I just received my new card and had memorised the PIN number, and went to withdraw money. Three times I tried to enter my PIN and the amount of money I want to withdraw. Each time the machine refused to accept the transaction. After the third time, the machine swallowed my card, telling me to contact the bank. So I call them up, and am told "our machine automatically shreds any card after three unsuccessful attempts and sends an electronic notification to your bank", we can't do anything. So I call up my bank, and they tell me I can't get a new card until they written notification from the machine owners.
Neither would talk to the other. In the end, I had to pretend that I had lost my card in order to get a replacement.
It seems to me to be more of dodgy protocol implementations rather than anything else.
I've been wondering about that as well. Even the ATM machines with monochrome screens seem to have redundant menus. For example:
*Please insert your card for service*
[I Insert card]
*Your bank will not charge you for using this service. Please press OK to continue*
[I press OK]
*Please enter your PIN*
[I enter my PIN]
*Would you like to see your balance?*
[I press NO]
*Please select the service you wish to use:
*[ ] Balance
*[ ] Withdrawal with receipt
*[ ] Withdrawal without receipt
*[ ] Receipt only
[I press one of the withdrawal options]
*Please select one of the following:*
*[ ] 10 pounds
*[ ] 20 pounds
*[ ] 30 pounds
*[ ] 40 pounds
*[ ] 50 pounds
*[ ] Other amount
And after that you get your money, you may just get an advert asking whether you are interested in loans, mortgages or savings accounts before you get your card back.
Menu systems were definitely much simpler ten years ago. To make a transaction all you only had to insert the card, enter your PIN, and the amount of money to withdraw. And that was the transaction complete.
It's only right that Google should validate the truth of every one of the six billion pages indexed by their system. After all, eager minds want to know:
Who really killed JFK, did Tammy really make out with Nick at the end of the high school prom, and whether UFO's, the Lock Ness Monster, bigfoot, black triangles and the chucacubra really exist or not. This could save so much effort and time wasted on speculation and controversy.
I cannot begin to imagine the pleasure and joy of having to program/burn/flash/install the latest versions of the Internet Explorer/Outlook Express BIOS ROMS every time a new security update came out. Having my mortal flesh torn apart by hooks would be less painful. Although, having PC's go back to the days of ROM cartridges wouldn't be too bad. Maybe this could happen when 1 Gigabyte ROM's become commoditized.
Reminds me of a hotel stay I once had. Spending the weekend at the swimming pool, I'm walking past the 'massage room', when one of the elegant ladies arriving for work, goes bounding up to her friend at the desk and asks eagerly "Any specials for me?". Recounting this to my parents, they explain exactly what a "special" was. Some time later, I'm going to a restaurant for a meal with friends, and we go up to the food bar. The waitress acts "Would anyone like a special?". I'm lost for words.
From watching the reruns of Dr Who on TV, the best actor for the Master would be Deacon in Waterworld (Dennis Hopper), who also played the bomber in Speed (that punchline "it's interactive TV, Jack") was the ultimate in evil.
Cheap 'all your base are belong to us' joke
on
SCO Aims For The Feds
·
· Score: 0, Redundant
Taking this to the logical conclusion, we keep extending the BIOS until it's a fully featured OS in it's own right, and we won't need the other one that comes pre-installed on PC systems.
I agree. The same thing happens in our city. There was a wave of delivery truck lootings for technology companies, so a sting operation was set up. Regular trucks were filled with cops hiding behind empty boxes. The truck would be parked outside the company, with the driver getting out and walking to the reception. On occasions the looters would go by, try to see if the truck was unlocked, and then try and lift the goods.
After being caught, the defence lawyers tried to argue that this was entrapment.
Probably "entrapment". An equivalent situation would be if the local law enforcement decided to leave a palette of boxed electrical goods on the street (let's say laptops or toasters), but which had wireless surveillance cameras built in. Once turned on, the machine would then broadcast images of the users back to headquarters. The authorities would then claim they had captured photographs of known thieves.
Is that fair?
why people would continue to share these programs once they realised they contained a trojan
When P2P file-sharing programs are in use, the users are usually downloading bucket-fulls of stuff. So between the time the download of the file has been completed, and the time that the file is unzipped and run, there is a window of opportunity for re-distribution to take place.
Given the small size of the file, it would probably be ignored until the download of larger files such as movies and warez has been completed, if not forgotten entirely.
(Like your looters or panic-buyers during a power cut - they're grabbing everything they can get their hands on, because it's there for the taking, not because it's of any practical use to them).
...And every little old lady that comes in and purchases a DSL circuit for email makes me cringe.
My retired neighbors are all getting DSL, so they can videophone their children, organise community web pages and brush up on their card games. So there are practical reasons why they want DSL.
But it completely amazes me that home computers come configured with so many open TCP/IP ports. Rather than having the various services disabled as default, the recommended solution is to require even more software (firewalls, virus scanners, adfilters,... ).
Slashdot Mirror
The same happened to me in central England.
I just received my new card and had memorised the PIN number, and went to withdraw money. Three times I tried to enter my PIN and the amount of money I want to withdraw. Each time the machine refused to accept the transaction. After the third time, the machine swallowed my card, telling me to contact the bank. So I call them up, and am told "our machine automatically shreds any card after three unsuccessful attempts and sends an electronic notification to your bank", we can't do anything. So I call up my bank, and they tell me I can't get a new card until they written notification from the machine owners. Neither would talk to the other. In the end, I had to pretend that I had lost my card in order to get a replacement.
