4 ms·

Three Chapters at Cloudflare: Programmer to CTO to Board of Directors

148 points by jgrahamc 1y ago

andrethegiant 1y ago
Anything new here besides what was announced in March?
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- dang 1y ago
  Just having a big HN party I think :)
lysace 1y ago
Congrats on your non-retirement! My personal Cloudflare pro/con list: + Keeps the web working at scale + Made me a lot of money in the stock market - It's so very high-touch/sales-intensive. I want a tiered public price list that is universally adhered to. Otherwise there's always that nagging feeling that I'm getting screwed for not being aggressive enough, or something. I know I'm fighting an uphill battle here. See also this documentary about Jared Dunn/Ed Chambers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-CA2EW4Z_U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-CA2EW4Z_U
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- jsheard 1y ago
  > Keeps the web working at scale OTOH they also keep DDoS providers working at scale. Look for "stressers" or "booters" and check their DNS, 9 times out of 10 the attackers which Cloudflare offers to protect you from are themselves hiding behind Cloudflare.
  - tclancy 1y ago
    Somebody gotta sell shovels baby. And this feels unfair to expect a company to differentiate black vs white hats at scale, having tried to do the same at only an order or two of lower magnitude.
    - deleted 1y ago
      [deleted]
  - lysace 1y ago
    Yes, the hosting policy seems to be a bit random and mostly based on what eastdakota/Matthew Prince decides. That's also a con/minus.
  - ipdashc 1y ago
    This gets thrown around a bunch, but it always seemed like kind of an odd complaint to me? They're not actually pushing the DDoS traffic itself through cloudflare's network, or operating the botnet through it, are they? My assumption was that when people say this, they're referring to the webpage where you can buy the DDoS providers' services. And for that, I mean, is it really a big deal that it's behind cloudflare? There are plenty of similar reverse proxy services, I assume they just used cloudflare because it's reliable and cheap (and as people in the business, they probably know that it's effective). Would it make a big difference if they didn't use a proxy- are people going to start ddosing the ddos providers?
    - jsheard 1y ago
      > Would it make a big difference if they didn't use a proxy- are people going to start ddosing the ddos providers? Well yeah, the DDoS providers are strongly incentivized to fire all of their spare capacity at each other to thin out the competition. It's just futile to do so when nearly every player in the game is fronted by one of the biggest DDoS mitigation services in the world, which consistently turns a blind eye.
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
babelfish 1y ago
You also posted this at the time of announcement, back in March: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43497738 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43497738 I wonder how this will impact the blog-driven engineering culture.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- dang 1y ago
  It never made HN's frontpage at the time so I'm delighted that he reposted it.
aanet 1y ago
Kudos to JGC! <3 I've always loved reading his blog posts on his own site, and learning / using the wide variety of his projects (hello POPfile!, hello Make!) and interests (Analytical Engine!). Thanks for your efforts to get the British Govt to apologize for their actions towards Alan Turing! Well deserved promo, Sir!
campbel 1y ago
From the linked Programmer blog [1]: > It might seem lowly to be a Programmer, but in a world where so much is driven by computers there's nothing shameful in being the person who makes them go. I find it interesting that in 2012 he thought the title of "Programmer" was shameful. In 2012 I was a somewhat recent grad and definitely more junior, at that time I thought programmers were the smartest folks at my company, exactly because they were "the [people] who make [computers] go". [1] https://blog.jgc.org/2012/02/programmer.html https://blog.jgc.org/2012/02/programmer.html
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
pieter1976 1y ago
[flagged]
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- dang 1y ago
  It isn't a dupe by HN standards because it didn't get significant attention last time round. (This is in the FAQ: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html.) In fact it didn't make the frontpage at all! and HN should definitely have a frontpage thread about this.
ddorian43 1y ago
Will your email still work when we have issues? I've used it with great success and gotten same-day fixes.
simonw 1y ago
Congratulations John. Knowing you're on the board reassures me, given the amount of trust placed in Cloudflare by the internet at large.
TimCTRL 1y ago
Where is Lee Lee Holloway now and how is he doing?
- Izikiel43 1y ago
  If you are not aware: https://www.wired.com/story/lee-holloway-devastating-decline-brilliant-young-coder/ https://www.wired.com/story/lee-holloway-devastating-decline... Hopefully he is at peace.
  - kayodelycaon 1y ago
    Wow. That's sad. Dementia is absolutely brutal on the family and friends.
ChuckMcM 1y ago
Congrats John. Of all the roles in a company for a technical person I find member of the board to be the most complex.
bgwalter 1y ago
Nice. If the helpdesk function still works, could you make the Cloudflare Stackoverflow captchas go away? Stackoverflow becomes unusable lately.
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
nashashmi 1y ago
Hi John, do you think it would be a worthwhile completion of cloudflare’s mission to buy Google Chrome? And maybe also purchase the data pipeline?
bzmrgonz 1y ago
Aren't you taking credit for Lets-encrypt? 'doubling SSL /Universal SSL' . As I understand it, LETS-ENCRYPT was the one to democratize and liberate SSL from the commercial grip to the masses!! Right?? Maybe my knowledge base is flawed.
- jonathantf2 1y ago
  CF's "Universal SSL" allows you to proxy your site to a web server that only listens on port 80, not very common today but it was back then.
bsoles 1y ago
Perhaps we shouldn't celebrate a faceless mega-corporation (and their executives) that has the power to block individual people's (or rather their IP addresses') access to the Internet with no recourse to remedy the situation.
dang 1y ago
All: we're going to bury this thread today, for unrelated (but legit) reasons. Sorry not to give a more satisfying explanation but it's not my place to do that this time. That said, I totally missed this announcement in March and, since it never made HN's frontpage at the time, I imagine most of the community missed it too. Therefore I propose to arrange a repost when the time is right and we can have a HN party to celebrate jgrahamc. In the meantime, I guess, both belated and premature congratulations!
- jgrahamc 1y ago
  Thanks, dang. I asked for this to be deprioritized today because I love engaging here on HN and I am unable to because of a sudden personal emergency and I couldn't leave everyone hanging with my silence.

