5 ms·

Welcome to Hell Developer

75 points by denysvitali 6mo ago

Scribbd 6mo ago
> As for my original sync problem? After all of that – decompiling an APK, reverse engineering a binary protocol, writing a BLE exploit script – it turned out the issue was on my phone the whole time. Not the cycling computer. The phone. I can feel the pain.
- deckar01 6mo ago
  I think about troubleshooting like OBST with test cost. Systems are a linear chain of points of failure. The more knowledge you have about how hard components are to test and which components break more often, the easier it is to choose the tests that optimize your time.
otikik 6mo ago
Love the punchline
kjhughes 6mo ago
There seems to be a debugging pattern that arises when problems are in proximity to a poorly understood, highly complex part of the system: We tend to think that's where the problem probably is. And we can lose an inordinate amount of time looking for it there. It's like an inverse streetlight effect. I've seen coding LLMs do it too. I have a well-tested, but complex, subsystem that constantly draws their attention when something non-obvious elsewhere goes wrong.
davidw 6mo ago
That's pretty interesting; I've always wondered about the internals of those things, as I stared at mine while pedaling up some steep grade. I'm also curious about what the electronic derailleurs and shifters run.
- lostlogin 6mo ago
  That’s a really good point. They also never seem to fail (unless the batteries are flat). Fun fact: my non e-bike has lots of batteries. 2 in the shifters 2 in the derailleurs 1 in the front light 1 in the rear light/radar 1 in the computer + phone AirPods (transparency mode!).
  - davidw 6mo ago
    Yeah, the shifting with electronic components is so fast, easy and precise, but I don't love how many batteries are all over some of my bikes. I kind of enjoy bikes in order to get away from screens and tech and all that.
    - lostlogin 6mo ago
      Early on a Saturday morning, my bike computer popped up a notification, reminding me to finish my work shift from the day before. Neat…
ChrisArchitect 6mo ago
Title is: How a Broken Bike Sync Led Me to Reverse Engineering My Wahoo's Hidden Debug Mode
- denysvitali 6mo ago
  Yes, less fun, sorry for the lack of 1:1 match
  - debo_ 6mo ago
    How dare you have fun
  - ChrisArchitect 6mo ago
    yeah, it was more about the complete lack of hint about what the article was about. Could've included a bit Wahoo Debug Mode or something
procone 6mo ago
I found this really hard to read due to the Claude-isms. "Classic" chicken and egg problem? 39 em-dashes, random numbered lists, etc. If you're not going to even bother to take the time to write an article, why should I waste my time reading it?
- hmcamp 6mo ago
  I read it and found it useful \_(^ ^)_/
- 542458 6mo ago
  I mainly object to AI writing when it’s excessively verbose. This was pretty information dense, a few AI-isms didn’t make it a waste of my time to read.
  - deleted 6mo ago
    [deleted]
  - pityJuke 6mo ago
    I've begun to find the writing style nauseating regardless of use, but yes, at least it isn't used to pad length.
- debo_ 6mo ago
  Welcome to Hell, Reader. (I liked the article, personally.)
- Jtarii 6mo ago
  Started reading, saw "That was it, That was the whole reason", closed the page.
  - RickS 6mo ago
    Is that a claudeism? IMO that's a perfectly natural trope that'd be at home in my voice or any of a million generic blog people I've read since long before AI. It is a linguistic trope, sure, but that's an unrelated criticism.
hmcamp 6mo ago
I love reading these kinds of stories!
amarant 6mo ago
I can't help imagining someone trying to debug this rigging their laptop to their bicycle handlebars, connecting to the ride computer and then going for a ride to get live data for the debug session. It would be very hard not to die in a traffic accident while debugging in this way. Welcome to hell, developer!
- rmast 6mo ago
  That just brought a whole new meaning to that message… and writing up a post-mortem.
- lostlogin 6mo ago
  Tying to get a bike computer to work while riding is incredibly painful. I’m a Garmin user and it blows my mind that the interface was chosen. Buttons and touch screen and confusion. Not helped by both Garmin and Strava not putting enough arrows on the path of travel on their maps. If you have a route the uses the same road in both directions (eg you ride to somewhere then back along the same path) it isn’t possible to tell when to turn off. Why can’t there be arrows indicating direction of travel? And that’s when it’s working. Garmin seem to break shit on software updates and then sync stops working, the radar disconnects, it won’t lock on a satellite etc. Can Apple make a bike computer please? Or at least play nice and sync their watch with Garmin properly?
ID-Refactor 6mo ago
[flagged]
xp84 6mo ago
It’s frustrating that this isn’t completely typical. As the writeup pointed out, this “exploit” can only be performed by the device owner anyway, so nobody is harmed by the unlockability. But 95% of devices that are sold, besides non-Mac PCs, and SBCs, are locked down completely, prohibiting anyone from using the device as they like.
- rmast 6mo ago
  Agreed, many types of devices don’t need to be locked down so much. I imagine the companies making the devices think they are “protecting” their secrets from competitors, though now it might be easier to ask an LLM for whatever feature they want to copy.