It seems to me to be more of dodgy protocol implementations rather than anything else.
I've been wondering about that as well. Even the ATM machines with monochrome screens seem to have redundant menus. For example:
*Please insert your card for service*
[I Insert card]
*Your bank will not charge you for using this service. Please press OK to continue*
[I press OK]
*Please enter your PIN*
[I enter my PIN]
*Would you like to see your balance?*
[I press NO]
*Please select the service you wish to use:
*[ ] Balance
*[ ] Withdrawal with receipt
*[ ] Withdrawal without receipt
*[ ] Receipt only
[I press one of the withdrawal options]
*Please select one of the following:*
*[ ] 10 pounds
*[ ] 20 pounds
*[ ] 30 pounds
*[ ] 40 pounds
*[ ] 50 pounds
*[ ] Other amount
And after that you get your money, you may just get an advert asking whether you are interested in loans, mortgages or savings accounts before you get your card back.
Menu systems were definitely much simpler ten years ago. To make a transaction all you only had to insert the card, enter your PIN, and the amount of money to withdraw. And that was the transaction complete.
It's only right that Google should validate the truth of every one of the six billion pages indexed by their system. After all, eager minds want to know:
Who really killed JFK, did Tammy really make out with Nick at the end of the high school prom, and whether UFO's, the Lock Ness Monster, bigfoot, black triangles and the chucacubra really exist or not. This could save so much effort and time wasted on speculation and controversy.
I cannot begin to imagine the pleasure and joy of having to program/burn/flash/install the latest versions of the Internet Explorer/Outlook Express BIOS ROMS every time a new security update came out. Having my mortal flesh torn apart by hooks would be less painful. Although, having PC's go back to the days of ROM cartridges wouldn't be too bad. Maybe this could happen when 1 Gigabyte ROM's become commoditized.
Reminds me of a hotel stay I once had. Spending the weekend at the swimming pool, I'm walking past the 'massage room', when one of the elegant ladies arriving for work, goes bounding up to her friend at the desk and asks eagerly "Any specials for me?". Recounting this to my parents, they explain exactly what a "special" was. Some time later, I'm going to a restaurant for a meal with friends, and we go up to the food bar. The waitress acts "Would anyone like a special?". I'm lost for words.
Hopefully they'll add road signs on the freeways
Pluto
400,000,000 miles
From watching the reruns of Dr Who on TV, the best actor for the Master would be Deacon in Waterworld (Dennis Hopper), who also played the bomber in Speed (that punchline "it's interactive TV, Jack") was the ultimate in evil.
...All your beowolf clusters are belong to us...
With some slight modifications, this technique could be used to shrink the national debt.
Sorry, I just thought they would make an interesting comment - I won't link to any commercial sites in the future.
A History of Pi" really satiated my appetite.
e: The story of a number really expanded my mind.
An imaginary tale really grabbed my imagination.
For a moment, I thought the article read "FCC are to regulate profound speech", but then I realized we already have such a system.
...has been cancelled due to unknown forces trying to keep the truth hidden from the people.
Taking this to the logical conclusion, we keep extending the BIOS until it's a fully featured OS in it's own right, and we won't need the other one that comes pre-installed on PC systems.
Bollocks.
I agree. The same thing happens in our city. There was a wave of delivery truck lootings for technology companies, so a sting operation was set up. Regular trucks were filled with cops hiding behind empty boxes. The truck would be parked outside the company, with the driver getting out and walking to the reception. On occasions the looters would go by, try to see if the truck was unlocked, and then try and lift the goods.
After being caught, the defence lawyers tried to argue that this was entrapment.
Probably "entrapment". An equivalent situation would be if the local law enforcement decided to leave a palette of boxed electrical goods on the street (let's say laptops or toasters), but which had wireless surveillance cameras built in. Once turned on, the machine would then broadcast images of the users back to headquarters. The authorities would then claim they had captured photographs of known thieves. Is that fair?
why people would continue to share these programs once they realised they contained a trojan
When P2P file-sharing programs are in use, the users are usually downloading bucket-fulls of stuff. So between the time the download of the file has been completed, and the time that the file is unzipped and run, there is a window of opportunity for re-distribution to take place. Given the small size of the file, it would probably be ignored until the download of larger files such as movies and warez has been completed, if not forgotten entirely.
(Like your looters or panic-buyers during a power cut - they're grabbing everything they can get their hands on, because it's there for the taking, not because it's of any practical use to them).
...And every little old lady that comes in and purchases a DSL circuit for email makes me cringe.
... ).
My retired neighbors are all getting DSL, so they can videophone their children, organise community web pages and brush up on their card games. So there are practical reasons why they want DSL.
But it completely amazes me that home computers come configured with so many open TCP/IP ports. Rather than having the various services disabled as default, the recommended solution is to require even more software (firewalls, virus scanners, adfilters,
... which achieved Mars orbit after reaching escape velocity during nuclear bomb tests in the 1950's.
... just another weather balloon.
It's obvious - they're listening for Sub-vocal commands.
"There have been several film and television versions of the novel"
The television series got some interesting reviews here and here
Although I don't think I'd want to collect every single orginal paper novel.
however, they must have some kind of backup plan.
Go running to Washington, and ask for a trade embargo to be imposed on European software?
...I want to pre-order the book.
A ticking watch is about 20dB, and it's a log scale.
How much is that in dollars? I have a broken watch and it's gold plated. Can we exchange?