I've been bothered for a while by these keyboards with non standard layouts. They tend to land on the budget side of the spectrum and are different for the sake of being different and cool. This means a lot of kids end up with these keyboards and as an adult will have to unlearn and relearn how to type.
As a young man I spent lots of energy collecting and trading stolen credit cards on IRC. A large amount of what I was doing with them was carding local shell accounts so that I could avoid long distance charges by telnetting in to Compuserve and Genie. I of course carded my accounts there as well. I was hooked on an online airplane game and mechwarrior type arena game and still fondly look back on both those experiences. As you can imagine someone on that path without guidance life didn't go so hot and I still every now and then wish I could man a turret in a b17 on an airfield run and enjoy the simpler times.
I remember a lot of (porn) sites early on would accept credit card numbers from a generator. Didn’t even need a real one! Of course they’d later close the account for fraud when it wouldn’t bill but it was a surprising amount of places that didn’t actually validate anything beyond the digits being Visa or Mastercard etc.
How interesting! I wonder what happened behind the scene to require this. Companies in spaces like that usually require specific merchant banks that are willing to deal with "high risk" (or so seemed to be the search term). I wonder if this had advantages in bank selection or how it looked to the banks? Or perhaps a technical limitation?
I’ll admit it now: in the very early days of bird scooters they accepted visa and MasterCard test numbers. You could start rides and only after a week would they block your account. Of course, the only thing you needed back then to sign up was an email. If you had an android, you could just wipe the cache, enter a nonexistent email address off the top of your head, paste in a test card number and get going again. Fond memories.
I had a friend who carried around a canceled credit card to get free rides on the bus. The fare boxes accepted swipes and didn't/couldn't settle transactions until they were back in the barn. So they took any credit card that checksummed, I suppose.
They ceased this feature soon afterwards. I was appalled that they'd ever enabled it if it was so vulnerable. (I don't think public transit really cares about collecting fares as a priority.)
I think there was no realtime CC processing back then. In my last job I found artefacts like fax forms where they would write down collected credit card data (from online subscriptions) to be sent to their processor. To have at least _some_ safety they would just check [1] if the CC number is sound.
I remember Authorize.net was one of the first credit-card processor for eCommerce (Archive.org goes back to 1998: https://web.archive.org/web/19981206052326/http://authorizen... ), they were the Stripe.net of the dot-com boom - at-least insofar as FastCGI or ColdFusion could take you back then - this was before "XML" was a buzzword: systems were exchanging SGML (if you were lucky!) or EDI[1] (if you weren't so lucky)
Obviously big-players, established businesses, et cetera would have had a more direct relationship with the banks and/or card-processors, but smaller site operators ("webmasters", heh) I assume must have had to run nightly batch-jobs that sent flat-files of card-numbers to card-processors using a modem that called the processors directly - rather than over the Internet (I understand this was also how many brick-and-mortar retailers sent in CC details transcribed from those manual card-impression machines[2], though I assume most let their bank do it along with their cash-deposits?)
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Unrelated-but-related: Authorize.net definitely sat on their laurels: their platform, web-service, and even their marketing landing-page was basically frozen-in-time from the mid-2000s right through to around 2017, I know because that's when I was working on a side-gig to migrate a system from Authorize.net to Stripe - that was such a breath of fresh-air. Sometimes I go back through time in the repo's commit history to remind myself how bad things were back then so I appreciate that things sometimes do actually get better.
I worked for a company until 2011 that developed and licensed a shopping cart where Authorize.net was our most preferred processor. We could do others but Authorize.net had the best integration. Even in 2011 Authotize.net’s site and API just felt super old.
I worked for another company creditnet.com that started a bit before authorize.net basically wrapped ICVerify dialup verification using PGP to encrypt merchant to processor request/response.
I recall CC's being emailed via a form on the website and then input using the PDQ machine at the other end (what PCI?). For extra security they started sending it in two emails! I'd imagine some forgotten far flung corners of the internet still do janky stuff like that (or what was available/reasonable at the time at least)
I worked on a web site about 20 years ago where the form sent a PGP encrypted email. The credit card was then processed by hand. I'm guessing this isn't PCI compliant. ;)
In the 90's, we had something similar at another company. Except there, the email wasn't even encrypted. (Don't worry, the site used SSL.)
