[HN Gopher] Priscila, Queen of the Rideshare Mafia
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       Priscila, Queen of the Rideshare Mafia
        
       Author : JadoJodo
       Score  : 31 points
       Date   : 2024-07-15 17:47 UTC (5 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.wired.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.wired.com)
        
       | achristmascarl wrote:
       | https://archive.ph/g2DoQ
        
       | justinclift wrote:
       | > 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.
        
         | paradox460 wrote:
         | 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 wrote:
           | 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 wrote:
             | "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 wrote:
             | This describes hacker news too.
        
             | BurningFrog wrote:
             | Media that does badly will try new things.
             | 
             | But there also many like ESPN who stick to their topic
             | decade after decade.
        
           | 6510 wrote:
           | 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 wrote:
         | Terabyte of mass storage, not RAM. Some call it "memory".
        
           | CyberDildonics wrote:
           | No one with a shred of experience calls drive space memory.
        
             | filoleg wrote:
             | 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" ("pamiat'"), you are talking
             | about storage capacity. Not RAM.
        
               | CyberDildonics wrote:
               | 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 wrote:
               | > 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 wrote:
             | 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).
        
               | CyberDildonics wrote:
               | Stop the nonsense. Computer manuals from 40 years ago are
               | not how anyone refers to things now whether they know
               | nothing or are an expert.
        
               | downvotetruth wrote:
               | CPU cache has never been sold as an independent upgrade.
               | Wonder if a marketing study has ever been done on whether
               | products with names that have been anthropomorphized sell
               | better than those that have not such as random access
               | memory vs storage. Maybe the appeal of being able to buy
               | something illegal like human body parts or slave(s)
               | [drive(s)] seems like it would have a cool factor for
               | some consumers that has some how outweighed the disgust
               | by others.
        
               | neilo40 wrote:
               | I'm fairly certain L2 caches were external (and could be
               | purchased separately) on 486 and earlier systems
        
             | lolinder wrote:
             | Back in the day we used to insert "memory cards" into
             | cameras in order to store photos on them. You could
             | transfer that memory card to a reader that was plugged into
             | a PC and it would show up as a drive with files you could
             | transfer to your computer's hard drive.
             | 
             | Personally, I usually specify RAM or hard drive/storage
             | just to make sure I'm clear, because "memory" is pretty
             | ambiguous in my experience.
        
         | filoleg wrote:
         | And let's not forget the "Nvidia processor" in the same
         | sentence.
        
           | justinclift wrote:
           | Good point. :)
        
         | arittr wrote:
         | Was just going to say this... what a bummer
        
       | hollerith wrote:
       | 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....
       | 
       | 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 wrote:
         | 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 wrote:
       | The title 'Priscila, Queen of the Rideshare Mafia' sounds like
       | the plot of a thrilling Netflix series! It's fascinating to see
       | how individual personalities can dominate and shape the rideshare
       | industry. I'm curious about the strategies and challenges faced
       | by these so-called 'rideshare mafias.' Anyone else think this
       | highlights a darker side of the gig economy, or is it just a
       | sensational take on a competitive market?
        
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       (page generated 2024-07-20 23:11 UTC)