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Facebook snags Geohot

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Re: Facebook snags Geohot

#21

Post by mikemaccana »

Jach wrote: post #15
iamdave wrote: post #2

Become a saint to nerds after taking on a company that wont let you do what you want with products you've paid for ... ends up at a company that in no human decipherable terms owns your social identity. ... Who woulda thunk edit: I think it's worth mentioning, I'm not decrying either he or facebook for their acquisition of talent, it's just an unexpected maneuver. Kind of like a physicist suddenly leaving his craft f…

I don't have a facebook account, they don't own me. I surrender instead to other forces. ;P What's with the anti-Facebook sentiment? It's worse than anti-Microsoft sentiments. Facebook does lots of cool stuff, a lot of it open source.

1. You can import your data into Facebook. You can't export - all you get is Facebook UUIDs back.

2. Privacy options are made deliberately difficult as Facebook (as they've stated before) want you to share as much as you can. Setting anything to 'me only' is buried under a custom setting you have to repeat for everything you don't want shared.

Re: Facebook snags Geohot

#22

Post by lhnz »

redthrowaway wrote: post #18
lhnz wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it's fair to discuss any perceived moral problem around this. Facebook pays well and you get to work with some very smart people on a far-reaching product. That's a good job.

How does paying well and being full of nerds obviate a moral dilemma? If working for facebook is morally wrong (feel free to argue on this one), then neither of those conditions changes things. It can be both a smart move for geohot, as well as an immoral one. Again, I'm not saying that working for facebook is bad. I'm saying that it's rightness or wrongness is not determined by how well they pay or how many geeks th…

It is does not obviate any moral dilemma, I simply believe in geohot's right to his own moral choice. He is a human being with his own self-interests and free will; he should not be imbued with heroic obligations to the geek community.

Re: Facebook snags Geohot

#23

Post by proexploit »

mikemaccana wrote: post #21
Jach wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't have a facebook account, they don't own me. I surrender instead to other forces. ;P What's with the anti-Facebook sentiment? It's worse than anti-Microsoft sentiments. Facebook does lots of cool stuff, a lot of it open source.

1. You can import your data into Facebook. You can't export - all you get is Facebook UUIDs back. 2. Privacy options are made deliberately difficult as Facebook (as they've stated before) want you to share as much as you can. Setting anything to 'me only' is buried under a custom setting you have to repeat for everything you don't want shared.

1. Sure you can, go to Account Settings > Download Your Information (second from bottom). 2. I'm very much with you on this one. The privacy settings should be easier.

Re: Facebook snags Geohot

#24

Post by redthrowaway »

lhnz wrote: post #22
redthrowaway wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does paying well and being full of nerds obviate a moral dilemma? If working for facebook is morally wrong (feel free to argue on this one), then neither of those conditions changes things. It can be both a smart move for geohot, as well as an immoral one. Again, I'm not saying that working for facebook is bad. I'm saying that it's rightness or wrongness is not determined by how well they pay or how many geeks th…

It is does not obviate any moral dilemma, I simply believe in geohot's right to his own moral choice. He is a human being with his own self-interests and free will; he should not be imbued with heroic obligations to the geek community.

Fair enough. Were I in his position I'd likely feel uncomfortable with the public persona that had grown around me and the expectations of the geek community.

He received a lot of flak for settling with Sony when many of his supporters expected him to "fight the man"--and win. It was likely a smart decision for him personally. That said, he took donations from people who expected that those donations would be used to defend our right to pull apart anything we buy. I guess the disappointment in geohot comes from seeing someone (rightly or wrongly) who championed the values that a lot of us hold weaselling his way out of the fight. Joining facebook is a fairly ignominious end to that tale.

Maybe he didn't want the publicity, maybe he didn't want to be an activist, and maybe he resented the expectations that were placed on him. We (the geek community) had expectations of geohot, not George Hotz. It was the character, not the man, that we liked. Maybe he was just tired of playing that role.