My former employer was a lot more YOLO than that. When I joined (in the mid 2000s) there was no https on the website, passwords stored in plain text, no backup strategy, etc. But they printed money with their system.
Hitting an invalid credit card just results in NO SALE, which the bank won’t care much about. What they don’t like are cards that go through and then get contested.
When your product is “infinitely cheap to reproduce” losing some to fraud that doesn’t cost you is just part of doing business.
Like the other post said, I assume they were manually sending the information to their merchant bank so there was a significant delay between when your account was created and when they discovered it wasn't real.
Additionally, at this time credit cards didn't have the 3 digit security code they have today so generating a 'valid' number was trivial.
Oh, the memories. There was a guy in my RuneScape clan who was known for doing exactly that. Walked me through setting up a vHost and bouncer on a shell account at one time so that I could be 1337 like him, or get us logins for obscure adult sites and say "use a SOCKS proxy, the other ones aren't any good".
He was like the cool older brother we never had. Hope he's alright now. Probably a major factor behind me choosing this career.
Anecdotally it seems like these things are causing a crazy amount of head injuries. I get all the tales from the ICU at the dinner table and if I had kids I don't know if I would even let them hang out with another kid if they had an ebike. They seem super cool and I always stop to watch someone zoom buy but I can't help but notice that a lot of the people on ebikes shouldn't be going that fast and aren't built to take a spill.
I don’t think this can be ignored. The bulk of ebike injuries to children are coming from throttle-having class 2 bikes and in my view these should simply be outlawed. I’ve seen people crash then who clearly thought they were stopping, but who were holding the throttle. They were riding a motorcycle without motorcycle training. Torque-assist pedal systems are perfectly intuitive to anyone who knows how to ride a regular bike. The power isn’t the problem, it’s the human interface.
Unlike a motorcycle, if you engage the brake on an ebike, the motor is completely disabled in every model I’ve ever seen.
You can hold the throttle wide open, and it won’t matter if any amount of brake is applied.
E-bikes just aren’t that dangerous, especially compared to a full power motor vehicle. I suspect that the bulk of injuries to children on e-bikes are happening in throttle models because those are cheaper models. You don’t buy your kid a $5k mid drive ebike when you can get a $1k rear drive one. Mid drives are physically unable to have throttle, whereas rear drive bikes almost universally have them.
If you are truly interested in saving children from injuries, the best thing we could do is put speed and power limits on cars. Speeding cars maim, kill, and injure several orders of magnitude more children than e-bikes.
Rad brand bikes with hydraulic brakes do not integrate the brake lever with the motor controller. Even on the ones you mention, that integrate the brake and motor controller, it’s still possible to come to a stop, release the brake lever, and then take off unintentionally into cross traffic because you were holding the throttle open the entire time. It’s a bad interface.
Total agreement on the other part but the injuries I’m hearing about have been kids riding their class-2 e-bikes into fixed objects, not crashing with cars.
Huh. I wonder if this was an early model thing. My 2020 Rad has a throttle disconnect on both brakes and the rad parts and instructions for those parts include the brake sensor. The brake handle sensor on mine also operates a brake light. On the mechanical disc brake rad that I have they even go so far as to disable the brake lever adjustment by putting a warning sticker over it to ensure that you don’t adjust it out of range of the limit switch.
The newer Rad bikes have hydraulic brakes - the older ones (like my City 3) had cable brakes with the integrated motor cutoff.
I upgraded to hydraulic brakes and wanted to keep the motor cutoff - it was hard to find levers with the integrated switch. I ended up with a kit using XOD brakes, which have the integrated cutoff and are otherwise just fine. I did, however, toss their included brake pads after a bit of riding and replaced them with Tektro P20.11 metal/ceramic pads, and those made a huge difference. That and bleeding the brakes properly.
And yet, full power motor vehicles kill thousands of children, while e-bikes kill single digit numbers of children.
If your argument is “somebody think of the children” then you have to consider that any child in the US is far, far, far more likely to be maimed or killed by a car while on their bike, then by their bike while on the bike.
