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> I would trust the people that hack on these systems to be even more motivated than the manufacturers to make sure they don't fuck up I would think it's the o

> I would trust the people that hack on these systems to be even more motivated than the manufacturers to make sure they don't fuck up I would think it's the opposite. People that hack on this only risk their own life. Companies risk many people's lives and will get sued. Of course the person doing the hacking doesn't want to die but they're also willing to take the risk.

wpm 10mo ago
> People that hack on this only risk their own life. Provided they do not risk anyone elses, that is entirely their right.
array_key_first 10mo ago
Right, but getting sued is basically the least risky activity ever. Okay, a little dramatic but: you won't go to jail, and if you're rich and become less rich you're still better off than most people. In pure absolutionist terms, being a business owner is basically always less risky than being labor.
tavavex 10mo ago
The absolute worst-case scenario of messing this up as a company is that you get sued and they win, or you're forced to settle. You pay out some money, post a public apology, whatever. If things get really bad, the company goes under. But you're likely still far richer than the average person, and the blame is distributed enough that no one gets a criminal sentence - not that it was a realistic option to begin with. The baseline worst-case scenario of messing this up on yourself is that you die.
Dilettante_ 10mo ago
>People that hack on this only risk their own life Yeah, only their own life, yknow, something not particularly valuable or motivating to conserve for them, as opposed to the companies financials!
rkomorn 10mo ago
A lot of the other responses say something along the lines of "of course people have more incentive not to mess up, they care about their own lives more than corporations care about getting sued" and sure, that's true in general, but: - people try to wingsuit through narrow obstacles and miss - people try to build their own planes and helicopters and die - people try to build submersible vehicles to go see the titanic and, uh, don't have a 100% success rate - people try to build steam-powered rockets and die "It's their life, they won't fuck it up" doesn't exactly cover a lot of behaviors. I'd argue home-rolling your own medical device firmware is closer to daredevil/"hold my beer" behavior than normal.
- jacquesm 10mo ago
  None of these have anything to do with your average diabetic loop hacker. You are comparing people that live for the thrills with people that are just trying to live.
  - rkomorn 10mo ago
    They're also people who had a lot of confidence in their own skills (including thinking they knew better than others) and ended up being wrong. I would say that can have a lot to do with your average diabetic loop hacker.
    - jacquesm 10mo ago
      I'd like some proof that the embedded programmers working for 'the man' at medical device companies are better and more motivated than those that are hacking on loop devices. You're comparing people with a death wish in disguise with people that are extremely motivated to improve the QOL and they're very careful about how they do this, in fact if you read up on this you'd notice the insane attention to detail and the very rigorous process, on par with what I've seen in industry and in fact probably better than most. All of this talk in this thread makes me think back to a time when people were laughing at that Finnish kid that was making his own OS with his buddies. Surely nobody would ever trust their business, their property or the lives to open source. I checked and this is actually hacker news, not the BSA.

wpm 10mo ago

> People that hack on this only risk their own life. Provided they do not risk anyone elses, that is entirely their right.

array_key_first 10mo ago

Right, but getting sued is basically the least risky activity ever. Okay, a little dramatic but: you won't go to jail, and if you're rich and become less rich you're still better off than most people. In pure absolutionist terms, being a business owner is basically always less risky than being labor.

tavavex 10mo ago

The absolute worst-case scenario of messing this up as a company is that you get sued and they win, or you're forced to settle. You pay out some money, post a public apology, whatever. If things get really bad, the company goes under. But you're likely still far richer than the average person, and the blame is distributed enough that no one gets a criminal sentence - not that it was a realistic option to begin with. The baseline worst-case scenario of messing this up on yourself is that you die.

Dilettante_ 10mo ago

>People that hack on this only risk their own life Yeah, only their own life, yknow, something not particularly valuable or motivating to conserve for them, as opposed to the companies financials!

rkomorn 10mo ago

A lot of the other responses say something along the lines of "of course people have more incentive not to mess up, they care about their own lives more than corporations care about getting sued" and sure, that's true in general, but: - people try to wingsuit through narrow obstacles and miss - people try to build their own planes and helicopters and die - people try to build submersible vehicles to go see the titanic and, uh, don't have a 100% success rate - people try to build steam-powered rockets and die "It's their life, they won't fuck it up" doesn't exactly cover a lot of behaviors. I'd argue home-rolling your own medical device firmware is closer to daredevil/"hold my beer" behavior than normal.

jacquesm 10mo ago
None of these have anything to do with your average diabetic loop hacker. You are comparing people that live for the thrills with people that are just trying to live.
- rkomorn 10mo ago
  They're also people who had a lot of confidence in their own skills (including thinking they knew better than others) and ended up being wrong. I would say that can have a lot to do with your average diabetic loop hacker.
  - jacquesm 10mo ago
    I'd like some proof that the embedded programmers working for 'the man' at medical device companies are better and more motivated than those that are hacking on loop devices. You're comparing people with a death wish in disguise with people that are extremely motivated to improve the QOL and they're very careful about how they do this, in fact if you read up on this you'd notice the insane attention to detail and the very rigorous process, on par with what I've seen in industry and in fact probably better than most. All of this talk in this thread makes me think back to a time when people were laughing at that Finnish kid that was making his own OS with his buddies. Surely nobody would ever trust their business, their property or the lives to open source. I checked and this is actually hacker news, not the BSA.