Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: What is the thing you've built that you regret the most?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

231–240 of 539 posts

Re: Ask HN: What is the thing you've built that you regret the most?

#231

Post by everdrive »

natbro wrote: post #168

ever heard of ActiveX? you know, arbitrary code installing and running in your browser on Windows and available to be scripted by javascript? like, instead of Java? sorry. I'm not solely responsible, but sorry, pretty responsible. we were young. code-signing as a means of validating origin was a great idea. though it needed additional infrastructure to prevent abuse and allow global revocation, and that wasn't perfec…

If it helps, you guys are still way more popular than the folks who work on Teams.

Re: Ask HN: What is the thing you've built that you regret the most?

#232

Post by localhost »

Devasta wrote: post #110
localhost wrote: post #77

My first job at Microsoft was to build IronRuby, which was an implementation of Ruby on top of the Common Language Runtime. I got the job because I had built a bridge that connected MRI (Matz's Ruby Interpreter) to the CLR before I joined the company. This project ultimately failed because of a principle that we learned from the school of hard knocks: respect developers' existing code investments. Developers couldn't…

We use IronRuby for a monitoring application at my job. Its provides dashboards with hundreds of red/green annuciator tiles that users across the enterprise can create and customize. They can make a call to an API or run an SQL query or whatever and then as part of the tile configuration they include a few dozen lines of Ironruby to determine if the query results are good or bad and what messages to display on TV scr…

Wow. Thanks for sharing this! I had no idea that it was still being used somewhere. I'll share with folks on the team that I'm still in touch with!

Re: Ask HN: What is the thing you've built that you regret the most?

#233

Post by physicles »

localhost wrote: post #77

My first job at Microsoft was to build IronRuby, which was an implementation of Ruby on top of the Common Language Runtime. I got the job because I had built a bridge that connected MRI (Matz's Ruby Interpreter) to the CLR before I joined the company. This project ultimately failed because of a principle that we learned from the school of hard knocks: respect developers' existing code investments. Developers couldn't…

> respect developers' existing code investments

As a former Microsoftie myself, it saddens me that the company seems to have forgotten this.

Re: Ask HN: What is the thing you've built that you regret the most?

#234

Post by giraffe_lady »

mymyairduster wrote: post #200
hnanon22 wrote: post #3

The Qatar slave helmet. My company built the smart helmet used to track Qatar’s army of abused workers. The claim is GPS and accelerometer where used to track if a worker stopped moving or fell due to an accident; the geo fencing was supposedly for tracking if they had enough workers in an area for the job. The reality is the helmets where/are used as mass surveillance tech to ensure workers are continuously active a…

This technology may sound bad but it helpes enable events like the world cup that entertain many around the world

Genuinely can't tell if you're joking or not but it doesn't matter. Either way this is basically a paraphrase of one of the most astute dril tweets of all time:

"drunk driving may kill a lot of people, but it also helps a lot of people get to work on time, so, it;s impossible to say if its bad or not,"

Re: Ask HN: What is the thing you've built that you regret the most?

#235

Post by localhost »

natbro wrote: post #168

ever heard of ActiveX? you know, arbitrary code installing and running in your browser on Windows and available to be scripted by javascript? like, instead of Java? sorry. I'm not solely responsible, but sorry, pretty responsible. we were young. code-signing as a means of validating origin was a great idea. though it needed additional infrastructure to prevent abuse and allow global revocation, and that wasn't perfec…

Hi Nat! Long before I joined the company, I remember fondly the COR Design Review meetings from ... 1998(?) after you ruined the world with ActiveX :)

Re: Ask HN: What is the thing you've built that you regret the most?

#236

Post by pests »

haolez wrote: post #191

I've coded the firmware for a CAN-based communication bus for a medical device with lots of different boards talking to each other. This same company had a war industry department and they used this code in a missile project. It left a weird taste in my mouth. Btw, they got an early version that had a memory leak, and when I went to warn them, they just said: "It's okay! It's just going to run for about 20 seconds!"

The ultimate garbage collection.

Re: Ask HN: What is the thing you've built that you regret the most?

#237

Post by frob »

vilhelmen wrote: post #117

I built a system for distributing and collecting homework assignments, and the assignments themselves were distributed with automated tests. Students would have instant feedback on their homework with clear tests and point assignments. Great idea, right? A high level required course of 40+ students could be scheduled, collected, and graded all in under an hour. Not to mention the nightmare of early GitHub for Educati…

I had almost this exact same experience when teaching an algorithms course. I had to stop giving automated feedback when I had a student turn my own code back into me and then lie to my face when confronted about it. It only took 3 weeks. The worst part was how bad I felt for taking something useful away from the students who weren't abusing it.

Re: Ask HN: What is the thing you've built that you regret the most?

#238

Post by int_19h »

localhost wrote: post #77

My first job at Microsoft was to build IronRuby, which was an implementation of Ruby on top of the Common Language Runtime. I got the job because I had built a bridge that connected MRI (Matz's Ruby Interpreter) to the CLR before I joined the company. This project ultimately failed because of a principle that we learned from the school of hard knocks: respect developers' existing code investments. Developers couldn't…

I think it was in part because in 2010, Microsoft was already switching gears to Windows 8. A part of that was DevDiv getting sidelined by Windows. Windows was not a fan of .NET in general since Longhorn/Vista, but more importantly, the grand plan for Win8 involved the brand new application framework, WinRT. So when it came to VS 2012 and .NET 4.5, the emphasis was on WinRT interop - which is not a scenario where DLR is useful.

It's a good thing that DLR is still there, though. While undeniably niche, sometimes it makes things so much easier. For example, I've used it to support dynamic reloading of C# code in a game, for rapid prototyping of mods.

Re: Ask HN: What is the thing you've built that you regret the most?

#239

Post by fknorangesite »

Negitivefrags wrote: post #116
AlotOfReading wrote: post #32

I built a lighting system for to save energy by turning off hallway lights when not in use. The environmental aspect was great and saved hundreds of thousands in electricity. Someone eventually realized that the mesh network I built to connect all the lights together and report usage statistics could also be used to track employees moving throughout the building and catch them taking unauthorized breaks in the stairw…

What is so bad about catching people taking unauthorised breaks?

> What is so bad about catching people taking unauthorised breaks?

Your profile indicates that you've commented on HN on a weekday.

Don't worry - this behavior has already been reported to the authorities.

Re: Ask HN: What is the thing you've built that you regret the most?

#240

Post by scaramanga »

ThrowawayTestr wrote: post #73
ShredKazoo wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This comment is now one of the top hits on Google for "Qatar slave helmet". And it's the only hit when I put quotes around the phrase to force an exact match. If this is real you should get in touch with investigative journalists, e.g. ProPublica. ("Get in touch with investigative journalists" probably applies to a bunch of the people posting in this thread.)

What would that accomplish?

You need to ask what it accomplishes to leave it in the dark.
Post reply on HN