148 points by jgrahamc 1y ago

andrethegiant 1y ago

Anything new here besides what was announced in March?

deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
dang 1y ago
Just having a big HN party I think :)

lysace 1y ago

Congrats on your non-retirement! My personal Cloudflare pro/con list: + Keeps the web working at scale + Made me a lot of money in the stock market - It's so very high-touch/sales-intensive. I want a tiered public price list that is universally adhered to. Otherwise there's always that nagging feeling that I'm getting screwed for not being aggressive enough, or something. I know I'm fighting an uphill battle here. See also this documentary about Jared Dunn/Ed Chambers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-CA2EW4Z_U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-CA2EW4Z_U

deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
jsheard 1y ago
> Keeps the web working at scale OTOH they also keep DDoS providers working at scale. Look for "stressers" or "booters" and check their DNS, 9 times out of 10 the attackers which Cloudflare offers to protect you from are themselves hiding behind Cloudflare.
- tclancy 1y ago
  Somebody gotta sell shovels baby. And this feels unfair to expect a company to differentiate black vs white hats at scale, having tried to do the same at only an order or two of lower magnitude.
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
- lysace 1y ago
  Yes, the hosting policy seems to be a bit random and mostly based on what eastdakota/Matthew Prince decides. That's also a con/minus.
- ipdashc 1y ago
  This gets thrown around a bunch, but it always seemed like kind of an odd complaint to me? They're not actually pushing the DDoS traffic itself through cloudflare's network, or operating the botnet through it, are they? My assumption was that when people say this, they're referring to the webpage where you can buy the DDoS providers' services. And for that, I mean, is it really a big deal that it's behind cloudflare? There are plenty of similar reverse proxy services, I assume they just used cloudflare because it's reliable and cheap (and as people in the business, they probably know that it's effective). Would it make a big difference if they didn't use a proxy- are people going to start ddosing the ddos providers?
  - jsheard 1y ago
    > Would it make a big difference if they didn't use a proxy- are people going to start ddosing the ddos providers? Well yeah, the DDoS providers are strongly incentivized to fire all of their spare capacity at each other to thin out the competition. It's just futile to do so when nearly every player in the game is fronted by one of the biggest DDoS mitigation services in the world, which consistently turns a blind eye.

