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A single line of code cost $8000

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Re: A single line of code cost $8000

#241

Post by f1shy »

zahlman wrote: post #194
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.

Germany?

Re: A single line of code cost $8000

#242

Post by jbverschoor »

rvz wrote: post #195
Cthulhu_ wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 intro…

2% of that already goes to stripe or whatever you use. after a year it's 15%. It also gives your both a distribution and marketing channel.

It was good enough for netflix etc.

*I* don't want applications to be able to update itself. Look at malware zoom for example.

It's funny that people don't like telemetry, but at the same time they're ok with regular software update checks + installs.

Re: A single line of code cost $8000

#243

Post by f1shy »

mobilemidget wrote: post #167
benwilber0 wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Or.. Why on earth you need to check for updates 288x per day. It sounds and seems more like 'usage monitoring' rather than being sure that all users have the most recent bug fixes installed. What's wrong with checking for updates upon start once (and cache per day). What critical bugs or fixes could have been issued that warrant 288 update checks.

What's wrong with checking for updates upon start once (and cache per day)

For me that would also be wrong, if I cannot disable it in the configuration. I do bot want to extend startup time.

Re: A single line of code cost $8000

#244

Post by latexr »

fifilura wrote: post #45
jarym wrote: post #7

Just amazed that ‘better testing’ isn’t one of the takeaways in the summary. Just amazed. Yea ‘write code carefully’ as if suggesting that’ll fix it is a rookie mistake. So so frustrating when developers treat user machines like their test bed!

Contrarian approach: $8000 is not a lot in this context. What did the CEO think of this? Most of the time it is just a very small speed bump in the overall finances of the company. Avoidable, unfortunate, but the cost of slowing down development progress e.g. 10% is much higher. But agree that senior gatekeepers should know by heart some places where review needs to be extra careful. Like security pitfalls, exponenti…

> What did the CEO think of this?

I doubt there’s a CEO. Despite the use of “we”, pretty sure this is one guy building the app. All the copyright notices and social media go back to one person.

Re: A single line of code cost $8000

#245

Post by latexr »

gwbas1c wrote: post #175

In comparison, when I shipped a Mac desktop application: We used Sparkle, https://sparkle-project.org/ , to do our updates. IMO, it was a poor choice to "roll their own" updater. Our application was very complicated and shipped with Mono... And it was only about ~10MB. The Windows version of our application was ~2MB and included both 32-bit and 64-bit binaries. WTF are they doing shipping a 250MB screen recorder? So,…

> WTF are they doing shipping a 250MB screen recorder?

250 MB is just the download DMG, the app itself is almost 550 MB. It’s an Electron app.

Re: A single line of code cost $8000

#246

Post by f1shy »

senordevnyc wrote: post #171
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…

[flagged]

I think the critique here is not directed to 1 individual, the guy who actually wrotw the code. That would be ok, can happen. Here we are talking about the most valued company in the world, which hopefully has many architects, designers and literally an army of testers… and then make such a brutal error.

Re: A single line of code cost $8000

#247

Post by zarzavat »

Bug notwithstanding, checking for updates every 5 minutes is exactly the wrong way to do it.

You want to spread out update rollouts in case of a catastrophic problem. The absolute minimum should be once a day at a random time of day, preferably roll out updates over multiple days.

Re: A single line of code cost $8000

#248

Post by sweetjuly »

ivanjermakov wrote: post #153
Nition wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While we're listing complaints... 250MB for a screen recorder update?

Screen recorder under 100 bytes: ffmpeg -video_size 1024x768 -framerate 25 -f x11grab -i :0.0+100,200 output.mp4

Screen recorder in under 100 bytes:

Open QuickTime and hit Command-Shift-N. Press record.

Re: A single line of code cost $8000

#249

Post by monkeyelite »

latexr wrote: post #235
monkeyelite wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Code reviews kill velocity - introduce context switching, and are make work, it feels like you’re doing something to make a PR etc but your not. The context it makes the most sense is accepting code from strangers in a low trust environment. The alternative to trying to prevent mistakes is making it easy to find and correct them. Run CI on code after it’s been merged and send out emails if it’s failed. At the end of…

> Code reviews kill velocity This feels like a strange sense of priorities which would be satirised in a New Yorker/Far Side single-panel comic: “Sure, my mistake brought down the business and killed a dozen people, but I’m not sure you appreciate how fast I did it”. Code should be correct and efficient. Monkeys banging their heads against a keyboard may produce code fast, but it will be brittle and you’ll have to pa…

> would be satirised in a New Yorker/Far Side single-panel comic:

Thanks for taking my experience and comment seriously and challenging your preconceptions.

> Code should be correct and efficient.

When it ships to customers. The goal is to find the bugs before then. Having a stable branch can be accomplished in many ways besides gating each merge with a review.

Do you have any studies to show how effective synchronous code review is in preventing mistakes? If they are such a good idea why not do 2 or 3?

Re: A single line of code cost $8000

#250

Post by zahlman »

f1shy wrote: post #241
zahlman wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Germany?

Canada. But yes, I've heard the stories about Germany, and Australia too.

In point of fact, I can fairly reliably download at that rate (for example I can usually watch streaming 1080p video with only occasional interruptions). The best case has been over 20Mbit/s. (This might also be partly due to my wifi; even with a "high gain" dongle I suspect the building construction, physical location of computer vs router etc. causes issues.)

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