Matthew GarrettJul 7
This is only the second properly large company I've worked for, and it's fascinating to be somewhere that is more buy than build but still big enough that meetings with vendors are taken seriously
hayden aiken 🇺🇲Jul 7
Show threadMatthew Garrett
Seriously, blog as much as you want, give as many conference talks as you want, changing the industry is done by giving a requirements list to 5 competing vendors
Jul 7 at 5:06amWeb
Show threadGabriel Adrian SamfiraJul 7
@mjg59 Yup. Any large enough contract will have vendors react when you send them a list of requirements. And it makes sense. A lot of things are technically possible. But as long as there is no business reason to do it, nobody will do it.
Show threadGraham Sutherland / PolynomialJul 7
@mjg59 one of the things that surprised me about working at Cisco is how many companies' systems had special behaviours when I signed up with my work email address, and how many companies were like YUP SURE when I requested literally anything.
Show threadnetworking wizard catgirlJul 7
@gsuberland @mjg59 huh, special behaviors like what, if you're allowed to share?
Show threadGraham Sutherland / PolynomialJul 7
@pearl @mjg59 automatically approving things before I even ask, offering trials or evaluations without any calls or paperwork, providing access to special ordering systems, etc.
Show threadEleanor SaittaJul 7
@mjg59
One of the special kinds of hell is advising one of the small vendors, telling them what will definitely be on that list, getting told you're exaggerating and that they can't possibly do that, holding their hand when you're proven precisely right, and then watching the cycle repeat.
Show threadThomas DepierreJul 7

@mjg59 yes and. counterpoint: the vast majority of the industry consist of hobbyists, which cannot be reached by said requirements, even indirectly.

That said. Yes. I am just not sure it is a long term strategy

Show threadas a large fashion model,Jul 7
@mjg59 the *same* requirements list or
Show threadJames HenstridgeJul 7

@mjg59 You see similar from government procurement rules.

I remember way back when Sun was kicking off the GNOME accessibility project, they were quite open about doing it because it would make it easier to sell their products to the US government.

Show threadTomás LázaroJul 7
@mjg59 I still remember being at Twitter, paying Google hundreds of millions and they not giving a shit about even the most trivial requirements.
Show threadMatthew GarrettJul 7
@tomzalt Oh yeah the only way you get something fixed there is to get hired at Google
Show threadMatthew GarrettJul 7
@tomzalt (I say having got several of my pet Google bugs fixed by being able to file internal bugs)
Show threadNicolás AlvarezJul 7
@mjg59 @tomzalt I once hit a reproducible data-loss bug in WhatsApp, asked a friend who works at a different part of Meta and he said filing internal bugs across apps like that isn't possible anymore. So they're even worse than Google at that.