8 ms·

Weboob

64 points by skitout 6y ago

exolymph 6y ago
I boob, you boob, everybody boob! If you can't enjoy the boobery, you're a chump. I will not be moved on this matter.
- happytoexplain 6y ago
  Please read the thread to see the less innocuous content.
d357r0y3r 6y ago
Really unfortunate name.
- adam12 6y ago
  It's the only reason I clicked.
- joegahona 6y ago
  also the logo design spells "Weblob," which is somehow marginally better than Weboob...?
- untog 6y ago
  They have an app called “handjoob” so safe to say it’s deliberate. And the site shows all male contributors, you say?
  - formerly_proven 6y ago
    https://github.com/hroptatyr/clitoris https://github.com/hroptatyr/clitoris
    - untog 6y ago
      edgy
29athrowaway 6y ago
Could they not pick better names?
- riffic 6y ago
  could they not paint the bike shed in that color?
  - 29athrowaway 6y ago
    Do you think women would be comfortable contributing to a project called "boobsize", which is part of a larger project called "weboob"? Not to mention "QHandJoob". It's a horrible idea and if you don't see it that's not my fault. One thing is painting the bike shed red or blue. Another thing is to put a sexual graffiti on top of it. The latter is no longer bikeshedding. There's a difference.
    - riffic 6y ago
      While I agree that the name is unfortunate and problematic, the bike shed reference was intended to be a metacomment pointing out no matter what people post on HN, it is inevitable there will be a gripe about that project's name. edit: and there seem to be larger problems with the developer and the project altogether considering other comments posted here. ick, but the author has every right to be icky.
      - 29athrowaway 6y ago
        Pick a baby name: a) John b) Robert c) Dickhat Is there a name that doesn't belong here? See? This is a non-discussion. You cannot name a project "QHandJoob", what the hell is that.
        riffic 6y ago
        If a fully grown adult wants to be named "Dickhat" I don't see anything wrong with letting them have that choice, with a full understanding of its implications. Same if they want to name their sculpture, invention, magazine, or club something patently offensive. This isn't really equivalent to the name of an infant who has no choice in the matter. This is, however, the single most trivial discussion people can have about a project and it's quite a common thread here on HN.
froasty 6y ago
I'm going to engage in concern trolling about the name to preemptively beat everyone else. Let's all bike-shed about how bad the name is and how we'll never use it in our giant production data vacuums to mercilessly exploit the commons for money and prestige. Here's a pointless mention of CockroachDB and an observation that GNU Recutils has a logo of two turtles engaging in sex. Something something GIMP. Here's twenty overly emotional pleas for why we should eradicate any memory that the Internet used to be used by and for amateurs, without consideration of what Fortune 500 companies and crisis PR firms might think about it. Really bad look. Period. It's 2020, etc.
- seibelj 6y ago
  But what about Rust??
  - froasty 6y ago
    I'd just like to interject for a moment. What you're referring to as Rust, is in fact, Iron/Oxygen, or as I've recently taken to calling it, Iron plus Oxygen.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
- formerly_proven 6y ago
  MongoDB
- runawaybottle 6y ago
  You’ve entered peak meta.
- smt88 6y ago
  If you want to defend the name, defend it. Openly creating a straw man for you to dunk on is not interesting or substantive. Lots of us want to get children and relatives onto apps we enjoy, and a silly name can make that harder. On the flip side, what does this project get from names like "QHandjoob"? It's a joke that a typical 12 year old might have grown out of, and it's only a joke the first time. After that it's just a stupid name I'm embarrassed for anyone to see over my shoulder. I'm not offended, and I doubt anyone is (despite your prediction). I just don't see the point.
dleslie 6y ago
I would've called it WebWob: Web Without Browsers.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
hprotagonist 6y ago
'boob'? they don't look like simpletons, this looks fairly clever! https://www.etymonline.com/word/boob#etymonline_v_15598 https://www.etymonline.com/word/boob#etymonline_v_15598
rashkov 6y ago
Name aside, I really like the concept of liberating various websites’ functionality from HTML and the web browser platform. That feels like the dream of the old interoperable web and it aims to make life easier for blind folks which is cool if it works!
- jiofih 6y ago
  Isn’t this simply replacing HTML with the QT XML markup and C++ code instead of JavaScript? What is the liberating part?
  - twat 6y ago
    Liberate the titty!
  - toiletfuneral 6y ago
    my gut says this style of application lends itself to less abuse by trackers and surveillance tech than a general purpose browser, but i could just be naive.
  - rhn_mk1 6y ago
    If this is done half well, it will liberate the CPU cycles from tons of pointless JS. Also, probably less reliant on analytics and third parties, unless they are baked into core APIs.
  - spoondan 6y ago
