4 ms·

I knew a guy about 10 years ago that upgraded his iphone through the apple website and AT&T website at the same time, received two phones, and never heard from

I knew a guy about 10 years ago that upgraded his iphone through the apple website and AT&T website at the same time, received two phones, and never heard from either company about a double transaction. I love these kinds of hacks -- I guess it's one way to profit from hard-learned database lessons :)

peteradio 4y ago
Reminds of my older brothers friend who in second grade got back in line to get his yearbook picture taken and showed up twice in the yearbook with slightly different pics.
nerdawson 4y ago
When I was a kid we had vending machines for drinks in school. One morning I put 20p in and it immediately came back out. It wasn’t accepting the coin so I tried two in quick succession. Both were spat back out… but the machine registered one of them. I of course would never exploit that repeatedly for a couple free drinks and some extra change too.
- hamburglar 4y ago
  The soda machine in my dorm at college had separate mechanisms for “I released a soda” and “you actually got a soda” and if you knew this, you could trigger the “I released a soda” mechanism and delay the “you actually got a soda” event until after you got your money back. You just had to stick your arm up the machine and not let the released soda fall while you hit the cancel button. Then you got your money back and then a soda. Atomicity fail.
  - wildzzz 4y ago
    They were not around for very long but there was a soda machine that had a conveyor belt that drinks would drop down onto and then be pushed out of a flap door into the bucket. The machine could detect when a drink was actually vended but didn't seem to be able to detect when someone was holding the door shut. You'd pay for a drink and hold the door shut while the machine tried to push your drink out the door. Since the door wasn't opening, the machine would think that no drink ever dropped down onto the conveyor belt so it would mark that specific drink number as out of stock and return your money. Except your drink selection was still sitting on the belt. You'd pick a new drink and pay for it but this time not holding the door shut, two drinks would come out for the price of one. You could do this quite a few times over to either get a couple free drinks or just jam the machine. Out of all the vending machine "hacks" I learned about in middle school, this was the only thing that ever worked and only for a short time before they got quickly replaced. The new machines use either a basket to hold the drink instead of a conveyor belt or some sort of shield to prevent you from messing with the flap door until it knows a drink has been vended.
  - woah 4y ago
    Seems like it was working as intended, that if there was some blockage in the machine that resulted in the soda getting released but then getting stuck, you'd want a refund.
    - hamburglar 4y ago
      Somehow I doubt giving out unlimited free sodas is "as intended." This is why it's an atomicity fail, leading to an inconsistent transaction. It should never be blocked according to the payment mechanism and unblocked according to the delivery mechanism.
      - woah 4y ago
        No it's literally just a good faith effort to err on the side of customer satisfaction being exploited to steal a soda.
- philjohn 4y ago
  The tumble dryers in my halls of residence were meant to take 20p (oh, those were the days, it's probably a quid now), but if you put in a 1p slowly and kept turning the handle it would trick it.
Miserlou57 4y ago
I didn't get into the UC of my choice. So I appealed. This was in 2006, and the appeal process was not through an online application. You had to mail in a packet with your appeal letter, transcripts, etc. I sent one in by the postmark deadline (Friday), but it wasn't very good. So, come Monday morning, I overnighted a much better one. After a week or whatever, I got a message notifying me that my application status had changed, but I did not get in. Then a day or two later, I got another one, to which I _did_ get in. Now, I don't know for sure, but I like to think two different reviewers got my packets in parallel and never knew it, and upon changing my status the second reviewer probably wouldn't have seen any evidence of the last status change having been from an appeal.
- busyant 4y ago
  > I got a message notifying me that my application status had changed, but I did not get in. Then a day or two later, I got another one, to which I _did_ get in. Back in the days before email was common, I applied for a postdoc position at <famous prof's lab @ MIT>. I mailed my letter to <famous prof>, expressing interest in working in his lab. A few days later, I asked 3 profs in my graduate program to write letters of recommendation on my behalf to be mailed to <famous prof>. After ~10 days, I received a response letter from <famous prof>, to the effect of: "Sorry, my lab is full. Won't have any openings for several years. etc. etc. Thanks, but no thanks." I figured "Oh well.... No big deal." But I was too lazy to inform the profs who were writing my recommendations to stop. About a week after my "rejection" letter, <famous prof> phones me and says, "I always send a standard rejection letter because I'm only interested in people who are _aggressive_. Thanks for sending your recommendation letters. I _definitely_ have openings in my lab." I didn't have the heart to tell him that he only got those letters because of my laziness.
- nonethewiser 4y ago
  Couldnt it be the case that one packet was reviewed and they updated your status, then they just chucked the duplicate?
  - Miserlou57 4y ago
    Yes I suppose. I just vaguely remember two different notifications about it
busyant 4y ago
I have to fess up, too. Back in the early 1990s, I withdrew $10 from an ATM. But the machine gave me two $10s (they were stuck to each other). I then went back for a second transaction (secretly hoping there were multiple "stuck $10s" waiting to be released). The machine only dispensed a single $10 the second time, so I stopped. Let it be known that I owe Chemical Bank (or whoever bought them) $10 + interest.
- onemoresoop 4y ago
  First time Im hearing of an ATM dispensing $10 bills. Granted, first time I started using ATMs was in the early 2000s...
  - busyant 4y ago
    I think they even dispensed $5s at the time, but my memory is a bit hazy about that. At the time, my girlfriend (now wife) used to tell me I wasted so much $$ on ATM fees by only withdrawing $10 at a shot. I told her I was not good at budgeting my money and I had a tendency to spend whatever was in my pocket, irrespective of the amount. So, $10 was my way of putting brakes on my spending. Fees were just part of the cost of my budgeting method. She married me anyway.
  - reaperducer 4y ago
    First time Im hearing of an ATM dispensing $10 bills. Back when ATMs were new, you could get any amount, including change. The ATMs at the Chase bank next door currently dispense any bills you want, but not change. After you tell it how much you want, it asks you how you would like it and you can tap different denominations. Last month I took out $17, just to see it work.
- reaperducer 4y ago
  Back before all of the banks were wired together, I had a friend with what we called a "bottomless ATM card." He could withdraw whatever amount he wanted from the ATMs at college, but since that region's ATM network wasn't hooked up to his home bank's ATM network, it took months for everything to reconcile. He could keep withdrawing, even if he had taken out far more cash than he had in his home bank account. On breaks, he would go back home and pick up enough hours at his part-time job to cover the difference (it wasn't unusual for people to be paid weekly or in cash back then), make a deposit, and everything was fine. He just had to keep one step ahead of the computer batch processes. Also, I think Chemical is Citibank now. I had a Chemical account, and a Dime account. I still think of Citi as "Chemical," though.

