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Geohot Joins Facebook As Product Developer

Posted by timothy on from the bet-it's-a-fun-resume-to-read-through dept.

Numerous sources are reporting that famed iPhone and PlayStation hacker George Hotz, better known as Geohot, has taken a job at Facebook in product development; Make Magazine and others report that he'll be working on iOS apps.

19 of 108 comments (clear)

  1. Facebook? Has he sold out or what? by elucido · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Facebook is the last company I would have expected him to take a job from. This is like as if he took a job working at Sony.

    How should we interpret this? Ah well I don't care. He should get what money he can get while he can get it.

    1. Re:Facebook? Has he sold out or what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      He's just doing it for the lulz...

    2. Re:Facebook? Has he sold out or what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Doing what you love, vs. doing what you love and getting paid for it.

      Gee. What a hard choice to make.

    3. Re:Facebook? Has he sold out or what? by cgenman · · Score: 4, Funny

      Interpretation 1:

      Change the system from inside. Nothing changes without a decision from someone inside, and the easiest way to get that is to get a man inside.

      Interpretation 2:

      Facebook pretty much allows friends to communicate with eachother. It's mundane, and looks pointless outside of a particular circle of friends. But it is the democratazation of communication, man.

      Interpretation 3:

      "Boy that's a big bag of cash."

      --
      The ______ Agenda
    4. Re:Facebook? Has he sold out or what? by BoogeyOfTheMan · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Well, I'd imagine he has quite a bit of lawyer bills to pay right now so a good paying job is probably a good idea for him. I don't see how you would think it equates to working for Sony. Facebook didn't take him to court.

      They're saying that he is going to be working on the iOS app, so at least he is doing something he knows. After thinking about it, I'm surprised something like this didn't happen sooner. He knows iOS pretty well, it only makes sense that he would get a job somewhere making apps for it, and Facebook is one of the bigger companies with a more hacker friendly attitude.

    5. Re:Facebook? Has he sold out or what? by shentino · · Score: 3, Informative

      I don't know how he could presently have huge lawyer bills when he had 10 grand in spare change to boot over to the EFF.

      Being the hacker that jailbroke the impenetrable PS3 his math skills can't be that bad.

    6. Re:Facebook? Has he sold out or what? by Short+Circuit · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Just because you don't like company A, and you don't like company B, doesn't mean that someone else working for B is like him working for A from his perspective.

      My understanding is that the distaste for Sony came from it trying to lock out developers and hackers who wanted to put their own stuff into the PS3 ecosystem. Facebook lets developers in*, the developers are just not allowed to take users out.

      * Seriously; it seems every third week,at some point navigating to facebook.com lands me on some kind of phishing page or scam poll. It'd be a lot easier for FB to avoid that kind of vulnerability if they were far more draconian about developer access.

      --
      tasks(723) drafts(105) languages(484) examples(29106)
    7. Re:Facebook? Has he sold out or what? by wvmarle · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Hacking iOS and hacking the PS3 is quite different from developing end-user apps for it.

      They both require coding skills, and knowledge about software - yet when creating an app you're supposed to follow the guidelines, add a nice looking UI to it, etc. I see coding as a tool, no more. A tool to get something done. Building an app with nice UI means you need some UI skills. Building an app that hacks the underlying OS means you have crypto and system analyses skills.

      I'm writing an app for Android myself, but I don't know much about the technicalities of Android under the hood, nor do I see much of a need for anyone to deeply understand the OS. Google has nicely abstracted that for me through their API kit. No need to know how memory is allocated exactly, or how and when an app is closed automatically (other than knowing it may happen).

      I'd more expect this guy to end up in the computer security field.

      But as you say, the pay is probably good. Very good. It has to be for someone with such skills.

    8. Re:Facebook? Has he sold out or what? by hawkinspeter · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I'm a PS3 owner and I thank Geohot for all his work on the platform. Sony can pretty much rot in hell for all I care after the stunts they pulled with regards to the PS3.

      --
      You're a temporary arrangement of matter sliding towards oblivion in a cold, uncaring universe
    9. Re:Facebook? Has he sold out or what? by hedwards · · Score: 2

      Right, there was the original hack that he alleged to have succeeded at which he refused to release that led Sony to remove the OtherOS feature to batten down the hatches, then the most recent key that was 90% other people's work which helped to damage the homebrew scene. Then there was him giving up pretty much immediately when being sued, even after many people donated money to hopefully establish precedence.

      Consequently he gets no sympathy from me and deserves to be treated like scum. FB is just the place for somebody with such shifty ethics.

  2. Resume stain by dbc · · Score: 2

    Maybe I'm too old-fashioned about such things, but Facebook is severely ethically challenged as a company. By extension, anybody who can work there without vomiting blood from disgust at their employer's behavior is not somebody I would want to hire.

    1. Re:Resume stain by wmbetts · · Score: 3, Funny

      Who do you hire for?

      --
      "Ubuntu" -- an African word, meaning "Slackware is too hard for me". - stolen from Dan C alt.os.linux.slackware
    2. Re:Resume stain by guybrush3pwood · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Probably no one. That's why he has the luxury of being judgmental.

      --
      Perhaps I'm trolling, perhaps I'm not.
    3. Re:Resume stain by wmbetts · · Score: 2

      That's kind of what I was thinking, because if I could hire a talented engineer from Facebook, Microsoft, or the current devil of the day I would.

      --
      "Ubuntu" -- an African word, meaning "Slackware is too hard for me". - stolen from Dan C alt.os.linux.slackware
  3. Ah, missed opportunities.... by macraig · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What Sony should've done if they had a working brain left anywhere outside their legal department. What does that say about an innovating company when its best minds are on the floor marked Legal?

    1. Re:Ah, missed opportunities.... by artor3 · · Score: 2

      Well, one glance at Sony should answer that question... when was the last time they did something innovative? They make a bunch of second-tier me-too products, from TVs to cameras to MP3 players to phones, but they haven't had a really market leading product since what, the discman? How many people in high school these days would even know what one is?

      So there's your answer: when an innovating company's best minds are in legal, they cease to be an innovating company.

  4. Wait a minute... by zill · · Score: 2

    I wonder how he proved he's really Geohot...

    1. Re:Wait a minute... by magnusrex1280 · · Score: 2

      He probably looks like the guy in the Geohot video that he released. And probably has the same first and last name as Geohot. And if that stuff wasn't enough, he could always show them some documentation from getting his socks sued off by Sony.

  5. "...he'll be working on iOS apps." by Paul+Slocum · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Hopefully he'll make a new Facebook app that doesn't suck.