ING security Apr 19, 2007
Several months ago, ING started using a new security technology to allow users to login to their site.  The new system requires users to identify a previously selected image and phrase or else be asked any of several security questions.  Once the image and phrase are correctly identified, the user's computer is semi-permanently paired to ING's system, which means the security questions will no longer be asked.  Ever since this system has been in place, I've been confused by it.  I don't understand how it's any more secure than what they previously had.  This guy agrees with me, saying Bank of America uses a similar technology that can be somewhat easily cracked. #technology
In the city Apr 19, 2007
Every time I visit NYC, I have a slight desire to live there.  It's really the center of the universe.  No other place on earth compares to it.  It literally has anything and everything.  Whatever you could ever possibly want to do, you could do it in the city.  Whatever you want to see, experience, taste, etc., you can do it in the city.  I'm thankful I went to school in Hoboken, where the city was always just a quick train ride away.  Although I didn't hang out there all the time, I went enough to learn my way around and experience some great things. 

But there's this other part of me (the bigger part) that wants to live in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by nothingness.  No buildings.  No coffee shops.  No subways.  No people.  This is the part of me that's won most of the battles up to this point.  It's not because "that's all I've ever known".  I've experienced enough of big city life, small city life, big town life, and small town life to know which one I like the best. 

The problem with living in the city is that it's prohibitively expensive.  To make it non-prohibitive, you have to make substantial cuts in your quality of life.  Or get a damn good job.  A closet-sized basement apartment will cost about $2000 per month, and that's not a cut I'm willing to make. 

There's also the issue of downsizing from a house in rural New Jersey to an apartment in NYC:  There's no need for quite a few objects, including a lawn mower, weed whacker, power tools, etc. 

So I think I've come up with a compromise:  Two separate dwellings (and a job with double the income).  I like where I live right now.  I take pleasure in the small joys of [minimal] land ownership.  But I also like visiting the city and spending the night.  I would be ok with a closet-sized basement apartment as long as I could quickly and easily get out of there and back into something a little roomier and nicer.  Plus, if the closet-sized basement apartment isn't the primary residence, it doesn't need to be quite as nice or have any/many amenities.  All you really need is a bed and a bathroom.  Everything else can be easily found and bought around the city. #psychology
Undelivered email Apr 19, 2007
Did you ever send an email that the supposed recipient didn't receive?  Here's what happened to it: 
(via The Cartoon Blog) #technology