RFID: I Don't Zync So!

I was considering the Zync card from American Express for their reputation with customer service, warranty protection and the relatively low $25 yearly fee compared to their other charge cards. Before I jumped in, I found that Zync was touted as an ExpressPay card. This is the service that allows you to make wireless, contact-less transactions with the card. That is, you just have to hold up the card instead of physically swiping it through a magnetic card reader. The diminutive integrated radio transceiver microchip embedded in the card which enables this function is called an RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification) chip.

It took me a while to find more information on whether ExpressPay was optional or not. The official page for the Zync card doesn't even mention it, and American Express does not make an e-Mail address or web form available for non-cardholders. So I contacted them via telephone and AskAmex, their official customer service contact on Twitter. At first I got contradictory information on whether the chip was optional or not. But the final word was that it was built in, and the card could not be procured without an RFID chip.

I didn't get the card because of this. "Why?," you ask. Well, let's just say that RFID and I don't see eye to eye.

Wrong in Implementation

Now, don't get me wrong, I don't think RFID is all bad. There are legitimately logical uses for RFID. It's the technology behind key fobs and badges which have have long been used in banks, businesses, schools and government to open doors and parking gates. It can be used for store security and inventory tracking.

In fact, probably the first exposure most people had to RFIDs were those square tags in CDs and other products that sound the alarm at the exit if they're not properly deactivated. That's a tiny RFIDs at the (more or less) center. The larger area around it is the antenna. Instead of using internal batteries, RFIDs pick up the energy they need to work via electromagnetic induction, usually from the "reader" (in the case of store merchandise, from the exit gates).

Far from those humble beginnings, more sophisticated RFIDs are now being used to transmit financial information wirelessly, à la "ExpressPay". Is it convenient? Perhaps. But in return for the arguable convenience of not having to physically swipe your card, it opens up a whole slew of security and privacy issues.

One of the issues is the weak encryption being used. It's already been cracked. American Express used to offer some of their cards without RFID chips when they first started using them, but they no longer provide this option. Instead, a representative offered to disable the ExpressPay feature for me. That means that charges made using this wireless method would be refused, which does protect the user on some level from unauthorized purchases.

However, the chip is still active and functional and will gladly transmit all the card holder's personal information to anyone who is listening. The representative assured me that the range at which the information could be read was limited to a few feet, but he has not seen what some talented hackers have been able to do, and the equipment and techniques to do so just keep getting better.

Somebody's Tracking You

Then, there are other implications. The same information that could be used for identity theft can be used to track a card holder's movements. And it's not just stalkers and government agencies who would be interested in that, it's the card issuers themselves! Check out this patent filing from American Express.

The idea here is to use the embedded RFID to track a card holder's movement through say, a grocery store, observe and record what products or category of products an individual looks at (information provided by RFID readers placed at strategic points throughout the store) and for how long. And why all this invasion of privacy? To provide you with targeted and personalized ads, and find more ways to manipulate you into spending more money.

It seems that the primary reason behind putting RFID chips in credit and charge cards is to make charging items an even easier, almost impulse action while gathering more information about you to get you to use your card more often, all in the name of the corporate bottom line.

Cut It Out

The tradeoff may be worthwhile for card issuers, but it's certainly not worthwhile for the customer, which is perhaps why card companies are so quiet about RFID and rarely even refer to them as such. They may tout the dubious benefits of contact-less payments, but they won't give you the important details. Oftentimes a regular card suddenly becomes an RFID card the next time it is issued. Such was the case with my Chase Debit card, which I have since cancelled.

Before cutting up my card however, I took it upon myself to attempt to cut out the RFID chip itself. I pretty much butchered the RFID and no doubt broke it in the process, but more careful carvers will be able to remove a perfectly functioning RFID chip. Below are the before and after pictures of my card. Click on the pictures for the full images.

While American Express calls it "ExpressPay", Chase refers to their RFID "service" as "Blink". Mind you, for all I know the chip here is backwards. I certainly didn't do the best job excising it. But it does give you an idea of how small they are. Astute viewers will notice a small bump visible on the back of the card where the Blink logo resides. It is almost imperceptible to the touch, barely visible and even tougher to photograph. But be warned as far as I know there are even smaller chips which are indeed totally undetectable to the naked eye and touch. Chase's debit card is a little thicker than a regular card, like a thin sandwich. But this is not always the case.

