What makes them lie?

Am I the only one who actually travels across the U.S./Canada border? Anyone seen the press releases and reporting today. This one is typical:

Buffalo, NY (WBEN) - It used to be that when customs officers at the border crossing into the U.S. asked "Where were you born?", they'd take your answer at face value. New rules, in effect Thursday, require you to prove it. Americans and Canadians over age 18 will be required to show some document beyond a driver's license to prove citizenship, such as a passport or a birth certificate. In the past, some people entering the U.S. from Canada or Mexico simply had to declare their nationality...

This is a straight-up lie. The wife and I have crossed the border a few dozen times since 9/11. Guess, what? They don't trust you at ALL. They used to, but it was just trust. Technically the rules said you needed to prove it, so all of a sudden you better have a birth certificate or whatever else they feel like. My first encounter with this was troublesome as it was a surprise; I got directed to a scary room with lots of stern looks, and only got in by lying. "I think they only draft citizens" as I showed the Selective Service card. I know this to be untrue, but it got me out of the room. To be clear, the Canadians are no better. They arbitrarily (i.e. suddenly enforced long-standing rules without telling us) tightened these restrictions at the same time. So, we've been traveling with passports every time for the past 6 years.

Ha! CC numbers can be linked to issuer!

Back when I started with this whole web design thing I was able to find some scripts to take advantage of some of the check encoding built into credit card numbers. I think we even had a little checksum so we could tell if it was a validly formatted number, but most of all there was a system to the numbering, so we could tell issuer networks apart.

We had to provide this tag for whether the card is Visa, MC, AMEX or whatever to the processing bank, but we could determine that based on looking at the number. I knew this to be true from earlier in my life, so went looking and it was great.

Now, a few years after I get to Sprint I am told this no longer works. Though no one can show me proof, and I don't believe it fully, I'm told that due to the large number of cards issued, that scheme doesn't work so we'll need to ask the customer which card they are using. Its always lame to provide an extra step, but everyone else seems to have done it, so who am I to argue.

Well, its demonstrably not true:


I just recently bought something thru this store with a PayPal checkout scheme. On the left, you see they accept the usual assortment of cards. On the right, after entering my valid card number (that is not it!) it shows which one you have. No user input required. Neat.

I suppose its possible they are using Ajax to actually pre-process the card number, but for a bunch of reasons, I doubt that. I think its parsing the CC number itself on the client side.



Some other time I'll rant about how amazingly poorly the CVV2 code is implemented from a design, usability, comprehension and mostly security point of view. Note that mine was auto-filled by the browser. That's secure.

UXI 2007 Chicago Trip

No, this isn’t about the Adaptive Path sessions themselves. I might bother writing them up, or I might not. This is just a trip note or two. The non-session time was occupied entirely with sleeping, and dinner with the rest of the team. A meal and visit with Aunt Donna & Uncle Don up on the north shore fell thru on Tuesday, so I became determined to do something on my own. I’d already done a fair bit if walking, and discovered Tea Gschwendner and gotten Alison some funny, organic teas.

But I ran across a brochure for the Museum of Contemporary Art. And its even open till 8 pm. Great!

Easy walk. And it looks promising. And… its locked. I am wrong, and its open till 8 on Tuesday, not the next day when I actually can go. But, to not make the whole trip over there a bust, I visit the museum store. Naturally, its open every evening.

Find some neat things but the one thing I leave with is this:


Not much of a story, but its something else Alison will love. Short version is we have the duck from the same people for the upstairs bathroom. The downstairs one, with the rubber frog in it, clearly needs the frog clock. I didn’t know till then that the frog existed even.

---

The trip back is expected to be harrowing, as all these flights are delayed, but ours seems to not be. There’s a moment when I worry as my boarding pass is… not a boarding pass. It’s a note that I need to talk to someone about it. That takes a while, but its fine. I have a seat, unlike thousands of others.The plane leaves only like 30 minutes late even.

 Security also always worries me. Not excessively, as I am not really a worrier, but because the security rules are so arbitary I worry I’ll inadvertently break an arbitrary rule. This time, I’m worried about the toothpaste I bought and forgot to have a plastic bag for. Turns out not to be a problem.

So, I’m in line, shoeless. Tony sticks his red bag on the conveyor and it stops. Huh. The security guy must have found something. Interesting. At least two minutes pass before the guy behind me asks if the bag is on the conveyor. Of course its on the conveyor, and I push to assure everyone.

And it moves. Turns out there is a lip specially designed to hold up the line. The x-ray inspector hadn’t stopped, he just had nothing to look at. So, I load my stuff, move thru the magetometer, and wait. Tony is all dressed, and practically impatient by now.

The x-ray inspector guy calls out to me: "Is there a frog in your bag?"
Me: What?
X-ray: Is there a frog in your bag?
Me: [I could swear he’s saying “frog” but how would that look like a frog on x-ray; and why does he care?] What?
X-ray: Is there a frog in your bag?
Me: Are you saying “frog”
X-ray: Yes. Is this green bag yours?
Me: Yes. X-ray: Is there a frog in your bag?
Me: Yes. Why?
Another security man has come up by now: "Don't worry about it. He’s just … interested. In stuff."

And the second security man shoves the bags thru, tells the x-ray guy “push the green button” and we get out of there. That was so surreal I am not even going to try to come up with any commentary on what this might mean about security, or society as a whole.