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Ask HN: What is the thing you've built that you regret the most?

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481–490 of 539 posts

Re: Ask HN: What is the thing you've built that you regret the most?

#481
post #379

A pop up builder for WordPress. Received a lot of requests for this from my existing SaaS customers then started out as a corner-only slide-in modal. Eventually I caved and added a centered modal… It’s currently in active use on at least 30.000 websites. I’m sorry for making browsing the web suck a little more instead of less.

Have a long unique classname on it and submit that for being blocked by major AdBlock lists.

Re: Ask HN: What is the thing you've built that you regret the most?

#482
post #464

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was computer vision stuff in the missile's head (for target tracking), which is where the code was used.

That is a good reason to need a non trivial amount of memory, but I don't think it means there needs to be dynamically allocated memory. That basically implies that there is something unknown ahead of time, but specs, limitations, resolution fps, etc. should all be static.

I think it was a slab allocator made in house. It was a long time ago.

Re: Ask HN: What is the thing you've built that you regret the most?

#483
post #373

Built an aircraft-mounted camera gimbal pointing system that I thought was supposed to be used by energy companies to look for power poles but was also sold to US Border Patrol to hunt down immigrants. Not my finest hour.

I don’t think detecting illegal border crossings is inherently bad. A lot of stuff Surrounding it certainly is but that part in particular id be tempted to call neutral

This comment lacks basic understanding of a human as an inherent whole of attitudes and values, and how these relate to actions, and in particular to the cognitive dissonance emerging from past actions.

Re: Ask HN: What is the thing you've built that you regret the most?

#484

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This comment is now one of the top hits on Google for "Qatar slave helmet". And it's the only hit when I put quotes around the phrase to force an exact match. If this is real you should get in touch with investigative journalists, e.g. ProPublica. ("Get in touch with investigative journalists" probably applies to a bunch of the people posting in this thread.)

Actually, I want to think more about the theory of change here. It's conceivable that a ProPublica article could actually make the situation worse, e.g. by advertising the existence of the helmet to other abusive employers, or causing abusive employers to rework their labor practices in a way that looks better to the press but is actually worse. If the company that makes the helmet is based in a country with good gov…

Perhaps wrong impact in short term, but gains in long term?

Re: Ask HN: What is the thing you've built that you regret the most?

#485

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There may be consequences to quitting, perhaps disproportionately felt between you and the company This is why unions are so important, even in a field like software engineering. If you quit on your own, the company may not care. But using the threat of strikes, workers can demand better conditions for themselves and more ethical directions for their company.

> This is why unions are so important My favorite counter-example is a collective action of about a thousand medical workers in SF Hospital demanding from Facebook an increase in censorship (and the censorship is impossible without surveillance). Why do you think a union will support your ethical choices? And if it would not - you’d have to quit the company and the union, loosing not only your salary, but also union…

This is an argument against democracy itself. If you don't think democracy would work for you, then I can't convince you a union would either.

Re: Ask HN: What is the thing you've built that you regret the most?

#486

Worked for a YC some time back. It was quite a ride, but our seed round was just about gone and we had zero product-market fit after some time. It was ran a bit like a cult. As we scrambled to create something of value and keep the lights on, I (unintentionally) built and highly optimized a free-trial funnel for a Saas service according to a "gym-membership" model; ie, our entire revenue stream depended upon tricking…

To a small or otherwise degree, all of FAANG do some of the non-cancellable subscription smartness.

Re: Ask HN: What is the thing you've built that you regret the most?

#487
I built a distraction free writing app in 2012 to help me write, and it has been the single greatest distraction of all. it was successful, becoming the number one writing app on Windows store for years. I now have thousands of users, and it makes a tiny bit of money each month, and supporting and fixing bugs takes up most of my spare time. I have to date not managed to finish more than a sketchy first draft of a novel using the software I wrote to help me write.

Re: Ask HN: What is the thing you've built that you regret the most?

#489
post #168

ever heard of ActiveX? you know, arbitrary code installing and running in your browser on Windows and available to be scripted by javascript? like, instead of Java? sorry. I'm not solely responsible, but sorry, pretty responsible. we were young. code-signing as a means of validating origin was a great idea. though it needed additional infrastructure to prevent abuse and allow global revocation, and that wasn't perfec…

ActiveX had been EVERYWHERE in South Korea and it was the main reason behind IE being used even into early 2010s. It feels surreal to come across someone who was responsible for something I hated so much back then. But now I’m just fascinated for some reason. I’d buy you a drink if I could :p

Early 2010s? Up until about 5 years ago if you wanted to do any banking you’d be doing it through IE and about half a dozen “security” activex plugins.

Except on mobile, which is what everybody preferred for obvious reasons.

Re: Ask HN: What is the thing you've built that you regret the most?

#490

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Glad you regret it. Not trying to rub it in as I don't think anything productive will come from self-flagellation, but this is truly awful and I think the US should have laws that make it a crime for any US corporation to participate in this sort of thing.

I was powerless to stop it. I was just a junior engineer, and it was decided by the CEO to do the project. So, actually, I feel I made the right choice -- I participated in the project but worked hard on making sure it was as limited as possible. I successfully advocated for several categories of logs to not be sent because they were not required by law. So, yes, I regret I couldn't do more, but I don't regret the ch…

I applaud you. I absolutely did not intend to rub it in or make you feel worse than you might already (which it sounds like you have little reason to). I admire you sharing your experience and being honest about it without beating yourself up too much. The world is made better by little decisions for the good like the ones you made. Thank you.
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