Show HN: Podcat – Imdb for podcasts - <AUTHOR> https://www.podcat.com/ <comment><USER3> This is something that I have wanted to exist for a long time, but is a pretty massive undertaking because there are so many small niche podcasts.

The podcasts I spot checked all looked fairly accurate, although you do need to be careful with common names. Jordan Morris [1] is the name of a podcaster/comedian, a soccer player, and a singer. All of their profiles are combined into one. In order to separate those out you would need to do some analysis on the genre of the podcasts. The podcasts that talk about sports are probably talking about the soccer player, etc. It is also tough to rely on common lookup tools like Google because the Jordan Morris that is a podcaster is probably the least famous of the three but is clearly the most relevant for your site.

[1] - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordan_Morris](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordan_Morris)

<comment><USER4> Adding to this, there seems to be something weird going on as Jordan Morris is only listed as being on 1 episode of Jordan, Jesse Go! (which he is the co- host of)[0]. Something seems to be off in how people are attached to episodes/podcasts as well. Definitely more analysis needs to be done - <USER2> makes you realize how much more complex of a problem this really is!

[0][https://www.podcat.com/podcasts/4VD1My-jordan-jesse- go/perso...](https://www.podcat.com/podcasts/4VD1My-jordan-jesse- go/person/b8IRhO-jordan-morris)

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I really like the idea, but (to give some feedback) I don't think one can call anything the imdb for x without a best/worst 250. And ratings and explore by category and I want a pony... (Also the site is somewhat unfriendly for NoScript users, apparently one has to allow apple.com to get search working, which is counter intuitive. But of course noscript users should expect some trouble.)

<comment><USER6> Agreed, though I want this more than I want the imdb for podcasts.

Ratings and recommendations would be nifty I guess, but I've wanted a one stop shop for podcasts with a clean and consistent layout for a long time. I mean, one that doesn't make me install a bloated program that I don't want to use.

This one's checked off, my other podcast wishlist items:

1) autotag my podcasts by parsing their RSS feeds

2) a head unit in my car that would connect to my wifi from my driveway or garage, then automatically download new episodes of subscribed podcasts every night or morning. Ideally I could manage my subscriptions on my PC through a website or through a settings page the car offers to my network, so I'm not forced to use the limited controls of a car to manage podcast subscriptions. (Maybe everyone else solves this problem by just keeping an iPhone with unlimited data in their cup holder.)

<comment><USER7> Exactly - I run a wifi range extender in the car that connects to my home wireless when it is parked out front of the house, and an iPod that connects to that wireless to do syncing. It's magically dorky, and has spawned friends into getting repeaters for mesh networking and playing Lan games on mobile devices while roadtripping, which is equally amazing.

Staying on topic - this site is great so far and looking forward to seeing more features added. Really agree that a top X by category and 'similar to' rating system would make this pretty killer.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I myself is a busy guy with frequent business trips, always need a podcast app on my Android phone to save favorite episodes such as particular music, audios that I prefer while I am on my way. CastBox APP is the one I am addicted to recently, highly recommended download it from google play. [https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.podcast.po...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.podcast.podcasts)

</comment><comment><USER9> Great idea and something that's missing with podcasts. I took a look at some names and noticed you have missing data. For example, Christian Finnegan is a regular on Keith and The Girl podcast but he's only listed twice [https://www.podcat.com/people/zXNOK2](https://www.podcat.com/people/zXNOK2)

Here's his profile for our podcast [http://www.keithandthegirl.com/guest/40/christian- finnegan](http://www.keithandthegirl.com/guest/40/christian-finnegan)

You can scrape our guest list here [http://www.keithandthegirl.com/guests/](http://www.keithandthegirl.com/guests/)

or you can use our API endpoints to pull json content. Here's the doc but I can make tweaks, if you need [https://github.com/KeithAndTheGirl/API/wiki/Keith-and-The- Gi...](https://github.com/KeithAndTheGirl/API/wiki/Keith-and-The-Girl-API- Version-2)

<comment><USER10> Off topic, but it's interesting to see that you're active on HN, as I certainly remember you on the forums and on the show. I used to be a big fan of KATG from about 2008 to 2012 but fell off the bandwagon.

As far as podcast communities go, however, it always did seem like you guys had a good handle on using the web for interacting with fans and established a decent setup for monetizing the product which a lot of other podcasts lack. So...good job.

<comment><USER9> That's awesome to hear, thanks =D

From a technical perspective, I've been working on streaming live shows via YouTube and having that automatically embed on the homepage and throughout the site. It's displaying 4 cameras in a 2x2 layout similar to this _NSFW_ clip [https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLqRSwyqnU1WEECXxN3uN08G2...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLqRSwyqnU1WEECXxN3uN08G24h34EQOko&v=BydOLSkCLSs)

I'm also working on a new app that uses Cordova/Ionic Framework that'll make it easier to listen for regular fans and premium VIP members. In the spirit of staying connected with the fans, I've been posting updates on that progress [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C219o_6tzNk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C219o_6tzNk)

As far as using the web for interacting with fans, it's been a challenge, so it's great to hear your compliment. Initially, we just had our own forums where fans would participate. Now, our community interaction is fragmented along Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit and our forums. Of course, all those platforms allow us to stay in front of more fans but it's a challenge to keep posting across those platforms without just repeating the same exact thing on each site.

