I reverse engineered McDonalds’ internal API • Hacker News Board

Re: I reverse engineered McDonalds’ internal API

#211

Post by djeiasbsbo » Thu, Oct 22, 2020, 9:08 PM UTC

DenseComet wrote: post #139

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/

I've known about Teller for some time now but I have always thought that they seem shady... I don't have an issue with them reverse engineering bank APIs, I just don't get why, how and to whom they would want to sell that.

Any small change in any of these APIs completely ruins it for all of their clients. Not even sure if they have a product or service either but again, also not sure who would want that.

Re: I reverse engineered McDonalds’ internal API

#212

Post by thatsnotmepls » Thu, Oct 22, 2020, 9:08 PM UTC

rashiq wrote: post #150

Original author here: the phrasing placing an order was probably wrong - mcdonald's lists the products they're currently out in their api. I'm just querying for those. No ice cream was harmed in doing this.

> I'm currently placing an order worth $18,752 every minute

Do you have to have a cart in order query for broken machines? If not, why was it mentioned in the tweet?

Re: I reverse engineered McDonalds’ internal API

#213

Post by jackcosgrove » Thu, Oct 22, 2020, 9:10 PM UTC

zxcvbn4038 wrote: post #164

Can we repurpose this to find which locations have McRib? Improve upon https://mcriblocator.com/ which seems to be more of a crowdsourced approach?

You could use a McRib dashboard as a mini-Bloomberg terminal for pork futures.

Re: I reverse engineered McDonalds’ internal API

#214

Post by reaperducer » Thu, Oct 22, 2020, 9:11 PM UTC

Scoundreller wrote: post #190

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%.

Add a couple hundred/thousand to penetrate the roof for an antenna to pickup signal. WWV might be a better system, but runs you into time zone issues. Do you need a valid SIM to pickup time from 3G?

WWV/WWVH might not be a great idea, as I've read that there are rumblings about phasing it out.

You used to be able to pick up a time signal almost anywhere in CONUS with an FM receiver. It was encoded in the transmissions of PBS television stations.

This was back in NTSC days. Now that everything is digital, I don't know if it's still true.

Re: I reverse engineered McDonalds’ internal API

#215

Post by floatingatoll » Thu, Oct 22, 2020, 9:11 PM UTC

macintux wrote: post #137

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.

It can’t restore color perception (you’ll still have reduced color bandwidth versus someone who isn’t), but it can rewrite the visual spectrum being fed to the display onto narrower bands that sidestep the colorblindness gaps. Especially valuable when paired with the Magnifier mode that lets you look through the rear camera on the screen.

Re: I reverse engineered McDonalds’ internal API

#216

Post by TeMPOraL » Thu, Oct 22, 2020, 9:12 PM UTC

raverbashing wrote: post #107

userbinator wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But why "broken" instead of "down for scheduled maintenance"? The latter implies continuance of service, the former leaves that open.

It's a simple way of shutting down the customer. Broken: non-negotiable. "Understandable, have a nice day" As these kinds of places attract the pettiest and most annoying customers anything else would make the customers try to bargain with you, even for stupid crap like that.

It's unfortunately the way the interactions between individuals and organizations seem to be trending towards.

The flip side is that when you have a non-standard request to a business (like a bank) or a government agency, it used to be that a low-level clerk would have some workarounds, or you could escalate to a manager. Now, they all have a convenient excuse: "the system doesn't let me do that". And it's true, because it's all SaaS software with inflexible business rules, controlled by some central team that neither you nor the clerk will ever be able to reach.

Re: I reverse engineered McDonalds’ internal API

#217

Post by reaperducer » Thu, Oct 22, 2020, 9:12 PM UTC

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?

why is the % of bad clock so high

For the same reason that a certain % of orders are wrong.

When you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.

Re: I reverse engineered McDonalds’ internal API

#218

Post by jbverschoor » Thu, Oct 22, 2020, 9:13 PM UTC

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #200

d23 wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since you and the OP are here, I have a random question: were the blizzards ever made with liquid plastic ingredients? It probably sounds insane, but someone from a plastics company spoke at my high school and said this was the case since it was easier to ship and needed no refrigeration. Now, decades later, I'm wondering if this was just complete nonsense or had an element of truth to it. I've been able to find noth…

Not my field, but edible gums (guar gum, or xanthan gum for example) is "plastic" (adj.). Gums are used more and more, AFAICT as a consumer; presumably to allow products to be bulked out with air. Basically take anything homogeneous, add gum, add air, create a foam. Basically like an Aero bar but with way smaller bubbles. You just cut a quarter (I'm guessing on this figure) off your ice-cream ingredients by weight an…

I saw these yesterday:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oR3Z028prSU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8t7u5mupS4

I don't think I'd want to eat that

Re: I reverse engineered McDonalds’ internal API

#219

Post by vestrigi » Thu, Oct 22, 2020, 9:13 PM UTC

userbinator wrote: post #76

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…

But why "broken" instead of "down for scheduled maintenance"? The latter implies continuance of service, the former leaves that open.

Further if they told the customers that it was sanitizing itself they would assume that there would be an issue with the hygiene.

Re: I reverse engineered McDonalds’ internal API

#220

Post by LeifCarrotson » Thu, Oct 22, 2020, 9:14 PM UTC

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #200

d23 wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since you and the OP are here, I have a random question: were the blizzards ever made with liquid plastic ingredients? It probably sounds insane, but someone from a plastics company spoke at my high school and said this was the case since it was easier to ship and needed no refrigeration. Now, decades later, I'm wondering if this was just complete nonsense or had an element of truth to it. I've been able to find noth…

Not my field, but edible gums (guar gum, or xanthan gum for example) is "plastic" (adj.). Gums are used more and more, AFAICT as a consumer; presumably to allow products to be bulked out with air. Basically take anything homogeneous, add gum, add air, create a foam. Basically like an Aero bar but with way smaller bubbles. You just cut a quarter (I'm guessing on this figure) off your ice-cream ingredients by weight an…

This 'bulking up with air' is most evident if you go to the yogurt or cream cheese section and look for the Yoplait Whips or Philadelphia Whipped containers. It's the same product, just as a foam, and seems to be marketed as a healthier alternative where users choose a satisfactory portion by volume, not by calories or weight.

And while I think the whipped foods are stupid, I don't think that packaged food sellers are necessarily scumbags. They're merely people responding to incentives, just like everyone else. The food market has razor-thin margins and consumers are ill-informed. Neither consumers (who are hard to inform) nor regulators (who are captive to the multinational conglomerates) have been able to push back more strongly than the profit incentive, so the so dark patterns like those you describe are inevitable.