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bsgamble

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Scott Gamble

Digital marketing and payments developer Mobile technology geek

Interested in technology, media and design

E-mail me at scottg at mobios dot org

[ my public key: https://keybase.io/mobios; my proof: https://keybase.io/mobios/sigs/atMmrXaxHJ8AWS2BPJoFt2OABtImAQtyylb5NkIX2XQ ]

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The span of technological growth that JCD chronicled is hard to match. His body of work is a singular thread to the early days of personal computing all the way through commercialization of the internet and up to artificial intelligence. One career covering such an arc is pretty incredible.

Proto Build Bar, the unique hackerspace/bar announced that it will be closing on December 21. It was a great resource for the Dayton area and we will be sad to see it go. Proto not only offered the typical hackerspace services and classes, but also had a full service bar, a self-service and assisted 3D printing capability, and the world's largest claw machine.

No word on their site, just a tweet from @pulsepad that indicates that they are back with a link to the App Store.

I'm glad it's back - I didn't get to grab it this morning and just got it.

Absolutely. The article glosses over the other security features that are required to create a card number that would pass the extensive authorization process in the card networks. The information in the article is already in the public domain, so the 'exposure' doesn't increase fraud risk to anyone other than the companies offering 'free trials' for merely providing a number that passes a checksum test.

The amount of security in a particular system is typically proportional to the value of what is being secured. If the companies using a mere checksum test thought the process needed to be more secure they could do a real authorization against the number.

Another friend had to use an external GPS antenna to get it to lock appropriately, so I'm not surprised that you had to put it by the window. I would say this is common in multi-tenant buildings, especially concrete ones.

I wonder if the GPS sync is a one-time requirement, or if it does it periodically to ensure that the device isn't moved.

Great review. I have wanted one of these ever since a friend at AT&T shared details about them almost two years ago. I have a mostly stone house with plaster interior walls that is essentially a Faraday cage to wireless devices. I'm just waiting for AT&T to add my city and I'll be first in line to buy one.

If you think about it, it's ironic that I'm looking forward to paying $$ for a device that will extend the coverage of my wireless telephone by using bandwidth provided through my broadband carrier. AT&T should really pay us $20 a month to use them.

You are totally right about the pervasive attitude throughout corporate IT organizations. The only point I would question is the "..willing to lose their jobs.." part. Most corporate IT orgs have their story so well prepared to deflect blame in the case of failures that employees are rarely, if ever terminated. Instead the business takes the failure on the chin and all of us in technology have to deal with the reduction in credibility.

[dead] 17 years ago

For someone who thinks the web 2.0 stuff is garbage you certainly spend enough time posting redundant comments in multiple places.

Yes I would. While I recognize that a pay for access methodology won't cure all of the ills of the virtual world, like a padlock on a door, it will serve as a deterrent to casual ne'er do wells.