so the other day I noted my card wouldn’t work on Amazon. Called the bank apparently the old Chinese problem occurred again. This time they expressed me a new card. But it’s funny when I spoke to the rep at the bank she mentioned their phone app. I told her I was downloading it as I spoke.

And once I had the app logged in I did something, I scanned a check in. You just scan in the front and back, put in the amount and press submit. Nice!

Now the card – they aren’t the standard magnetic cards anymore. Sure they still have that big wide mag-stripe on the back. But they have a few more interesting features. Like the chip – that once is a 21st century thing, plus the fact that you can just wave the card in front of a payment terminal. That last part gives me the screaming heebie jeebies though. But then I realize you have to be VERY close to the payment terminal for it to work. It’s essentially RFID.

But it gets better. Because I’m signed in to google it automagically linked the new card to google pay. It really has gotten very cool.

Now we’ll move onto cars. They are a FAR different beast than they were even 20+ years ago. The fact that every month I get a report on all the systems in the car via email I love. Of course I do know that the connectivity for it do that is cause for some concern. I mean a nefarious or rogue actor could have some real fun with that.

And I keep getting emails from Sirius – why on earth would I even pay $5 a month when I have spotify on my phone and the phone hooks up to the car quite nicely.

Plus we have to remember the entirety of the car is controlled by a computer these days. From electric power steering to the fact the brakes and gas pedal aren’t connected via mechanical means but via a wire. That one fascinates me. Because it also means the car is hackable.