<comment><USER10> All very cool stuff. Let's just say that the reasons why I stopped listening to KATG were not tech related.

There was a point when I was beginning discussions with a former KATG guest to develop an app for his podcast, but that didn't work out. Similar to your work it would've involved going much further beyond simple RSS feeds and I would've needed to write an API, provision servers, and write a front end (I was looking at possibly Meteor/PhoneGap), and we didn't see eye-to-eye on time frame and compensation/profit sharing for such a project.

My point is that it does appear that there's a market for podcasts that can go beyond the simple RSS/iTunes feed, and I wonder if there's any developers doing any serious work on this front. Like a "podcast community as a service", where the fractured elements you noted are all combined in one ecosystem.

<comment><USER9> The biggest issue I see with podcasting is the complicated subscribe process and monetization of the show. The biggest fish (Marc, Joe, Leo) have a team behind them to help with monetization but subscribing is still problematic.

Without having a custom app for your podcast, you need to explain to people what an RSS feed is. You just lost 80% of your potential listeners.

Alternatively, you can suggest they use a 3rd party app, like Stitcher and search for your show. Now you're promoting someone else's product and it's impossible to create a sales funnel using someone else's app, if the customer even manages to jump through the hurdle of installing Stitcher and then finding your show.

From a developers perspective, there are the problems that you described and there's no white labeled podcast app. That means, most podcasters can't afford to have their own app.

Podcasting is a medium that's dying to be upended. I'm experimenting with some ideas to do just that. First step is getting the KATG app into production, so I can test some of my theories.

Sounds like you're an app developer as well. Working on any fun projects?

<comment><USER11> Interesting discussion! I'm the author of SkipCast ([http://www.skipcast.net](http://www.skipcast.net)), an iOS client that worked with [http://www.rawvoice.com/](http://www.rawvoice.com/) to implement an in-app, direct donate feature.

If your Podcast feed contains the tag:

<rawvoice:donate type="text/html" href="URL HERE">Label</rawvoice:donate>

SkipCast displays an in-app link to that location with the text 'Donate'. Uptake for this feature has been quite positive.

I'd love to expand support for this to other systems and tags. It's an interesting little feature, and as an avid Podcast listener as well as app developer, hope content creators find success with it. It's quite literally the least we can do as developers.

Finally: Quick shout out to KATG, I've spend hours staring at your cover art as it was one of my favorite test feeds used when developing the app!

<comment><USER10> No offense to you or your product, and I did read the description, but I still don't see how can you justify $25 for a podcast app. More importantly, I don't see how a regular user would even bother to read the description after seeing that price.

<comment><USER11> Goodness, no offense taken, it's a completely valid point.

The price point deserves a more thorough write up. For now:

I released SkipCast last July at $2.99. Considering I had video playback, advanced audio effects (including skip silence), and lots more, I thought this was a solid fit for the current marketplace.

The result: In the next 5 months I'd get just 6 sales, 3 of which were from family members (thanks mom!). Total app store revenue: $18.

Of course I did my best to market the little bugger, and even added features as the result of partnerships with the aforementioned RawVoice. Press releases went out, Nada.

And so after 6 months, out of sheer curiosity I went totally free and saw my downloads SKYROCKET to ... 5-6 a day.

\--

At this point then I had a choice. I ain't getting sales and I ain't getting free downloads.

And so I did what anyone with a lick of pride would. Charge real money. I literally did it to _not_ get sales, as I wasn't getting them anyway. At least this way I'm not whoring myself out. Honestly, for how many hours I put into this project it felt _wonderful_ to jack that price up!

The kicker: Since the price increase I've finally had enough sales to cover my developer fee, and I've only recently renewed for another year.

The reason? I think it's easy to see why.

For one, it immediately sets you apart in the app store. You're scrolling around and see a $24 app and you're bound to take notice.

Of course most will scoff, but, apparently, enough _have not_. It at least gets someone on my app store page.

Second, I make specific mention of the price in the very first line of the description, and later, actually mention the fact that I'm trying something different.

Look, the bottom line is in my naiveté I thought that in a potential marketplace of 1 billion users there was room enough for 15 or so Podcast clients. Turns our I was wrong. I can't control that, but what I can do is add my voice to the ranks who should stand up to cheep bastards who expect _all_ software to be free. You want SkipCast, you'll have to pay for it.

Man it feels good to say that : )

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Neat idea, I'd love to see this take off. I imagine it's going to take a lot of work to reach Imdb-level comprehensiveness though. Until a certain threshold is met, it's going to be hard to beat Googling (person's name) + podcast.

Here's my anecdata: Searched for John Oliver and got no relevant results. Searched for Andy Zaltzman and got his cricket podcast. Searched for The Bugle and found it, but no links to the aforementioned hosts. Searched for John Bain and got his picture + a mention from a podcast I didn't recognize. Searched for TotalBiscuit and found The Co-optional Podcast and other CynicalBrit stuff.

Hmm...I wonder how many bits of my own identifying info I just leaked there... Oh well.

</comment><comment><USER13> Awesome product. I love that podcasts are getting more attention, with companies creating discovery platforms like [http://producthunt.com/podcasts](http://producthunt.com/podcasts).

