7 ms·

Facebook snags Geohot

64 points by deltriggah 15y ago

iamdave 15y ago
Become a saint to nerds after taking on a company that wont let you do what you want with products you've paid for ... ends up at a company that in no human decipherable terms owns your social identity. ... Who woulda thunk edit: I think it's worth mentioning, I'm not decrying either he or facebook for their acquisition of talent, it's just an unexpected maneuver. Kind of like a physicist suddenly leaving his craft for the pulpit. Perfectly fine if he wants to do that...just sort of an "oh, that was unexpected".
- getsat 15y ago
  Everyone has a price, dude.
  - iamdave 15y ago
    Oh not disagreeing with you one bit, there.
  - sylvinus 15y ago
    On top of that Geohot may have some past or future legal bills to pay ;-)
    - redthrowaway 15y ago
      His past legal bills were paid by the thousands of donations he received to "fight the man", which he promptly...didn't. He shouldn't have any future ones unless he plans on engaging in more man-fighting.
      - marshray 15y ago
        He settled without paying Sony and donated the rest to the EFF. That's good enough for me.
        redthrowaway 15y ago
        And for me as well, although I didn't give him any money. He was taking donations for his legal expenses, and had given every indication that he intended to fight the case through to the end. Were I a donor, that's what I would expect him to do with my money. If I wanted to give money to the EFF (a fine organization well deserving of it), I would have done that instead. Some construe his settlement as a victory of sorts, and others as a betrayal. I can see validity in both portrayals.
- sylvinus 15y ago
  Facebook has tons of bright developers that other bright developers like to be around, and even if they're not all primarily motivated by the potential value of their options, it does create a self-sustaining black hole...
  - cpeterso 15y ago
    Not unlike Google.
- lhnz 15y ago
  I don't think it's fair to discuss any perceived moral problem around this. Facebook pays well and you get to work with some very smart people on a far-reaching product. That's a good job.
  - redthrowaway 15y ago
    How does paying well and being full of nerds obviate a moral dilemma? If working for facebook is morally wrong (feel free to argue on this one), then neither of those conditions changes things. It can be both a smart move for geohot, as well as an immoral one. Again, I'm not saying that working for facebook is bad. I'm saying that it's rightness or wrongness is not determined by how well they pay or how many geeks they employ.
    - lhnz 15y ago
      It is does not obviate any moral dilemma, I simply believe in geohot's right to his own moral choice. He is a human being with his own self-interests and free will; he should not be imbued with heroic obligations to the geek community.
      - redthrowaway 15y ago
        Fair enough. Were I in his position I'd likely feel uncomfortable with the public persona that had grown around me and the expectations of the geek community. He received a lot of flak for settling with Sony when many of his supporters expected him to "fight the man"--and win. It was likely a smart decision for him personally. That said, he took donations from people who expected that those donations would be used to defend our right to pull apart anything we buy. I guess the disappointment in geohot comes from seeing someone (rightly or wrongly) who championed the values that a lot of us hold weaselling his way out of the fight. Joining facebook is a fairly ignominious end to that tale. Maybe he didn't want the publicity, maybe he didn't want to be an activist, and maybe he resented the expectations that were placed on him. We (the geek community) had expectations of geohot, not George Hotz. It was the character, not the man, that we liked. Maybe he was just tired of playing that role.
- flocial 15y ago
  You have to give Facebook credit for actively recruiting talent. Probably overpaying and distorting the labor market in SV even more than usual. Surprised Apple wouldn't try to hire him.
