I think the link you want is:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/07dedd34-d921-11de-b2d5-00144feabdc0.html but it is a slow one, so get it streaming and pause it to buffer it up, and you need full screen to read the subtitles!
I tend to agree. I don't really see the big deal with a national ID programme (in the UK) since most 'normal' people will have a driving licence or passport with photo id etc on it anyway. (A DNA database is a different thing. Too easy for a speck of DNA to get injected into a crime scene and then you are in the position of proving innocence).
But the problem is really with all the other data that is farmed about you in the form of credit agreements, insurance policies (and the associated provided inside leg measurements) and these are not sources that are going to be put into the control of one big brother anytime soon - they are pushed around and traded without your consent, or rather with your forced and implicit consent, in order to get the credit/cover etc you need. So eventually, this data will seep out to the public domain and will be (or is already) available if you know where to go. Forcing a digital watermark/signature in the data might help identify the origin of the data, but it doesn't help once its been leaked. DRM protecting it seems the best option - time limiting the accessability of it should work for bulk data, but until then it can always be extracted into another format.
Maybe we should all have different Avatars for online registrations? At least then it would be more difficult to aggregate the info sources. Each Avatar could supply a personal key (token) which only you hold the key to allow the onward distribution? Then we would all need a Personal Security Device (PSD) to hold these private keys.
Just rambling now.
30 Nov 2009 09:52 Read comment
Wow. Easy to see how sticking to your guns can escalate and land you in this bother. The law process truly is an ass sometimes (oftentimes?), and stories like this do nothing to help that image. I hope you can salvage some losses by packaging and selling this experience in some way to as many publications as will take it. I simply don't see that if the original disputed amount was amended to your proposed number how the award of costs is valid.
As always, there's more to these cases but at face value it seems wrong.
19 Nov 2009 08:39 Read comment
I take this with a dose of scepticism. The CC companies are not particularly interested in cutting their margins! This could be a case of "if you can't beat them, buy them". Its interesting that the monopolies commissions work to prevent two or more large entities dominating a market, but have no voice in preventing these innovations, which can change the game, from being hoovered up. Nice pay-day for a couple of years hard work though - well done.
19 Nov 2009 08:30 Read comment
Funny Dean, liked it.
I too hate those subscribe/unsubscribe/register/install questionaires which 'force' mandatory but irrelevant information. The trouble is that they hide behind the cloak of 'official-ness' and the threat that you have NO CHOICE if you want to proceed. The result for me is I provide a whole set of junk input and alter-identity.
16 Nov 2009 10:47 Read comment
I for one enjoy the doom mongering and conspiracy theories of Dean (even concur with quite a few), but would agree that its a bit tedious hearing snippets of some ethereal system which frankly just revolves around a 'trusted third party' approach.
there's always an attack vector, and in the case of trusted third parties one is the integrity of the people and systems in it.
21 Oct 2009 21:49 Read comment
Exactly my problem too. Maybe not quite so many passwords or variations, but its truly a pain, and one that PKI was supposed to resolve years ago. And its not just the passwords, but the UserID itself can be a guessing game (I even forgot my Finextra userID again because I've been away a while!)
But I never trusted those Password Managers either.
So my 'system' is a (probably very poor) cryptic clue to my several passwords which I can refer to when I forget one or run up against the 'final attempt'.
Thanks for the links.
09 Oct 2009 22:48 Read comment
Easy, just put a cloths-peg and a piece of plastic (recyclable) on the spokes of the electric vehicle. Now it sounds like a real car again.
27 Jul 2009 16:48 Read comment
It's far from a new idea. I was talking to Visa about doing this back in 2002. Back then the issue was integration and I guess the cost to them of implementing the service, which they couldn't expect to charge much for providing.
Just watch for the small print of 'signing up' to the service, because I wouldn't be too happy if it waives responsibility for resulting fraud if you failed to report within a short time of being sent an SMS alert! That would be silly.
It's good and it's about time. I'd pay a small amount to have this service.
27 Jul 2009 11:52 Read comment
Are you describing a super-low level form of 'front-running' where the buy/sell is detected just slightly in advance and then gazumped and cashed straight after - making buy-sell cycles in seconds not minutes.
Surely the place to be doing this is on the 'inside' and at the expense of all thsoe traders and funds you are supposedly supporting.
The whole system stinks, but there's simply no way to just stop the world and get off - and putting the genie back in the bottle won't work either - we just have to compete and evolve, until driven to extinction.
27 Jul 2009 10:29 Read comment
Ha,
At least Mr Darling is starting to remind the banks that they need to start lending more, and at fair rates.
btw - I saw the programme last night (in the UK) about the Madoff pyramid scheme - was was the SEC thinking!! Complete incompetence and blind greed.
27 Jul 2009 09:54 Read comment
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