Yet another Hacker News

Cbirds: A flock of birds in your terminal

17 points epestr 1 day ago 12 comments

BrokenCogs 1 day ago | parent

No doubt inspired by the recent sonnet 5.5 release demoing a murmuration of birds

clainstone 1 day ago | parent

Hi, I'm the creator. Not at all: I started this project completely by hand about a year ago, the first commit is from September 2025, you can check. Then I chose to speed up some features with automatic programming, otherwise I wouldn't have had the time

entropie 1 day ago | parent

It runs since like 30 minutes in fullscreen in ghostty on my 4k display and I love it.

clainstone 1 day ago | parent

Thanks, I have a local branch where I'm working on a 3D version with a single flock, it should land in a few days

smartmic 1 day ago | parent

I wonder what is the value of such vibe coded programs. It can't be the implementation or engineering aspect at all, when generated by AI. Is it the idea? Should it be a tribute to Craig Reynolds in this case?

patcon 1 day ago | parent

I guess all these programs are just ideas now, instead of a feat of engineering?

So more like a comment or idea shared at a social gathering, that anyone else might build on with their own in conversation. rather than the prior situation of code, where it is as if we were in wonder at the very fact of speech itself

At least that's my optimistic take. Though many might find the same thing a bummer.

There will still be poets, and those who admire them

entropie 1 day ago | parent

> I wonder what is the value of such vibe coded programs.

It took weeks for me to code programs with no real value.

I think it's great that anyone with enough ambition can create software now.

Edit: I forked it and added a flake.nix just to see it in action and its awesome.

clainstone 1 day ago | parent

Thanks, glad you like it!

clainstone 1 day ago | parent

The first commits are from September 2025, when agents were far less capable than now. Later I decided to use AI to implement some features.

As for the value: exploring ideas, techniques and features that would have been impossible to explore completely by hand (if you have a life), and a final artifact that is cool and pleasant to watch in your terminal.

smackeyacky 46 minutes ago | parent

Is it as fun as xroach?

clainstone 42 minutes ago | parent

I've never played xroach, but you can make the birds escape by pointing at the flock with the cursor

DonHopkins 7 minutes ago | parent

Not the Ascention Flock of Birds 6-DOF tracking device, like a Polhemus Fastrack, SpaceBall, or SpaceMouse?

https://www.jamodrum.net/Articles/jaron.pdf

>Ascension Bird. Perched atop Lanier's head is Ascension Bird, a 6-axis magnetic tracking device that Lanier connects to SGI Maximum Impact and Octane workstations. This unit is similar to a Polhemus device used for motion cарture and 3-D digitization in VR worlds, but it is slightly more stable in performance. (Lanier's system also includes a series of Macintosh computers that connect to the sensors via an Opcode Studio 5 MIDI interface/patch bay/processor.) Ascension Bird works in a multiunit configuration called Flock of Birds. Used with a series of transmitters and receivers and VPL's Body Electric software, this system creates 3-dimensional virtual environments where objects can be linked and rendered in real time. For example, Lanier's face is glommed onto a slithering insectlike creature reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland. (Body Electric is a MAХ like programming environment specialized for virtual reality applications. At present it is not commercially available, but it may be available soon for noncommercial academic distribution.) Sensitive to the slightest movement, Ascension Bird has a life of its own and slides across Lanier's face, projecting its travels up and down its circuitous route onto the entomological image.

https://fob.sourceforge.net/clemson.html

http://www.mindflux.com.au/products/ascension/fob.html

https://wiki.ros.org/asr_flock_of_birds

https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:19610/FULLTEXT01...

https://my.eng.utah.edu/~cs6360/Assignments/Ascension.html