I would prefer the connection instructions made clear that the default SSH username would be used to set up my username on the platform and display that to other users without initially seeking my consent. On $machine[work], I don't get to pick that $USER is my full name.
If this affects you, make sure you connect with `ssh [pseudonymous name]@late.sh`.
This is a really cool idea, and very appealing. Also very nice that it looks usable with just an SSH client. It would be useful if it was explained what the companion client is for?
Another small personal gripe: I think you should either remove the 1 line copy/paste sh install on the homepage, or add a link to a git repo on the homepage. I know it's possible to view the sh by visiting it, but a raw text file doesn't give any info about contributors or development process. Current form of no git repo and copy/paste bash pipe on homepage feels like a dark pattern.
Not to mention that a webserver can be configured to show one sh file when a regular browser visits and another when curl etc. gets it. Show one thing, install another.
This is helpful to know, but also pretty general security practice. If you are auditing an artifact, only use that audited artifact after, don't assume that a network endpoint can never change what it serves. If you must use a newly downloaded artifact, verify it matches whatever you audited by comparing some sort of hash or derived value.
You don't have to change it just because one person complained. I personally like the "copy and paste curl command" to install something and I'm sure many others do as well. It's very convenient, and I can inspect the file myself if I'm that paranoid about it.
Did I miss something? Aren't public key are supposed to be public?
To be clear, that's an honest question, not sarcasm of anything. I only assume I don't know about some corner case with SSH or something? Because we have those on our websites, they are supposed to be used to verify signatures, etc. How is publishing them bad?
It's up to you to decide if it's okay that you send a server provider (in this case late.sh) a bunch of your public keys which he could for example use to probe other servers to see if you have access to them.
Based on what another user said, you might want to modify the above command to use throwawayUsername@late.sh instead if you are going the throwaway route to be more certain you aren't leaking your OS username.
Okay, but why is that something to be concerned about? How would one be able to probe to see if a server recognizes a public key? Why does that matter?
If I have your public key I could probe a server to see if it recognizes that public key. Which would tell me information you might not want to be leaked.
Vibe coded slop has the same patterns of black-on-black and grey-on-grey illegible text. Mix that with piss poor monospace, small-size fonts and you have to squint to read each letter
yeah I was gonna say, it's very difficult to read on an eink display. And while we're at it, I believe my phone is set to reduced animations, which I believe is a preference that's exposed to websites, the experience would be much better without so much blinking going on.
I would say the design is the most human thing about this page. (It has its charm somehow, even if it’s obviously “flavour of the week LLM design”. Also, I don’t think an LLM would choose colours so poorly unless nudged in that direction – accidentally, I suppose.)
There's maybe 100 words on the page. It would have taken someone 5 minutes to type that out. But apparently the creator didn't even care enough to do that.
See thats the difference, i don't core personally. Its a page to tell you to connect to the ssh server (or install their script). Why does it have to be a philosophical masterpiece? Its just word on a page saying click here, better looking then the majority of the SEO garbage that has plagued the internet for the last 15 year thanks to google and friends.
It's possible to login and interact and use late.sh with just your SSH client - there's no need to download or run custom code. But you that did make me realise that they don't have a github link on that page anywhere.
Your tone in this comment is a bit out of place on HN. Why are you here if you think it's 1M dummies?
i had a quite good experience generating a key/username on my local machine and ssh'ing in.
lot of vitriol in the comments. looks like a spectacularly put together BBS, to me. the tools are open-source and have some really fun looking value add, but no, i haven't ran them.
I would prefer the connection instructions made clear that the default SSH username would be used to set up my username on the platform and display that to other users without initially seeking my consent. On $machine[work], I don't get to pick that $USER is my full name.
If this affects you, make sure you connect with `ssh [pseudonymous name]@late.sh`.
This is a really cool idea, and very appealing. Also very nice that it looks usable with just an SSH client. It would be useful if it was explained what the companion client is for?
Another small personal gripe: I think you should either remove the 1 line copy/paste sh install on the homepage, or add a link to a git repo on the homepage. I know it's possible to view the sh by visiting it, but a raw text file doesn't give any info about contributors or development process. Current form of no git repo and copy/paste bash pipe on homepage feels like a dark pattern.
