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> I’m changing the title of this page just to screw with mods on the orange website

Loving it! What orange website could they be talking about?

I wonder what would be achievable, around the $15 mark WITHOUT needing a minimum order of 1000? (Presuming access to a 3d printer and a reasonably cheap PCB fab company)



Advanced HN mod troll: write a dozen slightly different titles and pick a random one on page load


Pick one deterministically based on src IP address for extra annoyance.


There is another theory which states that this has already happened.


JWZ will replace links from HN to his site, jwz dot org, with an NSFW image and an insult. It does this based on the Referer: header, so people using Firefox in private browsing mode aren't affected.


Also people using Firefox' refer[r]er spoofing option* -- a useful anti-evil tool that helps protect you from surveillance adtech.

*'network.http.referer.spoofSource' in about:config : "true = send the target URL as the referrer"

https://wiki.mozilla.org/Security/Referrer


It might kill a cat to find out.


a bridge too far, m8


Ars Technica basically does this (with two headlines), since the Conde Nast acquisition. Drives me nuts, and makes a significant portion of the post-article discussion incomprehensible.


There's something so hilarious about the idea of an HN thread full of people who only read the title, while the website is A/B testing ten different titles.


I'm looking forward to the GPT3 generated titles using a prompt that involves something along the lines of "Given this excerpt of the HN discussion: .... This is the most amusing title: ..."


> I wonder what would be achievable, around the $15 mark WITHOUT needing a minimum order of 1000?

A Raspberry Pi Zero?


Raspberry Pi Foundation does the "minimum order of 1000" and passes the savings on to you. Try and buy all the individual components of a RPi Zero and see how much it costs. It is way more than $15.

P.S. The RPi Zero does not come with a display and keyboard like the computer in this article does. So, we are talking about two different types of computers.


$15 is a pretty good guess for per-unit cost of mass-produced RPi0, I reckon.

Look at the price of "WH" version with superficial changes that cost pennies to add (wifi chip and 0.1" header), and (used to be) easily obtainable with no limit on the order size. Or, at least that was the status quo before the the great chip shortage of 2021.


I was thinking about the fact that 40 years ago there was the Sinclair ZX80, a $100 computer that you could hook to your TV and there's not really a whole lot in that space/price point¹ now other than the hobbyist Raspberry Pi/arduino/other hobbyist machines. I'd have to think that it's possible to make a consumer-grade PC that you hook up to your own monitor for around $100, although I guess the cost of a Windows license is an obstacle to that. Surely someone could build a windows PC (or I guess Linux) that's inside a keyboard enclosure for around $100 that could be commercially successful now.

1. We can ignore inflation adjustments because computer prices have generally stayed flat or gone down (the rule used to be that the PC you wanted was around $2000–3000 and nowadays if we're talking about a desktop system, assuming one even specs such a thing, it's less than that).


> Surely someone could build a windows PC (or I guess Linux) that's inside a keyboard enclosure for around $100 that could be commercially successful now.

Raspberry Pi actually did that. [0] The RPi 400 is right around that $100 mark, fully assembled, and is basically a keyboard with a bunch of ports for the people who end up with it.

[0] https://www.raspberrypi.com/products/raspberry-pi-400/


and a mouse!


There is a raspberry pi kit to do just that (keyboard + screen + computer all in one).

The only other option is a ZXSpectrum Next (Kickstarter that is having trouble with supply chain right now for the latest batch). It's freaking awesome though. You can directly download new spectrum games from the internet or just use the SD card. Someone wrote a new assembly language book. There is a BBS app...so many cool things going on. The commander x-16 will also be cool if it ever comes out.


There were those stick pcs for a while. I think those started around $100, add a $10 keyboard and a $10 mouse and you're not too far from your price point.


There are functional used PCs in dumpsters and for $cheap now. Wasn't the case in the 1980s. You can definitely get working for $100.


I bought a Samsung Chromebook 4 for $92 including tax on Black Friday. You can buy one today for $120+tax at Walmart.

It’s plenty capable, especially as compared to other sub-$250 options and has power supply, battery, screen, keyboard, trackpad, speakers, camera, and microphone included.


I thought you could buy a RPI-in-keyboard...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSvHJ97d8n8


> Loving it! What orange website could they be talking about?

In case that's a serious question: what website has an orange theme, and an aggressively enforced rule against editorialising submission titles?


Ever since I've found that I can change the color of the top bar in my profile, the site has been every color but orange to me. :D


Same here, but my browser still uses orange as the theme colour for HN, which is interesting - I guess it grabs the dominant colour from the favicon (it even does it on sites that try to set the meta theme-color, which is interesting)


Yeah I changed it to green but the orange Y in the top left-hand corner drives me nuts.


Incredibly, it's a gif. They could at least change it for a png with transparent color...


I would also want to know. Because news.ycombinator.com is quite selective about the enforcement.


The comment was pure sarcasm - but kind of you to check!


well yeah, but why would they want to block out the "orange website"?


I don't think "screw with" means "block" in this case. But there is one moderately famous blog that does block HN: https://www.jwz.org/


yeah I asked jwz how to do that, but I can't figure out a way to make that work with Github pages.


  if (document.referrer === 'https://news.ycombinator.com/')
    window.location = 'https://cdn.jwz.org/images/2016/hn.png'
Or something along those lines should work.


He checks the Referer header[1]. In Firefox you can prevent that header from being sent by setting `network.http.sendRefererHeader` to 0 (in about:config).

[1]: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/Re...


