4 ms·

Priscila, Queen of the Rideshare Mafia

31 points by JadoJodo 2y ago

achristmascarl 2y ago
https://archive.ph/g2DoQ https://archive.ph/g2DoQ
justinclift 2y ago
> As a teen, she kitted out her home PC with a terabyte of memory ... Ugh. Wired articles have a reputation for poor accuracy, but that's taking the piss.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- paradox460 2y ago
  I used to like wired. A lot. But when Chris Anderson left, you could almost see the editorial turn occur. Wired went from a magazine about technology and the people who use it to a magazine about people who might occasionally use technology. Basically GQ but they ask the subject of an article what apps are on their iPhone (and they actually did this, years ago) I got to meet Chris Anderson once, when I was visiting the Reddit office back in 2010. I wasn't really able to articulate what an impact wired had on me at that point, as I didn't really appreciate it then, but we're I to meet him again, I'd absolutely make sure to convey it As for the article in question, I wasn't able to make it past a couple paragraphs of purple prose before resorting to a kagi summary. In reading said summary, I wasn't missing much. An article gushing about a criminal who steals people's identity to commit fraud seems a bit on the nose to me
  - armada651 2y ago
    Wired basically underwent the same kind of Channel Drift as the Discovery Channel. Eventually all niche media will simply become mass media as they attempt to appeal to the biggest possible audience.
    - reaperman 2y ago
      "Line must go up" is a very, very tired trope around here (and many other places). But it often feels like the primary thing which drives soooo much destruction of value.
    - CyberDildonics 2y ago
      This describes hacker news too.
    - BurningFrog 2y ago
      Media that does badly will try new things. But there also many like ESPN who stick to their topic decade after decade.
  - 6510 2y ago
    Oh but there are many other facinating angles. 0) The victims of identity theft didn't know or lose anything. 1) The internet was build, a truly crazy amount of code was written but you still cant conveniently use anything and prove you are you. 2) Each delivery or taxi service had its own failures. Each reinvented the wheel each with their own holes. 3) Taxi and delivery services profited from being unable to id people. The worse they did the more they profited. 4) She got to keep some of the profit. 5) The punishment is pointless as it doesn't convince people to not eat and not live anywhere. Prison is a resort by comparison. 6) And finally the failure to have this wizard do anything useful in a legal way.
- quantified 2y ago
  Terabyte of mass storage, not RAM. Some call it "memory".
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  - CyberDildonics 2y ago
    No one with a shred of experience calls drive space memory.
    - filoleg 2y ago
      Not defending the garbage tech awareness of the writer of the article, but tons of non-english speakers do. Cannot speak for portugese language (which is the predominant one in Brazil), but I can confirm that in russian if you say “memory” (“память”), you are talking about storage capacity. Not RAM.
      - CyberDildonics 2y ago
        I don't know what point you're trying to make here, I'm sure if you translate and reverse translate a phrase in enough languages you can get some sort of synonym back. You think 'Lauren Smiley' doesn't speak english and auto translated this article?
        filoleg 2y ago
        > You think 'Lauren Smiley' doesn't speak english and auto translated this article? No. But I think it could be the case that the author simply talked to the parents or the subject of the article, and then simply translated what they said in that part from portugese to english. And as a tech non-literate person, she obviously didn’t think to ask them “are you talking about storage space or RAM?”
    - shrimp_emoji 2y ago
      But it's literally referred to as "secondary memory" in ye olde literature (where "primary memory" is the RAM... I wonder why the CPU cache never got a place though).
- filoleg 2y ago
  And let’s not forget the “Nvidia processor” in the same sentence.
  - justinclift 2y ago
    Good point. :)
- arittr 2y ago
  Was just going to say this… what a bummer
- djmips 2y ago
  Everyone who read this 'mistake' knew what they meant. And it's not particularly crucial to the main story.
hollerith 2y ago
A shorter explanation of the fraud without as much info on the fraudster's personality and personal history: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/p/articleshow/111666866.cms https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/p/articleshow/111666866.... TLDR is she stole peoples' identities to make Uber driver accounts and then rented those accounts to people that couldn’t legally be Uber drivers. Made a bunch of money (~750k). got fined 20k and 3 years in prison.
- rasz 2y ago
  Stealing identity is what they charged her with, but the real crime was enabling untraceable people work in a position of public trust. >247 rape reports in 2019 >141 rape reports in 2020 >5981 sexual assault incidents in 2017-2018 >3824 reports of sexual assault from 2019 to 2020 >10000 sexual assault complaints from 2017 to 2020. > contributing factor is the lack of thorough background checks for Uber drivers. While Uber claims to conduct background checks on their drivers, there have been instances where individuals with criminal records or prior convictions have slipped through the cracks. Strengthening the screening process and regularly updating the background checks could significantly reduce the risk of sexual assault incidents. I dont care if Uber bleeds $Billion more of VC money on signup bonuses for fake new accounts, but I do care about who delivers my open container food.
masjl 2y ago
[flagged]

31 points by JadoJodo 2y ago

https://archive.ph/g2DoQ https://archive.ph/g2DoQ

> As a teen, she kitted out her home PC with a terabyte of memory ... Ugh. Wired articles have a reputation for poor accuracy, but that's taking the piss.

