<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" class="">To all my tech geek friends,</div><div dir="auto" class=""><br class=""></div><div dir="auto" class=""> I got this from a lawyer buddy, his nephew is in a tech area.</div><div dir="auto" class=""><br class=""></div><div dir="auto" class="">A few years ago I looked at a Adafruit feather Huzzah project to do something like this.</div><div dir="auto" class=""><br class=""></div><div dir="auto" class=""><br class=""></div><div dir="auto" class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div style="margin: 0px;" class=""><span style="font-family: -webkit-system-font, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" class=""><b class="">From: </b></span><span style="font-family: -webkit-system-font, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif;" class="">J<br class=""></span></div><div style="margin: 0px;" class=""><span style="font-family: -webkit-system-font, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" class=""><b class="">Subject: </b></span><span style="font-family: -webkit-system-font, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif;" class=""><b class="">From my non-engineer nephew in Palo Alto</b><br class=""></span></div><div style="margin: 0px;" class=""><span style="font-family: -webkit-system-font, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" class=""><b class="">Date: </b></span><span style="font-family: -webkit-system-font, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif;" class="">April 12, 2020 at 4:26:25 PM EDT<br class=""></span></div><div style="margin: 0px;" class=""><span style="font-family: -webkit-system-font, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" class=""><b class="">To: </b></span><span style="font-family: -webkit-system-font, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif;" class=""><br class=""></span></div><br class=""><div class=""><span class="" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); float: none; display: inline !important;">Subject: He who cannot code, cannot eat</span><br class="" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><br class="" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><br class="" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span class="" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); float: none; display: inline !important;">It's become apparent that it's virtually impossible to get a curbside pickup time slot at any of the local grocery stores. When one becomes available, it is literally snapped up within seconds. So quickly, in fact, that I came to the conclusion people must be using automation. This is just one more reason why it often sucks to live in the same vicinity as 100,000 other software engineers.</span><br class="" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><br class="" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span class="" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); float: none; display: inline !important;">So, I joined the arms race, analyzed the underlying API of the store's website, and wrote a program that checks for available time slots every 15 seconds, and if any are found, reserves the first one instantly. Then it turns on a light in the bedroom to alert me that I have a reservation, and after that I have one hour to complete the checkout. I was walking around in circles in the yard last night when I saw the light come on, so I came in and discovered I have a time on Wednesday evening.</span><br class="" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><br class="" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span class="" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); float: none; display: inline !important;">Pity those poor suckers in Silicon Valley who don't know how to code. Kind of darkly funny that it has finally come to this: if you can't program a computer, you can take your chances with COVID, or starve, I guess.</span></div></blockquote><div class=""><div class=""><span class="" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); float: none; display: inline !important;"><br class=""></span></div></div><div class=""><span class="" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); float: none; display: inline !important;">Be safe,</span></div><div class=""><span class="" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); float: none; display: inline !important;"><br class=""></span></div><div class=""><span class="" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); float: none; display: inline !important;">Alan Wiggs</span></div></div>
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