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Ask HN: Who are the "snake oil salesmen" of tech?

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Re: Ask HN: Who are the "snake oil salesmen" of tech?

#31

Post by syndicatedjelly »

trealira wrote: post #30
an-account wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not a memory development guy, but I am a rust programmer and have managed cybersecurity teams. Rust is amazing for memory safety and good programing practice. And cyber… is a lot more than the OS.

I would be more worried about the opposite: future software and devices will use memory-safe programming languages like Rust, with C and assembly limited as much as possible, so things like the iPhone and the successors to the Nintendo Switch won't be able to be hacked or jailbroken to run software that wasn't approved by the hardware vendor, because there will be no buffer overflow exploits or dangling pointer vulne…

Is that supposed to be a bad thing?

Re: Ask HN: Who are the "snake oil salesmen" of tech?

#33

Post by trealira »

syndicatedjelly wrote: post #31
trealira wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would be more worried about the opposite: future software and devices will use memory-safe programming languages like Rust, with C and assembly limited as much as possible, so things like the iPhone and the successors to the Nintendo Switch won't be able to be hacked or jailbroken to run software that wasn't approved by the hardware vendor, because there will be no buffer overflow exploits or dangling pointer vulne…

Is that supposed to be a bad thing?

It's a mixed thing. Good for reducing piracy and increasing revenue, probably. It does mean that people who want to be able to install whatever they want on their devices, or write software for themselves to use on their own devices, will have to start buying ones explicitly marketed with those features, because you won't be able to just jailbreak it anymore.

Re: Ask HN: Who are the "snake oil salesmen" of tech?

#34

Post by syndicatedjelly »

trealira wrote: post #33
syndicatedjelly wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that supposed to be a bad thing?

It's a mixed thing. Good for reducing piracy and increasing revenue, probably. It does mean that people who want to be able to install whatever they want on their devices, or write software for themselves to use on their own devices, will have to start buying ones explicitly marketed with those features, because you won't be able to just jailbreak it anymore.

Why can’t a manufacturer just decide that they don’t want people jailbreaking their devices? It’s a black hole of a use case to support, especially when there are plenty of open Linux-based platforms for power-users to hack away on

Re: Ask HN: Who are the "snake oil salesmen" of tech?

#35

Post by trealira »

syndicatedjelly wrote: post #34
trealira wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a mixed thing. Good for reducing piracy and increasing revenue, probably. It does mean that people who want to be able to install whatever they want on their devices, or write software for themselves to use on their own devices, will have to start buying ones explicitly marketed with those features, because you won't be able to just jailbreak it anymore.

Why can’t a manufacturer just decide that they don’t want people jailbreaking their devices? It’s a black hole of a use case to support, especially when there are plenty of open Linux-based platforms for power-users to hack away on

Why are you arguing? I don't have any control over what manufacturers do. I'm glad there are open platform equivalents, like the PinePhone and Steam Deck. I just hope businesses like that keep existing, or else there'll be no way for you to control your devices without building them yourself. It empowers manufacturers and disempowers the individual user, even though the law hasn't changed. That's why I said it's mixed, not unilaterally good or bad. Maybe it'll be good in the long run by making people buy from platforms like that if they want control, promoting legitimate business.

Re: Ask HN: Who are the "snake oil salesmen" of tech?

#36

Post by syndicatedjelly »

trealira wrote: post #35
syndicatedjelly wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why can’t a manufacturer just decide that they don’t want people jailbreaking their devices? It’s a black hole of a use case to support, especially when there are plenty of open Linux-based platforms for power-users to hack away on

Why are you arguing? I don't have any control over what manufacturers do. I'm glad there are open platform equivalents, like the PinePhone and Steam Deck. I just hope businesses like that keep existing, or else there'll be no way for you to control your devices without building them yourself. It empowers manufacturers and disempowers the individual user, even though the law hasn't changed. That's why I said it's mixe…

Oh idk just wanted to get the ppl going

Re: Ask HN: Who are the "snake oil salesmen" of tech?

#39

Post by Vaslo »

gnz11 wrote: post #25

I suppose McKinsey could fit the bill and much of the tech consulting world for that matter. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AiOUojVd6xQ

Underrated comment. McKinseys delivery to price ratio is very poor. We get a slick talking salesman and then smart but underprepared analysts, at least for we should be getting for that price!

Re: Ask HN: Who are the "snake oil salesmen" of tech?

#40

Post by dcminter »

rl1987 wrote: post #12

Agile coaches who never wrote a single line of code. Blockchain people. Coding bootcamps and content/course creators promising unrealistic timelines to developer jobs. Pretty much anyone talking like they just made OVER-9000-DOLLARS(!!!) in a week with ChatGPT/Midjourney/Bitcoin/affiliate marketing/whatever the latest fad is. To lesser degree consumer grade VPN companies.

"Agile coaches who never wrote a single line of code."

Hard disagree here. Of the agile coaches I've bumped into over the last decade or so the most excellent one I worked with was entirely non-techy and made a dramatic difference to the quality of the team.

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