IWETHEY v. 0.3.0 | TODO
1,095 registered users | 0 active users | 0 LpH | Statistics
Login | Create New User
IWETHEY Banner

Welcome to IWETHEY!

New I'm definately not an Authoritarian...
not even Lutheran... But I'm not as paranoid about a national ID card as I perhaps should be? The fear that I've heard expressed is that if a national database was kept, then potential employers, law enforcement agencies, etc.. could know in an instant how criminal/disabled/mentally ill I really am... well, if they kept a true database, the potential employers would soon realize they can't really discriminate because almost EVERYONE is screwed up!!! The pool of non-criminal, non-disabled, non-mentally ill, etc... would be so small that economics would dictate that they would have to pick the lesser of the many "evils"... Right?

I don't know quite how to feel about a national ID card. I can see some definate benefits to keeping certain individuals from getting drivers licenses, credit cards, flight training, citizenship, etc... I mean, I already carry a state issued driver's license, a Social Security card, etc... Say,
wait a minute. I have an idea!

We could force everyone who comes to this country (even for visits) to register for college in the US... I am absolutely convinced that had Bin Laden graduated from my school, the Alumni Association would have found his ass in a few days... Really.
Just a few thoughts,

Screamer

"I'll tip my hat to the new constitution, take a bow for the new revolution, smile and grin at the change all around, pick up my guitar and play, just like yesterday..."

P. Townshend

"Nietzsche has an S in it"
Celina Jones
New why issue a national id card when according to the Supreme
Court you are under no obligation to carry any form of identification? Of course you would need it to fly but think of how many people without drivers licenses are still driving?
thanx,
bill
My Dreams aren't as empty as my conscience seems to be
New Of course, you can't even cash a check...
if you don't carry one... But if you have a checking account, you can get a credit card, and noone ever seems to check for an ID when you use that bad boy... Something really screwed up here, isn't it?

I wish just once that people would request to see some ID when I put $1000.00 charges on my VISA account. Seriously. The plain and simple fact of the matter is that credit card companies want to be "ripped off" so they can justify their outrageous interest rates, IMHO.

Back to the crux... I fear the GIGO involved in the entry - way too much opportunity for graft and misuse. I don't necessarily disagree with the concept, I just don't trust society enough to make it happen. Just a few too many greedy bastards... Just my take.
Just a few thoughts,

Screamer

"Once she walked with umpteen million lovers face between her legs, now he's cool and stifled and it's she who has to beg. Slit skirts..."

P. Townshend

"Nietzsche has an S in it"
Celina Jones
New Re: Checking for ID with VISA
I've been using VISA -- first as credit cards now as debit cards -- for ~16 years. For the last ~12 of that, instead of signing the back, I wrote "See ID".

In that time, I've bought TV's, stereos, car repairs, lots of things at several hundred dollars. The only times anyone asks to see my ID? I'm buying socks.
We have to fight the terrorists as if there were no rules and preserve our open society as if there were no terrorists. -- [link|http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/05/opinion/BIO-FRIEDMAN.html|Thomas Friedman]
New Checkbook register
There is exactly one teller I know of who refuses to accept a check until it is duly recorded in the customer's register (that little book in your checkbook where you are supposed to record such things). Somewhat eccentric first generation immigrant German (or thereabout) woman who runs the Purple Foot winemaking supply shop.

Seems to me that, if privacy is no issue, checking the register would be a pretty good way to verify a check. Only accept if there is a running total and the last recorded check is one number back from the current one. Better than the goofy "check numbers over 300 only" rule I've run into. Yes, it can be fudged, but it is more work than most crooks will do. And most checks bounce due to bad (read "non-existant") record-keeping, not criminal intent.

----
"You don't have to be right - just use bolded upper case" - annon.
New Credit card security
There's a few things at work here.

First, the vendor should be the one verifying your ID, they're the one on the hook for it. Of course, that's usually the corporate owner, not the $5.50/hr counter help. Your own loss is capped at $50 (and that's usually waived). The bank passes through to the vendor.

Note that realtime credit card checking does work, and is pretty efficient. One profiling system I ran across suggests that the checks are run within 30-60 seconds of purchase (and since most purchases are pre-approved, that's before you're out the door). A friend once got a call on his cell phone as he walked out the parking lot. They'd just bought gas, then about $40K of toys (a few servers). This is apparently a pretty good profile -- based on AI and neural nets, BTW.

The current system is based around the principle of stop-loss. Once a card goes wiggy, it stops approving. Even a determined theif is likely to only get a few thousand dollars out of the account tops. Overall "leakage" is on the order of a few percent.

This has interesting correspondences to anti-terror security measures. If it's possible to detect and isolate individuals and groups quickly, we'll still end up with some actions, but little effective capability. A movement that has a few tens of thousands of individuals at best, and loses large numbers of these in each engagement, has little sustaining ability. The most crucial part of the equation is a world in which the police forces can work effectively -- meaning no safe-harbors. The current approach seems to be fumbling toward this ideal.
--
Karsten M. Self [link|mailto:kmself@ix.netcom.com|kmself@ix.netcom.com]
[link|http://kmself.ix.netcom.com/|[link|http://kmself.ix.netcom.com/|http://kmself.ix.netcom.com/]]
What part of "gestalt" don't you understand?
New Credit card security
There's a few things at work here.

