[1](https://meyerweb.com/eric/thoughts/2018/08/07/securing-sites...)
The format being text, html, video, or an executable program has nothing to do with it.
So what exactly distinguishes them? The OS knows how to render them? It's just a linear list of characters? The reliance on a fixed font to allow some form of layout or positioning? Good basis for embedded DSL's, like Markdown?
Don't forget they are a binary format also. Oh, I just said that. I anticipate the day UTF8 will be a fond memory of a big mistake we made in our youth, that held us back for decades.
Don't forget that all of IT is a shit show sprinkled over with dollar paint, much like alchemy was. We don't yet know what the formation in Information is.
Alternative that would be better?
Besides, this is exactly the kind of site HN constantly laments the loss of - unique, quirky, basic and rough around the edges.
Which is nonsense, of course, just like this site illustrates. Trivial formatting and layout changes make it more readable.
> Besides, this is exactly the kind of site HN constantly laments
And this is exactly the beside-the-point response you sometimes encounter on HN. I'm not a representative of the collective HN, so why does it matter that some other people did some lamenting some time ago?
Many years ago someone "infected" my computer with a "manual virus": A printed-out sheet of paper placed on top of the computer, telling me to delete all my hard drive's files myself, then photocopy the sheet and put both copies on nearby computers.
It was obviously a joke. But in the "modern" agentic era, the same thing in a text file is slightly more realistic as a threat...
There used to be something of a game of making specific files that would change screen colors or play songs off terminal bells, etc, tailored for specific terminals or command prompt windows. I remember a few short animated sequences using various backspaces and colors that only really worked if you could expect the text to be loaded at specific baud rates or in specific BBS software.
Interesting video story: https://youtu.be/9aHfK8EUIzg (2016)
Data site: https://xd.saul.pw/data
not j/k.
I'd rather read in my beautiful gpu-powered terminal emulator than a website with bad taste and/or bloated nightmare under the covers.
Or if you prefer magnet/ed2k download links: https://pastebin.com/UZNDd564
