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I reverse engineered McDonalds’ internal API

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Re: I reverse engineered McDonalds’ internal API

#351

Post by Can_Not »

schoolornot wrote: post #15

Not sure where this data is coming from but for months now I've been ordering ice cream through the McDonalds app only to find out when I get there that the machine is broken and that they can't cancel or refund the order, which ultimately results in a stressful cash refund. It's happened multiple times at various locations around Manhattan. Eventually I'll just use this method to get 30-day cash loans on my credit c…

McDonald's mobile ordering has multiple contradictory and nonfunctional answers on how to get a refund, and I'm not sure any of them actually work. I'm going to try a chargeback soon.

Re: I reverse engineered McDonalds’ internal API

#352

Post by dheera »

codetrotter wrote: post #271
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…

> McCloud That’s an awesome way to name their cloud computing stuff that fits the brand really well. Is this an official/semiofficial name?

There's an actual town called McCloud in California, next to Mt. Shasta.

Re: I reverse engineered McDonalds’ internal API

#353

Post by shakna »

jonny_eh wrote: post #184
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…

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/a-fair-shake/ Mcflurry ingredients: https://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en-us/product/mcflurry-with-ore... (no mention of plastic)

> Mcflurry ingredients: https://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en-us/product/mcflurry-with-ore... (no mention of plastic)

That's actually incorrect, they list two plastics there. It's just that "plastic" isn't something that is actually necessarily toxic, and the media misuse the terminology all the time.

The two are:

> Cellulose Gum, Guar Gum

Re: I reverse engineered McDonalds’ internal API

#354

Post by cphoover »

kinkrtyavimoodh wrote: post #336
royaltjames wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it's hilarious to quantify and state. Why ask ridiculous questions?

Because it's a meaningless number. If he is actually placing an order for that amount every minute, it would be a useful number (and he would be an asshole for making so many fake orders and filling their system with garbage metrics). If he placed ice-creams in the cart for 8000 stores, then he should give that number. The dollar value is a completely pointless number in this case, and was done purely for clickbait.

Should be simple enough to filter his IP address out unless he proxied his requests right?

Re: I reverse engineered McDonalds’ internal API

#355

Post by oh_sigh »

allenu wrote: post #315
thatsnotmepls wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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?

Honestly, this confused me. The number immediately made me think he was submitting fake orders for that amount. I don't know to read it any other way.

My guess is that there is every possible combination of items that is added to the cart, and then the API response returns what items are unavailable/out of stock.

Honestly, I'm not in love with this post for HN. It seems like something done and communicated for twitter clout and is devoid of interesting details.

Re: I reverse engineered McDonalds’ internal API

#356

Post by 55555 »

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…

Oh I see so it's a feature, not a bug. :)

Re: I reverse engineered McDonalds’ internal API

#357

Post by PrinceKropotkin »

Why? Who cares? It's an API of zero consequence or value except to mcdonalds. I seriously doubt anyone who uses to corresponding app will give a shit. Why not target a state unemployment interfaceor something that actually matters to literally anyone? What a waste of engineering effort.

Re: I reverse engineered McDonalds’ internal API

#358

Post by gtirloni »

brokenmachine wrote: post #289
thenewwazoo wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 o…

I don't get it.

In the ice cream situation, broken and down mean the same thing. In the Sartre anecdote, milk and cream mean the same thing.

Re: I reverse engineered McDonalds’ internal API

#359

Post by pgcj_poster »

brokenmachine wrote: post #289
thenewwazoo wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 o…

I don't get it.

Sartre believed that it was impossible to abdicate the responsibility of making choices, because to choose to do nothing is still a choice -- in other words, "nothing" is a kind of something. So one might humorously imagine that Sartre would also think that "no cream" is a kind of something that could be different from "no milk."

Re: I reverse engineered McDonalds’ internal API

#360

Post by peterwoerner »

oh-4-fucks-sake wrote: post #325
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…

Said another way: - You have a system whereby every instance has a 75%-79% uptime. - Each instance's 21%-25% daily scheduled maintenance window can (generally) be arbitrarily-scheduled by the ops team. How do you near guarantee that there's always one instance available? If you said: "manage a redundant cluster of at least 2 instances with non-overlapping maintenance windows" Then you were correct! BONUS QUESTIONS: Q…

Also, you can use data to schedule the maintenance when the probability of someone ordering ice cream is low. That 21-25% downtime results in significantly fewer people wanting ice cream not being able to get it.
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