One suggestion - would be really nice to have categories for podcasts. Much like movies, it is difficult for niche/indie movies to compete with the super well funded hollywood productions. For example, we produce a software podcast ([http://softwareengineeringdaily.com](http://softwareengineeringdaily.com)) and it would be a huge benefit to be able to search for Tech specific shows and see what's relevant to you.

Keep up the good work!

</comment><comment><USER14> Feature Request: Episode ratings.

This is awesome!

<comment><USER15> Seconded. Rating TV episodes on IMDb is a very useful feature, especially now that it supports sorting episodes by rating, e.g., [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098904/eprate?ref_=tt_eps_rhs_s...](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098904/eprate?ref_=tt_eps_rhs_sm)

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> I like how the people behind the podcasts, the hosts and frequent guests are catalogued. It's an interesting way to browse for episodes and podcasts that I haven't seen done anywhere else.

Shameless plug: I've been working on a similar project ([https://podcast.party/](https://podcast.party/)) that also lets you subscribe to podcasts to keep track of which episodes you have played/unplayed.

<comment><USER17> Just spent a few minutes playing around with your site. Very nice. I really like how your discovery lists show the last time the podcast was updated, the number of episodes, and the average length. Filtering on those attributes would be an awesome feature.

Nicely done.

<comment><USER18> Is there any way to filter by the values? Namely average length and frequency? Other than by eyeballing, of course.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> I would love a way to browse through podcast categories. From the homepage, I was looking for a 'tech' link or something to find some that would interest me. Great start though. Good luck.

<comment><USER17> I agree. Search results seem to be limited to 6 and even more problematics is that I find myself at a loss for exactly what to search for. Lots of promise here, but as it is, it's pretty hard to discover new content. Keep it up!

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> I love the concept. There still seems to be some room for improvement, though. When searching for "Tom Merritt", it only shows podcasts that "mention Tom Merritt" as opposed to podcasts he's been in or hosted. I plan on checking back in a couple months to see how it has come along. Love the idea, though!

<comment><USER21> Seeing this post, I did the same for 'Bill Burr'. For Burr's profile it has him listed as 'Hosts:' for 'Monday Morning Podcast' under his profile picture; As well as the mentions in the center. So, I repeated this for 'Tom Merritt' and you're right, it only has the the mentions; no 'Hosts:' section.

It looks like the only way to contribute, currently, is through the contact form. [https://www.podcat.com/contact](https://www.podcat.com/contact)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks, I tried to differentiate between hosts and guests early on but there are too many false positives so I switched verbiage. Working on this though!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> I got an error when I tried to look at a podcast: [https://www.podcat.com/search/955198749](https://www.podcat.com/search/955198749)

"Sorry, but something went wrong."

</comment><comment><USER23> Overcast[1] has an index. At least for the incredibly small subset of podcasts I looked at, Overcast is a more complete index.

Podcat does not seem to get the names of podcasters correct. For example, searching for Marco Arment links to only some episodes of 'Build and Analyze', which is Arment's old podcast where he appeared in 100% of episodes.

Podcat appears to index names if the given name is name-checked in a podcast's episode text. That's going to be a spam target.

Potentially Podcat could be a great thing. Interesting work.

[1] [https://overcast.fm](https://overcast.fm)

</comment><comment><USER24> Funny automation fail:

The tech podcasts I listen to frequently end with recommendations.

One of the recommendations in the latest JavaScript Jabber is for a Taylor Swift album.

 _Podcat attributes the entire episode to Taylor Swift‽_

JJ Episode Details: [https://devchat.tv/js-jabber/202-jsj-donejs-canjs-with- justi...](https://devchat.tv/js-jabber/202-jsj-donejs-canjs-with-justin-meyer)

Podcat Episode Details: [https://www.podcat.com/podcasts/D13bdo-javascript- jabber/epi...](https://www.podcat.com/podcasts/D13bdo-javascript- jabber/episodes/k8zPen-202-jsj-donejs-canjs-with-justin-meyer)

\---

Request:

Since most of my podcasts are technical (as I assume many other HN readers' podcasts are) many of them also have video. Sometimes only specific episodes have a video component (e.g. Lately in JavaScript), and sometimes every episode has a video component (e.g. JavaScript Air).

All of the ones I listen to that have video versions also provide an audio- only version, but the host or guests occasionally still refer to something on the screen.

So, it would be nice to be able to filter on episodes that do or don't have a video version.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you! I definitely forgot to account for video podcasts, I haven't really followed any since diggnation ended!

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> This looks great. It would be awesome if you could add a direct link to the XML feed for the podcast since it's a pain to pull it out[0] and super useful for those not using iTunes.

[0] [https://gist.github.com/aderyabin/4479240](https://gist.github.com/aderyabin/4479240)

<comment><AUTHOR> good idea!

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> Love the idea, but this seems like it would require a ton of work for it to be remotely comprehensive.

In addition to the missing data, the false positives are an issue. First podcast I checked was Second Captains, which incorrectly lists Rafael Nadal, Donald Trump, Mike Tyson, Cristiano Ronaldo, etc as guests.

