Ode to credit card payments using machine or human

I travel a lot. And as a result, I fly out of Houston Hobby airport and become very efficient and getting there, parking, and making a fast get-a-way. Something occur to me a few weeks ago as I was peeling out from the parking garage to head home.

When paying for parking, you have a couple of options. You can use an auto teller and swipe your credit card through a machine, or you can do it the old fashion way and interact with a parking attendant who will gladly process your credit card.

The issue is, when I use the machine, I insert my parking ticket followed by the credit card and usually 15 seconds later, a receipt is printed and I retrieve my credit card. Now, in the event that the automatic machine is down (which is often), I have to go to the parking attendant. I give them the parking ticket, a total is calculated, I give him my card, he swipes the card, I wait about 1 minute (I've timed it), he hands me clipboard, sign the receipt, and then get my card back and my copy of the receipt and then I'm out of there.

My question, why is it that I have to sign a receipt when using the parking attendant but do not have to when I use the automatic machine? I've heard that transactions under $25 don't require signatures, but most of the time, my parking ticket is on the order of $50. What gives?

Facebook defined in one sentence

While reading through posts on floort (www.floort.com), someone made the assertion that facebook is useless. As I'm becoming a fan of facebook I had to come up with a counter assertion. Facebook is a portal for and into the lives of people you know.

Is this original? If not, no offense intended but I think its a clever description of it.

Warming up to facebook

Over the last couple of weeks, I have been giving facebook a spin. I must say it is becoming pretty fun. Tonight I hazes my sister for being too old to party so much. I posted my comment on her wall. But as the old sayid goes what goes around comes around.

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kebert
www.k3bert.net

What I hate about the Internet...having to select a date

All to often, when you enter the expiration date of your credit card,
you have to use a drop down list to select the month and year. What is
so annoying that the month is required to be two digits, I.e., 01, 02,
and so on. By using a drop down list, you negate the user from typing
in the date, which is faster than using a mouse to select the date and
it also prevents you from tanning into the field and using the
keyboard to select the date. The Sam thing is seen in the year, but
what makes this even more funny, the dates are limited to the next 5
years. Hmmmm, seems like someone is looking for job security to add
dates once a year to the drop down list.

The samething is often seen with selecting a date. You sometimes need
to click a little button just to have a nifty calendar pop open, and
even worse yet are the web sites that make a post to get the calendar.

Safari 3: “cannot decode raw data” (NSURLErrorDomain:-1015)

Out of the blue, when I launched Safari 3 on my MacBook, I started receiving the error: The error was: “cannot decode raw data” (NSURLErrorDomain:-1015) when trying to access My Yahoo!

To fix, I went to Safari -> Reset Safari and all is happy now

What I hate about the Internet is...having to select my credit card type

In case if you didn't know, you can determine the type of credit card, i.e., Visa, Master Card, Amex, and etc. by looking at the number you enter. The prefix and width (including spaces) for the major credit card types are:

CARD TYPES............PREFIX................WIDTH
American Express.....34, 37....................15
Diners Club..............300 to 305, 36........14
Carte Blanche...........38..........................14
Discover...................6011.......................16
EnRoute...................2014, 2149.............15
JCB..........................3............................16
JCB..........................2131, 1800..............15
Master Card.............51 to 55..................16
Visa..........................4...........................13, 16

Therefore, it stands to reason that by looking at the prefix of a credit card, you can derive the type of the card. And finally, as a programmer, I know that Verisign does not require you to send in the type, only the number itself and a few other bits of information.

What I hate about the Internet is...everyone wants you to create an account

It never fails...any website you shop on...they want you to create an account when you check out.

Why?

When I go to my local mall and buy something in my favorite shop, the store doesn't ask for my address, phone number, email address or any other personal information. Normal shopping experiences include an exchange of pleasantries with the sales person, handing over cash, debit, or credit card...and obtaining a receipt and walking away with the goods.

Why shouldn't shopping on the Internet be any different?

What I hate about the Internet is...

While messing around on the Internet, again...I realized I was obsessing over the useability of the Internet and websites I visit. Most of the thoughts are along the lines of what could be better about websites, what sucks about websites, and what's missing. Therefore, I'm going to (but no promises on how often I will update) create a new series of posts regarding these very thoughts.

For the one person who reads my blog somewhat consistently, stay tuned for the first post.

Ester roaching

Ester roaching
Originally uploaded by K3bert

I can't get enough photos when Ester does some roaching. I haven't seen her sleep with her eyes open before

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kebert
www.k3bert.net