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

babelfish 1y ago

You also posted this at the time of announcement, back in March: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43497738 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43497738 I wonder how this will impact the blog-driven engineering culture.

deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
dang 1y ago
It never made HN's frontpage at the time so I'm delighted that he reposted it.

aanet 1y ago

Kudos to JGC! <3 I've always loved reading his blog posts on his own site, and learning / using the wide variety of his projects (hello POPfile!, hello Make!) and interests (Analytical Engine!). Thanks for your efforts to get the British Govt to apologize for their actions towards Alan Turing! Well deserved promo, Sir!

campbel 1y ago

From the linked Programmer blog [1]: > It might seem lowly to be a Programmer, but in a world where so much is driven by computers there's nothing shameful in being the person who makes them go. I find it interesting that in 2012 he thought the title of "Programmer" was shameful. In 2012 I was a somewhat recent grad and definitely more junior, at that time I thought programmers were the smartest folks at my company, exactly because they were "the [people] who make [computers] go". [1] https://blog.jgc.org/2012/02/programmer.html https://blog.jgc.org/2012/02/programmer.html

deleted 1y ago
[deleted]

pieter1976 1y ago

[flagged]

deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
dang 1y ago
It isn't a dupe by HN standards because it didn't get significant attention last time round. (This is in the FAQ: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html.) In fact it didn't make the frontpage at all! and HN should definitely have a frontpage thread about this.

ddorian43 1y ago

Will your email still work when we have issues? I've used it with great success and gotten same-day fixes.

simonw 1y ago

Congratulations John. Knowing you're on the board reassures me, given the amount of trust placed in Cloudflare by the internet at large.

TimCTRL 1y ago

Where is Lee Lee Holloway now and how is he doing?

Izikiel43 1y ago
If you are not aware: https://www.wired.com/story/lee-holloway-devastating-decline-brilliant-young-coder/ https://www.wired.com/story/lee-holloway-devastating-decline... Hopefully he is at peace.
- kayodelycaon 1y ago
  Wow. That's sad. Dementia is absolutely brutal on the family and friends.

ChuckMcM 1y ago

Congrats John. Of all the roles in a company for a technical person I find member of the board to be the most complex.

bgwalter 1y ago

Nice. If the helpdesk function still works, could you make the Cloudflare Stackoverflow captchas go away? Stackoverflow becomes unusable lately.

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

nashashmi 1y ago

Hi John, do you think it would be a worthwhile completion of cloudflare’s mission to buy Google Chrome? And maybe also purchase the data pipeline?

bzmrgonz 1y ago

Aren't you taking credit for Lets-encrypt? 'doubling SSL /Universal SSL' . As I understand it, LETS-ENCRYPT was the one to democratize and liberate SSL from the commercial grip to the masses!! Right?? Maybe my knowledge base is flawed.

jonathantf2 1y ago
CF's "Universal SSL" allows you to proxy your site to a web server that only listens on port 80, not very common today but it was back then.

bsoles 1y ago

Perhaps we shouldn't celebrate a faceless mega-corporation (and their executives) that has the power to block individual people's (or rather their IP addresses') access to the Internet with no recourse to remedy the situation.

dang 1y ago

All: we're going to bury this thread today, for unrelated (but legit) reasons. Sorry not to give a more satisfying explanation but it's not my place to do that this time. That said, I totally missed this announcement in March and, since it never made HN's frontpage at the time, I imagine most of the community missed it too. Therefore I propose to arrange a repost when the time is right and we can have a HN party to celebrate jgrahamc. In the meantime, I guess, both belated and premature congratulations!

jgrahamc 1y ago
Thanks, dang. I asked for this to be deprioritized today because I love engaging here on HN and I am unable to because of a sudden personal emergency and I couldn't leave everyone hanging with my silence.