HN Explorer

20 comments

[ 4.5 ms ] story [ 26.6 ms ] thread
cyberpunk
mozilla.org doesn't do it anymore:

    < HTTP/2 301
    < server: nginx
    < date: Sat, 05 Jul 2025 13:36:11 GMT
    < content-type: text/html
    < content-length: 162
    < location: https://www.mozilla.org/
    < strict-transport-security: max-age=60; includeSubDomains
    < x-backend-server: TS
    < cache-control: max-age=3600
    < via: 1.1 google
    < alt-svc: h3=":443"; ma=2592000,h3-29=":443"; ma=2592000
Edit: Nope. I was wrong, if you follow that 301 it does:

< x-clacks-overhead: GNU Terry Pratchett

MrGilbert
It's been a while I heard about X-Clacks-Overhead. I added it to my own page to commemorate everyone I lost along the way. After reworking my site from a custom blog engine to plain web, I forgot to re-add the custom headers. Thanks for the reminder today!

There are also browser extensions, which show when a website broadcasts the "X-Clacks-Overhead" - header.

[dead] xg15
[flagged]
xena
My website returns a random person in a list for every X-Clacks-Overhead response header: https://github.com/Xe/site/blob/877872b4d7db92b602683ecb4e99...

I figured this was one of the best ways to do it. That way I'm letting people that were significant to me live on forever, one random HTTP response header at a time.

  $ curl https://xeiaso.net --head | grep clacks
  x-clacks-overhead: GNU Satoru Iwata
philbo
Minor nit, but you've spelt Stephen Hawking's name wrong in the clackset. It's "Stephen", not "Steven".
podlp
I saw this header recently while profiling headers from feature phones. I think Opera Mini or another browser might’ve injected this header, which is odd because it’s meant to reduce bandwidth and sending it with each request goes against that
atemerev
This is obviously the most important HTTP header, but HTTP is application-level, and clacks is a packet routing system.

Perhaps something like IPv6's Hop-by-Hop Options can be used to pass names with every packet?

Or, even better, we can use LoRa repeaters for something close to the actual clacks network.

masfuerte
> In Terry Pratchett's science-fantasy Discworld series, "The Clacks" is a network infrastructure of Semaphore Towers, that operate in a similar fashion to telegraph - named "Clacks" because of the clicking sound the system makes as signals send.

Surely named "Clacks" because of the clacking sound the system makes.

pdpi
The thing that struck me about "GNU John Dearheart" was how it feels like it _really_ deeply captures hacker culture, like Pterry wasn't just referencing the culture, but that he really got it. Which is remarkable, because he gave me that impression about many, many topics. Such a loss.
marviel
I'm almost to this one in my read through! I'm excited to get to the "information age" arc
offbyone
If you happen to nominate or vote on the Hugo Awards, you may have seen this turn up.
gardnr
I try to add this to every project I work on.
Animats
"We're obligated to inform you that this site uses cookies to do things like maintain your session and deliver personalised content. We also use third-party services from partners such as Google, who may also place cookies on your computer. Without cookies this site cannot function correctly. Please allow cookies from this website, otherwise features may not work."

Amusingly, that's not true. The only cookie they send is Google Analytics, which has zero value to the user. The site works fine with it blocked.

lxgr
I love the idea! But to be true to the original, shouldn't the message be self-propagating?

> [...] header that can be transmitted from server to server [...]

How so? In HTTP, there's always one client and one server. Am I missing some way to make this sticky or self-propagating, e.g. browsers or other clients that will cache received headers and then send them to other servers?

protocolture
I always read this as something that would need to be done at a lower level, like forwarding some arbitrary information in a BGP update.
bonezed
great idea, just added it to my site