A collection of fun optical illusions, with quick explanations of how they work.

I found out later that this is just one out of many other “toy” collections. I recommend checking those out as well!

Open

Cool Link: TownSquare, a tiny presence layer for websites

About Cool Links

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