4 ms·

We seem to be losing our playfulness. In light of that, I'm going to take some time today to do something random, just for fun, and share it with others.

kawsper 8y ago
I added this header to all of our http-responses: "X-Clacks-Overhead: GNU Terry Pratchett" Which was proposed by http://www.gnuterrypratchett.com/ http://www.gnuterrypratchett.com/ and as far as I know no one have noticed :)
- jerven 8y ago
  I noticed, laughed a lot and then got sad knowing that wit isn't there anymore.
- eesmith 8y ago
  curl -I https://billetto.co.uk https://billetto.co.uk Well done.
- zaarn 8y ago
  I added this to my two HAProxies so everything including my Mastodon instance sends out the clacks.
quanticle 8y ago
>We seem to be losing our playfulness. I think that's a good thing. The early hackers could get away with being playful because their work was, in the grand scheme of things, not actually all that important. No businesses were using their code to run payroll and inventory systems. No hospitals were using their code to make treatment decisions. No oil refineries were using their code to runs pumps and valves. However, as more and more things have become computerized, it's important that we, as a profession, recognize the increasing responsibility that has been placed upon our shoulders. It is time to put away childish things, and focus on what really matters: building fast, reliable, secure software. I'm not opposed to antirez coming up with a new playful hack to celebrate each edition of Redis. But why does it have to be part of the Redis codebase? Why does it have to be invocable with a Redis command?
- malvosenior 8y ago
  > No businesses were using their code to run payroll and inventory systems. No hospitals were using their code to make treatment decisions. No oil refineries were using their code to runs pumps and valves. I think you have this very wrong. Until personal computers went mainstream, all programming was for business (or the military, or research). It's great that a ton of businesses are benefiting for free from antirez's work (including my own) but we owe him and all the other creators/maintainers of the OSS software we use a debt of gratitude. If antirez wants whimsy in the code base, more power to him.
  - bigiain 8y ago
    I also think quanticle is wrong, but for quite different reasons. I didn't start programming as "a profession", and have zero desire to "put away childish things". Sure, I get paid (and paid well) to do some of this stuff, and accept "the increasing responsibility" while doing it at work on someone else's dime. But... I do it for a living because I enjoy doing it for fun - and as a result of that I'm good at it. I started programming in high school because I was intensely curious about how computers worked, and how other people made them do "interesting things", and how I could do similar or radically different "interesting things" myself. I still (when I'm not too burned out solving work's problems, which are "in the grand scheme of things, not actually all that important") retain that curiosity and the hubris to think "I could do that. In fact, it'd be _more_ hilarious if they'd done it differently... _I_ could do it better!" Businesses benefiting from my work, or payroll systems/hospitals/oil-refineries using any of my creativity or problem-solving is - for me - purely a side effect of the whimsy and childishness that makes me interested in and good at what I do. I realise this is a very personal point of view - and I recognise there are people out there (including some of my co workers) who pursued CompSci or other IT related degrees based purely on potential career earnings, and I don't for a minute look down on them or their motivations. But I recognise around me people - like antirez - that obviously share some of my joy and delight in the ability to "just make computers do interesting shit for the hell of it". (To be honest, I'm in one of my "burnt out by work" patches right now, and this piece by antirez has inspired me to get back to my notebook and pinboard bookmarks, to do something hardware/software related which is completely useless, apart from making me and perhaps a few friends smile...)
thanatos_dem 8y ago
For several years, Palantir's main product had, hidden deep inside of a stack of preference windows, a button simply labeled "Find Terrorist". It was a bit of an inside joke, since at the time the software was treated as a magic box that solved all your problems, and when it was still focused on government use cases. but you know who doesn't joke around? The government doesn't joke around. So yeah, as soon as it was found by a user, that button was immediately removed. It's just a shame that some contexts are deemed "too serious" for an obviously lighthearted addition with no real detrimental effects. At least some software has managed to maintain their humor, like Phabricator - https://www.phacility.com/phabricator/ https://www.phacility.com/phabricator/