</comment><comment><USER27> This is well executed. I attempted to build something very similar about a year ago. I had a decent prototype, but found it rather difficult to aggregate a complete listing of podcasts scattered around the internet.

The world needs a centralized podcast app other than iTunes. Keep up the good work!

</comment><comment><USER28> This looks cool, very fast search and I like the idea of referencing names (presumably through name-checking of episode summaries?). I worked on a side project a few months ago[1] as I just wanted my own personal webplayer. It's OK, but has the limitation that it only works with podcasts that have discoverable RSS feeds; many are behind the walled gardens of iTunes or Soundcloud or other proprietary platforms unfortunately. As it's really to scratch an itch for my own needs it doesn't do ratings/comments/recommendations which would be on my todo list for a more complete app. Are you planning on adding these features in the near future?

[1] [https://podbaby.me](https://podbaby.me)

</comment><comment><USER29> It's broken on mobile, right?

I tried searching for Patio11, because... well, Patio11. :-) Didn't see a submit button so I pressed enter. Nothing happened. Tried a couple of times, including accessing the page by "Request desktop site". Same result.

Tested with Chrome 49.

<comment><USER30> Try "Kalzumeus" or "Patrick McKenzie", although I will definitely take a whack at my metadata in response to this comment. (I use "Perhaps better known as patio11" as a self-deprecating joke and forget that it is actually literally true when making consequential decisions like e.g. metadata, registering domain names, etc. Someone got patio11.com and transferred it to me, shocked that I hadn't thought of that. I'm shocked, too.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> I want this website so badly!

Please keep it up and continuing to find a way to make it more complete. Right now I can find appearances by Daniel Negreanu by searching in iTunes, but not through Podcat. Also it would be awesome if there were a way to include information beyond the RSS feed of a podcast - for example Arcade Outsiders only includes information from the most recent 20 or so episodes, though there have been 89+ episodes overall which are all still available with information on the Arcade Outsiders website.

Another possible feature: strip out the repetitive portions of episode descriptions on the results page when the displayed text is always the same for all the results on the page.

</comment><comment><USER32> Nice one! I made myself a slightly lighter, curated version, a few months back...bit unfinished, but one massive json object containing hours of goodness.

[http://longwave.addedlovely.com](http://longwave.addedlovely.com)

</comment><comment><USER33> The criteria for a good podcast in my perspective should support us to Create custom stations of your favorite radio and podcast that update automatically when new episodes become available. At the same time, you can Use the On-The- Go playlist to play just the episodes you want. I'm addicted to CastBox APP downloaded from Google Play cuz I really enjoy the bus time with audio books, breaking news during breakfast and free music for my bedtime. [https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.podcast.po...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.podcast.podcasts)

</comment><comment><USER34> Needs a synonym list in the search.

For example, there's at least two Mike/Micheal Duncan's, one does history podcasting (history of rome, revolutions, both awesome) and the other I'm not familiar with but apparently does something biblical.

The history podcaster does not show up as a person but the preacher does.

The history podcasts show up for mike duncan but not micheal duncan.

The history podcaster is "kinda famous ish" in the the field of history podcasting and keeps getting interviewed on other shows, pretty sure he was on "life of caesar" and a couple others, but those either don't show up or haven't been crawled by the search.

</comment><comment><USER35> Sooo rad! I love the little illustrations that guide you through the site

</comment><comment><USER36> Yeah, impressive... what percentage of the podcasts do you think you cover? I have searched for some programming related podcasts, but could'nt find..

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm not sure about the percentage but it's about 50k podcasts.

</comment></comment><comment><USER37> wow, this is terrific. It's something often discussed with friends that someone needs to do this - but we never offered ourselves up due the absolutely massive undertaking it would be. Super excited that someone's done this though.

I hope the site keeps growing - It'd be great to have some of the suggestions already made to be part of it.

the "top 250" would be interesting and for me personally, I'm not sure how much faith I'd put into it: I'm quite finicky when it comes to podcasts. I have a couple of podcasts that I listen to religiously, but I also have some podcasts that I subscribe to, but would only download depending on the guest for that episode, and then there's some podcasts that are right up my alley, interest wise, but something as simple as one of the person's voices/accent is so off-putting that I disregard it completely. With movies, it's easy to say "that movie isn't for me, but I can understand the praise it's receiving", but I don't think podcasts really work that way

</comment><comment><USER38> Wow. Thanks for filling up such an obvious gap in content database. Loving the topic/mention based search, looking forward to great things in this aspect.

Although first requested feature would be ability to sign, make profile for listened podcasts and preferably add notes/review/ discussion about a specific episode.

Thanks for the product. Looking forward to its growth.

<comment><USER39> I agree. A nice to have feature could attempt to derive the audio transcription and index podcasts based on keywords from that.

</comment></comment><comment><USER40> I've been enjoying podcasts for many years now, so this seems like a wonderful resource...great work guys/gals!

If anyone is looking looking for something different and educational and entertaining, check out Dan Carlin's Hardcore History. It's amazing, and I've been a fan of his for a decade now and he keeps getting better and better.

</comment><comment><USER41> Awesome work! Feature request: swipe through pages of recommend podcasts on the front page (would be especially sweet on mobile).

