[HN Gopher] How I accepted myself into Canada's largest AI hacka...
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How I accepted myself into Canada's largest AI hackathon
Author : fastcall
Score : 238 points
Date : 2025-03-20 05:42 UTC (17 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (fastcall.dev)
(TXT) w3m dump (fastcall.dev)
| dd_xplore wrote:
| The irony !
| yzydserd wrote:
| Which part was ironic?
| gukov wrote:
| Hacking a hackathon itself, maybe.
| bertylicious wrote:
| But there is no irony, because it's two different meanings
| of the word "hacking": firstly "gaining unauthorized
| access", and secondly "focused programming".
|
| I always hated that there is this second meaning.
| Especially since IMO it's being used to "steal" some of the
| glory associated with the original meaning.
|
| When did this second meaning emerge anyway? Is this site
| here partially at fault?
| ifdefdebug wrote:
| historically, "gaining unauthorized access" IS the second
| meaning.
| bertylicious wrote:
| Oh nice, I wasn't aware. I always associated hacking with
| "gaining unauthorized access" and googling for the first
| definition confirmed that I'm my eyes. Didn't know it was
| the other way around and the term is actually much older
| than I assumed.
| pastage wrote:
| Hackning is what a competent black hat does while
| hacking. It is also what is done here. The double meaning
| is over 50 years old now.
| lukan wrote:
| Hackners?
| ben_w wrote:
| Both are derived uses, but breaking in seems slightly
| more distant than the more recent usage of hackathon.
|
| "Hack job" predates computers. The oldest form known
| means "to cut irregularly or inexpertly", with industrial
| revolution era uses similar to to people saying "AI slop"
| in the last year or two:
| https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/211750/where-
| did...
|
| "The" jargon file says "[originally, someone who makes
| furniture with an axe]", while other sources claim it's
| the name of a tool that functions much like an axe or a
| mattock, or such an action as one might use the item for:
|
| """In fact, the OED also defines hack as a tool for
| breaking or chopping up, dating from before 1300:
|
| He lened him than a-pon his hak, Wit seth his sun thus-
| gat he spak. And hacker follows. From 1620:
|
| One good hacker, being a lusty labourer, will at good
| ease hack or cut more than half an acre of ground in a
| day."""
|
| - https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/70658/what-
| does-...
| falcor84 wrote:
| They both stem from the more general meaning of hacking
| as looking for clever outside-the-box solutions to a
| problem, showing disregard to the
| intended/expected/typical way of going about that sort of
| thing. It apparently originated with this meaning in the
| late 50's at MIT's Tech Model Railroad Club.
| Aicy wrote:
| Here's a pleasant article on the subject from Richard
| Stallman, the developer of GNU / Linux.
|
| https://stallman.org/articles/on-hacking.html
| ngruhn wrote:
| Ah yes, the four foundational criteria to rate a hackathon
| application: passionAndInterest, projectAndPracticalExp,
| techSkillsAndExp, diversity
| falcor84 wrote:
| I found that jarring too. Diversity can only really be a
| criterion of a group, not an individual. Otherwise it's just
| tokenism.
| dmurray wrote:
| It could be a measure of each candidate's difference (in
| diversity points) from the overall cohort, which is an
| approximation of how much the diversity of the group will
| change by accepting/rejecting this candidate.
|
| But that seems hard to implement - you'd have to recalculate
| this for every candidate every time you got a new candidate -
| so perhaps we can implement an optimization: approximate this
| by estimating the distribution of the group and measuring
| differences from some centroid.
|
| HR teams, I'm available for techwashing consultancy.
| falcor84 wrote:
| > HR teams, I'm available for techwashing consultancy.
|
| Nice! Especially if coupled with a secondary business
| whereby you train applicants on how to increase their
| "diversity points"
|
| EDIT: I think I have the appropriate "one weird trick":
| flood the pool with fake applications grouped together but
| very dissimilar to you.
| JackDanMeier wrote:
| What would this realistically be rated on? If anything it seems
| like racial profiling
| cyrillite wrote:
| Don't forget sex and randomly inferred things too!
| kimixa wrote:
| Could be diversity of proposal - if they don't want 50 people
| all trying to solve "the same problem"
| Brian_K_White wrote:
| No one uses the word diversity by itself to mean that.
|
| Even if the writer did, it still isn't reasonable for a
| million readers to presume that a writer meant anything
| other than what they wrote, according to the consensus
| usage of the the words/phrases in the given context.