  - redthrowaway 15y ago
    Apple certainly would have been the logical fit. Their response to his work suggested begrudging admiration more than Sony's outright hostility.
- rowaway 15y ago
  yeah he should live like richard stallman to preserve his saintly purity. /sarcasm. dude is a great hacker. facebook is one of the greatest places to be a great hacker. a perfect place? no. but what place is?
  - DrCatbox 15y ago
    Google? Two, three years ago google was the place where all the great hackers worked at. Suddenly they are like, meh, you know... Samsung?
- Jach 15y ago
  I don't have a facebook account, they don't own me. I surrender instead to other forces. ;P What's with the anti-Facebook sentiment? It's worse than anti-Microsoft sentiments. Facebook does lots of cool stuff, a lot of it open source.
  - Game_Ender 15y ago
    I think people resent how Facebook is trying to become the web, in similar way to how AOL did (remember when some companies advertised AOL keywords). They are doing this on top of a platform that is closed, and is mostly a black box for your data. That doesn't mean they don't produce some cool open source technologies, it just means they use them on massive closed source platform.
  - mikemaccana 15y ago
    1. You can import your data into Facebook. You can't export - all you get is Facebook UUIDs back. 2. Privacy options are made deliberately difficult as Facebook (as they've stated before) want you to share as much as you can. Setting anything to 'me only' is buried under a custom setting you have to repeat for everything you don't want shared.
    - proexploit 15y ago
      1. Sure you can, go to Account Settings > Download Your Information (second from bottom). 2. I'm very much with you on this one. The privacy settings should be easier.
      - Sephr 15y ago
        1. Of your friends, you just get a list of names, not any contact information whatsoever.
        reso 15y ago
        The argument is friends' contact info belongs to your friends, not to you. Its a social grey area that has been created by the internet, the correct protocols have yet to be defined.
deltriggah 15y ago
confused
flocial 15y ago
Guess he gotta pay legal bills. But wasn't he an intern at Google doing maps? Dude's super talented.
orijing 15y ago
He sits in front of me. I'm surprised the news didn't leak out sooner. He's a cool dude. I don't see any of the perceived threats hinted in the comments.
- jevinskie 15y ago
  Can you shed any light on what is role at Facebook is? My guess would be that he has been tasked with improving security.
  - timmins 15y ago
    If I had to guess... I bet he's playing a significant role in their mobile strategy. Maybe related, a story broke last week with MG that they want to deploy a platform, via the browser. Project Spartan - http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/15/facebook-project-spartan http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/15/facebook-project-spartan
jkincaid 15y ago
In case you haven't seen it, here's an awesome story on how FB hired Chris Putnam: http://www.quora.com/How-did-Chris-Putnam-get-hired-at-Facebook http://www.quora.com/How-did-Chris-Putnam-get-hired-at-Faceb... He hacked Facebook in 2005 and they hired him. From what I've heard he was one of their most invaluable engineers.
marshray 15y ago
Lol! AIUI, Geohot is basically forbidden from working with anything Sony. So to the extent he becomes an essential part of the security team at Facebook, I guess Sony just lawsuited their way out of deep partnership opportunities with the biggest social media platform to date.
- MatthewPhillips 15y ago
  Facebook would pass over business deals to serve a grudge of one of their low level employees?
  - marshray 15y ago
    No, I qualified it with "to the extent he becomes an essential part of the security team", and no, it's not a "grudge" it's a condition of out-of-court settlement as I understand it. Yes, the comment was a little over-the-top. But think NDAs. That kind of thing can definitely complicate business deals.
unkoman 15y ago
I'd love to get my hands on all of that private info too.

