I replicated an $86M project using open-source libraries (2017)

https://medium.com/free-code-camp/how-i-replicated-an-86-million-project-in-57-lines-of-code-277031330ee9

by bedros • 7 years ago

61 24 7 years ago

medium.com

Topgamer72• 7 years ago

The title should include (2017)

bedros• 7 years ago

thank you, I updated it

visualstudio• 7 years ago

uses openalpr. 57 lines my ass.

soganess• 7 years ago

He also used a compiler, but real programmers never do that. Maybe he used an IDE like Visual Studio that does a lot of real-time checking to make sure the code is correct before the compiler runs. Don't even get me start on the fact that he used off an off-the-shelf von neumann machine. Basically, the ghost of Von Neumann did allllllllllll the actual work and this guy is taking all the credit.

If you aren't writing your own Turing machine code in a language you developed, proved that language is Turing complete on the system you built, by hand(no help needed right?), that simulates the Turing structure on a state machine, you are not a programmer. Then, of course, wrote the OS(what's the name of your OS? I trying to become a real programmer and needs some pointers on scheduling). Don't forget to come up with your own machine learning model that doesn't use any of Shannon's llllllllame theories, doesn't rely on SVMs, neutral networks, or those weird upside trees(yuck) that those total losers with no programming skill what-so-ever, use.

Oh wait, you're still not a real programmer then; I almost forgot that the CT thesis is TOTAL unproven BS. No real programmer would stand for that. They are so logical and perfect in their understanding. So, if you can spare a minute from all the real programming you are doing, you should probably come up with your own model of computation, just so no one calls you out for not being a real programmer. Which, of course, you are. Wolfram did it and _everybody_ loved his "original" work. Of course, you'll then prove that this model can solve the halting problem in O(1). Wait, wait, wait, while you are at that, the PH hierarchy is also total unproven BS(look at me being so forgetful, I'm just not a real programmer, yet). Can you even believe that all those idiot nonprogrammers ever proved was P < EXPTIME, duuuuuuuuuuuh. You'll need to come up with your own classification system that isn't so broken. You don't even need to do much(what is NP even? And who decide to call it Merlin-Arthur? Is that a joke? Real programmer never joke about code.) because all your real code will run in polynomial time and always be deterministic...

What a Charlatan, amirite?

Programmers/Data Scientists stand on the shoulders of giants so large it is a serious undertaking to fully realize just how high up one truly is.

aresant• 7 years ago

Actually an interesting project and in the authors follow up article he explains his motivation vs standing for the “click bait” knee jerk:

“Most readers saw it for what it was: a proof of concept to spark discussion about the use of open source technology, government spending, and one man’s desire to build cool stuff from his couch.”

https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/remember-that-86-million-l...

close042• 7 years ago

Since then, the reactions have been overwhelming. My article received over 100,000 hits in the first day, and at last glance sits somewhere around 450,000. I’ve been invited to speak on local radio talk shows and at a conference in California. I think someone may have misread Victoria, AU as Victoria, BC.
I have met for coffee with various local developers and big name firms alike

But anyone who saw clickbait titles for what they are (putting the rest of the controversial claims aside) were just pedants:

Pedants have pointed out [...]

hirundo• 7 years ago

Teslas vehicles are already brimming with cameras and sensors with the ability to receive OTA updates — imagine turning these into a fleet of virtual good samaritans.

%s/good samaritans/rat finks/g

https://jonathanjanz.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/sutherland....

BlackLotus89• 7 years ago

A few things that bug me (apart from filming open spaces and auto process those information is:

1) accuracy confidence of 90% is high enough for the author.

2) the recognizee plates are all send to a webservice. If grepped by IP you could "track" peoples cars/pinpoint the time to a location which is too much of an invasion of privacy for me. An offline database of stolen vehicles license plates would be better

3) they really put 86M$ in a system for this m-( makes me a bit sad

Topgamer72• 7 years ago

Google knows where you are, who you are, what you search for, where you live and work, and what you buy. Everyone these days has a lot of data on you.

abhisuri97• 7 years ago

Really cool PoC. Though there is a lot of work that has to be done to get this production-ready, I really can't imagine it being more than $1-5m. I'd be really interested to see how the $86m breaks down.

anm89• 7 years ago

It's government so that budget is paying for n levels of subcontractors subcontracting subcontractors, unions, oversight comittees to make sure the proper unions were involved, layers of beurocrats who do some things but nobody is really sure,regulators to make sure the beurocrats were following governmental standards, and regulators to to regulate the beurocrat regulators.

