Windows + ATM = Bad Idea

Windows in Your ATM. I don’t care what they say. Windows, stripped down or not, is still Windows. Can the banking industry really trust Microsoft to write secure code for their mobile bank vaults? That question presumes that they’re actually going to write new code. The artcle says it will be a stripped down version of NT. I’m sure that exactly what it will be too. They’re not going to start from scratch and write a secure piece of code. They’re going to take their same flawed Windows code that they’re been using for many, many years and slap it into you local neighborhood money machine. ATMs operate on a network that is completely seperate from the Internet. Mark my words though some bank somewhere will get careless and tie their ATM network to their internal company network which is of course linked to the Internet. For the bank it will be a harmless concession made for the sake of convenience. For the cracker, it’s the pathway to your ATM. Be warned.

The Demise of Women’s Soccer. Pardon Me If I Forget to Mourn

WUSA Folds. The WUSA closed it’s doors last week. I can’t say I’m surprised. I love soccer. I’ve played it all my life. I still play it two or three times a week. But I can honestly say that I’ve never watched a single WUSA soccer game in the entire 3 years of it’s existence. I have seen a WUSA team play live though. The San Jose CyberRays came here to play our local women’s professional team, the Memphis Mercury, in an exhibition last fall. The CyberRays had won the previous season’s WUSA championship and the Mercury were coming off a really impressive season in their own right. It was all for charity and turned out the be a surprisingly impressive event. The demise of the top level women’s soccer league in the US is not due to a lack of quality play. The CyberRays featured Brandi Chastain of ’99 World Cup sports bra fame. The quality of play was really high. For some reason that didn’t translate into my becoming a WUSA fan. Apparently I’m not alone. I fall smack dab in the middle of the demographic that the WUSA and all the other fledgling sports organizations are trying to attract. Men 18-34 aren’t watching. Women, whom the league seems to be trying to attract aren’t watching either. That in turn affected the advertising revenue and corporate sponsors the league was able to garner creating your classic ripple effect. Even though I wasn’t a huge fan of the league it still saddens me to see it go away. The success of a US professional soccer league, any US pro soccer league, is a detriment to the success and growth of the game of soccer here in the States.

This weekend marks the opening rounds of the Women’s World Cup. Now there’s an event that snuck up on me. Up until a few months ago it was supposed to be held in some other country, China if memory serves, but was moved back to the US for some reason. Once again the US saves the day. I think the organizers should just stop the fronting and false humility. We’ve got the best women’s soccer players/team in world. We hosted the first WWC. We’re hosting the second WWC. Why not just make it permanent? Make a decree. Every four years, the Women’s World Cup will be held in the US. Somehow I don’t think anybody would be too broken up about that. Around the world, Women’s soccer is having the same problem catching on that Men’s soccer is having here in the States. Hopefully the 2nd WWC will be as successful as the first one. I watched several minutes of a few of the games back in 1999 and checked out the entire final game including the exciting ending and display of undergarments. New Blood?. Hopefully the the excitement will rub off and inject some life into the now dead WUSA. That would be good to see because the league is good for the game.