Help me figure out how I lost this bet to an engineer • Hacker News Board

Re: Help me figure out how I lost this bet to an engineer

#121

Post by S4M » Wed, Sep 11, 2013, 9:27 PM UTC

socialist_coder wrote: post #74

This is obviously a shill post setup to advertise close.io and HN fell right for it. Why would this post be hosted on the close.io blog and not on a personal blog? It has nothing to do with close.io. Why would he mention close.io so many times? Why would he ask about the quality of the "close.io engineers" instead of just his coworker or friend? Smells fishy to me.

I was thinking the same, and expected the answer to be something like "Phil used the API provided by Close.io that invert google picture search and was about to get her name", but it turns out Close.io doesn't do anything related.

But yeah, the post clearly emphasizes that they have smart engineers.

Re: Help me figure out how I lost this bet to an engineer

#122

Post by dlss » Wed, Sep 11, 2013, 9:31 PM UTC

This is dumb. You can get a private investigator to do this for $100 - $200, with almost surely a better method that Phil used.

Given what Phil does, the most cost effective (rational) method he could have used was to spend those hours working, and then pay a private investigator.

If he wanted to do it himself, the easiest way is to facebook search for people who went to her high school in the right date range, then ask them who is in the photo. Given the start time and end time, Phil probably didn't do that, he probably browsed their photos & friends until he found her.

Not a very good use of time, but it would work.

I think guessing the exact method used isn't interesting, because the problem isn't a particularly hard one. He's done the social engineering equivalent of picking the lock on your filing cabinet.

Re: Help me figure out how I lost this bet to an engineer

#123

Post by saalweachter » Wed, Sep 11, 2013, 9:32 PM UTC

I think what makes this feel creepy instead of cool is that you've just described an exploit without giving any thought to mitigating the threat.

So you've found an attack vector where you can get a woman's name and address off the 'net with a picture and a small amount of information. Maybe it doesn't work all the time, but it worked at least once. What are you going to do with that attack vector? Are you going to make an iPhone app, so that others can snap pictures of random women and recreate your exploit automatically? Or are you going to come up with ways the attack vector can be shut down, things that either individuals (eg, the woman herself) or organizations (like Facebook or Google) can do to block the attack?

Re: Help me figure out how I lost this bet to an engineer

#124

Post by gingergirl » Wed, Sep 11, 2013, 9:38 PM UTC

As someone who happens to be good at finding people on the internet (true confessions), the approach I would have taken would have been related to FB likes, or log-ins at the bar that they met on Facebook. I.e. they were all at the same bar in Austin, so search for people who have checked-in at the bar. And perhaps the other photo the engineers had was another location that she liked, or another piece of information about the bar in question. Then, it's just a matter of narrowing down results based on age and location. The fact that they knew the high school would have made this quest even easier. I once found an individual from a first name and the name of the bar they work at in (comically) downtown Austin. It took forever, but I had patience. :) The internet has all sorts of shortcuts to finding people if you know how to look!

Re: Help me figure out how I lost this bet to an engineer

#125

Post by marze » Wed, Sep 11, 2013, 9:43 PM UTC

sp332 wrote: post #83

jbigelow76 wrote: post #71

>My Ask Nails on a freaking chalkboard. What is so bad about the word "question"?

It sounds terrible and is awkward to say.

But has half as many syllables thus takes half as long to say/type. Who likes wasting time?

Re: Help me figure out how I lost this bet to an engineer

#126

Post by jbg331 » Wed, Sep 11, 2013, 9:45 PM UTC

emhart wrote: post #88

jbg331 - while we wait for people to ferret out the right answer, can you tell us how the woman in question has responded to the "game"? Genuinely curious.

Surpringly well. I told her about the bet and she took everything in stride. She actually laughed when I told her. Shes a pretty awesome girl

Re: Help me figure out how I lost this bet to an engineer

#127

Post by VLM » Wed, Sep 11, 2013, 9:46 PM UTC

She looks pretty; At least for guys pretty = memorable. When I was single I was pretty bold with the ladies and I'd have flirted with her first (perhaps getting shot down, oh well), remembered at least some demographic information, and then used it to completely F with my coworker's mind for awhile. When I was younger I was quite the practical joker.

Note the convoluted written responses about not talking to anyone he knew and so forth which technically does not exclude the girl, herself, saying her own name.

The other alternative is she's somebody's buddy/family member so it would be trivial to know before hand that she's so and so's ex or sister or whatever and given that intel, figure it out.

Re: Help me figure out how I lost this bet to an engineer

#128

Post by philfreo » Wed, Sep 11, 2013, 9:47 PM UTC

saalweachter wrote: post #123

I think what makes this feel creepy instead of cool is that you've just described an exploit without giving any thought to mitigating the threat. So you've found an attack vector where you can get a woman's name and address off the 'net with a picture and a small amount of information. Maybe it doesn't work all the time, but it worked at least once. What are you going to do with that attack vector? Are you going to m…

> What are you going to do with that attack vector?

Huh? Nothing... this was a just a fun bet between two friends with no bad intentions. I didn't discover anything, as evidenced by the dozens of others in this discussion with similar ideas.

Re: Help me figure out how I lost this bet to an engineer

#129

Post by VLM » Wed, Sep 11, 2013, 9:51 PM UTC

saalweachter wrote: post #123

I think what makes this feel creepy instead of cool is that you've just described an exploit without giving any thought to mitigating the threat. So you've found an attack vector where you can get a woman's name and address off the 'net with a picture and a small amount of information. Maybe it doesn't work all the time, but it worked at least once. What are you going to do with that attack vector? Are you going to m…

There is some redeeming social value in publicly defusing paranoia.

Coincidentally this is 9/11 day... It turns out that anyone of room temp or above IQ can easily do something fairly awful, but the fact it almost never happens provides some faith in humanity that basically no one (on a statistical basis) is actually awful.

Re: Help me figure out how I lost this bet to an engineer

#130

Post by jlees » Wed, Sep 11, 2013, 9:52 PM UTC

abalone wrote: post #116

Wow. It is stunning how oblivious nearly everyone on this thread is to how douchey it is to BET YOUR BROGRAMMER PALS THEY CAN CYBERSTALK A GIRL. Advice to woman: Run. Advice to startups: Don't let your sales and engineering teams be giant douche canoes and if they are certainly don't publicly brag about it.

I feel like the majority of folk are treating this as a purely intellectual challenge. Which it sort of is (to the HN crowd, since the actual photo information is missing) but please, let's not forget the context here.