Slashdot Mirror
Life As a Bug Hunter
An anonymous reader writes "Bug Hunter Aaron Portnoy claims to have earned $60K in 3 months as a bug hunter when he was 19 years old. Pretty impressive. Tighter company budgets and increased pressure to get a product ready by its release date means code isn't checked so thoroughly and bug frequency rises. From the article: 'Mozilla — makers of the Firefox web browser — were first to start a bug bounty programme in 2004. Their top prize is currently $3,000 (£1,800) and they have paid out about $40,000 (£25,000) per year since then. Their top earner is a student in Germany who has bagged more than $30,000 (£18,000) from a series of discoveries.'"
I make a decent amount producing new bugs.
Do they pay the coders this much too? or are the code submissions all donated?
ipv6 is my vpn
It has come to my attention that the entire Linux community is a hotbed of so called 'alternative sexuality', which includes anything from hedonistic orgies to homosexuality to paedophilia.
What better way of demonstrating this than by looking at the hidden messages contained within the names of some of Linux's most outspoken advocates:
I'm sure that Eric S. Raymond, composer of the satanic homosexual propaganda diatribe The Cathedral and the Bizarre, is probably an anagram of something queer, but we don't need to look that far as we know he's always shoving a gun up some poor little boy's rectum. Update: Eric S. Raymond is actually an anagram for secondary rim and cord in my arse. It just goes to show you that he is indeed queer.
Update the Second: It is also documented that Evil Sicko Gaymond is responsible for a nauseating piece of code called Fetchmail, which is obviously sinister sodomite slang for 'Felch Male' -- a disgusting practise. For those not in the know, 'felching' is the act performed by two perverts wherein one sucks their own post-coital ejaculate out of the other's rectum. In fact, it appears that the dirty Linux faggots set out to undermine the good Republican institution of e-mail, turning it into 'e-male.'
As far as Richard 'Master' Stallman goes, that filthy fudge-packer was actually quoted on leftist commie propaganda site Salon.com as saying the following: 'I've been resistant to the pressure to conform in any circumstance,' he says. 'It's about being able to question conventional wisdom,' he asserts. 'I believe in love, but not monogamy,' he says plainly.
And this isn't a made up troll bullshit either! He actually stated this tripe, which makes it obvious that he is trying to politely say that he's a flaming homo slut!
Speaking about 'flaming,' who better to point out as a filthy chutney ferret than Slashdot's very own self-confessed pederast Jon Katz. Although an obvious deviant anagram cannot be found from his name, he has already confessed, nay boasted of the homosexual perversion of corrupting the innocence of young children. To quote from the article linked:
'I've got a rare kidney disease,' I told her. 'I have to go to the bathroom a lot. You can come with me if you want, but it takes a while. Is that okay with you? Do you want a note from my doctor?'
Is this why you were touching your penis in the cinema, Jon? And letting the other boys touch it too?
We should also point out that Jon Katz refers to himself as 'Slashdot's resident Gasbag.' Is there any more doubt? For those fortunate few who aren't aware of the list of homosexual terminology found inside the Linux 'Sauce Code,' a 'Gasbag' is a pervert who gains sexual gratification from having a thin straw inserted into his urethra (or to use the common parlance, 'piss-pipe'), then his homosexual lover blows firmly down the straw to inflate his scrotum. This is, of course, when he's not busy violating the dignity and co
Don't get me wrong; $60k in 3 months is not a bad haul for anybody. But as the single biggest payout (over time) fluke ever, it kind of sucks, and is reflective of the average pay one can expect pursuing this career, which also sucks.
If you want to shoot for the moon, you might as well just play the lottery.
It's another thing if you hack for fun, and can collect a little money on the side for it. But this is not a sustainable career for anyone and slashdot in particular needs to stop acting like these guys are rolling in money. They may well be independently wealthy for other reasons, which gives them time to pursue hacking in the first place, but they aren't getting rich or even gainfully employed from these activities.
1. write buggy code
2. inform an accomplice of the bug
3. profit
When was that? 10 years ago?
Tried to shit but only ... ?
Since when have entomologists become so interesting?
I was not consulted for this article, therefore it must be considered suspect.
I can see the fnords!
I create bug You find bug give me 50% ok?
Talk about writing yourself out of a job!
So being a bug chaser is now a profession? Who knew?
Ok, so even though I'm a programmer, when I started reaading the article, I was really thinking this was about a vermin hunter, someone who rids people's houses of infestations of insects or something like that... Am I the only one?
That is var sad that money needs to be involved, but we don't live in the same OMG ponies world RMS lives in, it died in the 80s after our pot smoking parent changed their mind about the value of money. Nowadays, you see leech of the system making money with all sorts of repulsive business model, ... so that is a good thing that security researcher gets rewarded and that student with too much time invest it improving the common good rather than another link farm business.
From the article:
"When we started out it was $1337 which if you write it down spells out 'lite' which is hacker speak for elite. Since then we've increased the top prize to 3133.70 which spells 'elite,'" explained Rukowski.
Seriously? 1337 spells "lite"? Are the authors of this article really that clueless and have that little competent review of their material? 1337 spells "leet" which sounds like "elite" if you don't really pronounce the first letter. Isn't this explained in "Hackers" or some other pop culture movie?
In other creative industries, these contests are known for the exploitative ruse that they are. They fall under a more general class of labor called "spec work." With contests in general, or in this case bug bounties, a large number of people are induced to work while only a few or maybe none are actually paid.
honestly their research knows no bounds
I rather going to barbecue with my friends than stay in home and hunt for bugs...
Recipes for USA bankrupt - http://tinypaste.com/0d66f dd = dollar deluge (printed in the infinity)
We gave Bug Bounties in the Graphics Forums on CompuServe ca. 1990. A floppy disc full of images was mailed to the subscriber when a confirmed bad graphic was found (not uncommon in those days).