
What's up with the black bar on top? - maxsavin
Anyone else find it distracting?
======
briane80
[http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/13/technology/gene-amdahl-
pio...](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/13/technology/gene-amdahl-pioneer-of-
mainframe-computing-dies-at-92.html?_r=0)

~~~
Killswitch
Sorry if this sounds bad, but without having to read the article, what exactly
does the bar signify?

~~~
27182818284
It is done from time to time on Hacker News during a significant death in the
computer/hacker world.

There was similarly one done for John McCarthy years ago
[http://web.archive.org/web/20111025011711/http://news.ycombi...](http://web.archive.org/web/20111025011711/http://news.ycombinator.com/)

------
jack9
I think it's appropriate. Unintrusive, noted by readers. It should link to a
notice of the death tho.

------
valevk
It's:

    
    
      <tr><td bgcolor="#000000"><img src="s.gif" height="5" width="0"></td></tr>
    

Don't know why.

~~~
i336_
Rereading the thread, it's like a flag at half mast or an armband. HN does it
to acknowledge tragic events.

On a side note, I was quite stunned when I poked around in the HTML recently
and discovered that the site still uses spacer gifs. (I was poking around
because the spacer gif had started 404ing and I was wondering why I kept
seeing random image placeholders.)

------
spoiledtechie
YC has always been a supporter of technology. I don't know the history of the
black bar, but I have been around for quite some time in HN and Ive only seen
it twice now. So it makes me think it started when Reddit founder Aaron Swartz
killed himself. This black bar is a way of morning such tech pioneers.

------
icpmacdo
From Dang though,
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10558802](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10558802)
?

