I reverse engineered McDonalds’ internal API • Hacker News Board

Re: I reverse engineered McDonalds’ internal API

#201

Post by jessaustin » Thu, Oct 22, 2020, 8:58 PM UTC

ThePadawan wrote: post #75

jacobsenscott wrote: post #43

WTF is wrong with ice cream machines? It isn't just mcdonalds where they are almost always broken. I don't remember that being the case when I was a kid.

I don't know how old you are, but growing up in the 90s, my dad (a food scientist) was mostly fine with me eating crappy fast food once in a while. The only hard rule he had was "never eat soft serve ice cream". Before technology was all there, the machines back then were apparently nightmares in terms of safety.

They were good for our immune systems! Kids these days don't know how easy they have it!

Re: I reverse engineered McDonalds’ internal API

#202

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Oct 22, 2020, 8:58 PM UTC

cm2012 wrote: post #91

missedthecue wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How hard is it to devise an ice cream machine with a simpler sanitation process?

Considering McDonalds is on the forefront of food automation tech, probably harder than you think.

[deleted]

Re: I reverse engineered McDonalds’ internal API

#203

Post by city41 » Thu, Oct 22, 2020, 9:00 PM UTC

corentin88 wrote: post #119

samtheprogram wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems the first explanation given wasn’t entirely accurate (or is at least misleading), as they continued roughly 50 minutes later: > to clarify how this works: mcdonald's keeps track which locations have a broken machine, I'm merely querying for those - no order gets executed, no ice cream is actually wasted Maybe in reality, the order is created, but not actually “placed” in order to query the above info? Or may…

What I’m understanding is that the order is placed, meaning it’s in checkout. But he’s not actually fulfilling it, meaning he didn’t ordered/paid for ice creams for real.

Someone on Twitter also mentioned ice cream orders don't actually get filled until you arrive at the restaurant (which does make sense), providing an extra fail-safe for this.

Re: I reverse engineered McDonalds’ internal API

#204

Post by swyx » Thu, Oct 22, 2020, 9:00 PM UTC

bartread wrote: post #79

jacobsenscott wrote: post #39

This site is now McBroken? McDonalds must have patched their api.

It's working: it's just slow, presumably because we've hugged it nearly to McDeath. Also a shame the only country it supports at the moment is the US because I could really do with checking whether the ice cream machine at the McDonalds up the road is working or not.

> McDeath

shush! we do not speak the name of the Scottish play on stage

Re: I reverse engineered McDonalds’ internal API

#205

Post by rathel » Thu, Oct 22, 2020, 9:01 PM UTC

This map uses OpenStreetMap-based map tiles (this style is called OSM Bright) served from MapTiler.

But the attribution (see https://osm.org/copyright and https://www.maptiler.com/cloud/terms/ ) is not there.

Could someone ping the author on Twitter, as I don't have an account? Thanks.

Re: I reverse engineered McDonalds’ internal API

#206

Post by joezydeco » Thu, Oct 22, 2020, 9:02 PM UTC

nixgeek wrote: post #191

dcolkitt wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A standalone GPS NTP server is $750 retail. Commercial soft serve ice cream machines are at least $4000. Just building the machines with an autonomous GPS clock that doesn't need to be set, would double the revenue but only increase the upfront cost by 18%.

Since they need internet connectivity to phone home status to McCloud, I don't know why they wouldn't just run an NTP client to keep their time synchronized and accurate? Moreover the $750 you reference must be a commercial product since you can do GPS on a Raspberry Pi for < $50 easily? Which product are you thinking works for this scenario? Think I've seen everything from $300 to $13000 solutions for this over the…

You could have a cesium time source in the thing but if the service tech or manager sets it wrong...you're still borked.

Re: I reverse engineered McDonalds’ internal API

#207

Post by fandroid » Thu, Oct 22, 2020, 9:06 PM UTC

McDonalds declined to retain me as a consultant when I reported issues with their Mary AM Johnson API holes. I probably should have marketed myself in a more formal fashion.

Re: I reverse engineered McDonalds’ internal API

#208

Post by zadkey » Thu, Oct 22, 2020, 9:06 PM UTC

More than whether the icecream machines are broken, I get a clear picture of just how ubiquitous McDonalds are.

Re: I reverse engineered McDonalds’ internal API

#209

Post by nullc » Thu, Oct 22, 2020, 9:07 PM UTC

macintux wrote: post #138

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.

Thanks for the correction! I mentioned the age of my information for fear it might be outdated. I'm glad to hear that it is.

Re: I reverse engineered McDonalds’ internal API

#210

Post by Scoundreller » Thu, Oct 22, 2020, 9:07 PM UTC

ezconnect wrote: post #177

thisisnico wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

GPS based clock is better no need for internet connection. Seiko and other company has been doing this for years.

Need a clear sky connection though.