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I thought I was designing for SpaceX, it may have been for the Silk Road

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Re: I thought I was designing for SpaceX, it may have been for the Silk Road

#111

Post by jordache »

krick wrote: post #106
CoryG89 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why did the silk road want a data visualization app? Telemetry, analytics, data visualization, and things like AB testing would probably work just as well for a dark web market as they would for Amazon. It's all about the money. As for why they felt they needed to create their own specific tool for this specifically, I'm not sure.

You want to believe it, because it would be a more exciting story. But if I wanted you to make me an analytic app for the Silk Road, I would tell you I want an analytic app for a marketplace . Which will be selling toys or whatever. Amazon 2.0. Not a fucking spaceship. It wouldn't be very plausible even if this guy was a programmer, asked to make some generic analytics engine for a spaceship (because things rarely ar…

space x also wouldn't hire some random green designer to develop a solution to analyze space ship data. They will use well vetted commercial solutions. LOL this author is BSing for sure..

Re: I thought I was designing for SpaceX, it may have been for the Silk Road

#112

Post by krick »

jordache wrote: post #111
krick wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You want to believe it, because it would be a more exciting story. But if I wanted you to make me an analytic app for the Silk Road, I would tell you I want an analytic app for a marketplace . Which will be selling toys or whatever. Amazon 2.0. Not a fucking spaceship. It wouldn't be very plausible even if this guy was a programmer, asked to make some generic analytics engine for a spaceship (because things rarely ar…

space x also wouldn't hire some random green designer to develop a solution to analyze space ship data. They will use well vetted commercial solutions. LOL this author is BSing for sure..

SpaceX didn't hire anyone. Did you read it at all? It was some guy (Blake Benthall aka "Defcon"), who previously worked at SpaceX, who allegedly hired this guy Thomas to make UI for some project of his own that he (Defcon) intended to sell to SpaceX later.

I'm not saying the whole story isn't BS, but at least it didn't claim what you assume it claimed.

Re: I thought I was designing for SpaceX, it may have been for the Silk Road

#113

Post by jordache »

krick wrote: post #112
jordache wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

space x also wouldn't hire some random green designer to develop a solution to analyze space ship data. They will use well vetted commercial solutions. LOL this author is BSing for sure..

SpaceX didn't hire anyone. Did you read it at all? It was some guy (Blake Benthall aka "Defcon"), who previously worked at SpaceX, who allegedly hired this guy Thomas to make UI for some project of his own that he (Defcon) intended to sell to SpaceX later. I'm not saying the whole story isn't BS, but at least it didn't claim what you assume it claimed.

I'm saying from the author's perspective, wouldn't he question why spacex need such paltry solution to visualize data from billion dollar projects? Either author is too dim to realize this obvious conflict, or he is just lying, and a poor lie at that.. Don't even say spacex. Just claim some CRUD start up instead

Re: I thought I was designing for SpaceX, it may have been for the Silk Road

#114

Post by _andromeda_ »

emodendroket wrote: post #29
griffinmb wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He was working for "Defcon" or Blake Benthall (his roommate in the story). Defcon was running Silk Road 2.0 after the second "Dread Pirate Roberts" left. Blake had been working for SpaceX, and left to work on Silk Road. This is his HN account: https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=blakeeb

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7277371 Prophetic.

>Why is enabling our species to be interplanetary often a harder sell than the prospect of trading years of your life for a small chance that you might exit with a few billion dollars?

Demand and supply people. The answer is very simple. No matter what amount of wishful thinking you may undertake, if you don't satisfy that simple principle of demand and supply, it just won't matter.

Re: I thought I was designing for SpaceX, it may have been for the Silk Road

#115

Post by nommm-nommm »

ukyrgf wrote: post #107
nommm-nommm wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does it mean?

A common idiom is "not know whether to laugh or cry", which usually means a situation is extremely bad. I don't really know how that applies to having a birthday party a week after you announce you're quitting, though.

"Not know whether to laugh or cry" usually means (to me) a situation is both funny and sad. Like you wouldn't say "my entire family was killed in an automobile crash, I don't know whether to laugh or cry," there's no humorous component.

