Reminds me when I got banned from Amazon for suspected fraud (had an old account, but deleted my email and number since it was in a lot of DB dumps). After I got hired, I reached out to the guy in charge of the anti-fraud team at Amazon, and got unbanned. Emails to support etc. did nothing before I reached out internally (unbanned by 1am the next day).
hansvm · 41m ago
Interesting. I still have a bricked phone from my onboarding at Google, and no internal people cared either. There's a tool I could have used to fix it, but it's accompanied by a message saying that if you use it without permission you'll be fired.
rmonvfer · 2h ago
This is the level of epic I aspire to in life
makeitdouble · 2h ago
Except they're working at Amazon now.
danillonunes · 1h ago
Next level epic is hand your resignation letter right after you get unbanned. "My job here is done."
daymanstep · 41m ago
And then banned again the next day.
naniwaduni · 14m ago
tbh you could probably easily have enough gripes with Epic to do this too... but then you'd have to move to Wisconsin.
ants_everywhere · 1h ago
Yes, but now they have free bananas
jcgrillo · 1h ago
seems like they could turn this into a lucrative side hustle "super premium secret support" embrace the technofascist feudalism!
stevesimmons · 3h ago
If Google Maps would like to hire me so the km/miles switch can remember I only ever want to see distances in km, my contact details are in my HN profile.
I must have changed that back from miles once a fortnight since Google Maps launched 20 years ago. That's 500 times. Totally ridiculous for a company who core goal is profiling their users...
jldugger · 2h ago
> That's 500 times. Totally ridiculous for a company who core goal is profiling their users
Seven interviews later and 1 PR later: Fails in A/B due to declining user engagement
EspadaV9 · 2h ago
Wait, there's a setting for this? I've lived in Australia for over 16 years now but everything is still in miles instead of Kms and I have never been able to find a setting to change it (although it sounds like even if I did find itz it would be mostly useless).
kirubakaran · 2h ago
When I was traveling in Mexico, it drove me nuts that even though I was signed in, Google Flights switched my currency from dollars to pesos every single time I opened a new tab! I think they really don't care.
galangalalgol · 1h ago
I think they rely on ip for a lot of stuff they shouldn't. Getting a local esim switches me to km until I switch back to my old one. Have no idea about Australia.
Edit: after typing this realized this isn't ip, its provider. That maybe does make sense to cue off of.
hsbauauvhabzb · 1h ago
While you’re there can you add a ‘how much I value my time’ input field for tolls? Google suggests I spend $20 through 3 tolls to save a single minute. Constantly.
Edit: and while you’re there, move the ‘speed camera ahead, is it still there?’ Dialog. IT COVERS THE DAMN SPEED LIMIT ICON.
11Spades · 5h ago
It's hilarious to see the old joke actually playing out in real life. Kudos!
On a meta note; would you consider adding a left margin to your site? Reading from the very edge of my screen feels somewhat strange.
kulahan · 4h ago
Clicking through the links in his article, I came across a guy who apparently did the same thing at Apple - he introduced the "auto remove" feature for expired passes added to your wallet, then promptly quit. I had no idea that's how that feature came about, but now I'm going to send a little mental thank you to him every time I get off a plane. That shit was FRUSTRATING.
chatmasta · 4h ago
That reminds me, I need to apply for a job on whichever team hasn’t added a toggle to remove contact names from the autocorrect dictionary…
Carrok · 4h ago
Oh wow. Guess I need to get a job at Apple just to add a `Mark all as read` button to voicemails.
skeptrune · 4h ago
Hotz said this, but I couldn't find any actual evidence so didn't include it.
>Get hired by github
> force push the pr
> get fired
> profit
bigstrat2003 · 3h ago
> On a meta note; would you consider adding a left margin to your site? Reading from the very edge of my screen feels somewhat strange.
What!? I love the fact that it's left-aligned. That's the way text should be!
Crespyl · 2h ago
Alignment and margin are different concepts. You can be left-aligned and still have a comfortable margin.
inopinatus · 2h ago
I am not a fan of sites that waste screen real estate.
zac23or · 2h ago
The software quality is so low that if a bug bothers you, it's easier to get hired to fix it than for the company to fix it! Wow.
It reminds me of the programmer who mitigated the GTA 5 loading time problem. If even with a lot of money of GTA 5 the quality doesn't improve...
SoftTalker · 4h ago
> I added an AbortController to the debounced search function, so that it aborts any previous queries when a new one is made. This means that the search results are always relevant to what the user is currently typing.
