How long until only code signed by Microsoft will be allowed to run on the platform? It seeems that Microsoft is trying to implement a system that will enable them, once and for all, to charge console-like royalties to software developers.
Even if that is not the goal, I guarantee that only Microsoft signed drivers will be able to be installed, finally closing that pesky "sound card and CD-ROM emulation" fair use hole that is robbing the MPAA/RIAA of additional royalties.
This is NOT about making things better for the user. This is about removing the ability for the end user to make decisions about how her computer operates.
AnalystScan (http://www.analystscan.com) is a high volume, dynamic Java powered web site. It runs PURELY open software (Jakarta Tomcat, Linux, PostgreSQL, Sendmail, JBoss), and has even withstood a mini-slashdotting when it was the focus of a slashdot posting regarding stock market analysts.
If you want to get going quickly, I recommend that you begin using Jakarta Tomcat 4. It has some features that make developing true J2EE apps a lot easier (JNDI support, JMS support, etc.) Remember that many J2EE apps don't actually need EJBs, which means that you do not need to deploy a J2EE container. If you choose to deploy a container, I recommend JBoss. It has some quirks, but is true free software, and the latest versions are actually beginning to outperform some commercial EJB containers.
Finally, take heed of some other people's comments... you do not need to have every Java TLA running for the solution to be a J2EE application. Choose the bits and pieces that meet your needs, and don't throw in the kitchen sink just because it's the technology du jour.
Naturally, I received a response saying that "the store said that this did not happen." I haven't shopped there since.
December 26, 2001
Richard M. Schultze Chairman & CEO Best Buy Co., Inc. 7075 Flying Cloud Drive Eden Prairie, MN 55344
Cc: Allen Lenzmeier President Best Buy Retail Stores
Dear Mr. Schultze,
I am writing you in regards to the events that took place today, December 26, 2001, at Best Buy #516 (Alpharetta, GA). First I would like to mention that I don't usually write letters to executives such as you concerning the conduct of low-level employees, but I felt that the events that occurred today warranted such action.
I received two $25 gift cards for Christmas this year, and went to visit my local Best Buy to redeem them. I purchased several DVD movies, as well as a computer cable. My total, after the gift cards were applied, was approximately $65. To my knowledge, retail companies issue gift cards not only for the assurance of a future purchase but also in the hope the customer will purchase other merchandise beyond the amount to be redeemed. I did exactly this with no reservations and came away pleased with my purchase.
As I am sure you can imagine, the store was an absolute zoo due to the holiday season, and the lines at the registers where backed up across the central aisle and spilled over into the music section. As I was exiting the store another customer about seven feet ahead of me set off the alarm, I, however, continued through and as the alarm did not activate so of course I felt that there was no reason to remain on the premises. At that time, a loss prevention employee ran out of the store and demanded to see my receipt. This particular employee, whose nametag read Josh, has in the past demanded I show him my receipt a good majority of the times he is on duty heedless of what I had just purchased and without the reasonable doubt that activating the security gates may imply. Out of these dozen or more "checks," this employee has not once found anything but the items listed on the receipt inside of my bag. Such dogged persistence to search my purchases with no justifiable reason has made it difficult to interact with him not only as an employee but as a person as well.
Today, I had just waited 20 minutes to check out, and another 10 minutes for the clerk to locate the BestBuy.com order I was picking up; I was in no mood to be made to wait a third time. Knowing that there was no reason whatsoever for the employee to continue to subject me to such scrutiny, I chose rather to inform him that I was leaving instead of submitting once again to his suspicions and started walking off towards my car. He continued to pursue me, at which point I became upset that this harassment was still taking place. Rather than maintain a civilized approach to the situation he proceeded to stand in front of my path and grab at my bag. After "bumping" me with his chest and pushing me with his hands a verbal confrontation ensued, during which the employee stated to me "Why don't you go fuck yourself". Following this, I was trying my best to simply escape the situation, since I knew that if he continued to markedly provoke me in this manner, I might lose my temper. That was the last thing I wanted to happen; especially in light of the fact that it was the day after Christmas and I simply wished to enjoy my day off from work with my younger brother. He can independently verify my account if you deem it necessary.
