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An apology...

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Re: An apology...

#31

Post by mustpax »

TomOfTTB wrote: post #24
razerbeans wrote: post #14

Seeing the name-drop of the Apple engineer on Gizmodo made my jaw drop. I couldn't believe that they would do such a thing. This no doubt casts a shadow on his career and life. It's a reckless attempt by what appears to be a subpar site to make itself somewhat legitimate. In this respect, they've failed miserably.

As much as I hate to defend Gawker I don't think you can blame them for the negative impact on his career. Say what you will he is guilty of what they claim he did. I would hope future employers would be willing to look past it and realize it was an innocent mistake but they have a right to know. In the end this incident is relevant to how much you trust him with prototypes in the future. Beyond that Gawker is a news…

Guilty? As in, culpable? I am baffled by your willingness to burn someone at the stake for an honest mistake. Have you never misplaced anything valuable, left something behind by accident?

Also, Gawker could have easily reported on this story and kept the engineer's name private. For example, read the NY Times article re-reporting the story, you won't see the engineer's name. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/20/technology/companies/20app...

Re: An apology...

#32

Post by BigZaphod »

jsz0 wrote: post #9

They very possibly did the guy a favor exposing his identity not only to insulate him from hasher retribution but also as pretty clear evidence it was an innocent mistake. No one would leave their identity on the device if they had personally conspired to sell it on the black market. I don't think it's that big of a deal. If the device was being field tested Apple was accepting the risk of theft/loss. If it had been…

If Apple would fire him over this, they probably would (or did?) fire him a week or so ago when it first went missing and got remote-wiped. The fact that it was later found and he was publicly humiliated shouldn't change anything in this case - they already knew it was lost and they knew this situation was a real possibility. If they hadn't fired him yet, I don't see how it makes sense to fire him now that someone found and published it. It's not like he could control who happened to find it.

Re: An apology...

#33

Post by qeorge »

The engineer in question is a good friend of several of us here at HN. We sincerely appreciate the support he's being shown here and elsewhere around the internet.

So there is no doubt: Gray is one of the smartest engineers I've ever had the pleasure of knowing, and I'm sure he feels terrible about this. Although I'm sure this is going to be one of the worst weeks of his life, he will land on his feet, wherever that may be.

If he becomes available for hire, I highly recommend him to any startup in the SF area. Its rare to find such a combination of raw talent and work ethic in one engineer.

Re: An apology...

#34

Post by BigZaphod »

TomOfTTB wrote: post #24
razerbeans wrote: post #14

Seeing the name-drop of the Apple engineer on Gizmodo made my jaw drop. I couldn't believe that they would do such a thing. This no doubt casts a shadow on his career and life. It's a reckless attempt by what appears to be a subpar site to make itself somewhat legitimate. In this respect, they've failed miserably.

As much as I hate to defend Gawker I don't think you can blame them for the negative impact on his career. Say what you will he is guilty of what they claim he did. I would hope future employers would be willing to look past it and realize it was an innocent mistake but they have a right to know. In the end this incident is relevant to how much you trust him with prototypes in the future. Beyond that Gawker is a news…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journalism_ethics_and_standards

Re: An apology...

#35

Post by BigZaphod »

waterlesscloud wrote: post #3
swilliams wrote: post #2

What reason did gizmodo have to release the identity of the engineer that lost the phone? To "prove" that their story was more real? Did they even consider what's going to happen to that guy? Every gawker website feels like it is just barely a half step above a tabloid, and in some cases, less than that (cf, Valleywag). Behaving this petulantly is not a very good way to discourage the popular perception of bloggers,…

Apple knew whose phone it was, this story doesn't harm him there at all. It may even help prevent him from being fired or retaliated against, now that his name is public. It could help or hurt with future employers, but I'd guess on balance it helps. Probably won't be trusted with prototypes again, but that was going to be the case either way. Not to defend gizmodo, they seem pretty borderline in the whole thing.

I don't see how this helps keep him from getting fired at all. Apple knew it was missing. They knew who lost it. They knew all this at least a week ago since Gizmodo claimed to have had it that long. If they were going to fire him, they already would have. (Maybe they already did?)

Re: An apology...

#36

Post by tvon »

jsz0 wrote: post #9

They very possibly did the guy a favor exposing his identity not only to insulate him from hasher retribution but also as pretty clear evidence it was an innocent mistake. No one would leave their identity on the device if they had personally conspired to sell it on the black market. I don't think it's that big of a deal. If the device was being field tested Apple was accepting the risk of theft/loss. If it had been…

They could have done without the gigantic photo of the guy...

Re: An apology...

#37

Post by BigZaphod »

prasen wrote: post #30

if gizmodo had not outed him, it could have been successfully sued for theft. Apple considers the phone stolen - an excuse given by powell to obviously save his ass - and had giz not explained the events as to how they got the phone - they would have got screwed. So yeah, everyone makes mistakes - but you've got to learn from them :)

So you're saying that because Gizmodo published some text on a blog that their version of the story is now more true than Gary's may have been? You're assuming Gary didn't simply tell Apple the truth when he lost it. Why?

Re: An apology...

#38

Post by adora »

anthonyb wrote: post #29
TomOfTTB wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As much as I hate to defend Gawker I don't think you can blame them for the negative impact on his career. Say what you will he is guilty of what they claim he did. I would hope future employers would be willing to look past it and realize it was an innocent mistake but they have a right to know. In the end this incident is relevant to how much you trust him with prototypes in the future. Beyond that Gawker is a news…

Bullshit. There's a big difference between making a mistake, and having that mistake sprayed across the internet for all to see.

I agree. They had their story. At worst but acceptable they could have said that it was an Apple employee. They completely went over the line by naming said employee.

The question they should have asked themselves first was: "Does naming this person CONTRIBUTE to the story?" This is clear Journalism 101. The answer was and is clearly "no." The best line of defense for them is they have none.

Sometimes I hate the internet and its cache. This is one of those times. Anyone can ruin anyone. The really good news is that it appears he has many people on his side.

Re: An apology...

#39

Post by winterlightning »

gr366 wrote: post #26
TomOfTTB wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As much as I hate to defend Gawker I don't think you can blame them for the negative impact on his career. Say what you will he is guilty of what they claim he did. I would hope future employers would be willing to look past it and realize it was an innocent mistake but they have a right to know. In the end this incident is relevant to how much you trust him with prototypes in the future. Beyond that Gawker is a news…

After this event, I'll bet you can trust him with future prototypes more than anyone else on this planet.

Yet no one ever would want to
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