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brianbarker

Re:A Backdoor in Skype for Mac OS X on Tuesday December 13, 2016 @02:33PM (#13170009)
Alright, I'm burnt out and I don't want to think about work for a few mins, so:

I tire of the logic such as "well...what IF...someone...did that intentionally!" Then people think they're smarter than everyone else, using words like sheeple and such.

Shit happens. Merges fail. Teams miss stuff. I once randomly discovered a hole in a web app where data was being leaked from an ajax call without logging in. No conspiracy.

Yes, if I were a 1337 haxxor and I wanted to disguise a commit to, say, Linux for my backdoor I would disguise it as a mistake. Totally right, that would be smart and awesome. I'd have something to say on the next HN post of "What makes a Senior Software Engineer", because a junior engineer would not be this smart.

As an aside, long before the NSA reveals of 2013 there had been reports of back doors in skype. My clock skew causes me to forget how many years ago that was, but I'm gonna say somewhere 2005-2008. As 2013 passed, I thought back on that and laughed.

So yeah, Skype is backdoored. Is this one of them? Perhaps. Or it's yet another big corp fail. Orrrr...getting crazy now....it's a bug, but then it was discovered long ago by smart people and has been exploited. So it wasn't internal conspiracy, just a good find by some NSA dude.

Anyway. Back to my code.

Re:A Backdoor in Skype for Mac OS X on Tuesday December 13, 2016 @02:16PM (#13169800)
- Not you personally. I have experience with HN comments. Just covering my bases.

- No, it's not the case here. Unless you can prove it. There's no evidence it was done intentionally.

Re:A Backdoor in Skype for Mac OS X on Tuesday December 13, 2016 @01:31PM (#13169234)
No. A backdoor is considered to be deliberate and obfuscated from easy discovery, with the intent to be secret access.

If every system flaw or coding bug is a backdoor, then defects like OpenSSL's Heartbleed would be deemed backdoors, and they're not.

Unless you're wearing a heavy tin foil hat and think the coding mistake for Heartbleed was intentional. I guess I can't dissuade you from that train of thought.

Re:Mormon Tycoon Wants to Build Mega-Utopia in Vermont on Thursday July 21, 2016 @11:04AM (#12137319)
It may not be that hard. Mormons believe jesus is coming again and will arrive at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam-ondi-Ahman. Some people have been buying land there for this reason.

Joseph's Smith's communal utopia, finally realized? Oh yeah, there are people who will go for this.

Edit: As for farming, yes mormons will be fine with it. Google "mormon food storage" and you'll be amazed. They are taught to be ready for disasters at all times.

OP isn't clueless, just pointing out the obvious.
Re:Ask HN: Who is hiring? (July 2016) on Friday July 01, 2016 @11:51AM (#12017142)
MaxPoint Interactive | Austin, TX and Morrisville, NC | Full-time | On Site

MaxPoint Interactive has multiple positions open for Data Science, Software Engineering and Project Management. It's a very fun place to work full of talented people. If you love data, web apps, large backend processes, time series data and more, you will feel at home here!

Our programming languages include Scala, Java, C# and Python. Spark, Impala, .NET, Hadoop, Spring are but a sample of the tools and packages we use. There are opportunities for all kinds of work here.

The benefits are great, with full-coverage healthcare, standing desks (now a treadmill desk as well) catered parties, fully-stocked kitchens, lounges and all the goods, happy hours and more!

Review the list of open positions and email me with questions and your resume at [email protected].

Open positions: http://maxpoint.com/us/digital-advertising-company/online-ad...

Full benefits: http://maxpoint.com/us/benefits

It would be great to work with some of the smart individuals on HN!

One less dependency is not a bad thing.
Download Fare and keep your eye on RideAustin when you return. Fare is doing great, plenty of cars out and no surge.
Arcade City has worked really well via the FB group. You post a ride request, multiple drivers respond. Many link their uber/lyft profiles. Then the client chooses their driver (big key to AC's premise) and a ride is arranged.

AC is also launching an app to replace the FB group and be directly p2p, which will be fascinating to watch.

Also, as of this last weekend, Fare has tons of cars and had cheaper-than-uber prices like Lyft. Very good, very stable app. The RideAustin app also is showing cars, but Fare looks better.

I'd recommend Fare. It sucks that visitors won't know, but maybe Fare can get a sign at the airport?

