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I built Excel for Uber and they ditched it

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Re: I built Excel for Uber and they ditched it

#511
post #352
post #348

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The espionage really is next level in China. It’s not just reconstructing software (that’s part of it) but stealing binaries (and source where they can) for everything along the way. I worked at a large tech co with an assembly line in China and experienced this first hand. A routine scan of one of our calibration machines turned up a Trojan with a copy of all calibration software squirreled away. Fortunately nothing…

How did this become a thing on a cultural scale? Like that everyone does it and it is almost expected as it were?

> How did this become a thing on a cultural scale?

A IP is not a 'natural' concept, most cultures do not have it. Better question might be how did IP become a cultural thing in the West?

Re: I built Excel for Uber and they ditched it

#513

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Information wants to be free. If it's not, it's your duty to liberate it.

This is so obnoxiously wrong. You could add qualifications to your statement to be less wrong but your statement as is is stupid. When I'm banging my wife is it my duty to start banging on the walls and bellow at my sleeping kids to let them know what I'm up to?

That's just creating noise and disturbance. Correct analogies would be uploading it to Pornhub. For whatever reason plenty of people do that

Re: I built Excel for Uber and they ditched it

#514

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's illegal. According to who? Sovereign states have their own laws, that's what makes them sovereign. You claim that companies wouldn't have done business in China (in the times before our current Second Cold War) had they known about the lack of IP law enforcement there. I think companies who outsourced to China knew very well what was going on, and calculated that they'd still come out ahead.

According to international trade law and China itself. [1] People are making absolutely wild, misinformed claims that don't belong here. Claiming executives knew what they were getting into is pure conjecture. > Sovereign states have their own laws, that's what makes them sovereign. You're making a grossly misinformed claim here. Sovereign countries also participate outside their borders and are subject to the intern…

> Claiming executives knew what they were getting into is pure conjecture.

Schrodinger's executive - when things go well, it's because they meticulously planned every detail. When things go wrong, suddenly they know less about their business than my grandma does.

What is the cause of this habit of making up excuses for people that get massive compensation but never take any responsibility?

Re: I built Excel for Uber and they ditched it

#515

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that you are claiming ownership of this code and by making it available on GitHub under an MIT license you are claiming that you have the right to do so. If I take that code and make a billion dollar business out of it, Box or Uber could then claim a share of it. That's the kind of things that companies do with the lawyers on retainer. I then sue you for falsely claiming that you own it. You are partic…

Can you source the claim about Washington State?

Kinda the other way around. California has a law that states such contract clauses are unenforceable. I could show you that. Washington State does not.

Re: I built Excel for Uber and they ditched it

#516

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So an engineer learns how to make something, and then goes elsewhere to make it. To be honest, the way you put ut, the story feels OK to me. There are many truly bad examples, e.g. the arm china story, but engineers doing their thing is not one of them.

> So an engineer learns how to make something, and then goes elsewhere to make it. It's not long till the capital class claims ownership of your brain too. /s

I don’t think /s is needed. Tech firms already wish they could act that way, and if they aren’t, it’s only because they’re not able to.

Re: I built Excel for Uber and they ditched it

#517

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surely someone has to ask for it before it's work done "for hire".

Now I understand what you are saying, and no. For a salaried employee it pretty much covers everything you do that is related to your job, with that “related to your job” being interpreted very loosely, or done with company equipment or on company time.

Okay, well that's a bad way to define those words if very vague relatedness is enough, with no other factors.

Work for hire should always be very clear.

Re: I built Excel for Uber and they ditched it

#518

Best quote: "People working for Didi apply for intern jobs at Uber China and then exfiltrate our data. We can’t let them see the formulas or they’ll just copy what we do!” This is so true. People in the US just don't understand the level of economic and industrial espionage that happens in China on a daily basis. I was responding to an unrelated breach at an unnamed tech company back in mid-2000s time frame and had a…

And I was called a racist 25 years ago when I said, “like, our engineering school is, like, crawling with Chinese nationals.” We said like a lot on the 90s.

If you used that wording, I'd have called you racist too.

Re: I built Excel for Uber and they ditched it

#519

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to international trade law and China itself. [1] People are making absolutely wild, misinformed claims that don't belong here. Claiming executives knew what they were getting into is pure conjecture. > Sovereign states have their own laws, that's what makes them sovereign. You're making a grossly misinformed claim here. Sovereign countries also participate outside their borders and are subject to the intern…

> Claiming executives knew what they were getting into is pure conjecture. Schrodinger's executive - when things go well, it's because they meticulously planned every detail. When things go wrong, suddenly they know less about their business than my grandma does. What is the cause of this habit of making up excuses for people that get massive compensation but never take any responsibility?

Do you understand that the side of this argument you're representing is making excuses for internationally illegal theft as, "well they sure had it coming?"

Re: I built Excel for Uber and they ditched it

#520

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Claiming executives knew what they were getting into is pure conjecture. Schrodinger's executive - when things go well, it's because they meticulously planned every detail. When things go wrong, suddenly they know less about their business than my grandma does. What is the cause of this habit of making up excuses for people that get massive compensation but never take any responsibility?

Do you understand that the side of this argument you're representing is making excuses for internationally illegal theft as, "well they sure had it coming?"

The side you are representing was trusted with safekeeping this information. They purposefully placed it into the jurisdiction where it is frequently, systematically stolen. They clearly did this to save a few bucks. Quite reasonably, some people are asking, why do they face no accountability for this decision.

You are coming up with excuses like "well they couldn't possibly be aware of information that was widely avaliable in mass media since 2010 at least.

Would you accept this sort of excuse if someone was in charge of safekeeping your child and they took your kid for a walk through an area known for violence and murder?

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