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How I Hacked My University's Registration System with Python and Twilio

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Re: How I Hacked My University's Registration System with Python and Twilio

#51

Post by problems »

fapjacks wrote: post #34
makr99 wrote: post #25

I was in the US and want to immigrate to Canada because of US broken H1B immigration system ( for me it will take 9 years to get a greencard). Here is what I did - The immigration website of Saskatchewan province opens up randomly to apply for immigration. I missed it many times because there is no indication other than the "Apply" button being enabled and a small text in their homepage which says "Applications are n…

That's along the lines of what I do when I am waiting for a dedicated machine from OVH, since they list all of their clearance machines on a special page and you have to keep checking them. So I just used my script with Twilio to send me SMS when it's available to buy. Done that all three times I needed a box. I would not call it "hacking" though.

Warning you now - that strategy on Kimsufi boxes at least is extremely popular. If you're willing to pay a little more check out their "SoYouStart" line - they seemed more readily available.

Re: How I Hacked My University's Registration System with Python and Twilio

#52

Post by hbk1966 »

problems wrote: post #49
e12e wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nice story, and great that Twilio worked out for you - but this really is the sort of thing that email alerts (or IM alerts, or IRC alerts) should also work fine for. I would argue that the fact that you find SMS/phone calls a more urgent alert is a fault with your phone/communication setup - and twilio is an interesting hack around that. But there really should be an easy way to make just as much ruckus from a simpl…

Yeah, this isn't really a major Twilio win or a hack - it's a basic scraping technique. I found a house for myself and a friend in a similar way, reverse engineer mobile app from MLS, scrape all listings once a day to get new stuff as it hits the market and you can now be far more selective than the crappy search on the MLS site allows.

Yeah you can sends texts to your phone just like sending an email.

Re: How I Hacked My University's Registration System with Python and Twilio

#53

Post by Mister_Snuggles »

teddyc wrote: post #37

I used to work in University IT and registration time is the worst. The systems never handle the load well and everyone freaks out. I think your work might anger the sysadmins b/c of the increased load.

The sad thing is that with a little bit of effort on the part of University IT, something like this could be built to put a lot less load on the system.

Using this example, couldn't someone (University IT) write an SQL script to dump out the current seat count/capacity for every "current" class and throw it on a web server somewhere? Assuming that the underlying database schema isn't completely insane, that would probably be about a half-day of effort. The student writing the scraper could then point it at the output of this script.

With a half-day of effort, you've reduced the load on the application, you've provided a service that the students probably want, and best of all you've got someone else to do most of the hard work.

Re: How I Hacked My University's Registration System with Python and Twilio

#54

Post by patmcc »

makr99 wrote: post #25

I was in the US and want to immigrate to Canada because of US broken H1B immigration system ( for me it will take 9 years to get a greencard). Here is what I did - The immigration website of Saskatchewan province opens up randomly to apply for immigration. I missed it many times because there is no indication other than the "Apply" button being enabled and a small text in their homepage which says "Applications are n…

We're always glad to have more hackers in Canada, welcome! (If you've got your PR this was probably a while ago, but still)

Re: How I Hacked My University's Registration System with Python and Twilio

#55

Post by murukesh_s »

hbk1966 wrote: post #52
problems wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, this isn't really a major Twilio win or a hack - it's a basic scraping technique. I found a house for myself and a friend in a similar way, reverse engineer mobile app from MLS, scrape all listings once a day to get new stuff as it hits the market and you can now be far more selective than the crappy search on the MLS site allows.

Yeah you can sends texts to your phone just like sending an email.

How to do that?

Re: How I Hacked My University's Registration System with Python and Twilio

#56

Post by cgmg »

_sbrk wrote: post #46
makr99 wrote: post #25

I was in the US and want to immigrate to Canada because of US broken H1B immigration system ( for me it will take 9 years to get a greencard). Here is what I did - The immigration website of Saskatchewan province opens up randomly to apply for immigration. I missed it many times because there is no indication other than the "Apply" button being enabled and a small text in their homepage which says "Applications are n…

> because of US broken immigration system Immigration is working just fine: It is a rate-limiting mechanism to prevent massive immigration of every "me too" person from other random countries. You're just like everyone else, and everyone else wants to get in, too. Just like a lifeboat, the US can't let everyone in at once or we'd sink. Buy a parka and enjoy Canada!