|
| It only makes sense to assume the writer meant what most
| readers would interpret they meant, and don't move off of
| that assumption unless the writer issues some update or
| correction.
| 9dev wrote:
| Pretty obvious-- _" Guys, this year we need a few people of
| color and especially women on the hackathon, I don't want
| another white wiener party!"_
|
| So they artificially skew the participants by granting bonus
| points for any minority groups.
| CoolCold wrote:
| I'm curios - my naive understanding that instead of using backend
| which will allow limited subset of actions/validate input, there
| is some 3rd party DB ( Firebase ?) which works via some sort of
| per-user API keys to allow fetch directly by frontend devs?
| Anduia wrote:
| Firestore's quick setup uses "test mode", which is free and
| unrestricted. The "locked mode" recommended for production
| blocks all reads and writes until you set up the rules.
|
| So I don't know if they had the site in test mode, or they
| simply set a rule to allow everything (I've seen that happen)
| instead handling access based on user permissions.
| ForTheKidz wrote:
| Wait, firebase allows full access to _http connections
| accessible from a browser_? Wtf? Why would you want to give
| the user direct access to a database to begin with? Is
| firebase built around the idea of not running your own
| servers or something?
| sunbum wrote:
| Firebase is not a db, its an entire platform as a service.
| So you don't really create much a backend, it handles it
| all for you.
| johnecheck wrote:
| Pretty much. Google manages everything. It handles Auth,
| which ties into the rules for accessing Firestore (the db),
| and you've got Functions for any code that needs to run
| server-side.
|
| All with libraries in a lot of languages to make it easy.
| Pretty solid product with a cohesive experience and a
| generous free tier.
|
| Naturally, you'll pay an exorbitant amount once you start
| to scale and realize you've been locked in.
| ForTheKidz wrote:
| Huh! I just spent an hour diving in and I see now.
|
| Crazy giving up that much control of your product to a
| third party. I can definitely see the appeal to spike
| realtime/chat projects, though--they really leaned into
| that api design well. Selling out to google was a
| mistake.
| koakuma-chan wrote:
| Aren't firebase apps notorious for having really stupid
| vulnerabilities?
| reportgunner wrote:
| Yeah you can't really run it on-site so you just debug in
| the open.
| pfg_ wrote:
| In this case they had permissiona set up - but your
| application status was stored in the same object as the rest
| of the info you could modify, and you were allowed to read
| and write to it.
| cbracketdash wrote:
| > Passion and interest don't really come across ...
|
| What an oblivious statement made by your actual reviewer!
| CalRobert wrote:
| A useful reminder of the nature of academia
| organsnyder wrote:
| Many corporate cultures are no different.
| moralestapia wrote:
| ???
|
| Can't see anything. Was the page edited perhaps?
| szszrk wrote:
| It's still there on one of the last screenshots:
|
| https://fastcall.dev/reviewed-3.png
| Twisol wrote:
| It's in one of the screenshots, in the part about how they
| could fetch their reviewer's full name and comments.
| fastcall wrote:
| Actually only the first screenshot is a review of my
| application, I asked some friends for their credentials to test
| the information disclosure out. (you would only get 1 review
| per application)
|
| Sorry if that wasn't clear in the blog post!
| ForTheKidz wrote:
| Tbh, if I could go to a conference that guaranteed all signs of
| passion and interest would be banned, it would be
| depressing.... but far more useful. Passion is something best
| saved for happy hour. The best advice I've received is not from
| passionate people but rather people who have resigned
| themselves to the work.
|
| Very grateful I'm nowhere near conferences or academia, but
| equally grateful others are doing the work filtering the
| bullshit out for me.
| neilv wrote:
| Agreed.
|
| Admittedly, "passion and interest don't really come across"
| might've been a valid impression, since the post after sounds
| like it wasn't the top priority:
|
| > _I decided to apply even though I was pretty busy that
| weekend, hoping my schedule would clear by the time the
| hackathon came around._
|
| However, this could be yet another instance of gatekeeping that
| has sprung up, now that there's tons of money involved, and a
| whole lot of petty posturing and maneuvering.
|
| When I was a kid, from a non-affluent family, who was fortunate
| to be able to start programming computers, I could just do
| things.
|
| I'm not aware of anyone ever being appointed arbiter of whether
| I had enough "passion and interest" to participate in some
| activity or venue.
|
| You'd just show up, and other enthusiasts would be reasonably
| encouraging and supportive.
