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

41–50 of 54 posts

Re: GNU Terry Pratchett

#41

Post by zeveb »

jerf wrote: post #36
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'…

"Pointless, wasteful, and stupid" strikes me as a rather uncharitable way of characterizing http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=6703 .

I'd argue that it's outright misrepresentation.

Re: GNU Terry Pratchett

#43

Post by sperglord »

qwertyuiop924 wrote: post #34
linschn wrote: post #20

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.

Because of the way email works, if you got it working, but screwed up (which is what would probably happen), you'd end up with a recreation of The Great Worm (Well, to be more accurate, you'd actually get a recreation of Bedlam-DL3: https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/exchange/2004/04/08/me-t... . But it would have the same effect). Do you want to see what happens when millions of poorly configured email servers roun…

Absolutely.

Re: GNU Terry Pratchett

#44

Post by qwertyuiop924 »

pilif wrote: post #39
qwertyuiop924 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>1. Deprecates the "X-" convention for newly defined parameters in application protocols, including new parameters for established protocols. This has already been defined, so we're in the clear, I think.

RFC6648 is from 2012 though, but Sir Terry Pratchett died in 2015, which is when this initiative started. As such it's violating RFC6648 because it continues to use the X- prefix.

Crap. Oh well. We're violating an RFC. What's the IETF going to do about it?

Nothing.

Re: GNU Terry Pratchett

#45

Post by qwertyuiop924 »

jerf wrote: post #36
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'…

"Pointless, wasteful, and stupid" strikes me as a rather uncharitable way of characterizing http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=6703 .

Sorry. It had been a while since I'd read it. My memory had fogged.

Re: GNU Terry Pratchett

#46

Post by noir_lord »

sperglord wrote: post #43
qwertyuiop924 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because of the way email works, if you got it working, but screwed up (which is what would probably happen), you'd end up with a recreation of The Great Worm (Well, to be more accurate, you'd actually get a recreation of Bedlam-DL3: https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/exchange/2004/04/08/me-t... . But it would have the same effect). Do you want to see what happens when millions of poorly configured email servers roun…

Absolutely.

> Some humans would do anything to see if it was possible to do it. If you put a large switch in some cave somewhere, with a sign on it saying 'End-of-the-World Switch. PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH', the paint wouldn't even have time to dry. - Terry Pratchett

Re: GNU Terry Pratchett

#48

Post by [deleted] »

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'…

[deleted]

Re: GNU Terry Pratchett

#49

Post by noir_lord »

Roritharr wrote: post #23

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.

Apropo of nothing but you have a bug on your landing page

     isn't closing the comment.

Re: GNU Terry Pratchett

#50

Post by eli_gottlieb »

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?

"Error 601: Insufficient Gravitas"
Post reply on HN