First, the vendor should be the one verifying your ID, they're the one on the hook for it. Of course, that's usually the corporate owner, not the $5.50/hr counter help. Your own loss is capped at $50 (and that's usually waived). The bank passes through to the vendor.

Note that realtime credit card checking does work, and is pretty efficient. One profiling system I ran across suggests that the checks are run within 30-60 seconds of purchase (and since most purchases are pre-approved, that's before you're out the door). A friend once got a call on his cell phone as he walked out the parking lot. They'd just bought gas, then about $40K of toys (a few servers). This is apparently a pretty good profile -- based on AI and neural nets, BTW.

The current system is based around the principle of stop-loss. Once a card goes wiggy, it stops approving. Even a determined theif is likely to only get a few thousand dollars out of the account tops. Overall "leakage" is on the order of a few percent.

This has interesting correspondences to anti-terror security measures. If it's possible to detect and isolate individuals and groups quickly, we'll still end up with some actions, but little effective capability. A movement that has a few tens of thousands of individuals at best, and loses large numbers of these in each engagement, has little sustaining ability. The most crucial part of the equation is a world in which the police forces can work effectively -- meaning no safe-harbors. The current approach seems to be fumbling toward this ideal.
--
Karsten M. Self [link|mailto:kmself@ix.netcom.com|kmself@ix.netcom.com]
[link|http://kmself.ix.netcom.com/|[link|http://kmself.ix.netcom.com/|http://kmself.ix.netcom.com/]]
What part of "gestalt" don't you understand?
New Hmmm you do have a point..
IF we uniformly 'trusted' the reduction of all personalities to computer-convenient Numbers; IF even that highly questionable model had some merit AND the error-rate was vanishingly small - in applying this wondrous labelling.. etc.

Of course then: it would be as you say. Out there at 3 SDs would be a small pool of really Weird individuals - the ones (measurably?) 'free of most neuroses, fantasies and Certainties' of the age. The rest of us would start out with Three Strikes and then some.

But then: imagine that Billy n'Bally get the CONTRACT. See what I mean? And even if this petabyte db were uncharacteristically free of the usual screw-ups, false duplicates, etc. And even if all judges had to take remedial courses to come up to speed re all the possibilities that the CRT might be disgorging garbage:

Nahhh. Such as we are, we could never protect the confidentiality of an All-in-One db. But the illusion that it did contain Revealed Truth would be powerful and it Would be hacked. I believe it would feed current idiocy, maybe irreversibly: that Numbers can indeed characterize us All - like IQs, anyone?

(Ever know someone with a planetary-size IQ, who was a third-rate jerkoff? Or vice versa - IQ of a tick yet brilliant on the weird human stuff?)


{sigh}

Our National Faith in Numbers is touching... er tetching?


Ashton
I'm with Mikey (breakfast cereal kiddie, who doesn't like Anything in a cereal box).

New In my most serious and ...
"authoritative" opinion, you have once again hit upon the crux of the biscuit... The same jagoffs that can be bought in the DMV/BMV can be bought in the National DB... GIGO. There is technology is definately there, the safeguards (wetware) is no where close. I think I must pass on this one as well.

Anyone who has had an erroneous credit "problem" knows all too well how crazy things can become quickly. I had the "fortune" of having some poor slob who had a very similar social security number hose my credit rating for a few months. It cost me over $1000 all told to "clear my name"...

Yep, gonna pass if I get a chance to vote on this one... Might even vote!
Just a few thoughts,

Screamer

"Noone knows what it's like to be the bad man, the sad man, behind blue eyes."

P. Townshend

"Nietzsche has an S in it"
Celina Jones
     Will US Citizens have to give up some more freedoms? - (nking) - (18)
         National ID card has been on the agenda - (Ashton) - (12)
             it is a really bad trend - (nking) - (1)
                 "But sir..." - (jb4)
             I'm definately not an Authoritarian... - (screamer) - (8)
                 why issue a national id card when according to the Supreme - (boxley) - (5)
                     Of course, you can't even cash a check... - (screamer) - (4)
                         Re: Checking for ID with VISA - (drewk) - (1)
                             Checkbook register - (mhuber)
                         Credit card security - (kmself)
                         Credit card security - (kmself)
                 Hmmm you do have a point.. - (Ashton) - (1)
                     In my most serious and ... - (screamer)
             National Company ID first - (tablizer)
         Actually, if it wasn't so sad, it would be funny - (Simon_Jester)
         Norm, this may depress you but... - (jb4) - (3)
             I know it already - (nking) - (2)
                 Here's an idea...LIE! - (jb4) - (1)
                     But that would be unethical - (nking)

Inquiring minds want to scream.
54 ms