guy who came to clean my car has a friend overseas who runs a business around a glitch that lets you bypass Ring's monthly payments while still using the platform. charges a one-off fee and you get a lifetime account without paying. I lol'd hard. couldn't happen to a nicer company.
back in Ye Olden Days there were people at the local market that could chip your PS1 or give you an address to write to if you wanted knock-off satellite TV smartcards, and some bloke down the pub who could reflash your cable modem's customer ID to get faster internet for free.
I love that this same cottage grey/black-market industry still exists but for online services now, and people are happy to do it because greedy rentseeking pricks made everything a subscription.
Edited 23h ago
@gsuberland ah....I fondly remember my Dbox2, for getting all the Virgin Media/Diamond Cable/NTL channels for free.
Cable modem hacking was fun, too. You just had to find the MAC address of someone with the service tier you wanted on a different UBR, as they only checked for duplicates on the same UBR, and the FTP server gave out a config file based on your MAC address.
Happy days 😀
@WiteWulf ehehehe yeah I remember that too. the old Surfboards.
@gsuberland also: hacking TomToms to get newer maps and software/features on them without paying for a new map pack or subscription
@WiteWulf oh I forgot about that! TomTom Go. that's a name I haven't heard in years
@gsuberland yeah, I had a mate who worked for Clueless & Witless over in Liverpool who turned up with a box of brand new, unregistered surfboard 3100s one weekend.
This was in the days when you'd get a discount off your bill if you bought your own CM rather than "renting" one off them.