As a citizen, I am shocked and appalled by this backdoor. As a software engineer, I can't help but marvel at the creativity and thoughtfulness put into the exploit.

The average engineer isn't an infosec expert and love automation so they found the weakest link in the chain: CI/CD

We're not talking expert-level infosec here. They should have firewalled their CI systems. That's pretty basic stuff.

I have a DJI Mini drone (which is awesome), I use it with a Google Pixel that has no internet connection (no SIM card and no WiFi) and it works fine.

I have a mini too. I have a samsung ultra that's way too big to fix in the controller so I use a dummy pixel 2 as well. Like you said, works great and I can keep it in my carrying case.

Is that true for the larger drones? The Mini is light enough that it doesn't need approval to fly (in the US). The larger drones require approval to fly, which is often accomplished real-time within the control app. [I don't know if this is the case, just guessing/wondering if it is]

I think the app figures out where you are based on GPS co-ords and lets you fly or not. That's what my mavic mini appears to do when I fly it with no internet connection. It will even pop up warnings like "airport flight restriction nearby" and it does that with no internet...

Yeah it has internal GPS, works without WiFi and SIM and sets automatic height restrictions based on where you are. I live in Brooklyn near an LGA approach vector, surprisingly it tells me the maximum height is 150m, which still feels pretty high considering how low jets pass over on their way to LGA.

That should be true unless you're near an airport.

I am surprised at the poor economics behind Eventbrite. In 2019, they lost a cool $26 million with a -21% margin. What are their major unit cost items? At the risk of sounding ignorant, isn't it just a website?

>At the risk of sounding ignorant, isn't it just a website?

A website with a gigantic sales and account management apparatus behind it. The costs are centered around acquiring and retaining users/customers, including a big customer support footprint.

I’m pretty sure 99% of the companies people on this website work for could be described as “just a website” if you want to be snarky

Yeah, but there is physical and people infrastructure behind many websites. Uber/DoorDash/Lyft have drivers and cars. My organization has large parking garages. GoPro makes hardware. Zoom has horrendous bandwidth costs and requires a ton of servers.

They all have some element of their business which doesn't meaningfully scale exponentially.

What does EventBrite have that would be like that?

- Sales staff to get event organizers to use their platform and help with setup. - Customer support to deal with issues. - Maybe loss and employees to deal with fraud of some kind (since payments are involved).

Reddit down, global productivity up.

I was pulling on the toilet paper and the holder came off from the wall. And it's not an isolated incident. All the single room bathrooms have the same poor workmanship.

I don't want to be an indie dev no more.