brianbarker's comments

brianbarker | 9 years ago | on: A Backdoor in Skype for Mac OS X

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.

brianbarker | 9 years ago | on: A Backdoor in Skype for Mac OS X

- 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.

brianbarker | 9 years ago | on: A Backdoor in Skype for Mac OS X

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.

brianbarker | 9 years ago | on: Mormon Tycoon Wants to Build Mega-Utopia in Vermont

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.

brianbarker | 9 years ago | on: Ask HN: Who is hiring? (July 2016)

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!

brianbarker | 9 years ago | on: How a 30K-member Facebook group filled the void left by Uber and Lyft in Austin

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?

brianbarker | 9 years ago | on: Ask HN: What is your experience with Scala?

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.

brianbarker | 9 years ago | on: Java Generics Are Turing Complete

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.

brianbarker | 9 years ago | on: Paul Graham on Uber and Lift Ban in Austin

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.

brianbarker | 10 years ago | on: Hiring Is Broken and Isn’t Worth Fixing

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.

brianbarker | 10 years ago | on: Private messages at work can be read by EU employers

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.

brianbarker | 10 years ago | on: Lyft defies predictions by continuing to grow as a rival to Uber

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.
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