
Show HN: Hacker News' “most unique support email of 2014” - striking
(TL;DR: http:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.imgur.com&#x2F;LuPHqiN.png)<p>While digging around in drawers that hadn&#x27;t been touched for decades, I found a wonderful piece of history. The Palm Treo 600 [1] was the Mercedes-Benz of the cellphone 10 years ago, and I was lucky enough to rediscover one.[2]<p>So I decided to restore it to working order, slapping in a T-Mobile SIM[3] and a fresh battery. It worked! It could browse the Internet[4], send&#x2F;receive text messages[5], make phone calls...[6] The onboard browser even passed Acid1[7,8] and could do some level of JavaScript![9]<p>Unfortunately, most websites were a little heavy on this poor thing&#x27;s CPU. One site that I knew wasn&#x27;t heavy was Hacker News!<p>Unfortunately again, it didn&#x27;t work. It &quot;didn&#x27;t work&quot; in an odd way, though: it raised a &quot;Communication Error&quot; that would never occur on other pages, just Hacker News. So I did what any inquisitive individual would do: record a video, and ask HN support!<p>This is what I sent: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=Nqn-EmU5KPw<p>This is what they got back to me with: http:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.imgur.com&#x2F;LuPHqiN.png<p>I am truly honored to accept this award. I&#x27;d like to thank Palm, for making such an incredible phone (10 days of battery life!), as well as the Academy. And also my parents. And you, dear reader. Thank you so much!<p>PS: kogir :)<p>PPS: I&#x27;ve always wanted to do some teardowns of old device UIs and see what our mobile device forefathers thought up. I have a couple of really cool archeological finds that I could share.<p>[1]:http:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Treo_600
(gallery of 2-6,8-9 here: http:&#x2F;&#x2F;imgur.com&#x2F;a&#x2F;Gu70R)
[2]:http:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.imgur.com&#x2F;xVdpUST.jpg
[3]:http:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.imgur.com&#x2F;2Yy8fkM.jpg
[4]:http:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.imgur.com&#x2F;nZ7GwC1.jpg
[5]:http:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.imgur.com&#x2F;OJuZmh3.jpg
[6]:http:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.imgur.com&#x2F;z9mNkHt.jpg
[7]:http:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Acid1
[8]:http:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.imgur.com&#x2F;9VKcxlY.jpg
[9]:http:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.imgur.com&#x2F;5KeI9TI.jpg
======
hyp0
> TL;DR [http://i.imgur.com/LuPHqiN.png](http://i.imgur.com/LuPHqiN.png)

> This is what I sent: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nqn-
> EmU5KPw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nqn-EmU5KPw)

> This is what they got back to me with:
> [http://i.imgur.com/LuPHqiN.png](http://i.imgur.com/LuPHqiN.png)

>
> [1]:[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treo_600](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treo_600)
> (gallery of 2-6,8-9 here:
> [http://imgur.com/a/Gu70R](http://imgur.com/a/Gu70R))
> [2]:[http://i.imgur.com/xVdpUST.jpg](http://i.imgur.com/xVdpUST.jpg)
> [3]:[http://i.imgur.com/2Yy8fkM.jpg](http://i.imgur.com/2Yy8fkM.jpg)
> [4]:[http://i.imgur.com/nZ7GwC1.jpg](http://i.imgur.com/nZ7GwC1.jpg)
> [5]:[http://i.imgur.com/OJuZmh3.jpg](http://i.imgur.com/OJuZmh3.jpg)
> [6]:[http://i.imgur.com/z9mNkHt.jpg](http://i.imgur.com/z9mNkHt.jpg)
> [7]:[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid1](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid1)
> [8]:[http://i.imgur.com/9VKcxlY.jpg](http://i.imgur.com/9VKcxlY.jpg)
> [9]:[http://i.imgur.com/5KeI9TI.jpg](http://i.imgur.com/5KeI9TI.jpg)
    
    
      (links as comment so clickable)

~~~
obituary_latte
If only I had scrolled a bit first, I could have saved myself minutes. Thank
you, and my support request is: please start auto-linking safe urls.

~~~
bactatin
My browser does stuff like that for me. :)

~~~
thameera
Safari?

~~~
oneeyedpigeon
Safari doesn't do that out of the box. Something with an extension?

~~~
crystalclaw
Actually, in safari, you can double-click on a link to highlight it, and the
right-click menu has options "Go To Address" and "Go To Address in new tab".
Quite useful.

~~~
sp332
You can usually do this in Firefox too, although just double-clicking doesn't
work in this case because it selects the [1] at the beginning as well.

