_why's site is updated

by feedward • 13 years ago

391 134 13 years ago

NathanKP2• 13 years ago

Does anyone here know the tool or technique to convert the printer format on his website to human readable format on screen?

Edit:

So far I've discovered I can go to http://whytheluckystiff.net/SPOOL/TRUMPETS for example to download a file. Trying to figure out how to read the format at the moment.

Edit #2:

Looks like it is PCL format. I'm trying to find a decent Mac OS X program for converting PCL to image.

Edit #3:

Managed to generate this: http://i.imgur.com/AL9mSLr.jpg The quality is horrible though. I see now that some other people have already linked rendered versions in high quality, though.

It was fun trying to figure it out though. :)

abbot2• 13 years ago

Looks much like printer escape sequences.

cremno• 13 years ago

GhostPCL: http://www.ghostscript.com/download/gpcldnld.html

srl• 13 years ago

It's HP-PCL. I tried using http://www.maths.usyd.edu.au/u/psz/ps/pcl2ps, but all I get is a rectangle with the top edge missing.

itafroma4• 13 years ago

On OS X (Mountain Lion), I used PCL to PDF[1] and got the same output that gabrielgironda got[2].

[1] http://www.columbia.edu/~em36/pcltopdf.html

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5540904

NathanKP2• 13 years ago

Thanks for the link. I'll try it out.

danielweber• 13 years ago

> Public Print Queue SPOOL/DESOLEE 2013-01-06T08:21Z SPOOL/TRUMPETS 2013-04-12T19:43Z SPOOL/SOLICIT 2013-04-12T20:10Z

Amen, brother.

picklefish• 13 years ago

Here is the previous HN post detailing the previous printouts https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5015087

croddin4• 13 years ago

The next change to his site should be on the 18th: http://www.scribd.com/doc/119155590/DESOLEE

c-bayprogrammer• 13 years ago

How apt. Ruby is from Japan. April 18th is, according to wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_18#Holidays_and_observanc...) "Invention Day" in Japan.

gabrielgironda2• 13 years ago

Here are all the PCL files rendered to PNG:

http://www.gironda.org/pcl/DESOLEE.png http://www.gironda.org/pcl/SOLICIT.png http://www.gironda.org/pcl/TRUMPETS.png

jeffgreco• 13 years ago

Very exciting: "It's very difficult to advertise one's self from exile - am I crazy to think it can be done?"

enoptix• 13 years ago

the second image uses the word "exile" several times. Exile is typically associated with being cast out from one's group. The _why saga was before my time as a Rubyist but I always thought he vanished, i.e. left on his own accord.

Was there an "exile" event that I am not aware of? Or does anyone know what he's talking about?

nollidge• 13 years ago

> Was there an "exile" event that I am not aware of?

No. He left of his own accord. Read it as "self-imposed exile" or something.

mtsmith85• 13 years ago

It would be only conjecture, but maybe by having light shed on his actual identity, he felt his hand had been forced? Thus leading him into exile?

steveklabnik• 13 years ago

He did delete his own accounts, yes, but that doesn't mean that he didn't _feel_ unwelcome.

Also, if you take _why as being separate from the human being who played him ("Subject" is the best I've got), Subject could have imposed exile upon _why, because they're not the same person. http://words.steveklabnik.com/why-is-a-role-not-a-person

rkuykendall-com• 13 years ago

Self-exile, without deliberate action by others, is a common archetype.

antoko• 13 years ago

Self-imposed exile is still exile. I'm not a rubyist but I believe your reading of the saga is correct.

donaldguy2• 13 years ago

He also claims (in the footnote) that Jack Black is another "character" he plays (making fun of their similarity in appearance). I'd take all of it as somewhat tongue-in-cheek

Some people are still understandably mad at him for taking down his repos when he disappeared. He probably feels a bit like a pariah, even though his actions were of his own choice.

There is a long history of the phrase "self-imposed exile". It's even the example for the word self-imposed in the American Heritage Dictionary

Mz• 13 years ago

There are a lot of different ways to be exiled. From what I gather, his privacy was violated so he left. Whether his privacy was violated out of excessive fanboi zeal or as an expression of lack of trust/attempt to verify something or some other reason, it was a form of hostile event which drove him off. He was not being accepted on the terms he wished to set, in essence.

bitops• 13 years ago

I can't think of any specific "exile event", but it did seem some time before he left that there was a trend in the Ruby/Rails community that made him feel unwelcome. That trend was "replace why's libraries and make noise about how his library wasn't any good".

Hpricot in particular was under heavy assault. I'll be the first to say that maybe it wasn't always the most performant solution, but for a long time it was the only good solution (and I tried a few). So when people are ripping your libraries left and right, forgetting to pay a little bit of respect to how big an impact he had on the community, then yeah...I could see how he'd feel the need for a self-imposed exile.