"Just like a lifeboat, the US can't let everyone in at once or we'd sink."

Actually, the consensus among economists is that immigration makes your own economy better off. It has a net positive effect on productivity and prosperity.

In other words, your "rate-limiting" analogy makes zero sense. You want more immigration, not less.

Re: How I Hacked My University's Registration System with Python and Twilio

#57

Post by specialist »

eggie5 wrote: post #16

I remember I made this same thing when I was in undergrad b/c my uni didn't have waitlists. So people could waitlist on my app. Their priority in the waitlist is determined by a market. I remember getting SMS's in the middle of the night alerting me that a seat opened up!

"Their priority in the waitlist is determined by a market."

I'm very surprised registration systems aren't (generally) some kind of phased auction. There's got be some research, experiments somewhere exploring different strategies.

I worked on student facing software in higher ed. Admins were obsessed with fairness. Our registration systems had all sorts of arcane rules. Which were hard to explain, validate, troubleshoot. And probably neither fair or effective.

Some kind of auction, where blocks of seats were made available to different populations, progressively over time, would greatly simplify the implementation and understanding.

For (a greatly simplified) example, GRADUATION REQUIREMENT ABC has 200 seats. 50 seats are released every hour. First hour, seniors have first shot. Second hour, opens up for juniors and program enrollees. Third hour, sophomores. Fourth hour, freshmen.

Of course, there are other factors, like multiple sections (same class offered at different times).

--

We also talked about predicting demand (capacity planning). A novel solution there might moot the entire registration stampede. Perhaps a "buying club" type solution, where students state which classes they'll "buy" and roughly when. Then registrars form up sections to satisify the largest number of students. This could reduce the twin connundrums of waitlists and over capacity.

Anywho. It's an interesting problem, ripe for innovative optimization, matchmaking, auction/market solutions.

Re: How I Hacked My University's Registration System with Python and Twilio

#58

Post by tomjen3 »

teddyc wrote: post #37

I used to work in University IT and registration time is the worst. The systems never handle the load well and everyone freaks out. I think your work might anger the sysadmins b/c of the increased load.

Couldn't you just let anybody sign up for $LONG_ENOUGH_PERIOD and then randomize who gets in the classes? It sounds like a much better solution in general.

Re: How I Hacked My University's Registration System with Python and Twilio

#59

Post by danudey »

makr99 wrote: post #25

I was in the US and want to immigrate to Canada because of US broken H1B immigration system ( for me it will take 9 years to get a greencard). Here is what I did - The immigration website of Saskatchewan province opens up randomly to apply for immigration. I missed it many times because there is no indication other than the "Apply" button being enabled and a small text in their homepage which says "Applications are n…

Welcome to Canada! Also: it's not all like Saskatchewan, most of it is really nice. ;)

Re: How I Hacked My University's Registration System with Python and Twilio

#60

Post by _sbrk »

cgmg wrote: post #56
_sbrk wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> because of US broken immigration system Immigration is working just fine: It is a rate-limiting mechanism to prevent massive immigration of every "me too" person from other random countries. You're just like everyone else, and everyone else wants to get in, too. Just like a lifeboat, the US can't let everyone in at once or we'd sink. Buy a parka and enjoy Canada!

"Just like a lifeboat, the US can't let everyone in at once or we'd sink." Actually, the consensus among economists is that immigration makes your own economy better off. It has a net positive effect on productivity and prosperity. In other words, your "rate-limiting" analogy makes zero sense. You want more immigration, not less.

» In other words, your "rate-limiting" analogy makes zero sense. You want more immigration, not less.

How's that working out for Germany?

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