------
majke
I suspect this device can't do TLS. Blame POODLE for killing SSLv3:

* [https://blog.cloudflare.com/sslv3-support-disabled-by-defaul...](https://blog.cloudflare.com/sslv3-support-disabled-by-default-due-to-vulnerability/)

Also RC4 is about to die:

* [https://blog.cloudflare.com/killing-rc4-the-long-goodbye/](https://blog.cloudflare.com/killing-rc4-the-long-goodbye/)

* [https://blog.cloudflare.com/killing-rc4/](https://blog.cloudflare.com/killing-rc4/)

* [https://blog.cloudflare.com/the-web-is-world-wide-or-who-sti...](https://blog.cloudflare.com/the-web-is-world-wide-or-who-still-needs-rc4/)

------
leesalminen
My gut says that they've disabled SSL v2/v3, and that the device does not
support TLS.

~~~
Animats
Security Theater Everywhere strikes again. Unless you're logged in and
entering data, Hacker News does not need SSL.

~~~
agwa
In addition to thwarting state-sponsored attacks mentioned by geofft, HTTPS
also prevents ISPs and hotels from injecting ads[1,2]. And using HTTPS even
for logged-out users prevents an attacker from sslstripping[3] the link to the
login page, which is good because even the most careful users won't always
notice when a login page is suddenly served over an insecure connection.

As a user of HN, I appreciate these security features. Suggesting that HN
should not use HTTPS so that someone can access it from a 10 year old device
that's impractical for modern web browsing anyways is possibly the weakest
argument you can make against HTTPS.

[1] [http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/04/how-a-banner-
ad-f...](http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/04/how-a-banner-ad-for-hs-
ok/)

[2] [http://justinsomnia.org/2012/04/hotel-wifi-javascript-
inject...](http://justinsomnia.org/2012/04/hotel-wifi-javascript-injection/)

[3]
[http://www.thoughtcrime.org/software/sslstrip/](http://www.thoughtcrime.org/software/sslstrip/)

~~~
roywiggins
T-Mobile opted me in to a content filter by default. To remove it, last I saw
I needed to give them my SSN (!!!). So, I live with the idiot filter, which
actually scans for keywords in websites and blocks them. SSL obviously makes
this sort of filtering useless, which is very useful.

~~~
CamperBob2
Wow. This is in the US, I assume ("SSN")? I've never heard of this happening
with a US carrier.

~~~
ChristianBundy
Yeah, social security number.

It's basically a private key we're all assigned at birth that can't be
rotated. It was originally meant to be used in the state-sponsored welfare
program "social security", but tons of businesses require it as a unique
identifier.

Absolute stupidity on all fronts.

~~~
gknoy
I'm pretty certain you can ask them for a random number instead, as only the
government is allowed (last I recall) to __require__ an SSN. I know my doctors
can ask for it, but are required to accept an alternative if I don't wish to
provide the SSN.

For example:

[http://www.identityhawk.com/Who-Can-Lawfully-Request-My-
Soci...](http://www.identityhawk.com/Who-Can-Lawfully-Request-My-Social-
Security-Number)

Sadly, it's too late in the day for me to try to parse this:
[http://www.justice.gov/opcl/social-security-number-
usage](http://www.justice.gov/opcl/social-security-number-usage)

------
BorisMelnik
I used a Palm treo up until about 3 years ago, and used to browse HN quite
often. My treo was modified and upgraded I should say :) beleive it or not,
some poor soul actually stole it, probably not knowing it would be worth more
on ebay as an obscure item than at a pawn shop.

~~~
wpietri
Yeah, fellow former Treo user here. I loved that thing.

When people talk about how Steve Jobs invented the smartphone, I used to say,
"but but but..." Now, though, I just sigh and nod like I'm still listening to
them.

------
rndn
Perhaps build your own web proxy which strips images, CSS and JS for a better
web experience. Someone did that a year ago for his Macintosh Plus:
[http://www.keacher.com/1216/how-i-introduced-a-27-year-
old-c...](http://www.keacher.com/1216/how-i-introduced-a-27-year-old-computer-
to-the-web/)

------
keithwarren
I had this same phone, in the post iPhone era we tend to forget that
smartphones did exist and some of them were actually pretty fantastic devices.
From the 600 I upgraded to the 700w and that was probably my favorite phone of
all time.

~~~
chrissyb
Totally agree, i sometimes reminisce about the good ol' days with my Nokia N70
i bought in 2005. Here's some memorable achievements:

\- I watched most of the world cup 2006 games live streamed over 3G. -I used
to frequently use google maps which without GPS would use cell towers
triangulate my position within a couple hundred meter radius. - Used it as a
wireless AP -And even uploaded videos to youtube.

