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The fact that this is 'news' or a 'trick' to some people says a lot about the current state of HN. IP addresses have integer representations by design! Are the

The fact that this is 'news' or a 'trick' to some people says a lot about the current state of HN. IP addresses have integer representations by design! Are the commenters here really so removed from actually doing work that they've never seen a database that stores IP addresses as integers? (Hint: ALL of the good ones do). That's to say nothing of the fact that there are clearly many people here who don't understand what binary is. At least it's good to know that the radical, ridiculous, Reddity mentality that's been plaguing HN as of late is coming from a clearly different group of people than those who used to comment. Looks like it's time to move on to greener pastures.

jmduke 13y ago
I haven't been on Hacker News long enough to speak definitively about the current state of HN (a bit less than two years, but I spent the first one lurking), but I would be more concerned about comments that complain about 'HN changing' (as someone who was on Reddit to hear complaints about all the Diggers... then all the 4chaners.. then all the high schoolers..) than content considered 'elementary' to smarter programmers than I. I notice that you haven't submitted any links. Is there any particular reason why? If you're not pleased with the content on the site, why don't you submit better content? (For what it's worth: this content is news for me. I never spent much time thinking about IP addresses before clicking the link and getting confused for a solid minute. I understand what binary is, though, I promise!)
- escapologybb 13y ago
  holds up hand This totally confused me for a minute until I started reading the comments, what on earth does that say about my intellect?! frets madly
wilg 13y ago
Almost all the other comments in this thread are people spreading knowledge about technology. Sure, maybe you already knew it. Maybe things were better "back in the day". People having a genuine interest in stuff like this just really doesn't seem worth bemoaning. Isn't it better to be happy that someone is learning something you're familiar with rather than being upset that they didn't already know it?
Perseids 13y ago
Even though I know that IP addresses are just 32 bit of data I find it very interesting that browser support these representations out of the box. There is no reason to and from a security point of view it is even detrimental.

jmduke 13y ago

I haven't been on Hacker News long enough to speak definitively about the current state of HN (a bit less than two years, but I spent the first one lurking), but I would be more concerned about comments that complain about 'HN changing' (as someone who was on Reddit to hear complaints about all the Diggers... then all the 4chaners.. then all the high schoolers..) than content considered 'elementary' to smarter programmers than I. I notice that you haven't submitted any links. Is there any particular reason why? If you're not pleased with the content on the site, why don't you submit better content? (For what it's worth: this content is news for me. I never spent much time thinking about IP addresses before clicking the link and getting confused for a solid minute. I understand what binary is, though, I promise!)

escapologybb 13y ago
holds up hand This totally confused me for a minute until I started reading the comments, what on earth does that say about my intellect?! frets madly

wilg 13y ago

Almost all the other comments in this thread are people spreading knowledge about technology. Sure, maybe you already knew it. Maybe things were better "back in the day". People having a genuine interest in stuff like this just really doesn't seem worth bemoaning. Isn't it better to be happy that someone is learning something you're familiar with rather than being upset that they didn't already know it?

Perseids 13y ago

Even though I know that IP addresses are just 32 bit of data I find it very interesting that browser support these representations out of the box. There is no reason to and from a security point of view it is even detrimental.