kawsper 8y ago

I added this header to all of our http-responses: "X-Clacks-Overhead: GNU Terry Pratchett" Which was proposed by http://www.gnuterrypratchett.com/ http://www.gnuterrypratchett.com/ and as far as I know no one have noticed :)

jerven 8y ago
I noticed, laughed a lot and then got sad knowing that wit isn't there anymore.
eesmith 8y ago
curl -I https://billetto.co.uk https://billetto.co.uk Well done.
zaarn 8y ago
I added this to my two HAProxies so everything including my Mastodon instance sends out the clacks.

quanticle 8y ago

>We seem to be losing our playfulness. I think that's a good thing. The early hackers could get away with being playful because their work was, in the grand scheme of things, not actually all that important. No businesses were using their code to run payroll and inventory systems. No hospitals were using their code to make treatment decisions. No oil refineries were using their code to runs pumps and valves. However, as more and more things have become computerized, it's important that we, as a profession, recognize the increasing responsibility that has been placed upon our shoulders. It is time to put away childish things, and focus on what really matters: building fast, reliable, secure software. I'm not opposed to antirez coming up with a new playful hack to celebrate each edition of Redis. But why does it have to be part of the Redis codebase? Why does it have to be invocable with a Redis command?

malvosenior 8y ago
> No businesses were using their code to run payroll and inventory systems. No hospitals were using their code to make treatment decisions. No oil refineries were using their code to runs pumps and valves. I think you have this very wrong. Until personal computers went mainstream, all programming was for business (or the military, or research). It's great that a ton of businesses are benefiting for free from antirez's work (including my own) but we owe him and all the other creators/maintainers of the OSS software we use a debt of gratitude. If antirez wants whimsy in the code base, more power to him.
- bigiain 8y ago
  I also think quanticle is wrong, but for quite different reasons. I didn't start programming as "a profession", and have zero desire to "put away childish things". Sure, I get paid (and paid well) to do some of this stuff, and accept "the increasing responsibility" while doing it at work on someone else's dime. But... I do it for a living because I enjoy doing it for fun - and as a result of that I'm good at it. I started programming in high school because I was intensely curious about how computers worked, and how other people made them do "interesting things", and how I could do similar or radically different "interesting things" myself. I still (when I'm not too burned out solving work's problems, which are "in the grand scheme of things, not actually all that important") retain that curiosity and the hubris to think "I could do that. In fact, it'd be _more_ hilarious if they'd done it differently... _I_ could do it better!" Businesses benefiting from my work, or payroll systems/hospitals/oil-refineries using any of my creativity or problem-solving is - for me - purely a side effect of the whimsy and childishness that makes me interested in and good at what I do. I realise this is a very personal point of view - and I recognise there are people out there (including some of my co workers) who pursued CompSci or other IT related degrees based purely on potential career earnings, and I don't for a minute look down on them or their motivations. But I recognise around me people - like antirez - that obviously share some of my joy and delight in the ability to "just make computers do interesting shit for the hell of it". (To be honest, I'm in one of my "burnt out by work" patches right now, and this piece by antirez has inspired me to get back to my notebook and pinboard bookmarks, to do something hardware/software related which is completely useless, apart from making me and perhaps a few friends smile...)

thanatos_dem 8y ago

For several years, Palantir's main product had, hidden deep inside of a stack of preference windows, a button simply labeled "Find Terrorist". It was a bit of an inside joke, since at the time the software was treated as a magic box that solved all your problems, and when it was still focused on government use cases. but you know who doesn't joke around? The government doesn't joke around. So yeah, as soon as it was found by a user, that button was immediately removed. It's just a shame that some contexts are deemed "too serious" for an obviously lighthearted addition with no real detrimental effects. At least some software has managed to maintain their humor, like Phabricator - https://www.phacility.com/phabricator/ https://www.phacility.com/phabricator/