[GTALUG] General Hacker Stuff -Point of Sale and other exploits

[Russell Reiter]

On Mar 2, 2017 8:08 AM, "Alvin Starr via talk" <talk at gtalug.org> wrote:

On 03/02/2017 07:31 AM, Russell Reiter via talk wrote:

On Mar 2, 2017 3:51 AM, "ac via talk" <talk at gtalug.org> wrote:

On Wed, 1 Mar 2017 17:30:33 -0500
Alvin Starr via talk <talk at gtalug.org> wrote:
> Heading out on a trip a little while back we asked our credit card
> company if we needed to notify them.
> The response was we only needed to notify them if we were heading to
> the U.S. because it is just about the last place on earth that still
> uses magstripe credit cards.
> A guy I worked for years ago with seeing people with "will work for
> food" signs on the side of the road in California said.
>
> "America is a third world country. They just don't know it yet".
>
dude, you are soooo funny!

I was so surprised to be able to pay with my mobile in Walmart (and
even at Dollar Store etc) on my last trip to the US
(so, it was almost like home (and I live in a small town in Africa, -here
we cannot swipe either - you either have to have a smart phone or
a chip card, etc) but, yeah, most people in the US still swipe....
maybe it is also the cost of re-issuing cards as every consumer
seems to have at least 50 cards (I only have one) so I had "card
envy" :)

ymmv but Americans love swiping :)


Wow this reminds me of some of the early issues around energy conservation.
When Energy Star started operations in Canada they offered trade in rebates
to upgrade appliances like fridges & ac's etc.

They would then ship those energy hogs to needy developing nations as a
charitable contribution. I guess they actually did that until someone
crunched the carbon and said, all things considered and from a global
perspective, it would be better to ship ES units instead. lm not surprised
that developing and lesser populated areas would chose perminance and
retention of sustainable technology over disposability and repetive
wastfullness.

The US has always been the third world; in post columbian discovery, after
Eurasia and Africa. Typically, like the youngest in a clan it is favoured,
demanding, petulant, selfish and envied. Just like its current president.

That is not completely fair.


Quite so. Just a talking point.


For a time the U.S. lead the world in progressive thinking.
For example the idea of rebuilding things after WWII instead of seaking
huge war reparations.


Yup, lend, lease .. all that, worked out ok for the banking and real estate
industries. Of course the most severe critics say, but the US never fought
a large scale war on their own soil, so they could never grasp the true
cost.

I'm a Canadian and the only real threats I face day to day are economic.
Now that Canada is a net exporter of war technology, I'm ashamed and aware
of the possibility of reprisals here at home for our shipping that
technology abroad, instead of peacekeeping. Following the leaders instead
of leading the followers to safety, so to speak.

Turning tank production into refrigerator production also worked out well
for a society craving low cost consumer goods but that boom ended in the
70's, as you point out.

I would argue that the 50s to the 70's were the summit of progressive U.S.
society.

In that period they managed to screw a  lot of things up but the general
trend was for a more open society and that has clearly reversed.

Now the best you can say is "America. The longest life expectancy of all
third world countries" .
If you want an eye opener take a look at the CIA world statistics web site(
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/).
Its their own facts not something cooked up by those "lefty-leaning U.N.
types".


As for america not knowing it yet. That too is a condition of the young.



-- 
Alvin Starr                   ||   voice: (905)513-7688 <(905)%20513-7688>
Netvel Inc.                   ||   Cell:  (416)806-0133
<(416)%20806-0133>alvin at netvel.net              ||


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