    No. Look at the cookbook application (http://weboob.org/applications/qcookboob http://weboob.org/applications/qcookboob). It incorporates multiple sources of recipes behind a single, consistent, tailor-made interface. This pattern repeats in the other applications. They are not taking a single website and transforming it into a native application. They are building applications to service specific domains that use the web as a data source. They are also bringing web content into the command line. They have a large number of console applications. For example, there's a command and REPL for tracking shipments. Putting aside the misunderstanding of what this actually is, the premise of your question seems to be that "simply replacing" one technology with another can't be "liberating." I think that's wrong in general as well for the specific example of transforming a web app to a native one (though these seem to be Python, not C++). The web has constraining properties: browsers that provide rich interaction with modern web content are resource intensive; different websites have wildly different accessibility stories (and the lack of UI and terminological consistency in content is, itself, a hurdle for some people); ads, popups, and other distractions are harmful to load times, network usage, and user experience; and on and on. There's plenty of examples of transformations from one technology to another that trade out the source's constraints for the destination's.
forgotmypw77 6y ago
it,s also good to make website data easier to liberate by exporting easy to import formats like zipped txt or even ascii. i ensure that entire web forum is exportable by any user as txt in such a way that cloned forum retains all relationships and even same credentials can be used. using pgp libraries allows me compatibility with existing libraries and infrastructure, e.g. using existing ,,stable,, key to validate ownership of forum account, but also to generate user keys on the spot for in.forum use only. this may seem like a tradeoff between security and convenience, and it is. additional verifiability can be accomplished by later signing blocks of hashes with more secure signing method.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
twat 6y ago
Somebody domain jack them and put up a porno site (jk, I do not condone illegal hacking).
frizkie 6y ago
This... isn't a joke?
edward 6y ago
This package was removed from Debian. See https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Debian-AH-Archive-Removal https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Debian-A... and https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=907199 https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=907199
glenstein 6y ago
I think this is a great idea. Something about the feel of applications that have deep interaction with web-based resources but also desktop-level control and precision over their interfaces inspires a lot of nostalgia and satisfaction for me. I guess my main examples are file sharing and the first desktop RSS reader + blogging app I used. I get that those things are still around, but I think treating this as a systematic way of looking at the web and apps may help to recapture something that I think has been lost from user experience when everything moved to the web and phones.
p_l 6y ago
It would have been funny, except unfortunately the authors do go the distance to be misogynist, racist pricks: https://twitter.com/nokusu/status/1034395646759976960 https://twitter.com/nokusu/status/1034395646759976960 https://github.com/laurentb/weboob/blob/efda09b21aa121db2268f28af79eedd88a66b226/modules/aum/module.py#L178 https://github.com/laurentb/weboob/blob/efda09b21aa121db2268... https://www.github.com/laurentb/weboob/tree/0ac4885ad8c2127465840271676c911afd15918a/weboob%2Fbackends%2Faum%2Fpages%2Fsearch.py https://www.github.com/laurentb/weboob/tree/0ac4885ad8c21274... This is why we can't have nice things. I know it's old commits that got deleted now, but it makes me seriously doubt the devs.
- cheez 6y ago
  I read the code and the code context. I didn't see anything about dating or women. Just the word slut. What have I missed? I wonder if people realize that there is no requirement for them to read offending words.
  - p_l 6y ago
    Then you didn't really read the context, because the context is a module for interacting with a french (but also internationally present) online dating site. It literally states so in big fat capital letters in the class definition.
    - cheez 6y ago
      Yes... And? Men and women are on the site.
      - polote 6y ago
        the website is "adopt a guy"
        cheez 6y ago
        I'm confused.
fab13n 6y ago
with a "Jerome Kerviel" logo openly mimicking that of Société Générale, at least parts of the site or of the contributors are here as a joke.
vortico 6y ago
I love command-line applications for interacting with web services! They allow me to scrape things off websites that would be difficult with navigating the HTML DOM or learning the service's specific JSON API. For example, `youtube-dl` is a fantastic tool for downloading videos from almost every video hosting site such as YouTube. I've always wanted a tool that will scrape article text (either plaintext or converted to Markdown) from news websites. I don't see it on http://weboob.org/applications/ http://weboob.org/applications/, but I think it would be a nice project addition. Sometimes I just want to read or download a news article without adapting to each specific journal's page layout and dealing with ads. Firefox's Reader View does this pretty well, but a command-line version would be more useful to me. It could be implemented by writing a heuristic for scraping arbitrary news websites, and several hand-written parsers for scraping popular ones. Cookboob (http://weboob.org/applications/cookboob http://weboob.org/applications/cookboob) is pretty close to this idea.
Octplane 6y ago
The then young guys who created this project managed however to pivot and did open banking before it was something. Although the name is probably an average choice, they managed to push their tech inside banks anyway.