Like you said, birthday cake celebration of an outgoing employee is neither.

Re: I thought I was designing for SpaceX, it may have been for the Silk Road

#116

Post by nommm-nommm »

wongarsu wrote: post #97
slezakattack wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure why, but that comment gave me a few chills.. I think that comment was made about 9 months before he got caught[1]. I imagined he was already running the site if not developing Silk Road 2.0 at that time. I'm unsure if ironic is the right word but it's bizarre to see yourself "progressing humanity" while working on something completely opposite.. [1] https://www.wired.com/2014/11/feds-seize-silk-road-2/

> it's bizarre to see yourself "progressing humanity" while working on something completely opposite.. I'm very ambivalent about sites like the Silk Road, but I'm sure some people view them as progressing humanity. If you see it as a platform that enables "evil" activities, like illegal gun purchases, then it might be regressing humanity. Alternatively you can view Silk-Road-like websites as disrupting existing illeg…

I am extremely skeptical that silk road like sites reduce violence to any significant degree. I'm under the impression that most of the violence is further up in the supply chain.

Re: I thought I was designing for SpaceX, it may have been for the Silk Road

#117

Post by EdHominem »

emodendroket wrote: post #109
EdHominem wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait until it happens to you. There are many crimes that don't actually hurt anyone which would still ruin your life if you were caught committing them. Blackmail pulls someone from the innocent-citizen category and puts them into just-another-gangster category in a way that smoking some pot does not. But also, there's a big difference between giving someone an absolute 100% pass and simply being able to empathize.

But he wasn't just smoking pot (and it's hard to imagine anyone really caring about unsubstantiated allegations of some guy smoking pot), he was running a massive drug dealing enterprise.

Right, which existed to let people buy things they wanted, like pot. He didn't sell near schools, or fight turf wars, etc.

Our silly laws, and the greed of the blackmailer, created this situation. The person attempting to pull the trigger is nearly blameless.

Re: I thought I was designing for SpaceX, it may have been for the Silk Road

#118

Post by meowface »

nommm-nommm wrote: post #116
wongarsu wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it's bizarre to see yourself "progressing humanity" while working on something completely opposite.. I'm very ambivalent about sites like the Silk Road, but I'm sure some people view them as progressing humanity. If you see it as a platform that enables "evil" activities, like illegal gun purchases, then it might be regressing humanity. Alternatively you can view Silk-Road-like websites as disrupting existing illeg…

I am extremely skeptical that silk road like sites reduce violence to any significant degree. I'm under the impression that most of the violence is further up in the supply chain.

I'd suspect they likely do reduce drug deaths and fraud, though. Their escrow and reputation systems guarantee that the vast majority of drug sales are pure products and at the correct dosage listed.

Re: I thought I was designing for SpaceX, it may have been for the Silk Road

#119

Post by meowface »

dmix wrote: post #104
dpiers wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funnily enough, I watched the Breaking Bad series finale with him at his house. I also confronted him about his spending 9 months before he was arrested, but he lied to me and I bought it because his story made more sense than "my friend is running the Silk Road". In the time since he was arrested, I've moved from coding to fraud investigations, and my time with him is a constant reminder to trust my observations ove…

> He never tried to have people tortured/murdered. Good point. He really screwed himself with that stuff anonymous hitman stuff.

Yeah, he had the potential for a lot of public support but squandered it when evidence of the hits came out. (And the evidence looks very convincing to me.)

An argument can be made for SR's value to humanity. But he was a megalomaniacal asshole with shitty opsec, and he got what he deserved. Running a large "enterprise" doesn't give you the right to play dice with people's lives.

Re: I thought I was designing for SpaceX, it may have been for the Silk Road

#120

Post by emodendroket »

meowface wrote: post #118
nommm-nommm wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am extremely skeptical that silk road like sites reduce violence to any significant degree. I'm under the impression that most of the violence is further up in the supply chain.

I'd suspect they likely do reduce drug deaths and fraud, though. Their escrow and reputation systems guarantee that the vast majority of drug sales are pure products and at the correct dosage listed.

I don't know about that. I think it's pretty common for people to build up a strong rep and then at the end pull off a big scam before re-registering as someone else.
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