Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I “Leaked” the story about the Biometric EarPods. But I’m not proud of it

earpodsecret.tumblr.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 64 posts

Re: I “Leaked” the story about the Biometric EarPods. But I’m not proud of it

#51

Post by gress »

msvan wrote: post #30

It's not the OP's fault, it's lack of integrity in the press. You start by propagating a rumor on some insignificant source like Secret, then a blogger picks it up. The blogger gets noticed by people on Twitter, who catch the attention of some small news source. Bigger newspapers notice that the story is blossoming in the lower echelons and they pick it up. Suddenly, something which carries zero truth has become fact…

This is actually a problem with capitalism in general. Integrity costs money. It's the tragedy of the commons writ large.

Re: I “Leaked” the story about the Biometric EarPods. But I’m not proud of it

#52

Post by jsmthrowaway »

jobu wrote: post #3

This makes me wonder how many actual products were dreamed up "on the shitter".

Not just that, I have found the shitter to be a powerful problem solving tool in general. I have conquered three-day-old challenges with a Eureka moment atop the throne.

It's probably the time our brain has to itself. Same with sleeping on things.

Re: I “Leaked” the story about the Biometric EarPods. But I’m not proud of it

#53

Post by geargrinder »

gress wrote: post #51
msvan wrote: post #30

It's not the OP's fault, it's lack of integrity in the press. You start by propagating a rumor on some insignificant source like Secret, then a blogger picks it up. The blogger gets noticed by people on Twitter, who catch the attention of some small news source. Bigger newspapers notice that the story is blossoming in the lower echelons and they pick it up. Suddenly, something which carries zero truth has become fact…

This is actually a problem with capitalism in general. Integrity costs money. It's the tragedy of the commons writ large.

Integrity could also earn money. Most people would rather buy from a truthful and transparent organization than a shady one. The market often punishes liars over the long term.

Re: I “Leaked” the story about the Biometric EarPods. But I’m not proud of it

#54

Post by mikeash »

mynewwork wrote: post #45
mikeash wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't mean to imply that Apple wouldn't do it. Just saying that if we're assigning blame, that's where it should go. As for putting food on the table, in general I'd agree, but do ex-Apple employees in SV really have trouble finding new jobs?

They do if they want to work for Google, Adobe, Intel... http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/25/technology/settlement-sili... http://pando.com/2014/03/27/how-steve-jobs-forced-google-to-...

1. That's not being done anymore.

2. Even if it was, it didn't apply to people who have been fired.

3. Even if it did, there are lots of other places for programmers to work.

Re: I “Leaked” the story about the Biometric EarPods. But I’m not proud of it

#55

Post by justinpaulson »

msvan wrote: post #30

It's not the OP's fault, it's lack of integrity in the press. You start by propagating a rumor on some insignificant source like Secret, then a blogger picks it up. The blogger gets noticed by people on Twitter, who catch the attention of some small news source. Bigger newspapers notice that the story is blossoming in the lower echelons and they pick it up. Suddenly, something which carries zero truth has become fact…

> It's not the OP's fault...

Really? So now it isn't your fault for completely lying to someone, it's their fault for believing you?

Re: I “Leaked” the story about the Biometric EarPods. But I’m not proud of it

#56

Post by EpicEng »

justinpaulson wrote: post #55
msvan wrote: post #30

It's not the OP's fault, it's lack of integrity in the press. You start by propagating a rumor on some insignificant source like Secret, then a blogger picks it up. The blogger gets noticed by people on Twitter, who catch the attention of some small news source. Bigger newspapers notice that the story is blossoming in the lower echelons and they pick it up. Suddenly, something which carries zero truth has become fact…

> It's not the OP's fault... Really? So now it isn't your fault for completely lying to someone, it's their fault for believing you?

When the source is not an authority, when nothing the source says is verifiable, and when you have a duty to perform due diligence in regards to what you report to your customers as fact? Yes, it's their fault.