Weboob

64 points by skitout 6y ago

exolymph 6y ago

I boob, you boob, everybody boob! If you can't enjoy the boobery, you're a chump. I will not be moved on this matter.

happytoexplain 6y ago
Please read the thread to see the less innocuous content.

d357r0y3r 6y ago

Really unfortunate name.

adam12 6y ago
It's the only reason I clicked.
joegahona 6y ago
also the logo design spells "Weblob," which is somehow marginally better than Weboob...?
untog 6y ago
They have an app called “handjoob” so safe to say it’s deliberate. And the site shows all male contributors, you say?
- formerly_proven 6y ago
  https://github.com/hroptatyr/clitoris https://github.com/hroptatyr/clitoris
  - untog 6y ago
    edgy

29athrowaway 6y ago

Could they not pick better names?

riffic 6y ago
could they not paint the bike shed in that color?
- 29athrowaway 6y ago
  Do you think women would be comfortable contributing to a project called "boobsize", which is part of a larger project called "weboob"? Not to mention "QHandJoob". It's a horrible idea and if you don't see it that's not my fault. One thing is painting the bike shed red or blue. Another thing is to put a sexual graffiti on top of it. The latter is no longer bikeshedding. There's a difference.
  - riffic 6y ago
    While I agree that the name is unfortunate and problematic, the bike shed reference was intended to be a metacomment pointing out no matter what people post on HN, it is inevitable there will be a gripe about that project's name. edit: and there seem to be larger problems with the developer and the project altogether considering other comments posted here. ick, but the author has every right to be icky.
    - 29athrowaway 6y ago
      Pick a baby name: a) John b) Robert c) Dickhat Is there a name that doesn't belong here? See? This is a non-discussion. You cannot name a project "QHandJoob", what the hell is that.
      - riffic 6y ago
        If a fully grown adult wants to be named "Dickhat" I don't see anything wrong with letting them have that choice, with a full understanding of its implications. Same if they want to name their sculpture, invention, magazine, or club something patently offensive. This isn't really equivalent to the name of an infant who has no choice in the matter. This is, however, the single most trivial discussion people can have about a project and it's quite a common thread here on HN.

froasty 6y ago

I'm going to engage in concern trolling about the name to preemptively beat everyone else. Let's all bike-shed about how bad the name is and how we'll never use it in our giant production data vacuums to mercilessly exploit the commons for money and prestige. Here's a pointless mention of CockroachDB and an observation that GNU Recutils has a logo of two turtles engaging in sex. Something something GIMP. Here's twenty overly emotional pleas for why we should eradicate any memory that the Internet used to be used by and for amateurs, without consideration of what Fortune 500 companies and crisis PR firms might think about it. Really bad look. Period. It's 2020, etc.

seibelj 6y ago
But what about Rust??
- froasty 6y ago
  I'd just like to interject for a moment. What you're referring to as Rust, is in fact, Iron/Oxygen, or as I've recently taken to calling it, Iron plus Oxygen.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
formerly_proven 6y ago
MongoDB
runawaybottle 6y ago
You’ve entered peak meta.
smt88 6y ago
If you want to defend the name, defend it. Openly creating a straw man for you to dunk on is not interesting or substantive. Lots of us want to get children and relatives onto apps we enjoy, and a silly name can make that harder. On the flip side, what does this project get from names like "QHandjoob"? It's a joke that a typical 12 year old might have grown out of, and it's only a joke the first time. After that it's just a stupid name I'm embarrassed for anyone to see over my shoulder. I'm not offended, and I doubt anyone is (despite your prediction). I just don't see the point.

dleslie 6y ago

I would've called it WebWob: Web Without Browsers.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

hprotagonist 6y ago

'boob'? they don't look like simpletons, this looks fairly clever! https://www.etymonline.com/word/boob#etymonline_v_15598 https://www.etymonline.com/word/boob#etymonline_v_15598

rashkov 6y ago

Name aside, I really like the concept of liberating various websites’ functionality from HTML and the web browser platform. That feels like the dream of the old interoperable web and it aims to make life easier for blind folks which is cool if it works!