The Customer Decides

To deactivate the chip some people recommend smashing it, cutting it out, using a hole puncher, putting the card in the microwave (which I don't recommend), or an aluminum wallet or sleeve to block the signal. While these may all be acceptable temporary fixes, why should we settle? Admittedly you can do any of these things and just use the magnetic strip as usual. But there may be a time when card issuers drop the magnetic strip altogether in favor of an all-RFID "solution", if they want you to use it bad enough.

The fact is that these products exist for us. We are the customers. And we have the power both individually and collectively to decline, though sadly most of us don't often realize this. Every time you reject or cancel an RFID card you send a message to the card issuer and the industry as a whole. Even better if you let them know why. Eventually it adds up. The product that is rejected by the customer will not be financially successful and will simply drop from the marketplace. We've suffered enough abuse at the hands of the credit card industry. Let's not let them play fast and loose with the security of our personal information. Let's not make it even easier for identity thieves.

Batch Renaming Files (without using the terminal)

So you have a bunch of pictures on your Mac and you want to add a prefix (like say "My Wild Party-") or a date to all of them, or maybe you've already painstakingly renamed them one by one, but want to change the name now. But there are 600 of them. Isn't there any easier way to rename files and folders on the Mac?


You got a Mac because its easy, and powerful. Sure, the biggest geeks will open up Terminal.app and work all kinds of magic. In fact, this is another option for renaming multiple files. But those of us who either haven't the time to dabble in such sorcery or simply want a more Mac-like way are left to different devices.





Enter Automator. Automator lives in the Applications folder on your Mac. Automator exists to automate those boring, time-consuming, repetitive tasks. That's right, you don't need any additional software. It's all there on your Mac already. Automator is made with non-programmers in mind, so you don't have to know any geeky code just to rename your tons of files.


Once you get the hang of it, you'll be using Automator for many of those repetitive tasks you used to do manually. This is a very simple guide to renaming multiple files, or batch renaming, though you can do a lot more with Automator.


Okay, so let's say you've got all those files to rename. First thing you do is launch Automator. Now since Automator is rather open-ended, from this point on there are a lot of ways of going about things. But for simplicity and sanity's sake, I'm going to list only one set of steps to get where we want to go. But you should be aware that there are lots of options here if you want to play around with it later. For reference, I am utilizing Version 2.1.1 (247.1) of Automator.





1. Once Automator finishes bouncing in your dock it's going to be asking you to choose a template for your workflow. The default template, simply titled "Workflow" is fine.





2. If Automator isn't showing the Library, make sure you hit "Show Library" in the toolbar. Once the Library is showing, you'll want to click on "Files & Folders" with the Finder happy face to the left. Once you do that, make sure you select "Get Selected Finder Items" from the list. Using the search bar will narrow down your search. Drag the selection to the area to the right, or just double click it.





3. Look for "Rename Finder Items" and add that. Now the second and final part of our workflow has been added.





4. Now you can hide the Library or expand the window. The first part of our workflow has no options, but the second part is full of them. In this case we will select "Add Text" and "before name". If you wanted to add the text after, you would of course select "after name".





5. Now we write the prefix we want to include before the file names. In this case I want to name some pics we took back at the Appletalker beach party (we had a blast). I am careful to include a space after the dash, but you can select to include an underscore to be more compatible with the net or not include any separation at all if you don't like.





6. Now you have to actually go to the Finder and find the files you want to rename. They can be anywhere. They can be in a folder with other files you don't want to rename. It doesn't matter, because Automator will only touch the filenames of those files you select. Here I've selected my pics.





7. Now we head back to Automator, being careful not to deselect our pics. They should look grayed-out but selected in the background. Now the moment of truth: Hit the Run button at the top right of the toolbar.


Automator may warn you and ask you to make duplicate files. In my opinion, this is a bit overprotective. You're not actually modifying any other attribute of these files except for their file names, something which we do everyday without any need for warnings. If you're incredibly paranoid, go ahead and do it. But take it from me, there's no need to duplicate files and it's just a waste of time and space. And if you're worried about making a mistake, don't worry, I'll show you how to change the file names afterwards.


