My buddy Steve Friedl just blogged about the fact that his phone company sent him a piece of correspondence with his full social security number printed in the envelope window! (Screenshot)

Exactly how idiotic does an organization have to be in order to let this fall through the cracks?

I finally took the plunge and purchased the full version of NetNewsWire. I’ve been using the lite version for several months now, and I was finally able to get the real deal.

The biggest thing I’m gaining here is the abilility to support Podcasting right out of my reader. For feeds with enclosures, all I have to do is subscribe to them as normal, and the AAC or MP3 content within them will automatically be downloaded to my iPod. It’s pretty sick.

Of course, iTunes itself will support Podcasting in like two weeks, so we’ll have to see how that functionality stacks up compared to that of NNW. I’ll use whichever is superior, and I definitely won’t regret purchasing the full version of this great app if I end up using iTunes for Podcasting.

Flikr + Commodore + Programming = Cool

(Be sure to roll over the boxes in the picture)

“UNIX is basically a simple operating system, but you have to be a genius to understand the simplicity.” — Dennis Ritchie

As we all know, tons of people are having their identities stolen — the most recent story involving over 600,000 customers with Wachovia and Bank Of America. The basic concept is that certain information that identifies the individual in question is obtained and then used to open credit cards or other types of accounts that can be used to make purchases. Of coure, the victim then owes the money for those items and the trouble ensues.

Well, I have a silly idea — how about if we make it harder to open credit accounts so that the data being stolen cannot be used to steal as much?

In other words, if today most credit card companies let you start an account and begin spending by supplying x, y, and z — and those three things are being readily stolen — how about adding some additional layers to the mix? I’m not sure what additional data or procedures can be required, but I’m sure the system can have some layers added so that a thief can’t simply supply a few tokens that represent an individual and then proceed to charge items at will. There has to be some sort of process that can be executed that will add to the effort cost of theft — something that isn’t simply more data that can be stolen.

If something like this were to be adopted for any significant number of major organizations, then the data being stolen couldn’t be used for nearly as much. Of course, it’ll add to the hassle of opening accounts and such, but given what can potentially be gained I think many will be willing to accept the inconvenience. I think it’ll be a matter of which organizations will want to take a hit in new customer additions due to the added overhead in order to reap the benefits of less identity theft.

Thoughts?

“I often find that recapitulating complex content using my own words helps me learn it far more thoroughly.”

It seems the French have decided that the adoption of the word “blog” is a sign of yielding to American culture. I actually agree — problem is this doesn’t change anything.

All this does is bring attention to the fact that the French don’t like when Americans do well … at anything. In short, they’re whining, and I think it’s funny.

W00t!

Looks like I’m going to hold off on implementing my new podcasting routine; I’d rather do it right the first time. The less third-party apps involved the better.

The word of the day is: Poignant

“His comment on social status was especially poignant; I think it got a lot of people’s attention.”

My buddy Jason is an avid Chess player, and I just found this post of mine from way back that discusses when I first fell in love with it.

Perhaps I should get back into it…if only there were more hours in a day.