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The Architecture of IMGZ
- zaptheimpaler 6y agoHave you considered using machine learning? Transformer stack LSTM network??
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- StavrosK 6y agoI did try a thirty-layer Wasserstein generative adversarial network and convolutional neural network, but it committed suicide.
- rob74 6y agoI wondered all along if this was a parody, but I had to read it to the very end to be sure! You never know with articles like this these days...
- StavrosK 6y agoDon't let the fact that the service exists and works fool you, I just take my parody seriously.
- EvanAnderson 6y agoThe architecture diagram is a gas! I love everything about this.
- macjohnmcc 6y agoWorth a visit for the FAQ alone.
- StavrosK 6y agoThanks, have a free IMGZ trial on me for that comment.
- theandrewbailey 6y agoThe "Money" page gave me a few chuckles. I love how the last tier overflows the card, and in my case, caused horizontal scrolling. I do not expect a fix for that, because "Still no support".
- StavrosK 6y agoHahah I love it when people get the subtle jokes.
- kgwgk 6y agoI love that it's two cents short of one million!
- StavrosK 6y agoI am not a greedy man.
- macjohnmcc 6y agoWhen is your Netflix special?
- StavrosK 6y agoWhen Netflix agrees to pay me $999.999,98. I don't care how I make it, I just want to pay off the rest of that million I owe.
- robocat 6y agoThe terms are excellent: https://imgz.org/help/terms/ https://imgz.org/help/terms/ And the FAQ link for the lazy: https://imgz.org/help/faq/ https://imgz.org/help/faq/ And the money link too: https://imgz.org/money/ https://imgz.org/money/ And a quote from elsewhere “I am very happy to report that http://IMGZ.ORG http://IMGZ.ORG, the best image serving host, has had the mythical "nine fives" availability ever since its launch.”
- StavrosK 6y agoHey everyone, I run the best image host in the world, IMGZ, and wrote this article. I can answer questions and comment on our journey. I can only describe it in two words: In
- StavrosK 6y agocredible
- perrohunter 6y agoHow do you decide which resolutions the thumbnails no one is ever going to request will be?
- StavrosK 6y agoI only have one right now, 512px. 512px ought to be enough for anybody: https://gitlab.com/stavros/imgz/-/blob/master/main/models.py#L305 https://gitlab.com/stavros/imgz/-/blob/master/main/models.py...
- rndgermandude 6y agoI love how inefficient your strip_exif is. I'd expected a well-engineered LibJpegAsAService presented as a serverless AWD Lambda at the very least :D Tho I have to admit that running magick outside of a sandbox is a gutsy move.
- StavrosK 6y agosandbox whats that
- rndgermandude 6y agoIt's the thing standing between you and the next magick CVE :P
- 6y ago
- StavrosK 6y agoIf the site gets hugged to death I will be forever shamed.
- ebg13 6y agoThere's a broken image on the page. https://i.imgur.com/xwSUXHz.png https://i.imgur.com/xwSUXHz.png
- StavrosK 6y agoHow is this possible. Maybe because it's webp? EDIT: Try now? I've changed it to a JPG and will never use new technology again.
- wooptoo 6y agoI love it. Imgur is a disgrace. We need micro-payments. Put in your credit card pay 1 cent / image / mo.
- StavrosK 6y agoThat is not a bad idea :thinking emoji:
- cxr 6y agoBad news: in order for this to pass the threshold and be considered a real Valley-class SaaS, it's required to eventually institute a pricing plan of $4–9/mo for its introductory paid tier and force you to choose between using either that or sticking to the freerider option. You want pricing centered around resource use? What even is that?
- StavrosK 6y agoReal Valley-class SaaSes have investors pay for users' free unlimited tiers, what even is paying for a service you use
- scns 6y agoThank you Stavros. I had a big smile on my face when i was finished reading.
- als0 6y agoDoes anyone know a tool that can make architecture diagrams similar to the one in this article?
- StavrosK 6y agoYes: https://www.cloudcraft.co/ https://www.cloudcraft.co/ Does it look familiar? It's because stealing other people's stuff and putting text on them is the only thing I'm good at.
- CyberRabbi 6y agoHey stavros to grow the service you should make the first N images free, and watermark them for free advertising
- StavrosK 6y agoThat's a good idea but I think people hate watermarks, and watermarks aren't crazy about people either. Plus it only works if people use the service!