</comment><comment><USER42> Bug #1:

Instagram of [https://www.podcat.com/people/7IkZED-bobby- lee](https://www.podcat.com/people/7IkZED-bobby-lee) is assumed to be [https://www.instagram.com/BobbyLee/](https://www.instagram.com/BobbyLee/).

</comment><comment><USER43> The people search is something I've wanted for a while now, you've done a fantastic job in executing it!

</comment><comment><USER44> Dammit, suckered in by the headline. I need a database with metadata for Plex, but other than the image itself, there's nothing here. No blurb, no genre, nada.

Will say that I thought I had it stumped with one radio program, but I typed in the name and it came up.

Is this thing going to have a rest api or something?

</comment><comment><USER45> I'm noticing many omissions and errors from my friends' podcasts (which aren't all that popular, so understandable.) Rather than list the issues here, I'm wondering what's the best way they can improve the data for their shows and personas overall.

<comment><AUTHOR> Send me an email at email@example.com, I'd love to talk to you (or them).

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> I hope this site catches on!

Is there any tool to search for podcast by length or format?

I really like the Writing Excuses podcast (from suggestions on HN) and would like to find others in the same format on different topics. Short podcasts with well thought out analysis and answers.

</comment><comment><USER46> Neat site! I was looking for something similar for a while.

Feature Request: Episode date in search listing.

</comment><comment><USER47> Great idea!

Feature request: I know that many podcasts I listen to have comprehensive show notes for each episode, it'd be great if there were an easy way to tie in or link to the information in the show notes on a per episode basis!

</comment><comment><USER48> Neat idea!

Missing some pretty obvious data: probably should make sure Adam Curry and Dave Winer's stuff is complete, for example.

(Although I guess you're an old foggy podcast listener when you search for the "Daily Source Code"...)

</comment><comment><USER49> I love this so much.... finding certain podcasts have changed my life so much, and I've been wanting something like this for a long time. Thank you! I really look forward to watching this app evolve!

</comment><comment><USER50> Definitely something I can see myself using on a regular basis. Awesome work.

</comment><comment><USER51> Something strange is going on with scrolling. When I scroll quickly down the page, it jumps back to the top. Looks like a great resource, looking forward to checking it out in detail later!

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> creator here: I'd love to speak to anyone that has their own podcast to find out what you need. feel free to email me at firstname.lastname@example.com

thank you for all the feedback and support!

<comment><USER52> simple marketing 101 Use an email address _at your domain_... you can easily have it forward to gmail behind the scenes, and replies will look as if they're coming from your domain. Can you imagine people at IMBD having email addresses on the gmail domain?

<comment><AUTHOR> Interesting, seeing a gmail domain gives me more confidence that my email will get to the recipient.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER53> Love this!

Feature request: Ability to see information on podcasts not currently in the RSS feed.

Sometimes podcasts start to discontinue old episodes and being able to see this information is a pain point for me.

</comment><comment><USER54> This is fantastic! I wish I could add missing info, like a wiki.

</comment><comment><USER55> This is awesome! I'm sure if you open up the API, many people would want if for their respective players (this would be awesome with Overcast.fm, for example)

</comment><comment><USER56> Here's a good data source for you [http://interviewed.io/](http://interviewed.io/)

</comment><comment><USER57> Weird, website seems to be blocked by my schools network apparently having to do with Usenet. No idea what that's about.

</comment><comment><USER58> Great product. Wish it had better discovery. A simple filter-enabled page of all podcasts will make it more usable!

</comment><comment><USER59> Fantastic! I've wanted this for ages! It'd be cool if you could work to integrate with overcast somehow?

</comment><comment><USER60> Great! The search on Apple's own app is just horrible. I'm gonna use this one for sure. Well done!

</comment><comment><USER61> So how do people get added to this site?

<comment> atom-morgan I'm already on it. iTunes/Sticher/libsyn. The only places that have access to mine.

<comment><USER61> I understand that you pull the podcasts from those sites, but I was specifically asking about the people.

<comment><AUTHOR> I got a bunch of names from network sites and a bunch more I entered manually. If you host a podcast you can use the contact form and I'll add you to the system!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER62> Where is the Top 250? I've never listened to a podcast and want to listen to the best one there is.

<comment><USER63> Still building up a user base so we can have better results, but here is the top list of our platform: [https://podcastprofile.com/top](https://podcastprofile.com/top) (the project is in its early stages, basically the result of a hackathon we had a few weeks back)

</comment></comment><comment><USER64> I'd -really- like this idea, if only it allowed saving podcasts, rating them, and reviewing them.

</comment><comment><USER65> Yes!! So useful. Thanks for doing this, excited for it to grow and become even more functional

</comment><comment><USER66> How can it be Imdb for podcasts without ability to rate or comment podcasts or even episodes?

</comment><comment><USER67> Wow. The search is surprisingly fast and accurate (even when searching for people).

<comment><USER68> Search is not accurate. I typed kids and it throws up "The Kiss Me Quick's Erotica: Sexy Stories with Rose Caraway"

</comment></comment><comment><USER69> Looks interesting but there's no feedback for empty search results.

</comment><comment><USER70> Its missing bikeshed.fm and I don't see a way to add things.

<comment><USER54> [https://www.podcat.com/contact](https://www.podcat.com/contact)

</comment></comment><comment><USER71> Fantastic!

