5 ms·

http://ai http://ai is an interesting case. It was there from the early days of the web, back when you could type "ai" into the mozilla url bar and it would tak

by dn3500 4y ago

http://ai http://ai is an interesting case. It was there from the early days of the web, back when you could type "ai" into the mozilla url bar and it would take you there. Today firefox "helps" you out and changes what you typed into something else because it knows better than you do what web site you want. It's run by a character named Vince Cate who moved to Anguilla to protest taxes or something. He was from the US and gave up his US citizenship. He talked the Anguilla government into letting him set up its internet infrastructure for them.

ktpsns 4y ago
You still can type "ai." (including the dot, excluding the quotation) in your browser. Works in firefox (tested in 104), however does not work in Chrome (tested in Chromium 105).
- camoufleur 4y ago
  "http://ai http://ai." works in Chrome
  - jbkkd 4y ago
    Doesn't work on Chrome on Android
    - 867-5309 4y ago
      working here. latest chrome, android 12
      - hansel_der 4y ago
        i wish ppl would stop calling anything "latest" it has a specific version. plz use it.
        867-5309 4y ago
        okay
  - epuixrk 4y ago
    well obviously, he meant without the protocol at the beginning
    - Jenk 4y ago
      scheme*
  - Chilko 4y ago
    Does not work in Edge.
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
    - ipaddr 4y ago
      Does anything?
      - lovingCranberry 4y ago
        Telemetry does.
        amid11 4y ago
        pithily said!
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- kccqzy 4y ago
  You need a slash for it to work in Chrome: "ai./" and "ai/" both work in Chrome (obviously without quotes.)
- bmicraft 4y ago
  I need a slash in firefox too, dot also just searches
exikyut 4y ago
It's quietly one of favorite things on the internet that I can reach a hacker webpage by typing in "ai/security". That's, like, better than "ai.security" or similar because it completely does away with normal TLD conventions ("civil disobedience"!). It also happens to flip the namespacing around in a way that's kinda more human ("security in the context of AI"), which is meta in its own way given the context is about humans vs machines. Very cyberpunk. (And I checked; ai.security is parked. Very amusing.)
unixpickle 4y ago
Apparently my router's built-in DNS server doesn't like the domain name `ai.` or `ai`. Switching to Google's fixes the issue for me.
brighamyoung 4y ago
I bet he has a great big house, but guess what he doesn't have? Anything to do! Boring! That's what I'm paying the extra 1.5k a month for! Fun shit! California forever and goodbye!!!
- s0rce 4y ago
  Anguilla is a tourist destination, there is obviously stuff people want to do...
  - Gud 4y ago
    Tourist destinations get old real quick though.
    - mitchdoogle 4y ago
      New York, Los Angeles, London, Tokyo, Paris, and many others are all tourist destinations and people seem to love to live there
- nibbleshifter 4y ago
not_kurt_godel 4y ago
> Today firefox "helps" you out and changes what you typed into something else because it knows better than you do what web site you want. I genuinely want to know what you think is the percentage of FF users who type "ai" who intend to go to http://ai http://ai and not search for "ai" is. Even better if you can estimate that for all possible single words that are also TLDs. And then tell me why users who might actually want the domains can't just disable search from the address bar which is a feature FF has which is exactly tailored for this use case. And then also tell me what is wrong with having to explicitly specify "http://<whatever http://<whatever TLD>" which works even when the search-from-address feature is enabled.
- ipaddr 4y ago
  The bigger question is what percentage of users would like a separate search / location field. Merging them created this problem but now that screens are bigger I think we can afford another textbox.
  - not_kurt_godel 4y ago
    Good thing that's an option that is trivial to enable under Preferences -> Search -> Search Bar. I suspect most users who are technical enough to appreciate the significance of going to http://ai http://ai are able to figure that one out easily enough.
    - jagged-chisel 4y ago
      Being technical enough, I’d type http://ai http://ai and wouldn’t for a second have thought that some time in the past, someone working on Firefox thought “hey, we could offer a second text box for searching” even though the idea Makes Sense because so much that Makes Sense has been argued against by the leaders of various projects and I’m callused against trying to understand the motivation behind changes to things that already worked before they were removed or hidden…
    - josefx 4y ago
      trivial to enable but badly maintained. When I enabled that originally it broke the search bar on the default new tab page. The default behavior is also nonsensical if you want to access anything on the local network by name.
Hendrikto 4y ago
> A former U.S. citizen, he gave up his U.S. citizenship in 1998 in protest of U.S. laws on the export of cryptography. Just to get this right. Makes him sound much more reasonable than protesting taxes.

