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Comment by gnoway | Hacker News Reader

So, he took advantage of a promotion in a way the manufacturer did not intend, lied to grocery store employees to explain why he was depriving hundreds of other customers of delicious pudding while concurrently ruining pudding as a treat for his children, and caused his wife to physically harm herself peeling product codes from plastic packaging which he then I guess sent to a single landfill? Just so he could travel for free? And we're lauding this accomplishment?

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That's awfully negative. Lying to the store employees isn't important. The packaging would have gone to landfill anyway. The wife presumably benefited from the flights. Ruining pudding for kids hopefully means they ate less junk food afterwards. A promotion for a manufacturer is a cheap marketing trick, they'll be betting that the conversion rate is low, but it's their risk and it sounds like they delivered. It's a story of a man beating the system.

... took advantage of ... in a way ... did not intend ...

At least this first part seems close to most definitions of hacking I know.

A promotion, not a device. It's different.

Anyway the intent was more sarcasm than anything, but I guess I'll take the karma hit.

It made me laugh too, and I got the sarc, but I think it's the last bit which really killed the karma... And we're lauding this accomplishment? Or maybe add a </sarc> next time just to make it clear for everyone :)

If it was indeed sarcasm then it was too subtle for HN. I mean if you had posted that on 4chan then it would be blatant sarcasm, but people on HN take themselves a little to seriously so it's a lot harder to tell.

I like the hacker mentality of interpretation

To me, hacking a device is quite different than hacking a promotion. When you hack a device, there's usually no victim. However, when you hack a commercial transaction, there typically is a victim because most transactions are zero-sum (or at least the transaction surplus is zero-sum).

Well you gave ME a laugh.

Thank you for adding to the discussion. It's interesting to find out how empathetic people are toward corporations. There is apparently quite a bit of variance.

> which he then I guess sent to a single landfill?

Didn't you read the article? They built a salvation army store out of the packaging.

You must be fun to hang around with.

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