Welcome to Hell Developer

(noahclements.com)

35 points | by denysvitali 4 hours ago

10 comments

  • procone 48 minutes ago
    I found this really hard to read due to the Claude-isms. "Classic" chicken and egg problem? 39 em-dashes, random numbered lists, etc.

    If you're not going to even bother to take the time to write an article, why should I waste my time reading it?

    • 542458 32 minutes ago
      I mainly object to AI writing when it’s excessively verbose. This was pretty information dense, a few AI-isms didn’t make it a waste of my time to read.
    • hmcamp 41 minutes ago
      I read it and found it useful

      \_(^ ^)_/

    • debo_ 6 minutes ago
      Welcome to Hell, Reader.

      (I liked the article, personally.)

  • kjhughes 2 hours ago
    There seems to be a debugging pattern that arises when problems are in proximity to a poorly understood, highly complex part of the system: We tend to think that's where the problem probably is. And we can lose an inordinate amount of time looking for it there. It's like an inverse streetlight effect.

    I've seen coding LLMs do it too. I have a well-tested, but complex, subsystem that constantly draws their attention when something non-obvious elsewhere goes wrong.

  • amarant 35 minutes ago
    I can't help imagining someone trying to debug this rigging their laptop to their bicycle handlebars, connecting to the ride computer and then going for a ride to get live data for the debug session.

    It would be very hard not to die in a traffic accident while debugging in this way.

    Welcome to hell, developer!

    • rmast 25 minutes ago
      That just brought a whole new meaning to that message… and writing up a post-mortem.
  • xp84 27 minutes ago
    It’s frustrating that this isn’t completely typical. As the writeup pointed out, this “exploit” can only be performed by the device owner anyway, so nobody is harmed by the unlockability. But 95% of devices that are sold, besides non-Mac PCs, and SBCs, are locked down completely, prohibiting anyone from using the device as they like.
    • rmast 18 minutes ago
      Agreed, many types of devices don’t need to be locked down so much.

      I imagine the companies making the devices think they are “protecting” their secrets from competitors, though now it might be easier to ask an LLM for whatever feature they want to copy.

  • hmcamp 44 minutes ago
    I love reading these kinds of stories!
  • ChrisArchitect 1 hour ago
    Title is: How a Broken Bike Sync Led Me to Reverse Engineering My Wahoo's Hidden Debug Mode
    • denysvitali 53 minutes ago
      Yes, less fun, sorry for the lack of 1:1 match
      • debo_ 5 minutes ago
        How dare you have fun
  • davidw 1 hour ago
    That's pretty interesting; I've always wondered about the internals of those things, as I stared at mine while pedaling up some steep grade.

    I'm also curious about what the electronic derailleurs and shifters run.

  • otikik 2 hours ago
    Love the punchline
  • ID-Refactor 33 minutes ago
    [flagged]
  • Scribbd 2 hours ago
    [dead]