I've been forced to pay tax on free items before. When I was in university I organised a bulk purchase of some CAD software at a reduced price, to be shipped from the US to Canada. Not a problem, under NAFTA, software can be inported duty free.
However, each package (75 of them) said on the outside "Free metric/imperial ruler included!". They dough brains at the border decided that the rulers were worth $10 apiece and rulers are NOT duty free.
So customs essentially help the software hostage: I was forced to cough up the import duty an $750 worth of rulers before I could receive the software with the "free" rulers.
Online banking it too convenient. That's one of the things that makes it insecure. With online banking I can check my account information, transfer funds, pay bill, even buy and sell stocks, from any computer on the Internet.
That's the problem. If I can do it, so can somebody else with my account name and password. Would you use an ATM if all you had to so was walk up to it and enter a name and password, with no other proof of identity? I wouldn't. Online banking will not be really really secure until smart cards are used to show proof of identity (or at least proof of possession).
That said, I would use online banking no problem if my bank would assume liability for any intrusions that take place. Credit card companies already do this. I haven't heard of a bank that has given the same assurance.
"A kind of mass hysteria... takes possession of a hitherto rational population"
Where is this so-called "Rational Population"? I'd like to meet them.
Human society likes to view itself as populated by rational thinking beings with a little bit of animal instinct left over from evolution. I think the reverse is true: our behaviour is for the most part instictive, with a dash of rationality thrown in. Apparently just enough rationality to get us into a lot of trouble.
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I've been forced to pay tax on free items before. When I was in university I organised a bulk purchase of some CAD software at a reduced price, to be shipped from the US to Canada. Not a problem, under NAFTA, software can be inported duty free.
However, each package (75 of them) said on the outside "Free metric/imperial ruler included!". They dough brains at the border decided that the rulers were worth $10 apiece and rulers are NOT duty free.
So customs essentially help the software hostage: I was forced to cough up the import duty an $750 worth of rulers before I could receive the software with the "free" rulers.
Online banking it too convenient. That's one of the things that makes it insecure. With online banking I can check my account information, transfer funds, pay bill, even buy and sell stocks, from any computer on the Internet. That's the problem. If I can do it, so can somebody else with my account name and password. Would you use an ATM if all you had to so was walk up to it and enter a name and password, with no other proof of identity? I wouldn't. Online banking will not be really really secure until smart cards are used to show proof of identity (or at least proof of possession). That said, I would use online banking no problem if my bank would assume liability for any intrusions that take place. Credit card companies already do this. I haven't heard of a bank that has given the same assurance.
Where is this so-called "Rational Population"? I'd like to meet them.
Human society likes to view itself as populated by rational thinking beings with a little bit of animal instinct left over from evolution. I think the reverse is true: our behaviour is for the most part instictive, with a dash of rationality thrown in. Apparently just enough rationality to get us into a lot of trouble.