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Protective Rain Hat

protectiverainhat.com

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> "THE PROTECTIVE RAIN HAT HAS FLEXIBILITY AND STANDS UP TO MOTHER NATURE"

http://protectiverainhat.com/index.html

> CAUTION: PLEASE DO NOT WEAR THE PROTECTIVE RAIN HAT IN HAIL STORMS. IT IS NOT HARD AND WILL NOT PROTECT YOUR HEAD.

http://protectiverainhat.com/order.html

This is the apex of website design.

(Heck, it's the most memorable site I've seen today.)

And I can't help but think this looks like some weird cult. Will anyone put $41 down to see what we're getting in for?

It is a sublime example of the good old-fashioned “motherfucking website” of 20-odd years ago. http://motherfuckingwebsite.com/

I would buy one, but I live in California, where I cynically expect it never to rain again.

It's more like an example of what happened when people started deciding a motherfucking website wasn't good enough.

It doesn't have parallax scrolling or underscore.js or whatever it is the young people are digging in 2015, but it does have an entry tunnel, a disgusting colourscheme and an ineptly embedded soundtrack.

Edit: That said, if you want to find out about Protective Rain Hats and maybe buy one, this website probably provides an above average user experience for a 2015 website. Loads fast, tells you what you need to know, probably works (well enough) on anything.

You are amazingly right. For all of the horrible things it is doing it does function pretty well.

On the biz side this might be a solution in search of a problem. I would go and ask my mailman (in person with the product, not show him the website) if such a product would be useful. If he/she said no (probably with some good reason) then it would be dead. Out in the rain or out in the desert/sun all day were my first two thoughts.

> For all of the horrible things it is doing it does function pretty well.

"The irony ... the irony ..."

In China, I see custodians/tradesmen/anyone whose job is primarily outdoors wearing hats like this [1] in concert with a plastic poncho all the time. Seems to work quite well.

1. http://www.amazon.com/Loftus-SW-0014-Umbrella-Hat/dp/B0006GK...

Thanks for that link.

I just looked at it from my laptop and from my phone, and it reflows on my phone so that I don't have to scroll, or embiggen and then scroll, just to read it.

Why have people forgotten how to do that?

Making a website like that takes maybe ten minutes. There's no way a designer can make a living from the markup on that.

I loved the dual sense of "markup" here.

But a designer could still do all the value-add that they currently practice, and make the text reflow. Not everyone uses the same screen that the designer uses.

I consider a site that does not reflow text to exhibit a similar attitude that "Best viewed in Internet Explorer" used to imply.

For my small business, I have a supplier who's website looks like it was created by a teenager in the 90s. For instance all of the navigation buttons are weird little animations. And yes, there's colored, blinking text.

But it always puts a smile on my face when I use it, because it's perfectly functional yet tacky in a good way.

I believe this was the apex: http://www.lingscars.com/

I wondering if they're really still located in Hunter's Point, San Francisco.

I'm tempted to just for laughs, but I'm not sure they ship to Canada.

Sigh... How is this even remotely relevant to HN? It seems inevitable that all upvote-base forums will eventually converge on /r/mildlyinteresting

And here's the patent, which has expired due to unpaid fees...

http://www.google.com/patents/US6341380

Looks like they originally had a see-through version...

https://web.archive.org/web/20070225104557/http://www.protec...

I seriously wonder why there are no pictures with human models.

No human models could be convinced to pose for this.

No human models were harmed in the making of this web site.

The pictures page is downright creepy

I feel like I just got put on a list for browsing fetish websites

I thought it was an art project or a master's photography exhibit for a bit. Like the one where they photographed a model frog in an aquarium against various landscapes.

what makes you think that those heads are not human?

Product design by Devo: na na na na, crack that whip.

> which has a dome-like configuration and an interior surface that receives the human head

I love that it has an interior surface that will receive my human head.

Yay for not having to use my non-human heads.

/totallyNormalHuman

/totallyNotAnAlienObserver

Do you get chastised by your homeworld when you walk up to the line like that?

Sure, but what are they gonna do from 23 parsecs? Smurgle at me? I can totally cranch the hempigwarls and they'll never twiggle.

Spa, fon, wankers! I mean, pseudocysts! [wriggles eschaton]

...or in other words, a hat.

I'd be really interested by a good rain hat : something that protects my glasses from rain (the one to invent really efficient anti-rain / fog glasses will be rich) and that dampen the noise of the rain when it falls on the hat.

It should not look like an alien spaceship though and I should be able to buy it on a website that was not made with Frontpage 97 ;-)

> I should be able to buy it on a website that was not made with Frontpage 97

Would you boycott a useful product because of the aesthetics of its website (which is actually relatively accessible and functional)?

It's not about the aesthetics but about security : a Frontpage 97 looking website screams noobs or fraud, I don't want to give them my credit cart info in either case.

In fact nowadays noobs and frauds are doing better than that, it's probably just a joke.

Instantly made me think of this quote from Eurotrip:

Jamie: It's a traveler's money belt. Frommer's says if you have one of these, no-one can rob you of anything.

Scott: Except your dignity.

this appears to be somewhere between timecube and bronner soap

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