HN helpfully uses the referrer, so you can easily do it with a tiny bit of JS:

    <script>
    if(document.referrer == "https://news.ycombinator.com/") {
        // Mess with HN users here...
    }
    </script>


View source on the linked website just now:

    <!-- DO HN STUFF HERE
    <script>
        if(document.referrer == "https://news.ycombinator.com/") {
             window.location = 'https://bbenchoff.github.io/images/Brogrammers.png'
        }
    </script>
    -->


JWZ appears to use Apache, so he probably does something like http://www.htaccess-guide.com/deny-visitors-by-referrer/


That is the way it was done back in the day, usually when admin wanted guests to not come through Google Search or to come through a correct word-of-mouth bouncer page. Client side JS implementations allow content to be viewed by blocking JS.


They're not blocking it out, they are protesting the weird, variable, "original title" policy. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html


As the practical build here shows you simply need 15$ and one capable engineer. To be fair you'll also need something to tool a case out of, be it FDM or extractive machining.


Cardboard & glue will do. Otherwise, carve it out of balsa.


... access to a 3d printer

Printer filament itself costs about $10USD per pound. And then there is the inevitable one or two misprints.

Not to mention the time needed to print the item.

If you looking for cheap, low volume 3D printing ain't it.


3d-printing is very expensive in terms of variable costs but super cheap in terms of fixed costs. For low volumes, the math is usually in favor of 3d printing.


http://www.orangepi.org/

?

Pretty much a possible competitor. I have several OrangePi boards...and they run linux and cost me around $15.


More powerful, but no keyboard and display.


Totally agree. But are they really DELIVERING a final product with keyboard, main board and display for $15? THAT is the real question.


Said the guy or gal typing on a keyboard and reading the response on a display. Solved problem?


A strange argument to make. I have a laptop that I got for free from my father in law. But that does not mean one can 'get a Linux machine for €0.00'.


The argument is they already have a keyboard and a display ? Guess what, they also have a computer.


the machine that message was typed on did not cost 15$.


What was the title previously? I'm not sure I understand the significance of the current title.


Some people really hate Hacker News for no intelligent reasons that I can tell.


They usually hate it because of the people who post here


I wouldn't say that I hate the site but when I am unhappy with it it's not because of what gets posted but what gets upvoted.


With zero submissions in 12 years I think you have the solution right at your fingertips.


That would only be true if votes were a limited resource. There's no real "competition" here. Something good getting upvoted doesn't stop absolute trash from getting upvoted. donio posting something incredible wouldn't mean it would offset something awful; it would just slightly change the timeslot of the awful thing.

Articles that go deep into technical subjects generally stay on the front page for half of the time of trendy lightweight posts.


Trying to mess with the moderators specifically suggests some kind of deeper ire.


The new title is "I’m changing the title of this page just to screw with mods on the orange website"


I don't get it, is this just some sort of experiment for messing with forums or is there an actual product here?

I can't even buy a keyboard for $15 anymore since inflation took off.

So yeah if in fact this is a real product I'll throw a few bucks at it to help make it happen.


What is the recent trend of website users not using the actual names of the websites they use?

    >the orange site
    >the bird site
Are these pet names? Is this passive aggressive contempt? Or is this an inside joke that I don’t get?


I would skew towards inside joke pet names

For a few reasons.

Firstly, sometimes a shot needs to be taken at said websites and there are people who work there who will be reading it.

Secondly, because inside jokes are the best jokes.


> the orange site

This one isn't new to me. My old boss used to call it that.


Adding dramatic flair is a timeless hobby. Like most things, it gets shorter with time.

It's basically:

That den of capitalist hubris, the Mart of Wally

For a new era.


It's passive aggressive contempt. They're pretty commonly used in leftist online circles to gently insult the original sites.


> What orange website could they be talking about?

I wouldn't know, my topcolor is B5DB5D.


For q1, nothing: shipping would be more than that.


ah, someone who shares my disdain for "hacker" "news"


"Please don't sneer, including at the rest of the community." It's reliably a marker of bad comments and worse threads.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html


> "Please don't sneer, including at the rest of the community." It's reliably a marker of bad comments and worse threads.

It might be worth pointing out that you are dismissing a comment discussing a page that is (likely) making a criticism of the HN rules by implying - without good reason - that it is instead a criticism of the community, and not a critique of the site rules and the kinds of content it promotes.

Unless you're only meaning the "don't sneer" part - which is difficult to police among intellectuals, and if it's only policed at HN-directed criticism, is probably bad form.

In short: "Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something."


I'm sorry but I don't really follow what you're saying here. That the GP comment was a supercilious putdown seems completely obvious to me. Perceptions differ, of course.


Yet here you are


There are some real gems & genuine insight to be found. But the comments still follow a Pareto distribution and there's a lot that is worth disdain[1], IMO.

Besides, I found it's better when I don't take HN too seriously; I now often enjoy HN the way I "enjoy" Curb Your Enthusiasm

1. Often as a top comment too! A lot of inaccurate, stripped-of-nuance or outright ignorant hot takes get voted up if they confirm the biases of the majority of HN users.


Whatever you feelings may be, HN brings a breath of fresh air. Compared to other social media, its quite rare for commentary to devolve into nonsense.


Another possibility, you are bad at detecting nonsense


Possibly.

Though I generally would not catch nonsense about an 40-year old Microprocessor or some newfangled K8s setup.

So perhaps I should phrase the claim differently. The "quality" of nonsense on HN is remarkably better than other social sites.


[flagged]


The problem with comments like this and https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30088471 is that they poison the ecosystem with more of the very thing you're complaining about, plus they lower the signal/noise ratio with tedious meta.

Supercilious posturing over other people is bad for comments here because it's reliably uninteresting. Would you please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and use the site more in the intended spirit? We're trying for curious conversation here.


okay okay, I'll stop being so negative and try to guide discourse for the better here :)


Appreciated! That's basically the perfect response :)




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