Not to mention that a webserver can be configured to show one sh file when a regular browser visits and another when curl etc. gets it. Show one thing, install another.
So download it with curl and read it first before executing it from your local disk.
read it ? we dont do what kind of stuff here, i got my army of reader agents.
Except you can't really be sure, still: http://web.archive.org/web/20250622061208/https://www.idontp...
This is helpful to know, but also pretty general security practice. If you are auditing an artifact, only use that audited artifact after, don't assume that a network endpoint can never change what it serves. If you must use a newly downloaded artifact, verify it matches whatever you audited by comparing some sort of hash or derived value.
noted, good feedback :) will change it later, thanks!
You don't have to change it just because one person complained. I personally like the "copy and paste curl command" to install something and I'm sure many others do as well. It's very convenient, and I can inspect the file myself if I'm that paranoid about it.
That is a modern BBS! I love the idea. Though I guess most people these days don't know what a BBS is, if you don't, look it up.
Really reminds me of https://tilde.town
Also for all these kind of ssh stuff. Please include server finger print so others verify.
Is this your server fingerprint?
ED25519 key fingerprint is SHA256:Tc7aeaaQulKJeF3C/zd2BKvq/KgaQTHyMPNa3s9K+aE.
For those who don't know just discovered you can change your theme!
Ctrl + O -> Move down to your theme. Helps with the default one being a bit chaotic
Thanks for whoever made this. This is rad and gives me hope for the old internet vibes.
This is like habbo hotel but for terminal nerds, amazing.
Totally! Or Club Penguin
Pay no need to other comments over here, this is awesome. I showed this to my co-workers, they all love it.
This is amazing! Even real icecast with irc <3 Even my fav game 2048, even with real LLM :D
Fantastic job mati!
Thank you :)
Fix for ChromeOS Linux: https://chatgpt.com/share/6a60b174-7b14-83ea-83d4-bdf4dc8ccc...
OK, which one of yous tried to `sudo apt install bobs and vageen`?? xD
I loved the text contrast on the landing page. Grey text on a dark background.
Yeah, it is a very nice way of saying “f off” if you’re poor, whatever with your display (low res mobile) or eyesight.
Is this just IRC
More of a BBS, I'd argue. Replace dialing with a modem with SSH, and otherwise the analogy holds decentky well.
Similar to DevZat: https://github.com/quackduck/devzat
I'm wondering how many ssh'd into this with the agent forwarding on?
love this!
was panning to add similar things into my own macOS[1] ssh app with persistent SSH server.
[1] https://popssh.com
Reminder to be cautious about leaking public keys.
Once you leak your public key it could be used to check if another server recognizes that leaked public key.
Did I miss something? Aren't public key are supposed to be public?
To be clear, that's an honest question, not sarcasm of anything. I only assume I don't know about some corner case with SSH or something? Because we have those on our websites, they are supposed to be used to verify signatures, etc. How is publishing them bad?
It's just something everyone should be aware of.
It's up to you to decide if it's okay that you send a server provider (in this case late.sh) a bunch of your public keys which he could for example use to probe other servers to see if you have access to them.
Everyone has different opsec.
The site does include a way to use a throwaway key and IIRC it was there last night too.
Based on what another user said, you might want to modify the above command to use throwawayUsername@late.sh instead if you are going the throwaway route to be more certain you aren't leaking your OS username.Surely you shouldn't be leaking your username. I could use it to see if another server recognised 'h43z'....
OpenSSH server is designed not to reveal whether a username exists.
What?
By default SSH leaks all of the below public keys (if they exist) + all public keys in your ssh-agent to a server you connect to.
running `ssh late.sh` would do exactly that.At the very bottom of the website they give you a command that would not leak your public keys.
`ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -f ~/.ssh/late_throwaway && ssh -o IdentitiesOnly=yes -i ~/.ssh/late_throwaway late.sh`
this would only send the late_throwaway public key
Okay, but why is that something to be concerned about? How would one be able to probe to see if a server recognizes a public key? Why does that matter?
so, i used my public key. can someone please tell me what i should be worried about now?
