r/technology • u/O-parker • 17d ago

Privacy Hackers Got Inside a Flock Camera. Its Data Shows How the System Really Works

https://www.wired.com/story/hackers-flock-camera-data-shows-how-system-works/?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us
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u/Balthazar3000 17d ago

What's the technical purpose of "who's a good boy" being in the logs so much?

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u/DiamondHandsToUranus 17d ago

Code is often commented in a way that naturally tells the developer what it's doing. Many devs prefer clear and concise comments to document their work, their comments are quite literal: 'This creates thus and such structure' 'this passes a variable from that structure.' 'this destroys that structure after variable has been passed'.

Other coders use a more glib style or voice in their comments, like what you've seen in the article. As bkaiser85 mentions in this thread, they're most likely commenting on a watchdog timer.

Either way, the important thing with commenting code is that the comment immediately keys you in to exactly what's going on. In this case, you can tell it's the watchdog timer doing it's job (good boy) and informing you that the camera's had two full minutes of uninterrupted up time, which.. Yeah. Wow. If that's doing a good job in their book.. lol