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An apology...

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Re: An apology...

#41

Post by cwilson »

cmelbye wrote: post #23
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,…

Gizmodo isn't the reason that the owner of the phone will be caught. First of all, he lost it, so it's originally his fault. Second of all, it was remotely wiped, which implies that Apple knew what had happened to the device and they knew exactly which device it was so that they could wipe it. Third of all, there were clear shots of the backside of the phone which had several serial numbers, most likely linking it to…

Came here to say this. If Gizmodo truly burned this guy then yes, they are way out of line, but in this case it seems pretty obvious to me that Apple knew who lost their phone a week ago when this all started.

The proof is in the first paragraph of almost every article on every site covering this story. The phone was remote wiped the next morning.

You can all put down your pitchforks now. Let's wait and see what actually happens before nailing someone to a cross.

Re: An apology...

#42

Post by robosox »

barlo wrote: post #27

The article states the phone was lost on the April 18th, but Engadget had the same bar story and pictures on April 17th. http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/17/iphone-4g-is-this-it Does this not add up, or am I missing something?

You're missing something :-) the phone was lost on March 18th, not April.

Re: An apology...

#43

Post by [deleted] »

qeorge wrote: post #33

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…

[deleted]

Re: An apology...

#44

Post by staunch »

techiferous wrote: post #18
staunch wrote: post #10

The Gawker network (which includes Gizmodo) is run by well known scumbag Nick Denton. He's a leech and a bottom feeder. Don't hold your breath waiting for anything positive out of him.

"scumbag, leech, bottom feeder" Describing actions that Nick Denton did that you didn't like would advance this discussion, but I don't see any value in name-calling. I really don't like these sorts of comments on Hacker News.

Those quotation marks don't mean what you think they do. I wrote that he was a "well known scumbag" and (separately) "a leech and bottom feeder". Listing his primary attributes like you did would be totally out of line.

Anyway, my comments would stand up in court. Truth is an absolute defense. Nick Denton is infamous. Google him. He runs such gems as Valleywag, Gawker, and Defamer. Self identifies as a "gossip merchant" and the title of his own web site is "Nick Denton: The long and illustrious history of bile", which is entirely accurate.

Re: An apology...

#45

Post by hristov »

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…

I don't buy this. His name is not news. It is not important. If they just said "young Apple engineer" the news value of the whole thing would be exactly the same. If somebody that the public cares about loses an iPhone, the name is news. If it is just a random person, well the news value of the actual name is almost none.

Actual responsible journalists often withhold names of ordinary people that get into news stories if disclosure would be embarrassing or damaging for those people. For example, the names of people that are accused of crimes are usually not disclosed by journalists until these people have been charged. The names of people that are killed or injured in a newsworthy event are also usually not disclosed. The names of victims of sensitive crimes like rape or sexual harassment are usually not disclosed.

Of course Apple know he is the one who lost it, but now every future potential employer will also know. And again there was no reason at all for his name to have been made public.

Re: An apology...

#46

Post by ZachPruckowski »

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…

Showing the guy's name, photo, and facebook page is gratuitous and wrong. Dude's already having the worst week of his life, and now they're splaying "this guy was the idiot who lost an iPhone prototype" all over the web? I buy that celebrities should get that treatment because they signed up for it going in[1], but this is just some average guy in a normal profession who was just trying to keep his head down.

[1] - unless your film or music career literally pre-dates Charlie Chaplin, you knew what you were getting into.

Re: An apology...

#47

Post by ZachPruckowski »

BigZaphod wrote: post #32
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 fo…

If they fire him now, it's CYA. "A prototype has gone missing" might get Steve Jobs or Jon Ive or whoever fretting, but "the fourth generation iPhone is sitting in Gizmodo's office" has to be resulting in legendary anger from the top floor, and I can totally see the manager saying "we canned the guy and we tightened our testing restrictions" to placate upper-level anger.

Re: An apology...

#48

Post by rrhyne »

winterlightning wrote: post #39
gr366 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Only a boss who is not worth working for would think this guy is incapable of learning this lesson after all that.

Re: An apology...

#49

Post by rrhyne »

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…

Man, how often is this guy going to hear: So you're the guy who lost the iPhone? That's going to get old.

Re: An apology...

#50

Post by tbrooks »

staunch wrote: post #10

The Gawker network (which includes Gizmodo) is run by well known scumbag Nick Denton. He's a leech and a bottom feeder. Don't hold your breath waiting for anything positive out of him.

I don't think Denton deserves all the credit for this controversy - although he's an easy target because he's the face of Gawker.

The authors and editors of Gizmodo are responsible as well...

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