Getting my library cards onto my phone the hard way

Post by monksy » Sat, Oct 28, 2023, 8:49 PM UTC

organsnyder wrote: post #12

k8svet wrote: post #4

Oooh, now do Orca cards next. Seattle is one of the tech capitals of the United States, and on top of the metro system just being not great, it's also technically inferior to nearly every single other major city that I've used public transit. Pick any European city, CDMX, Denver. They're all light years ahead of Seattle. Denver might have been my favorite. Fun fact, one of the orgs that runs Orca actually wrote a blo…

My local transit system just added tap-to-pay that works with any credit card (or Apple/Google Pay etc.). As long as you use the same card it handles transfers, multi-day passes, etc. seamlessly as well—it will automatically ensure you're getting the correct rate (e.g. no charge for passes or rides after a certain number within a certain period).

Post by folmar » Sat, Oct 28, 2023, 8:53 PM UTC

wging wrote: post #38

karaterobot wrote: post #36

> Our local libraries, The Seattle Public Library and the King County Library System, issue pieces of plastic with barcodes printed on the back assigned to your borrower account. I just memorized my account number for KCLS. It should take maybe 30 seconds to commit it to memory—though your mileage may vary, I have to believe it's faster than this. After that, you just type in the account number instead of scanning th…

If you don’t feel like memorizing it, you could also store it on your phone in your password manager of choice.

Post by skykooler » Sat, Oct 28, 2023, 9:01 PM UTC

monksy wrote: post #51

organsnyder wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My local transit system just added tap-to-pay that works with any credit card (or Apple/Google Pay etc.). As long as you use the same card it handles transfers, multi-day passes, etc. seamlessly as well—it will automatically ensure you're getting the correct rate (e.g. no charge for passes or rides after a certain number within a certain period).

This system really sucks because you can't just slide your wallet over the reader. It'll pick up your cc before your transit pass. The move to do tap based transit with cc s is pretty stupid as that cc s get replace far more frequently than transit cards. The only person this really benefits is new users to the system that haven't figured out how to get a transit card yet.

Post by fyrn_ » Sat, Oct 28, 2023, 9:18 PM UTC

k8svet wrote: post #4

Oooh, now do Orca cards next. Seattle is one of the tech capitals of the United States, and on top of the metro system just being not great, it's also technically inferior to nearly every single other major city that I've used public transit. Pick any European city, CDMX, Denver. They're all light years ahead of Seattle. Denver might have been my favorite. Fun fact, one of the orgs that runs Orca actually wrote a blo…

Post by saagarjha » Sat, Oct 28, 2023, 9:23 PM UTC

js2 wrote: post #44

circuit10 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think if you are locked out from doing what you want on your phone that you bought through arbitrary software locks then you should have the right to bypass that. This isn’t costing the app developer anything, nor were they even using the app to generate the pass, so I don’t really see any issue here

It's taking advantage of another developer's $99 payment. I just took a look at one of these apps and the in-app purchase to remove ads is $1.99. I think if I did this I'd throw that developer the 2 bucks. Sort of like when you bum a ride from someone, even though it's not costing them anything, it's good form to offer to split the cost of gasoline.