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I reverse engineered McDonalds’ internal API

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Re: I reverse engineered McDonalds’ internal API

#141

Post by Liquix »

parliament32 wrote: post #126
markstos wrote: post #110

I ran the McBroken data through the Spatial Equity Data tool. It found McDonalds are slightly overrepresented in white areas while locations with broken ice cream machines skew Black and low-income. https://twitter.com/MarkStosberg/status/1319363954385297411

Considering that all of these machines come up/down cyclically and automatically for sanitizing (pasteurizing) purposes, as described higher ITT, you're a great example of how data can be massaged to drive whatever narrative you want.

Huh. I read higher up that they were more likely to remain off if there was not an employee with the time/skills available to sanitize it.

Re: I reverse engineered McDonalds’ internal API

#142

Post by joezydeco »

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?

McD is conservative when it comes to kitchen technology. With certain exceptions, franchisees determine when they buy new equipment and not the corporation. Most of it is designed for a 7-year capex cycle.

But to answer the question: no, the machines aren't net enabled and do not NNTP their clocks. But that's changing.

But I still wouldn't design my architecture to let a central server decide when a machine should go out of service. Think about what else you can fuck up that way.

Why are they off? Good question. Sometimes it's as simple as a store owner setting the heat cycle for 2pm instead of 2am.

Why are they not redundant? They're expensive, take up a lot of valuable space and a lot more valuable energy, they need to be filled with 2x the product, and the customer demand isn't that high at any given moment to warrant the expense in most stores.

Re: I reverse engineered McDonalds’ internal API

#143

Post by refulgentis »

533474 wrote: post #21

He wouldn't have tweeted it if it was malicious -- he could have even kept it secret. What is it with HN? little pranks, reverse engineering, vulnerabilities, free ice-cream. I do not condone crime but let's be honest, he could have made money with his findings online...the person is just letting his curiosity go wild. If Yelp wants to fire him I'd take him in my company any day.

I agree there's tons of threads above us that have cobbled together assumptions to make it feel totally cool and no problem at all for the stores and backend.

I don't agree they know the impact, and it's just plain dumb to announce you're abusing a private API for fun under your real name and employer, it's equivalent to yelling "I abused my unauthorized access to a billionaire's computers!" in front of the billionaire and DoJ lawyers.

Everything will probably be fine but this was _not_ very smart.

Re: I reverse engineered McDonalds’ internal API

#144

Post by nrmitchi »

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?

> Next up, what about redundancy, do stores only have one machine?

From my (old) experience working at one, yes. The annoyance of having to maintain a second machine (especially when cleaning and maintenance involved a physical person cleaning things) was not worth keeping extra 9's of uptime.

Re: I reverse engineered McDonalds’ internal API

#145

Post by shadowgovt »

Dylan16807 wrote: post #135
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…

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.

I'd be willing to wager that half the clocks might be wrong. It's something manager-on-duty can control, so Murphy's Law kicks in.

Re: I reverse engineered McDonalds’ internal API

#146

Post by rlonstein »

seanwilson wrote: post #99
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…

> 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. How come the the high amount of sugar in ice cream doesn't help? Would it be any different if it was a non-dairy milk like soy?

Sugar itself is food. It's the fact that sugar draws water out of the medium that it retards some kinds of bacterial growth (not botulinum for example).

Re: I reverse engineered McDonalds’ internal API

#147

Post by [deleted] »

teddyfrozevelt wrote: post #123
slg wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

If you've never used the McDonald's app, then you can place an order, but the store doesn't receive it and do anything until you arrive at the store and it detects that you're there. During this period, you can cancel the order. My guess is that's what he's doing.

[deleted]

Re: I reverse engineered McDonalds’ internal API

#148

Post by thenewwazoo »

tenebrisalietum wrote: post #113
johnsillings wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It matters to me

Why? What are you going to do different if you are told it is broken versus down for maintenance? You're still not getting any ice cream?

The French existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre was sitting in a cafe when a waitress approached him: "Can I get you something to drink, Monsieur Sartre?" Sartre replied, "Yes, I'd like a cup of coffee with sugar, but no cream". Nodding agreement, the waitress walked off to fill the order and Sartre returned to working. A few minutes later, however, the waitress returned and said, "I'm sorry, Monsieur Sartre, we are all out of cream -- how about with no milk?"

Re: I reverse engineered McDonalds’ internal API

#149

Post by ciarannolan »

markstos wrote: post #110

I ran the McBroken data through the Spatial Equity Data tool. It found McDonalds are slightly overrepresented in white areas while locations with broken ice cream machines skew Black and low-income. https://twitter.com/MarkStosberg/status/1319363954385297411

The machines also perform better in areas with: low English proficiency, limited household internet access, low-income residents, uninsured residents, cost-burdened renters, residents with less than a high-school diploma, and unemployed residents, according to this tool.

I wonder why you chose just that one specific stat to highlight.

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