In fact the article simply jumps from 1980 to mention OS/2 in 1995 and then again to 1999 with no explanation, skipping generations of computers in the movies.

But what makes me a "safer driver" I've been in two accidents in my 26 years of driving. Rear ended once at a traffic light, and the other one the guy spun out across four lanes of traffic to slam into my truck, after I'd had time to come to a complete stop. And I haven't had a speeding ticket in over a decade. But I still have a lead foot, and tend to drive above the speed limit. Would I qualify as a "Safe Driver"? I have a car chip and monitor my vehicle for performance and maintenance issues, it lets me see the kind of data they would collect: average speed, highest speeds, acceleration profiles (rabbit starts, something I try to resist for fuel efficiency reasons but often realize I've done after the fact) hard breaking events etc. . .

Okay maybe for an 18 year old male to maybe get a lower rate. But otherwise, hell no.

My safe driving status should be based on what really makes for safe driving, and they haven't yet made the ODBII compliant device that monitors how alert and aware I am of the traffic around me. Of how often I check my mirrors and blind spots, of how I look ahead to anticipate problematic intersections or road conditions. Until they can monitor those, they can't really monitor safety. Speed is not a safety factor. Hard breaking may be, but it's still missing a ton of variables that explain the cause. Any insurance co that asks for this is losing a customer. I have a monitor on my vehicle already, but for my personal use and only my use.

But a taking a picture is rather obvious act, holding the camera device (phone or camera above the card long enough for the lens to focus and the ccd to record it. Whereas setting a slip of receipt paper on top of a cc lying on a desk or a serving tray or a payment folder (whatever they call those folders they bring your bill in) and rubbing a pencil over it a couple times can be done very discretely and very quickly especially in a crowded restaurant surrounded by other wait staff who might notice what you are doing and turn you in. It's actually been a very popular method of stealing cards as it gets the name, number and the exp date very quickly, leaving only the security code on the back which as a simple three digit number can be grabbed with a quick glance and jotted on the slip of paper next to the pencil rubbing.

It's not dumb, it's been going on for years and is why all new cards no longer have the info embossed as raised text. Yes a camera is still a viable option, but making this change did eliminate one very popular and discrete option for cc number theft.

So non violent criminals don't belong in prison? Those who commit bank fraud, or embezzle funds from their employers, Those who scam elderly out of their life savings, those who sell national secrets to our enemies. They aren't violent/dangerous people or crimes. So they don't belong in prison? Then where do they belong? Out on the street, free to commit more crimes.

You do the crime, you damned well better be ready to do the time. We do have some different styles of prisons but for the most part we don't divide convicts up by crime. Pedophiles to this prison, Hackers, embezzlers and scam artists to this prison and Rapists here and murders there. You get convicted you go to prison.

A white collar crime as the one in question is more likely to be sent to a minimum or medium security facility rather than a maximum, hard-corps pound you in the ass prison, but they all go to prison.

No argument about the shoddy security with US cards. My point was simply that the point about cards being automatically blocked in the US unless the card holder calls the bank first is far from a unique situation and that in fact it is usually the same going from the US to other countries.

In other words it's a standard practice, leaving your country to travel means you should probably notify your card issuer first. Regardless of where you live or where you are heading.

Oops just realized that I'd missed the fact that these have a long life internal battery and evidently won't need to be charged. So at least that's one less potential drawback.

See the comment above about what constitutes a signature. You can sign however you want and call it a signature. Historically those who couldn't write would just make an X for their signature and it was and is still legal. So a signature of Check ID is a valid signature. You are right in that some kind of mark needs to be made on the strip, but what exactly is up to the card holder.

When the card remags the stripe. It can hold up to eight active cards. I have one card I use for 99% of my transactions. Why would it need to ever remag the stripe? And how close do you really have to be to read such a low level pulse of emf in our highly EMF rich environment.

Possible, maybe. Easy, very very doubtful. Easy and discrete highly unlikely.

Easy to lose but also easy to deactivate. This device can have up to 8 cards actively loaded at a time. Google Wallet can have several (no idea on how many). My leather wallet can carry about 15 cards of all types (ID, CC etc) before it gets too fat to be comfortable. Now what happens when these carry systems are lost?

