4 ms·

YCatalyst is HackerNews in Node.js (Coffeescript/FOSS)

18 points by jaekwon 16y ago

deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
Klonoar 16y ago
So... while this is cool and all, this isn't anything revolutionary or even 'new' that couldn't have been done in any other scripting language/framework (and, in fact, I daresay it could've probably been done faster in another language/framework). While I believe Node is pretty frickin' awesome, I don't see a point in glorifying concepts that have already been done to death. Nodes entire architecture allows so many more possibilities than just a HackerNews clone, so let's see it instead of constantly reinventing the wheel.
- jaekwon 16y ago
  I chose Node.js for no reason other than Fun. Coffeescript gives it a good spike as well. Klonoar, follow the github repo for future diversions from HN, or make a pull request and I'll see it through to the live site.
- adrianwaj 16y ago
  Any cool examples of Node stuff you'd like to mention?
  - Klonoar 16y ago
    I'll just leave this entire list here: http://nodeknockout.com/ http://nodeknockout.com/
sthatipamala 16y ago
With this invite system, you're deterring users who would otherwise make comments that showcase your real-time features.
- jaekwon 16y ago
  Ah. I'll get a test server up soon so people can test the latest github version, with open invites. Thanks for this.
- jaekwon 16y ago
  http://staging.ycatalyst.com:8080/r/C7tFJajWkeFP http://staging.ycatalyst.com:8080/r/C7tFJajWkeFP
dekz 16y ago
> crypto.createHash('md5').update(password).digest('base64') Any reason you chose md5? Props for at least salting and running it 1000 times.
- jaekwon 16y ago
  No, I just wanted a well optimized hash function. Would you suggest another?
  - dekz 16y ago
    Certainly would, although SHA1 is being phased out, it's probably still "ok" to use, but I wouldn't choose it if I wanted the project to achieve maximum longevity, I'd choose a later family of SHA, SHA2. It will be slower, but you won't end up looking like gawker. Since node just uses openssl you have quite a collection of message digest algorithms to choose from. Run an "openssl speed" on your server to get a benchmark of different algorithms. Edit: type 16 bytes 64 bytes 256 bytes 1024 bytes 8192 bytes md5 24629.04k 83750.79k 226739.03k 391874.18k 509285.72k sha1 24185.38k 75777.49k 177806.76k 263012.01k 305498.58k sha256 17504.41k 42089.29k 84845.06k 108628.53k 120801.96k sha512 13258.86k 57601.03k 101861.29k 155866.45k 188783.13k Also, you're using iterating 1000 times for all users, you can mix it up and store that with the user in mongo. (1000-1000+). You might also want to serve up your login and any pages requiring some form of authorised behaviours using https. (Prevent auth token theft and password sniffing). Also when validating user input for passwords, are you sure it's isAlphanumeric() that you want? Some users like to have non alphanumeric characters in their passwords. If it's just an attempt to stop xss/injection then I believe node-validator supports that without restricting you to alphanumeric characters only.
  - Cherad 16y ago
    You might also consider bcrypt. See: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=762708 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=762708 For a discussion on it.
    - 16y ago
dekz 16y ago
Let me be the first to say, good job. It's great to see node and coffe getting more love as they're both really fun and neat. I see you're setting up a sandbox for us HNers which is probably best to show HN something they can actually use and draw some more attention towards your project. Heres an idea for you, we all seem to love delicious and bookmarks. Why not integrate bookmarking into this project (private by default) but allow the use of 'publishing' to ycatalyst, or viewing previous discussions on already 'published' bookmarks/topics. You could then generate 'site' posts which are from hot/popular bookmarks, (I'd also try to keep who bookmarked it private by default).
- jaekwon 16y ago
  Sounds easy and useful.
AdamGibbins 16y ago
"password must be 5 to 20 characters". Why 20? Where did that number come from?
- jaekwon 16y ago
  too short? too long? i just wanted to cap it somewhere.
  - AdamGibbins 16y ago
    Too short. Why the need for a cap? Its hashed anyhow right?
    - jaekwon 16y ago
      yeah. I'll cap it at 1024 then.
chrisohara 16y ago
nice seeing my lib (validator) in use. Also, damn CoffeeScript is sexy