As I was trying to leave, the employee grabbed my shopping bag and refused to release it. In accordance with my desire to avoid any further escalation, I was able to forcibly regain the bag by pulling it out of his hands. By this time, a store manager and several other employees began to approach us in the parking lot. Seeing as none of them had witnessed the event or the actions of the employee, I turned and began to walk to my car, rather than have the confrontation continue with more accusations and yelling. As I was leaving "Josh" continued to yell after me, and the manager called me an "asshole" behind my back before telling me to "never come back." There is simply no excuse for this type of behavior from any retail employee, and certainly not from a Best Buy employee.
In order to demonstrate the extent of my patronage, I have included several documents. First, I have attached a report generated from my Microsoft Money file that details all of the purchases I have made since August using my debit card. According to the report, this total is just over $2,000. Since I only use my debit card about 50% of the time, I have included copies of a number of receipts that I have just been able to locate from around my apartment. As you can see, I am a frequent shopper, and I make multiple purchases per week at your Alpharetta location. I stop by almost every Tuesday to purchase the newly released DVD movies that have recently been made available to the public. As a matter of fact, this is the reason I went shopping in your store today... to pickup a movie I had ordered from BestBuy.com as well as two others that I wished to purchase. The statement the manager made to me that I should "never come back" is disappointing to me.
I know that as an executive, you have many priorities that occupy your time, but I felt that this situation is of such magnitude that it demands the attention of yourself or someone who is directly involved at a district level.
I hope you are able to use this information to improve your customer service, and in through that customer service, improve the customer relationships that are so important for Best Buy to continue to succeed in the marketplace. Thank you for your attention to this matter and for your time. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on how this situation can be resolved.
Back in the early 90s when I was in High School, we formed what we called the "Bolo Club". (For those not familiar, Bolo was one of the first network multiplayer games ever written... look here for more info). What we learned in creating this club is that the games would draw people who would otherwise avoid learning any more than necessary about computers. Through this club, we were able to create additional volunteers to help in the regular computer classes, as these people had to use basic problem solving skills to troubleshoot the game environment.
One of the most important things our schools can offer to their students is applied learning, and computer games make that happen. Bravo!
Sorry to go off on a rant here, but analysts are the biggest farce in the financial industry. Don't take my word for it... see for yourself. Analysts consistenly raise or lower their rating of a company AFTER a major rise or fall.
Anyone who uses an analyst's recommendations as anything other than a source of humor needs to seriously reconsider their actions. Here's another great example of how "accurate" analysts are. Merrill Lynch is one of the worst.
Correct... J2EE is a spec, J2SE is a VM specification and platform. Sun was nominated for the J2SE toolkit. J2SE 1.4 is pretty impressive, but I agree that Samba is quite amazing, and worthy of the award.
Kent Brockman: With our utter annihilation imminent, our federal government has snapped into action. We go live now via satellite to the floor of the United States congress. Speaker: Then it is unanimous, we are going to approve the bill to evacuate the town of Springfield in the great state of -- Congressman: Wait a minute, I want to tack on a rider to that bill: $30 million of taxpayer money to support the perverted arts. Speaker: All in favor of the amended Springfield-slash-pervert bill? [everyone boos] Speaker: Bill defeated. [bangs gavel] Kent: I've said it before and I'll say it again: democracy simply doesn't work.
But if you really want precendent, look no further than the cell phone industry. Your minutes get charged when someone calls you.
Actually, that is not a good analogy because the cell phone company's customer must interact with the event (by answering the phone) in order for billing to occur.
This is guaranteed to bite TW back... In what other "utility" service is my bill determined by the behavior of other people?
For example, if some script kiddie wants to seek revenge on a neighbor, what is to stop him from initiating a distributed ping flood against him? Over a month, all of those replies could seriously add up. Or maybe have a couple dozen zombies request the default page for his linksys administration web?
There are dozens of ways for people external to the bill payer to effect the usage of the customer, most without the customer's knowledge.
This also blows a hole in Sen. Hollings "Broadband adoption initiative"... especially if a user is charged $4.95 to rent a movie, then has to pay an additional $10 fee to the cable company to download it.
Patents, Patents and more Patents
on
JPEG2000 Coming Soon
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
According to this EE Times article, there are several patents that are licensed "royalty free" to implementers of the JPEG2000 Part 1 specification. Sound familiar?
I remember a similar promise made about LZW compression in the GIF standard by Compuserve. What is to stop these companies from requiring license fees at some arbitrary point in the future once the technology is widely used?
Additionally, there doesn't seem to be very much due dilligence performed in regards to other patents over the techniques utilized in the standard. Even if all of the known patents are licensed royalty-free, there exists the very real possiblity that a submarine patent will be exposed, after the standard is widely utilized, of course.
