HN Explorer

39 comments

[ 1200 ms ] story [ 1071 ms ] thread
alexcason
This seems great/dangerous in equal measure.
swalsh
This is a great hack, but a terribly dangerous idea. I have trouble enough avoiding HN when I open a browser... now the thing is looming over me at all times. Sorry, I don't have the willpower for this.
captn3m0
It actually has a better influence on me. I don't worry about opening it on the browser all the time. And somehow, I don't click the button as often as I used to open the HN homepage.
easy_rider
I'm going to try this, I think it will actually HELP. I always find myself mindlessly ctrl+t and typing news..<enter> when I open a new browser window.
gavinpc
If you have to type "news", you're better off than I am. "n" does it for me.
easy_rider
You're right, just tested. "n" gets it. I probably get to "ne" or "new" before realizing it. :(
fddlr
Try to hide the bookmarks bar. This helped me a lot.
m458l387
haha everyone is commenting like they have actual work to do
easy_rider
Maybe HN is some sort of social experiment/prank on information gobblers who also happen to be more prone to ADD ;((
forlorn
Thank you for targeting Linux! I'd rather expected MacOS but you truly surprised me. I'm gonna try.
captn3m0
Actually, this is inspired by Hacker Bar [1], which launched a couple days back as a Mac-only app.

[1]: http://hackerbarapp.com/

markrickert
Thanks for the link to my app and for citing it as inspiration!
rainmaking
And, at the time of commenting, this link can be found right below the link to "How Software Companies Die".
erikj
Distraction at your fingertips.
vanwilder77
I have exams tomorrow! But screw it, I'm gonna try this out
Ashuu
Is there any such thing for Windows?
captn3m0
I am thinking of using node-webkit to package cheeaun's hackerwebapp[1] into the system tray for Windows. Similar to [2] for Mac.

[1]: http://cheeaun.github.io/hackerweb/

[2]: http://www.guidefreitas.com/hacker-news-menu-tab-app

EDIT: Popping up an entire webview from Tray doesn't seem to be easy. But creating a menu is very easy. I might do a simple clone of hackertray to Windows :)

Ashuu
That sounds cool! I agree that popping up an entire webview and that too on windows would be difficult. Waiting for hackertray for windows!
Mustafabei
Well, I think now there must be an in app way to enable Noprocrast or we are all doomed:)
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jheriko
neat, but can i have a windows version? :P

maybe an installer instead of the standard linux way of forcing you to know things you don't really need to know?

captn3m0
I'm working on a windows version based on the excellent node-webkit [1]. I'm still not sure on how much effort I'll put in packaging it.

[1]: https://github.com/rogerwang/node-webkit/

jheriko
no worries. was just an off the cuff remark. there are already solutions for this. :)
el_duderino
In meantime, just use a systray RSS app & use HN's RSS feed. Essentially the same thing kinda sorta.
lucb1e
You're asking for a hacker news client for windows? Something is wrong here :P
eksith
I hope there are options to follow /newest. There are many great stories that never make it to the front page. But I have to (lightly) disagree with swalsh's apprehension. This will quadruple the time spent on my actual work since I can quickly scan the headlines and go back without having to open a window.
captn3m0
Update: If the app isn't starting any more because of a JSON error, its because the API I am using just crossed its Rate Limit. (https://github.com/cheeaun/node-hnapi). I'm working to fix it as soon as I can.
Sir_Cmpwn
You should think about setting up a local instance of node-hnapi and using it instead of a remote one.
captn3m0
@cheeaun promised me on twitter that the rate limit is per-IP, and I've since implemented fallback servers (same as hackerweb) so this shouldn't be an issue any more. Plus setting up a local instance would make things unnecessarily complicated (nodejs and all that)
oscilator
Thanks for open sourcing it. It'd be neat to replicate this idea for other sites I might frequent. I'm already having enough trouble trying to stay away from HN on the browser. Heh.
captn3m0
I'm thinking about creating a generic version of this that checks on a single RSS feed for you.
oscilator
Hey, that'd be really awesome. I'll be checking your github.
hkbarton
good new and bad new, the good one is: this is very great hack! bad one is that make me addicted to HN, haha
lucb1e
Thought it wouldn't work for me out until I saw someone comment "Whynot for Windows?" Oh it's for Linux then? Nice, I guess I should check it out.

This was one of the most painless installs ever, just pip it and run it. Done! And of course open source on Github. Great job, thanks!

cmelbye
Thank god, a way for me to read Hacker News more often throughout the day. ;)