5 ms·

Cool hack aside, can anybody think of an actual use case for this?

by finagle 8y ago

ddalex 8y ago
Copy/paste content to my coworkers, like paste-bin. but without server-side storing on the paste site. It's amazing.
- e12e 8y ago
  So rather than paste the text.. Paste the link, which they then open, to fetch the render-Middleware from this site, to render the text in the browser? Rather than just allowing the message app render the text in-line or as an attachement?
  - recursor 8y ago
    Hmmm. Could you not put an encryption layer into a derrivative of this for some generic PGP end to end encryption, without involving/trusting a centralised provider..?
    - e12e 8y ago
      You'd need to trust the (de) cryption code... So probably better off with cutting and pasting with gpg --armor...
mstade 8y ago
My mind immediately went to stuff like tickets. Can't say how many times I've gotten stuck having my ticket checked at a concert or on a train simply because there's no connectivity and the page is no longer in cache on my phone. If all the data is in the URI then it could work as an option for entirely static data. I'd say this is useful for almost anything that fits in a one page PDF.
- Lxr 8y ago
  How does that solve the no connectivity problem? You’d still need the site (with rendering scripts) cached.
  - jadedhacker 8y ago
    Browsers have offline capabilities that are currently massively underutilized. You can store the LZMA scripts in IndexDB perhaps?
    - mstade 8y ago
      Unfortunately that comes with a bootstrapping problem: what if the first time you hit the link is when you aren't connected? If everything is embedded in the data URI and the link is in fact the data itself then it doesn't matter.
      - jadedhacker 8y ago
        I think that's an acceptable requirement. After all, you wouldn't expect an app to work without downloading it. If instead of using lzma, gzip were used, I bet you'd be able to include some code that would unzip itself using the browser's unzip capability. I am not sure how much code that would take though.
        mstade 8y ago
        Right, for an app that makes sense but the use case I mentioned was really just pure data. A ticket is rarely more than a qr code or some other identifier, whose veracity is then checked t the point of reading. In an arena full of people it’s not uncommon for cell towers to get overloaded, or you may be roaming if overseas and don’t want to waste data, or you’re on a moving train with no on board WiFi or if it has one it might not work right. In those cases (and it seems to happen to me a lot) I would’ve preferred that the ticket I received in my email was viewable offline, even if I’d never seen it before. With a data URI, that’s possible. It’s not an entirely contrived use case I don’t think.
recursor 8y ago
It's potentially a more reliable way of saving out a web page... Or in a 2-step process, do that, then feed it to a PDF converter for sites that don't play well with printing.

Cool hack aside, can anybody think of an actual use case for this?

ddalex 8y ago

Copy/paste content to my coworkers, like paste-bin. but without server-side storing on the paste site. It's amazing.

e12e 8y ago
So rather than paste the text.. Paste the link, which they then open, to fetch the render-Middleware from this site, to render the text in the browser? Rather than just allowing the message app render the text in-line or as an attachement?
- recursor 8y ago
  Hmmm. Could you not put an encryption layer into a derrivative of this for some generic PGP end to end encryption, without involving/trusting a centralised provider..?
  - e12e 8y ago
    You'd need to trust the (de) cryption code... So probably better off with cutting and pasting with gpg --armor...

mstade 8y ago

My mind immediately went to stuff like tickets. Can't say how many times I've gotten stuck having my ticket checked at a concert or on a train simply because there's no connectivity and the page is no longer in cache on my phone. If all the data is in the URI then it could work as an option for entirely static data. I'd say this is useful for almost anything that fits in a one page PDF.

Lxr 8y ago
How does that solve the no connectivity problem? You’d still need the site (with rendering scripts) cached.
- jadedhacker 8y ago
  Browsers have offline capabilities that are currently massively underutilized. You can store the LZMA scripts in IndexDB perhaps?
  - mstade 8y ago
    Unfortunately that comes with a bootstrapping problem: what if the first time you hit the link is when you aren't connected? If everything is embedded in the data URI and the link is in fact the data itself then it doesn't matter.
    - jadedhacker 8y ago
      I think that's an acceptable requirement. After all, you wouldn't expect an app to work without downloading it. If instead of using lzma, gzip were used, I bet you'd be able to include some code that would unzip itself using the browser's unzip capability. I am not sure how much code that would take though.
      - mstade 8y ago
        Right, for an app that makes sense but the use case I mentioned was really just pure data. A ticket is rarely more than a qr code or some other identifier, whose veracity is then checked t the point of reading. In an arena full of people it’s not uncommon for cell towers to get overloaded, or you may be roaming if overseas and don’t want to waste data, or you’re on a moving train with no on board WiFi or if it has one it might not work right. In those cases (and it seems to happen to me a lot) I would’ve preferred that the ticket I received in my email was viewable offline, even if I’d never seen it before. With a data URI, that’s possible. It’s not an entirely contrived use case I don’t think.

recursor 8y ago

It's potentially a more reliable way of saving out a web page... Or in a 2-step process, do that, then feed it to a PDF converter for sites that don't play well with printing.