fakespastic

And Webkinz, but typed chat is unavailable to my kids. I have one around 12 years old now, and nearly all her friends have Facebook profiles (verified, usually wide open), so it's hard to explain why she can't have one yet. I don't really think there's anything terribly wrong with it; just another way to communicate, like cell phones and, much earlier, telephones. We let them use email, so I'm starting to question the barrier we put up ourselves to Facebook.

Whatever solution is created, I don't want to have to manually verify every transaction.

My thoughts, for 2 minutes:

- Alright, calm down

- What if my monitor goes into power saving mode?

- It's only 2 minutes, I'm sure power save is set for longer than 2 minutes.

- I wonder what the default setting for power saving is in Windows 7.

- Concentrate!

- (looking at the horizon on the right below the clouds) I wonder what it would be like to be a world traveler by way of boat.

- Hey, what are those birds doing there?

- Try to remember your thoughts to post on HN after the 2 minutes is up.

- Look at that swell. I wonder how that works, exactly.

- (distracting noise in background) Feeling tense again!

- I think the wife and kid are watching me take this seriously, and have probably lost a sliver of respect for me.

- (mind drifts into nothing for a bit)

- Well, that was calming. I like looking at the horizon.

- I wonder what I get for beating this.

Would have to be a rolling-key, I'm guessing...but as I mentioned in another comment, the interval would be the kicker. Maybe it's simpler, now that I think of it. A rolling-key system with 2-way authentication, a one-time key becoming invalid after a transaction is made.

Yeah, but the attacker needs access to the magnetic sensor in order to install a ripping device. Physical security prevents it in most cases. In the case of a phone, how could you prevent playback attacks? Say I walk up to a Coke machine and authorize a $1.00 payment, and someone nearby is able to capture that protocol stream. All they'd have to do is play it back to the Coke machine after I leave, and at that point they are welcome to unlimited corn syrup swill. I'm no cryptographer, but I can't think of any way to mitigate it. Something like SecurID, whereby you are given a new token code every minute, might work, but the intervals for new codes would have to be tighter, unless you plan to stand around and monitor everyone else's purchases for the entire interval. This is one for the really smart guys to figure out, and I expect that someday, it will become reality. Can't wait.

What a terrible idea.

I'm sorry, I know this sounds very low-tech of me, but high-school aged kids need an authority figure, who is clearly in charge, teaching them material. Lecturing in-person. Building relationships. I, for one, even at my age, cannot long burden myself with CBT. People just don't take it seriously enough. Let's face the reality of humanity: we are what robots will ultimately become, and some things are just better between humans than between a human and a computer.

Perhaps future Android devices should have universal upgradeability, and all the carrier has to do is update a table enabling the upgrade for your device - at your own risk. I'd be willing to take it.

I own an Evo 4G (Android 2.2) and my wife owns an Epic 4G (2.1). I have noticed no difference in their usability at all, aside from a few hardware-specific quirks. I'm somewhat indifferent to the Android dot-releases, and am not seeing much in Gingerbread that I care too much about, either, aside from the improved task management.

Imagine the damage virii of the future will be able to do to our infrastructure...

In Cary, NC, signs are heavily regulated. Driving around the city is quite peaceful as a result; there isn't much, if any advertising visible. People know what they want and need, and know where to get it, so it's not problematic. However, in the software space, there have been times that I would not have known about a helpful piece of software if it were not advertised.