3 ms·
Reminds me of a similar story from my childhood. I was also quite young at the time, accessing the public library OPAC from my home computer, and noticed the UR
by Aaron2222 3y ago
Reminds me of a similar story from my childhood. I was also quite young at the time, accessing the public library OPAC from my home computer, and noticed the URL for the page ended in (I think) `.exe`. I know now that the OPAC was likely using CGI[0], but at the time I was curious, and somehow was able to download this `.exe`, Given it was a`.exe` and that it actually ran, I can't have just saved the webpage. I have a vague feeling I might have stripped the query parameters off the end of the URL, and that caused the web server to serve up the underlying `.exe` file. But whatever happened, when I ran the file, all it did was cause my printer (a parallel port one, not USB) to start printing blank pages.
[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Gateway_Interface https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Gateway_Interface
- miki123211 3y agoHafas (the system of record for train scheduling information for Deutsche Bahn and the national Polish railways) does the same thing. An example URL is[1]. Both have better consumer frontends now (although I remember Deutsche Bahn still recommending this system around 2019), but those systems ultimately get all their data from this one, as far as I'm aware. [1] http://old.rozklad-pkp.pl/bin/query.exe/pn http://old.rozklad-pkp.pl/bin/query.exe/pn?