I'm still waiting for the java-driven company VPN, so the Grinch is probably hovering over my shoulder.
OK, it's simple (but is still limited by economics). Remember your O-Level Physics. There are three basic vectors at work here: magnetic polarity, an electric field (simplified, with due apologies to Mr Maxwell), and rotational movement. You don't have rotational movement, but you do have various electrical and magnetic fields. These conflict.
Any mag-stripe card is prehistoric technology. Christ, Visa (and other card processors) went to a double-stripe technology in around 1980, just because they could fit around 256 bytes on, rather than 128 bytes. (Numbers approximate.)
Mag-stripes are evil. For a start, and you're numerate enough to understand this, it's a bit difficult to enforce 128-bit DES encryption on a 256-byte stripe. Even if you assume no lossage and checksums for that lossage. Not going to work.
Mag-stripes are the current technology of choice for providers of practically anything because, well, they're the mass-produced standard. Everybody (except me) has a credit card or two. We're happy with them. The path of least resistance is to implement a new "service," such as the Oyster card, as a mag-stripe.
Stop and think.
Did you ask for a mag-stripe? Does it make you feel warm and cuddly? Are you prepared to put up with cosseting the little darling in your man-bag? Do you not object to going through the gruelling process of standing at the end of a queue at the station, behind several half-dozens of people who are randomly explaining why they are visiting their auntie in Orpington (an experience I have sacrificed my other life as a millionaire merchant banker to avoid. Double good karma.)?
It's crap technology. It's thirty years old. Credit card companies are not noted for being on the bleeding edge, but even they are trying to demote mag-stripe to the level of cheques.
There. Does that clear up your confusion?
Now, I will admit that there are several technical hurdles to deal with here. (Again, I'm ignoring economic costs for the sake of argument.) In all honesty, though, an EEPROM version of a chip'n'pin card would be the obvious solution for the catastrophic £2 billion and counting disaster that is the NHS central system.
It's also true that chip'n'pin is not an exact solution for your problems. For starters, you don't want to enter the pin. Mind you, this is just the way the thing has been developed and marketed. There is no reason for a chip-based Oyster not to be able to feed off a very low ohmage local supply at a ticket barrier: say from around a couple of foot or so, probably tuned to the length of the barrier.
Result? No pointless delay, no muss, no scratch ... and perfect knowledge of who you are and where you got on board and where you're going to.
Since that would be Muswell Hill, or some other equally exotic destination, the Met would still shoot you in the head seven times from point blank range anyway.
But at least, with a chip'n'pin card, they couldn't claim that they didn't know that you were Brazilian. The best they could do is to point out that, after they'd gunned you down, they removed your underwear and discovered that you didn't have a Brazilian wax.
This is probably good enough for 90% of High Court Judges.
Anyway, where was I?
Yes. The technology is dead. It's obviously stupid. You know it doesn't work. You've proved it doesn't work.
Since you seem grumpy and old enough to accept the status quo and not to complain about it enough to make a difference, may I suggest that you buy yourself a man-bag for Christmas rather than a pair of boxing gloves and the "Spice Girls Reunion" calendar? (Joke recycled from GH circa 53, if memory serves. Which it's fuckin' gonna have to, on a Tuesday night in Bracknell.)
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It's Christmas! A Miracle! I'm Still Logged In!
Date: 2007-12-18 10:48 pm (UTC)OK, it's simple (but is still limited by economics). Remember your O-Level Physics. There are three basic vectors at work here: magnetic polarity, an electric field (simplified, with due apologies to Mr Maxwell), and rotational movement. You don't have rotational movement, but you do have various electrical and magnetic fields. These conflict.
Any mag-stripe card is prehistoric technology. Christ, Visa (and other card processors) went to a double-stripe technology in around 1980, just because they could fit around 256 bytes on, rather than 128 bytes. (Numbers approximate.)
Mag-stripes are evil. For a start, and you're numerate enough to understand this, it's a bit difficult to enforce 128-bit DES encryption on a 256-byte stripe. Even if you assume no lossage and checksums for that lossage. Not going to work.
Mag-stripes are the current technology of choice for providers of practically anything because, well, they're the mass-produced standard. Everybody (except me) has a credit card or two. We're happy with them. The path of least resistance is to implement a new "service," such as the Oyster card, as a mag-stripe.
Stop and think.
Did you ask for a mag-stripe? Does it make you feel warm and cuddly? Are you prepared to put up with cosseting the little darling in your man-bag? Do you not object to going through the gruelling process of standing at the end of a queue at the station, behind several half-dozens of people who are randomly explaining why they are visiting their auntie in Orpington (an experience I have sacrificed my other life as a millionaire merchant banker to avoid. Double good karma.)?
It's crap technology. It's thirty years old. Credit card companies are not noted for being on the bleeding edge, but even they are trying to demote mag-stripe to the level of cheques.
There. Does that clear up your confusion?
Now, I will admit that there are several technical hurdles to deal with here. (Again, I'm ignoring economic costs for the sake of argument.) In all honesty, though, an EEPROM version of a chip'n'pin card would be the obvious solution for the catastrophic £2 billion and counting disaster that is the NHS central system.
It's also true that chip'n'pin is not an exact solution for your problems. For starters, you don't want to enter the pin. Mind you, this is just the way the thing has been developed and marketed. There is no reason for a chip-based Oyster not to be able to feed off a very low ohmage local supply at a ticket barrier: say from around a couple of foot or so, probably tuned to the length of the barrier.
Result? No pointless delay, no muss, no scratch ... and perfect knowledge of who you are and where you got on board and where you're going to.
Since that would be Muswell Hill, or some other equally exotic destination, the Met would still shoot you in the head seven times from point blank range anyway.
But at least, with a chip'n'pin card, they couldn't claim that they didn't know that you were Brazilian. The best they could do is to point out that, after they'd gunned you down, they removed your underwear and discovered that you didn't have a Brazilian wax.
This is probably good enough for 90% of High Court Judges.
Anyway, where was I?
Yes. The technology is dead. It's obviously stupid. You know it doesn't work. You've proved it doesn't work.
Since you seem grumpy and old enough to accept the status quo and not to complain about it enough to make a difference, may I suggest that you buy yourself a man-bag for Christmas rather than a pair of boxing gloves and the "Spice Girls Reunion" calendar? (Joke recycled from GH circa 53, if memory serves. Which it's fuckin' gonna have to, on a Tuesday night in Bracknell.)