TBT: How a "NULL" license plate landed a hacker in ticket hell

PLUS: The best WIRED stories from this month a year ago. View this email in your browser  |  Manage newsletter subscriptions 08.20.20 Security researcher Joseph Tartaro thought "NULL" would make a funny license plate, but the joke, it turns out, was on him. Instead of it being a hilarious vanity plate, it has landed him a ticket any time a traffic cop forgets to fill in the license plate number on a citation. $12,049 in fines later, it's unclear if the tickets will ever stop coming. Read all about this hacker's ticket hell, plus the best WIRED stories from this month a year ago below.   How a 'NULL' License Plate Landed One Hacker in Ticket Hell Security researcher Joseph Tartaro thought NULL would make a fun license plate. He's never been more wrong. The Best Stories From This Month, Last Year Hackers Can Break Into an iPhone Just by Sending a Text You don't even have to click anything. How To Get the Most Out of Your Smartphone Battery If you treat your smartphone's battery right, you'll drive yourself a lot less crazy trying to find an outlet. This Voracious, Unstoppable Bug Is Killing Off Vineyards Some Pennsylvania wine growers have reported losing 90 percent of their grapes due to damage from the invasive spotted lanternfly. Even Physics Textbooks Tend to Get Friction Slightly Wrong No matter what that Intro to Physics book says, you can't calculate the "work done by friction." Nope. Doesn't work. Don't even try it. WIRED Takes a Good Hard Look at Dick Pics The dick pic—so commonplace, so controversial—has undeniable cultural importance, but media coverage of it tends to strike a single chord: "Ew, bad." Watch a Drone Take Over a Nearby Smart TV Smart TVs continue to look dumber by the day.     This e-mail was sent to you by WIRED. To ensure delivery to your inbox (not bulk or junk folders), please add our e-mail address, wired@newsletters.wired.com, to your address book.   View our Privacy Policy Unsubscribe or manage your newsletter subscriptions