Coin: can I just go to a single website and cancel all access to the cards, will that work without an active data conenction to the device, is it even necessary (with the phone connection system probably not depending on how frequent you set the check-in,) otherwise is there a pin I need to enter into the device before each use? If I do have the phone contact frequency set to a longer term, is their anyway short of digging out the original cards to get the 800#'s to call and cancel the cards to prevent their use? How long does a charge last on it, I keep multiple charge options avail to keep my phone topped off will I have to make sure I plug it in every night as well?

Google Wallet: The would be thief would have to guess my PIN to make any purchases, and all I need to do to deactivate fully is get web access anywhere I can (a friends phone, work, home etc.) and log in to my Google wallet account. Deactivate the service and it's totally deactivated until I get a new device and reactivate. Yes I'm out my phone but however that loss occurred it still happened and is not really relevant to the security of my payment systems. Any object can be stolen by a pickpocket.

Old Leather Wallet (aka the old style easy to lose basket all our eggs are currently kept in): It gets lost or stolen, lets assume I have 14 cc's and one DL in the wallet, I now have to find the numbers for and call to cancel every one of those cards individually, until I do they can be used online or for purchases under $25 with near impunity. If I act within 2 days my liability is limited to $50 or even less, But the money still gets spent and any losses above that $50 may not come directly out of my pockets but they come out of our pockets as the finance companies have to charge higher interest rates to cover those losses (only slightly higher but the losses to have to be accounted for).

Coin and GWallet are both far better than Old Leather Wallet. I'll go with GWallet as it's one less device, although the prevalence of mag readers to NFC readers currently makes that a weaker choice, but NFC readers are appearing in more and more POS terminals and so that drawback is fading faster and faster.

Coin looks good, but adds yet one more fragile electronic device to keep charged and to get broken or lost. Whereas GWallet or Isis combines that same capability with the device I already make every effort to keep charged, and keep with me. Yes loss of phone due to loss, theft or just a dead battery is a risk, but so is losing your wallet so as an argument it's weak at best.

Funny thing is many US cards are blocked by default outside the US due to extensive fraud. You have to call the bank and let them know where you are going so they can white list you in those countries.

   

And the numbers on the cards are no longer embossed anymore but just printed flat to make it so that dishonest persons can't just do a quick pencil rubbing to get the card number for later dishonest use.

Don't forget that when Viacom spun blockbuster off as an independent, it not only lost that special supply source, but was also given all of Viacom's corporate debts to pay off as well.

True but what really killed Blockbuster, was when Viacom spun it off as an independent company, but saddled it with all of Viacom's debts.

Convenience killed the Rental store. Yes the selection was far more limited, but when on average you can find two or three red-boxes at every intersection. I used to live close to one major intersection where there were no less than eight boxes. Needless to say the video rental store in one of the strip malls at that same intersection quickly died.

It is a tragedy, because no kiosk can ever hope to have the wide selection those stores held, and since Redbox diveded the movies between DVD and Blu-ray and added games the available selection drops even further. Kiosks are convenient and they were cheaper, most your rental places were wanting up to $5 per video. Yes you could keep it for up to five days, but I'd rather pay a $1 for one day than $5 for five days when I'll probably only watch the movie once anyway.

So box cutters should now be kept locked up at all times? Purchase restricted to those who pass a background check and so on. Your ignoring the comparison does not detract from it's validity. Two teachers were killed last week: one with a gun = immediate calls for more gun control and condemnation of parents for not locking up the gun. One with a box cutter = oh how tragic and too bad. But not a single call for box cutter control (remember these weapons of mass destruction were also the primary weapons used in the 9/11 attacks) nor for mandating blade locks or secure storage for all box cutters.

You can walk into any Walmart plop down your cash and walk out with a box cutter regardless of age.

Also why must guns be kept locked up? Because holophobes are afraid of them? Many across this country have grown up with firearms in the home, firearms that until the last couple decades were most commonly stored unsecured. The kids knew how to use the firearms and where they and their ammo were stored, but the kids were also taught firearm safety and knew not to play or touch them. It was like that in my parents home, not one of those firearms was ever used to harm anyone, we knew they were not toys and that we were not to touch them without permission.