When i first heard of the iPhone i wasn't that impressed as i already been
using what i considered a smartphone. Obviously i that's all changed now! ;)

~~~
soylentcola
I remember at the time being a bit nerd-irritated over the iPhone release. At
first I was thrilled because I'd fallen in love with smart phones starting
with the early Treos and into the HTC PocketPCs. The one thing they always got
wrong was poor graphics drivers/acceleration so even though they did so many
things, it was like using a Windows PC with the generic VGA drivers (laggy
scrolling, etc).

iPhone really fixed that one thing but at the time I was outraged (outraged!)
that to get that smooth UI performance I'd have to give up 3rd party apps, 3G,
MMS, GPS, (shitty by today's standards) video calling, copy/paste, task
switching, and even the ability to change my wallpaper or ringtone!

Kind of amusing today with the relative parity between mobile OSes and the
abundance of models to choose from but at the time I just remember being so
frustrated with how no single company seemed capable of putting everything
into one device. Still, those Treos and PPCs laid the groundwork for the
insanely capable and useable devices many of us carry in our pockets today.

------
jacquesm
This is the first thing I'd look at to make this work:

    
    
      telnet news.ycombinator.com 80
      Trying 198.41.190.47...
      Connected to news.ycombinator.com.cdn.cloudflare.net.
      Escape character is '^]'.
      GET / HTTP/1.0
      Host: news.ycombinator.com
    
      HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently
      Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2015 03:19:43 GMT
      Content-Type: text/html
      Connection: close
      Set-Cookie: __cfduid=d2949a43e20a9ea8923fe50222805b7621421810383;
          expires=Thu, 21-Jan-16 03:19:43 GMT; path=/; 
          domain=.ycombinator.com; HttpOnly
      Location: https://news.ycombinator.com/
      Server: cloudflare-nginx
      CF-RAY: 1ac05f0dbbeb0743-AMS
    

<html>

<head><title>301 Moved Permanently</title></head>

<body bgcolor="white">

<center><h1>301 Moved Permanently</h1></center>

<hr><center>nginx</center>

</body>

</html> Connection closed by foreign host.

Maybe you could set up a https->http proxy and access that to see if that
solves your problem?

------
j45
My palm Treos are still the most productive devices I've ever owned. Android
is starting to get close but that keyboard and shortcut keys to go directly
into an app on the Treo has been unrivalled.

Hoping with the sale of the Palm Trademark, and WebOS being free, which is a
generation ahead of all mobile operating systems, before the javascript app
craze came up, might, in some way, come to lead and inspire the way again.

~~~
yourad_io
I was recently looking for a sliding qwerty keyboard phone and to my dismay I
realised that while we weren't looking, the NSA took them all away!

In my quest I found a phone database where you can search by features (I
forget which one right now) and sorted through all possible candidates. My
hopes went up momentarily when I saw the Dell Venue Pro[1] before I clicked
"next" and saw how wrong they got it[2].

Eventually I sumbled on the Motorola Photon Q[3] - which I'm not even supposed
to have, as it doesn't come with a SIM slot at all. Luckily some enterprising
Korean guys have figured out the modding process and are selling them on ebay.
I tried my luck and received it a few days ago. Really good value for money,
loving the sliding action and physical keys but wish it were a bit more
powerful. I think I've compensated for this mostly by cutting out a lot of fat
and its puny dual core CPU now runs 4.4 fairly comfortably. I'll probably go
back to my Nexus 5 soon but it's a great backup phone and I love the keyboard.

I'm half convinced that a custom N4/5 backplate with a built-in keyboard would
sell like crazy. #kickstarterideas

TL;DR: Look at Moto Photon Q.

[1]
[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7c/Dell_Venu...](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7c/Dell_Venue_Pro_smartphone.jpg)

[2] [http://cdn.slashgear.com/wp-
content/uploads/2010/10/dell_ven...](http://cdn.slashgear.com/wp-
content/uploads/2010/10/dell_venue_pro_11.jpg) I literally burst out laughing
as soon as I saw this. Bless you, Dell. (also: windows)

[3]
[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8d/Motorola_...](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8d/Motorola_Photon_Q_4G_LTE.jpg)

~~~
walterbell
Can it run Cyanogen?

The Blackberry Passport is one of the few modern keyboard phones, it uses
Amazon's appstore for Android apps.

~~~
yourad_io
Yes, and CGM 11 (KitKat) as well.

