New York Winter Snow
Until last morning there hadn’t been any snow in NYC this winter. But today I woke up and, lo and behold, the lawn was dusted with a thin pattering of snowy goodness! Hurray, winter comes at last.
My front yard with snow
This poor tree looks like it is freezing to death
We even got to leave footprints in the snow
TLA Credit Card Error Message
I just purchased some text-link-ads for kicks because they had a $100 off coupon, but when I went to pay I saw this:
Oh, Text Link Ads. If you aren’t already swamped with fraudulent credit card purchasing, you should be. I’ve never seen a credit card form that told you specifically which information was wrong. Doesn’t that help someone with bad intent? Most web companies won’t even tell you these days whether you typed your password OR your user ID wrong, but TLA is showing you which field on the credit card authorization is bad!
Imagine this as an in person dialog between Evil Eve and Benign Bob:
Eve: Here, I’d like to buy this sweater
Bob: That will be $25.
Eve: *hands over a card*
Bob: Credit, right?
Eve: Wait, I am not sure.
Bob: I’ll try credit.
Eve: Thanks.
Bob: It didn’t work, would you like to try debit?
Eve: It’s a stolen card–maybe that will work?
Bob: OK. YAY! You’ve bought your sweater!
This is a story for Bruce Schneier and Boing Boing, both of which would get a kick out of this hilarious but scary error message.
I won’t trade you for an iPhone, honey!
According to a survey recently conducted in the UK, “one out of every eight men surveyed would willingly ditch their girlfriend for a hot gadget.” Apparently 17% of my age group would do it. Can you imagine that there’s a 1:5 chance your boyfriend would rather have a new iPhone than you? WOW!
So, an iPhone might keep me busy for a few hours, but my girlfriend has the potential to keep me happy forever. It’s so weird. I really can’t fathom anyone valuing a gadget over their girlfriend!