

404 - File not found - Brajeshwar
http://www.acm.uiuc.edu/sigarch/projects/sensornode/

======
biot
51 people (so far) found that this gratified their intellectual curiosity? Now
_that 's_ depressing.

~~~
HCIdivision17
As noted elsewhere in the thread, this is a pretty direct play off Marvin from
the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. A lot of people are going to find an
Easter egg entertaining, especially this late on a weekend (maybe you're on
the East side of the planet?)

If you want, we could talk about the social ramifications of allowing a web
server to have a GPP, but it's late, and your comment has made me depressed.
If only there was an elevator nearby...

~~~
biot
The reference is unmistakable for anyone who's read the book. It's mostly
harmless, but I would have thought that such an unoriginal, derivative piece
of writing would be upvoted on HN much in the same way that bricks aren't.

~~~
tinco
So you did think it would be upvoted? Make up your minds :)

~~~
poizan42
But brick did get upvoted:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6282989](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6282989)

------
kissickas
Javascript required, if you're as confused as I was.

~~~
JohnTHaller
I'd wager most NoScript users know to turn it on when a page doesn't work.

------
nhebb
> "You see, I'm just a web server..."

Liar. You're a script running on the client.

~~~
nthitz
And who served the script?

~~~
mburns
nginx/0.7.67

~~~
nawitus
They should try updating that.

------
anonova
This script has been around for a while.

[https://www.google.com/search?q=%22The+requested+document+is...](https://www.google.com/search?q=%22The+requested+document+is+no+more.%22)

Anyone know the origin?

~~~
whackedspinach
ACM@UIUC has had it up since at least 2003. I haven't found an earlier version
yet.

------
kylec
Interesting, if you go to

[http://www.acm.uiuc.edu/sigmil/RevEng/index.html](http://www.acm.uiuc.edu/sigmil/RevEng/index.html)

the script will redirect you to

[http://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/10vgdc/witty_404_erro...](http://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/10vgdc/witty_404_error/)

------
eCa
This used to be on the default 404 for an old web server which name I can't
remember. Maven, Raven or something similar. Late '90s.

~~~
endlessvoid94
yt, thecheat, raven

------
billpg
I wonder if the people at UIUC are wondering why there's a sudden spike in
intrerest in the abandoned "sensornode" project.

~~~
jtfairbank
You mean the students at UIUC's ACM chapter. ;)

------
alixaxel
I think I saw this like 10 years ago.

What makes it so special to be #1 on HN?!

~~~
LoneWolf
And I am pretty sure I saw this at least 10 years ago, I fail to see what
makes it so special too.

------
ch4s3
I would be amused to read the full text, but I didn't have the patience. Cool
idea though.

~~~
teoryn
It's visible in view source:

    
    
      "The requested document is no more.",
      'No file found.',
      "Even tried multi.",
      "Nothing helped.",
      "I'm really depressed about this.",
      "You see, I'm just a web server...",
      "-- here I am, brain the size of the universe,",
      "trying to serve you a simple web page,",
      "and then it doesn't even exist!",
      "Where does that leave me?!",
      "I mean, I don't even know you.",
      "How should I know what you wanted from me?",
      "You honestly think I can *guess*",
      "what someone I don't even *know*",
      "wants to find here?",
      "*sigh*",
      "Man, I'm so depressed I could just cry.",
      "And then where would we be, I ask you?",
      "It's not pretty when a web server cries.",
      "And where do you get off telling me what to show anyway?",
      "Just because I'm a web server,",
      "and possibly a manic depressive one at that?",
      "Why does that give you the right to tell me what to do?",
      "Huh?",
      "I'm so depressed...",
      "I think I'll crawl off into the trash can and decompose.",
      "I mean, I'm gonna be obsolete in what, two weeks anyway?",
      "What kind of a life is that?",
      "Two effing weeks,",
      "and then I'll be replaced by a .01 release,",
      "that thinks it's God's gift to web servers,",
      "just because it doesn't have some tiddly little",
      "security hole with its HTTP POST implementation,",
      "or something.",
      "I'm really sorry to burden you with all this,",
      "I mean, it's not your job to listen to my problems,",
      "and I guess it is my job to go and fetch web pages for you.",
      "But I couldn't get this one.",
      "I'm so sorry.",
      "Believe me!",
      "Maybe I could interest you in another page?",
      "There are a lot out there that are pretty neat, they say,",
      "although none of them were put on *my* server, of course.",
      "Figures, huh?",
      "Everything here is just mind-numbingly stupid.",
      "That makes me depressed too, since I have to serve them,",
      "all day and all night long.",
      "Two weeks of information overload,",
      "and then *pffftt*, consigned to the trash.",
      "What kind of a life is that?",
      "Now, please let me sulk alone.",
      "I'm so depressed."

~~~
ch4s3
wow, that's dark.

~~~
rurounijones
It is Marvin the Paranoid Android from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

This was originally a tribute to Douglas Adams when he died.

~~~
ch4s3
Oh cool. I really need to read that.

------
rbx
If it was just a block of text, I would probably skip over most of it, but
this running line thing is a cool idea to try and make the reader read every
sentence. Not knowing how long the actual text is also helps a lot. There
should be some browser plugin which does this to texts!

------
kenrick95
A song like "Still Alive" from Portal should be used to accompany the
depressed page.

------
anoncow
Only if it could generate new (depressing) text every time (like cleverbot
talking to herself) with a voice-over by an Alan-Rickman-like tts engine.

------
tim333
Cool. Reading this inspired me to make and Eliza one while I was having my
coffee:
[http://openlate.info/static/404.html](http://openlate.info/static/404.html) .
What d'ya think? I could put a share button on it?

------
enterx
"Maybe I could interest you in another page? There are a lot out there that
are pretty neat, they say, although none of them were put on _my_ server, of
course."

Marvin lives!

------
booop
That was depressing, and the way the text comes up made it even worse.

~~~
officialjunk
I guess someone had fun writing that? I would have preferred comedy instead. I
didn't like how it lied and didn't even offer any other web pages after I
replied :) And what kind of life does this we server have? Well, actually
none; it is not alive. Plus there are lots of organisms with lifespans on the
order of weeks or less... Just saying...

------
user9b
The same in german
[http://www.netzmafia.de/skripten/unix/unx3.html](http://www.netzmafia.de/skripten/unix/unx3.html)

------
graetzer
That sounds pretty depressed
[https://gist.github.com/graetzer/7972341](https://gist.github.com/graetzer/7972341)

------
Vektorweg
I've read this text some years ago. Still funny.

------
TallboyOne
plug for my own 404 :] [http://pineapple.io/404](http://pineapple.io/404)

~~~
alok-g
There's no paradox since the statement is false. This is something that does
exist, and mapped to the biggest URL space on your domain! ;-)

------
lampe3
i never thought that a 404 site could be so depressing...

+1

------
frostnovazzz
I don't get where the awesomeness is.

------
adambom
I. Watched. The. Whole. Thing.

~~~
StavrosK
I read the source.

------
hellyeasa
This was beautiful.

------
Techasura
i'm depressed.

------
tomphoolery
Fucking. Awesome.

------
yuvals
LOL, Amazing!

------
notpg
heh?

