4 ms·

One programmer broke the internet by deleting a tiny piece of code (2016)

• sharts 3y ago
  It's always nodejs
• pull_my_finger 3y ago
  I remember when it happened, and all the following memes, but I had never actually heard the whole story. On a related note, has there been any development around the author of Faker.js? He rug-pulled faker.js in a similar matter, leaving only a cryptic message about Aaron Swartz. There was some additional drama about how their open collective funding was sketchily transferred to a new group of maintainers following. Always wondered if there was a story behind his decision to pull it, or if it was just some personal issues they were going through.
• flandry93 3y ago
  Wow -- I had not heard this story before. Did anything ever happen to Kik.com? Did they ever suffer for the harm they caused? Did NPM ever have responsibility for the theft of code that did not belong to them?
• hilbert42 3y ago
  It seems to me this house of cards only illustrates how fragile our software infrastructure really is. One has to question its fitness for purpose. No doubt this episode will give those with evil intent another avenue to explore. I wonder how long it will be—or what it would take—for governments to recognize the unfairness of current copyright/IP laws and that the abuse of them by the corporate sector has to stop.