peteradio 4y ago

Reminds of my older brothers friend who in second grade got back in line to get his yearbook picture taken and showed up twice in the yearbook with slightly different pics.

nerdawson 4y ago

When I was a kid we had vending machines for drinks in school. One morning I put 20p in and it immediately came back out. It wasn’t accepting the coin so I tried two in quick succession. Both were spat back out… but the machine registered one of them. I of course would never exploit that repeatedly for a couple free drinks and some extra change too.

hamburglar 4y ago
The soda machine in my dorm at college had separate mechanisms for “I released a soda” and “you actually got a soda” and if you knew this, you could trigger the “I released a soda” mechanism and delay the “you actually got a soda” event until after you got your money back. You just had to stick your arm up the machine and not let the released soda fall while you hit the cancel button. Then you got your money back and then a soda. Atomicity fail.
- wildzzz 4y ago
  They were not around for very long but there was a soda machine that had a conveyor belt that drinks would drop down onto and then be pushed out of a flap door into the bucket. The machine could detect when a drink was actually vended but didn't seem to be able to detect when someone was holding the door shut. You'd pay for a drink and hold the door shut while the machine tried to push your drink out the door. Since the door wasn't opening, the machine would think that no drink ever dropped down onto the conveyor belt so it would mark that specific drink number as out of stock and return your money. Except your drink selection was still sitting on the belt. You'd pick a new drink and pay for it but this time not holding the door shut, two drinks would come out for the price of one. You could do this quite a few times over to either get a couple free drinks or just jam the machine. Out of all the vending machine "hacks" I learned about in middle school, this was the only thing that ever worked and only for a short time before they got quickly replaced. The new machines use either a basket to hold the drink instead of a conveyor belt or some sort of shield to prevent you from messing with the flap door until it knows a drink has been vended.
- woah 4y ago
  Seems like it was working as intended, that if there was some blockage in the machine that resulted in the soda getting released but then getting stuck, you'd want a refund.
  - hamburglar 4y ago
    Somehow I doubt giving out unlimited free sodas is "as intended." This is why it's an atomicity fail, leading to an inconsistent transaction. It should never be blocked according to the payment mechanism and unblocked according to the delivery mechanism.
    - woah 4y ago
      No it's literally just a good faith effort to err on the side of customer satisfaction being exploited to steal a soda.
philjohn 4y ago
The tumble dryers in my halls of residence were meant to take 20p (oh, those were the days, it's probably a quid now), but if you put in a 1p slowly and kept turning the handle it would trick it.

