←back to thread

How Precision Time Protocol is being deployed at Meta

(engineering.fb.com)
221 points mfiguiere | 3 comments | 21 Nov 22 15:41 UTC | HN request time: 0.429s | source
Show context
CapmCrackaWaka ◴[21 Nov 22 18:45 UTC] No.33696266[source]▶
Why do so many tech companies seem to be releasing “secret sauce” for free lately? I see a lot of posts lately detailing how inner production systems work at large companies, and while I’m grateful, I’m curious why the higher ups think it’s worthwhile to release this information.
replies(10): >>33696343 #>>33696357 #>>33696387 #>>33696390 #>>33696536 #>>33697255 #>>33697472 #>>33697626 #>>33698188 #>>33698620 #
throw0101a ◴[21 Nov 22 18:55 UTC] No.33696357[source]▶
> Why do so many tech companies seem to be releasing “secret sauce” for free lately?

Is it really their "special sauce" though? Do these types of releases actually give away how these companies make money?

In this particular case, telling the world how to get to nanosecond levels of timekeeping doesn't really help any competitors take away Metabook's revenues or profits.

replies(2): >>33696599 #>>33697340 #
1. ElevenLathe ◴[21 Nov 22 19:16 UTC] No.33696599[source]▶
OTOH if there turns out to be some other way of making money on nanosecond timekeeping, then keeping it secret will help them get into that market before competitors can.
replies(2): >>33697008 #>>33697858 #
2. xboxnolifes ◴[21 Nov 22 19:48 UTC] No.33697008[source]▶
This is just spending "potential money" for engineering talent advertisements.
3. eastbound ◴[21 Nov 22 21:00 UTC] No.33697858[source]▶
Unless they’re playing 4-D chess and the goal is to make competitors lose time implementing CAP theorem databases, nanosecond precision and React, while they’re pulling ahead.