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Comment by low_tech_love | Hacker News Reader

Interesting. I browsed the website (as much as I could), then I looked at the comments, and I still cannot honestly figure out (a) why this was posted, (b) why is it suspicious, (c) did the OP think this was cool? (d) did they think it was horrible? (e) what the website is actually about.

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It’s not actually suspicious or criminal, it’s a portfolio site done in the style of a suspect map in a criminal investigation (or at least, a cinematic portrayal of a crime investigation. The reality is probably more electronic, but that doesn't make for great TV or portfolio sites)

I suspect comment is tongue-in-cheek. It adopts the same tone as the website.

> The reality is probably more electronic

I've done investigations with law enforcement before, and you're right, it is more electronic, but basically it's the same as what you see in the movies just on a screen (so it's searchable). But the software basically has you build clusters of people with evidentiary links.

But it was developed to mimic the old bulletin boards, which looked like what you see in the movies. And also the software is really expensive, so "hobbyist" investigators still do use the bulletin boards and yarn, because the electronic version is too pricy.

Does this software category have a name? Or do you have the names of specific software that is popular, but expensive? I am curious how it looks and works

I'm not sure on the category, maybe law enforcement case management? I can't remember the name of the software I used (it was 20 years ago) but here is an example of one:

https://www.kaseware.com/government/law-enforcement/

A very famous and widespread piece of software for law enforcement cases is called I2 Analyst's Notebook, which lets you create/edit/search/visualize case notebooks [1]. Thomson Reuters has Case Notebook, which is more for lawyers [2].

[1] https://docs.i2group.com/anb/9.4.1/analysts_notebook_welcome... [2] https://www.thomsonreuters.ca/en/case-notebook.html

Maltego is kind of like this.

It's a quirky twist on a portfolio site, that's it. The implementation is novel and interesting. People liked it, and upvoted it. I think that's all there is to it.

> It's a quirky twist on a portfolio site, that's it.

Nailed it.

Assuming you're asking unironically:

* This site shows serious web design chops; this is not something you can easily create on a Friday afternoon by combining standard frameworks and stackoverflow answers.

* This site shows an unusual way to basically show one's resume, a way that definitely stands out for its creativity and amount of work involved.

* This site imitates / parodies the common trope of criminal drama movies, and does so not only in a technically compelling way, but also, to my mind, hilariously.

Thanks! The strange thing for me is that I did not like it at all (navigating it on my phone was quite unintuitive), and so I could not really understand whether it was an ironic post or if people actually liked it. And the comments seemed very cryptic and just made it worse.

The site is completely unusable on my iphone. It’s the equivalent of submitting a leetcode interview question in brainfuck - sure, it’s difficult, but it also shows terrible judgement.

Weird, I just scrolled through the whole thing on my phone just fine

Same. iPhone 12 Pro ran it just fine.

Just barely works on my iPhone 14 pro max in Orion, but it mostly works in Safari

I think it's a cool idea, but the way it works is offensively obnoxious to me as a software engineer. It hijacks the scroll functionality and very choppily pans around in random directions unrelated to what I wanted

That said, I'm not the target audience, haha. I think most people with hiring power would be really impressed with the clever idea and decent execution

missed the point. It's the dude's website. Very well done too. Gave me the "conspiracy is afoot" feels. Sometime's you need a distraction from all the sky-falling news or the "we just achieved the impossible but no one can reproduce it" news.

Its a fn absolutely awesome resume.

Why don't more people 'hack' their own 'news' in such a fashion.

This is great.

Because it's unusable. And it's awesome only because pretty few people hack their own portfolio into an unusable format. If more people did it, even if the format was different for each (which is hard to imagine), the cool factor would be overshadowed by the frustration and impatience these elicit.

Now since very few people do it (or at least it's definitely new for me), it does look cool. But I'm also happy that I didn't have to read through the whole thing and I could stop after a few minutes of scrolling.

I'd hire them over you.

My first thought is that someone had created a HN-specific bot network to upvote it. It was annoying useless site without content and couldn't understand how it got to the first page.

I upvoted it because I found it interesting because it was quirky and put together in an unusual way.

> without content

Huh? Maybe you think it's annoying, but it's nothing but content.

If you’re not interested in the content, then there is basically no content.

Maybe if you're not concerned about what words mean.

I often open the fridge to find it packed with vegetables, fruits, eggs and other healthy ingredients. I then close the fridge, about 2 minutes later, still empty-handed and still hungry, saying aloud to myself and to whoever will hear…

      ”There’s no food!”

So, I completely understand.

Is this an example of solipsism in the wild? How remarkable

It's a novel portfolio site in the style of a crime drama bulletin board. The one thing I don't understand after visiting the site is what Eminem has to do with any of it.

Thanks to everyone who clarified it to me; it was not an ironic question, but I still think that the matter is a bit more ambiguous than simply "everyone liked it".

That said, I will just leave this here: http://bettermotherfuckingwebsite.com/

>Black on white? How often do you see that kind of contrast in real life? Tone it down a bit, asshole.

What a stupid point. Make your shit less readable because appeal to nature. Even dumber than the usual reason, "I think it looks cool".

For every web-related HN post there’s always that one person who keeps reminding how it was all better 15 years ago and how you actually dont need any colours on web since they are so irritating.

Tired of hearing this pointless rant every time. Especially since this portfolio is something fresh and not just a cookie cutter WP theme with annoying animations. Web itself can be art or culture or whatever, if it takes 10 seconds to realize how to use it on your phone then big fucking deal. CURL is handy for reading web content I’ve heard, keeps you safe from unpleasant surprises

> For every web-related HN post there’s always that one person who keeps reminding how it was all better 15 years ago and how you actually dont need any colours on web since they are so irritating.

You are a) massively over-interpreting the comment you are replying to, and b) taking it way too personally.

Well that was the gist of the comment, right? You can say it subtly but the point and innuendo remains the same.

I’m not personally offended but admittedly tired of reading this same stuff every week. Maybe I should read less comments, though, as HN is starting to feel like a groundhog week. Luckily not on the same level as Reddit yet.

On the contrary, OPs site is much more the type of thing people were experimenting with early on, about 25 years before today's sameness.

I wonder what percentage of today's HN readership built a site along these lines using image maps:

https://www.w3schools.com/htmL/html_images_imagemap.asp

(a) It's just fun.¹

1. Everyone else

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