Of course, this won't matter once all of our PCs are replaced with sealed, SSSCA-compliant, government issued "convergence appliances"...:-)
I'm not sure if it is still true, but I know that Jeremy Nixon (the author of the article) worked at Supernews (now ReMarq) as one of their chief engineers. Not to be jaded, but it stands to reason that he would be against a technology that will decrease the data transferred by customers who pay by the gigabyte.
There is already a clean room, open source (BSD License) implementation of the JCE. It's called Cryptix, and simply put is one of the best libraries ever written for Java.
I don't trust black box cryptography... especially when Sun goes the extra mile to obfuscate their default implementation of the JCE crypto modules.
The company I helped found in 1995 started doing this in December 1995, with a launch in February 1996. It was an internet greeting card site, and included such AMAZING features as e-mail notification of a new card to a recipient, and an e-mail to the sender when the card was viewed. The Internet Archive has an archive of the page as it was in December 1996 at:
Anyway, if anyone is challenged by this in court, let me know. I'm sure I can dig out all sorts of documentation that predates the filing dates of the patents in question.
Hi there. I led a team that developed the Interactive Advertising Agent, a product that allowed a user to create a customizable web site, including forms and layout customization. This product was released in 1996. If you are a person or company who would like a copy of this software as a defense against this patent, please let me know. I'm going to try to make it available on a public HTTP server, but that will take a while.
Good afternoon. I am writing to voice my concerns regarding the proposed change in position regarding patented technologies in W3C standards.
As a long time internet user, I have come to realize the importance of freely implementable and open technologies as the primary factor in the scalability, reliability, and openness of the Internet. Since the beginnings of the global internet, the IETF has relied on open and freely available standards to ensure compatibility and security in the core functionality of the internet. Tools such as Sendmail, BIND, and other core technologies all rely on the existence of a free and open standard. If patented technolgies had been allowed in the critical RFCs implemented by these products, these carrier class free applications would have never been created. How much would such a situation have stifiled the growth of the internet?
Any patent incumbered technology, regardless of licensing scenario, prohibits the creation of freely available open source implementations of the techonogy. When this happens, the internet is no longer open, and a key insurance policy of free implementations of core standards in lost forever.
I urge the W3C to avoid placing control the web solely in the hands of for-profit corporations. The web is about freedom and innovation, and the policy proposal effectively cripples both.
Read again. Nowhere do I compare the speed of a VM executed program to a native compiled one. Java is not the end all, be all of languages, but it is much more than the applet creation toolkit it was in 1995. Will fourier transforms ever run as fast in a VM as they do in optimized native code? Probably not. But, then again, how many of your programs are doing fourier transforms
It's simply a right tool for the right job issue. Plain and simple
This has nothing to do with the D'oh part of the comment, actually. Does anyone else remember the episode of the Simpson's where the family went to Tokyo? Homer buys a $200 Square Watermelon... could this be prior art?
Once again, it is imperative that the following be mentioned:
All government produced information not deemed classified is public domain.
Ballmer once again has his facts mixed up. If a government agency gives their developers freedom to develop on their own, then they can do whatever they like. But the government itself cannot copyright something.
Thank you, Mr. Adams. Your books always brightened up my day. In fact, I was at Barnes & Noble's earlier this week, and saw a copy of The Complete Hitchhiker's Guide on sale, and despite the fact that I already had all the paperbacks, the leather bound 5 book edition, the coffee table book, and more, I still picked it up.
I found myself enjoying it as much as I had the first time I read it.
Your writings helped me realize that there was room for eccentric nerds in this world, and I'm proud that your novels have contributed to the person I am today.
When I look at this exhibit, it really puts things in perspective. This man has given a wonderful gift to the ages; a gift that will stand the test of time.
I dunno... it really shows how insignificant DeCSS and the RIAA are in the grand scheme of things...
I cannot stress this enough... BYOK. Ever since I've started using an Ergo kbd several years ago, I made sure that any serious programming I did was on one. I have 4 or so ergo kbds at home, and I keep one in my suitcase at all times. As a programmer, my two greatest assets are my hands. Take care of them.:-)
We seem to forget that there is are an unlimited number of possibilities for potential checksums requested by the AIM server. It can request any byte offset and any length. This means that if the AOL server is so configured, they could process every request ever registered to login and not duplicate an MD5 hash request.