Where's the ability to track what you've listened to so far?

</comment><comment><USER72> Would love to see reviews/ratings of podcasts

</comment><comment><USER73> Isn't this just a thin skin on iTunes?

</comment><comment><USER74> Search does not work for me. I have malware filters, so check domain its loaded from</comment>


Run the First Edition of Unix with Docker - <AUTHOR> https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/run-the-first-edition-of-unix-1972-with-docker <comment><USER2> It's a little disappointing they mention docker a ton of times when it's simh doing the heavy lifting here (though it looks like a very user friendly way to package it!)—just a shout out to the azing project would mean a lot to some people.

</comment><comment><USER3> Getting this up and running on the PiDP/11 would be a thing of beauty: [https://hackaday.io/project/8069-pidp-11](https://hackaday.io/project/8069-pidp-11)

<comment><USER4> The PiDP-11 is using simh already. I'm currently putting together a museum of PDP-11 UNICes for it. Although since the target is an 11/70 I'm not so sure we'll have v1.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Yeah nice, but why use docker?!

<comment><USER5> Because you literally type "docker run --rm -it bahamat/unix-1st-ed" in your terminal and a few seconds later you're running 1972-era Unix.

<comment><USER6> dunno man, the following seems easier and cleaner to me:

       pacman -S simh

       apt install simh

       pacman -Rns simh

?? On that note is there anything that will get rid of unused docker layers when you get rid of an image? sort of like -Rns in pacman? or aptitude remove except for docker images?

<comment><USER7> AFAIK layers are automatically garbage collected if you delete all images and containers that depend on them. Bear in mind that containers are _not_ automatically deleted after shutting down, unless you give the --rm argument.

You can list them with docker ps -a, and delete all containers by running docker rm $(docker ps -aq).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Wow, that's sort of like having a time machine and being able to see the birth of something great.

</comment><comment><USER9> Next up: How to run Docker on the first edition of Unix :^). Seriously through, nice work!

</comment><comment><USER10> I really hope this sycophantic obsession with "dockerizing" things blows over. It is not impressive to run a single isolated terminal process in a docker container, and docker doesn't write your software for you.

</comment><comment><USER11> would like this for MSDOS 5.0..

<comment><USER12> Dosbox will do it easily

<comment><USER13> DosEmu can do it better but only on 32 bit GNU/Linux

<comment><USER2> Gnu/linux x86_64 can't run 32 bit executables?

<comment><USER14> Running _16-bit_ code on an x86-64 system is hard. There's a reason Microsoft dropped 16-bit support in 64-bit windows.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> would like this for MSDOS 5.0 so I can play some commander keen

<comment><USER15> It's very easy using dosbox, no containers needed.

<comment><USER16> Simh is very easy to use, no containers needed, too.</comment></comment></comment>


BlockHashLoc: Recover files using lists of blocks hashes, regardless of the FS - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/MarcoPon/BlockHashLoc <comment><USER2> If it meets the guidelines, this might make a good 'Show HN'. Show HN guidelines: [https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html)

<comment><AUTHOR> Didn't know it all! Thanks for pointing it out.</comment></comment>


The Facebook for Fetishes: How FetLife has created a kinkster's heaven - <AUTHOR> http://www.techvibes.com/blog/the-facebook-for-fetishes-how-fetlife-has-created-a-no-holds-barred-kinksters-heaven-2011-03-04

<comment><USER2> To read and write posts, a user has to register. FetLife will not let a user register unless he or she fills out a form asking for his or her birthday.

Although most users will just make up a false birthday, a lot of non-technical users who do not know how far a true birthday goes to uniquely identifying them will provide their true birthday.

Also correct me if I am wrong, but there is no significant benefit to the user, the other users or the web site to having everyone provide a birthday when they register.

If FetLife is so careless with the privacy of their users in this visible way, it makes me wonder which _less visible_ ways (e.g., not patching security holes or not hiring sysadmins willing and able to do the hard work of keeping user data out of the hand of attackers) in which it is careless with privacy.

</comment><comment><USER3> For those into forking and pulling: <http://fetlife.com/fetlife/open_source_projects></comment>


Mastering the Art of APIs – Part 1 - <AUTHOR> http://thinkvitamin.com/dev/mastering-the-art-of-apis-part-1/ <comment><USER2> Note: This article is about consuming APIs, not necessarily creating your own for consumption.

<comment><USER3> Does anyone have any good articles/thoughts on creating APIs?

<comment><USER4> <http://chaos.troll.no/~shausman/api-design/api-design.pdf>

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Does anyone have experience with Beanstalk or has done a comparison VS rabbitMQ or other queuing technologies?</comment>


Too small to Kafka but too big to wait: Really simple streaming in Clojure - <AUTHOR> https://dataissexy.wordpress.com/2018/11/05/too-small-to-kafka-but-too-big-to-wait-really-simple-streaming-in-clojure-queues-pubsub-activemq-rabbitmq/ <comment><USER2> This post completely ignores fault tolerance. The reason Kafka requires you to have three machines isn't because it is somehow magical, but because that allows it to effectively recover from machine-level failure without data loss (Depending on how your producers are configured, of course).