|
| Too much nowadays in our field has a whiff of being about
| classism and collusion, to create barriers to joining the
| clique.
|
| Don't get me started on the obviously frat-pledging interviews
| that Google popularized, and then way too many newcomers
| mimicked that gatekeeping baggery, as if it was good and
| reasonable, rather than bro snobbery.
| BoorishBears wrote:
| You can still just show up.
|
| A recent highly advertised hackathon rejected my application.
|
| I DM'd an organizer and got told there was no space at the
| venue.
|
| I showed up anyways and security was checking names before
| allowing entrants in.
|
| Walk in with a box of "stuff" and shuffle over with a look of
| friendly inconvenience, and as they're scouring the list for
| my name: "Oh uh sorry I was a really late application so I
| might be towards the end or something".
|
| "Ah thanks for letting me know!", and after some half hearted
| searching security pens in my name, and off I go. My team
| ended up being finalists.
|
| The room was probably half empty btw. I get fire codes are a
| thing but as someone who's helped organize hackathons,
| organizers are notorious for overestimating the conversion
| rate from "accepted" to "actually shows up"
| byyoung3 wrote:
| u should maybe focus on security instead of AI haha
| miyuru wrote:
| App itself might be AI generated as well.
| byyoung3 wrote:
| Impressive stuff nonetheless.
| nusl wrote:
| Firebase again.
| sureglymop wrote:
| Your blog seems cool but it doesn't seem to provide an RSS
| feed... I think that would make it much easier to discover the
| posts.
| jackwilsdon wrote:
| RSS feed is here, just doesn't seem to be linked anywhere:
| https://fastcall.dev/index.xml
| fastcall wrote:
| I just added a icon to the main page, thanks for the
| feedback!
| SquareWheel wrote:
| You can also slap this in your head to make it discoverable
| by readers. <link rel="alternate"
| type="application/rss+xml" title="fastcall's Blog"
| href="/index.xml">
| sureglymop wrote:
| Great! Thank you :)
| accurrent wrote:
| Nice catch.
|
| I remember the days when one could just show up to a hackathon
| and do cool hacks. Now it feels like they only exist for serious
| reasons.
| paradite wrote:
| O-1
| Etheryte wrote:
| The O-1 visa is appealing otherwise, but the fact that it
| doesn't give your spouse a right to work is an absolute no
| starter as far as I'm concerned. So it only really makes
| sense if you're single or if your other half qualifies for a
| separate visa.
| setopt wrote:
| That's ridiculous. So if your SO doesn't qualify for their
| own work visa, they can immigrate but not work? Or they
| can't join you at all?
| Etheryte wrote:
| If you have an O-1 visa, your significant other can get
| an O-3, which allows them to join you, but not work.
| Their whole presence is tied to your visa, if you lose
| your O-1, they lose their O-3 too. I was looking into
| getting an O-1 at one point, but stopped once I came to
| learn this.
| igleria wrote:
| Gives the impression of it being by design: They want
| talent but only for so long, they don't want the talent
| to "overstay their welcome" thus they complicate things,
| like not allowing the spouse to work
| bombcar wrote:
| Exactly. It's designed to allow you to work for a time
| and then return. They're nice enough to allow a spouse to
| accompany, but not to work or remain.
| Brian_K_White wrote:
| nice enough, wow
| idiotsecant wrote:
| I think they'll gladly keep the holders of these visas as
| long as they're desperate. It's not about length of time,
| it's about keeping them tied to a single employer,
| working like a rented mule, afraid to speak up. These
| visas make people good, docile employees because if they
| aren't they get _removed from the country_. It 's kind of
| wild that they are so casually accepted.
| FeepingCreature wrote:
| I think if you make it a moral violation to give people
| nice things with attached conditions, this will not
| result in more people having nice things.
|
| You're proposing the alternative "let people live in the
| US without being tied to a specific employer." But
| realistically, the alternative on offer is "don't let
| people live in the US at all."
| CalRobert wrote:
| Not just a US thing, Ireland did this to critical skills
| employment holders for years. Worse, they pretended your
| spouse could work, but then made the process so
| cumbersome it was almost impossible to comply.
| kevin_thibedeau wrote:
| They can work in your country's consular offices if one is
| nearby.
| paradite wrote:
| Ok looks like people are not getting my comment.
|
| Being a judge in a hackathon is one of the criterion for O-1
| visa.