Miserlou57 4y ago

I didn't get into the UC of my choice. So I appealed. This was in 2006, and the appeal process was not through an online application. You had to mail in a packet with your appeal letter, transcripts, etc. I sent one in by the postmark deadline (Friday), but it wasn't very good. So, come Monday morning, I overnighted a much better one. After a week or whatever, I got a message notifying me that my application status had changed, but I did not get in. Then a day or two later, I got another one, to which I _did_ get in. Now, I don't know for sure, but I like to think two different reviewers got my packets in parallel and never knew it, and upon changing my status the second reviewer probably wouldn't have seen any evidence of the last status change having been from an appeal.

busyant 4y ago
> I got a message notifying me that my application status had changed, but I did not get in. Then a day or two later, I got another one, to which I _did_ get in. Back in the days before email was common, I applied for a postdoc position at <famous prof's lab @ MIT>. I mailed my letter to <famous prof>, expressing interest in working in his lab. A few days later, I asked 3 profs in my graduate program to write letters of recommendation on my behalf to be mailed to <famous prof>. After ~10 days, I received a response letter from <famous prof>, to the effect of: "Sorry, my lab is full. Won't have any openings for several years. etc. etc. Thanks, but no thanks." I figured "Oh well.... No big deal." But I was too lazy to inform the profs who were writing my recommendations to stop. About a week after my "rejection" letter, <famous prof> phones me and says, "I always send a standard rejection letter because I'm only interested in people who are _aggressive_. Thanks for sending your recommendation letters. I _definitely_ have openings in my lab." I didn't have the heart to tell him that he only got those letters because of my laziness.
nonethewiser 4y ago
Couldnt it be the case that one packet was reviewed and they updated your status, then they just chucked the duplicate?
- Miserlou57 4y ago
  Yes I suppose. I just vaguely remember two different notifications about it

busyant 4y ago

I have to fess up, too. Back in the early 1990s, I withdrew $10 from an ATM. But the machine gave me two $10s (they were stuck to each other). I then went back for a second transaction (secretly hoping there were multiple "stuck $10s" waiting to be released). The machine only dispensed a single $10 the second time, so I stopped. Let it be known that I owe Chemical Bank (or whoever bought them) $10 + interest.

onemoresoop 4y ago
First time Im hearing of an ATM dispensing $10 bills. Granted, first time I started using ATMs was in the early 2000s...
- busyant 4y ago
  I think they even dispensed $5s at the time, but my memory is a bit hazy about that. At the time, my girlfriend (now wife) used to tell me I wasted so much $$ on ATM fees by only withdrawing $10 at a shot. I told her I was not good at budgeting my money and I had a tendency to spend whatever was in my pocket, irrespective of the amount. So, $10 was my way of putting brakes on my spending. Fees were just part of the cost of my budgeting method. She married me anyway.
- reaperducer 4y ago
  First time Im hearing of an ATM dispensing $10 bills. Back when ATMs were new, you could get any amount, including change. The ATMs at the Chase bank next door currently dispense any bills you want, but not change. After you tell it how much you want, it asks you how you would like it and you can tap different denominations. Last month I took out $17, just to see it work.
reaperducer 4y ago
Back before all of the banks were wired together, I had a friend with what we called a "bottomless ATM card." He could withdraw whatever amount he wanted from the ATMs at college, but since that region's ATM network wasn't hooked up to his home bank's ATM network, it took months for everything to reconcile. He could keep withdrawing, even if he had taken out far more cash than he had in his home bank account. On breaks, he would go back home and pick up enough hours at his part-time job to cover the difference (it wasn't unusual for people to be paid weekly or in cash back then), make a deposit, and everything was fine. He just had to keep one step ahead of the computer batch processes. Also, I think Chemical is Citibank now. I had a Chemical account, and a Dime account. I still think of Citi as "Chemical," though.