5 ms·

Not quite the same, but I remember sending emails via telnet. I showed that to a younger dev who was somewhat blown away by the fact it wasn't via some REST AP

Not quite the same, but I remember sending emails via telnet. I showed that to a younger dev who was somewhat blown away by the fact it wasn't via some REST API.

hotpotamus 3y ago
Yes, I actually remember another tech showing me how to type "get / http(whatever)" into telnet to check a browser and that is when a lot of things clicked into place. Basically it was the realization that computers are just sending text back and forth at blindingly fast speeds. Obviously I had some sense of what was going on before, but that was the demo that did it, and I had to learn it on the job because no one at school ever did that, which I find sort of backwards - school should be where you play with that sort of thing, but I suppose we all learn differently. The email telnet thing was also a good learning experience. Gmail's servers are fun because you can see the designer's cute messages; if you forget your EHLO, they'll throw an error (or at least they did years ago) that it's polite to say hello first.
user3939382 3y ago
HELO
- Winsaucerer 3y ago
  EHLO
mathgeek 3y ago
When I was at Fog Creek, we still had that as an interview question (with googling allowed). It was a good judge of how most folks approached something they used but didn’t necessarily understand. If the applicant already knew how to do it, that was a different signal as well.
- sillysaurusx 3y ago
  Think ChatGPT would be allowed nowadays? It’d be my source for something so esoteric. I haven’t bothered to learn mail protocols because any message you send will be marked as spam unless it’s from a major provider.
  - raddan 3y ago
    > any message you send will be marked as spam This is not true. I run a mail server for myself and some friends. It started as an old desktop running under the desk at a university, transitioned to the back corner of a server room when I was working as a network engineer, and now it runs on a Raspberry Pi in a closet of my house. I had to pay extra to get a static IP at home, but everything has been off the shelf and DIY. My current Raspberry Pi has been running for nearly ten years, with only one interruption (the SD card failed). The idea that you can’t run your own mail server is a myth, and I think more people should do it. It is not hard, and you will learn a ton. (I used to run mail for a large corporation, so yeah, I know a lot. But I learned how to do it by running a mail server out of my dorm room.)
    - sillysaurusx 3y ago
      Happy to hear that; thanks for correcting me. I was going off of what other people said, which I should have mentioned. It’s nice to know that it’s still possible to run a mail server.
  - mathgeek 3y ago
    No idea, but if it was available back then, we’d have been looking for whether you are critical about what it tells you and how you verified it was correct. That was a main idea behind the interview.

Not quite the same, but I remember sending emails via telnet. I showed that to a younger dev who was somewhat blown away by the fact it wasn't via some REST API.

hotpotamus 3y ago

Yes, I actually remember another tech showing me how to type "get / http(whatever)" into telnet to check a browser and that is when a lot of things clicked into place. Basically it was the realization that computers are just sending text back and forth at blindingly fast speeds. Obviously I had some sense of what was going on before, but that was the demo that did it, and I had to learn it on the job because no one at school ever did that, which I find sort of backwards - school should be where you play with that sort of thing, but I suppose we all learn differently. The email telnet thing was also a good learning experience. Gmail's servers are fun because you can see the designer's cute messages; if you forget your EHLO, they'll throw an error (or at least they did years ago) that it's polite to say hello first.

user3939382 3y ago

HELO

Winsaucerer 3y ago
EHLO

mathgeek 3y ago

When I was at Fog Creek, we still had that as an interview question (with googling allowed). It was a good judge of how most folks approached something they used but didn’t necessarily understand. If the applicant already knew how to do it, that was a different signal as well.

sillysaurusx 3y ago
Think ChatGPT would be allowed nowadays? It’d be my source for something so esoteric. I haven’t bothered to learn mail protocols because any message you send will be marked as spam unless it’s from a major provider.
- raddan 3y ago
  > any message you send will be marked as spam This is not true. I run a mail server for myself and some friends. It started as an old desktop running under the desk at a university, transitioned to the back corner of a server room when I was working as a network engineer, and now it runs on a Raspberry Pi in a closet of my house. I had to pay extra to get a static IP at home, but everything has been off the shelf and DIY. My current Raspberry Pi has been running for nearly ten years, with only one interruption (the SD card failed). The idea that you can’t run your own mail server is a myth, and I think more people should do it. It is not hard, and you will learn a ton. (I used to run mail for a large corporation, so yeah, I know a lot. But I learned how to do it by running a mail server out of my dorm room.)
  - sillysaurusx 3y ago
    Happy to hear that; thanks for correcting me. I was going off of what other people said, which I should have mentioned. It’s nice to know that it’s still possible to run a mail server.
- mathgeek 3y ago
  No idea, but if it was available back then, we’d have been looking for whether you are critical about what it tells you and how you verified it was correct. That was a main idea behind the interview.