To me one of the most annoying things an application can do is go off and do something before I'm done telling it what to do. Filters that apply themselves without an explicit indication that I'm done setting them up, or searches that are constantly re-executing as I'm typing. Wait for me to stop.
theandrewbailey · 2h ago
When I implemented search-as-you-type on my blog, I decided to wait for the current search suggestion request to complete before doing a new one. Seemed like a reasonable balance between responsiveness and not overloading the server.
tom1337 · 4h ago
I hate this on booking websites. Especially if the filters are in a sidebar on the left and do not fit your viewport and every god damn time you change something it scrolls up, starts loading, puts filters into read only mode until it's done just so you can add the next filter...
stavros · 4h ago
The article says nothing about the hiring, which is kind of the most important part of the whole escapade. Right now, it's a bit "something was bugging me, and when the company hired me, I fixed it", which, great?
bayindirh · 4h ago
I think his company is acquired by the currently he's working in, so he's acquihired.
skeptrune · 4h ago
exactly
bayindirh · 3h ago
Congrats!
PantaloonFlames · 1h ago
The cancellation in the denouncing seems … sort of obvious.
skeptrune · 1h ago
yes, i was very annoyed
buggy6257 · 54m ago
I specifically attempted to get a job at Discord so I could submit a PR to make giant emojis be a toggle setting rather than automatic. I know the feeling.
(If anyone works at Discord, please me and the rest of my server are begging you)
miniBill · 22s ago
I don't know if this helps but I've been adding a full stop next to emoji exactly for this. It doesn't fix it for ~new people but it's something for yourself?
syntaxing · 1h ago
There was an old legend for an Apple bug (but I can’t exactly remember what). He complained about this macOS bugs for years. Worked for Apple for a couple months, fixed the issue, then quit.
cosmic_quanta · 5h ago
> It reminds me of George Hotz’s legendary single week at Twitter in 2022, where he joined just to fix a login popup that was bothering users, then bounced.
The author remembers this, uh, event differently than I remember it...
George Hotz boldly claimed that he could "fix Twitter search" faster than those lazy Twitter devs, only to bail almost immediately. Hubris!
On the way out, he removed that login popup as a sort of consolation prize.
cnst · 56m ago
Well, that's a bit of my time gone (re)looking into GeoHot, patent trolls, and now comma.ai.
Comma.AI by George Hotz sounds very interesting, it's basically a $999 "comma 3x" smartphone with an OBD-II connector and a $99 wiring harness that can add an equivalent of a Tesla Autopilot to many cars manufactured in the last 10 years (even Tesla's own cars, too), for a total cost of $1098, whilst being OSS and available on GitHub, and — get this — even having ssh access to your car! Optional cloud subscription plans are $10/mo for your own SIM, or $24/mo with bundled cellular data.
Sadly, it does NOT have an equivalent of Tesla Sentry Mode yet, https://github.com/commaai/openpilot/issues/29912, which is kind of unfortunate, because Tesla's own implementation of Sentry Mode is using 250W of power — depleting the entire 80kWh battery from 80% to 30% in like 7 days (".5*80kWh over 7 days" = 238W) — openpilot would have been a nice alternative at what'd presumably be around 5W or less ("40kWh / 5W" is 333 days).
llbbdd · 3h ago
Yeah, what? He seemingly joined Twitter, did fuck-all and quietly bounced. Embarrassing and completely self-inflicted.
skeptrune · 5h ago
Updated the post to tell that story more accurately. Simultaneously took down the damn blog because Github pages has some freak bug, but oh well.
And then he was trying to pitch rewriting it from scratch to elon
pyman · 1h ago
I followed the whole saga on Twitter. He shared a video of his browser saying, "I fixed it in 5 minutes," and 5 days later he was still trying to figure out why his PR was failing the build. When Twitter engineers told him to write tests, he rage quit.
FYI this autoplays full screen video when I visit on iOS + Firefox.
Edit: then switches into dark mode after a lag of a few seconds
skeptrune · 1h ago
autoplay my fault and will fix
dark mode idk, that is a very tiny piece of JS which should run near instantaneously
clippyplz · 5h ago
This link is a 404 for me
skeptrune · 5h ago
Fixed! Damn Github pages
willmadden · 3h ago
That's one way to do it.
deadbabe · 5h ago
I wonder if it's legal for corporations to have employees that they send off to get hired at other companies, do some stuff in those companies that are beneficial to their actual employer, and then leave before the probationary period ends.
chatmasta · 4h ago
IANAL, but it’s almost certainly legal, as long as all parties involved adhere to the applicable non-disclosure agreements, non-compete agreements, and intellectual property provisions of their employment contracts. Even then it’s likely to remain a civil matter in most cases.