jiofih 6y ago
Isn’t this simply replacing HTML with the QT XML markup and C++ code instead of JavaScript? What is the liberating part?
- twat 6y ago
  Liberate the titty!
- toiletfuneral 6y ago
  my gut says this style of application lends itself to less abuse by trackers and surveillance tech than a general purpose browser, but i could just be naive.
- rhn_mk1 6y ago
  If this is done half well, it will liberate the CPU cycles from tons of pointless JS. Also, probably less reliant on analytics and third parties, unless they are baked into core APIs.
- spoondan 6y ago
  No. Look at the cookbook application (http://weboob.org/applications/qcookboob http://weboob.org/applications/qcookboob). It incorporates multiple sources of recipes behind a single, consistent, tailor-made interface. This pattern repeats in the other applications. They are not taking a single website and transforming it into a native application. They are building applications to service specific domains that use the web as a data source. They are also bringing web content into the command line. They have a large number of console applications. For example, there's a command and REPL for tracking shipments. Putting aside the misunderstanding of what this actually is, the premise of your question seems to be that "simply replacing" one technology with another can't be "liberating." I think that's wrong in general as well for the specific example of transforming a web app to a native one (though these seem to be Python, not C++). The web has constraining properties: browsers that provide rich interaction with modern web content are resource intensive; different websites have wildly different accessibility stories (and the lack of UI and terminological consistency in content is, itself, a hurdle for some people); ads, popups, and other distractions are harmful to load times, network usage, and user experience; and on and on. There's plenty of examples of transformations from one technology to another that trade out the source's constraints for the destination's.

forgotmypw77 6y ago

it,s also good to make website data easier to liberate by exporting easy to import formats like zipped txt or even ascii. i ensure that entire web forum is exportable by any user as txt in such a way that cloned forum retains all relationships and even same credentials can be used. using pgp libraries allows me compatibility with existing libraries and infrastructure, e.g. using existing ,,stable,, key to validate ownership of forum account, but also to generate user keys on the spot for in.forum use only. this may seem like a tradeoff between security and convenience, and it is. additional verifiability can be accomplished by later signing blocks of hashes with more secure signing method.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

twat 6y ago

Somebody domain jack them and put up a porno site (jk, I do not condone illegal hacking).

frizkie 6y ago

This... isn't a joke?

edward 6y ago

This package was removed from Debian. See https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Debian-AH-Archive-Removal https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Debian-A... and https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=907199 https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=907199

glenstein 6y ago

I think this is a great idea. Something about the feel of applications that have deep interaction with web-based resources but also desktop-level control and precision over their interfaces inspires a lot of nostalgia and satisfaction for me. I guess my main examples are file sharing and the first desktop RSS reader + blogging app I used. I get that those things are still around, but I think treating this as a systematic way of looking at the web and apps may help to recapture something that I think has been lost from user experience when everything moved to the web and phones.

p_l 6y ago

It would have been funny, except unfortunately the authors do go the distance to be misogynist, racist pricks: https://twitter.com/nokusu/status/1034395646759976960 https://twitter.com/nokusu/status/1034395646759976960 https://github.com/laurentb/weboob/blob/efda09b21aa121db2268f28af79eedd88a66b226/modules/aum/module.py#L178 https://github.com/laurentb/weboob/blob/efda09b21aa121db2268... https://www.github.com/laurentb/weboob/tree/0ac4885ad8c2127465840271676c911afd15918a/weboob%2Fbackends%2Faum%2Fpages%2Fsearch.py https://www.github.com/laurentb/weboob/tree/0ac4885ad8c21274... This is why we can't have nice things. I know it's old commits that got deleted now, but it makes me seriously doubt the devs.

cheez 6y ago
I read the code and the code context. I didn't see anything about dating or women. Just the word slut. What have I missed? I wonder if people realize that there is no requirement for them to read offending words.
- p_l 6y ago
  Then you didn't really read the context, because the context is a module for interacting with a french (but also internationally present) online dating site. It literally states so in big fat capital letters in the class definition.
  - cheez 6y ago
    Yes... And? Men and women are on the site.
    - polote 6y ago
      the website is "adopt a guy"
      - cheez 6y ago
        I'm confused.

fab13n 6y ago

with a "Jerome Kerviel" logo openly mimicking that of Société Générale, at least parts of the site or of the contributors are here as a joke.

vortico 6y ago

I love command-line applications for interacting with web services! They allow me to scrape things off websites that would be difficult with navigating the HTML DOM or learning the service's specific JSON API. For example, `youtube-dl` is a fantastic tool for downloading videos from almost every video hosting site such as YouTube. I've always wanted a tool that will scrape article text (either plaintext or converted to Markdown) from news websites. I don't see it on http://weboob.org/applications/ http://weboob.org/applications/, but I think it would be a nice project addition. Sometimes I just want to read or download a news article without adapting to each specific journal's page layout and dealing with ads. Firefox's Reader View does this pretty well, but a command-line version would be more useful to me. It could be implemented by writing a heuristic for scraping arbitrary news websites, and several hand-written parsers for scraping popular ones. Cookboob (http://weboob.org/applications/cookboob http://weboob.org/applications/cookboob) is pretty close to this idea.

Octplane 6y ago

The then young guys who created this project managed however to pivot and did open banking before it was something. Although the name is probably an average choice, they managed to push their tech inside banks anyway.