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Use Jonathan's card to buy yourself an iPad

sam.odio.com

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Re: Use Jonathan's card to buy yourself an iPad

#151

Post by danielodio »

lotharbot wrote: post #120
rjett wrote: post #116

I find it ironic that the OP, who hacked the experiment to divert funds onto his own card (which are now going to a just cause), is the brother of the person in the original comments thread who was posturing about whether or not the card had been hacked. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2858120 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2858226 Perhaps Sam made this script well after there was a question as to whether or…

Good find. Also note that danielodio put some of his startup's money on the card ($100, $49, $300 mentioned in HN comments, and a total of $85 mentioned on twitter). So he almost paid for Sam's withdrawals. EDIT: I find myself wondering if, in a few hours, Sam and Daniel will give this as a further explanation, and reveal that they'd actually donated the full amount to the card that was taken out. The whole thing is…

Indeed: @Socialize has paid $625 to @Jonathanscard to promote our SDK Speed Challenge. That's enough for an iPad, @sodio! http://besoci.al/q2I0QE http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2878875

Re: Use Jonathan's card to buy yourself an iPad

#152

Post by burgerbrain »

lotharbot wrote: post #120
rjett wrote: post #116

I find it ironic that the OP, who hacked the experiment to divert funds onto his own card (which are now going to a just cause), is the brother of the person in the original comments thread who was posturing about whether or not the card had been hacked. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2858120 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2858226 Perhaps Sam made this script well after there was a question as to whether or…

Good find. Also note that danielodio put some of his startup's money on the card ($100, $49, $300 mentioned in HN comments, and a total of $85 mentioned on twitter). So he almost paid for Sam's withdrawals. EDIT: I find myself wondering if, in a few hours, Sam and Daniel will give this as a further explanation, and reveal that they'd actually donated the full amount to the card that was taken out. The whole thing is…

Even if Daniel has given as much money as Sam Odio took from it, a net damage has still been dealt to the card. People (for instance, myself) will be less likely to give money as a result of the publicity Sam Odio has generated for himself.

To say nothing of the condescension and insults Sam Odio has heaped upon people who thought it was a pretty neat idea. He would still have a large amount of apologizing to do, assuming added what he took.

Re: Use Jonathan's card to buy yourself an iPad

#153

Post by pbhjpbhj »

blhack wrote: post #89

God I hate this mentality. Yeah, you can exploit this, but are you doing anything fun or interesting by it? I live in a community that has a lot of cyclists in it. If I'm at home, I tend to spend a lot of time on my front porch working on my bikes with my friends. Most of them know that I keep some tools slightly "hidden" there, and I've told all of my friends that they're welcome to come over and use them if I'm eve…

>but are you doing anything fun or interesting by it?//

140 comments here would imply that it is at least interesting.

Re: Use Jonathan's card to buy yourself an iPad

#154

Post by jt2190 »

jt2190 wrote: post #63

Jonathan's Card claimed to be a social experiment, but it was never clear to me exactly what the experiment was supposed to test. As an outsider looking at this experiment, the first question I has was: How would he prevent unintended use of the card's funds? Sam is just part of the experiment. Yes, he's spoiling the good fun of buying coffees for each other, but if it weren't him taking the money, it'd be someone el…

I equate the downvotes as "disliking" this argument, however I still think my question is valid: What exactly was Jonathan setting out to learn (other than that the world is full of untrustworthy people.)

Re: Use Jonathan's card to buy yourself an iPad

#155

Post by pbhjpbhj »

filmgirlcw wrote: post #115
niels_olson wrote: post #103

To all who want to slam on Sam Odio's moral code: You're seriously arguing that a hack that converts money into fat, caffeinated Americans and corporate profit is better than a hack that hacks that hack to feed the poor? We should be finding more ways to prevent the conversion of money into American fat. In fact: as a doctor, there's my challenge to you: please find ways to catch calories before they land in middle-c…

He's not feeding the poor, he's feeding his ego and acting holier than thou. If he wanted to make a donation to charity, he could do that without subverting an experiment under the guise of "helping people who really matter." I find this entire episode disgusting and if being a "successful entrepreneur" means acting like a douchebag like Sam, may I never be successful. Incidentally, MOST successful entreprenurs I kno…

>They have better things to do than //

Better things to do than steal coffees from wealthy Americans in order to feed starving people ...

The internet drama is being created by others.

I see this as a really interesting, surprising outcome of the experiment, not a "subversion" of it. FWIW people in his sphere of influence appear to have added more money on than the worth he subtracted.

Edit: that->than

Re: Use Jonathan's card to buy yourself an iPad

#156

Post by kennywinker »

burgerbrain wrote: post #85
MatthewPhillips wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jonathan said it was a social experiment. This, and people's reaction to it, is part of that.

The social experiment revealed that there are in fact people miserable enough in this world to senselessly steal from such a good will fund. In fact, so miserable that they see fit to even brag about it and pretend to themselves their actions were noble. The experiment revealed that the name of one such miserable person is Sam Odio.

yuppies buying each other coffee: a goodwill fund.

Re: Use Jonathan's card to buy yourself an iPad

#157

Post by burgerbrain »

jokermatt999 wrote: post #144

I've seen a lot of hostility in this thread to the perceived egotism of this act. I've also seen some people who dislike that the donations were used for something other than their intended purpose. Since my initial reaction was that he's in the right here (accusations of high horse and such aside, I'd rather not go into that), I'm curious to hear people's reasoning on why they dislike this so much. So, some hypothet…

1) No, I would not feel better. I have an intense hatred of people who anonymously abuse TOR to torrent movies for their own personal use. Not knowing who did it doesn't make it better.

2) It was not his to give. The money was put forth by other people for the express purpose of being used by others for coffee.

3) No, the statement is not correct. "You should be doing charity instead" is a poor philosophy because it does not recognize the needs of individuals that need to be fulfilled by themselves. This philosophy cannot be universalized because it expects too much of people.

reasonable statement:

  "*I* should be doing charity instead"
unreasonable statement:

  "*You* should be doing charity instead"

Re: Use Jonathan's card to buy yourself an iPad

#158

Post by burgerbrain »

kennywinker wrote: post #156
burgerbrain wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The social experiment revealed that there are in fact people miserable enough in this world to senselessly steal from such a good will fund. In fact, so miserable that they see fit to even brag about it and pretend to themselves their actions were noble. The experiment revealed that the name of one such miserable person is Sam Odio.

yuppies buying each other coffee: a goodwill fund.

Why not?

Care to give your definition of goodwill? Or are you just going to repeat things and not justify your apparent condescension?

Re: Use Jonathan's card to buy yourself an iPad

#159

Post by jt2190 »

zacharycohn wrote: post #100
sequoia wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is what he's doing not "part of the social experiment?" Q: What happens if you let everyone contribute to and take from a Starbucks card? A: We are in the process of finding out, and the answer wasn't what we expected! Why isn't this just an interesting, unexpected result? Furthermore, condemning this guy is like condemning Lulzsec for exposing security vulnerabilities. Do you think that no one would have figured…

This isn't anything like "exposing a security vulnerability." Everyone understood that the card COULD be misused. That doesn't make the misuse of it okay.

But at the same time, if Jonathan knew that the card could be misused, he either should have attempted to provide some security or disclosed that problem up front to the community, to let them make an informed choice.
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