by dn3500 4y ago

ktpsns 4y ago

You still can type "ai." (including the dot, excluding the quotation) in your browser. Works in firefox (tested in 104), however does not work in Chrome (tested in Chromium 105).

camoufleur 4y ago
"http://ai http://ai." works in Chrome
- jbkkd 4y ago
  Doesn't work on Chrome on Android
  - 867-5309 4y ago
    working here. latest chrome, android 12
    - hansel_der 4y ago
      i wish ppl would stop calling anything "latest" it has a specific version. plz use it.
      - 867-5309 4y ago
        okay
- epuixrk 4y ago
  well obviously, he meant without the protocol at the beginning
  - Jenk 4y ago
    scheme*
- Chilko 4y ago
  Does not work in Edge.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - ipaddr 4y ago
    Does anything?
    - lovingCranberry 4y ago
      Telemetry does.
      - amid11 4y ago
        pithily said!
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
kccqzy 4y ago
You need a slash for it to work in Chrome: "ai./" and "ai/" both work in Chrome (obviously without quotes.)
bmicraft 4y ago
I need a slash in firefox too, dot also just searches

exikyut 4y ago

It's quietly one of favorite things on the internet that I can reach a hacker webpage by typing in "ai/security". That's, like, better than "ai.security" or similar because it completely does away with normal TLD conventions ("civil disobedience"!). It also happens to flip the namespacing around in a way that's kinda more human ("security in the context of AI"), which is meta in its own way given the context is about humans vs machines. Very cyberpunk. (And I checked; ai.security is parked. Very amusing.)

unixpickle 4y ago

Apparently my router's built-in DNS server doesn't like the domain name `ai.` or `ai`. Switching to Google's fixes the issue for me.

brighamyoung 4y ago

I bet he has a great big house, but guess what he doesn't have? Anything to do! Boring! That's what I'm paying the extra 1.5k a month for! Fun shit! California forever and goodbye!!!

s0rce 4y ago
Anguilla is a tourist destination, there is obviously stuff people want to do...
- Gud 4y ago
  Tourist destinations get old real quick though.
  - mitchdoogle 4y ago
    New York, Los Angeles, London, Tokyo, Paris, and many others are all tourist destinations and people seem to love to live there
nibbleshifter 4y ago

not_kurt_godel 4y ago

> Today firefox "helps" you out and changes what you typed into something else because it knows better than you do what web site you want. I genuinely want to know what you think is the percentage of FF users who type "ai" who intend to go to http://ai http://ai and not search for "ai" is. Even better if you can estimate that for all possible single words that are also TLDs. And then tell me why users who might actually want the domains can't just disable search from the address bar which is a feature FF has which is exactly tailored for this use case. And then also tell me what is wrong with having to explicitly specify "http://<whatever http://<whatever TLD>" which works even when the search-from-address feature is enabled.

ipaddr 4y ago
The bigger question is what percentage of users would like a separate search / location field. Merging them created this problem but now that screens are bigger I think we can afford another textbox.
- not_kurt_godel 4y ago
  Good thing that's an option that is trivial to enable under Preferences -> Search -> Search Bar. I suspect most users who are technical enough to appreciate the significance of going to http://ai http://ai are able to figure that one out easily enough.
  - jagged-chisel 4y ago
    Being technical enough, I’d type http://ai http://ai and wouldn’t for a second have thought that some time in the past, someone working on Firefox thought “hey, we could offer a second text box for searching” even though the idea Makes Sense because so much that Makes Sense has been argued against by the leaders of various projects and I’m callused against trying to understand the motivation behind changes to things that already worked before they were removed or hidden…
  - josefx 4y ago
    trivial to enable but badly maintained. When I enabled that originally it broke the search bar on the default new tab page. The default behavior is also nonsensical if you want to access anything on the local network by name.

Hendrikto 4y ago

> A former U.S. citizen, he gave up his U.S. citizenship in 1998 in protest of U.S. laws on the export of cryptography. Just to get this right. Makes him sound much more reasonable than protesting taxes.