The 8008 was: Blinky lights WAS: The SR71 Blackbird was designed ENTIRELYwith slide rules 666
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Woah there a minute -- please include a modicum of reality.
First -- banks have been settling drafts electronically for roughly fifty years -- the only thing new about ACH is that now it is done in real time instead...
In the first place -- not any schmoe with your account data can initiate an ACH-EFT transaction. Only participating financial insbreastutions get to play that game. There is a small cadre of vendors who specialize in this market, ranging from totally straight-up to downright sleazy (*cough* iBill *cough*).
In the second place -- the amount they can electronically transfer is limited by the performance bond they had to post. At my PPOE we had to post a ten million dollar bond to get a daily transaction limit of two million dollars.
In the third place -- any participant in ACH must pre-commit to a standard grievance policy -- if you find out they took money without your explicit permission, or if you dispute the amount of an implicitly permitted transaction, they are obligated (under penalty of losing access to the ACH network) to immediately return the disputed amount.
In the fourth place -- even becoming a one-step-removed participant (i.e. Joes Telephone Company, who offers ACH payment) requires a rigorous Due-diligence audit and bonding procedure. Imagine the joy of taking a group of college drop-out stoners running a dot-com and seeing which of them got to keep their job after going through an FBI background check. (Hint: None of the database guys).
spit And I'm trying to explain that the rules are outdated and there is no code back the old rules...
There is *no doubt* that having some amount of money slurped from your account by mischance or malfeasance is a major inconvenience, e.g. the case where I was debited $600 (annual contract) when they had meant to bill me for a $60 (monthly) colo charge. But one telephone call later, I had my money back in my account, and two working days later the entire issue was settled for the correct amount.
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Computer software consists of only two components: ones and zeros, in roughly equal proportions. All that is required is to sort them into the correct order.