Re: Facebook snags Geohot

#25

Post by Sephr »

proexploit wrote: post #23
mikemaccana wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. You can import your data into Facebook. You can't export - all you get is Facebook UUIDs back. 2. Privacy options are made deliberately difficult as Facebook (as they've stated before) want you to share as much as you can. Setting anything to 'me only' is buried under a custom setting you have to repeat for everything you don't want shared.

1. Sure you can, go to Account Settings > Download Your Information (second from bottom). 2. I'm very much with you on this one. The privacy settings should be easier.

1. Of your friends, you just get a list of names, not any contact information whatsoever.

Re: Facebook snags Geohot

#26

Post by reso »

Sephr wrote: post #25
proexploit wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. Sure you can, go to Account Settings > Download Your Information (second from bottom). 2. I'm very much with you on this one. The privacy settings should be easier.

1. Of your friends, you just get a list of names, not any contact information whatsoever.

The argument is friends' contact info belongs to your friends, not to you. Its a social grey area that has been created by the internet, the correct protocols have yet to be defined.

Re: Facebook snags Geohot

#28

Post by mycroftiv »

Jach wrote: post #15
iamdave wrote: post #2

Become a saint to nerds after taking on a company that wont let you do what you want with products you've paid for ... ends up at a company that in no human decipherable terms owns your social identity. ... Who woulda thunk edit: I think it's worth mentioning, I'm not decrying either he or facebook for their acquisition of talent, it's just an unexpected maneuver. Kind of like a physicist suddenly leaving his craft f…

I don't have a facebook account, they don't own me. I surrender instead to other forces. ;P What's with the anti-Facebook sentiment? It's worse than anti-Microsoft sentiments. Facebook does lots of cool stuff, a lot of it open source.

Zuckerberg broke into the emails of journalists he thought could damage him back in the college days, and he called his users "dumb fucks" for trusting him. The way Zuckerberg is idolized for his success and even held up as a role model(!) when it was achieved through unethical means is symptomatic of a lot of my least favorite things about society. The fact that the essential character of Facebook is trying to leverage people's social connections for the purpose of marketing is highly distasteful to me as well.

Re: Facebook snags Geohot

#29

Post by DrCatbox »

redthrowaway wrote: post #24
lhnz wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is does not obviate any moral dilemma, I simply believe in geohot's right to his own moral choice. He is a human being with his own self-interests and free will; he should not be imbued with heroic obligations to the geek community.

Fair enough. Were I in his position I'd likely feel uncomfortable with the public persona that had grown around me and the expectations of the geek community. He received a lot of flak for settling with Sony when many of his supporters expected him to "fight the man"--and win. It was likely a smart decision for him personally. That said, he took donations from people who expected that those donations would be used to…

Maybe he is just an opportunist.

And he is young, Ive seen people in their late 20s with more opportunistic and naive behaviour. Especially those "I have a startup" and acting like they are the pope. Just like the majority of people geohotz likes flair and tail, he can get both now that he is under zuckerbergs command. Morality or freedom be damned falir and tail he is gonna get.

Re: Facebook snags Geohot

#30

Post by DrCatbox »

rowaway wrote: post #14
iamdave wrote: post #2

Become a saint to nerds after taking on a company that wont let you do what you want with products you've paid for ... ends up at a company that in no human decipherable terms owns your social identity. ... Who woulda thunk edit: I think it's worth mentioning, I'm not decrying either he or facebook for their acquisition of talent, it's just an unexpected maneuver. Kind of like a physicist suddenly leaving his craft f…

yeah he should live like richard stallman to preserve his saintly purity. /sarcasm. dude is a great hacker. facebook is one of the greatest places to be a great hacker. a perfect place? no. but what place is?

Google? Two, three years ago google was the place where all the great hackers worked at. Suddenly they are like, meh, you know...

Samsung?

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