Bit-Shift.Net - Rant

AT&T to America: We can't handle it anymore

Matthew — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 03:19:02 GMT

I've been an AT&T customer for just over a year now and an iPhone user for just over 6 months. First off let me make it clear that I'm very happy with the device itself. The user interface is intuitive and easy to use. The icons they chose make it obvious, even to the technology challenged how to make a call or look up an address. And the app store is awesome. So many choices for apps from Bejeweled to currency converters to language learning applications. With over 54,000 applications to choose from, there is plenty of opportunity to customize your iPhone experience.

The major downfall of the iPhone was the network it was tied to. I didn't notice it until I got an iPhone, but I started experiencing connectivity issues with both data and voice. I was experiencing dropped calls several times per week and sometimes a few times a day, or sometimes I wouldn't be able to initiate the call at all. Fearing the phone had an issue Apple replaced it under warrenty, but that didn't fix my problems. So my worst fears were confirmed, AT&T's network can't handle the iPhone. Some people at Apple had hinted 3G issues with AT&T, but of course AT&T would never cop to the fact that their network was straining to keep up with the iPhone usage.

Well, now even AT&T has admitted to what most iPhone users already know. They can't handle it. The interesting part of the article is that AT&T is the largest wireless carrier political contributor, spending over $40 million dollars gaining favor in Washington, DC. They state that they never anticipated people to use their handsets that way. So rather than spend their money to upgrade their network resources, they give politicians large sums of money to protect their interests.

I really hope the rumor mills are true and that Verizon will have a 4G iPhone by late next year or early 2011. Due to the fact that Verizon's 4G network and AT&T's 4G network are based on the same technology, it makes a certain amount of sense.

Telemarketers: The quickest way to ruin your dinner

Matthew — Sat, 02 Sep 2006 17:09:37 GMT

How many times has this happened to you? You have just sat down to a wonderful meal of top sirloin, garlic mashed potatoes and a fresh Caesar salad when the phone rings. You think to yourself, "maybe that is Matt calling about season passes at the mountain, I should get that." "Hello? Good evening Mr. <butchers last name because he can't speak English>, I'm calling to inform you of a wonderful oppurtunity...blah blah blah" AHHHHHHH! Why do they always call during dinner. Why? Because they know you're home.

No matter how quickly you get them off the phone, there is no taking back the aggravation they have caused you by interrupting your dinner and quality personal time with your friends/family. But, there is no reason you can't have a little fun with them.

Behold the Telemarketer counter-script. As soon as the person on the other end of the line asks you to purchse whatever wonderful time saving, life enhancing, sex enriching product they are selling, just start with this script and you will have them running for a Taco Bell application in no time!

Credit Card Encryption or lack there of...

Matthew — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 05:45:54 GMT

Today, as I was picking up my dry cleaning I watched the attendent swipe my card through the reader and enter in the amount then asked me to enter my PIN. When I entered my PIN and hit enter I began to wonder what happens to that information as it's whisked out onto the wire on it's way to my bank for authorization. Is it encrypted in any form, is my PIN hashed before being sent, or as I suspected in the most likely answer, is the data sent over the wire in plain text. Hey, I work in information security, these are the things that I worry about.

Well it turns out my third theory was correct. An article over at The Register talks about a group of scam artists in Thailand that stole credit card information using wiretap equipment, then smuggled the information to Malaysia for encoding on to phony cards. According to the Thai police, an estimated $1.59M dollars was fraudulently charged over a 6 month period while an additional $9.5M in charges is still being investigated.

Another thing that concerns me is that some of these credit card machines don't even use phone lines anymore, they have connections to the internet for performing authorizations. Ideally, these machines would connect to the credit transaction clearinghouse via an encrypted VPN, but given the history of financial services lack of security, I doubt that is the case.

Update Complete: Please wait while the update completes--Huh?

Matthew — Sun, 29 Jan 2006 04:44:52 GMT

I am the proud owner of a 30GB iPod video. This is one of the few devices that the more I use it the happier I am with it. I take it snowboarding, to work, listen to it in traffic. Its awesome.

<rant>This evening I plugged my iPod in to charge and iTunes informed me there is a new firmware version, version 1.1. Great, so I go download it and run the installer and tell it to update my iPod. Anyone else see the contradiction in that message? Nothing went wrong mind you and the new support for the iPod radio remote and bug fixes went fine, just put some thought into your wording Apple. </rant>