Archaic and antiquated

Coming from norway doesn't really feel like coming from hi-tec heaven. But sometimes it does. I just read this:

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=27304

a, to me, completely incomprehensible article defending an antiquated and archaic payment-system. She mentions how 17% of disabled people would prefer this old system, which ofcourse, leaves a gigantic mayority wanting the newer system. It hardly seems logical.

I've had a bank account since I was a child, like most westerners do I guess.
I got my first little plastic card when I was 16 and moved away from home. It was PIN only. I got my first VISA and Mastercard before I was 20(can't really remember), they introduced me to signatures. The signature system seemed somewhat -well, stupid. Ofcourse, it was never in use except when power was out, and I can't remember anyone in Norway actually looking at the signature to verify it. I remember a newspaper article where two journalists had found a restaurant using only the signature system and they signed with James Bond and Donald Duck, the restaurant accepted it, the bank accepted it. Stupid. Worthless. A remnant of the pød world.

At least with the PIN, you only have a 3 in 10000 chance to commmit fraud.

When I started travelling abroad I was alarmed to discover a non-online world of signatures and whatever, once(on purpose) I overdrew my account with 10000 NOK(~$2000) in Rome(I was having alot of fun). The bank wasn't happy when I got home but it was nothing they could do. The romans weren't online, they didn't check my balance. Stupid(ofcourse, at the time, I wasn't complaining). Then, only two years ago in Amsterdam, I realised virtually no shops would accept a bank-card at all, there were few ATMs. I was shocked. In Italy I experienced much the same, and in england. I figured corruption was so widespread that if economic transactions were online and registered -their economies would collapse.

This fall in New York City I bought a hard-drive at best buy(with a completely empty account). They wanted me to sign for it and then checked my signature -but I hadn't signed the card and carried no ID, I argued my case and they let me have it. Stupid.

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

I have two credit cards. They don't work by signature. They check the balance online, they use a PIN.

Here in Norway, even the tiniest of the most tiny little newspaper vendors have online terminals, if they didn't -they'd have trouble doing business. Cash is going away in our society, more and more -cash is for bars and drugs.

Ofcourse, lots of people use their cards in bars as well, but it's slower than cash and irritating when drunk. Once I was at a jazz-festival in Kongsberg, I was waiting in line outside with everyone and when they opened the doors I headed straight for the bar. The jazz-festival crowd was not very streetwise and they all used their cards, I waited in queue infront of this bar in half an hour because of this. It would have been 10 minutes had they all used cash. So cash is still nice in bars. Ofcourse, if you leave the card you can put the entire evening on the tab which is nice.

Online banking is nice too. Easy access, easy to make transactions, easy everything. And alot cheaper than the old ways.

Several people in Italy claimed they had never heard of it. I was shocked.

And I suppose I was shocked reading an article such as the one above from a computer literate person. Why I'm writing this after all.

I do believe that if all economic transactions went online corruption would be substantially decreased. I don't even fill out my tax-returns anymore, they're already filled out when I get them, all I have to do is check for errors(hasn't been one yet) and sign. And I don't actually sign with a pen, I send the government an SMS, or an email, or make a phonecall, or sign the damn thing with a pen and snailmail it.

And it is good. It is not stupid, it makes sense.

The USA likes to talk about its liberties, we don't have them here. Not in the constitution, but we have something else. We have *taken* these liberties, and practice them, and no band has ever been critized for critizinig the government. And our unfree press has never been intimidated by the government to write erronous articles and suppress the truth, and despite our lack of freedom of speech -we speak freely. And despite the fact the state is religious(protestant) and the prime minister is a priest and he comes from a political party called(in direct translation) the christians people movement, our schools teaches neither "intelligent design" nor that Darwinism is "controversial". It hardly teaches religion at all. So there. B-)

b