Hacker News Reader

Comment by dottedmag | Hacker News Reader

Amuzingly, this 80286-powered website is still up despite being on a front page of HN.

It also paints a damning picture of many more modern sites which don't.

Server with bajillion core CPU running with twattlebytes of RAM, connected via yesbit backbone and guarded by gigadozen CDNs: "I can't."

Server with a 286 and running off a fucking floppy: "Hold my beer."

I legit considered not clicking on the link when I saw it on the frontpage, out of fear that I might actively contribute to burning someone's house down.

Awww thanks but no danger. ;D

It does crash every couple of weeks due to bugs in either the packet driver, DESQview, the httpd or the fabric of time/space. I'll be testing other NICs to see if it behaves better.

I would have expected HN to take it down, though. So .. wow.

Software can make a huge difference.

So can serving static pages from RAM.

Just under 12,000 http requests since Jan 1, 2023:

http://floppy.museum/status.htm

18000 now.

41000 now.

53k, and still up and serving pages nice and fast.

80k…

96k and going.

Incidentally, i find it interesting how it's slowing down (not the server - still happily chugging around), but the propagation of news/memes/links.

I'm all for more coverage and exposure - but I don't think that machine can handle a lot more. Luckily I've got a 386 running OS/2 Warp Connect here that I can set up to serve an error page if the box goes down.. :D

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