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

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

#471

Post by lostlogin »

stockboss wrote: post #347
toofy wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

for starters the idea of “unauthorized” in terms of taking a couple minutes to yourself is questionable. i have never worked in an office environment where people didn’t routinely unwind for a couple minutes. the way we’re treated in an office setting vs those outside an office is in a lot of ways disturbing. a couple years ago my friends dad lost his job of 25 years because he was caught sneaking around a corner, ou…

> the idea that someone somewhere decided to put trackers on human beings is wild. did you forget about cellphones?

I suspect OP didn’t.

That everyone has accepted that owning a phone means you can be tracked with accuracy most the time, both digitally and physically, is pretty wild.

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

#472

Post by NoGravitas »

ShredKazoo wrote: post #57
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 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.)

Presumably these sinners: https://www.wakecap.com/

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

#473

Post by inglor_cz »

fknorangesite wrote: post #467
inglor_cz wrote: post #460

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not the OP, but a lot depends on the context. If both pilots left the cockpit mid-flight in order to chill with the stewardesses, I would be fine with them being barred from working as pilots ever again. I couldn't care less if a receptionist catches a quick smoking break during a slow hour.

In a discussion that started with "hotel staff in the stairwell", which of your two examples do you think is more representative?

Unfortunately, the latter one, I agree.

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

#474

Post by Scoundreller »

liketochill wrote: post #314
Scoundreller wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And limiting torrent speeds to 40k/s during "peak" hours. Which I kinda understand, but not when its unilaterally launched against the 3rd party providers leasing the lines too! (I guess Bell Canada, which also sells TV services, lost too many customers over this policy to their unthrottled competitors) https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/small-isps-fight-ruling-that... Canadian telecom regulators are gutless. Though I k…

In my memory Napster was before torrents? Did the idea for torrents, receiving pieces of the same file from multiple peers, come from Napster?

Doing some research, there was a very small period of overlap.

The ability for Napster to resume was a much later feature. You had to find someone sharing the exact same filename, and I don't think they made it easy. I can't remember if they eventually allowed multi-source downloading.

Independent Napster servers did continue to operate after the fall of Napster Inc as a service.

https://boards.straightdope.com/t/napster-but-not-all-other-...

I recall using Napigator which provided a browse of official and independent napster servers and then modified your HOSTS file so your client would connect to the independent server instead of Napster Inc servers.

https://www.gwern.net/docs/technology/2018-07-25-johnbackus-...

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

#475

Post by ska »

singularity2001 wrote: post #316
localhost wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. The problem was that the interpreters for both languages did not have a well-defined FFI. From a native library you could reach up into the interpreter and party over the AST to your heart's content. We couldn't in any practical sense emulate those data structures from the CLR which meant that native libraries couldn't run. That meant that existing scripting code that used those libraries would need to be rewrit…

What do you mean by well defined FFI? Why couldn't calls to native libraries be marshaled?

Iirc They did something like this for c++ and it wasn’t pretty but I can’t remember details, it may have been mostly because of the unstable ABI.

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

#476

Post by pannSun »

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…

> I built a lighting system for

I am sick and tired of how often extremely pertinent information has to be neutered in this way. And I am utterly disgusted at how the legal system is used to protect scummy corporations like this unnamed hotel chain.

I wish we had strong laws that prevented employers from even thinking about threatening employees for talking about their work. Or collective bargaining to make sure employers don't have the leverage to impose such one-sided contracts.

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

#477

Post by chrisallenlane »

nikeee wrote: post #404
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!"

Did you post about this previously? I feel like I've read that part with the memory leak before.

I favorited this post some time ago:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14233542

The Google Groups page is currently in a redirect loop, but if that gets sorted out, you may find the story that you're remembering.

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

#478

Post by CyberDildonics »

haolez wrote: post #464
CyberDildonics wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A missile needing to dynamically allocate memory is already a ridiculous idea.

There was computer vision stuff in the missile's head (for target tracking), which is where the code was used.

That is a good reason to need a non trivial amount of memory, but I don't think it means there needs to be dynamically allocated memory. That basically implies that there is something unknown ahead of time, but specs, limitations, resolution fps, etc. should all be static.

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

#479

Post by MikePlacid »

nibbleshifter wrote: post #438
MikePlacid wrote: post #394

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why are tech workers so resistant to organized action? I am not actually so much resistant to unions, as I do not see what benefit I’ll get from them. What exactly in my life would have changed for better if I had been a part of a union? Just one thing, can you name?

Probably better default settings when it comes to vacation, your off hours not being invaded by on-call, pay transparency, WfH/remote policies, etc. If you have ever gone up against HR over anything ever, a union would have benefited you.

Vacation? I have unlimited days off, and my request was never rejected.

On call? They paid me $500 a week to have a cellular phone officially, but at the same time unofficially everyone was strictly forbidden to call it. It was an internal political move by the engineering department (see our commitment to this new product? we even put Mike on call), turned into an additional benefit to best engineers.

> If you have ever gone up against HR over anything ever, a union would have benefited you.

My wife (who is one of the best teachers in California, documented) was fired exactly because of the union rules. The principal wanted to keep her so much, that the district turned his desire into a political tool: oh you want to keep L? she is a good teacher? sign this paper (some financial cover up) and we will give you the money to keep L. The union did not care is she a good teacher, or not. Less seniority? Go away (but we keep your $1000 union fees).

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

#480

Post by qwertywert_ »

vlovich123 wrote: post #113
LVB wrote: post #101

Early in my career (late 90s) I worked at a big company that just loved getting patents, had a big patent wall and did plaque presentations, etc. I got swept up in this and patented some "novel" (:eyeroll:) uses of a device that a partner/supplier made. Yay... I got a plaque and a few bucks, but Big Corp was never going to commercialize these uses, that was clear. They just wanted to run up the patent count. But the…

Pretty sure it’s Qualcomm. Not familiar with any other companies that were so proud of their parents to build a wall to them

Got one, and we are much smaller than qcom.
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