The CGM wiki isn't entirely clear on this - there's a specific build for the Q
which is somewhat outdated [1] so you should use this [2] [3].

Be aware that you'll need to tweak it a bit to make it super-responsive with
4.4 - at least for me, the N5 has really spoiled me (...especially after I
went _back_ to 4.4)

> The Blackberry Passport is one of the few modern keyboard phones, it uses
> Amazon's appstore for Android apps.

The passport is cute, but I didn't consider non-Androids (I'm a flasher:) and
I wanted something in the "second/backup-phone" price range. The keyboard
would likely be nicer than the Q's though.

[1]
[http://download.cyanogenmod.org/?device=xt897](http://download.cyanogenmod.org/?device=xt897)

[2]
[http://download.cyanogenmod.org/?device=moto_msm8960_jbbl&ty...](http://download.cyanogenmod.org/?device=moto_msm8960_jbbl&type=snapshot)

[3]
[http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Moto_msm8960_Info](http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Moto_msm8960_Info)
(get the _jbbl or it won't flash)

~~~
walterbell
Cool, thanks for the pointers.

------
drdeca
Out of curiosity, have you tried viewing a static page with the same content
as HN, and checking whether it has that error?

Very interesting, and congratulations on your award!

------
allending
Speaking of HN support emails, we emailed Daniel at 4:10PM a few days ago and
got a reply at 4:12PM. Send a follow up email and another reply 6 minutes
later. Brilliant.

~~~
Joona
That is very impressive. Almost as fast, or maybe even faster than me
answering on IRC!

------
soneca
Funny, but this post doesn't follow Show HN guidelines
([https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html)).
Should be a "Tell HN" instead.

------
codezero
I had a similar issue when I broke out my iBook from 2000ish. It seems like
the root certificate authorities had changed, or the certificates sent by
websites weren't able to be resolved. Whether that was the changes to SSL/TLS,
or the root authorities, I didn't get into :P

~~~
yuhong
If you are using Classic Mac OS, Classilla has the most up-to-date SSL/TLS
support (with both SHA2 certificate and SNI support!)

~~~
codezero
Thanks for the heads up! I was actually running a very old copy of Linux on
the system, running a system update actually solved it :)

------
wazoox
In my drawers, I still have all of my Handspring/Palm "smartphones", I used
almost all their PalmOS lineup during the naughties:

* Handspring Visor+Visorphone (2002): huge!

* Handspring Treo 270 : broken lid

* Handspring Treo 600 : working, but broken screen

* Palm Treo 650 : working

* Palm Pré : still working, but broken USB connector

------
giacomoharp
This one showed up early in the morning and executives were scurrying to find
out what happened:

Subject: XXXX Case #XXXXXX : Priority changed to Customer Down Date: Tue, 6
May 2014 03:17:47 -0700 From: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

To: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

CC: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 __* Case Priority change __* Case Priority has recently been changed to:
Customer Down

Case Details:: Case #: XXXXXXXX Company: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Contact Name:
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Status: New Category: Support System - Support Accounts

Subject: My name is spelled XXXXXXXX

Apparently, the customer could not function if their name was spelled wrong...

------
endeavour
I don't think it's possible for something to be the 'most unique'.

~~~
teach
I used to be similarly pedantic with English. But a few years ago I converted
to descriptivism[0], and I've been much happier ever since. :)

[0] [http://english.blogoverflow.com/2012/10/prescriptivism-
and-d...](http://english.blogoverflow.com/2012/10/prescriptivism-and-
descriptivism/)

------
Chanie
Ha! this is great! Congratulations on your award ;)

------
Chirael
Still using my Palm Pilot daily :)

------
enthdegree
Have u tried with NetFront

------
rizumu
Uniqueness is absolute, so the support email is either unique or not. There
are no degrees of uniqueness for something to be more unique than another
thing. Sorry, but this grammar mistake is a big pet peeve.

~~~
dang
Now if we ever issue this award again we will be obliged to repeat the mistake
forever. :)

Had I thought about it I probably would have written "most unusual". Still,
I'm not sure the pedant's case holds up on this one. Two things may differ
from everything else to varying degrees; both are unique, but the one that
stands apart more is arguably more so. Even among the unique support requests
of 2014, Rob's email stood apart the most by a long shot.

~~~
hueving
Take the following definition of unique - being the only one of its kind;
unlike anything else.

So if something is 'more unique' than something else, it doesn't really fit
the first part of the definition because they are both only one of a kind, but
it fits with the second in that it is more unlike anything else than the other
thing.

