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A single line of code cost $8000

pietrasiak.com

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Re: A single line of code cost $8000

#191

Post by 01HNNWZ0MV43FF »

indymike wrote: post #82

We just put a header for version in our app, and when we deploy new code the client checks against the version header and upgrades if the version is mismatched. No extra get requests required. Bonus: we just use the last git commit hash as the version. Stupid simple.

I saw some project that used a DNS TXT field to check its version

That way I guess you get the caching of the DNS network for free, it uses basically one packet each way, encryption is still possible, and it can reduce the traffic greatly if a big org is running a thousand instances on the same network

I think it was written in Go. Might have been Syncthing

Re: A single line of code cost $8000

#193

Post by mieko »

KronisLV wrote: post #187
senordevnyc wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> To re-cap: Screen recording software. Checks for updates every five (5) minutes. That's 12 times an hour. The tone might be somewhat charged, but this seems like a fair criticism. I can’t imagine many pieces of software that would need to check for updates quite that often. Once a day seems more than enough, outside of the possibility of some critical, all consuming RCE. Or maybe once an hour, if you want to be on…

For contrast: Chrome, a piece of software which has a huge amount of attackable surface area, and lives in a spot with insane stakes if a vulnerability is found, checks for updates every five hours, last I read.

Re: A single line of code cost $8000

#194

Post by zahlman »

mieko wrote: post #114

For people finding this thread via web search in the future: screen.studio is macOS screen recording software that checks for updates every five minutes. Somehow, that alone is NOT the bug described in this post. The /other/ bug described in this blog is: their software also downloaded a 250MB update file every five minutes. The software developers there consider all of this normal except the actual download, which c…

Not everyone even has an Internet connection that can reliably download 250MB in 5 minutes.

Yes, even in metropolitan areas in developed countries in 2025.

Re: A single line of code cost $8000

#195

Post by rvz »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #142
999900000999 wrote: post #140

Sloppy coding all around. If you don't want to program something right, why don't you just direct users to the website to manually update it? On one hand it's good that the author owns up to it, and they worked with their users to provide remedies. But so many things aren't adding up. Why does your screen recorder need to check for updates every 5 minutes? Once a day is more than enough. This screams "We don't do QA,…

Or, given it's a Mac app, just have the Mac app store take care of updates. That's part of the value that using the app store service gives you, the other one being not spending thousands in accidental data transfer when you do auto updates wrong.

> Or, given it's a Mac app, just have the Mac app store take care of updates. That's part of the value that using the app store service gives you,

And pay Apple their 30% cut on your revenue? No thanks.

> the other one being not spending thousands in accidental data transfer when you do auto updates wrong.

Or just actually write proper automated tests for basic features first, before a large refactor to prevent introducing issues like this from happening again?

While I respect the author's honesty in this mistake, the main takeaway here is not mentioned and that is just writing proper automated tests as their impression on this post is that there aren't any.

Re: A single line of code cost $8000

#198

Post by jlarocco »

More anecdata that commercial software is garbage, especially if it's targetting consumers.

I'll stick with open source. It may not be perfect, but at least I can improve it when it's doing something silly like checking for updates every 5 minutes.

Re: A single line of code cost $8000

#199

Post by ericmcer »

benwilber0 wrote: post #151
mieko wrote: post #114

For people finding this thread via web search in the future: screen.studio is macOS screen recording software that checks for updates every five minutes. Somehow, that alone is NOT the bug described in this post. The /other/ bug described in this blog is: their software also downloaded a 250MB update file every five minutes. The software developers there consider all of this normal except the actual download, which c…

> their software also downloaded a 250MB update file every five minutes How on earth is a screen recording app 250 megabytes

The app itself is probably much bigger than 250mb. If it is using Electron and React/other JS library like a million other UIs just the dependencies will be almost that big.

Re: A single line of code cost $8000

#200

Post by infogulch »

ryandrake wrote: post #146
mieko wrote: post #114

For people finding this thread via web search in the future: screen.studio is macOS screen recording software that checks for updates every five minutes. Somehow, that alone is NOT the bug described in this post. The /other/ bug described in this blog is: their software also downloaded a 250MB update file every five minutes. The software developers there consider all of this normal except the actual download, which c…

Yea, it seems like the wrong lesson was learned here: It should have been "Don't abuse your users' computers," but instead it was, "When you abuse your users' computers, make sure it doesn't cost the company anything."

That's a good summary and explains many ills in the software engineering industry.
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