4 ms·

I was an early Gmail SRE so I was able to circumvent the restrictions. It was a bad idea it turns out. For a project I also created "spam@gmail.com" and caused

I was an early Gmail SRE so I was able to circumvent the restrictions. It was a bad idea it turns out. For a project I also created "spam@gmail.com" and caused a production outage due to the volume of mail it got forwarded. =) But yes your right, 6 characters is the minimum of "open" gmail accounts. I know of at least a dozen 2 character accounts created by insiders though.

pwinnski 6y ago
I am 'pwinnski' nearly everywhere now, because on April 1, 2005, I was not allowed to create a gmail account of only the first five characters. Goodbye to 15 years of the old 5-character username, and hello to what is now 15 years of the new 8-character username! At the time, I thought about pestering my Google-employee friends, but decided to just suck it up.
- bookofjoe 6y ago
  Synchronicity: You joined HN June 28, 2016 I joined May 8, 2016
  - pwinnski 6y ago
    Weird. I wonder if you told me about it back then, or it was a coincidence.
    - bookofjoe 6y ago
      That is such an interesting question; it could be either one IMHO, with equal likelihood
sethammons 6y ago
that's a fantastic outage :)
HenryBemis 6y ago
I got a friend that also snatched a 5-letter Gmail account back in the day. He was kind enough to facilitate that I get one to but I got my own domain since forever so didn't get to get one.
martinflack 6y ago
> I was an ... SRE ...... I ... caused a production outage I have nothing to add, except that you made me smile on a Friday afternoon.
- londons_explore 6y ago
  Nearly all SRE's have caused an outage of some kind... The trick is to design your systems well enough that even when there is an outage few/no people notice...
- liquidgecka 6y ago
  Google war story: we used to get digital badges on our employee profiles to indicate useful things like ability to write c++ or python, or having worked on a specific project, etc. I got "porn cookie" for working on the safe search stuff. Anyway, I designed a badge called "I broke Gmail" that would get applied to anybody that did exactly that. I intended a hint of shame but I got a wall of emails asking to get it with explanations of how each had broken the service at some point.

pwinnski 6y ago

I am 'pwinnski' nearly everywhere now, because on April 1, 2005, I was not allowed to create a gmail account of only the first five characters. Goodbye to 15 years of the old 5-character username, and hello to what is now 15 years of the new 8-character username! At the time, I thought about pestering my Google-employee friends, but decided to just suck it up.

bookofjoe 6y ago
Synchronicity: You joined HN June 28, 2016 I joined May 8, 2016
- pwinnski 6y ago
  Weird. I wonder if you told me about it back then, or it was a coincidence.
  - bookofjoe 6y ago
    That is such an interesting question; it could be either one IMHO, with equal likelihood

sethammons 6y ago

that's a fantastic outage :)

HenryBemis 6y ago

I got a friend that also snatched a 5-letter Gmail account back in the day. He was kind enough to facilitate that I get one to but I got my own domain since forever so didn't get to get one.

martinflack 6y ago

> I was an ... SRE ...... I ... caused a production outage I have nothing to add, except that you made me smile on a Friday afternoon.

londons_explore 6y ago
Nearly all SRE's have caused an outage of some kind... The trick is to design your systems well enough that even when there is an outage few/no people notice...
liquidgecka 6y ago
Google war story: we used to get digital badges on our employee profiles to indicate useful things like ability to write c++ or python, or having worked on a specific project, etc. I got "porn cookie" for working on the safe search stuff. Anyway, I designed a badge called "I broke Gmail" that would get applied to anybody that did exactly that. I intended a hint of shame but I got a wall of emails asking to get it with explanations of how each had broken the service at some point.