Saying this approach is even "a bit like Kafka" is incredibly weak - if he is trying to do semi-durable message queueing, fine, but instead he consistently attempts to pitch his solution as mostly on par with Kafka. In the end he has created Kafka minus the utility.

<comment><USER3> It does ignore fault tolerance yes I agree, because right now I don't need it. When you're bootstrapping this stuff you want to be as lean as you can. The plan is to move to Kafka, which I do use a lot btw, when there's a case to move to that level of throughput. If I had my way now I'd use Kafka, my wallet on the other hand disagrees.

I know the reason for needing three machines for a Kafka cluster. And I'm certainly not pitching Durable Queue as a Kafka alternative unless, as in my case, the throughput will be so low in the initial stages as not to warrant a full Kafka cluster.

I could have run Kafka on a single node.....

The "a bit like Kafka", weak yeah it is but the solution posted presented a fairly quick way to establish a queue and decouple messaging from the running application, that was the whole point.

<comment><USER4> Ever looked at Azure Event hubs? We're usung this as a Kafka alternative because it's way cheaper actually (for xx million number of messages with a throughput of 4 MBs per second its 75 €) then setting up a full Kafka and keeping it running? Or do you see disadvantages on that technology? I'm not trolling or so, just curious.

<comment><USER3> No I haven't but I appreciate the headsup. It's been a few years since I even looked at anything on Azure in all honesty.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> As [http://tech.trello.com/why-we-chose-kafka/](http://tech.trello.com/why-we- chose-kafka/) points out, Redis Streams would be another alternative. It seems still underdocumented though as it's a recent addition.

I created [https://github.com/antirez/redis/issues/5582](https://github.com/antirez/redis/issues/5582) asking what should be a basic, necessary, straightworward question, still no luck

<comment><USER6> Hello vemv, we have time complexities in every stream command, and the reason there is no latency documentation is because it follows the Redis normal latency, that is, like blocking lists or Pub/Sub work: as soon as something is available for consumers waiting, it is immediately sent to the socket of such consumers. So you can expect extremely low latencies without any differences compared to other Redis commands. However I'll try to reply to your question in more details in that issue. Btw what is bad is that you did not find your answers in the Streams intro doc. I'll update that too.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I like this essay but I think it is very strange that he doesn't link to the talk that Zach Tellman gave in which Tellman talks about the origins of Factual's Durable Queues:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bNOO3xxMc0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bNOO3xxMc0)

Factual's Durable Queues are a fairly minimal queue effort that is useful in cases where you need some minimal way of handling back pressure, because a service downstream has failed. In his talk, Tellman talks about the fact that he needed to write a lot of data to AWS S3, and sometimes S3 stops accepting writes, so he needed an easy re-try mechanism.

I used Durable Queues everywhere in my code and find it very handy. It's useful when you need a very minimal queue that still has the backing of a file system.

<comment><USER8> durable-queue was one of my favorite pieces of Clojure kit.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> I like to use Akka in places where I can't or don't want to introduce operational complexity in the form of external messaging infrastructure.

</comment><comment><USER10> Comparing to Kafka and Kinesis (which aren't even in the same category) feels like a straw man. The author needs durability, but one disk of one machine satisfies that need? I'm skeptical.

<comment><USER11> I was under the impression that the original/core Kinesis is Kafka-as-a- service (though big and tangential features have been added since).

<comment><USER10> Ok, yeah, their marketing speak fooled me. I thought they were more like Spark, BEAM, etc.

I still think the "Kafka or /tmp" framing of the article is a straw man, though. There's plenty of options in between depending on the requirements.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> The good thing of people using for small problems overkill queue systems like Kafka or RabbitMQ is that they usually have time to react and correct the mistake after burning lots of engineering resources. The sooner they make the mistake, the better.

<comment><USER13> Is something like RabbitMQ really overkill though? When I started out with a project that needed a durable queue and some inter-process communication I bought it as a SaaS, within 90 minutes the application was happily sending/consuming messages on a durable queue.

I mean, is PostgreSQL really overkill just because a CSV file can also do some things?

<comment><USER14> The problem with RabbitMQ is that, you can't rewind back. It's good for messaging. But if you need log-like abstraction you need Kafka which requires zookeeper to start with. I would appreciate single node message brokers (very much like RabbitMQ) that don't do any fault-tolerance and just focus on providing log abstraction.

<comment><USER15> I've seen the ability to rewind cause problems in practice (accidental rewinding causing redelivery of old messages). It's something to be used cautiously, only if you really need it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> I've been using redis streams for a similar problem.

</comment><comment><USER17> If only AWS would allow Lambda methods to handle SQS FIFO queues.

That would be the serverless holy grail event solution that scales from small to large.

<comment><USER18> Azure functions do have the ability to be triggered by Azure Storage queues.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> A lot of people have said this doesn't stand up to Kafka/RabbitMQ, but how does it compare to Amazon's SQS?</comment>


Reminder: macOS still leaks secrets stored on encrypted drives - <AUTHOR> https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2018/06/reminder-macos-still-leaks-secrets-stored-on-encrypted-drives/ <comment><USER2> Nine hours and no comments? I certainly didn't know this was happening. Way too much happening behind the scenes, both in Windows and in macOS.</comment>


Gawker is in the process of emailing its users about the compromise. - <AUTHOR> http://kommons.com/questions/395

<comment><USER2> "Unfortunately, sending out that many emails is not a simple process."

