Some banks issue a key fob for which generates a 6 digit number when the button is pressed. To logon to the bank's website you need your username, your password and a six digit number. This provides two factor identification - that which you know (username and password) and that which you have (keyfob to generate the one time password).

This system works very well. You can't logon to the bank's internet banking website without both whatyouknow and whatyouhave and once you are logged in you can not use major functions without generating a key using the fob which prevents someone taking over the session. This security provides solid protection from most types of automated and associated attacks including some MITM. I was very impressed with this system and heartily endorse it.

Other banks have two factor authentication using SMS or other side channels. Another bank I have an account with uses SMS as a side channel to confirm that the user at the computer is the user who owns the phone registered with the bank. This is similar to the key fob in that you need to be able to receive the SMS to make changes to the account using the bank's internet banking website or major functions like large money transfers or adding a new account to transfer money to. Again, this works quite well.

In both cases this is not about perfect security it is about increasing the cost and effort involved for an attacker to compromise the system.

I will never willingly give my fingerprints or any other biometric data. Yes, I know, someone could go all CSI on me and take my prints off of my glass when I put it down at the pub.

This idea of biometric identification needs to be shot down and buried. Perhaps in a future time we will have the infrastructure to support this and it may well be feasible but for now we have two factors systems which are in the field and work well.

Oh come on
Think of the PORN millions of xboxes could produce... for free!

We'll have a whole new category for porn now and you too can access is for $10 a month on xboxkinection.com

For a reasonable fee of $50 per year AND $5 per message Micro-One-Dating will also put you in touch with single attractive dating prospects!
Ignore the SQUICK we cut to the QUICK! Why stalk the girl of your dreams and get arrested peeping through her window when we can provide you with high resolution full colour video - and NOW we feature On Demand for just a little extra $$!

Join the ratemyxboxoneperformance.com site as we now are accepting public submissions in addition to those provided by the professional critics at MicroSoft headquarters!

Hey, don't knock the Street Fighter knockoffs.. I loved World Heroes

That certainly worked in my case. I loved Diablo and Diablo 2. I would most certainly buy Diablo 3. However, I can't. The always on DRM is a step too far for me. So, I did not purchase Diablo 3. I will never buy it. Their scheme has worked perfectly in my case. No piracy here folks. No game sale either. Oh well.

Okay, don't coke machines have sensors to determine how full they are, and they can phone home to alert a technician that the machine needs to be emptied of money and refilled?

In this case, knowing the precise location of a machine could be very useful.

Also quite useful if someone moves the machine.

So can we expect to see a granular permissive permission system where if an Application asks for Full Internet Access the user has option to install and use the Application and disallow access to the Internet?

For clarification, by 'many people' I mean that I have spoken to quote a few people around the place and heard of other people's opinions about this in these discussions and overall the opinion is that yes, they can do it, and yes, you can go elsewhere.

Most just blame the government for changing the law allowing it. People seem to understand that the bigger stores which don't charge the extra for using credit mop it up in higher prices, but don't care. Probably because they don't see it, therefor don't think about it.

When this actually happens to you, come back and let us know if that actually happens. When you shop at Aldi stores here the machine throws a message saying that there will be a surcharge for credit card use (there is also a sign, and the clerk tends to tell you if they notice you pull out a credit card) and you have to click OK to continue. It gives you a chance to pay by another option, or leave.

In other stores they tend to tell you up front if they haven't said before.

I've never seen anyone just walk out. Not for ~50 cents.

However, many people don't go back. I avoid large purchases at places which have these types of fees, or make sure I have cash.

I refuse to buy PC games or programs that use online activation

I saw Angry Birds PC game yesterday while wandering around the local shops. I would have loved to have this game a couple of years ago when Angry Birds was all the rage. Today I'll buy it if it is cheap. It was cheap. I didn't buy it. On the back it clearly states that internet activation is required.

Shame. I really would like to play Angry Birds on the PC. Spent hours, no days, no weeks, playing it on my phone. Oh well.

This year I went online, found things the people who live in other states will probably like, and put their name in the shipping information.

One has worked out quite well, except that she didn't exactly know it was from me. Email fixed that.

Still waiting to see if the others got their parcels..

I was going to say "Build your own CPU, mothervboard, daughter cards, write your own code OS applications and all and never allow it to connection to another device" but let's go with your answer :-)

Like this:
http://www.livestockemissions.net/user/file/32/d1_Vlaming%20Current%20methane%20measurement%20techniques.pdf

http://www.ehow.com/how_7834233_measure-methane-gas.html

http://phys.org/news/2011-03-methane.html

I love the blurb on that page:

Methane is an extremely potent greenhouse gas. Wetlands, gas hydrates, permafrost, termites, oceans, freshwater bodies, non-wetland soils, are all natural sources of atmospheric methane; however, the majority of methane presence can be accredited to human-related activities.

You ask good questions. Here is the answer: Money

Most likely you'd like a longer answer.

1) The marketing people generally will have a 'final say' as they are 'closest to the customer'. Depends. All it takes is for any person who is deemed to be higher in the food chain to trump those lower down and chaos can ensue.

People like marketing generally don't get on the ground floor because there is nothing to see. No product. Nothing to toss around, perhaps there might be mock ups or diagrams.

What *should* happen is that the UI should be mocked up and flagged with any group with an interest. Problem there is that sometimes the UI doesn't exist until the software is half written because the functional requirements determine what is on the UI and the functional requirements were not completed until the coding was 1/4 done.

Google why the Waterfall Model is no longer in use outside big business. You need the whole spec up front, business spec, tech spec, functional spec, you get the idea. This costs MONEY. It is expensive to do and expensive to change. In the real world you need code up running and out the door as fast as possible.

I lost count of how much code I've seen in Production with no specs at all.

2) Mostly because there is nothing to see
Unless you are designing the next Photoshop, the UI is not the first thing to be designed, and can change. Also, these people tend to be visual and don't always respond without images or a good specification in front of them.

Now imaging this and comment on it... oh no, it's not build yet, and there is no prototype.. just imagine it.

As it happens, I've seen a board put together to stop this sort of problem from happening. What happens then is that programmers, business people, project managers, test managers and anyone else with a stake on getting this code into production yesterday complains about the extra layer of red tape needed to release code.

Sigh.

See also: Money

Lack of organisation, lack of coordination, lack of methodology, not adhering to the agreed methodology, bad management, good management, bad programmers, good programmers, coding in the real world can be "very interesting" in the manner of 'may you live in interesting times'.

I've ranted it before.. so won't go again.. but.. all I want is to but something once, be able to download it whenever I need to, and be able to play it whenever I want to.

One day it will be like that. Quite possibly first in the illegal realm, then later in the legal realm. Until then we just have to do what we can with what we have where we are.

$1000 Cdn? Geez. And I thought excess data charges were terrible