18 points by jaekwon 16y ago

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

So... while this is cool and all, this isn't anything revolutionary or even 'new' that couldn't have been done in any other scripting language/framework (and, in fact, I daresay it could've probably been done faster in another language/framework). While I believe Node is pretty frickin' awesome, I don't see a point in glorifying concepts that have already been done to death. Nodes entire architecture allows so many more possibilities than just a HackerNews clone, so let's see it instead of constantly reinventing the wheel.

jaekwon 16y ago
I chose Node.js for no reason other than Fun. Coffeescript gives it a good spike as well. Klonoar, follow the github repo for future diversions from HN, or make a pull request and I'll see it through to the live site.
adrianwaj 16y ago
Any cool examples of Node stuff you'd like to mention?
- Klonoar 16y ago
  I'll just leave this entire list here: http://nodeknockout.com/ http://nodeknockout.com/

sthatipamala 16y ago

With this invite system, you're deterring users who would otherwise make comments that showcase your real-time features.

jaekwon 16y ago
Ah. I'll get a test server up soon so people can test the latest github version, with open invites. Thanks for this.
jaekwon 16y ago
http://staging.ycatalyst.com:8080/r/C7tFJajWkeFP http://staging.ycatalyst.com:8080/r/C7tFJajWkeFP

dekz 16y ago

> crypto.createHash('md5').update(password).digest('base64') Any reason you chose md5? Props for at least salting and running it 1000 times.

jaekwon 16y ago
No, I just wanted a well optimized hash function. Would you suggest another?
- dekz 16y ago
  Certainly would, although SHA1 is being phased out, it's probably still "ok" to use, but I wouldn't choose it if I wanted the project to achieve maximum longevity, I'd choose a later family of SHA, SHA2. It will be slower, but you won't end up looking like gawker. Since node just uses openssl you have quite a collection of message digest algorithms to choose from. Run an "openssl speed" on your server to get a benchmark of different algorithms. Edit: type 16 bytes 64 bytes 256 bytes 1024 bytes 8192 bytes md5 24629.04k 83750.79k 226739.03k 391874.18k 509285.72k sha1 24185.38k 75777.49k 177806.76k 263012.01k 305498.58k sha256 17504.41k 42089.29k 84845.06k 108628.53k 120801.96k sha512 13258.86k 57601.03k 101861.29k 155866.45k 188783.13k Also, you're using iterating 1000 times for all users, you can mix it up and store that with the user in mongo. (1000-1000+). You might also want to serve up your login and any pages requiring some form of authorised behaviours using https. (Prevent auth token theft and password sniffing). Also when validating user input for passwords, are you sure it's isAlphanumeric() that you want? Some users like to have non alphanumeric characters in their passwords. If it's just an attempt to stop xss/injection then I believe node-validator supports that without restricting you to alphanumeric characters only.
- Cherad 16y ago
  You might also consider bcrypt. See: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=762708 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=762708 For a discussion on it.
  - 16y ago

dekz 16y ago

Let me be the first to say, good job. It's great to see node and coffe getting more love as they're both really fun and neat. I see you're setting up a sandbox for us HNers which is probably best to show HN something they can actually use and draw some more attention towards your project. Heres an idea for you, we all seem to love delicious and bookmarks. Why not integrate bookmarking into this project (private by default) but allow the use of 'publishing' to ycatalyst, or viewing previous discussions on already 'published' bookmarks/topics. You could then generate 'site' posts which are from hot/popular bookmarks, (I'd also try to keep who bookmarked it private by default).

jaekwon 16y ago
Sounds easy and useful.

AdamGibbins 16y ago

"password must be 5 to 20 characters". Why 20? Where did that number come from?

jaekwon 16y ago
too short? too long? i just wanted to cap it somewhere.
- AdamGibbins 16y ago
  Too short. Why the need for a cap? Its hashed anyhow right?
  - jaekwon 16y ago
    yeah. I'll cap it at 1024 then.

chrisohara 16y ago

nice seeing my lib (validator) in use. Also, damn CoffeeScript is sexy