5 ms·

Also, NPR has had a text only site for ages http://thin.npr.org http://thin.npr.org

by rwbt 9y ago

fletchowns 9y ago
It's so fast, feels like it's hosted locally
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- throw89825 9y ago
  if you click Topics -> News[0] it takes 2.7 seconds. They should throw that subdomain behind https://memcached.org/ https://memcached.org/ (and not use php lol). Unrelated, seems like I can't listen to podcasts. There's an <audio> tag (which doesn't use data unless you click on play if you set preload="none" [1]), so that's an interesting choice. $ curl http://thin.npr.org/t.php?tid=1001 [...] Total wall clock time: 2.7s $ ping thin.npr.org [...] round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 76.407/78.359/86.985/2.442 ms [0] http://thin.npr.org/t.php?tid=1001 http://thin.npr.org/t.php?tid=1001 [1] https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/audio https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/au...
  - Jgrubb 9y ago
    You don't put things behind Memcached. You put Memcached behind things.
    - 1123581321 9y ago
      Varnish is an in-memory cache that sits in front of a site.
      - Jgrubb 9y ago
        Correct.
  - tyingq 9y ago
    "and not use php lol" PHP has warts, but I find it unlikely that it would be the reason for a 2.7 second page load.
- heyoni 9y ago
  Finally! I can feel like I actually have gigabit fiber!!!
sparky_ 9y ago
This is great! I've been reading NPR for years and never knew about this. Thank you.
buro9 9y ago
Shame that thin.npr.org does not have HTTPS
- MikkoFinell 9y ago
  Why do you need to encrypt your connection to that site? No sensitive info sent.
  - ash 9y ago
    Just a few reasons: * To overcome government censorship and surveillance. * To stop internet providers from injecting ads and tracking scripts.
    - MikkoFinell 9y ago
      >To overcome government censorship and surveillance. But the site isn't being censored? Also https won't stop the government from knowing that you connected to those servers. I agree that we want to avoid censorship and surveillance in general, but it really doesn't seem relevant here. >To stop internet providers from injecting ads and tracking scripts. Is your ISP actually doing that to you right now? Or is that just hypothetical?
      - hobofan 9y ago
        > But the site isn't being censored? How do you know? Without https, a MITM-attack might already be in place, and you wouldn't even notice.
        MikkoFinell 9y ago
        I guess that's a fair point.
      - artpar 9y ago
        > Is your ISP actually doing that to you right now? Or is that just hypothetical? Yes there are multiple instances where my isp was injecting stuff. More frequently at public wifi spots.
andai 9y ago
When you load an article it shows only the first sentence and then Read More ... ( 19213 bytes ) Brilliant!
apostrophest 9y ago
NPR developer here. We launched some changes to the text site this morning. NPR set up a text site in late 2001. A developer reworked the text site in 2005. We have made very few changes since then. The site is a set of a few PHP scripts querying our MySQL CMS database directly with no caching. The HTML and JS were aimed at providing a decent mobile experience in 2005. That included a lot of hacks and workarounds for extremely defunct platforms. The newsroom asked us to make some improvements. The main features: - display more news stories following editorial order rather than reverse chron, - remove the obnoxious interstitial "read more" view for stories, - put the text site behind Akamai like our other web properties, - configure HTTPS on the text site (still in progress and won't be the default due to TLS overhead) It should be a lot faster and more pleasant to use. Thank you to everyone who made lots of noise about CNN's text offering. There is a small contingent of developers at NPR who love the text site to the point that they've created replacements as personal projects. They were very excited to improve it for the public!

Also, NPR has had a text only site for ages http://thin.npr.org http://thin.npr.org

by rwbt 9y ago

Also, NPR has had a text only site for ages http://thin.npr.org http://thin.npr.org

fletchowns 9y ago

It's so fast, feels like it's hosted locally

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
throw89825 9y ago
if you click Topics -> News[0] it takes 2.7 seconds. They should throw that subdomain behind https://memcached.org/ https://memcached.org/ (and not use php lol). Unrelated, seems like I can't listen to podcasts. There's an <audio> tag (which doesn't use data unless you click on play if you set preload="none" [1]), so that's an interesting choice. $ curl http://thin.npr.org/t.php?tid=1001 [...] Total wall clock time: 2.7s $ ping thin.npr.org [...] round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 76.407/78.359/86.985/2.442 ms [0] http://thin.npr.org/t.php?tid=1001 http://thin.npr.org/t.php?tid=1001 [1] https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/audio https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/au...
- Jgrubb 9y ago
  You don't put things behind Memcached. You put Memcached behind things.
  - 1123581321 9y ago
    Varnish is an in-memory cache that sits in front of a site.
    - Jgrubb 9y ago
      Correct.
- tyingq 9y ago
  "and not use php lol" PHP has warts, but I find it unlikely that it would be the reason for a 2.7 second page load.
heyoni 9y ago
Finally! I can feel like I actually have gigabit fiber!!!

sparky_ 9y ago

This is great! I've been reading NPR for years and never knew about this. Thank you.

buro9 9y ago

Shame that thin.npr.org does not have HTTPS

MikkoFinell 9y ago
Why do you need to encrypt your connection to that site? No sensitive info sent.
- ash 9y ago
  Just a few reasons: * To overcome government censorship and surveillance. * To stop internet providers from injecting ads and tracking scripts.
  - MikkoFinell 9y ago
    >To overcome government censorship and surveillance. But the site isn't being censored? Also https won't stop the government from knowing that you connected to those servers. I agree that we want to avoid censorship and surveillance in general, but it really doesn't seem relevant here. >To stop internet providers from injecting ads and tracking scripts. Is your ISP actually doing that to you right now? Or is that just hypothetical?
    - hobofan 9y ago
      > But the site isn't being censored? How do you know? Without https, a MITM-attack might already be in place, and you wouldn't even notice.
      - MikkoFinell 9y ago
        I guess that's a fair point.
    - artpar 9y ago
      > Is your ISP actually doing that to you right now? Or is that just hypothetical? Yes there are multiple instances where my isp was injecting stuff. More frequently at public wifi spots.

andai 9y ago

When you load an article it shows only the first sentence and then Read More ... ( 19213 bytes ) Brilliant!

apostrophest 9y ago

NPR developer here. We launched some changes to the text site this morning. NPR set up a text site in late 2001. A developer reworked the text site in 2005. We have made very few changes since then. The site is a set of a few PHP scripts querying our MySQL CMS database directly with no caching. The HTML and JS were aimed at providing a decent mobile experience in 2005. That included a lot of hacks and workarounds for extremely defunct platforms. The newsroom asked us to make some improvements. The main features: - display more news stories following editorial order rather than reverse chron, - remove the obnoxious interstitial "read more" view for stories, - put the text site behind Akamai like our other web properties, - configure HTTPS on the text site (still in progress and won't be the default due to TLS overhead) It should be a lot faster and more pleasant to use. Thank you to everyone who made lots of noise about CNN's text offering. There is a small contingent of developers at NPR who love the text site to the point that they've created replacements as personal projects. They were very excited to improve it for the public!