41–50 of 52 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is hacker news isn't it? Re-purposing things in ways that the original designers did not envision is one of the cornerstones of hacking.
Please don't try to imply that the rest of us here agree with you in any way just because we're on this site. Hanging out on a site called HackerNews and having a basic sense of right and wrong are things that plenty of us can do simultaneously.
This is kind of a dick move to use IMHO. Clearly they are not giving you the space to store arbitrary stuff. It's a neat hack and props to the author but if enough people use this it will not only cause Yahoo! to have to build countermeasures but will also set an ugly precedent for Yahoo! product managers to consider before doing nice things like they did today.
This is hacker news isn't it? Re-purposing things in ways that the original designers did not envision is one of the cornerstones of hacking.
Jacques,
Hackernews isn't for people who hack stuff that is against the law or something like that. Why would PG want to create a site for criminals? Hackernews is for the other new generation 'hackers' (like growth hackers, design hackers) etc. Not for stuff like this.
Imagine, I rent you my apartment and you 'hack it' into a miniature casino or a drug dealership. When I rented you the apartment, I rented it to you in good faith that you wouldn't do these things. But now, you broke my trust and next time when I rent out my apartment, I would go take some extra steps like installing security cameras inside every single room of the apartment because I have to protect my apartment from unethical usage scenarios. That's the same case with Flickr. So, clearly, this is something that is destructive to someone who gives you something with a good intent. Just because you can do it, doesn't mean you should.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is hacker news isn't it? Re-purposing things in ways that the original designers did not envision is one of the cornerstones of hacking.
The problem with Jacquesm is that he doesn't understand the term 'hacking' in general. Hopefully, I will try to explain what I know. Jacques, Hackernews isn't for people who hack stuff that is against the law or something like that. Why would PG want to create a site for criminals? Hackernews is for the other new generation 'hackers' (like growth hackers, design hackers) etc. Not for stuff like this. Imagine, I rent…
Making a proof-of-concept of something to show what you could do is not as far as I know against the law, and if it is then it shouldn't be.
Using this - and breaking the terms of service - should lead to account termination, possibly banning but definitely not a brush with law enforcement.
I can imagine all you want but this is what it is, a simple hack to show a proof-of-concept, not an incitement or example of widespread abuse bringing down a popular service.
So clearly, it is not destructive, though in theory it probably could be used as such, but then again that goes for all the hammers in my toolbox too, including the plastic ones.
Just because you can build it does not mean you can't or shouldn't, it means that you shouldn't use it. Any home chemistry set could be used to make bombs (in fact, any supermarket with a reasonable assortment could be used to make bombs). You can demonstrate such by making a small one, and you can cross the line by either making a large one or actually using it against someone or some property.
Knowledge and ability, proof of concept versus actual malicious use, it's not such a hard line to draw.
> Hackernews isn't for people who hack stuff that is against the law or something like that. Why would PG want to create a site for criminals? Hackernews is for the other new generation 'hackers' (like growth hackers, design hackers) etc. Not for stuff like this.
That's a false dichotomy for one there are other kinds of hackers (the real ones, imo, instead of the ones that borrowed a term because it was cool, 'design hacker', 'growth hacker' as the target audience for HN? and you know this how?), and simply wrong besides.
What is legal and what is not depends on many things, intent for one and location second.
Flickr aside, I am surprised nobody (AFAIK) has come up with a way of sanitizing uploaded image files yet. I wonder if there's a way for GD/ImageMagick to detect the image data and strip everything else. (And if EXIF data is needed for photographs, import all non-binary EXIF data into the system first.)
It also compresses big files though so I'm not sure if it can do it without effecting the image data and format itself.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is hacker news isn't it? Re-purposing things in ways that the original designers did not envision is one of the cornerstones of hacking.
The problem with Jacquesm is that he doesn't understand the term 'hacking' in general. Hopefully, I will try to explain what I know. Jacques, Hackernews isn't for people who hack stuff that is against the law or something like that. Why would PG want to create a site for criminals? Hackernews is for the other new generation 'hackers' (like growth hackers, design hackers) etc. Not for stuff like this. Imagine, I rent…
This doesn't fall onto that side of the fence. This is just using a gratis service creatively. Sure it might eventually get blocked if it becomes a common thing to do, but most things like this don't.
This is kind of a dick move to use IMHO. Clearly they are not giving you the space to store arbitrary stuff. It's a neat hack and props to the author but if enough people use this it will not only cause Yahoo! to have to build countermeasures but will also set an ugly precedent for Yahoo! product managers to consider before doing nice things like they did today.
This is hacker news isn't it? Re-purposing things in ways that the original designers did not envision is one of the cornerstones of hacking.
I don't mean literally that you're an asshole. I've always enjoyed your posts, and I get that you're not acting with malice, which is a cornerstone of being an asshole :) But this is one of the core tendencies that contribute to the perception that geeks and hackers are "socially inept".
Consider the following made-up scenario, even if it is contrived. Try to avoid the urge to pick it apart on a literal basis and focus on how this breeches basic social contracts. Then consider that normal people work at Flickr, and that those people are trying to do something good for users.
---
Me: This is my library. It's for storing books. You're welcome to store some of your books here as well.
You:
Me: Hey, what are you doing?
You: You didn't say I couldn't store random stuff here, and you haven't implemented any counter measures to prevent me from storing random stuff, so I figured it was ok.
Me: You're kind of an asshole. Did you know that?
---
I'm not saying the hack isn't cool. I'm not saying the hack shouldn't exist. I'm just saying that it's OK to point out that using it might be considered a dick move.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is hacker news isn't it? Re-purposing things in ways that the original designers did not envision is one of the cornerstones of hacking.
Please don't try to imply that the rest of us here agree with you in any way just because we're on this site. Hanging out on a site called HackerNews and having a basic sense of right and wrong are things that plenty of us can do simultaneously.
1) The overwhelming majority of Flickr users will never read these stories or even dream about uploading files;
2) Most people who read this POC will not try it, and of those who try it, most will use it only once;
This is a non-problem.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That ruins the service for the rest of us. The phrase "this is why we can't have anything nice" applies perfectly to this post and comment.
Maybe we should re-brand the service we're posting this on to 'ConsumerNews' then?
This is kind of a dick move to use IMHO. Clearly they are not giving you the space to store arbitrary stuff. It's a neat hack and props to the author but if enough people use this it will not only cause Yahoo! to have to build countermeasures but will also set an ugly precedent for Yahoo! product managers to consider before doing nice things like they did today.
This is hacker news isn't it? Re-purposing things in ways that the original designers did not envision is one of the cornerstones of hacking.
This is kind of a dick move to use IMHO. Clearly they are not giving you the space to store arbitrary stuff. It's a neat hack and props to the author but if enough people use this it will not only cause Yahoo! to have to build countermeasures but will also set an ugly precedent for Yahoo! product managers to consider before doing nice things like they did today.
This is hacker news isn't it? Re-purposing things in ways that the original designers did not envision is one of the cornerstones of hacking.