3 ms·

It’s even more crazy because Telegram is by far the smoothest messenger app on Android. BTW, would you mind sharing how you got that job?

Klonoar 2y ago
They didn't specify it was their job, the project is open source after all.
grishka 2y ago
> BTW, would you mind sharing how you got that job? I started working with Pavel Durov in 2011 on the VKontakte Android app, after winning several of his developer contests, and it all just went from there. I was the last one of the "old" team to transfer to Telegram. My main job was actually the libtgvoip[1] library and its integration into the Android app (the other platforms were done by their corresponding devs). I got fired in 2019 because the calls weren't working satisfactorily for Pavel. He got furious when he was unable to call some journalist, cursed at me in front of the entire team and sent me a termination notice. In hindsight, I should've definitely not taken building a VoIP library from scratch alone upon myself. It's a massive undertaking. But at least I learned a lot, and many people say that my implementation performed noticeably better than the current WebRTC-based one ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I'm now working on two fediverse projects at the same time — Smithereen[2], a VK-like ActivityPub server, and the Mastodon Android app[3]. [1] https://github.com/grishka/libtgvoip https://github.com/grishka/libtgvoip [2] https://github.com/grishka/Smithereen https://github.com/grishka/Smithereen [3] https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon-android https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon-android
- nar001 2y ago
  Why did the call fail? What failed with your implementation/the code?
  - grishka 2y ago
    We'll never know. There are many things that could go wrong because VoIP over the public internet is inherently fragile. When I asked for logs so I could look into it, I got cursed at once again.
  - danogentili 2y ago
    Grishka wrote very low quality code (an extremely buggy and segfaulty mess of C and C++), combined with little testing in not-so-edge case network conditions. I managed to improve the situation after weeks of refactoring and testing for my library, and thankfully now it was completely replaced by webrtc.
- Aeolun 2y ago
  > He got furious when he was unable to call some journalist, cursed at me in front of the entire team and sent me a termination notice. Honestly does not sound like a very healthy person to work for anyway.
  - wood_spirit 2y ago
    There are two sides to every story
    - Aeolun 2y ago
      Sure, but I do not feel like it’d really affect the broad strokes of ‘criticized in front of the entire team’.
    - greenthrow 2y ago
      There's no side where berating your subordinates in front of others is justified. That's unprofessional and childish. Always.
  - trustno2 2y ago
    Does this seem like a healthy person to you? https://www.instagram.com/durov/ https://www.instagram.com/durov/
    - fingerlocks 2y ago
      No, that's painfully cringe.
    - Aeolun 2y ago
      I feel like those are missing a bear. I guess the best thing that can be said is at least he’s confident enough in himself to post that.
    - CRConrad 2y ago
      Depends on what you mean by "healthy". Physically, yes, sure looks so. But that's just one definition.
- mardifoufs 2y ago
  What was it like to work for telegram/durov? A part from the "getting fired" part that is ;)

Klonoar 2y ago

They didn't specify it was their job, the project is open source after all.

grishka 2y ago

> BTW, would you mind sharing how you got that job? I started working with Pavel Durov in 2011 on the VKontakte Android app, after winning several of his developer contests, and it all just went from there. I was the last one of the "old" team to transfer to Telegram. My main job was actually the libtgvoip[1] library and its integration into the Android app (the other platforms were done by their corresponding devs). I got fired in 2019 because the calls weren't working satisfactorily for Pavel. He got furious when he was unable to call some journalist, cursed at me in front of the entire team and sent me a termination notice. In hindsight, I should've definitely not taken building a VoIP library from scratch alone upon myself. It's a massive undertaking. But at least I learned a lot, and many people say that my implementation performed noticeably better than the current WebRTC-based one ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I'm now working on two fediverse projects at the same time — Smithereen[2], a VK-like ActivityPub server, and the Mastodon Android app[3]. [1] https://github.com/grishka/libtgvoip https://github.com/grishka/libtgvoip [2] https://github.com/grishka/Smithereen https://github.com/grishka/Smithereen [3] https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon-android https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon-android

nar001 2y ago
Why did the call fail? What failed with your implementation/the code?
- grishka 2y ago
  We'll never know. There are many things that could go wrong because VoIP over the public internet is inherently fragile. When I asked for logs so I could look into it, I got cursed at once again.
- danogentili 2y ago
  Grishka wrote very low quality code (an extremely buggy and segfaulty mess of C and C++), combined with little testing in not-so-edge case network conditions. I managed to improve the situation after weeks of refactoring and testing for my library, and thankfully now it was completely replaced by webrtc.
Aeolun 2y ago
> He got furious when he was unable to call some journalist, cursed at me in front of the entire team and sent me a termination notice. Honestly does not sound like a very healthy person to work for anyway.
- wood_spirit 2y ago
  There are two sides to every story
  - Aeolun 2y ago
    Sure, but I do not feel like it’d really affect the broad strokes of ‘criticized in front of the entire team’.
  - greenthrow 2y ago
    There's no side where berating your subordinates in front of others is justified. That's unprofessional and childish. Always.
- trustno2 2y ago
  Does this seem like a healthy person to you? https://www.instagram.com/durov/ https://www.instagram.com/durov/
  - fingerlocks 2y ago
    No, that's painfully cringe.
  - Aeolun 2y ago
    I feel like those are missing a bear. I guess the best thing that can be said is at least he’s confident enough in himself to post that.
  - CRConrad 2y ago
    Depends on what you mean by "healthy". Physically, yes, sure looks so. But that's just one definition.
mardifoufs 2y ago
What was it like to work for telegram/durov? A part from the "getting fired" part that is ;)