Sounds like you've never fired a gun when you weren't holding it correctly. It's easy to do some nasty damage to your wrist or shoulder by simply having a bad grip. You can also get some fun burns if hit by a spent shell being ejected, depending on the size of the round.

Doesn't compare to what the other end of the thing can do, but still... they're pretty dangerous from every angle.

From TFS:

The only way to perform a card-present transaction and get the better discount rates and lower fraud liability is to provide the magnetic strip data. Anything typed in is considered card-not-present, even when you type it in when the card is in your hand (otherwise merchants would just lie and get the better rates).

What this brings about is the question of how merchants are verified as the line between consumer and merchant is blurred... there's no significant change in how things are actually processed behind the scenes, no matter how pretty the UI. It's a bunch of cryptic nonsense based on IBM mainframes from the '70s. Ever seen the integration spec on one of those bad boys? It's nasty - to the point where going truly direct requires a PCI-certified dial-up modem or dedicated leased line installed in your locked cage in your datacenter. Thought using a SOAP API sucks? Try translating your ASCII to EBCDIC before sending it over protocols that predate TCP/IP.

Tech rumor sites seem to handle this fairly well by simply having a second twitter handle from which they do the live-tweeting of event coverage. If you only want normal news, just follow the main feed; if you want a deluge of pithy comments, follow both. Opt-in spam.

Sounds like the sportscaster crew could learn a thing or two about this "internet".

To be fair, I'd take the whitehouse.gov petition route knowing that information, simply due to the increased visibility. There's no state-level equivalent AFAIK, and bringing awareness to the issue (ridiculous or not) is still of benefit.

"The White House responded to over 25,000 petitioners" is a lot catcher than "a couple of people emailed their senators, then posted about it on Facebook".

Like TFS says, the mobile version is free. Just another moron trying to make a quick buck.

My concern with blizzard's authenticator is that they seem to have rolled their own implementation rather than adhering to an open, defined spec (HOTP/TOTP). And like so many of these services, there's no good way to move it to a new device without disabling 2FA temporarily. People do upgrade their phones, after all.

Magnetic strip data contains different information than what's read off the card; it effectively replaces the CVN for swiped card-present transactions. The issuing bank goes through a different (though functionally equivalent) routine to authorize the payment when they're sent PAN/CVN/exp instead of the raw track data.

Actually, that's simply because it's against PCI regulation to store the CVN.

Most companies don't realize that asking for it on subsequent transactions is pointless so long as you ask for it the first time: you can still prove (with reasonable certainty) the customer had the card in-hand at some point; i.e. it wasn't bought from a Russian warez site.

In practice that's not true at all, but since when do theory and practice ever overlap?

It's not required in order to make the transaction (nor, technically, is anything other than the account number; however, your interchange costs increase and your ability to fight chargebacks decrease by providing less information).

Two words: fraud detection.

Or just ask a bunch of random coworkers to forward it to you, citing that you missed/deleted the original and want to make sure you have a copy. Tweak based on the variances you discover.

People caught peeing in a bush are treated the same as child molesters under this law. It also includes people that in any way benefit from solicited sex, including the family of people willingly involved in the sex trade.

Violent offenders are already incarcerated, and those that have been released from prison after serving their time are still pretty closely monitored. This proposition sought to make a crime "more illegal" in order to increase the government's authority. The weasel-wording of the bill's description ("increase penalties for sex trafficking") allowed that to get through with an overwhelming majority; suffice to say, I'm not impressed.

This is the correct behavior (in most states). Hate it? Me too. Bitch at your local government person.

I imagine this allows ill patients to get access to something that will bring a much cleaner and painless death than downing an entire bottle of painkillers; i.e. more like a cyanide capsule.

It's easy to buy a lethal dose of caffeine (fairly cheap!) off Amazon, but going by how having way too much coffee feels, that would be a pretty crappy way to off oneself. Seems to go against that whole "dignity" thing they're aiming for.

The TED talk has a few clips.

Unsubsidized smartphones easily cost $600+, which constitutes grand larceny (often a felony) in most states.

I agree that the current holder of the device is probably not the person who stole it, but over a few data points it probably wouldn't be terribly difficult (yet) to track it back to the original thief, what with everything being location-aware these days. That said, you're right - if we just shut the devices off immediately, the desire to steal phones should drop to nearly zero overnight.