[winsbe01]

vending machine hacks, although both illegal and immoral, provide an immense source of joy in knowing that you _beat the system_, regardless of what treat may come out.

here's my biggest vending machine hack: freshman year in college, there was a vending machine in our dorm building. it wasn't cheap (obviously), but it got lots of use because it had something extra: a card reader for our IDs. if we pre-loaded our card with money, we could use it to buy sodas, snacks, and washer/dryer cycles. very convenient.

but the vending machine had a quirk: occasionally, for reasons unknown, it would just start spitting out coins. it was a pretty rare occurance (and a very exciting one) that it became known colloquially as "hitting the jackpot". every time we went to the machine, we would cross our fingers, hoping to "win".

while it seemed like a random occurance at first, i knew it couldn't be completely random, and i wanted to figure out _why_ it was happening. so i began investigating. whenever i went to the machine, i would try different combinations of buttons, choosing different rows/columns, but i couldn't recreate the behavior. accompanying my friends to the machine, i paid attention to how they were inputting their order (and if they subsequently "won") to try and figure it out.

after lots of observation, i found a pattern: everyone who ever won used their card to buy something. focusing on the card reader, i also found that these people had accidentally put their card in _incorrectly _ before righting it. with a theory loosely in place, i put some money on my card and gave it a whirl.

and it worked! here's the behavior: if you put your card in incorrectly, the machine couldn't read it because the stripe was on the wrong side, so it spit the card back out and flashed an error on the screen which would clear after a few seconds. while the error was showing, the machine would not accept your card. however, if you put your card in _immediately_ after the error cleared, here's what happened:

1. screen displays the amount of money on your card

2. choose your drink

3. drink is vended while the same amount of money is displayed (i.e. not subtracting the price of the drink.

4. the machine begins spitting out coins in the amount of your card value minus the price of the drink

5. the card is returned with the _original balance_ still intact

so, if i had $20 on my card, and i bought a powerade that costs $1.50, i would walk away from the machine with a powerade, $20 still on my card, and $18.50 in change.

horribly immoral and illegal? absolutely. however, i still feel immensely proud that i not only figured out what was happening, but how to reproduce it.

[akat]

immoral - yes. but how would this be illegal?

[dpark]

As a general rule, taking money that does not belong to you is illegal.

[kragen]

Who rightfully owns the money is determined not by the programming of the vending machine but by the conventional social arrangements of society.

[winsbe01]

i mean, it was purposefully acquiring money that didn't exactly belong to me. the Right Thing To Do would have been to report the error and get it corrected, instead of leaving it open for exploit, like when my friends or I needed quarters for laundry.