5 ms·

Definitely agree with one of the comments on the blog - the domain (haxx.se) really doesn't help the author's case here when trying to explain to a layperson.

• smcl 11y ago
  Right - I know the person complaining is a little bit misguided (and seemingly refusing to understand, which can be frustrating) but when your primary contact is "@haxx.se" you must surely be at least a little bit prepared for these sort of things. I'd prefer to give the author the benefit of the doubt, but it seems odd to even post this publicly at all unless a tiny part of them wanted to have a "haha look at this idiot" rant and they knew it could be justified under "I was only asking for help...".
  • FussyZeus 11y ago
    If people come to me not knowing how stuff works and are just asking for help, I would never make fun of that person and would tear into someone who did. On the other hand, if someone was woefully wrong about how something works and came at me as if their ignorance was my problem to solve, they can sod off. And I'd be happy to post their threatening and hilariously wrong headed emails all over the Internet, because for a lot of people being publicly humiliated is the only way they start listening.
• webapper 11y ago
  On my SaaS application's file submission page, I have a small paragraph directed toward administrators along the lines of: If you'd like to batch upload your files, download curl from (haxx.se url), and use the following command line, bla bla bla. Having this link to "haxx.se" is a relatively high volume source of comments by my users.
  • Cthulhu_ 11y ago
    Might be worth for either you or haxx.se to use a more neutrally-worded redirect or alias domain. Something with curl in it.
  • DenisM 11y ago
    Host it yourself, that's what I do. It also helps with curl changes breaking something or other. Once upon a time curl has optimized something, and it triggered a bug in AWS EC2 network driver.
• elthran 11y ago
  Also, from http://daniel.haxx.se/blog/about/ http://daniel.haxx.se/blog/about/ >I’m Daniel Stenberg, a network hacker working for Mozilla. Sigh. Why does everyone have to be a hacking rockstar ninja? What's wrong with not using a word that has negative connotations to the rest of the world, and just calling yourself a developer/engineer?
  • napworth 11y ago
    You realise this is the man that created CURL, right? If anyone is allowed to call himself a hacker, it's Daniel.
    • manigandham 11y ago
      Everyone is "allowed" to call themselves whatever they want. I would argue there are practical rules to follow depending on your audience. In this case it seems fine but obviously can cause issues with the modern interpretation of what hacker means.
  • unethical_ban 11y ago
    What's wrong with using whatever words you want on your personal site to describe yourself and the work you do? Who cares that some ignoramus directs her anger at him? Do you also think "hackers" or software devs shouldn't have long hair or listen to rock music?
  • mahouse 11y ago
    Even though I agree completely with you, you came to Hacker News to say that
  • TazeTSchnitzel 11y ago
    "hacker" was positive before it was negative, it's fine to hang onto it, because at worst you're only hurting yourselves (hackers). (and it's not even a pejorative, anyway)
  • mwcampbell 11y ago
    Why all the downvotes for this comment? I think the point is reasonable. It's fine for us to use the word "hacker" in the non-criminal sense among ourselves (for example, the title of this site), but not where the general public is likely to see it and misunderstand it.