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DoNotPay Bot Has Beaten 160,000 Traffic Tickets -- and Counting (venturebeat.com)
Khari Johnson, writing for VentureBeat:A bot made to challenge traffic tickets has been used more than 9,000 times by New Yorkers, according to DoNotPay maker Joshua Browder. The bot was made available to New Yorkers in March. In recent years and decades, residents of The Big Apple have seen a persistent increase in traffic fines. A record $1.9 billion in traffic fines was issued by the City of New York in 2015. Since the first version of the bot was released in London last fall, 160,000 of 250,000 tickets have been successfully challenged with DoNotPay, Browder said. "I think the people getting parking tickets are the most vulnerable in society," said Browder. "These people aren't looking to break the law. I think they're being exploited as a revenue source by the local government." Browder, who's 19, hopes to extend DoNotPay to Seattle this fall.
What's higher than first-world problems?
Right, using technology to get the upper hand in civil matters as bad bad bad. Unless the government is doing to make money off of citizens, in that case, it
ay-oh-kay!
BACK IN LINE CITIZEN! You will pay whatever fine we choose to levy against you.
You are being ripped off every second of every day, so that advertisers can help rip you off even more tomorrow.
Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. It doesn't just apply to physics, unfortunately.
The farther the establishment tries to shove us away from freedom and liberty, the harder the truly intelligent push back against them. Just look at the situation with the EU. Just days after the will of the people of Great Britain showed that they wish to be independent again the EU counteracts with disarming and assimilating the militaries of EU member-states. It's reminiscent of Vichy France.
It's escalating exponentially and I just hope cooler heads can prevail on both sides. No one wants the alternative.
Ok, I read TFA, sue me. Sounds like the bot is just looking for technicalities that will void the ticket. Fair enough.Have you ever heard of a corporation that avoided some tax based on a technicality? I could think of a few.
Better yet. Ever have a cop give you a ticket based on a technicality? I have.
Technicalities are not reserved for use by only one side. They are fair game to all. Seems to me that this one is just making these technicalities available to all. Fair enough.
"The ferrets, they're every where I tell you!"
Oh bullshit. There's nothing "truly intelligent" about backing people like Trump or Jeremy Corbyn. It's pure gut-level reactionarism. As to the will of the people of the UK, it was mad attack against Westminster which will do nothing but damage the fortunes of Britain, likely leading to the loss of Scotland, and maybe Northern Ireland in the process. It was stupidity of the highest degree and ably demonstrates the US Founding Fathers' deep distrust of unimpeded democracy.
For fuck's sakes, within a few days over a million people, basically the margin by which Leave won, regretted their decision.
So however you try to justify these attacks on the "establishment" (by which one generally means the intricate balancing of interests and powers that allows governments and societies to actually function), "intelligent" simply is not a valid description. Pettiness, arrogance and stupidity are the words I would use to describe it; large numbers of cranky, ignorant people lashing out without understanding and totally fucking themselves up in the process.
At least in the US it looks like Trump is doomed, which ought to forever end the British view of American politics as some sort of chaotic free-for-all. The colonies really have figured out how to suppress the lunacy of the mob
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.