Companies can sue each other for nearly anything, so any level of this behavior could result in a lawsuit. It wouldn’t cross the line into criminality until it involved some fraudulent deception or blatant corporate espionage. For a recent example of that, see the ongoing litigation between Rippling and Deel. (But even that egregious espionage activity remains limited to civil court, at least for now.)
lukan · 4h ago
"to have employees that they send off to get hired at other companies, do some stuff in those companies that are beneficial to their actual employer, and then leave before the probationary period ends."
To me that sounds like not disclosing, that they work also for another company and this certainly ain't legal on most jurisdictions.
wavemode · 4h ago
Can you cite the relevant law? I've never heard of it being illegal in the US to not tell your job that you have another job.
makeitdouble · 1h ago
It's probably not the law (it would be shitty when working at a 7/11 on the weekends to have tolegally disclose all your other income resources)
But basic employee contracts cover these aspects, including working in the interest of the company and IP assignments, and usually exclusivity if you're full time.
These issues are old as time.
wavemode · 1h ago
Yeah I'm aware employment contracts might stipulate it. But violating a contract isn't against the law. Worst case you could get sued (though with an employment contract, the limit of repercussions are generally just termination).
makeitdouble · 1h ago
> violating a contract isn't against the law
Being binding is kinda of the whole purpose of a contract. If violating it is void under the law the company should change lawyers.
To put your argument under a different angle, there are many written laws you can violate with very limited consequences if any, but they are still laws.
Contracts aren't written by the country, and enforcing them is civil matter so there's nuance, but violating an enforceable contract you provably agreed to is against the law. Whether you can get away with it is another question.
codingdave · 49m ago
There are two types of law. Contracts are civil law. Breaking them does not break criminal law. Civil vs. criminal law has different procedures, different burdens of proof, and different potential consequences.
When it comes to contracts, no, there are no "laws", there are agreements between parties that can be enforced if taken to court, and in that sense they are binding. But breaking them does not break any law... it just breaks an agreement.
tough · 3h ago
and what if you don't work there or have a salary but happen to own some equity?
lukan · 2h ago
Not really without researching(also I am european and might have assumed wrong about US), but something with conflict of interest? Especially if another company ordered you to work for someone else. If all is disclosed, probably fine, but undisclosed? Definitely would not work in europe. Breach of trust etc.
jameshart · 2h ago
Not sure it falls foul of broader laws, but it almost certainly breaches your employment contract, which likely includes something about following the policies of your employer; that policy (in many companies you likely have to go through onboarding training and annual refreshers on it) probably includes a code of employee conduct that has specific mention of conflicts of interest.
wavemode · 4h ago
You'd achieve more by simply telling the company that you need a certain feature added to their product. If you're an important customer for them, you could probably negotiate a price for them to prioritize the work.
bmacho · 4h ago
I think we'd probably better off with the previous idea: just work for them for a period.
wavemode · 3h ago
I'm speaking from the perspective of company A, who needs a feature added to company B's product.
They could send their engineers to work for company B, sure, but those engineers' time is still costing money. And those engineers are completely unfamiliar with B's codebase, so they won't work as efficiently. Might as well just pay company B directly for the feature work.
pengaru · 5h ago
Problem solved, so... time to move on?
skeptrune · 4h ago
I thought about it, but nah. Really enjoying the new job so far
arguflow · 6h ago
Code is always the best documentation and the best thing about opensource.'
doubled112 · 5h ago
Code will tell you what but not the why. It also doesn’t always tell you the intent.
tunesmith · 5h ago
They should invent a programming language that only compiles if the why is still true.
9rx · 4h ago
They have, but they're beyond grasp of most developers.
Tests were invented to express the "why" for the normal guy. They don't strictly prevent compilation, but a proper workflow will see them halt your process in the same way, offering the same outcome.
Granted, there are a lot of horribly written tests out there that don't tell you "why" — or, well, anything. As always, people will find a way to abuse anything you put in front of them. But when used well...
tunesmith · 2h ago
With a test, it might link up some functionality with "why" and pass, but then what happens if a business requirement just isn't a requirement anymore? The test will still pass. I'm thinking of something sillier, like a language that forces you to justify why for your code, and then regularly quizzes you if the business reasoning is still true. If anything changes, it rips out the code and breaks your site. :) So then you have to go in to fix it.
I'd also love it if this were applied to politics and laws.
jmercouris · 5h ago
Good commit logs or comments may tell you why
tobyhinloopen · 4h ago
What about function names, class names and variable names?
kulahan · 4h ago
Helluva wish.
rjsw · 5h ago
Having the source lets you fix something for yourself, there are an increasing number of barriers being put up to prevent you submitting a fix upstream.
Going through this right now with part of libpng, their mailing list doesn't seem to like my email.
aidenn0 · 5h ago
Using a source-based distro (previously Gentoo, now NixOS) lets me solve the problem for myself, even if my PR never gets accepted. Right now the count is at 4 patches in software I use that I submitted upstream that were (for one reason or another) never accepted.
