You're sonfusing double with half.

Stop buying consumer class when you ought to be paying for business class. You took the lower price. You got the lower service. Big surprise.

I'm confused with this hatred of DRM. I grew up in an age of streaming music -- we called it FM Radio. (there was no ".com", ".net", ".radio", or ".fm").

So we, the people, invented the record button. Grab the boombox, push the button with the red circle and presto! The live streaming music was magically transferred to local storage. From there, we called "copying" "high-speed dubbing".

Today, pick your favourite audio application, and just hit record. Magically, whatever you hear gets transferred to local storage -- sans DRM. And unlike in the past, the recording often happens within the "sound card", with zero loss. It can be a youtube video, it can be DVD, or it can be something streaming. If you can hear it, you can record it.

What's the problem?

I don't see what that changes, nor how you could possibly know. Seems like an awfully big presumption for a t.

You're 40+, with decades of experience. You're done proving yourself to others. Start selling your experience. Either manage others, or start your own business and manage others.

Clients don't ask suppliers what language is being used behind the scenes. You can keep doing what you do best -- I've got a 20+ year business in web development, and I'm still programming is raw perl -- avoiding new stuff when you have the experience with old stuff has so many advantages, to your clients too.

Modern stuff has a smaller/easier learning curve; but you're already past the learning curve. Anything modern won't be able to output a string of text any better than Perl, provided that you already know Perl, which you do. And since that's all the web is -- a whole whack of markup text -- who the hell cares.

Start your own, do what you like, hire the juniors when you actually want to, and you'll never need to apply for a job ever again. You're 40. It's about time you self-sign your own certificate. You're an expect.

Let me start by saying that I have no real experience with solving networking systems. I do, however, have plenty of experience with network problems. With that out of the way. . .

What if you connect a router to each pump (that's 8 cheap routers I guess), each NATing it's pump. Then you can configure each router with a different IP address of your choosing. A ninth router (or a switch) connects your laptop to the 8 routers as a network of 18 nodes (8 pumps behind 8 routers, a switch, and your laptop). All ethernet, a normal network, your laptop addresses the "outside" IP address of each of the 8 routers.

I picture you with a rack of 8 routers, a switch at the top, your laptop, and a whack of ethernet cables.

...in reply to many so far, I'm not talking about learning shortcut keys. I'm talking about learning about the existence of low-priority features, which tend to be hidden in modern interfaces.

A long time ago, in the days of wordperfect and wordstar, there were keyboard overlays -- plastic sheets that fit over/around the keyboard function keys, providing labeling for functionality -- maybe F7 was bold, maybe SHIFT-F7 was underline. Thankfully, after so many years, I've finally forgotten them.

Then that kind of functionality got collapsed into drop-down menus.
Then the same functionality got compressed into "ribbons".
Now, it's hidden three layers deeper.

Today's applications present a very clean interface by hiding away all of the advanced functionality that's used less than 1% of the time. The thing is, 1% can mean dozens of times a day -- if you know that it's there.

For example, want to forward an e-mail, there's a button/action for forward. But there's also "forward as attachment", somewhere.

Tech newcomers to take a new application/program/feature and explore it long enough to figure what features actually exist. Of course they'll find the BOLD button, but they may never know about the balanced columns feature.

You're saying that these stupid people actually let starbucks access their bank account directly? That's the most idiotic thing I've ever heard. Even my bank doesn't have access to my bank account to pay my mortgage. No one can touch a single dollar of mine except me and a judge. Why the hell would I let a coffee shop have unfettered access to my money?

Thanks for explaining the scam to me. Although I'm more pissed off now than ever before. Who's this stupid?

Then what's the use in hacking one? So I can buy coffee with your card? Don't I need your physical card for that? Here's the easier version for you: Why can starbucks gift cards be used without starbucks gift cards?

I fail to understand how that's any different than walking into the store, buying coffee, and then selling it in the local flea market. the gift card is nothing more than pre-paying for a purchase that you intend to pickup -- and, as with all gift cards, there's absolutely zero benefit to doing so in the first place. Why the hell would you buy a cup of coffee before it's brewed? Why would you give your money away, and then risk losing the gift card? There's certainly no financial benefit to the consumer -- and there's a lot of risk to the consumer. Why not just make your gift card look identical to a five dollar note, out of the same materials too, then contract your national mint to print them for you? A note is a note is a note be it a card, paper, plastic, from a bank or a print shop. It's worth five bucks it's worth five bucks.

that's the problem. a gift card is designed, by it's very nature, to not be currency. It's supposed to be a pre-purchase, such that the financial component is entirely removed. Show up with the card, get the product, no monetary transaction of any kind.

What starbucks is using is simply not a gift card. It is a bank card. So who's surprised that a bank card issued by someone that isn't a bank lacks any sort of procedural security whatsoever?

Stop giving your hard-earned money to someone who isn't regulated and insured to keep it. Welcome to the words: "at your own risk", "not responsible for stolen funds".

Maybe actually think before giving money to someone. Maybe, just maybe, make an actual decision for yourself.

Starbucks = Nigeria.

No one will ask for your credentials, certifications, qualifications, or skill level of any kind. Outside of very large corporations, military, or government bodies, no one asks -- that's just not how business works. It's been 25 years of running my own business from scratch. Maybe when I'm dead, someone will check to see if I was certified to do anything at all. I'm not, by the way. But, like I said, small business, and even medium business operates on direct trust, which comes from reputation and referral, not from accredited trust.

Why can starbucks gift cards be used for anything other than buying starbucks products? Why is the cash accessible in the first place? Anyone stealing starbucks gift cards, hackers or thieves, ought to be stuck with boat-loads of coffee, after having visited a starbucks store. Otherwise, folks, it ain't a gift card, it's a charge card, credit card, or direct-monetary-device -- and since starbucks ain't a bank, you ought not be entrusting them with direct access to your money.

What's the point of a starbucks "gift card" if it operates no differently from the attached credit card?

so your answer would be "no", and you agree with me completely. Humans won't be living on mars within the next 50 years, which is consistent with the interest thus-far. Thanks for your support.