|
| https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/getting-o-1-visa-easier-
| than-...
| jrmg wrote:
| It might work in practice, but it really does not seem to
| meet the spirit to me. It's definitely not true to just say
| "being a judge in a hackathon is one of the criterion"
| directly.
|
| Actual regulation is:
|
| _Evidence of the alien 's participation on a panel, or
| individually, as a judge of the work of others in the same
| or in an allied field of specialization to that for which
| classification is sought;_[1]
|
| is one of eight criterion (of which meeting three is
| required).
|
| Examples given by USCIS[2] are:
|
| _Examples of relevant evidence may include, but are not
| limited to:
|
| Reviewer of abstracts or papers submitted for presentation
| at scholarly conferences in the respective field;
|
| Peer reviewer for scholarly publications;
|
| Member of doctoral dissertation committees; and
|
| Peer reviewer for government research funding programs._
|
| Which seems to indicate rather more prestige than "judging
| a hackathon" is the intent of the regulation.
|
| [1]: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-8/chapter-I/subchap
| ter-B/...
|
| [2]: https://www.uscis.gov/policy-manual/volume-2-part-m-
| chapter-...
| paradite wrote:
| Yes. This is my point I'm trying to make. Thank you for
| explaining it.
| uoaei wrote:
| "phenomenon" is singular, "criteria" is plural
| non- wrote:
| You definitely still can just show up and do cool hacks.
|
| Also hackathons are really easy to host if you keep them under
| 50 people. All you really need at that size is a co-working
| space and some pizzas.
|
| So if you don't like the vibe at your local hackathons, why not
| host your own one weekend?
|
| I think the key is really the size of the thing. Giant
| hackathons with big sponsors and prizes are always going to be
| more "serious" feeling than your local self-organized hack-
| days.
| pdntspa wrote:
| The hackathons I have been forced to participate in always
| seemed like a cheap shot at labor and ideas from some corporate
| overlord
|
| And for the record.... PIZZA is not an appropriate
| compensation. Especially if someone is lactose intolerant!
| jimbob45 wrote:
| It's always Little Caesars too. At that point, I'd rather
| just have the $5 that the pizza cost.
| wodenokoto wrote:
| So, was he accepted after the bug was fixed?
| fastcall wrote:
| I was lol, my application is actually the 1st one in the
| information disclosure section.
|
| I didn't get any feedback or even a reviewer name, oddly
| enough.
| szszrk wrote:
| So... what was the full commend of the reviewer? :) You made
| us curious.
| belter wrote:
| Netflix cancelled the second season...Not enough interest...
| pwillia7 wrote:
| +1 Hugo + Papermod -- Same setup I use for my blog!
| (reticulated.net)
|
| https://decapcms.org/ is a nice front end CMS admin if you're
| looking for one.
| peterarmstrong wrote:
| What, hackathons require admission applications these days? Holy
| crap I'm getting old...
| Aurornis wrote:
| There are two types of non-corporate hackathons:
|
| 1. The kind where you have to advertise all over and work hard
| to convince people to come to. You're happy with whoever shows
| up.
|
| 2. The kind where you have so many entries that you need to
| filter out the non-serious people and save your limited space
| for people with the actual skills and motivation to show up and
| contribute.
|
| The second kind is usually associated with some big institution
| or influencer. It might have a history of participation from
| people who went on to be successful.
|
| In this case, it's associated with universities. Different
| universities probably encourage their students to apply and
| compete.
| koakuma-chan wrote:
| Buzz online where? I haven't heard about it, feel like I'm
| missing out.
| joshdavham wrote:
| Slightly tangential: I'm currently working on a web app that uses
| Firebase and I'd like to potentially open source it in the
| future.
|
| Given all these recent articles where people have been finding
| vulnerabilities in Firebase apps, should I be careful to open
| source it? The data in my app isn't super sensitive (e.g., social
| security or bank info), but does contain PII like names, emails,
| passwords.
| henryfjordan wrote:
| You should triple-check the configs for your Firebase instance,
| make sure you understand all the security implications.
|
| If you release the app as open-source make sure you remove
| references to your specific Firebase instance.
|
| I'll also say that the app being open-source isn't the problem.
| As you can see from the blog-post, there's a LOT you can do
| just from looking at the frontend code delivered to your
| browser.
| chinabot wrote:
| There used to be a local hackathon where I used to live in
| London. Amazingly talented people used to attend, great social, I
| really miss going to these events
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