>> coolthing
coolThing is named like a throwaway folder. It is not one. It is a repository for experiments that have crossed the first threshold: not just ideas, not yet products, but working surfaces with enough structure to keep growing.
The shape is deliberately simple.
docs/ is the public front: GitHub Pages, browser UI, static files.
backend/ is the local engine: FastAPI, yt-dlp, Basic Pitch, Spotify OAuth.
tools/ is the operator layer: scripts that start services,
serve the frontend, and connect local folders to remote repositories.
Three folders. Three responsibilities.
Mega Movie Tube is the purest visual experiment: a Nintendo-inspired streaming launcher, cartridge cards, CRT channel-change animation, and a Konami-code wink. It treats streaming services as objects you select, not as apps you disappear into.
Mega Guitar Tabs is more ambitious.
Paste a YouTube link, download audio locally,
run transcription, then map detected notes onto guitar strings and frets.
The current backend already carries the serious machinery:
yt-dlp for extraction, basic-pitch for note events,
and a tab renderer that groups nearby notes into playable columns.
It is a toy with a real engine under the shell.
Mega Now closes the loop. It reads what Spotify is playing, shows the track, cover, progress, BPM, key, energy, and danceability, then sends the current song toward Mega Guitar through a YouTube search. Listening becomes input. The song playing now becomes material for the next tool.
The important constraint is locality. GitHub Pages can host the interface, but it cannot run Python, FFmpeg, OAuth secrets, audio transcription, or model inference. coolThing accepts that boundary instead of hiding it. The browser is the control surface. The Mac is the machine room.
That split gives the repo its character. It is playful at the edge and practical underneath. Retro skins, arcade language, and glowing cards on top; scripts, ports, CORS, tokens, temp files, and process cleanup below. The aesthetic is not decoration. It makes local tooling feel like something you want to open.
Most prototype repos die because they are either too loose to operate or too formal to enjoy. coolThing sits in the useful middle: enough ceremony to run, enough weirdness to keep returning to.