Ask YC: Why does Paul Graham use the Yahoo favicon?

[aitoehigie]

Whenever i go to www.paulgraham.com, I notice that the site uses a favicon that is extremely similar to the Yahoo logo, (i.e. Y!). It even uses the same color and font. Can this be linked to PG once working in Yahoo or does it just stand for YCombinator? I am really curious, any hints?

[tzury]

Paulgraham IP Search ARIN WHOIS for: 68.142.205.137

OrgName: Inktomi Corporation OrgID: INKT Address: 701 First Ave City: Sunnyvale StateProv: CA PostalCode: 94089 Country: US

NetRange: 68.142.192.0 - 68.142.255.255 CIDR: 68.142.192.0/18 NetName: INKTOMI-BLK-4 NetHandle: NET-68-142-192-0-1 Parent: NET-68-0-0-0-0 NetType: Direct Allocation NameServer: NS1.YAHOO.COM NameServer: NS2.YAHOO.COM NameServer: NS3.YAHOO.COM NameServer: NS4.YAHOO.COM NameServer: NS5.YAHOO.COM Comment: RegDate: 2004-03-24 Updated: 2005-08-26

RAbuseHandle: NETWO857-ARIN RAbuseName: Network Abuse RAbusePhone: +1-408-349-3300 RAbuseEmail: network-abuse@cc.yahoo-inc.com

OrgAbuseHandle: NETWO857-ARIN OrgAbuseName: Network Abuse OrgAbusePhone: +1-408-349-3300 OrgAbuseEmail: network-abuse@cc.yahoo-inc.com

OrgTechHandle: NA258-ARIN OrgTechName: Netblock Admin OrgTechPhone: +1-408-349-3300 OrgTechEmail: jluster@yahoo-inc.com

# ARIN WHOIS database, last updated 2008-06-15 19:10 # Enter ? for additional hints on searching ARIN's WHOIS database.

[jeroen]

It _is_ the Yahoo! logo. paulgraham.com still runs on Viaweb, which is now Yahoo Store, which is probably where the favicon comes from.

[aitoehigie → jeroen]

What source are you quoting? are you really sure?

[randombit → aitoehigie]

$ host paulgraham.com paulgraham.com has address 68.142.205.137 paulgraham.com has address 216.252.126.190 paulgraham.com mail is handled by 10 milter1.store.vip.mud.yahoo.com. paulgraham.com mail is handled by 10 milter1.store.vip.sp1.yahoo.com.

$ host 68.142.205.137 137.205.142.68.in-addr.arpa domain name pointer html1.store.vip.mud.yahoo.com. $ host 216.252.126.190 190.126.252.216.in-addr.arpa domain name pointer html1.store.vip.sp1.yahoo.com.

[almost → aitoehigie]

I remember pg saying in a comment or article somewhere that his site was one of the few remaining sites still running on the old viaweb system (presumably the one written in lisp).

[parenthesis → almost]

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=55451

[vlad → parenthesis]

According to a more recent post, Yahoo! forced Paul to move to the C++ version in the Fall; he experienced some side effects, from what I remember reading.

[parenthesis → vlad]

Yes, here:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=180391

[pystar → aitoehigie]

Yes, how sure are you? I read somewhere that Viaweb was rested by yahoo and the yahoo webstore as we know it is code written in C++ and not lisp.

[jeroen → pystar]

From the source of http://paulgraham.com/articles.html : "// Begin Y! Store Generated Code"

I didn't mean to imply anything about the code or architecture of Yahoo! Store, just about its origin.

[etal]

I was surprised to read PG's mention that he was affected by Yahoo's C++/Perl rewrite of Yahoo Store (someone else has supplied the link).

The dog food to eat now is Arc, not Yahoo Store, isn't it? Wouldn't it have been more fun to just rewrite the original Common Lisp portion in Arc and host it himself, similar to how he's operating Hacker News? Or is Yahoo's promise of stability/uptime more valuable than having another anvil for hammering out Arc on?

[petercooper]

He doesn't anymore.. :)

[rob]

Because YCombinator was acquired by Yahoo!

Or, probably because Yahoo Store maps /favicon.ico to its hosted sites. Examples:

http://store.triodestore.com/

http://infowars-shop.stores.yahoo.net/

http://www.pennwellbooks.com/

http://greenearthofficesupply.stores.yahoo.net/