Ovid• 13 years ago

I'm not going to link to anything for reasons which will be obvious, but basically, _why asked for privacy and someone doxed (outed) him. At this time, _why decided to vanish. I don't know that _why ever said why he vanished (he vanished, after all), but most assume that he left because he was doxed. This made Hacker News at the time and a follow up article about _why I read a couple of years later appeared to verify his identity.

igravious• 13 years ago

self-imposed exile

itafroma4• 13 years ago

Confirmed. Uploaded the PDFs I got to Scribd:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/135635291/Solicit

http://www.scribd.com/doc/135635255/DESOLEE

http://www.scribd.com/doc/135635189/Trumpets

http://www.scribd.com/doc/135650965/Caprice

itafroma4• 13 years ago

Other people have been uploaded it, but for the sake of completeness (edit window on parent expired):

http://www.scribd.com/doc/135665528/Homework

hkmurakami4• 13 years ago

*>"Needs Foxes?" (http://www.gironda.org/pcl/SOLICIT.png)

Yes please :)

Reference: https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=why%20the%20luc...

mijustin• 13 years ago

Text translations:

DESOLEE.PNG "This printer queue is going down for MAINTENANCE but will shortly return for a day I believe it will be on the day of April the 19th from like four o'clock to let's say twelve."

jhickner• 13 years ago

Also this one, from the github repo: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2178548/CAPRICE.pdf

asciimo• 13 years ago

To respond to one of the questions posed in the second print job, yes, I think he is on the right track here.

croddin4• 13 years ago

The site is served from github. This appears to be the repo: https://github.com/cwales/cwales.github.com

dccoolgai• 13 years ago

Based on a cursory examination of the comments, it seems like this would be a lot of fun (I'm guessing it's like a riddle or something)? Would someone care to offer a primer or background on what this is / how you start following the clues?

phillmv• 13 years ago

It's just _why being _why. If you're late to the party, try reading: http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2012/03/...

ngcazz• 13 years ago

I found the correspondence between the names of the files and their contents extremely amusing.

milesf14• 13 years ago

I've had April 18th in my calendar for weeks after the initial activity at whytheluckystiff.net. Forget the haters, Ruby's better with _why around.

michaelhoffman3• 13 years ago

Who are "the haters?"

tvon• 13 years ago

Your standard contrarians, I guess.

donaldguy2• 13 years ago

Mostly people who were understandably pissed off that along with wiping out his blogs, twitter, etc., he took down his github and abandoned his projects without helping to oversee a transition of stewardship. This included a few high-profile rubyists.

And then presumably also some people who always thought his whimsy was a detriment to the ruby community (by making it seem less professional or something).

(Not my opinions, just information)

jrabone• 13 years ago

Yeah, because the scene totally needs more drama to distract us from the latest Bitcoin / Mtgox debacle...

cheald• 13 years ago

You're probably thinking of Zed Shaw. _why just added flavor and whimsy to the community.

netghost• 13 years ago

Hooray.

timinman• 13 years ago

Awesome. See you on the 18th!

nidrash• 13 years ago

i've had a big problem with the site on my Blackberry for a looooong tyme, it only started working yesterday...!:(

chasingtheflow2• 13 years ago

How did people know/figure out that it was a PCL file?

itafroma4• 13 years ago

PCL is a well-known format and _why (or whoever is controlling the domain) did this a few months ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5015087

chasingtheflow2• 13 years ago

thanks!

callahad• 13 years ago

  $ file DESOLEE
  DESOLEE: HP PCL printer data

gabrielgironda2• 13 years ago

  $ file DESOLEE
  DESOLEE: HP PCL printer data
  $ whatis -s 1 file
  file (1)             - determine file type

milesf14• 13 years ago

Amazing that a guy who disappeared almost 4 years ago can make it to the top of Hacker News, more than a few times, just by an obscure change to a basically defunct website.

I think it's pretty safe to say people love why the lucky stiff. He's funny, provocative, mysterious, strange, smart, creative... how could anyone _not_ want to see him back? We need more men & women in the world like _why.

hkmurakami4• 13 years ago

As a corollary, we need more men & women in the world who love and appreciate people like _why, so that people who are like him but are less confident about showing their character in public (or even just to their immediate peers) would be more comfortable with doing so.

In other words, to be more accepting and appreciate of each others' quirks and differences.

hariis• 13 years ago

It works the other way around. Be who you are first.

