– The UK spent $6.6 billion on a new identification card system. The new ID card has biometric technology built into it… but guess how many card readers the UK government bought? That’s right: none. Not a one. Not a single police station, customs house, passport control line or court house has a reader in the entire United Kingdom. So all that biometric data – the stuff that’s supposed to differentiate the almost $7 billion system from the basic laminated ID cards that have been around for ages – is useless. Read more here.
– Around 92% of all Windows bugs could be “fixed” if people would run without admin rights. Unfortunately, Microsoft historically didn’t take much action in this regard (it wasn’t until Vista that they came up with UAC), and because of this, many lazy software vendors wrote code that would only run under an administrator account. So now people feel like they have to run as an Administrator. I wish someone would fix this situation. Read more about it here.
– The economic downturn is really hurting the “entertainment” industry. Specifically, it’s really hurting events you have to buy a ticket for, like sporting events, concerts, circuses, etc. (which is why I put “entertainment” in quotes). Many sports teams are trying to ease the hurt by offering “package deals”. For example, you might be able to get 4 $100 tickets, parking, 2 game programs, 4 hot dogs and 4 drinks for $80. But this promotion is the lamest ever: buy $48 worth of tickets to see Sesame Street Live’s “Elmo Makes Music” event at the Sovereign Bank Arena in Trenton, New Jersey… and get four free tacos from Taco Bell! Jeez – why even bother?