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
paradox460 2y ago
I used to like wired. A lot. But when Chris Anderson left, you could almost see the editorial turn occur. Wired went from a magazine about technology and the people who use it to a magazine about people who might occasionally use technology. Basically GQ but they ask the subject of an article what apps are on their iPhone (and they actually did this, years ago) I got to meet Chris Anderson once, when I was visiting the Reddit office back in 2010. I wasn't really able to articulate what an impact wired had on me at that point, as I didn't really appreciate it then, but we're I to meet him again, I'd absolutely make sure to convey it As for the article in question, I wasn't able to make it past a couple paragraphs of purple prose before resorting to a kagi summary. In reading said summary, I wasn't missing much. An article gushing about a criminal who steals people's identity to commit fraud seems a bit on the nose to me
- armada651 2y ago
  Wired basically underwent the same kind of Channel Drift as the Discovery Channel. Eventually all niche media will simply become mass media as they attempt to appeal to the biggest possible audience.
  - reaperman 2y ago
    "Line must go up" is a very, very tired trope around here (and many other places). But it often feels like the primary thing which drives soooo much destruction of value.
  - CyberDildonics 2y ago
    This describes hacker news too.
  - BurningFrog 2y ago
    Media that does badly will try new things. But there also many like ESPN who stick to their topic decade after decade.
- 6510 2y ago
  Oh but there are many other facinating angles. 0) The victims of identity theft didn't know or lose anything. 1) The internet was build, a truly crazy amount of code was written but you still cant conveniently use anything and prove you are you. 2) Each delivery or taxi service had its own failures. Each reinvented the wheel each with their own holes. 3) Taxi and delivery services profited from being unable to id people. The worse they did the more they profited. 4) She got to keep some of the profit. 5) The punishment is pointless as it doesn't convince people to not eat and not live anywhere. Prison is a resort by comparison. 6) And finally the failure to have this wizard do anything useful in a legal way.
quantified 2y ago
Terabyte of mass storage, not RAM. Some call it "memory".
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- CyberDildonics 2y ago
  No one with a shred of experience calls drive space memory.
  - filoleg 2y ago
    Not defending the garbage tech awareness of the writer of the article, but tons of non-english speakers do. Cannot speak for portugese language (which is the predominant one in Brazil), but I can confirm that in russian if you say “memory” (“память”), you are talking about storage capacity. Not RAM.
    - CyberDildonics 2y ago
      I don't know what point you're trying to make here, I'm sure if you translate and reverse translate a phrase in enough languages you can get some sort of synonym back. You think 'Lauren Smiley' doesn't speak english and auto translated this article?
      - filoleg 2y ago
        > You think 'Lauren Smiley' doesn't speak english and auto translated this article? No. But I think it could be the case that the author simply talked to the parents or the subject of the article, and then simply translated what they said in that part from portugese to english. And as a tech non-literate person, she obviously didn’t think to ask them “are you talking about storage space or RAM?”
  - shrimp_emoji 2y ago
    But it's literally referred to as "secondary memory" in ye olde literature (where "primary memory" is the RAM... I wonder why the CPU cache never got a place though).
filoleg 2y ago
And let’s not forget the “Nvidia processor” in the same sentence.
- justinclift 2y ago
  Good point. :)
arittr 2y ago
Was just going to say this… what a bummer
djmips 2y ago
Everyone who read this 'mistake' knew what they meant. And it's not particularly crucial to the main story.

hollerith 2y ago

A shorter explanation of the fraud without as much info on the fraudster's personality and personal history: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/p/articleshow/111666866.cms https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/p/articleshow/111666866.... TLDR is she stole peoples' identities to make Uber driver accounts and then rented those accounts to people that couldn’t legally be Uber drivers. Made a bunch of money (~750k). got fined 20k and 3 years in prison.

rasz 2y ago
Stealing identity is what they charged her with, but the real crime was enabling untraceable people work in a position of public trust. >247 rape reports in 2019 >141 rape reports in 2020 >5981 sexual assault incidents in 2017-2018 >3824 reports of sexual assault from 2019 to 2020 >10000 sexual assault complaints from 2017 to 2020. > contributing factor is the lack of thorough background checks for Uber drivers. While Uber claims to conduct background checks on their drivers, there have been instances where individuals with criminal records or prior convictions have slipped through the cracks. Strengthening the screening process and regularly updating the background checks could significantly reduce the risk of sexual assault incidents. I dont care if Uber bleeds $Billion more of VC money on signup bonuses for fake new accounts, but I do care about who delivers my open container food.

masjl 2y ago

[flagged]