In at least one case, I later found out that I was not the only person to submit a fix for the problem I was running into, but their discussion on the ML also went without comment 3 years earlier.
I must have changed that back from miles once a fortnight since Google Maps launched 20 years ago. That's 500 times. Totally ridiculous for a company who core goal is profiling their users...
Seven interviews later and 1 PR later: Fails in A/B due to declining user engagement
Edit: after typing this realized this isn't ip, its provider. That maybe does make sense to cue off of.
Edit: and while you’re there, move the ‘speed camera ahead, is it still there?’ Dialog. IT COVERS THE DAMN SPEED LIMIT ICON.
On a meta note; would you consider adding a left margin to your site? Reading from the very edge of my screen feels somewhat strange.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMyg5ohTsVY
This still didn't work reliably, unfortunately. I still have expired passes, tickets etc. in my wallet
What!? I love the fact that it's left-aligned. That's the way text should be!
It reminds me of the programmer who mitigated the GTA 5 loading time problem. If even with a lot of money of GTA 5 the quality doesn't improve...
To me one of the most annoying things an application can do is go off and do something before I'm done telling it what to do. Filters that apply themselves without an explicit indication that I'm done setting them up, or searches that are constantly re-executing as I'm typing. Wait for me to stop.
(If anyone works at Discord, please me and the rest of my server are begging you)
The author remembers this, uh, event differently than I remember it... George Hotz boldly claimed that he could "fix Twitter search" faster than those lazy Twitter devs, only to bail almost immediately. Hubris!
On the way out, he removed that login popup as a sort of consolation prize.
Comma.AI by George Hotz sounds very interesting, it's basically a $999 "comma 3x" smartphone with an OBD-II connector and a $99 wiring harness that can add an equivalent of a Tesla Autopilot to many cars manufactured in the last 10 years (even Tesla's own cars, too), for a total cost of $1098, whilst being OSS and available on GitHub, and — get this — even having ssh access to your car! Optional cloud subscription plans are $10/mo for your own SIM, or $24/mo with bundled cellular data.
Sadly, it does NOT have an equivalent of Tesla Sentry Mode yet, https://github.com/commaai/openpilot/issues/29912, which is kind of unfortunate, because Tesla's own implementation of Sentry Mode is using 250W of power — depleting the entire 80kWh battery from 80% to 30% in like 7 days (".5*80kWh over 7 days" = 238W) — openpilot would have been a nice alternative at what'd presumably be around 5W or less ("40kWh / 5W" is 333 days).
context: https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/10539
It was embarrassing to watch.
Edit: then switches into dark mode after a lag of a few seconds
dark mode idk, that is a very tiny piece of JS which should run near instantaneously
Companies can sue each other for nearly anything, so any level of this behavior could result in a lawsuit. It wouldn’t cross the line into criminality until it involved some fraudulent deception or blatant corporate espionage. For a recent example of that, see the ongoing litigation between Rippling and Deel. (But even that egregious espionage activity remains limited to civil court, at least for now.)
To me that sounds like not disclosing, that they work also for another company and this certainly ain't legal on most jurisdictions.
But basic employee contracts cover these aspects, including working in the interest of the company and IP assignments, and usually exclusivity if you're full time.
These issues are old as time.
Being binding is kinda of the whole purpose of a contract. If violating it is void under the law the company should change lawyers.
To put your argument under a different angle, there are many written laws you can violate with very limited consequences if any, but they are still laws.
Contracts aren't written by the country, and enforcing them is civil matter so there's nuance, but violating an enforceable contract you provably agreed to is against the law. Whether you can get away with it is another question.
When it comes to contracts, no, there are no "laws", there are agreements between parties that can be enforced if taken to court, and in that sense they are binding. But breaking them does not break any law... it just breaks an agreement.
They could send their engineers to work for company B, sure, but those engineers' time is still costing money. And those engineers are completely unfamiliar with B's codebase, so they won't work as efficiently. Might as well just pay company B directly for the feature work.
Tests were invented to express the "why" for the normal guy. They don't strictly prevent compilation, but a proper workflow will see them halt your process in the same way, offering the same outcome.
Granted, there are a lot of horribly written tests out there that don't tell you "why" — or, well, anything. As always, people will find a way to abuse anything you put in front of them. But when used well...
I'd also love it if this were applied to politics and laws.
Going through this right now with part of libpng, their mailing list doesn't seem to like my email.
In at least one case, I later found out that I was not the only person to submit a fix for the problem I was running into, but their discussion on the ML also went without comment 3 years earlier.