Why HN was down • Hacker News Board

Re: Why HN was down

#11

Post by cmaggard » Mon, Feb 18, 2013, 6:39 PM UTC

DanI-S wrote: post #2

n.b. that this is why time travel is a terrible idea.

The grandfather paradox is the best solution to the halting problem.

Re: Why HN was down

#12

Post by luser001 » Mon, Feb 18, 2013, 6:40 PM UTC

I use assertions to protect against things like this.

I liberally sprinkle my code with assertions (CS theory calls them pre-conditions and post-conditions, iirc) to crash early if the system is an invalid state.

One my pet peeves is that few programmers seem to love assertions like I do. Would love to see to comments on this.

Re: Why HN was down

#13

Post by dasil003 » Mon, Feb 18, 2013, 6:40 PM UTC

I'm not sure whether it's terrifying or relieving to realize that if all I dream of comes to pass and I achieve something akin to the legendary status of pg in the hacker community that I will still be susceptible to the inevitable facepalm moments that come with direct database access.

In any case I am thankful for the detailed explanation.

Re: Why HN was down

#14

Post by hnriot » Mon, Feb 18, 2013, 6:41 PM UTC

it's a good job it's your site, this type of thing is often what gets someone fired in a company. Modifying (meddling!) the production system directly.

Re: Why HN was down

#15

Post by RKoutnik » Mon, Feb 18, 2013, 6:41 PM UTC

lucb1e wrote: post #8

Are you saying you manually modify the database? Like, shifting around things by id instead of just making admin buttons next to posts?

Sometimes that's easier (albeit more dangerous, as we just saw).

Re: Why HN was down

#16

Post by gruseom » Mon, Feb 18, 2013, 6:42 PM UTC

This is a particularly endearing piece of "hacker news". It's so easy to relate to.

Re: Why HN was down

#17

Post by jack57 » Mon, Feb 18, 2013, 6:42 PM UTC

Are you sure that comment's name wasn't Phillip J Fry?

Re: Why HN was down

#18

Post by swah » Mon, Feb 18, 2013, 6:42 PM UTC

luser001 wrote: post #12

I use assertions to protect against things like this. I liberally sprinkle my code with assertions (CS theory calls them pre-conditions and post-conditions, iirc) to crash early if the system is an invalid state. One my pet peeves is that few programmers seem to love assertions like I do. Would love to see to comments on this.

The kind of assertion he needed though, could only be ensured by the database, not application code (my impression).

Re: Why HN was down

#19

Post by Legion » Mon, Feb 18, 2013, 6:42 PM UTC

"We'll do it live!"

Re: Why HN was down

#20

Post by T-zex » Mon, Feb 18, 2013, 6:42 PM UTC

Thank you for the honest explanation. This is not so easy especially for a famous person.