5 ms·

I have a few qualms with this API: 1. For a Linux user, you can already build such a system yourself quite trivially by getting an FTP account, mounting it loc

I have a few qualms with this API: 1. For a Linux user, you can already build such a system yourself quite trivially by getting an FTP account, mounting it locally with curlftpfs, using SVN or CVS on the mounted filesystem, and copying all the Owen Wilson "Wow" audio (.ogg) files. 2. It doesn't actually replace a USB drive full of Owen Wilson "Wow" clips. Most people I know e-mail "Wow"s to themselves or host them somewhere online to be able to listen to them, but they still carry a USB drive in case there are connectivity problems. This does not solve the connectivity issue. 3. It does not seem very "viral" or income-generating. I know this is premature at this point, but without charging users for the service, is it reasonable to expect to make money off of this?

bertman 5y ago
I read this twice just to be sure. Well done :)
mehulkar 5y ago
art
charcircuit 5y ago
1. This API is convenient since it already exists and you don't have to find all of the clips yourself. 2. This API will likely be used by websites / bots hosted in some data center and not on your local machine. Also it would be possible to cache the video / audio locally. 3. I agree that as just an API it's not really something that can go viral. Something built on top of it could be. I also agree that it would be hard to generate income since most users probably only want to use it for a short amount of time as a joke. I think it is intended to just be a fun API that others can use.
- mikeyjk 5y ago
  You are responding to a satirical comment, riffing on the 'hacker news famous' comment that was criticising Dropbox during its infancy.
  - anttiharju 5y ago
    https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224
  - szundi 5y ago
    Slow progress of hacker news turning into 9gag
    - willmw101 5y ago
      Or developing a sense of humour. Going by your comment apparently there are still some roadblocks on that journey.
    - progre 5y ago
      I don't see how that would happen. This forum is paged text only. 9gag is images and infinite scroll. Joke subissions on the HN frontpage almost always has some intresting merit other than the joke.
    - FractalHQ 5y ago
      I find the humor quite refreshing!
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
oxalorg 5y ago
1. re: the first part, many people want something plug and play. and even if they were plug and play, the problem is that the user experience (on windows at least) with online drives generally sucks. windows for sure doesn't hide latency well (CIFS is bad, SIMBA etc. are worse), and most apps are written as if the disk was local, and assume, for example, accessing a file only takes a few ms. if the server is 80ms away, and you do 2 "wow" accesses per second (e.g. the open file common dialog listing a directory and poking files for various attributes or icons) serially, suddenly your UI locks up for _seconds_ (joel spolsky summarizes this well in his article on leaky abstractions.) ditto saving any file; how can you stay updated on the ever growing wow library? sure for some random memes of a few hundred k it's fine, but doing work on large repertoire of Owen Wilson "WOW"s on an online drive feels like walking around with cinder blocks tied to your feet. anyway, the point of that rant was that WOW API uses an _online_ hosted version which resolves within 20ms, much faster than using the mouse to find files in an online mounted drive, which is an important difference :) 2. true, if you're both not at your computer and on another computer without net access, this won't replace a usb drive :) but the case i'm worried about is being, for example, on a server you own, and the wow api will let you get the most recent version of your wows at the time, and will work on any scripts and crons you write (without you having to physically copy anything or really do anything to your server rack.) 3. there are some unannounced viral parts i didn't get to show in there :) it'll be a freemium model. up to x gb free, tiered plans above that.
carlmr 5y ago
Wow
andyjohnson0 5y ago
That points that you make are sound, and for a prototype or MVP you can certainly get started more quickly with a usb drive or scriptable ftp site. But my experience of integrating Owen Wilson wow effects into a wide variety of applications over many years is that you inevitably hit a point where there are things you can't do unless you have access to a good REST API. Ultimately, if your app needs Owen Wilson wows then it's best to architect it to use an API from the start.
ajcoll5 5y ago
I’d just like to interject for a moment. What you’re refering to as Linux, is in fact, GNU/Linux, or as I’ve recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux. Linux is not an operating system unto itself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning GNU system made useful by the GNU corelibs, shell utilities and vital system components comprising a full OS as defined by POSIX. Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU system every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of GNU which is widely used today is often called Linux, and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the GNU system, developed by the GNU Project. There really is a Linux, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of the system they use. Linux is the kernel: the program in the system that allocates the machine’s resources to the other programs that you run. The kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete operating system. Linux is normally used in combination with the GNU operating system: the whole system is basically GNU with Linux added, or GNU/Linux. All the so-called Linux distributions are really distributions of GNU/Linux!