An AMEX Card has 15 numbers, and is always in the following format:
37XX XXXXXX XXXXC
The first two digits are alwys 37 for AMEX, and the last digit is a LUHN10 checksum (I wrote some groovy code in VB to calculate this). That makes 10^12 possible valid card numbers.
Another dirty secret is that several online Credit Card processors don't actually check expiration dates, so that elminates the possibility of using it to allow for duplicate assingments.
Slashdot Mirror
Even if that is not the goal, I guarantee that only Microsoft signed drivers will be able to be installed, finally closing that pesky "sound card and CD-ROM emulation" fair use hole that is robbing the MPAA/RIAA of additional royalties.
This is NOT about making things better for the user. This is about removing the ability for the end user to make decisions about how her computer operates.
If you want to get going quickly, I recommend that you begin using Jakarta Tomcat 4. It has some features that make developing true J2EE apps a lot easier (JNDI support, JMS support, etc.) Remember that many J2EE apps don't actually need EJBs, which means that you do not need to deploy a J2EE container. If you choose to deploy a container, I recommend JBoss. It has some quirks, but is true free software, and the latest versions are actually beginning to outperform some commercial EJB containers.
Finally, take heed of some other people's comments... you do not need to have every Java TLA running for the solution to be a J2EE application. Choose the bits and pieces that meet your needs, and don't throw in the kitchen sink just because it's the technology du jour.
Naturally, I received a response saying that "the store said that this did not happen." I haven't shopped there since.
December 26, 2001
Richard M. Schultze
Chairman & CEO
Best Buy Co., Inc.
7075 Flying Cloud Drive
Eden Prairie, MN 55344
Cc: Allen Lenzmeier
President
Best Buy Retail Stores
Dear Mr. Schultze,
I am writing you in regards to the events that took place today, December 26, 2001, at Best Buy #516 (Alpharetta, GA). First I would like to mention that I don't usually write letters to executives such as you concerning the conduct of low-level employees, but I felt that the events that occurred today warranted such action.
I received two $25 gift cards for Christmas this year, and went to visit my local Best Buy to redeem them. I purchased several DVD movies, as well as a computer cable. My total, after the gift cards were applied, was approximately $65. To my knowledge, retail companies issue gift cards not only for the assurance of a future purchase but also in the hope the customer will purchase other merchandise beyond the amount to be redeemed. I did exactly this with no reservations and came away pleased with my purchase.
As I am sure you can imagine, the store was an absolute zoo due to the holiday season, and the lines at the registers where backed up across the central aisle and spilled over into the music section. As I was exiting the store another customer about seven feet ahead of me set off the alarm, I, however, continued through and as the alarm did not activate so of course I felt that there was no reason to remain on the premises. At that time, a loss prevention employee ran out of the store and demanded to see my receipt. This particular employee, whose nametag read Josh, has in the past demanded I show him my receipt a good majority of the times he is on duty heedless of what I had just purchased and without the reasonable doubt that activating the security gates may imply. Out of these dozen or more "checks," this employee has not once found anything but the items listed on the receipt inside of my bag. Such dogged persistence to search my purchases with no justifiable reason has made it difficult to interact with him not only as an employee but as a person as well.
Today, I had just waited 20 minutes to check out, and another 10 minutes for the clerk to locate the BestBuy.com order I was picking up; I was in no mood to be made to wait a third time. Knowing that there was no reason whatsoever for the employee to continue to subject me to such scrutiny, I chose rather to inform him that I was leaving instead of submitting once again to his suspicions and started walking off towards my car. He continued to pursue me, at which point I became upset that this harassment was still taking place. Rather than maintain a civilized approach to the situation he proceeded to stand in front of my path and grab at my bag. After "bumping" me with his chest and pushing me with his hands a verbal confrontation ensued, during which the employee stated to me "Why don't you go fuck yourself". Following this, I was trying my best to simply escape the situation, since I knew that if he continued to markedly provoke me in this manner, I might lose my temper. That was the last thing I wanted to happen; especially in light of the fact that it was the day after Christmas and I simply wished to enjoy my day off from work with my younger brother. He can independently verify my account if you deem it necessary.
