I never realized how useful netcat is
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2007–2026One slot for every year since HN launched. Height is that year's peak points; orange marks a 100+ point or 50+ comment breakout. Select a bar to open its strongest thread.
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HN comment orderNot sure if I should share this, but here it goes. One nice trick I used a lot when in college is that some postscript network printers would print raw postscript sent to them on a specific port (which I can't remember sorry). This allowed me to use netcat toprint my documents bypassing the college's print quota system and everyone who would be waiting in the queue.
Poor man's skype: sender arecord -f cd -c 2 | lame -b128 - - | netcat -u your-ip 6881 | mpg123 - receiver arecord -f cd -c 2 | lame -b128 - - | netcat -u -l 6881 | mpg123 -
The first top-level comment from each of the four biggest threads, in HN’s own order. Excerpts are shortened; open a comment for full context.
- Breakout years
- 2
- Total points
- 320
- Total comments
- 71
100+ points or 50+ comments
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
Every submission
| Date | Title as submitted | By | Points | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009-09-16 | I never realized how useful netcat isFirst breakout · Best thread | tzury | 190 | 32 |
| 2010-11-05 | Cool stuff you can do with netcatLatest 20+ point return | ma2rten | 126 | 39 |
| 2013-05-18 | Netcat Examples | Cieplak | 1 | 0 |
| 2020-01-25 | Netcat | peter_d_sherman | 1 | 0 |
| 2026-06-07 | netcat | tosh | 2 | 0 |