75 points by denysvitali 6mo ago

> As for my original sync problem? After all of that – decompiling an APK, reverse engineering a binary protocol, writing a BLE exploit script – it turned out the issue was on my phone the whole time. Not the cycling computer. The phone. I can feel the pain.

deckar01 6mo ago
I think about troubleshooting like OBST with test cost. Systems are a linear chain of points of failure. The more knowledge you have about how hard components are to test and which components break more often, the easier it is to choose the tests that optimize your time.

otikik 6mo ago

Love the punchline

kjhughes 6mo ago

There seems to be a debugging pattern that arises when problems are in proximity to a poorly understood, highly complex part of the system: We tend to think that's where the problem probably is. And we can lose an inordinate amount of time looking for it there. It's like an inverse streetlight effect. I've seen coding LLMs do it too. I have a well-tested, but complex, subsystem that constantly draws their attention when something non-obvious elsewhere goes wrong.

davidw 6mo ago

That's pretty interesting; I've always wondered about the internals of those things, as I stared at mine while pedaling up some steep grade. I'm also curious about what the electronic derailleurs and shifters run.

lostlogin 6mo ago
That’s a really good point. They also never seem to fail (unless the batteries are flat). Fun fact: my non e-bike has lots of batteries. 2 in the shifters 2 in the derailleurs 1 in the front light 1 in the rear light/radar 1 in the computer + phone AirPods (transparency mode!).
- davidw 6mo ago
  Yeah, the shifting with electronic components is so fast, easy and precise, but I don't love how many batteries are all over some of my bikes. I kind of enjoy bikes in order to get away from screens and tech and all that.
  - lostlogin 6mo ago
    Early on a Saturday morning, my bike computer popped up a notification, reminding me to finish my work shift from the day before. Neat…

ChrisArchitect 6mo ago

Title is: How a Broken Bike Sync Led Me to Reverse Engineering My Wahoo's Hidden Debug Mode

denysvitali 6mo ago
Yes, less fun, sorry for the lack of 1:1 match
- debo_ 6mo ago
  How dare you have fun
- ChrisArchitect 6mo ago
  yeah, it was more about the complete lack of hint about what the article was about. Could've included a bit Wahoo Debug Mode or something

procone 6mo ago

I found this really hard to read due to the Claude-isms. "Classic" chicken and egg problem? 39 em-dashes, random numbered lists, etc. If you're not going to even bother to take the time to write an article, why should I waste my time reading it?

hmcamp 6mo ago
I read it and found it useful \_(^ ^)_/
542458 6mo ago
I mainly object to AI writing when it’s excessively verbose. This was pretty information dense, a few AI-isms didn’t make it a waste of my time to read.
- deleted 6mo ago
  [deleted]
- pityJuke 6mo ago
  I've begun to find the writing style nauseating regardless of use, but yes, at least it isn't used to pad length.
debo_ 6mo ago
Welcome to Hell, Reader. (I liked the article, personally.)
Jtarii 6mo ago
Started reading, saw "That was it, That was the whole reason", closed the page.
- RickS 6mo ago
  Is that a claudeism? IMO that's a perfectly natural trope that'd be at home in my voice or any of a million generic blog people I've read since long before AI. It is a linguistic trope, sure, but that's an unrelated criticism.

hmcamp 6mo ago

I love reading these kinds of stories!

amarant 6mo ago

I can't help imagining someone trying to debug this rigging their laptop to their bicycle handlebars, connecting to the ride computer and then going for a ride to get live data for the debug session. It would be very hard not to die in a traffic accident while debugging in this way. Welcome to hell, developer!

rmast 6mo ago
That just brought a whole new meaning to that message… and writing up a post-mortem.
lostlogin 6mo ago
Tying to get a bike computer to work while riding is incredibly painful. I’m a Garmin user and it blows my mind that the interface was chosen. Buttons and touch screen and confusion. Not helped by both Garmin and Strava not putting enough arrows on the path of travel on their maps. If you have a route the uses the same road in both directions (eg you ride to somewhere then back along the same path) it isn’t possible to tell when to turn off. Why can’t there be arrows indicating direction of travel? And that’s when it’s working. Garmin seem to break shit on software updates and then sync stops working, the radar disconnects, it won’t lock on a satellite etc. Can Apple make a bike computer please? Or at least play nice and sync their watch with Garmin properly?

ID-Refactor 6mo ago

[flagged]

xp84 6mo ago

It’s frustrating that this isn’t completely typical. As the writeup pointed out, this “exploit” can only be performed by the device owner anyway, so nobody is harmed by the unlockability. But 95% of devices that are sold, besides non-Mac PCs, and SBCs, are locked down completely, prohibiting anyone from using the device as they like.

rmast 6mo ago
Agreed, many types of devices don’t need to be locked down so much. I imagine the companies making the devices think they are “protecting” their secrets from competitors, though now it might be easier to ask an LLM for whatever feature they want to copy.