Of course motor vehicles kill more children — there are orders of magnitude more of them. No one is crying "think of the children". We are just discussing whether it is wise for children to use these vehicles, which types are more/less safe for children, etc. Injury comparisons with motor vehicles they cannot legally drive, and which are in much, much greater supply, are simply not relevant. Show me a stat that looks at deaths per million miles driven, and I'm all ears.
My original comment was in response to a suggestion of banning an entire category of already regulated e-bikes purely for the sake of children, hence the "somebody think of the children"
If we are going to ban a category of vehicle for the sake of children based on injuries to children, then the logical vehicle to ban is the one that isn’t already speed and power limited.
My position is that it doesn’t matter if the kid is driving cars or not, if large, multi ton, unlimited speed, unlimited power vehicles (cars) are what is killing kids by the thousands, then why are we suggesting banning something which just isn’t as dangerous in an absolute sense.
If you want to compare motor vehicles to bicycles, then let’s add in trains, planes and ferries. And why miles driven and not time spent traveling. There’s a million ways to slice this, but there is no getting around the fact that if your kid dies in a vehicle accident, it’s almost always going to be a car.
By those measures we should get rid of bikes AND cars and stick to public transportation options.
I already think that e-bikes are over-regulated so I push back hard on reactive arguments like the GP. To ride legally I have to limit myself to 2/3 HP (500 watts) regardless of vehicle and rider weight, go no faster than 32kph, ride on road lanes where the other vehicles travel at 2x-3x my speed, wear PPE, have government approved lighting and reflectors, etc.
These things are already massively regulated in ways that limit their actual utility without necessarily helping safety. We don’t need to ban them outright because parents allow their children to do stupid shit on them, or adults are riding them without the proper skills. We don't suggest banning things like downhill mountain bikes even though children ride them, and they are far more dangerous to use as intended than e-bikes.
That's not what I said. I think e-bikes with throttles are too dangerous to be on the market for any buyer. It is a bad, dangerous human-machine interface. There is a reason that the big e-bike brands do not offer them. Yamaha doesn't. Specialized doesn't. Trek doesn't. It is a proper use of consumer safety regulatory powers to set requirements for the controls on a dangerous machine. Without them, you just get a race to the bottom.
Why is an ebike with a throttle any more dangerous than any vehicle with a throttle? Why ban them entirely, instead of just limiting them to adults or licensed drivers.
In most states you can buy a 49cc scooter which is heavier, faster, more powerful, and has identical controls and operate it without any specialized training. Is that also something we should ban?
The human interface for a hand throttle on e-bikes isn’t novel, it’s been around for the better part of a century on most motorcycles and that seems to work just fine.
A scooter has the primary brake on the same hand as the throttle. It is natural to roll off the throttle to reach the brake lever. A scooter has no control lever on the left hand. A bicycle has the primary brake on the left hand, so there is no natural inclination to release the throttle before braking.
I’m not talking about little electric folding scooters. I never mentioned those.
49cc scooters have the same controls as throttle equipped e-bikes. One brake on each side, and throttle on the right. The only difference is that rear brake on the scooter is on the left.
The main difference is that the ebike is arguably safer since you can’t apply throttle and brake at the same time due to the cutout.
True. There are a few models of hardware that allow it with a special front freewheel attachment, but generally speaking mid drive bikes are 1. Vastly More expensive 2. Almost never have a throttle only mode.
Obviously more training can help. For example it would be useful to practice riding in the rain, ice, and wet leaves. But at what point does more training not help? When will you be safe?
Riding a bike next to cars is inherently unsafe. When a car hits you, you are ducked. There's a limit to how vigilant you can be and most riders accept it's a when and not an if.
Note motorcycles have mandatory training but still have 10x the death rate.
This could be a new market. Presently, there's no motorsport rated bike helmet. You can buy a motorcycle helmet, but it's a heavy, cumbersome beast. Or a bike helmet that comes with virtually no useful rating system except for the Virginia Tech rating program.
Freeride/Enduro/Downhill helmets exist (https://mountainbikeguys.com/downhill-helmet/) but nobody has come up with a rating yet afaik. I own one, and it probably saved my life at least once, but can understand how nobody wants to wear one outside a downhill bike park.
