The 8008 was: Blinky lights WAS: The SR71 Blackbird was designed ENTIRELYwith slide rules 671

check

Many high-dollar stores, particularly tech ones, insist on checking and will refuse to let you charge something if you don't produce matching ID. I can't imagine why the credit card companies would prohibit this; you'd think they'd encourage it to reduce the simplest cases of fraud.

I do know it's illegal for the merchant to demand a phone number or other personal information to use a credit card, but they can get nearly everything they want off your ID if they check it...

That's patently flawed since the number is printed on the card and anyone who's ever seen your card (or any website that has asked for it) has it. If you can steal someone's CC number, it's trivial to steal the CVV2 (or ZIP code) too.

I like Citibank's solution better and wish more banks adopted it: each time you use your card online, you use a little app that sits in your toolbar to generate a new CC number specific to your transaction. You can say how long it's valid, what the maximum amount is, etc. It's a little tricky to get recurring charges set up right, but you can do that too when needed.

I wish the physical side of using my card was even half that secure.

S

-- Stephen Sprunk "Those people who think they know everything CCIE #3723 are a great annoyance to those of us who do." K5SSS --Isaac Asimov