3 ms·

First time I've come across the setup. Here are some interviews with a few other HN regulars: http://paul.graham.usesthis.com/ http://paul.graham.usesthis.com/

by djm 17y ago

First time I've come across the setup. Here are some interviews with a few other HN regulars: http://paul.graham.usesthis.com/ http://paul.graham.usesthis.com/ http://aaron.swartz.usesthis.com/ http://aaron.swartz.usesthis.com/ _why is listed on their mainpage too but his interview seems to have been removed

telemachos 17y ago
_why's link works fine: http://_why.usesthis.com/ http://_why.usesthis.com/ Drawn and quirky (or precious, depending on your taste or mood) as normal for _why.
- nzmsv 17y ago
  Hmmm. I think this depends on your DNS provider. This link is broken for me: I think my ISP does not like hostnames starting with underscores.
  - telemachos 17y ago
    Interesting. If it helps or anyone else is curious, I'm using OpenDNS.
    - nzmsv 17y ago
      This is really strange. None of the browsers on my machine can access this URL. But dig _why.usesthis.com returns the correct info. According to Wikipedia, the use of underscores in hostnames is illegal, but many implementations ignore this. Anyway, the interview is mirrored here: http://viewsourcecode.org/why/#7 http://viewsourcecode.org/why/#7
      - vsync 17y ago
        http://www.apps.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1123.html#sec-6.1.3.5 http://www.apps.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1123.html#sec-6.1.3.5 Looks like underscores are valid in /domain names/ but not in /host names/. You'll see underscores used many times for SPF records and in Microsoft's Active Directory. Also, when you use dig I'm pretty sure it manually recurses the name server hierarchy while an application will just connect to your local name server which might have its own policies.
- vsync 17y ago
  Only if you use a noncompliant DNS server. Only letters and digits are permitted to start a hostname. http://www.apps.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1123.html#sec-2.1 http://www.apps.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1123.html#sec-2.1 http://www.apps.ietf.org/rfc/rfc952.html http://www.apps.ietf.org/rfc/rfc952.html http://www.apps.ietf.org/rfc/rfc921.html http://www.apps.ietf.org/rfc/rfc921.html

by djm 17y ago

telemachos 17y ago

_why's link works fine: http://_why.usesthis.com/ http://_why.usesthis.com/ Drawn and quirky (or precious, depending on your taste or mood) as normal for _why.

nzmsv 17y ago
Hmmm. I think this depends on your DNS provider. This link is broken for me: I think my ISP does not like hostnames starting with underscores.
- telemachos 17y ago
  Interesting. If it helps or anyone else is curious, I'm using OpenDNS.
  - nzmsv 17y ago
    This is really strange. None of the browsers on my machine can access this URL. But dig _why.usesthis.com returns the correct info. According to Wikipedia, the use of underscores in hostnames is illegal, but many implementations ignore this. Anyway, the interview is mirrored here: http://viewsourcecode.org/why/#7 http://viewsourcecode.org/why/#7
    - vsync 17y ago
      http://www.apps.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1123.html#sec-6.1.3.5 http://www.apps.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1123.html#sec-6.1.3.5 Looks like underscores are valid in /domain names/ but not in /host names/. You'll see underscores used many times for SPF records and in Microsoft's Active Directory. Also, when you use dig I'm pretty sure it manually recurses the name server hierarchy while an application will just connect to your local name server which might have its own policies.
vsync 17y ago
Only if you use a noncompliant DNS server. Only letters and digits are permitted to start a hostname. http://www.apps.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1123.html#sec-2.1 http://www.apps.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1123.html#sec-2.1 http://www.apps.ietf.org/rfc/rfc952.html http://www.apps.ietf.org/rfc/rfc952.html http://www.apps.ietf.org/rfc/rfc921.html http://www.apps.ietf.org/rfc/rfc921.html