All your base are belong to us. We recommend rotating keys more often than never.
If I have your public key I could probe a server to see if it recognizes that public key. Which would tell me information you might not want to be leaked.
l33t h4xx0r5
[dead]
Design is illegible. Needs more contrast between text and background. I'm not even vision impaired and I was squinting immediately.
Even 15 years ago this was such a big problem that someone tried to start a rebellion: https://contrastrebellion.com/
Haha, nice website, with the greyed-out comments on HN featured among the offending examples. :)
So much modern GUI design is really poor for those a bit older where contrast is important.
The accessibility checker in Chrome/Firefox devtools would immediately flag this.
Vibe coded slop has the same patterns of black-on-black and grey-on-grey illegible text. Mix that with piss poor monospace, small-size fonts and you have to squint to read each letter
there are many many themes. some high contrast ones
Hmm maybe the tool has but the design of the website made me squint as well.
Me, too. For me, it was easier without the DarkReader plugin enabled than with it (which is kind of common), but it wasn't great to see either way.
I'm, by contrast, an able bodied person with functioning eyes and had no issues.
You might not have the average display.
But, can you reason more about your intent with the tone of your comment?
NEW web design with better contrast incoming! :D Thank you for the feedback :)
yeah I was gonna say, it's very difficult to read on an eink display. And while we're at it, I believe my phone is set to reduced animations, which I believe is a preference that's exposed to websites, the experience would be much better without so much blinking going on.
Nice! I was just thinking about how much I love installing binaries instead of going to a website
Looks neat, bookmarked and want to check it out!
this is amazing, great idea
Good work, thanks!
Ever see something new, and just know it’s going to survive?
Your site copy is great to the last drop.
Great submission.
> Your site copy is great to the last drop.
It is? It’s just the usual LLM.
The design = “flavor of the week LLM”,
but someone still has to proof and tweak generated copy.
Someone cared about this page.
No X. No Y. A is your B.
We do G, not H. C, D, E — plus an optional F.
No I, no J, no K — just an L into a W.
I would say the design is the most human thing about this page. (It has its charm somehow, even if it’s obviously “flavour of the week LLM design”. Also, I don’t think an LLM would choose colours so poorly unless nudged in that direction – accidentally, I suppose.)
There's maybe 100 words on the page. It would have taken someone 5 minutes to type that out. But apparently the creator didn't even care enough to do that.
See thats the difference, i don't core personally. Its a page to tell you to connect to the ssh server (or install their script). Why does it have to be a philosophical masterpiece? Its just word on a page saying click here, better looking then the majority of the SEO garbage that has plagued the internet for the last 15 year thanks to google and friends.
You might be projecting . All the docs in the app looks like the usual wall-of-text that was autogenerated .
Yeah, no. Not enough to make the page not look and sound like straight from an LLM.
Also not enough to make the text even a slight bit more readable. I have perfect eyes and am still struggling to focus on the headlines.
Lol
why not just use irc?
nobody has mIRC/ircii installed by default
everyone has ssh installed by default
can you listen to music, play sudoku/nanograms/tetris, do live artboard, jump into NetHack/DCSS/dopewars/LOGD insdie IRC?
Which servers are still alive?
Rizon, hackint, and Libera, among others
Pretty cool ngl.
this is amazing
I really love this!
And... Cue 1M dummies here running that code without even looking at it, SMH.
It's possible to login and interact and use late.sh with just your SSH client - there's no need to download or run custom code. But you that did make me realise that they don't have a github link on that page anywhere.
Your tone in this comment is a bit out of place on HN. Why are you here if you think it's 1M dummies?
The people why ran that line without knowing what it does are dummies. And yes maybe not 1M but there were a lot of them.
i had a quite good experience generating a key/username on my local machine and ssh'ing in.
lot of vitriol in the comments. looks like a spectacularly put together BBS, to me. the tools are open-source and have some really fun looking value add, but no, i haven't ran them.
[dead]
[dead]
[dead]
A CLI tool that's not grep-able is a GUI disguised as TUI.
Did it ever claim it was a CLI?
Under every link to download the CLI. The ones hosted on the cli subdomain
yes, and... ?
Let the man not enjoy it in peace.