- CyberRabbi 6y agoGood luck with everything my brother
- StavrosK 6y agoAnd to you as well!
- Donckele 6y ago“Just make sure you never succeed.” Dude, stop writing crap software (i remember that thing you did once where you pressed a button and shortly after had a kebab in your mouth) and write a novel instead. I think you would be a great short story SF author. No, scrub that, trashy romantic stories - the people love it and you’ve got the style.
- StavrosK 6y agoIt was a gyros damn you! My trashy romantic story would quickly devolve into "he kissed her passionately, like another man she had known that also kissed very passionately, like this man".
- NKosmatos 6y agoHehe, nice one Stavros ;-) If this catches on and you need a moderator for deleting all the nud...ehm... filtering illegal content let me know.
- TimLeland 6y agoThis is amazing :) "At IMGZ, we're passionate about two things: Serving images, and speaking about ourself in the plural so it doesn't look like it's the one-man sideproject it is, and we don't even really care about serving images that much. "
- StavrosK 6y agoWe are glad you liked this sentence.
- PikachuEXE 6y agoI found that I like the architecture diagram more. I thought it was a real deal when watching the thumbnail and when I zoom in... It IS the real deal!
- bquest2 6y agoI'm a fan of simplicity, but it looks like you're aiming for 99% reliability.
- victorbreder 6y agoQuick question StavrosK: I see on this page here https://imgz.org/i9hxfgRu/ https://imgz.org/i9hxfgRu/ that you have a counter "Viewed 403 times". How are you able to track that behind a CDN? Won't this count how many times the CDN (instead of individual users) have hit the server? Thanks!
- crazygringo 6y agoThis is the most I've smiled reading anything on HN in a long time. The architecture diagram alone is just a gem! Kudos. :)
- fraktl 6y agoI sent this to every person I know and that I appreciate. Both of them. I couldn't stop laughing, I miss stuff like this. Stavros - you are a god among mortal men, thank you for this :)
- StavrosK 6y agoAnd you are my goddess.
- pradn 6y agoSuch is the lifecycle of an image host. People want simple, free image hosts. So, the demand is always there. And every new simple, free image host eventually has to make money, so it becomes an ad-ridden mess. Imgur was once super simple and became the de-facto image host for Reddit overnight. It's competition back then was Imagebucket and the like. Now, it IS Imagebucket. And so we have a new challenger. (Well, Reddit has it's own image hosting - sometimes! It's limited to some clients and some subreddits, at the discretion of the mods I believe.)
- StavrosK 6y ago(I actually got fed up that I couldn't easily upload an image to Imgur from the command line and hotlink it, so I made IMGZ, then I figured others might want to use it and made a user system; I don't really mean it as a contender, though I'd be very happy if it got lots of satisfied users)
- InvOfSmallC 6y agoLook Ma No SEO ahahahah
- codpiece 6y ago"Already have an account? No you don't." Beautiful. You made me laugh.
- StavrosK 6y agoOne thing I enjoy about these things is that I completely forget what I wrote, and I go back months later and find some bits funny. I just laughed at the pricing page saying: NO ONE CAN OWN IMGZ IT IS MINE
- Erwin 6y agoIs this allowed on the free tier? https://www.cloudflare.com/terms/ https://www.cloudflare.com/terms/ 2.8 says: "Use of the Services for serving video or a disproportionate percentage of pictures, audio files, or other non-HTML content is prohibited, unless purchased separately as part of a Paid Service or expressly allowed under our Supplemental Terms for a specific Service. "
- stavros 6y agoIt depends on what "disproportionate" means, I guess. I'm assuming "five" is still okay.
- posharma 6y agoI created a trial account and went on the account page. Smiled on reading this under the section "Delete your account": You think I'm going to try to dissuade you? I don't even want you here!. Hahaha
- dano 6y ago> Instead, we stored the images in a small Postgres database (yes, the actual image data itself), with a small Django app handling the business logic. Sexy. Funny stuff. Pragmatic, okay... sexy.
- girvo 6y agoWhat do you feed your Correspondence Monkey? Was it ethically sourced? These are important questions
- StavrosK 6y agoThe Correspondence Monkey is on a strict diet until he types out the complete works of Shakespeare. He's done with Hamlet but is having some problems with Othello.
- hlieberman 6y ago"Why are you so angry? I'm running a fucking image sharing service. Wouldn't you be angry?" Gold. Take my money.
- StavrosK 6y agoGive it