As I was trying to leave, the employee grabbed my shopping bag and refused to release it. In accordance with my desire to avoid any further escalation, I was able to forcibly regain the bag by pulling it out of his hands. By this time, a store manager and several other employees began to approach us in the parking lot. Seeing as none of them had witnessed the event or the actions of the employee, I turned and began to walk to my car, rather than have the confrontation continue with more accusations and yelling. As I was leaving "Josh" continued to yell after me, and the manager called me an "asshole" behind my back before telling me to "never come back." There is simply no excuse for this type of behavior from any retail employee, and certainly not from a Best Buy employee.
In order to demonstrate the extent of my patronage, I have included several documents. First, I have attached a report generated from my Microsoft Money file that details all of the purchases I have made since August using my debit card. According to the report, this total is just over $2,000. Since I only use my debit card about 50% of the time, I have included copies of a number of receipts that I have just been able to locate from around my apartment. As you can see, I am a frequent shopper, and I make multiple purchases per week at your Alpharetta location. I stop by almost every Tuesday to purchase the newly released DVD movies that have recently been made available to the public. As a matter of fact, this is the reason I went shopping in your store today... to pickup a movie I had ordered from BestBuy.com as well as two others that I wished to purchase. The statement the manager made to me that I should "never come back" is disappointing to me.
I know that as an executive, you have many priorities that occupy your time, but I felt that this situation is of such magnitude that it demands the attention of yourself or someone who is directly involved at a district level.
I hope you are able to use this information to improve your customer service, and in through that customer service, improve the customer relationships that are so important for Best Buy to continue to succeed in the marketplace. Thank you for your attention to this matter and for your time. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on how this situation can be resolved.
Regards,
....
One of the most important things our schools can offer to their students is applied learning, and computer games make that happen. Bravo!
Anyone who uses an analyst's recommendations as anything other than a source of humor needs to seriously reconsider their actions. Here's another great example of how "accurate" analysts are. Merrill Lynch is one of the worst.
Just my $0.02.
Correct... J2EE is a spec, J2SE is a VM specification and platform. Sun was nominated for the J2SE toolkit. J2SE 1.4 is pretty impressive, but I agree that Samba is quite amazing, and worthy of the award.
Kent Brockman: With our utter annihilation imminent, our federal government has snapped into action. We go live now via satellite to the floor of the United States congress.
Speaker: Then it is unanimous, we are going to approve the bill to evacuate the town of Springfield in the great state of --
Congressman: Wait a minute, I want to tack on a rider to that bill: $30 million of taxpayer money to support the perverted arts.
Speaker: All in favor of the amended Springfield-slash-pervert bill? [everyone boos]
Speaker: Bill defeated. [bangs gavel]
Kent: I've said it before and I'll say it again: democracy simply doesn't work.
This is guaranteed to bite TW back... In what other "utility" service is my bill determined by the behavior of other people?
For example, if some script kiddie wants to seek revenge on a neighbor, what is to stop him from initiating a distributed ping flood against him? Over a month, all of those replies could seriously add up. Or maybe have a couple dozen zombies request the default page for his linksys administration web?
There are dozens of ways for people external to the bill payer to effect the usage of the customer, most without the customer's knowledge.
This also blows a hole in Sen. Hollings "Broadband adoption initiative"... especially if a user is charged $4.95 to rent a movie, then has to pay an additional $10 fee to the cable company to download it.
I remember a similar promise made about LZW compression in the GIF standard by Compuserve. What is to stop these companies from requiring license fees at some arbitrary point in the future once the technology is widely used?
Additionally, there doesn't seem to be very much due dilligence performed in regards to other patents over the techniques utilized in the standard. Even if all of the known patents are licensed royalty-free, there exists the very real possiblity that a submarine patent will be exposed, after the standard is widely utilized, of course.
Of course, this won't matter once all of our PCs are replaced with sealed, SSSCA-compliant, government issued "convergence appliances"... :-)
I'm not sure if it is still true, but I know that Jeremy Nixon (the author of the article) worked at Supernews (now ReMarq) as one of their chief engineers. Not to be jaded, but it stands to reason that he would be against a technology that will decrease the data transferred by customers who pay by the gigabyte.
There is already a clean room, open source (BSD License) implementation of the JCE. It's called Cryptix, and simply put is one of the best libraries ever written for Java.
I don't trust black box cryptography... especially when Sun goes the extra mile to obfuscate their default implementation of the JCE crypto modules.
CSFB has a LONG history of blunders, the least of which is their sub-standard analysis department.
Check out their calls... they even rated Enron a "Strong Buy" when the stock was near its all time high.
While all of the Wall Street houses seem to have skeletons in their closet, CSFB seems to be unable to hide theirs well...