If Gawker needs help, they can let us know. We finished updating their users ~ 10 hours ago.

[http://thenextweb.com/media/2010/12/13/digital-good- samarita...](http://thenextweb.com/media/2010/12/13/digital-good-samaritans- plan-to-warn-gawker-userbase-about-data-hack/)

<comment><USER3> It takes a special kind of entrepreneur to knowingly use a list of hacked email addresses to promote their own service.

"Nice Job" hint.io.

It ended up in everyone's spam folders for a reason.

<comment><USER2> Jeff,

Knowing that we've saved tons of people's accounts from being vulnerable while Gawker sat back and did nothing is what I would call a nice job.

Cheers,

Dru

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> They answered:

"We are in the process of sending out emails to all ~1.5m users affected. Unfortunately, sending out that many emails is not a simple process."

I think MailChimp/Campaign Monitor/SendGrind should be able to handle a 1.5M volume quite nicely.

<comment><USER5> Indeed, sending 1.5m emails is not a problem. not even close to.

<comment><USER6> It is when you have never emailed the list before and don't have a relationship with a mailing service to do it on your behalf. Not a lot of firms like people walking up with a 1.5m non opted in list that you want to send to immediately.

<comment><USER7> Their MailChimp API key was hardcoded into their source, so I think they've got an established relationship.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Being Gawker, I'm sure they'll CC every one of their users in the e-mail.

</comment><comment><USER9> I bet they will get blacklisted on google yahoo and hotmail before they are done. That's a lot of email.

<comment><USER10> I've often wondered how companies such as the ones listed in another comment (MailChimp, Campaign Monitor, SendGrind) avoid being banned, or any company that sends a large amount of mail. Is something that just requires you to build up reputation over time?

<comment><USER11> It's a multi stepped process: use different IPs for different clients, warm up the IPs to build good reputation, actively work with ISPs to whitelist the IPs, enroll in loopback programs with the ISPs, carefully monitor spam complaint and bounce rates, etc.

Sending a large amount of email to a well established list can actually help your reputation, since the ISPs see that you send large numbers of emails that _don't_ get reported as span -- that makes the (hopefully) few that do not affect your reputation as much.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> That is a very good question, I am sure Gawker has its hands full trying to fix their leak and make sure that all its employees change their PW first.

</comment><comment><USER13> Jesus. I just happened to check the reset password with my email address and found out that I do have an account. I have no idea what my password was, now I have to reset everything just to be safe.

<comment><USER14> The good thing is that the password is reset to a random string when you click "send password", so no further action is necessary if you don't read Gawker anymore.

<comment><USER15> except now you can't tell if you used one of your "standard" passwords or not, so you have to reset your passwords on every web site you've ever used. Instead of "reset your password", try logging in with your standard passwords, and hope that nothing works.

<comment><USER14> True, and I'm finding myself trying to account for every site I've used the same email address. Impossible, thanks Gawker (and me).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> It's unfortunate that they still have no way to delete your account, because I wanted to delete mine a year ago and I'm sure they would have a lot fewer emails to send out.

</comment><comment><USER17> Might just be trying to underplay it and hope it blows over?

<comment><USER18> I think they gave up on that a while ago.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Not a total excuse, but they don't have email addresses for all their users (it wasn't a required field).

<comment><USER19> select * from users where email <> '' and email is not null

<comment><USER6> I assume you have never had to send email to hundreds of thousands of people with short notice. There are many ways to get banned in very short order. The typical route is to use a third party service, but they are almost without exception set up to not accept a large non opt-in list for immediate mailing.

<comment><USER20> Either you replied to the wrong comment or you're not familiar with database queries?

<comment><USER6> I'm perfectly familiar with database queries, but pulling a list of email addresses doesn't do anything. The problem is what you do when you have the list of email addresses.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Then why did I get a (spammy) warning from email@example.com last night?

It would seem to be possible for Gawker to notify their users more quickly.

<comment><USER2> Sorry for the spam. Truly not our intentions. We've already deleted the email addresses from our database.

<comment><USER14> my apologies for the sharp rhetoric, i only meant to say that SOMEone was able to get the notice out right quick. i think it's great that you guys did that, seriously, but i think it was a mistake to forget what the click?Hash idiom is typically used for.

and really, your actions kinda put a lie to gawker's sloth, so extra props for that.

<comment><USER2> Yes, that was our mistake. Sendgrid did that automatically for analytics purposes, and I thought it was kind of lame once I found out after the fact.

<comment><USER14> No biggie. It wasn't _actually_ spam so no harm no foul. You did good.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Experimental OpenCL Voxel Rendering via Clojure REPL (2013) - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/thi-ng/raymarchcl

<comment><USER2> seeing this made me excited - OpenCL is my thing - and i wanted to get into it and see if i could make it faster (this is also my thing)

whilst there are certainly opportunities for optimisation in the kernel code alone, the fact that the host code is clojure makes it hard for me to get involved. i don't have the time to learn it at the moment, and such, i don't think i can offer that much to this project..!

what makes it doubly frustrating is that clojure is one of those languages that i've been really meaning to learn.

also, the image quality of these renders is awesome.</comment>