Information Technology – Page 8

December 16, 2014December 31, 2014

Small Bank In Kansas Creates the Bank Account of the Future

The Citizens Bank of Weir, Kansas, or CBW, has been taken apart and rebuilt, from its fiber optic cables up, so it can offer services not available at even the nation’s largest bank.

In the United States the primary option that consumers have to transfer money is still the ACH payment. Requests for ACH transfers are collected by banks and submitted in batches, once a day, and the banks receiving the transfers also process the payments once a day, leading to long waits.

CBW has engineered a system so that a business could collect a customer’s debit card number and use it to make an instant payment directly into the customer’s account — or into the account of a customer of almost any other bank in the country.

December 16, 2014December 31, 2014

Amazon UK Glitch Sells Thousands of Products For a Penny

For about an hour on Friday a few lucky Amazon UK shoppers were able to take advantage of a price glitch which discounted thousands of marketplace products to the price of 1p.

An Amazon spokesman said: "We are aware that a number of Marketplace sellers listed incorrect prices for a short period of time as a result of the third party software they use to price their items on Amazon.co.uk. We responded quickly and were able to cancel the vast majority of orders placed on these affected items immediately and no costs or fees will be incurred by sellers for these cancelled orders. We are now reviewing the small number of orders that were processed and will be reaching out to any affected sellers directly."

December 11, 2014December 31, 2014

Infinit: send and receive files of any size

Things have gotten better in recent years when it comes to sending files to others. While it is still possible to store files on ftp servers or web servers, options such as cloud storage have become available as well. Services like Dropbox, OneDrive or Google Drive offer storage space on the Internet that users can fill with data.

Infinit is different and more in line with BitTorrent Sync than any of the aforementioned cloud storage services. One of the core differences is that it does not provide you with a set amount of storage space on the Internet.

December 10, 2014December 31, 2014

Is tokenization becoming table stakes for mobile payments?

Tokenization is a good move forward as it builds on the gains of PCI and the global adoption of EMV standards.

December 3, 2014December 31, 2014

Google Can Now Tell You’re Not a Robot With Just One Click

Google announced that many of its “Captchas”—the squiggled text tests designed to weed out automated spambots—will be reduced to nothing more than a single checkbox next to the statement “I’m not a robot.”

February 7, 2014February 12, 2014

Free PDF To Word Converter Impresses and it Works Right Inside Your Dropbox as Well

Convertii is a free online service that lets you convert a PDF file to an editable MS Word document. It’s better than many such converters I’ve tried, in that the results it produces are pretty good. It’s totally free to use, and you can even do 3 conversions without having to register. After that, you’ll need to register (it’s still free) to carry on using the service.

To convert a file, just drag it into the correct place on the web site, or upload from your hard disk. Supply an email address, and the converted file (or at least a download link to it) will be emailed to you as soon as the conversion is done.

While all this sounds pretty good, Convertii has an extra trick up its sleeve. Link the service to your Dropbox account, and then you can initiate a conversion simply by dropping the PDF file into the correct place in your Dropbox. Convertii will automatically pick it up, convert it, and put the Word document back in Dropbox for you. Neat!

Check this out at www.convertii.com

February 6, 2014February 12, 2014

Mobile startup seeks to turn businesses into ATMs

A mobile payments startup aims to launch a new kind of ATM juggernaut in the U.S., one that will dispense funds from the cash-filled tills of hotels — and perhaps eventually restaurants and retail stores as well.

The mobile app is called Spare and is an offering from a mobile startup called Mercuri Systems, whose founder is D’Ontra Hughes.

Mobile Devices Perceived as Security Industry’s Weakest Link, Finds ‘2014 Cyberthreat Defense Report’

Inaugural Report Offers New Insight Into the Perceptions and Buying Practices of Information Security Decision Makers and Practitioners in North America and Europe

CyberEdge Group, LLC, a premier research, marketing, and publishing firm serving the security industry’s top vendors and service providers, today announced immediate availability of its inaugural Cyberthreat Defense Report, the first of its type to provide a 360 degree view of organizations’ security threats, response plans, processes, and investments. Surveying more than 750 security decision makers and practitioners, the report found that more than 60 percent had been breached in 2013 with a quarter of all participants citing a lack of employer investment in adequate defenses.

OKI enters Indian market

With the delivery this week of an order of ATM-Recycler G7s to the State Bank of India, Japanese manufacturer OKI has achieved its stated objective of entering India’s booming ATM market.

95% of ATMs Worldwide Are Still Using Windows XP

95% of the world’s ATM machines are still running Windows XP and banks are already purchasing extended support agreements from Microsoft. (some of the affected ATMs are running XP Embedded, which has a support lifecycle until January, 2016). ‘Microsoft is selling custom tech support agreements that extend the life of Windows XP, although the cost can soar quickly—multiplying by a factor of five in the second year, says Korala. JPMorgan is buying a one-year extension and will start converting its machines to Windows 7 in July; about 3,000 of its 19,000 ATMs need enhancements before the process can begin.