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Just playing Devil’s Advocate. This is your thoughts right now. If a real tangible offer came through for 10s of millions of dollars, would you still feel that

Just playing Devil’s Advocate. This is your thoughts right now. If a real tangible offer came through for 10s of millions of dollars, would you still feel that way? What about when you die or become permanently offline for some other reason? Will your family sell it to the lowest bidder, delist it, or just leave it to bit rot? These are things everyone has to/should consider when granting software unfettered access to their machine.

lapcat 4y ago
> Just playing Devil’s Advocate. You could just ask me questions without associating yourself with Satan. ;-) > If a real tangible offer came through for 10s of millions of dollars, would you still feel that way? I would definitely sell for 10s of millions of dollars! Indeed, I would sell for 1 million dollars. But nobody is going to offer me that LOL. > Will your family sell it to the lowest bidder, delist it, or just leave it to bit rot? They would have to leave it to "bit rot", because my source code is encrypted, and nobody else has my passwords. (The extension has no server component and should continue working fine indefinitely with no updates.)
- withinboredom 4y ago
  One of my friends got offered 8 million for an extension a few years ago. The new owners put malware in it. Meanwhile, he’s still sailing around the Mediterranean on his yacht with his family… This is exactly the kind of thing people are worried about.
  - lapcat 4y ago
    > One of my friends got offered 8 million for an extension a few years ago. The new owners put malware in it. Which extension? Was this in the news? There aren't actually that many really big extensions.
    - withinboredom 4y ago
      I’ve been asked not to share the name. It wasn’t a big extension though, only a few million installs. FWIW, they put it up for sale as a lark, not intending to actually sell it, on some business sales/acquisitions/mergers site and got more than their asking price.
      - lapcat 4y ago
        > I’ve been asked not to share the name. Asked by whom? Your (hopefully former?) friend who sold out millions of people for malware? Are those millions of people aware that they were infected with malware? Not sure how this can be a secret. > It wasn’t a big extension though, only a few million installs. That's big! Apparently there are only 300some Chrome extensions with over a million users. https://www.debugbear.com/blog/counting-chrome-extensions https://www.debugbear.com/blog/counting-chrome-extensions My user base is orders of magnitude less, so I wouldn't worry about my selling out for $millions.
- asvitkine 4y ago
  Presumably if lots of people trust your extension with access to their banking website, a nefarious actor could make steal more money to make that price worthwhile. Well, assuming they can transfer money out of people's accounts and get away with it, which obviously requires additional effort.
  - lapcat 4y ago
    To be clear, I wouldn't sell to [unknown criminal] for any amount of money, because I'm not a criminal myself, and I can't be turned into a criminal. I would sell to [known BigCo] for a million dollars. But BigCos aren't interested in my software, so that's a non-issue. If a criminal offered me millions of dollars, I would report them to the FBI. And I think this whole discussion is just ultra-paranoia. withinboredom claims but refuses to name a supposed malware extension with millions of users. Not sure I believe this astounding story. I don't even aspire to be rich, or even to retire. That sounds pretty boring to me. I'd rather work on something socially useful. But financial security would be nice.

lapcat 4y ago

> Just playing Devil’s Advocate. You could just ask me questions without associating yourself with Satan. ;-) > If a real tangible offer came through for 10s of millions of dollars, would you still feel that way? I would definitely sell for 10s of millions of dollars! Indeed, I would sell for 1 million dollars. But nobody is going to offer me that LOL. > Will your family sell it to the lowest bidder, delist it, or just leave it to bit rot? They would have to leave it to "bit rot", because my source code is encrypted, and nobody else has my passwords. (The extension has no server component and should continue working fine indefinitely with no updates.)

withinboredom 4y ago
One of my friends got offered 8 million for an extension a few years ago. The new owners put malware in it. Meanwhile, he’s still sailing around the Mediterranean on his yacht with his family… This is exactly the kind of thing people are worried about.
- lapcat 4y ago
  > One of my friends got offered 8 million for an extension a few years ago. The new owners put malware in it. Which extension? Was this in the news? There aren't actually that many really big extensions.
  - withinboredom 4y ago
    I’ve been asked not to share the name. It wasn’t a big extension though, only a few million installs. FWIW, they put it up for sale as a lark, not intending to actually sell it, on some business sales/acquisitions/mergers site and got more than their asking price.
    - lapcat 4y ago
      > I’ve been asked not to share the name. Asked by whom? Your (hopefully former?) friend who sold out millions of people for malware? Are those millions of people aware that they were infected with malware? Not sure how this can be a secret. > It wasn’t a big extension though, only a few million installs. That's big! Apparently there are only 300some Chrome extensions with over a million users. https://www.debugbear.com/blog/counting-chrome-extensions https://www.debugbear.com/blog/counting-chrome-extensions My user base is orders of magnitude less, so I wouldn't worry about my selling out for $millions.
asvitkine 4y ago
Presumably if lots of people trust your extension with access to their banking website, a nefarious actor could make steal more money to make that price worthwhile. Well, assuming they can transfer money out of people's accounts and get away with it, which obviously requires additional effort.
- lapcat 4y ago
  To be clear, I wouldn't sell to [unknown criminal] for any amount of money, because I'm not a criminal myself, and I can't be turned into a criminal. I would sell to [known BigCo] for a million dollars. But BigCos aren't interested in my software, so that's a non-issue. If a criminal offered me millions of dollars, I would report them to the FBI. And I think this whole discussion is just ultra-paranoia. withinboredom claims but refuses to name a supposed malware extension with millions of users. Not sure I believe this astounding story. I don't even aspire to be rich, or even to retire. That sounds pretty boring to me. I'd rather work on something socially useful. But financial security would be nice.