Earlier quoted context omitted.
On the plus side, why are they storing gender info in the first place?
Why would you jump to the assumption that they don't need to store gender?
Because there are very few situations where storing gender is nesecary.
The day my script killed 10k phones in South America
81–90 of 164 posts
Re: The day my script killed 10k phones in South America
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't understand how people can defend this developer in the first place. I could understand if they were about 16 years old and actually abused by their employer, but generating random numbers to test the locking of phones? Basic maths should tell you that the probability of matching some real phone number is actually quite high. Moreover, what exactly were they testing? i.e. if they were testing nonexistent numbe…
I pass no judgment, but merely take the developer at his word: https://new.pythonforengineers.com/blog/confessions-of-a-1x-...
This link is the cure to imposter syndrome, this is an actual imposter.
I don't think they're even actually interested in programming and I cannot comprehend why they do it as a job or why they got hired.
Re: The day my script killed 10k phones in South America
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why do you assume the users own the phones? There are plenty of business models where the company owns the phones and the user gets to use it by paying a monthly fee. One of the services being provided may well be the use of the phone itself.
Because (pardon my language) fuck that business model, that's why. It's reprehensible on a number of different levels, and specific aspects of that have been made illegal, but companies keep trying to bring back the exploitation. Just because there's a business model doesn't mean that we have to support it, or help it be implemented. We can shame our fellow developers choosing to enable scams and write malware/comput…
That’s a pretty bad metaphor imo.
It’s more like either I spend $500 on this device and own it or I spend only $100 but have to deal with ads. Yeah I hate ads but I can use that extra $400 to fix my leaking roof.
Re: The day my script killed 10k phones in South America
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why do you assume the users own the phones? There are plenty of business models where the company owns the phones and the user gets to use it by paying a monthly fee. One of the services being provided may well be the use of the phone itself.
Even if/when they don't fully "own" the phones, users ought to always be able to access their data (at least for backup) and call emergency services (which is a legal requirement in many countries). More generally and regardless of time pressure, I can't believe someone can "play" with such test a script (used with a production tool) without even thinking it might fuck up and hit real phone numbers... (and if the dev…
I guess some people just don’t make mistakes. Wish I was one of them.
Re: The day my script killed 10k phones in South America
#85The main lesson here is do not, if you can possibly avoid it, accept a job at a company with a level of engineering quality as low as described in the article. You probably won't get fired or taken to court; the main problem is that you will have no-one good to learn from and you will lose terribly in career satisfaction and future earnings.
If you're new to the software engineering job market, try to hold out for a company with a real team, and some colleagues that you look up to technically. It is hard, the jobs that are easier to get will be tiny companies where if you even have a colleague in engineering, they will be clueless.
Re: The day my script killed 10k phones in South America
#86Author here. I shared this yesterday, didnt get much upvotes and quickly vanished. Thanks to /u/nixcraft for sharing it again! Looks like 2nd time lucky. Im seeing the same type of comments here and on Reddit, I'll try to answer a few common ones. 1. Yes, I know it was stupid testing on production. But we'd been told we needed to release the product on Monday (this was Friday), no objections. A previous project manag…
> If you get a phone on contract, you don't actually own it till you pay it off, and the company is entitled to lock it. No. You don't turn off somebody's phone while they're using it. You have no idea what they could be doing. Someone could be literally dying in front of your locked out consumer who is now unable to call for help. This is vital infrastructure and you're denying them access. If somebody dies because…
1) I highly doubt that the app disables emergency calling.
2) Some (rental, probably also lease) vehicles actually do have disablers. They prevent the vehicle from being started, not stop them in the middle of the road.
3) The police don't repo a thing. That's a civil matter and generally outsourced to the lowest bidder with a tow truck.
By the way, if someone dies because of it, the only person whose conscience it is on is the person who bought a phone they couldn't afford and then didn't pay for it. Just like if someone died because the car got repo'd and they couldn't drive to a hospital.
Re: The day my script killed 10k phones in South America
#87Re: The day my script killed 10k phones in South America
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
> This is builtin on iPhones I've never heard of this. Can you elaborate?
He's referring to the "iCloud Lock" https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201441
iCloud Lock is tied to your Apple account though and I don't think a financing company can use it to remotely lock your phone.
Re: The day my script killed 10k phones in South America
#89“the main product was an app...that would lock the phone if it was stolen, or if the customer stopped paying. The app was built as part of the Android OS, so you couldn't uninstall it. It would lock the low-level features that allowed you to make calls, use Wifi...until you paid up. All good.” No, not all good. There’s the problem right there. If I stop paying you can stop providing me the service I’m paying for. Usi…
> If I stop paying you can stop providing me the service I’m paying for
Indeed. In many cases, that service is the phone itself, given that it is leased or financed through the carrier. And in those cases, based on the contract which the customer signed with said carrier, ownership of the phone generally reverts to the carrier if you don't pay up, like with any other secured loan.
Re: The day my script killed 10k phones in South America
#90> Except for the poor sod in Peru who couldn't make phone calls or post duck-face pictures to Instagram, but no one asked him. There are countless situations where suddenly not having a working phone means a serious problem. The article presents an extremely negligent look at the issue.
> extremely negligent look at the issue
Yes, the part about them overwriting the data from each cycle struck me as odd. I don't think that's good practice even if testing.