I just noticed that Smith & Wesson is doing 2D Data Matrix barcodes on some of their pistols. As a geek, I find this interesting for a few reasons. First, basic inventory tracking at the factory and second, to help reduce the ability to fake modify gun serial numbers. As with most gun issues, this will have zero impact on criminals. If they want to change a serial number, they’ll spend the time and money to do it – or, they just don’t care and they’ll use a …
Mobile phone card readers have become more popular in recent years because they’re small and easy to use for swiping a payment cards while away from a retail location. There are at least half-a-dozen readers out there that you can get for free from the various payment processors. That’s because the readers are extremely inexpensive to produce – and that’s because they are very simple devices. They read the non-encrypted data on the magnetic stripe of your card. The other day I was sitting with a friend who …
Over the years email spam has gotten better and worse. ‘Better’, in that the “Unsubscribe” link that is required by the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 has made it much easier to stop unwanted email. ‘Worse’, in that more companies/groups around the world can now get your email so much easier than before, so you actually get more junk email than ever before. Another ‘better’ comes in the form of that wonderful “Spam” (or ‘Junk’) button in Gmail and other web-based email systems. When enough people click that button …
The Los Angeles City Council recently voted to increase the hourly minimum wage to $15.37/hour for hotel workers at hotels with 300 rooms or more. Until today, the minimum wage for LA County was $9/hour. My first thought in reading the headline was – “Okay, so how do you cut costs at hotels?” My solution – cut staff and offer daily discounts to guests who choose not to get a daily cleaning service. I stay at hotels far more often for work than I do for personal travel, …
I don’t know when I learned this trick, but it was many years ago. Have you ever rented or borrowed a car and had to stop for gas, but as you’re driving up to the pump you suddenly realize that you don’t know if the gas tank filler is on the left or right side? I’d say there’s a… 98% chance that has happened to everyone. And with the popularity of the Toyota Prius and Chevy Volt, which gives people much longer time between fill-ups, even those car …
For several years I’ve felt like there’s something missing from ads – specifically video ads. More specifically, web-based video ads. Voting. We all remember those especially good ads. The kid reading the ingredients on a container of Breyers ice cream; Verizon’s “Can you hear me now?” campaign; Connect Four’s “Pretty sneaky sis!”. Of course, those ads were all pre-internet, so the way they rated commercials was by sales and by advertising teams crunching sales numbers. But so many ads are just awful and there’s no way to let …