NTA 8776 spec-rated helmets are built to withstand more forces than “regular” bike helmets. IIRC they are required in certain EU countries when riding an S-Pedelec (45 km/h limit pedal assist e-bike)
I've never heard of any place that required a license for any of the 3 formal electric bike classifications. If you need a motorcycle license that is because the thing you intend to ride is, in fact, a motorcycle.
The bike featured in the article, a BESV PSA1, is considered a "class 1" machine under the most common framework. It has a low-power motor, pedal assist, and no throttle. I am not aware of any place that requires licenses or insurance for such a bike.
You want to take away people's e-bikes because...there exists a class of people so poorly coordinated that they presumably can't operate any vehicle safely 100% of the time?
In the EU (and still the UK), anything with a throttle is treated like a motorcycle - it needs licence plates, tax, insurance and a driving licence. A child would therefore not be able to ride one. You also can't ride them on bike paths or lanes.
A pedelec on the other hand, which is what "ebike" usually refers to, still requires pedalling and can only offer motor assistance up to 15.5 MPH - these can be used wherever bicycles can and by anyone, and have no legal requirements to use.
I understand that the US doesn't really regulate non-standard vehicles, but it does seem to me like a child shouldn't be using something with a throttle.
Its just HR PR forced on the poor dude. I'm a tech adjacent poor but I've seen many been forced to write something and it's always kind of like this. A bunch of people in the company will write a piece or two like this so something recent comes up in searches during campus recruiting. It serves two purposes, just the right amount of ass kissing and gassing up potential recruits.
The unfortunate reality of Jellyfish is unless it ever comes baked in to Xboxes and smart TVs it doesn't solve the problem all media centers that aren't Plex have. If you can't add it from an app store and use the tv remote or game controller to navigate it no one I know will use it. So its Plex and nothing else until dethroned because I'm sure like most I'm running an internet facing media server for others.
Which is probably why they've invested so much time into getting their official clients for Android TV, Roku, LG's WebOS, iOS, Android, and more out there for people to download, and have clients for several additional platforms in various stages of development or app-store approval.
I’ll second this, not to mention the first class support Plex has for audio content. I have dedicated apps for my music and my audiobooks. I haven’t found anything close to that in the Emby or Jellyfin world.
I downloaded it on both my Roku and Fire ( Amazon ) devices just as easily as any other app.
Of course, the applications use the native remotes for these platforms. Since I am the one that puts all the content on Jellyfin, my less technical wife sees it like any other channel ( like Netflix, Disney, or Prime ).
I do not use AppleTV anymore but I installed it on my iPhone as well. I had used Plex before. I did not a find Jellyfin any harder.
I use an Nvidia shield and it has a Jellyfin app (along with basically anything else on Android, which is why it's been perfect for me). User friendly while still being flexible enough for most anything I want to throw at it.
The idea is that, the derivative came after the virtuoso. Of course what came after is more complex costs more takes more is more impressive blah blah. Dismissing those that thought the thought or solved for a problem before it was, is such a dumb thing people do.
I pay for Google One for this reason and ultimately account recovery due to theft if it came to it. I've never had to reach out to Google but supposedly of you are a paying customer customer service does exist. I know that the FI infrastructure has CS you can reach as I talked to them back when fi first launched and I did some promotion flipping to get a pixel. I'm probably gonna pay for Microsoft's offering it seems you can't just buy hotmail anymore and instead have to pay for the whole office + storage subscription. Same reasoning though I want CS I can reach at my email provider and I want to know they still exist in 20 years if email still exists.
Because "Afghanistan" only exists when the tribal autonomy is threatened otherwise Afghanistan has no real central government and it seems there is no will to be centrally governed. A completely different way of life the west continues to not understand. China will divide and conquer as it does in other similar regions just by making it too painful to not take their money when your local competition is.
This article is terrible but if you look at somewhere like Somalia that will experience famine on a cycle due to its regional weather patterns. Charities push the population of Somalia past the point of self reliance then act pikachu faced when the kids starve to death and the armies loosen their belts because it didn't rain.
