What irks me is that some company spent millions of taxpayer dollars designing this contactless payment system and couldn’t be bothered to provide a real-time readout to the ticket inspector where the passenger could just provide their name to confirm they paid.
But even more than that, I irks me that TFA came away from this experience hating Apple Pay. This singular component in the entire chain which was completely blameless.
At the end they are acting like Apple Pay (or ant mobile payment) is a risk of sorts. This type of transit issue is actually quite unique. Their example of someone buying coffee at Starbucks with their phone is completely different. If your phone doesn’t before you pay, boo-hoo, no coffee. If it does after you pay they’re still going to call out your name and you grab your cup.
Almost exactly like you are suggesting (and I agree) the transit system should work. When you pay, they have a record of it.
But of course ridiculous that it took such hoops to fix after the fact.
SF Muni also has a phone payment app, but even most people who don’t use it do not have a physical receipt. If for any reason the Muni inspector can’t scan your BART/Clippper card there needs to be a reasonable way to use other proof of payment to correct an erroneous record of non-payment. This is the same situation as if one's phone died after using Apple pay to get on the bus.
The failure to create system methods/business methods that allow for reasonable correction of erroneous records is unethical, but unfortunately common. Think of: cleaning up after “identity theft”, or trying to get removed from the the no-fly list. I privately think of this as a 27b/6 error.
Also, it's illegal not to have an ID with you at all times. So people usually carry wallets. I carry cash all the time. Better to get robbed (small chance) than get stuck somewhere without money (i.e. CC doesn't work because the bank is having "software issues" or the POS terminal is broken or whatever...)
A problem with this convenience is that you don't get any kind of physical receipt to prove you paid. Perhaps in my case, a ticket inspector could scan my credit card to check it was used to pay, but in the case of a dead phone, it can't be queried.
Technology is great when it's thought out. If not... may the deity of choice be on your side in the bureaucratic maze of modern society intertwined with digital/electronic and paper/human-based data carriers.
Frankly, this remark by a zdnet journo was rather bizarre:
>She's a writer for The Financial Times. Please don't let any personal thoughts about that get in the way of her story.
FT is known for excellent journalism, zdnet is known for nonsense stories like https://www.zdnet.com/article/unsecured-mongodb-databases-ex...
"ZDNet is a business technology news website published by CBS Interactive, along with TechRepublic. The brand was founded on April 1, 1991, as a general interest technology portal from Ziff Davis and evolved into an enterprise IT-focused online publication owned by CNET Networks."
I'm confused about why one would expect them to have "leftist and anti-capitalist views" extending to general opposition to "the capitalist economic system".
I rather thought most people into enterprise IT were down with the whole corporate capitalist system and stuff.
If she missed her court date then I don't know what she expected... You will lose by default if you don't go.
When I moved, I guess only the mailing address got changed, not the « registered » address.
So I continued getting monthly statements and all was well.
Tax time comes and I realize I hadn’t gotten statements in some months.
I go to the branch and they said the accounts been closed. Uh oh.
Turns out they sent all those communications and a draft for 5 figures to the registered address I didn’t live at anymore.
Ugh.
If it's the same, then she just needed to send a letter to the court outlining the steps she had gone through, and was working on to get documentation for the case. Depending on jurisdiction, she may have had to appear before a judge to make the request.
It's up to the judge, of course, but in 99% of the cases, if you have a reasonable request, then you'll get your continuance.
How is this not guilty until proven innocent? You have to prove you paid, otherwise you're assumed guilty.
Considering that, I'm very surprised this reporter had her conviction quashed - it looks like she broke the law, even if she didn't intend to. (Intent is not required for a conviction for this law).
On the tube one can purchase paper tickets, though these are somewhat rare now and cannot be purchased at all stations.
