

Show HN: Using Facebook Statuses as a CDN - CarterP
http://fbdatastore.dyndns-ip.com/

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jre
The page says I have to login using a facebook account without any information
on what it's supposed to do.

Either this is spam, either you'll have to put a page explaining what it does.

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CarterP
It uses facebook graph api calls to retrieve statuses and dynamically load the
content from those statuses into the page. I didn't put a whole lot on the
original page because my goal was to show how much of a site could be held in
Facebook statuses. If you want to see what statuses will be loaded you can
check them out at <https://www.facebook.com/pages/SocialCDN/263306957124999>

~~~
jre
Ok, this looks like a nice hack :)

Here is a screenshot after you've logged in for the ones who wonder what it
does : <http://i.imgur.com/3ZvNa.png>

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chrisfarms
I'd be much more interested in an explanation of the method rather than a demo
of the concept. It sounds interesting, but I don't really see what I'd gain by
logging in.

~~~
fastball
The demo is the explanation. I think it's clever.

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0x0
I had a similar idea about storing data in slashdot comments as a "free S3"
service (probably inspired by seeing other comments with random-looking
garbage) but never got around to implement it.

(Partly inspired by an idea about using SMTP bounce mails as a temporary
storage system, which I first saw in the book Silence On The Wire)

~~~
maligree
And a link to that particular SotW chapter, for the curious:
<http://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/juggling_with_packets.txt>

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px1999
The author has this page hosted from a micro EC2 instance, but they could just
as easily serve it from S3, avoiding needing to run any servers / pay for
anything except for the bandwidth fees (12c/gb).

Either way, it's a really neat hack.

~~~
CarterP
Yeah I'm pretty new to the AWS stuff and am still running on my free usage
tier. Originally I was running some php on the page, hence the server. Now
it's all javascript based so the micro instance isn't needed but I just left
it up as it's still free.

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zem
it's a cute hack, but there is something uncomfortably parasitic about this
whole class of "exploit" (building a fuse-based filesystem atop gmail was
probably the most prominent example). like or hate these services, they have
assumed the status of commons where lots of people are living, and abusing
their resources merely raises the spectre of degrading everyone's service if
it catches on.

(i agree that this particular hack is more cute and creative than actively
damaging to facebook; i just dislike the general culture of appreciation for
what is little more than overusing a free, shared resource just because you
can)

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malandrew
Facebook is not a free shared resource. We pay for the service with our
privacy. It's not money, but it is a tradable good.

~~~
zem
that's just sophistry. as far as the people using facebook to socially network
with their friends are concerned, it's a free resource that benefits everyone.
trying to layer a cdn atop it benefits no one except the defectors getting
free hosting[0], and hurts everyone else by degrading their qos[0].

[0] again, this is all in theory; as far as this particular hack goes i agree
it's fairly harmless insofar as no one is really going to try hosting a
website off fb updates.

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tmchow
Super interesting hack!

I wonder if its be more flexible to try integration into something like
Wordpress instead with Cloudflare running on top. This would get the
flexibility of Wordpress for the data storage and utilizing Cloudflare for
their CDN.

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tspike
Cool idea. Is it allowed by Facebook's Terms of Service?

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slajax
Why wouldn't it be? Maybe OP is a base64 junkie. I'm sure it'll get a chuckle
from the graph team. It's not a if its gonna spark a revolution of sites
hosted off fb. It has obvious limitations in spite of it's creativeness.

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jpadilla_
Pretty cool! You should think about show the explanation and what it actually
does and have a demo section where the user optionally logs in with FB.

~~~
CarterP
I changed the site a little to attempt to explain the method before login is
required.

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mion
That's an awesome hack! Have you considered using other platforms to do it?
like WordPress or something

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crucialfelix
its down. probably shouldn't have posted it to HN if you want it to live more
than a few hours ;)

~~~
CarterP
It's still up for me.

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csmatt
Clever. Does it still get cached?

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aba_sababa
Excellent hack!

