HTTP Cats | Hacker News Reader

HTTP Cats

httpcats.herokuapp.com

150 pointschrisguitarguy30 comments

So, there's definitely been a few discussion recently about the quality of Hacker News articles and their relevancy to the community. Is this post an indication that LOLCats are of high priority for discussion?

I don't see an issue with web developer-oriented levity. I believe this should be a protected class of LOLCats.

There's always a discussion about quality and relevancy. What I find most interesting here is that 'cute animal pictures' are specifically called out as off-topic in the guidelines, and cat pictures hold such a strong connotation of lack of content to me.

And then, 130 points puts it at 5th or 6th rank of the front page, sorted just by points (at the time of this post).

</snob>

It's a honeypot article. Upvote it and your upvotes count less. Flag it, and your flags count more.

A few of mine,

403: https://github.com/tantalor/emend/raw/master/app/static/imag...

404: https://github.com/tantalor/emend/raw/master/app/static/imag...

405: https://github.com/tantalor/emend/raw/master/app/static/imag...

500: https://github.com/tantalor/emend/raw/master/app/static/imag...

503: https://github.com/tantalor/emend/raw/master/app/static/imag...

This would be so much easier if the status codes on the index just linked to the actual pages.

I'll keep this up for a day.

http://oinksoft.com/http-cats.html

Yes, you're right. I'll add links to the status codes. Thanks for the feedback!

In case the original author shows up here: on first glance, the index page looks like an error page. Perhaps a little formatting or color so I don't assume the server is down and hit back immediately?

Thanks for the feedback. This was something I did quickly for some friends, so I didn't add any style to it. Never thought that it would get popular.

If you want this minus the cats (and with more features), try http://httpstat.us/

http://httpstat.us/404 dumps the actual code.

Just in case you want something more full featured (think IP, COOKIES, POST, GZIP, STREAMS, etc...) check out http://httpbin.org/ from the same guy that brought sanity to http requests in Python: http://kennethreitz.com/

I love Heroku, LOLcats, and HTTP so I am very disappointed in myself right now for not thinking of this. Nice work, sir.

Not mine, just stumbled on it. My favorite: http://httpcats.herokuapp.com/418

I like this one: http://httpcats.herokuapp.com/599

None of these actually issue the HTTP status code claimed: they're just linked to pages with images.

  Request URL:http://httpcats.herokuapp.com/404
  Request Method:GET
  Status Code:200 OK

That's the point. And it's not linked to "pages with images". It actually just returns the image as Content-Type header field reveals :)

So great! And then you plussed it with an Easter Egg (418)!

That's not an Easter egg; it's a legitimate status code from RFC 2324 (April 1, 1998):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_418

That doesn't make it not an easter egg, though. Most 'easter eggs' function perfectly for what they are, they're just also amusing and not entirely necessary.

You, sir, have just found the perfect nickname for my girlfriend.

Quite a few RFCs published on April 1st are to be considered with somewhat of a grain of salt, cf. RFC 1149 (http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc1149.txt)

A gist to load all HTTP cats in your browser: http://bit.ly/vS19gp

+1 for my favorite code:

http://httpcats.herokuapp.com/418

418: I'm a TeaPot

isn't 418 from the HTCPCP specification, rather then HTTP?

The Flickr discussion made the same point. The conclusion was that pictures of cats are meant to be amusing rather than literal expressions of a single IETF standard.

Amen to that. People need to seriously lighten up. My favourite: http://httpcats.herokuapp.com/426

Cats. Seriously?

I'm wondering what's so special here too. And don't get me wrong I love cats. In fact I literally just brought home two little kittens :)

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