Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

GNU Terry Pratchett

gnuterrypratchett.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 54 posts

Re: GNU Terry Pratchett

#11

Post by qwertyuiop924 »

Somebody (I think it was ESR) called this pointless, wasteful, and stupid. It would be, were it for the benefit of the dead.

But it's not. It's very much for the benefit of the living. It's a way of remembering a man who was so very important to us, but for me, it goes beyond that.

Somewhere out there, there's a kid who's examining some net traffic. Maybe out of curiosity, maybe to debug some kind of problem. And he'll see an undocumented header, repeated across protocols.

Legends don't come from nowhere: Pratchett fans, of all people, should know this.

And a man whose name the network whispers to itself is a pretty good legend, don't you think?

Re: GNU Terry Pratchett

#12

Post by qwertyuiop924 »

nagvx wrote: post #7

I wonder how people feel about adding other names to the Clacks header? It feels a tad lonely for his name to be the only one passed around in this manner. It seems quite like a virtual graveyard, but with only one gravestone. As much as I respect Pratchett, many others are already commemorating his name, and I would feel compelled to add another. If people put their own loved ones into the Clacks header, perhaps thi…

That is an awsome idea, and we should totally do it. Don't ask for permission, because you won't get it. But if you do it, others may follow.

Re: GNU Terry Pratchett

#13

Post by jacquesm »

qwertyuiop924 wrote: post #12
nagvx wrote: post #7

I wonder how people feel about adding other names to the Clacks header? It feels a tad lonely for his name to be the only one passed around in this manner. It seems quite like a virtual graveyard, but with only one gravestone. As much as I respect Pratchett, many others are already commemorating his name, and I would feel compelled to add another. If people put their own loved ones into the Clacks header, perhaps thi…

That is an awsome idea, and we should totally do it. Don't ask for permission, because you won't get it. But if you do it, others may follow.

I nominate Jon Postel if anybody deserves to live forever in internet packets it's him.

Re: GNU Terry Pratchett

#14

Post by whostolemyhat »

nagvx wrote: post #7

I wonder how people feel about adding other names to the Clacks header? It feels a tad lonely for his name to be the only one passed around in this manner. It seems quite like a virtual graveyard, but with only one gravestone. As much as I respect Pratchett, many others are already commemorating his name, and I would feel compelled to add another. If people put their own loved ones into the Clacks header, perhaps thi…

I've been sticking Iain Banks in a header as well

Re: GNU Terry Pratchett

#15

Post by arethuza »

whostolemyhat wrote: post #14
nagvx wrote: post #7

I wonder how people feel about adding other names to the Clacks header? It feels a tad lonely for his name to be the only one passed around in this manner. It seems quite like a virtual graveyard, but with only one gravestone. As much as I respect Pratchett, many others are already commemorating his name, and I would feel compelled to add another. If people put their own loved ones into the Clacks header, perhaps thi…

I've been sticking Iain Banks in a header as well

I am tempted to start adding:

X-Gravitas: Very Little Indeed

Re: GNU Terry Pratchett

#16

Post by DonHopkins »

qwertyuiop924 wrote: post #11

Somebody (I think it was ESR) called this pointless, wasteful, and stupid. It would be, were it for the benefit of the dead. But it's not. It's very much for the benefit of the living. It's a way of remembering a man who was so very important to us, but for me, it goes beyond that. Somewhere out there, there's a kid who's examining some net traffic. Maybe out of curiosity, maybe to debug some kind of problem. And he'…

As usual, ESR was just projecting insults that apply to himself.

Re: GNU Terry Pratchett

#17

Post by NoGravitas »

nagvx wrote: post #7

I wonder how people feel about adding other names to the Clacks header? It feels a tad lonely for his name to be the only one passed around in this manner. It seems quite like a virtual graveyard, but with only one gravestone. As much as I respect Pratchett, many others are already commemorating his name, and I would feel compelled to add another. If people put their own loved ones into the Clacks header, perhaps thi…

What do you recommend as the format? Comma-delimited? My personal website has been serving this since he died, but I'd like to also add Iain M. Banks, as someone else here suggested.

Re: GNU Terry Pratchett

#18

Post by ShaneOG »

mobiuscog wrote: post #3
tjohns wrote: post #2

I've had the Chrome extension for this running in my browser for a while now. The most interesting discovery I've found is that virginamerica.com is sending the "X-Clacks-Overhead: GNU Terry Pratchett" meta tag on all of their pages.

It'd be interesting to know how many (of us) have snuck such a tag into a product ;)

I know I have :)

Re: GNU Terry Pratchett

#20

Post by linschn »

A proper implementation of this would require a packet with an infinite TTL and no destination. I tried to figure out a way to do that, but did not succeed.
Post reply on HN