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Comcast is injecting 400+ lines of JavaScript into web pages

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Re: Comcast is injecting 400+ lines of JavaScript into web pages

#91

Post by jstanley »

kw71 wrote: post #86
candiodari wrote: post #11

The thing that's so irritating about large telco's is not just that they're evil, but the casual stupidity of their actions, including their evil actions. I mean, look at the code. Look at the function of this code. Look at the business purpose of this code. Look at the security aspects of using this code. Look at the legal ramifications (why the hell is that LGPL thing up top there ?). Look at their internal communi…

I have a few years of experience inside Comcast and I've concluded that Comcast's executive management are the ones at fault here. Across several divisions, their engineers have been fantastic and a pleasure to work with. This all goes to shit when the businesspeople around the engineers are making terrible, selfish decisions and optimizing their hourly employees for numbers (call center I'm looking at YOU)

Good engineers don't do evil things, even if their bosses tell them to.

Re: Comcast is injecting 400+ lines of JavaScript into web pages

#92

Post by nasredin »

raverbashing wrote: post #76
candiodari wrote: post #11

The thing that's so irritating about large telco's is not just that they're evil, but the casual stupidity of their actions, including their evil actions. I mean, look at the code. Look at the function of this code. Look at the business purpose of this code. Look at the security aspects of using this code. Look at the legal ramifications (why the hell is that LGPL thing up top there ?). Look at their internal communi…

> How can an organisation that executes this badly become this big ? Lots of ads, undercut your competition by something like $1 and "new customer deals" and then shaft your customers after a while The average customer just go to the store with the flashier lights (or the one which is more convenient)

LMFTFY:

The average customer just goes to their cable company (coax cable) or their telephone company (DSL).

(And the kicker is... they both suck!)

Re: Comcast is injecting 400+ lines of JavaScript into web pages

#93

Post by jijji »

I've worked at comcast too for a while as a consultant, and I think the problem is that they take people that were working in customer service and promote them to senior engineer roles and management roles. This is why they hire consultants when everything goes upside down. Alot of telco's do this, I've seen this in many datacenter environments with ISP's and telcos. You got guys making decisions that don't really have the background to be making those decisions.

Re: Comcast is injecting 400+ lines of JavaScript into web pages

#94

Post by nkrisc »

jstanley wrote: post #91
kw71 wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a few years of experience inside Comcast and I've concluded that Comcast's executive management are the ones at fault here. Across several divisions, their engineers have been fantastic and a pleasure to work with. This all goes to shit when the businesspeople around the engineers are making terrible, selfish decisions and optimizing their hourly employees for numbers (call center I'm looking at YOU)

Good engineers don't do evil things, even if their bosses tell them to.

A mortgage and tuition for kids is a powerful motivator.

Re: Comcast is injecting 400+ lines of JavaScript into web pages

#96

Post by robin_reala »

Crosseye_Jack wrote: post #54
izacus wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are several corporate firewall products that can do just that. Comcast can just start demanding that their customers install their root cert and that's that. Remember they are the only venue to access the internet for a lot of people, what are they going to do? Stop using the pretty much mandatory communication and information platform? I'm always surprised just how many people here on this site think you can f…

> Comcast can just start demanding that their customers install their root cert and that's that. Comcast can demand all they want but they are going to have to hand hold a lot of people though the process. Sure Windows/Mac could offer a nice executable to install it for you but you still have to get people to install it and that’s not something there while customer base will be able to do. The process of installing C…

I remember Kazakhstan announcing that policy, but I never saw the fallout. Did anyone write it up in English?

Re: Comcast is injecting 400+ lines of JavaScript into web pages

#97

Post by Operyl »

oxymoran wrote: post #81
hardlianotion wrote: post #75

This is the bit I find amazing: > Comcast has my phone office number, my cell for texts, my email, and my home address, yet they choose to molest my requested web pages by injecting hundreds of lines of code. [JL] The notice is typically sent after a customer ignores several emails. Perhaps some of those ended up in your spam folder? So ignoring spam entitles you to this behaviour?

What he is saying is that they exhausted all other contact methods. If they stopped after the email and let the persons modem stop working, they would have likely been livid about that as well. Look, I don’t like Comcast any more than you do. But at some point, you need to recognize your biases when evaluating your enemy. I thought this was some nefarious attack based on the headline, but it’s just a critical system…

The problem here is that I've had the exact same thing happen, and zero attempt was given. The stupid part? My modem was not EOL, was a BYOM (bring your own modem) that had many years left before EOL. I'm pretty damn sure they're using this as a "first line of contact," not final.

Re: Comcast is injecting 400+ lines of JavaScript into web pages

#98

Post by rubyfan »

kw71 wrote: post #86
candiodari wrote: post #11

The thing that's so irritating about large telco's is not just that they're evil, but the casual stupidity of their actions, including their evil actions. I mean, look at the code. Look at the function of this code. Look at the business purpose of this code. Look at the security aspects of using this code. Look at the legal ramifications (why the hell is that LGPL thing up top there ?). Look at their internal communi…

I have a few years of experience inside Comcast and I've concluded that Comcast's executive management are the ones at fault here. Across several divisions, their engineers have been fantastic and a pleasure to work with. This all goes to shit when the businesspeople around the engineers are making terrible, selfish decisions and optimizing their hourly employees for numbers (call center I'm looking at YOU)

Almost every big company that has a call center is looking to optimize their hourly employees. In most cases they are the largest staffs and are highly sensitive to census tolerances. It’s definitely not just Comcast.

Re: Comcast is injecting 400+ lines of JavaScript into web pages

#99

Post by syshum »

candiodari wrote: post #11

The thing that's so irritating about large telco's is not just that they're evil, but the casual stupidity of their actions, including their evil actions. I mean, look at the code. Look at the function of this code. Look at the business purpose of this code. Look at the security aspects of using this code. Look at the legal ramifications (why the hell is that LGPL thing up top there ?). Look at their internal communi…

it is my experiance the more smart people you add to a team the lower the collective IQ becomes

Once you get up to around 20+ people on the team, the collective IQ of that teams drops to level where stupid things like this happen...

Nothing good from development by committee, this appears to be a project that was developed by committee

Re: Comcast is injecting 400+ lines of JavaScript into web pages

#100

Post by kodablah »

nkrisc wrote: post #94
jstanley wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good engineers don't do evil things, even if their bosses tell them to.

A mortgage and tuition for kids is a powerful motivator.

To be fair, I'd say "good engineers" especially where Comcast is, probably choose their employer not the other way around. Not to say whether they are right or wrong for working there, but we shouldn't pretend "good engineers" are otherwise destitute.
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