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Students defeat new 'Barnacle' parking clamp, skip fines and get free internet

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Re: Students defeat new 'Barnacle' parking clamp, skip fines and get free internet

#251

Post by ppseafield »

hanniabu wrote: post #230
javiramos wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The other day I went to a concert and parked my car at a parking lot. When the concert ended, of course there were masses of people trying to exit the parking lot. There were only 2 cashiers to pay the parking ticket — no automated machines. So we waited over an hour to pay our ticket. Time that we ended up paying with our ticket (per hour parking). The cashier didn’t want to refund us for the waiting time. If the la…

While I agree that's a hassle, I don't think this should result in a refund. It's like ordering dinner, eating it, and then wanting a refund for the meal because you waited a long time for the meal.

I think the OP meant they were charged for the extra hour they spent waiting in line trying to exit.

Re: Students defeat new 'Barnacle' parking clamp, skip fines and get free internet

#252

Post by petee »

nimbius wrote: post #32

When I first saw these touted a few years ago I'd imagined they would be fairly trivial to bypass. - light oil or penetrating oil can be used to bypass the gasket. If it will remove decals or stickers, this thing doesnt stand a chance. - exploiting the coefficient of expansion for gasses (as these brilliant students did) is absolutely an option. - keeping your windshield wipers up would prevent use of the device. - r…

I think penetrating oil would be counterintuitive, as it would just provide a better airtight seal, your best bet in that case is that we would slide more easily and maybe up and over the window edge gasket to break the seal

Re: Students defeat new 'Barnacle' parking clamp, skip fines and get free internet

#253

Post by novok »

lacker wrote: post #20
ISL wrote: post #7

Like adversaries who attempt to outrun a radio, "outsmarting" law enforcement who have your license-plate number is a generally poor strategy. Likewise, putting the police-department's SIM in your phone has some pretty clear downsides.

It isn’t actually law enforcement, though. It’s some division of the university which is enforcing parking rules.

I would think most businesses have a civil court case as part of an agreement you sign as you become a student of the school?

Or businesses in general with trespass law?

Re: Students defeat new 'Barnacle' parking clamp, skip fines and get free internet

#254

Post by jccalhoun »

jlarocco wrote: post #203

Am I the only one who thinks this is wrong? An alternative headline could be something like, "Entitled College Kids Learn How To Keep Parking Like Assholes Without Paying Fines." And it's a pyrhic victory anyway, because chances are now the cars will get one of the metal tire boots put on, or get towed. Both of which are more expensive and a bigger hassle for everybody.

I hate people who don't park in a proper spot or who just leave the car in a garage in a spot next to the door all summer while they leave town/country like used to happen at my old university but I see this more as "college spends money on some high tech device that is easily circumvented and has poor security" than as college students screwing over the system.

Re: Students defeat new 'Barnacle' parking clamp, skip fines and get free internet

#255

Post by monksy »

throwawaybcpark wrote: post #239
emptybits wrote: post #183

I spent a decade in the parking technology space. (Co-founder PayByPhone -- don't hate me, I genuinely tried to make things more civilized and convenient, I swear!). Anyways, I miss hearing about hilarious and genius hacks and escalations like this. The brilliance deployed to work around parking regulations is amazing. Not condoning, but here's a (naive?) though experiment if the Barnacle shows up in use again... Par…

@emptybits PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE do an AMA somewhere (even in this thread) 1. What do you think about products like SpotHero & others? (Can those comp 2. Do you think parking lots will be an attractive investment in the future? (Autonomous or bet on it for next while)

I've worked for Spothero before. It's a tough business. But I think they're one of the rare companies where people actually like them.

Re: Students defeat new 'Barnacle' parking clamp, skip fines and get free internet

#256

Post by mikestew »

javiramos wrote: post #224
quaquaqua1 wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is not paying for the parking I use. That is an easy problem to solve, as long as the price is "reasonable". The problem I have with parking authorities is fraud. When the meter employee gives me a ticket for a different meter, or when the parking ticket fine is $200 instead of say $30, or when the restrictions are absurd/vague ("You can park here for 2 hours m-f except holidays except 9-11 except in gree…

The other day I went to a concert and parked my car at a parking lot. When the concert ended, of course there were masses of people trying to exit the parking lot. There were only 2 cashiers to pay the parking ticket — no automated machines. So we waited over an hour to pay our ticket. Time that we ended up paying with our ticket (per hour parking). The cashier didn’t want to refund us for the waiting time. If the la…

Had an attendant try to pull a similar stunt once. I simply told them that I was willing to sit at the booth until it was resolved to my satisfaction, or the cops showed up, while cars piled up behind me. A few moments of hemming and hawing, and out I went no charge. I was willing to pay what was owed, but I imagine “the system” couldn’t handle that, so write it off.

Re: Students defeat new 'Barnacle' parking clamp, skip fines and get free internet

#258

Post by rectang »

ratww wrote: post #198
rectang wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not all heroes wear capes. Thank you on behalf of all those administrators having to deal with the abuse! PS: Do you have stats on the overlap between parking violators and people who refuse to pick up after their dogs?

> Not all heroes wear capes The best ones do, however: http://heroesinthenight.blogspot.com/2012/08/angle-grinder-m...

I'll be rooting for the real hero EasyALPR to clean up the neighborhood and tow these caped croutons.

Re: Students defeat new 'Barnacle' parking clamp, skip fines and get free internet

#259

Post by dreamcompiler »

chrisseaton wrote: post #76
geofft wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're not celebrating people who park selfishly, we're celebrating people who use a clever hack to defeat a harmful solution to the problem of people parking selfishly. The point of DeCSS and qrpff, for instance, was not that piracy is a good thing but that DRM is a bad thing.

Driving an individual vehicle and parking it at a college is the first-order bad thing here. The parking spaces occupy useful land and the cars pollute the campus air. Everything else is about people trying to avoid being asked to take responsibility for the impact of doing that.

OU is a campus built around the assumption that automobiles are the primary mode of transport. You cannot tell people "just don't drive" at a campus like this; you have to build a campus and its associated infrastructure such that people have reasonable alternatives. This is society's problem to fix, not drivers'.

Re: Students defeat new 'Barnacle' parking clamp, skip fines and get free internet

#260

Post by monksy »

What I find annoying about this:

They're acting as an enforcement agency without any oversight. They're modifying property and holding it hostage. It's amazing how a company tries to apply ownership towards something they modify on someone else's property. I don't have an issue with reporting an unpaid debt over fines. However you can't exactly fence off someone's house and hold them hostage because of a disagreement.

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