Re: I “Leaked” the story about the Biometric EarPods. But I’m not proud of it

#57

Post by resu_nimda »

justinpaulson wrote: post #55
msvan wrote: post #30

It's not the OP's fault, it's lack of integrity in the press. You start by propagating a rumor on some insignificant source like Secret, then a blogger picks it up. The blogger gets noticed by people on Twitter, who catch the attention of some small news source. Bigger newspapers notice that the story is blossoming in the lower echelons and they pick it up. Suddenly, something which carries zero truth has become fact…

> It's not the OP's fault... Really? So now it isn't your fault for completely lying to someone, it's their fault for believing you?

Umm...yes? Especially in journalism. This isn't about morality, it's about doing one's job and performing due diligence before believing and propagating a freaking anonymous social media comment as fact. If you are reporting things to people through a channel that is supposed to contain accurate and reliable information, it is up to you to uphold that standard, not the source you are drawing from.

Re: I “Leaked” the story about the Biometric EarPods. But I’m not proud of it

#58

Post by lgas »

_Adam wrote: post #24

This was obviously fake because measuring blood pressure isn't something you can do via the ear canal in a non-intrusive way. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_pressure#Measurement Kind of sad that even a single person believed this. Why is everyone so willing to forego scepticism?

Probably because they believe (rightly or wrongly) that the amount of skepticism they exhibit is optimal given their different utility functions.

Re: I “Leaked” the story about the Biometric EarPods. But I’m not proud of it

#59

Post by encoderer »

lmm wrote: post #33
encoderer wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Meh, I think the idea is thin. So I can have biometrics info only when i stick something in my head ? Quantified Self or whatever you want to call it is certainly big business, but it NEEDS passive data collection to ever be a mainstream success. Thus the fitbit, and possibly the iWatch. "Just stick these sensors in your ears" is not a good solution to this. And "All the info you want about what your body is doing wh…

> "All the info you want about what your body is doing while you listen to music" is not exactly what I'm going after when I use these apps. When is it that you want the info on what your body is doing? Lots of joggers seem to listen to music at the same time.

When I sleep. When I get passive exercise like taking the steps instead of the lift. When I'm exercising with somebody else. When........

Re: I “Leaked” the story about the Biometric EarPods. But I’m not proud of it

#60

Post by glenra »

encoderer wrote: post #29
glenra wrote: post #14

The thing is that made-up or not, this is a really good idea . An idea whose time has come. Something like it is probably inevitable. Everywhere you go, you see people walking around with Apple headphones in their ears much of the time. The hardware connected to those headphones doesn't merely send music out to the ears from the phone, it also accepts signals in the other direction to enable microphone input and a fe…

Meh, I think the idea is thin. So I can have biometrics info only when i stick something in my head ? Quantified Self or whatever you want to call it is certainly big business, but it NEEDS passive data collection to ever be a mainstream success. Thus the fitbit, and possibly the iWatch. "Just stick these sensors in your ears" is not a good solution to this. And "All the info you want about what your body is doing wh…

Having the option of getting biometrics when you stick something in your head doesn't prevent getting data other ways too. Me, I listen to podcasts for an hour a day or so while my phone is in my pocket and the only thing touching my body directly is the earbuds. It'd be easy for the phone to be passively collecting data during that time - any time I'm listening to something via headphones - and it wouldn't require me to change my behavior or carry yet another device around.

I live in New York, so I listen via earbuds while I take the subway. In California a lot of people listen via earbuds while they go jogging or work out at the gym. There are almost certainly enough people who listen via earbuds daily to make that feature "a mainstream success", even if it doesn't match your own use case. If you never use the earbuds, you don't have to buy the earbuds that do biometric monitoring. Or you can ignore that feature.

There already exist apps that check your pulse (using the camera) and that check your sleeping patterns (you leave the phone charging on your bed; it uses the motion sensor). This would be just one more option along those lines.

But I'm curious: What would you consider "a good solution to this"?

Post reply on HN