Automator should display some log information at the bottom pane after completing the task, unless you have the variable display selected, in which case you get a sad nothing displayed. But it should work either way.





8. Congratulations! Your files have now been successfully renamed! And with no extra software or geeky terminal commands.





9. But what if you change your mind about the name? In this case, I've decided to add the year to the end of the title. No sweat. I just take a character I want to put it next to (in this case, I want to put the year before the dash, so I enter a dash), and then I include a space, the year and the dash together, meaning that Automator will replace the dash with the year with a space before for separation and of course, another dash in its place.


You can choose whatever format suits you best, of course. This can get tricky if you have dashes everywhere, for instance. In this case you may have to write out a longer piece of the file name, or the whole text to amend.





10. The file names have now been amended. You see? No need for worry- even if you make a mistake renaming, you can always correct it later, as long as you take some very basic precautions (I don't mess with the original names usually, but if you need to, you might consider Automator's advise and have it duplicate the files beforehand just in case). By the way, if you ever need to simply remove a section of text just replace it with nothing- no space, just make sure there is nothing in the "replace" field and it'll delete whatever text you inserted in the "replace" field.


Afterword


Now if you were paying attention, you noticed that the "Replace Text in Finder Item Names" action has a specific option for adding dates and times. You can do much more complex things than add the year. You can have every file labeled with its date and time of creation in almost any format. The possibilities are vast. But you don't need another tutorial for that. Go ahead and try it out yourself! Automator brings incredible possibilities to the Mac without the need to write one line of code.


Automator will work with almost any Apple app, like the Finder, as we saw, Safari, iCal or Address Book, among others. Apart from Apple apps, Automator can also work with apps like MS Office and Photoshop. Imagine the possibilities! Good luck and have fun! Just remember to backup your data first!


Note: I also published this article at the Appletalker Scrapbook.

Those Mercurial CFLs

Florescent light bulbs are more efficient than traditional incandescent light bulbs. This has become a common fact at this point. Switching from incandescents to florescents means lower energy consumption, which undoubtably means lower use of fossil fuels in most cases, lower pollution, less global warming and all that is good for the planet and its human inhabitants. This is of course unless your house is powered by a "non-dirty" source like solar, wind or geothermal energy. But obviously that is not the case for most people.

Thus florescent light bulb manufacturers, governmental bodies and even some environmental groups have taken to advertising these facts. It's printed on the packaging of almost every florescent bulb pack, in government and environmental literature. Most of the push has been for compact florescent lights (CFLs), since they are meant to replace the common and iconic screw-in light bulb most of us grew up with. But what is not nearly as widely known are the dangers of CFLs (and all florescent light bulbs).

You see, all florescent lights, whether the old-style tubes or CFLs, contain mercury. This means you can't just throw out your CFL bulbs with your regular trash. These bulbs need to be recycled, or they'll just end up in landfills where they will eventually seep into and contaminate the land and water with mercury, the most toxic natural non-radioactive element known to man. So while CFLs are being touted as more "Earth-friendly", they may indeed end up posing a significant environmental threat.

If you do use CFLs, never throw them in the trash remember to recycle them. Earth911 has a vast list of recycling centers throughout the U.S. and Canada you can browse through by zip code. Many areas have recycling programs for CFLs and now even stores are accepting CFLs and old electronics for recycling.

Sometimes they Break

But if mercury contamination is an issue with CFLs, what happens when one breaks? As it happens, a broken CFL bulb is a danger to anyone who comes in contact with it. While a broken incandescent can cut you, a broken CFL can give you mercury poisoning in addition. This is a fact that so far I have never seen displayed on any packaging or announced by public health organizations.

In fact, the EPA recently updated their guidelines, with a report which "indicates the tiny amount of vaporized mercury from a single broken bulb is within the safe range for adults", but the official cleaning instructions call for airing out the room and avoiding all contact with the broken CFL, among other steps.

It certainly doesn't sound very safe, and frankly I wouldn't be taking any chances with my health or the health of those in the household. The danger from CFLs is very real, on both a personal and a global scale, and it is something to consider. Even if they don't break often, is it worth the risk?