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.

stuaxo• 13 years ago

Like the david bowie of creative coding which can only be a good thing.

cxhristian• 13 years ago

The site just updated with another file: https://github.com/cwales/cwales.github.com/commit/e65bf73e2...

http://whytheluckystiff.net/SPOOL/CAPRICE

I don't have any pcl to image tools so I can't check what it is.

notjoeflynn• 13 years ago

A CAPRICE PCL that was just added: http://cl.ly/OF2O

kroo• 13 years ago

Here are all the files from the git repo converted to png:

http://imgur.com/a/WkWtP

And PDF:

http://cl.ly/3Y423m390Y1Z

Edit: added imgur album.

duiker101• 13 years ago

guys leave him alone... he will let everyone know if he wants any attention. If ever. And this is fine. It must be up to him. Don't push it.

Kiro• 13 years ago

A bit late to jump on the "leave him alone" bandwagon considering the obvious attention seeking updates to his homepage.

Bjoern• 13 years ago

_why, please come back.

51Cards• 13 years ago

New file: CAPRICE

Converted to PDF from PCL here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/135653743/-why-Caprice

alpb• 13 years ago

Why does nobody think that the guy posted this here (@feedward) is _why himself?

milesf14• 13 years ago

Didn't consider that :) Maybe _why is feedward. The account has no other submissions and no comments. It was created on September 22, 2012. Does that date stick out as being significant?

feedward• 13 years ago

Honestly, I'm not _why.

wubbfindel• 13 years ago

New 5 minutes ago:

https://github.com/cwales/cwales.github.com/commit/4bc2fbde5...

joshmcmillan• 13 years ago

Another new file: HOMEWORK

PDF version here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/135658986/-why-Homework

(I've rotated the PDF 180 degrees; the original PCL is upside down)

catch404• 13 years ago

Looks like the homework is to make an OCaml client for reading the spool files. Perhaps this is the start of a poignant guide to OCaml?

lifeformed• 13 years ago

Can someone provide some backstory to this? Who is _why, and why is his reappearance interesting?

milesf14• 13 years ago

http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2012/03/...

eightpersimmons• 13 years ago

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_the_lucky_stiff

teod• 13 years ago

I remember reading [Why's (Poignant) Guide to Ruby](http://mislav.uniqpath.com/poignant-guide/) back when I first started out learning ruby. I'm not familiar with his other projects, but I think they mainly dealt with ruby. A few years ago he randomly deleted his entire web presence and essentially disappeared.

milesf14• 13 years ago

Summary:

Who's this guy _why? (also known as why the lucky stiff):

http://bit.ly/whytheluckystiff

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_the_lucky_stiff

The site http://whytheluckystiff.net is being hosted on GitHub under this account:

https://github.com/cwales/cwales.github.com/

The git repo for the site has seen activity today, and has sparked conversation:

https://github.com/cwales/cwales.github.com/issues

The site is serving up files in PCL:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printer_Command_Language

Here are the contents of these files converted from PCL into images:

http://www.gironda.org/pcl/SOLICIT.png

http://www.scribd.com/doc/135635255/DESOLEE

http://www.scribd.com/doc/135635189/Trumpets

http://www.scribd.com/doc/135650965/Caprice

http://www.scribd.com/doc/135658986/-why-Homework

bmelton2• 13 years ago

Any idea on what the erased bit on DESOLEE is after the end? Looks very clearly like something was written there, but I can't make it out.. something about 'three' or maybe 'there'.

binarycrusader• 13 years ago

It looks like "three re.... paper jam those ...ogh ....." to me.

_rs• 13 years ago

See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5017921 - still not sure, but might help you out

x__• 13 years ago

How did you find out which github account hosted the site?

mischanix• 13 years ago

If I had to find the repo, I'd use code search. It's pretty handy.

croddin4• 13 years ago

I found it by searching for "DESOLEE"

sfcgeorge3• 13 years ago

I wrote a little blog post in tribute to why, "Nobody Knows Why": http://www.sfcgeorge.co.uk/posts/2013/04/19/nobody-knows-why

The post also links to an updated PDF compendium of all _why's recent documents. All rotated and in the correct order (maybe). Bursting with _whyness.

joelmichael• 13 years ago

_why, to respond to your questions in SOLICIT, you don't have to play the _why character if you don't want to. Most of us are happy to see you, whether you act bizarre or not. We miss your insight and commentary and sense of humor. Experiment if you like, and ignore the jerks.

For everyone else, _why made some videos before, here is my favorite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXZ_htL1rOI

davedx• 13 years ago

Wow, the guy was seriously funny. I remember reading the poignant guide to Ruby and finding it almost a bit much, but that video is fantastic.

canadev• 13 years ago

haha, i am trying to decipher whether that video has any meaning or not; regardless i found it quite enjoyable.

coolj• 13 years ago

"It's like I'm superman, and lexicon Luther has a big chunk of vocabulary confounding kryptonite and he's jabbing it right in my thesaural gland..." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Du_RTMmofWM

fatbat• 13 years ago

Just a random-lol-thought but somehow my brain floated this. Could _why = Satoshi Nakamoto?

milesf14• 13 years ago

_why = Keyser Söze? :)

fsiefken2• 13 years ago

no. i think satoshi nakamoto is from the old world, while _why is from the new world. but both are from a similar generational background and from the 80s hacker culture. these mavericks geniuses are rare but exist in more subcultures (music, religion, magick, skeptics, science, cryptography)

doki_pen2• 13 years ago

If you look in the revision history there was an IDEAS file. Someone mentioned it and got downvoted, not sure why.

