And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
In Boston we used to have turnstiles and subway 'tokens', small brass disks good for entrance or (if traveling to the outer stations) exit on the "T". Well the powers that be decided that they needed to 'update' and 'modernize' the system. So they put out a contract and had a new system designed and built and installed. It looks just like that one above. It used RFID 'contactless' cards that had to be electronically loaded with value, or you could buy a monthly electronic pass also good on the commuter rail. Most people realized that if you bought the paper twenty trip ticket (ten round trips) it lasted the whole month since the lackadaisical train conductors rarely moved fast enough to cover the whole train and punch your card. The "T" touted the new RIFD card system as important to eliminate fare jumping. A phenomenon I rarely saw with the old coins and then usually mostly Black youths. In truth the cheating went the other way with the new cards, after loading a card with 'value' I went into the subway, it deducted $1.25 to enter. I traveled to my destination, a no-fare to exit station, and left by one of the new gates. Out the gate I turned left and headed to the Federal Street exit. And as I passed each of the other gates in a line, they beeped and opened. All four of them. At a distance of two feet they had deducted a total of $5 from my card, in my wallet, in my pocket. Complain to the station master, disturbing him from his paper, and his reply was; "That can't happen". Lastly, after retiring, some years later I had to go back into the city. I took the "T". At the station I found that my old "Charlie Card" was now 'expired'. What happened to the 20 odd dollars I had had left on it? In the bowels of the MBTA. This in a state that mandates that all Gift Cards issued by merchants remain valid forever.
To me, it's a lot like Electronic Voting. Another way for the government to cheat.
similar to the MTA in MD. They pushed easypass to eliminate toll booth operators, which would reduce their operating budget, but they charged the easypass users a monthly fee just to have the system on your car windshield, over and above the tolls. Many daily users revolted by turning in their easypass and went back to paying the operator. MTA had to hire more operators to handle the backups during rush hour, exploding their budget. The following year, they eliminated the monthly fees.
If a man built it, a man can defeat it!
ReplyDeleteIn Boston we used to have turnstiles and subway 'tokens', small brass disks good for entrance or (if traveling to the outer stations) exit on the "T".
ReplyDeleteWell the powers that be decided that they needed to 'update' and 'modernize' the system. So they put out a contract and had a new system designed and built and installed.
It looks just like that one above. It used RFID 'contactless' cards that had to be electronically loaded with value, or you could buy a monthly electronic pass also good on the commuter rail.
Most people realized that if you bought the paper twenty trip ticket (ten round trips) it lasted the whole month since the lackadaisical train conductors rarely moved fast enough to cover the whole train and punch your card.
The "T" touted the new RIFD card system as important to eliminate fare jumping. A phenomenon I rarely saw with the old coins and then usually mostly Black youths. In truth the cheating went the other way with the new cards, after loading a card with 'value' I went into the subway, it deducted $1.25 to enter. I traveled to my destination, a no-fare to exit station, and left by one of the new gates. Out the gate I turned left and headed to the Federal Street exit. And as I passed each of the other gates in a line, they beeped and opened. All four of them. At a distance of two feet they had deducted a total of $5 from my card, in my wallet, in my pocket.
Complain to the station master, disturbing him from his paper, and his reply was; "That can't happen".
Lastly, after retiring, some years later I had to go back into the city. I took the "T". At the station I found that my old "Charlie Card" was now 'expired'. What happened to the 20 odd dollars I had had left on it? In the bowels of the MBTA. This in a state that mandates that all Gift Cards issued by merchants remain valid forever.
To me, it's a lot like Electronic Voting. Another way for the government to cheat.
similar to the MTA in MD. They pushed easypass to eliminate toll booth operators, which would reduce their operating budget, but they charged the easypass users a monthly fee just to have the system on your car windshield, over and above the tolls. Many daily users revolted by turning in their easypass and went back to paying the operator. MTA had to hire more operators to handle the backups during rush hour, exploding their budget. The following year, they eliminated the monthly fees.
ReplyDeleteLet me guess... but the daily users went back to voting in the same politicians who had tried to screw them, right?
Delete