Hotel Access Cards Contain Credit Card Information

When I stay at the Holiday Inn Express for John Thien's wedding this weekend, I'll be sure to take my hotel key card home with me instead of leaving them in the hotel trash like I've previously done. As it turns out, it has been discovered that some hotel chains encode personal information about the guest on the magnetic strip of the key card. In some cases, this has even been found to list unencrypted credit card numbers. So basically, throwing away your hotel key card should be treated no differently than throwing away a credit card. Make sure it's shredded thoroughly first, or else anyone with a 35-dollar card reader could steal your credit card information.

- Matt

read more | digg story

Kill Bill Vol. III: David vs. Goliath

I found this article through Digg.com. It's a great David and Goliath story about a college kid (David Zamos) being sued by Microsoft for selling unopened, legal copies of Windows XP and Office XP on eBay. Apparently he bought the software at his school's bookstore under the academic discount program. For one reason or another, he decided to return the software (unopened), but he was refused a refund (both by the school and by Microsoft). So, he sold it on eBay and made a small profit in the process.

According to Microsoft's End User License Agreement, reselling academic versions of its software is prohibited unless you are authorized by Microsoft to do so. The problem is, you can't agree to the EULA without installing the software, which first requires you to OPEN THE PACKAGE. Since he didn't open the package, Microsoft couldn't claim that he agreed to the EULA. And thus, David did his homework, learned how to turn the legal tables on Microsoft, and successfully defended himself in court against one of the largest companies in the world. Check it out...

http://clevescene.com/issues/2005-03-30/news/feature_print.html

- Matt

One Theory Explaining the Chaos in New Orleans

This article was forwarded to me by my good friend, Larry Ragsdale. I thought it was interesting because it provides one possible theory as to why there's been so much chaos in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. In this perspective, the author (Robert Tracinski) claims that the welfare system in Louisiana laid the groundwork for the looting and mayhem. Very interesting read.

http://tiadaily.com/php-bin/news/showArticle.php?id=1026

- Matt

2005 Hurricane Season

I came across this amazing animation from NASA today via John C. Dvorak's blog (http://dvorak.org/blog/). It's a time-lapse animation of weather systems in the Gulf of Mexico from 6/9/05 to 8/29/05. What I found fascinating was how the weather patterns seemed to repeat themselves over and over. Pretty amazing stuff. Anyway, here's the link to the video:

http://www.nasa.gov/mpg/
126449main_katrina_fred_animation.mpg

- Matt

Family Photos

Angela, LeAnna, and I had some family photos taken of us yesterday by Photography By Kristie. Shown below is just one of 134 pictures that were taken. Many more are shown on our family website, ClipperFamily.com.

- Matt