News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

joewils

Two things I do to slow down malicious bot traffic:

1. Setup a blackhole for bad bots. I don't use WordPress, but I stole the idea from this plugin: https://wordpress.org/plugins/blackhole-bad-bots/

2. Setup a Geo-IP allow list using MaxMind's country DB (https://github.com/P3TERX/GeoLite.mmdb). I only allow visitors from countries I do business with.

Re:We Are Rebuilding Monica on Tuesday September 01, 2026 @11:42AM (#49523506)
I'll take "things you should never do" for $1000 Alex.

https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/04/06/things-you-should-...

Re:PostgreSQL for Everything on Wednesday August 19, 2026 @10:37AM (#49362254)
Same, I posted some corrections to Dr. Bauer's article: https://joecode.com/2026-08-19-sqlite3/
Re:If You're over 40, You're Ready to Use A.I on Monday July 27, 2026 @03:23PM (#49074445)
Interesting to see the original NYTimes article title at Archive.is: https://archive.is/uYj2f

"The Kabbalah Teaching That Changed How I See A.I."

Re:How robust against spam should side projects be? on Wednesday February 19, 2025 @04:25PM (#43107914)
I've found most spam comes from bots operating from certain countries. Filtering traffic by IP address will stop a lot of spammy traffic. I've used a combination of GeoIP and IP address catagorization to limit the impact of bots on my side-projects.

Bot Protection: https://github.com/growlfm/ipcat

GeoIP Evaluation: https://dev.maxmind.com/geoip/geolite2-free-geolocation-data...

You can dig deeper using dedicated services for URL and image inspection.

Image Evaluation: https://cloud.google.com/vision/docs/detecting-safe-search

URL Evaluation: https://cloud.google.com/web-risk/docs/overview

Show HN: I made an app to manage and track dynamic QR codes

https://qrpotato.com/

I built this tool for myself. I need a simple tool to produce, manage, and track QR Codes along with their related campaigns. Most existing tools require a paid plan to unlock tracking and management features. It's a nominal personal cost to share it with other folks. Enjoy.Tech stack: Ruby, Sinatra, SQLite, Litestream, Fly.ioFAQ: https://qrpotato.com/faq

( Read More... | no comments | on HN )
Re:Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (October 2024) on Wednesday October 02, 2024 @01:48PM (#41723199)
Location: Seattle, WA

Remote: Yes

Willing to relocate: Yes

Technologies: Ruby, Python, SQL, HTML, CSS, Javascript

Résumé/CV: https://joecode.com/resume/

Email: [email protected]

I'm a data janitor who prefers writing boring software using boring technologies. I'm particularly good at turning piles of spreadsheets into data-driven dashboards.

If print friendly reports are a requirement, I'd go with QuickChart (https://quickchart.io.)

Static charts similar to chart.js, but without all the javascript. I've found static charts are much easier to work with once print CSS layout becomes a requirement.

My favorite web-based SQL editor and browser: https://www.adminer.org

Single PHP file. Super simple setup and configuration.

Re:EHTML Docs on Tuesday December 05, 2023 @10:38AM (#38532243)
How does this library compare to Turbo/Stimulus?

Happy to see competition in the world of "minimal JS" frameworks. Have you done a comparison with Turbo/Stimulus from DHH and company?

Re:Bear Does Analytics with CSS on Wednesday November 01, 2023 @01:40PM (#38101873)
This is really clever and fun. I'm curious how the results compare to something "old school" like AWStats?

https://github.com/eldy/awstats

Re:Ask HN: Could you share your personal blog here? on Friday July 07, 2023 @12:42PM (#36634395)
https://joecode.com

Mostly links to various articles and noise I find interesting along with a photo journal of my school bus conversion project.

Not a lot of words. "Why waste time say lot word when few word do trick?"

What's the reasoning behind the lack of transparent pricing?

> "How much does BillaBear cost? To get pricing email [email protected]."

mawise,

Where you thinking of sharing your code under an MIT license similar to Rails or something else?

I looked for a LICENSE file, but didn't find one: https://docs.github.com/en/github/building-a-strong-communit...

Generating PDF's from HTML is a huge PITA. I really like what you've done.

re: "is it clear upon viewing the landing page what the product is about?" Yes. I think your landing page copy reads well, but could use a bit of polish. Emphasis how well PdfApi solves common margin and background rendering issues compared to other alternatives.

re: "are there any questions that you have that are not answered on the page" I'm not sure you need to answer all of a users questions, but considering you are targeting startups and developers, I'd focus on building out your API documentation.

re: "would this product provide value to you if your startup needed to generate PDFs" Potentially, but considering your audience (developers/startups) I suspect most of us would tackle the issue locally with a Chrome headless setup.

re: "what would you use instead" I've used the following to generate PDF's from HTML: * Chrome Headless * WKHTMLtoPDF

This is good work. I like what you've done. Build out strong API documentation with multiple code snippets and examples to improve your developer marketing.

love the idea of building a geobox for filtering. I'll look into it. thanks for the feedback.
Good suggestion. It's on my TODO list.
Thanks @ccallebs. re: API, The Beer Mapping Project has you covered: https://beermapping.com
F.I.S.H. is a mashup of several data sources to help me explore my adopted state of Washington.

I'm using data provided by the United States Geological Survey, TrailAPI.com, The Beer Mapping Project, ReserveAmerica, Mapbox and OpenStreetMap to build an application to map a few of my favorite things: fishing, camping, hiking, mountain biking, and beer.

Your feedback and wisdom is appreciated,

-joe-

Re:National Park Maps on Friday May 05, 2017 @10:54AM (#14273859)
Thank you for all the effort you've put into this project. Love the clean design and how you've used affiliate links and merchandising to monetize the site. A+ work.
This tool will convert TypePad/MovableType content to WordPress, update image references, and produce an audit of images that you can download.

Tech: * Sinatra * Heroku * Bootstrap

Re:Ask HN: How do you handle rude/aggressive recruiters? on Thursday November 20, 2014 @01:41PM (#8637289)
Add them to the awful recruiters list: https://github.com/soffes/awfulrecruiters.com

Reply with a link to their pull request.

Older »