I built Excel for Uber and they ditched it • Hacker News Board

Re: I built Excel for Uber and they ditched it

#561

Post by fennecfoxy » Mon, Sep 18, 2023, 1:48 PM UTC

BeFlatXIII wrote: post #469

berniedurfee wrote: post #438

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s my understanding as well; that the Industrial Revolution in the US was very much based on IP from outside the US.

Enforcing IP laws is merely pulling the ladder up after the US had its success.

What, should we let each country "have their turn" at morals, ethics and ideas from a hundred years ago or more?

I mean if that's the case the so be it, but they should expect protectionism in response - US already bans export of certain technologies to China, if we embrace the differences in views on IP theft, how are Western countries meant to protect the IP they invested money in nowadays?

Or do we just give it away for free? Who pays to develop this free IP then?

Re: I built Excel for Uber and they ditched it

#562

Post by iancmceachern » Mon, Sep 18, 2023, 5:19 PM UTC

mindslight wrote: post #556

iancmceachern wrote: post #555

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll admit the failures of the US government just much as anyone, am and will always be a tough critic.. But let's not forget the greater context here. We are talking about a communist country with very top down, state architected enterprises and actions with the USA, which is certainly not those things. The US isn't perfect, by any means, I'm not trying to say that. Context, that's what I'm trying to have us remembe…

How is that context supposed to be relevant to the point? That China is doing a poorer job by trying to direct the process centrally rather than something more nimble?

I'm not trying to say anything in particular other than drawing conclusions by making comparisons the US from 100-200 years ago to China today isn't very relevant and therefore is not very useful.

My original comment that started this whole thread is similar. I'm not trying to communicate any kind of opinion on it. It's just an observation of things I've personally seen happen in the world. Others are putting their own opinions on if it's right or wrong. I'm not trying to say any of that, just share my honest observations on the world.

Re: I built Excel for Uber and they ditched it

#563

Post by cyanydeez » Mon, Sep 18, 2023, 11:14 PM UTC

iancmceachern wrote: post #344

vkazanov wrote: post #339

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.

This isn't that. This is engineers deliberately taking tech to somewhere where they know IP laws won't be enforced. It's not like I'm saying they can learn calculus here and then go to China and use calculus to design things. It's that I'm saying they design a very specific thing, a very specific way, for hire, then go make that exact specific thing, that same specific way. If it were in any other country but China,…

Sounds like a thing unions might do better

Re: I built Excel for Uber and they ditched it

#564

Post by chaostheory » Tue, Sep 19, 2023, 1:52 PM UTC

pbj1968 wrote: post #262

ipython wrote: post #144

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.

That’s because you were being a racist. Most people reserve the word “crawling” for insects and other small pests. Only racists apply it to an entire set of people.

Re: I built Excel for Uber and they ditched it

#565

Post by acjohnson55 » Fri, Sep 22, 2023, 11:42 AM UTC

Aeolun wrote: post #374

acjohnson55 wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Literally today I was in a fireside chat where the speaker told us the IP law department at a previous employer brought in a couple billions in revenue by suing for infringement.

Sure, but they weren’t sueing a rock. Getting a judgement against an individual is vanishingly unlikely to result in any profits.

Probably even more pertinent, in my last job, I worked with a guy who got sued for taking the source code with him.

https://unicourt.com/case/pc-db5-better-holdco-inc-et-al-v-d...