Re:Ask HN: What is your experience with Scala? on Saturday June 04, 2016 @03:58PM (#11837724)
Some data scientists I work with prefer Julia or Erlang, but the real interest is now Spark. Since Scala works with Spark and is more of a datsci's type of language (similar to Julia, Erlang, functional languages), people are moving to it. Spark made Scala relevant and interesting.
Re:Java Generics Are Turing Complete on Thursday May 26, 2016 @11:36AM (#11778745)
YES! to both parents here. Type erasure is a bitch.

Need to pass in a class type, but it's of a list?

List<YourType> list = new ArrayList<>(); yourfunc(list.getClass());

C# got all this junk right.

Think you missed the sarcasm.
Re:Paul Graham on Uber and Lift Ban in Austin on Monday May 16, 2016 @01:37PM (#11707987)
I just want uber and lyft back. The alternatives are awful. My friends have changed their weekend habits. I tried GetMe but it really sucks. Even the drivers were complaining the software had several bugs about billing, payment and mapping.

I don't think uber and lyft should have left over background checking and fingerprints. Idk which side will acquiesce first, I just hope someone does.

Orphan Black neolution territory. Other actors will do it. Scientists who want to do it will find a place where they can.
While the US debates such efforts in fear what could happen, other nations who don't see it as a problem will do this. It has always been a matter of time.
Re:Hiring Is Broken and Isn’t Worth Fixing on Friday April 29, 2016 @11:37AM (#11596390)
Like standardized testing, interviewing is a bullshit measure of what you really know.

Like standardized testing, the way to win is to get good at taking the tests. Even if you disapprove, this is how you get a job. I've accepted this.

Re:Are We Living in a Computer Simulation? on Monday April 11, 2016 @05:24PM (#11475229)
I heard it as a mormon growing up.
Living to be 1000 sounds great until you realize some of the awful people in this world would be right there with you..forever.
Re:Private messages at work can be read by EU employers on Wednesday January 13, 2016 @11:08AM (#10895289)
I've worked at places where they set any pcs on the domain to accept their ssl cert. Then they mitm all your https traffic and scan everything. That would include banking, gmail, etc.

Best not to do that stuff at work. You also have to wonder about the internal wifi people put their phones on.

Lyft caps its surge at 200% or 2x, while Uber intentionally goes to 8-10x on busy nights. The outrage at uber over insane fares has a history far beyond this past New Year's Eve. People want Lyft to succeed, but Lyft still needs to get its act together on a few things. Lyft's servers have crashed on busy holiday nights, or rides requests don't match despite cars showing on the map. I'm hoping the recent investments and growing popularity of Lyft keep it in the race.
Re:Flat Tree Dependency Resolution in Npm v3 on Thursday December 31, 2015 @09:44PM (#10820902)
V2's deep nesting recently caused trouble for us at work. We had errors where our node_modules folder was too long for Windows, due to the deep folder structure. Updating to v3 resolved the problem. Hopefully other flaws being discussed here can be worked out as npm evolves.
Re:Ask HN: Are you programming on your holidays? on Monday December 28, 2015 @06:17PM (#10804059)
If I could get off HN, yes.
What's the best way to prevent a mormon from drinking your beer?

Bring another mormon.

Re:Even the LastPass Will Be Stolen on Wednesday November 18, 2015 @01:23PM (#10589656)
Yes, because every system has flaws in it. Nothing is perfect and given enough time and resources an exploit will be found. Knowing that, if the team listens and fixes the issue, the product goes forward being more secure and trustworthy.
Re:Modsy – Home design using 3D rendering on Thursday October 29, 2015 @12:32PM (#10472299)
Pretty cool stuff. Good luck with this venture!
Re:23andMe meets FDA standards, adds back wellness reports on Wednesday October 21, 2015 @01:44PM (#10427073)
I just like knowing I have the trait for smelling asparagus in urine.
aka the Elliot Stabler maneuver, if you've watched enough SVU ;).
If someone wanted your dna badly enough, they could pick up your used coffee cup or fallen strand of hair just by tailing you for a minute.
Re:The sky's gone dark on Thursday October 01, 2015 @12:03PM (#10312136)
So a drone rocket that hovers around in orbit and shoots down debris sounds like another startup idea.
Re:Links between coffee and health on Wednesday September 30, 2015 @12:24PM (#10305055)
"takes time to make and consume"

Most gen-y humans I know make the same complaints about cooking at home.

We should eat Chipotle every night.

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