April 19, 2004
Chips and Pin and Spam and Eggs
So they are finally introducing pin ID to replace signatures. Hmmm, took 'em a long time to figure this one out. I remember seeing this system being used in France way back in 1990.
So why the delay?? Nothing on the website about it. Nothing much on the website at all in fact. Apparantly it is being introduced now to counter fraud. I guess card fraud hasn't been too bad up til now then.
It must be that France and the USA, who've had the system for a while now, are better at these kind of things. Well, maybe not the Americans, who have alsorts of wierd banking restrictions and were particularly crap at adopting the mobile (oops, sorry, 'cell') phone.
But the French. Phew, those guys are street ahead. Look at their TV system, SECAM - only a couple countries use it, but one of them in Japan, so it must be good. And Citroen cars used to be, and perhaps still are, very innovative. And they've had various types of electric cars knocking about for ages, but not causing a song and dance about it. But most of all, the French genius must lie in the age old technology, the mastery and craftmanship needed in any civilisation, that of baking the best bread. The English have some ok bread, but far too much limp sliced, evil bread. And the yanks, well, don't even think about what they call bread - its all sugar. But the French bread, ahhhhh the baguette, the mark of true advanced civilisation!