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I reverse engineered McDonalds’ internal API

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Re: I reverse engineered McDonalds’ internal API

#131

Post by 0xffff2 »

ceejayoz wrote: post #40
jawns wrote: post #30

Some details here: https://www.producthunt.com/posts/mcbroken A commenter asks: "How are you funding the $18k per minute this requires?" He replies: "I'm actually not paying for it! just placing an order." I'm not sure how he's placing an order without payment information, or if he is providing payment information, how he's managing to not get charged for successful orders (when the ice cream machine is not broken).…

> Perhaps the payment doesn't go through until he arrives to pick up the order? Correct, and the order doesn't start being prepared until you hit the "I'm here" button on the app, either. I once forgot to hit "I'm here" and they were confused because, to the store, it didn't exist, so there's no harm to the stores at all here.

What's the point of even ordering through the app then?

Re: I reverse engineered McDonalds’ internal API

#132

Post by [deleted] »

slg wrote: post #112
_peeley wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Further down the thread he mentions that no order gets executed, he's just querying. I guess still making trouble for anyone using that data, but at least nothing's going to waste.

That just leaves me with more questions. What does he mean by "executing" an order? He used the word "placing" before. Is he placing the order and then immediately cancelling? Or is he just putting items in his cart? Why such the high dollar total on the order? Is it a single order at every store every minute? Does it really need to be that frequent? Regardless, it annoys me when I see developers abuse semi-public AP…

[deleted]

Re: I reverse engineered McDonalds’ internal API

#133

Post by corentin88 »

slg wrote: post #112
_peeley wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Further down the thread he mentions that no order gets executed, he's just querying. I guess still making trouble for anyone using that data, but at least nothing's going to waste.

That just leaves me with more questions. What does he mean by "executing" an order? He used the word "placing" before. Is he placing the order and then immediately cancelling? Or is he just putting items in his cart? Why such the high dollar total on the order? Is it a single order at every store every minute? Does it really need to be that frequent? Regardless, it annoys me when I see developers abuse semi-public AP…

I wouldn’t call it unnecessary work. If a developer can do it for fun, a competitor or worst someone mal-intentioned can do it as well.

Re: I reverse engineered McDonalds’ internal API

#134

Post by arkitaip »

ehsankia wrote: post #120
joezydeco wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's some detail, as someone that has worked with those machines before (internally and externally). In the good old days the soft serve and shake machines were taken apart every night and every piece was washed and bleach-sanitized by hand. Then it was reassembled in the morning. This would leave a lot of room for error and possible contamination in the process. And the sight of a shake machine hitting full pressu…

At first I was gonna ask why does this not run on off hours, but then you mention bad clock, so the next question is, why is the % of bad clock so high, and why isn't the clock also cloud based or set in a way that can go wrong. Next up, what about redundancy, do stores only have one machine?

The clock probably resets when the power goes out or the fuse blows. They would need a battery as a backup to keep the time current.

Re: I reverse engineered McDonalds’ internal API

#135

Post by Dylan16807 »

joezydeco wrote: post #100
wnissen wrote: post #49

Just a note, the machines are not broken, they have shut themselves down for sanitary reasons. Ice cream, as a food that is very close to neutral in pH and without much in the way of preservatives, is a common source of listeria bacteria. To prevent serious health issues, the machine must be sanitized regularly. As I understand it, the process is involved, and any given McDonalds may not have a person with the time a…

Here's some detail, as someone that has worked with those machines before (internally and externally). In the good old days the soft serve and shake machines were taken apart every night and every piece was washed and bleach-sanitized by hand. Then it was reassembled in the morning. This would leave a lot of room for error and possible contamination in the process. And the sight of a shake machine hitting full pressu…

Four to five hours, so let's say that happens daily and machines are out of commission 20% of the time.

Currently it's early afternoon and the site says that over 8% are out.

That's about halfway between "all overnight" and "all at completely random times".

Are almost half of the clocks set wrong? Assuming that the actual number of broken machines is relatively small.

Re: I reverse engineered McDonalds’ internal API

#136

Post by ceejayoz »

0xffff2 wrote: post #131
ceejayoz wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Perhaps the payment doesn't go through until he arrives to pick up the order? Correct, and the order doesn't start being prepared until you hit the "I'm here" button on the app, either. I once forgot to hit "I'm here" and they were confused because, to the store, it didn't exist, so there's no harm to the stores at all here.

What's the point of even ordering through the app then?

1. It's still fairly convenient; I find it easier than verbally ordering.

2. I believe it's the only way to get curbside pickup instead of going through the drive through.

3. It functions as a loyalty card; there's always $1 large fries, you get a free coffee drink after every 5, etc.

Re: I reverse engineered McDonalds’ internal API

#137

Post by macintux »

varenc wrote: post #103

Digression: If you're red/green colorbind, the https://mcbroken.com website is pure frustration. All the dots look the same to me. Fortunately the iOS accessibility color filter works wonders. After enabling that (in deutan mode) I now see green and gray/purple dots.

I knew iOS had a strong accessibility story, but I had no idea it could compensate for color blindness.

Re: I reverse engineered McDonalds’ internal API

#138

Post by macintux »

nullc wrote: post #73

A friend of mine who managed multiple McDoanlds 20 some years ago says he would never eat ice cream at mcdonalds ... unless he'd just cleaned the machine himself. Apparently they get gross pretty fast and a lot of the staff is not especially good at cleaning them.

As other commenters have noted, this is old information. The machines now sanitize themselves, which is apparently why so many are down at any given time.

Re: I reverse engineered McDonalds’ internal API

#139

Post by DenseComet »

aliabd wrote: post #33

AFAIK, reverse engineering APIs isn’t illegal. [1] There are some (VC backed) start ups that are open about doing it. Teller API is an example. [2] [1] “Reverse engineering generally doesn't violate trade secret law because it is a fair and independent means of learning information, not a misappropriation. Once the information is discovered in a fair and honest way, it also can be reported without violating trade sec…

What in the world is Teller? Are they an actual company with an actual product? The authentication demo on their website is the exact same as Plaid Link, down to the wording. There isn't even a sign up link or pricing page, but they've somehow raised 4 million dollars [1].

https://techcrunch.com/2020/01/27/teller/

Re: I reverse engineered McDonalds’ internal API

#140

Post by Dylan16807 »

thisisnico wrote: post #129
ehsankia wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At first I was gonna ask why does this not run on off hours, but then you mention bad clock, so the next question is, why is the % of bad clock so high, and why isn't the clock also cloud based or set in a way that can go wrong. Next up, what about redundancy, do stores only have one machine?

Cloud based clock. Don't you mean NTP? We've had this technology for years! If it's connected to the internet, it's a pretty fundamental piece of pretty much any networked OS. You can ensure correct time this way.

NTP is fine but so is pulling time off a server header if it's phoning home to report status.
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