
The case of the 500-mile email - kachnuv_ocasek
http://www.ibiblio.org/harris/500milemail.html
======
RyanMcGreal
I wonder how many times this has already been posted to HN. Not that I'm
complaining: every time I re-read it, I'm charmed and delighted all over
again.

~~~
WalterGR
This Google query works fairly well:

site:news.ycombinator.com
link:<http://www.ibiblio.org/harris/500milemail.html>

Link to said query:
[http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Anews.ycombinator.com+l...](http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Anews.ycombinator.com+link%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.ibiblio.org%2Fharris%2F500milemail.html)

Query returns:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=123489>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1293652>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=385068>

~~~
re
I suspect that the link: operator doesn't work well (or at all) anymore, and
that those results are only getting returned because the comments contain all
the words in the URL (because someone invariably links to the FAQ). Other
searches (to articles linked from <http://news.ycombinator.com/best>) come up
empty:

[http://www.google.com/search?q=link:https://github.com/blog/...](http://www.google.com/search?q=link:https://github.com/blog/878-announcing-
github-for-mac)

[http://www.google.com/search?q=link:http://blog.instapaper.c...](http://www.google.com/search?q=link:http://blog.instapaper.com/post/6830514157)

[http://www.google.com/search?q=link:http://mobile.nytimes.co...](http://www.google.com/search?q=link:http://mobile.nytimes.com/2011/06/26/magazine/my-
life-as-an-undocumented-immigrant.xml)

------
wgrover
Worth reading just to find out about the units(1) program. How did I miss that
all these years?

~~~
btilly
If you like the program, read through the data file:
<http://futureboy.us/frinkdata/units.txt>

Some pure gold buried in there. For instance search for _candela_.

~~~
3pt14159
Hahahahahhah Hilarious.

    
    
      Define the default symbol for the imaginary unit, that is, the square root of negative one. The default Unicode codepoint for the imaginary unit. (DOUBLE-STRUCK ITALIC SMALL I)
    
      \u2148 := <<IMAGINARY_UNIT>>
    
      Also used for the imaginary unit (especially by electrical engineers, who use "i" to indicate current. (DOUBLE-STRUCK ITALIC SMALL J)
    
      \u2149 := <<IMAGINARY_UNIT>>
    
      Redefine the letter "i" to also be the imaginary unit
    
      i := \u2148

------
mikeryan
There's an associated FAQ which addresses some of the questions you may have
about the technical veracity of the story.

<http://www.ibiblio.org/harris/500milemail-faq.html>

------
shrikant
Interesting anecdote and discussion a previous time this came up here:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1293652>

------
monochromatic
Seen it many times, but it's such a great story... who can complain about it
being reposted?

------
eitally
An oldie but goodie, but still worth a bump. If only more networks were
c-limited!

------
arethuza
Having been involved in "rationalizing" a systems of hundreds of emails
servers dotted round the world down to something manageable I can honestly say
that _nothing_ about the weird and wonderful ways that email can fail
surprises me any more.

------
matthias
It's good ol' chestnuts like this that made me think of the "rerun" button:
<http://bit.ly/ek6kqi> Instead of upvoting you would click the rerun link to
signal the content as duplicate (but worthy). This would move it out of the
news and to a dedicated classics page of timelessly good content.

------
JonnieCache
IMO the most amusing part of this story is the behaviour of the statistics
professor.