The company I helped found in 1995 started doing this in December 1995, with a launch in February 1996. It was an internet greeting card site, and included such AMAZING features as e-mail notification of a new card to a recipient, and an e-mail to the sender when the card was viewed. The Internet Archive has an archive of the page as it was in December 1996 at:
http://web.archive.org/web/19961226182315/http://w ww.cardclub.com/
Anyway, if anyone is challenged by this in court, let me know. I'm sure I can dig out all sorts of documentation that predates the filing dates of the patents in question.
Hi there. I led a team that developed the Interactive Advertising Agent, a product that allowed a user to create a customizable web site, including forms and layout customization. This product was released in 1996. If you are a person or company who would like a copy of this software as a defense against this patent, please let me know. I'm going to try to make it available on a public HTTP server, but that will take a while.
Good afternoon. I am writing to voice my concerns regarding the proposed change in position regarding patented technologies in W3C standards.
As a long time internet user, I have come to realize the importance of freely implementable and open technologies as the primary factor in the scalability, reliability, and openness of the Internet. Since the beginnings of the global internet, the IETF has relied on open and freely available standards to ensure compatibility and security in the core functionality of the internet. Tools such as Sendmail, BIND, and other core technologies all rely on the existence of a free and open standard. If patented technolgies had been allowed in the critical RFCs implemented by these products, these carrier class free applications would have never been created. How much would such a situation have stifiled the growth of the internet?
Any patent incumbered technology, regardless of licensing scenario, prohibits the creation of freely available open source implementations of the techonogy. When this happens, the internet is no longer open, and a key insurance policy of free implementations of core standards in lost forever.
I urge the W3C to avoid placing control the web solely in the hands of for-profit corporations. The web is about freedom and innovation, and the policy proposal effectively cripples both.
Regards,
John Anderson
Read again. Nowhere do I compare the speed of a VM executed program to a native compiled one. Java is not the end all, be all of languages, but it is much more than the applet creation toolkit it was in 1995. Will fourier transforms ever run as fast in a VM as they do in optimized native code? Probably not. But, then again, how many of your programs are doing fourier transforms
It's simply a right tool for the right job issue. Plain and simple
Why, oh, why must people propogate the myth that Java is slow? While that may have been true in 1995, it is hardly the case today.
If you're going to make comparisons, at least get your facts straight
This has nothing to do with the D'oh part of the comment, actually. Does anyone else remember the episode of the Simpson's where the family went to Tokyo? Homer buys a $200 Square Watermelon... could this be prior art?
Once again, it is imperative that the following be mentioned:
All government produced information not deemed classified is public domain.
Ballmer once again has his facts mixed up. If a government agency gives their developers freedom to develop on their own, then they can do whatever they like. But the government itself cannot copyright something.
Thank you, Mr. Adams. Your books always brightened up my day. In fact, I was at Barnes & Noble's earlier this week, and saw a copy of The Complete Hitchhiker's Guide on sale, and despite the fact that I already had all the paperbacks, the leather bound 5 book edition, the coffee table book, and more, I still picked it up.
I found myself enjoying it as much as I had the first time I read it.
Your writings helped me realize that there was room for eccentric nerds in this world, and I'm proud that your novels have contributed to the person I am today.
Thanks for Life, The Universe, and Everything.
John
When I look at this exhibit, it really puts things in perspective. This man has given a wonderful gift to the ages; a gift that will stand the test of time.
I dunno... it really shows how insignificant DeCSS and the RIAA are in the grand scheme of things...
I cannot stress this enough... BYOK. Ever since I've started using an Ergo kbd several years ago, I made sure that any serious programming I did was on one. I have 4 or so ergo kbds at home, and I keep one in my suitcase at all times. As a programmer, my two greatest assets are my hands. Take care of them. :-)
We seem to forget that there is are an unlimited number of possibilities for potential checksums requested by the AIM server. It can request any byte offset and any length. This means that if the AOL server is so configured, they could process every request ever registered to login and not duplicate an MD5 hash request.
An AMEX Card has 15 numbers, and is always in the following format:
The first two digits are alwys 37 for AMEX, and the last digit is a LUHN10 checksum (I wrote some groovy code in VB to calculate this). That makes 10^12 possible valid card numbers.
Another dirty secret is that several online Credit Card processors don't actually check expiration dates, so that elminates the possibility of using it to allow for duplicate assingments.