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Ask HN: What is the most unethical thing you've done as a programmer?

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Re: Ask HN: What is the most unethical thing you've done as a programmer?

#491

Post by dorgo »

krapp wrote: post #224
dopeboy wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You got an extra day for an out of memory exception? I wish I was that lucky

Yeah, not successfully compiling and running was an automatic fail in my school.

Once, I implemented an interpreter/compiler for a toy-language in Opal (a functional language developed and maintained by my prof). A compiler for Opal was only available for Linux. I had zero experience with Linux and no intention to gain any. So I wrote my code without compliling/testing. Suprisingly, I got a good grade with a remark that the grade would have been even better without syntax errors :D

Re: Ask HN: What is the most unethical thing you've done as a programmer?

#492

Post by beltadurke »

DavidJustin wrote: post #487
netaustin wrote: post #289

After Jared Kushner originally bought the New York Observer, I was hired to lead the tech team, which I did for a year and a half in house then for three more as a vendor. He asked me, out of band, to blackhole articles critical of his commercial real estate colleagues and I complied.

The way you handled this does not speak well of your character. You should have: 1. Preserved the articles in a safe place. 2. Resigned. 3. Given the articles to another publication and state what happened. What I see here is that you were concerned first about your own finances. That is what makes you look bad. Ethics first, finances second.

Giving the articles to another publication would constitute unethical behavior as well though, considering he didn’t own the content and could not claim any authorship over it, though perhaps alerting authors or editorial staff could have spurred that result. And obviously a question about the most unethical thing a person in this field has done isn’t going to be something that speaks well of their character. I don’t think it speaks well of a person’s character to judge someone for the single most unethical thing they’ve done in their career.

Re: Ask HN: What is the most unethical thing you've done as a programmer?

#493

Post by netaustin »

tootie wrote: post #488
netaustin wrote: post #450

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I appreciate the sentiment, but I've been open about this on Twitter and to a team that wrote a profile of him in the wake of the election. That a newspaper publisher would participate in an administration that labels the press the enemy of the people is a total betrayal of the journalists and other media professionals who worked hard for him for years.

CNN just put this on their front page. Did they ask you for comment? https://money.cnn.com/2018/08/07/media/jared-kushner-new-yor...

They did not.

Re: Ask HN: What is the most unethical thing you've done as a programmer?

#494

Post by organicpreneur »

netaustin wrote: post #289

After Jared Kushner originally bought the New York Observer, I was hired to lead the tech team, which I did for a year and a half in house then for three more as a vendor. He asked me, out of band, to blackhole articles critical of his commercial real estate colleagues and I complied.

Beaconhack.com

Re: Ask HN: What is the most unethical thing you've done as a programmer?

#495

Post by somethingsimple »

stealthmodeclan wrote: post #362
iamleppert wrote: post #209

I created software that was used by call center agents to bid on “bathroom” break time slots and kept track of who was on break and actively punished those who didn’t follow the rules. It rewarded those that had higher performance and who took less breaks with higher priority. If an agent didn’t come back from their break a security guard would automatically be dispatched to find them. For the same company I also mad…

First i thought that this is scary but I've had many friends who told me that they they play games all day at their office and once boss called them in their cabin and they expected to be laid off but were given a small raise instead. "I take lots of cigarette and bathroom breaks to fix my makeup/hair and Snapchat my friends. I can't see myself working hard. I am not a sheep". Those are the exact words. This is a sce…

I can relate. I work in the US by the way.

I don't slack off, but I feel like there's a position as a Software Engineer past which I wouldn't want to be promoted. I see folks in the higher levels and the stuff they have to deal with has zero appeal to me. My salary and bonus at my current level are already more than enough to sustain my lifestyle and save plenty for retirement - I don't need more.

A lot of people are attracted to the idea of "getting more responsibility", and they like the prestige/visibility that comes with a fancy (e.g. "Principal" or "Staff") title. Me, I just want to put in my hours solving problems and go home do something else.

Re: Ask HN: What is the most unethical thing you've done as a programmer?

#496

Post by krageon »

secfirstmd wrote: post #448
krageon wrote: post #445

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And what if they can tell from the information leaked who leaked it? This person's life will be destroyed by armies of lawyers. Just so some journalist can report on something that'll be out of the news in a few weeks and change precisely nothing.

True. That is always a risk when someone does something in the public interest. But doing stuff for the betterment of others at risk of your own lifestyle is a noble endeavour that many have undertaken despite these reasons.

My point is that others are not bettered by this action, because the action of leaking to a journalist no longer improves anything. Just as it hasn't the last few times this happened. It is arguably a good idea to sacrifice something for everyone's benefit, but it is always a bad idea to sacrifice if nobody benefits.

Re: Ask HN: What is the most unethical thing you've done as a programmer?

#497

Post by mkoryak »

cimmanom wrote: post #398
mkoryak wrote: post #24

In my first job out of college i worked at a big consulting company on a project at a company that used interwoven teamsite cms. Teamsite was a cms written in Perl, JavaScript, and Java with lots of xml sprinkled in. It was a horrible system. I blogged about it on my personal blog. All the posts were about how to solve issues I had using it. This was before stack overflow. After I had about 10 such posts I wrote a po…

Ever so slightly surprised you didn’t get fired immediately.

I had already given notice at this point, so maybe that is why they didn't fire me. They could still tell interwoven "this asswipe is no longer with us".

Re: Ask HN: What is the most unethical thing you've done as a programmer?

#498

Post by fao_ »

King-Aaron wrote: post #481
fao_ wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just because someone is willing to, say, torture a rat, I should be the one to do it? That's a non-sequitur.

I feel this is akin to strawman logic. However using that as an example, there are people who work as vermin exterminators, or people who work in labs that have to euthanise lab mice. They probably don't enjoy it , but when there's a need for something you'll find someone to do it.

It's not a straw-man, because it's using your literal point. I can't get any closer to your argument than that.

> However using that as an example, there are people who work as vermin exterminators, or people who work in labs that have to euthanise lab mice. They probably don't enjoy it, but when there's a need for something you'll find someone to do it.

Yes, but that does not serve as a reason why I should be the one to do it (instead of them), that only postulates that there are other people out there to do it, which is an irrelevant point.

Re: Ask HN: What is the most unethical thing you've done as a programmer?

#499

Post by seabear »

avs733 wrote: post #485
3pt14159 wrote: post #483

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because terrorists target civilians on purpose.

1) Those are incredibly arbitrary labels and you either know that or should know that 2) The US drone program regularly targets first aid personnel and rescuers.[0] [0] https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2012-02-04/cia...

What does nr. 2 have to do with anything? The fact that the US kills civilians doesn't make this more ethical.

Re: Ask HN: What is the most unethical thing you've done as a programmer?

#500

Post by kulahan »

Timpy wrote: post #407
scott-smith_us wrote: post #178

There was an ongoing prank in my high school (late 70's) to insert John Holmes' name whenever/wherever possible. For example, one trick was to ask someone in the front office to add to the end-of-day announcements "{popular girl}, John Holmes won't be able to give you a ride today". Eventually the front office caught on, and it got riskier and more difficult to do. I was asked to write an Applesoft BASIC program to h…

I didn't know who John Holmes was. Don't google it at work guys.

FYI for the morbidly curious, he's apparently an adult film actor.
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