bertman 5y ago

I read this twice just to be sure. Well done :)

mehulkar 5y ago

art

charcircuit 5y ago

1. This API is convenient since it already exists and you don't have to find all of the clips yourself. 2. This API will likely be used by websites / bots hosted in some data center and not on your local machine. Also it would be possible to cache the video / audio locally. 3. I agree that as just an API it's not really something that can go viral. Something built on top of it could be. I also agree that it would be hard to generate income since most users probably only want to use it for a short amount of time as a joke. I think it is intended to just be a fun API that others can use.

mikeyjk 5y ago
You are responding to a satirical comment, riffing on the 'hacker news famous' comment that was criticising Dropbox during its infancy.
- anttiharju 5y ago
  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224
- szundi 5y ago
  Slow progress of hacker news turning into 9gag
  - willmw101 5y ago
    Or developing a sense of humour. Going by your comment apparently there are still some roadblocks on that journey.
  - progre 5y ago
    I don't see how that would happen. This forum is paged text only. 9gag is images and infinite scroll. Joke subissions on the HN frontpage almost always has some intresting merit other than the joke.
  - FractalHQ 5y ago
    I find the humor quite refreshing!

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

oxalorg 5y ago

1. re: the first part, many people want something plug and play. and even if they were plug and play, the problem is that the user experience (on windows at least) with online drives generally sucks. windows for sure doesn't hide latency well (CIFS is bad, SIMBA etc. are worse), and most apps are written as if the disk was local, and assume, for example, accessing a file only takes a few ms. if the server is 80ms away, and you do 2 "wow" accesses per second (e.g. the open file common dialog listing a directory and poking files for various attributes or icons) serially, suddenly your UI locks up for _seconds_ (joel spolsky summarizes this well in his article on leaky abstractions.) ditto saving any file; how can you stay updated on the ever growing wow library? sure for some random memes of a few hundred k it's fine, but doing work on large repertoire of Owen Wilson "WOW"s on an online drive feels like walking around with cinder blocks tied to your feet. anyway, the point of that rant was that WOW API uses an _online_ hosted version which resolves within 20ms, much faster than using the mouse to find files in an online mounted drive, which is an important difference :) 2. true, if you're both not at your computer and on another computer without net access, this won't replace a usb drive :) but the case i'm worried about is being, for example, on a server you own, and the wow api will let you get the most recent version of your wows at the time, and will work on any scripts and crons you write (without you having to physically copy anything or really do anything to your server rack.) 3. there are some unannounced viral parts i didn't get to show in there :) it'll be a freemium model. up to x gb free, tiered plans above that.

carlmr 5y ago

Wow

andyjohnson0 5y ago

That points that you make are sound, and for a prototype or MVP you can certainly get started more quickly with a usb drive or scriptable ftp site. But my experience of integrating Owen Wilson wow effects into a wide variety of applications over many years is that you inevitably hit a point where there are things you can't do unless you have access to a good REST API. Ultimately, if your app needs Owen Wilson wows then it's best to architect it to use an API from the start.

ajcoll5 5y ago

I’d just like to interject for a moment. What you’re refering to as Linux, is in fact, GNU/Linux, or as I’ve recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux. Linux is not an operating system unto itself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning GNU system made useful by the GNU corelibs, shell utilities and vital system components comprising a full OS as defined by POSIX. Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU system every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of GNU which is widely used today is often called Linux, and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the GNU system, developed by the GNU Project. There really is a Linux, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of the system they use. Linux is the kernel: the program in the system that allocates the machine’s resources to the other programs that you run. The kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete operating system. Linux is normally used in combination with the GNU operating system: the whole system is basically GNU with Linux added, or GNU/Linux. All the so-called Linux distributions are really distributions of GNU/Linux!