64 points by deltriggah 15y ago

Become a saint to nerds after taking on a company that wont let you do what you want with products you've paid for ... ends up at a company that in no human decipherable terms owns your social identity. ... Who woulda thunk edit: I think it's worth mentioning, I'm not decrying either he or facebook for their acquisition of talent, it's just an unexpected maneuver. Kind of like a physicist suddenly leaving his craft for the pulpit. Perfectly fine if he wants to do that...just sort of an "oh, that was unexpected".

getsat 15y ago
Everyone has a price, dude.
- iamdave 15y ago
  Oh not disagreeing with you one bit, there.
- sylvinus 15y ago
  On top of that Geohot may have some past or future legal bills to pay ;-)
  - redthrowaway 15y ago
    His past legal bills were paid by the thousands of donations he received to "fight the man", which he promptly...didn't. He shouldn't have any future ones unless he plans on engaging in more man-fighting.
    - marshray 15y ago
      He settled without paying Sony and donated the rest to the EFF. That's good enough for me.
      - redthrowaway 15y ago
        And for me as well, although I didn't give him any money. He was taking donations for his legal expenses, and had given every indication that he intended to fight the case through to the end. Were I a donor, that's what I would expect him to do with my money. If I wanted to give money to the EFF (a fine organization well deserving of it), I would have done that instead. Some construe his settlement as a victory of sorts, and others as a betrayal. I can see validity in both portrayals.
sylvinus 15y ago
Facebook has tons of bright developers that other bright developers like to be around, and even if they're not all primarily motivated by the potential value of their options, it does create a self-sustaining black hole...
- cpeterso 15y ago
  Not unlike Google.
lhnz 15y ago
I don't think it's fair to discuss any perceived moral problem around this. Facebook pays well and you get to work with some very smart people on a far-reaching product. That's a good job.
- redthrowaway 15y ago
  How does paying well and being full of nerds obviate a moral dilemma? If working for facebook is morally wrong (feel free to argue on this one), then neither of those conditions changes things. It can be both a smart move for geohot, as well as an immoral one. Again, I'm not saying that working for facebook is bad. I'm saying that it's rightness or wrongness is not determined by how well they pay or how many geeks they employ.
  - lhnz 15y ago
    It is does not obviate any moral dilemma, I simply believe in geohot's right to his own moral choice. He is a human being with his own self-interests and free will; he should not be imbued with heroic obligations to the geek community.
    - redthrowaway 15y ago
      Fair enough. Were I in his position I'd likely feel uncomfortable with the public persona that had grown around me and the expectations of the geek community. He received a lot of flak for settling with Sony when many of his supporters expected him to "fight the man"--and win. It was likely a smart decision for him personally. That said, he took donations from people who expected that those donations would be used to defend our right to pull apart anything we buy. I guess the disappointment in geohot comes from seeing someone (rightly or wrongly) who championed the values that a lot of us hold weaselling his way out of the fight. Joining facebook is a fairly ignominious end to that tale. Maybe he didn't want the publicity, maybe he didn't want to be an activist, and maybe he resented the expectations that were placed on him. We (the geek community) had expectations of geohot, not George Hotz. It was the character, not the man, that we liked. Maybe he was just tired of playing that role.
flocial 15y ago
You have to give Facebook credit for actively recruiting talent. Probably overpaying and distorting the labor market in SV even more than usual. Surprised Apple wouldn't try to hire him.
- redthrowaway 15y ago
  Apple certainly would have been the logical fit. Their response to his work suggested begrudging admiration more than Sony's outright hostility.
rowaway 15y ago
yeah he should live like richard stallman to preserve his saintly purity. /sarcasm. dude is a great hacker. facebook is one of the greatest places to be a great hacker. a perfect place? no. but what place is?
- DrCatbox 15y ago
  Google? Two, three years ago google was the place where all the great hackers worked at. Suddenly they are like, meh, you know... Samsung?
Jach 15y ago
I don't have a facebook account, they don't own me. I surrender instead to other forces. ;P What's with the anti-Facebook sentiment? It's worse than anti-Microsoft sentiments. Facebook does lots of cool stuff, a lot of it open source.
- Game_Ender 15y ago
  I think people resent how Facebook is trying to become the web, in similar way to how AOL did (remember when some companies advertised AOL keywords). They are doing this on top of a platform that is closed, and is mostly a black box for your data. That doesn't mean they don't produce some cool open source technologies, it just means they use them on massive closed source platform.
- mikemaccana 15y ago
  1. You can import your data into Facebook. You can't export - all you get is Facebook UUIDs back. 2. Privacy options are made deliberately difficult as Facebook (as they've stated before) want you to share as much as you can. Setting anything to 'me only' is buried under a custom setting you have to repeat for everything you don't want shared.
  - proexploit 15y ago
    1. Sure you can, go to Account Settings > Download Your Information (second from bottom). 2. I'm very much with you on this one. The privacy settings should be easier.
    - Sephr 15y ago
      1. Of your friends, you just get a list of names, not any contact information whatsoever.
      - reso 15y ago
        The argument is friends' contact info belongs to your friends, not to you. Its a social grey area that has been created by the internet, the correct protocols have yet to be defined.

deltriggah 15y ago

confused

flocial 15y ago

Guess he gotta pay legal bills. But wasn't he an intern at Google doing maps? Dude's super talented.

orijing 15y ago

He sits in front of me. I'm surprised the news didn't leak out sooner. He's a cool dude. I don't see any of the perceived threats hinted in the comments.

jevinskie 15y ago
Can you shed any light on what is role at Facebook is? My guess would be that he has been tasked with improving security.
- timmins 15y ago
  If I had to guess... I bet he's playing a significant role in their mobile strategy. Maybe related, a story broke last week with MG that they want to deploy a platform, via the browser. Project Spartan - http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/15/facebook-project-spartan http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/15/facebook-project-spartan

jkincaid 15y ago

In case you haven't seen it, here's an awesome story on how FB hired Chris Putnam: http://www.quora.com/How-did-Chris-Putnam-get-hired-at-Facebook http://www.quora.com/How-did-Chris-Putnam-get-hired-at-Faceb... He hacked Facebook in 2005 and they hired him. From what I've heard he was one of their most invaluable engineers.

marshray 15y ago

Lol! AIUI, Geohot is basically forbidden from working with anything Sony. So to the extent he becomes an essential part of the security team at Facebook, I guess Sony just lawsuited their way out of deep partnership opportunities with the biggest social media platform to date.

MatthewPhillips 15y ago
Facebook would pass over business deals to serve a grudge of one of their low level employees?
- marshray 15y ago
  No, I qualified it with "to the extent he becomes an essential part of the security team", and no, it's not a "grudge" it's a condition of out-of-court settlement as I understand it. Yes, the comment was a little over-the-top. But think NDAs. That kind of thing can definitely complicate business deals.

unkoman 15y ago

I'd love to get my hands on all of that private info too.