Sorry, best I could do:

http://imgur.com/VgossGD

doki_pen2• 13 years ago

There is also TEST, but as far as I can tell, it's pretty boring and not worth posting.

gcr• 13 years ago

How do we know this is really _why? I think someone could have registered the domain after it expired.

mattdeboard• 13 years ago

Occam's razor says so

milesf14• 13 years ago

The handwriting and pictures look a lot like his. If this is someone spoofing _why, then kudos to them. They're doing a great job.

stormbrew• 13 years ago

    Domain Name: WHYTHELUCKYSTIFF.NET
	Created on..............: 03-JAN-2002
	Expires on..............: 03-JAN-2014
	Record last updated on..: 13-DEC-2012
	Status..................: ACTIVE

Nope.

thomasfl• 13 years ago

Feelgood Ruby news of the day.

brenfrow• 13 years ago

Public Print Queue SPOOL/DESOLEE 2013-01-06T08:21Z SPOOL/TRUMPETS 2013-04-12T19:43Z SPOOL/SOLICIT 2013-04-12T20:10Z SPOOL/CAPRICE 2013-04-12T22:06Z SPOOL/HOMEWORK 2013-04-12T23:19Z

tiglionabbit• 13 years ago

Would be nice if it served this page with Content-Type: text/plain, so it wouldn't look like random garbage at first.

aneth4• 13 years ago

I have to wonder whether _why is an intentional or unintentional PR prodigy.

fsiefken2• 13 years ago

_why's blend of programming with collages remind me of the blend tonke dragt did with children's novels and physics or michael ende's short stories to his father's surrealist paintings or experiments with interactive fiction.

a refreshing sense of adventure. crossing boundaries

ericd3• 13 years ago

For those who don't know what all the fuss is about, you should check out _why's Poignant Guide to Ruby (http://mislav.uniqpath.com/poignant-guide/book/). It remains one of the most enjoyable reading experiences I've ever had, not even just limited to programming books. It exudes so much joy and enthusiasm in its constant absurdity, it's unbelievable. The sidebars are legitimately laugh-out-loud funny. It's really hard to write humor well, but holy crap. I mean, just read this:

"At my local Barnes and Noble, there is a huge wall of Java books just waiting to tip over and crush me one day. And one day it will. At the rate things are going, one day that bookcase will be tall enough to crush us all. It might even loop the world several times, crushing previous editions of the same Java books over and over again."

"What I’m Going to Do With the Massive Proceeds from this Book

Anyone who’s written a book can tell you how easily an author is distracted by visions of grandeur. In my experience, I stop twice for each paragraph, and four times for each panel of a comic, just to envision the wealth and prosperity that this book will procure for my lifestyle. I fear that the writing of this book will halt altogether to make way for the armada of SUVs and luxury town cars that are blazing away in my head." (This is a completely free book)

Just wonderfully absurd.

agravier• 13 years ago

I've made a Latex version of WPGtR, available here: https://github.com/agravier/wpgtr-latex . I think that it makes a nice printable version, but I welcome pull requests and would like to see some beautiful forks.

I started working with Latex again not long ago, so I'll maybe improve it soon, too.

ericd3• 13 years ago

Oh, neat, I think I might print one of those out!

cresssandwich• 13 years ago

Am I alone in thinking that the obsession with this guy is a little on the creepy side?

merlish• 13 years ago

_why, you're a pretty funny and cool guy. You give me hope that I can be funny and cool like you one day. Also I think I saw you at a train station once, but I stared at you and by the time I decided to go to the platform and ask you if you were you you'd gone.

sfcgeorge3• 13 years ago

The SPOOL was updated yesterday with LEVELS. I have converted it to PDF like the others. It is an amusing chart for programmers to express their feelings with.

PDF of LEVELS: http://www.scribd.com/doc/136676459/LEVELS GitHub Repo: https://github.com/cwales/cwales.github.com PCL Converter: http://www.columbia.edu/~em36/pcltopdf.html

sfcgeorge3• 13 years ago

There's more. Oh my yes. I just stuck the converted PDFs in a zip file because Scribd is a pain. Why were we using Scribd anyway? No matter, here's a zip. http://cl.ly/OOCV

_why's site is updated

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