Top all-time · #8940
Patrick Wagstrom
Personal blog · patrick.wagstrom.net/weblogprogrammingcareer
Patrick Wagstrom writes Weblog on patrick dot wagstrom dot net, a personal blog at patrick.wagstrom.net about programming and career. Since 2010, 9 different Hacker News readers have linked it 11 times, most often “LPD for Fun and MP3 Playing”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2025-12-01, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (8) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
Patrick Wagstrom's weblog, best known for a 2003 post on using the lpd print spooler as a queue for playing MP3s. HN commenters cite it for that idea and for a 2010 post on TSA deaths.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 8 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
I build software and lead engineering teams. I also have a tendency to turn minor technical annoyances into fairly involved side projects.
Most-linked posts?
- LPD for Fun and MP3 Playing4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2020-05-05
- Using lpd to spool MP3s (2003)3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2011-09-16
- Do the new TSA AIT body scanners hurt more than they help?2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2010-11-24
What Hacker News says?
> I know about CUPS. There is no real alternative on Linux, is there? I don't know what lifting "real" is doing here, but lpd(8)[0] (line printer daemon) is what we used to use, and printcap(5)[1] to configure. It was general enough that you could make a music playlist system out of it[2]. [0] https://man.netbsd.org/lpd.8 [1] https://man.netbsd.org/printcap.5 [2] https://patrick.wagstrom.net/weblog/2003/05/23/lpdfor…
Comment linking /weblog/2003/05/23/lpdforfunandmp3playing/
on “Getting my daily news from a dot matrix printer”Submitted Using lpd to spool MP3s (2003) as a story · 22 points
HN discussionlpd/lpr can be used for e.g. a playlist/queue for music https://patrick.wagstrom.net/weblog/2003/05/23/lpdforfunandm...
Comment linking /weblog/2003/05/23/lpdforfunandmp3playing/
on “Nq – A simple Unix job queue system”Submitted LPD for Fun and MP3 Playing as a story · 1 points
HN discussionYes, at OpenBSD hackathons they used lpd as a queue for mp3s so all the devs could submit music to be played for the room. https://patrick.wagstrom.net/weblog/2003/05/23/lpdforfunandm...
Comment linking /weblog/2003/05/23/lpdforfunandmp3playing/
on “Bye CUPS: Printing with Netcat”Submitted Do the new TSA AIT body scanners hurt more than they help? as a story · 1 points
HN discussionOpenbsd folks used lpq to queue mp3 playlist. Cups is also an option and you get full stack of goodies built in. http://patrick.wagstrom.net/weblog/2003/05/23/lpdforfunandmp... http://rendermania.com/building-a-renderfarm-with-cups/
Comment linking /weblog/2003/05/23/lpdforfunandmp3playing/
on “5 subtle ways you’re using MySQL as a queue, and why it’ll bite you”Yes, and I've also seen 150 road deaths on one http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/usnews/constitution/... and 190.7 deaths via all TSA causes in another that even includes methodoloty http://patrick.wagstrom.net/weblog/2010/11/24/do-the-tsa-new... The bias of those sources might skew their results, but I really doubt the number is less than 50, hence my use of "on the order of".
Comment linking /weblog/2010/11/24/do-the-tsa-new-ait-body-scanners-hurt-more-than-they-help/
on “Why your child's school bus has no seat belts”People tend to undervalue security until it's too late. This seems unclear to me. Surely, in being disproportionaly exposed to failures of security, as opposed to people getting away with insecure practices or the inconvenience of good security procedures, security professionals are going to have a distorted view of the costs of security? People tend to be very bad at multiplying in the process of making moral judge…
Comment linking /weblog/2010/11/24/do-the-tsa-new-ait-body-scanners-hurt-more-than-they-help/
on “Time to Close the Security Theater”I wrote this article 12 years ago and it took me until I saw my own name in the comments to realize it was my own article. Now I want to take the advice of the commenters and make it work for YouTube videos our animated gifs - except have them play on a large LED array. This brings back some great memories if trying to explain to my the girlfriend why I didn't want to go look at engagement rings, "Y'know that old co…
Comment linking /weblog/2003/05/23/lpdforfunandmp3playing/
on “Using lpd to spool MP3s (2003)”Slow news day? Anyway, most Panasonic TVs also run Linux. There's an option in the menu to read the GPL http://patrick.wagstrom.net/resources/images/blog/tvLicense1...
Comment linking /resources/images/blog/tvLicense1.jpg
on “Top Devices Running Linux, Including No. 5 Electrolux refrigerator”
