GNU Terry Pratchett • Hacker News Board

Re: GNU Terry Pratchett

#21

Post by YeGoblynQueenne » Tue, Nov 01, 2016, 12:51 PM UTC

NoGravitas wrote: post #17

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.

Yeah, the interents needs a Banks memorial meme. Maybe not a clacks overhead though, it wouldn't make terrible sense.

I'm trying to think of something fitting from the books- perhaps there's something civs leave behind when they sublime? Something reminding those crazy conversations between ships in Excession that could be added to IRC channels?

Re: GNU Terry Pratchett

#22

Post by bwldrbst » Tue, Nov 01, 2016, 1:03 PM UTC

YeGoblynQueenne wrote: post #21

NoGravitas wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yeah, the interents needs a Banks memorial meme. Maybe not a clacks overhead though, it wouldn't make terrible sense. I'm trying to think of something fitting from the books- perhaps there's something civs leave behind when they sublime? Something reminding those crazy conversations between ships in Excession that could be added to IRC channels?

Surely there's room in Unicode for Marain characters?

Re: GNU Terry Pratchett

#23

Post by Roritharr » Tue, Nov 01, 2016, 1:05 PM UTC

Just installed this on our company website. fastbill.com is now paying its tribute.

Lots of Pratchett Fans in our company, if we would have known about this earlier, we would have done it earlier.

Re: GNU Terry Pratchett

#24

Post by pilif » Tue, Nov 01, 2016, 1:09 PM UTC

What a wonderful idea. I have just updated out frontend server config to include the header.

On thing though: According to RFC6648, we should not be using the X- prefix any more for custom headers (https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6648), but I guess it's too late to change this now.

Re: GNU Terry Pratchett

#25

Post by teddyh » Tue, Nov 01, 2016, 1:23 PM UTC

jacquesm wrote: post #13

qwertyuiop924 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Maybe not in a non-standard header, though…

Re: GNU Terry Pratchett

#26

Post by orly_bookz » Tue, Nov 01, 2016, 1:29 PM UTC

Jaruzel wrote: post #8

As a long time Pratchett fan, I inserted this in my Web Server headers when it first became a thing after he died. I mostly forget it's there until I'm debugging something and look at a response header and go... 'oh yeah' It's mostly pointless, but us Pratchett fans are a loyal bunch.

It's pointless until we're able to reverse entropy on a massive scale. Then everything throughout history that made it long enough to be recorded will have mattered.

"There is only one god, and its name is entropy. And there is only one thing we say entropy:

Not today."

Re: GNU Terry Pratchett

#27

Post by arethuza » Tue, Nov 01, 2016, 1:42 PM UTC

YeGoblynQueenne wrote: post #21

NoGravitas wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yeah, the interents needs a Banks memorial meme. Maybe not a clacks overhead though, it wouldn't make terrible sense. I'm trying to think of something fitting from the books- perhaps there's something civs leave behind when they sublime? Something reminding those crazy conversations between ships in Excession that could be added to IRC channels?

"I Sublime, I Sublime, I Sublime"

NB I have tried it, didn't appear to work :-(

Re: GNU Terry Pratchett

#28

Post by ohthehugemanate » Tue, Nov 01, 2016, 1:47 PM UTC

dzdt wrote: post #5

I once accidently did this on a university computer system. Something was misconfigured with sendmail routing; when I telneted to an unexpected computer in the lab and sent an email from there it started bouncing in an infinite loop between that and another department server. About two days later the system operator noticed when log files filled the drive. My email had been making trips up and down the building a few…

I wonder if it's possible to craft a mail to be infinite-bounced like this. There have to be servers that are appropriately (mis-)configured of course. But that would let you have a lot more than just one name, and a lot more information about each person. An epitaph of sorts.

Re: GNU Terry Pratchett

#29

Post by poizan42 » Tue, Nov 01, 2016, 1:49 PM UTC

teddyh wrote: post #25

jacquesm wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Maybe not in a non-standard header, though…

As long as it's correctly prefixed with X- I think it should be fine.

Re: GNU Terry Pratchett

#30

Post by qwertyuiop924 » Tue, Nov 01, 2016, 1:53 PM UTC

teddyh wrote: post #25

jacquesm wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Maybe not in a non-standard header, though…

Well, if the tooling was built with John's advice in mind, it shouldn't break.

But yes, don't go against the standard to put John's name in: only put it in the header, where such things are allowed.