86m on a government project breaks down to about 1-5m in development budget.

xwdv2• 7 years ago

“I replicated an $86M project by combining several open source libraries built on the backs of other developers whose names will go unnoticed using 57 lines of glue code.”

asdfasgasdgasdg• 7 years ago

That will never fail to be the case when using open source libraries. That's actually kind of the whole point of open source.

xwdv2• 7 years ago

Using open source libraries is one thing, writing gratuitous articles about how you did something in X lines of code is another.

IMO, any article about how you did something in X lines of code is worthless unless you wrote every last line of code yourself. It only serves to impress people who know nothing about software. Lines of code you wrote is by no means a useful metric for evaluating complexity given the amount of library usage there is out there.

I could write articles about how I built $100M+ applications in a couple lines of code, but I have more integrity than that.

halfjoking• 7 years ago

Hey, don't knock glue code - it's the only way I can impress my bosses at work.

https://i.imgflip.com/36py2c.jpg

close042• 7 years ago

There was also a reply to this article at that time: https://medium.com/@ryanfb/how-i-failed-to-replicate-an-86-m...

I'm fairly convinced that the project cost a lot more than it should have. But the claim in the title is also a bit disingenuous. 57 lines of his own code is not "57 lines of code", and the results may not be at the same level.

Later edit: He does make the same point... in a another post where he admits to the clickbaity title, the overwhelming reaction (as many such titles trigger), and claims people pointing out the lack of support for the controversial core claims are pedants. [0]

[0] https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/remember-that-86-million-l...

gumby• 7 years ago

I believe the author made that very point.

floraaffogato• 7 years ago

So how much does he earn from this project worthy of $86?

cryptica2• 7 years ago

Experts might be quick to point out that there is more to the system than merely being able to identify license plates; for example, it has to be able to operate on a national scale in a distributed way.

In spite of this, I still I think that the author's point holds - $86 million is a ridiculous sum for such a system.

Government contracts are corruption through ignorance (or is it pretend-ignorance?). Software does not cost that much to produce these days even at scale.

tootie• 7 years ago

If you've ever run a large IT program before, you'd know that software development is probably less than half the cost and probably less than half of that will be on the core problem. There's a ton of governance involved in rolling out a system like this plus all the training, maintenance, operations, etc that all has to be done with full indemnity against failures. I could write a system to save text and images in a weekend, but that wouldn't make it Facebook.

moksly• 7 years ago

These ridiculous prices are common in enterprise, not just the public sector. You just rarely hear about it when a bank spends 100 million on something that should have been build for 10 in the perfect world. One of the reasons you hear about this in the public sector is actually because we have systems to combat corruption. We don’t just hand out contracts to who we want, to get a public contract you go through a process called procurement, which typically requires a lot of upfront work both for the project but also legally and you have no idea if your bid is gonna to win.

It’s a lot more complicated of course, and one of the reasons is the massive bureaucracy. It’s both good and bad, on one hand it protects us from a public sector that buys software from sketchy people who go “I can do that 100 million project for 10”, exactly like I just did, and then completely fail to deliver. That’s not something you can do in enterprise, that whole move fast and break things simply doesn’t work when your results need to hold up in elections every four years.

Of course this exclusion of small agile companies who can’t afford to play into the public procurement system, means the companies who win the contracts are capable of milking us. Because the truth is, that we don’t get they alternative you think about. No one actually submits a 10 million bid for that 100 million system. Instead we’ll get a 93 million and a 86 million bid, and then we pick the 86 million one.

Typically less than 20% or the money goes to actual development though. The vast majority goes into whatever project management, governance, process modelling, lean, implementation strategies, training and all that other bullshit software companies sell you. And then 5 years later they fail to deliver and it ends up costing 10 million extra.

We really need a new model for this, and that’s where you and I probably agree, but it’s just not going to happen when not a single elected official in a country knows how to code.

cryptica2• 7 years ago

All this bureaucracy does not seem to have stopped corporations like Oracle and IBM from legally stealing taxpayer dollars.

If anything, the bureaucracy is creating corruption. The money is going straight into the pockets of billionaires and thereby exacerbating the centralization of wealth, creating monopolies, reducing consumer options, and replacing good useful jobs with useless office jobs.

nafizh• 7 years ago

AFAIK, anyone who works in these kinds of projects uses open source libraries as they are the prevalent ones. So, I am a little perplexed with the emphasis on 'using open-source libraries'.

I replicated an $86M project using open-source libraries (2017)

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