[MLUG - DISCUSSION] Credit Cards (was Free Web Hosting)

[<EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

I believe that MasterCard has spent millions developing a very large 
transaction processing facility located in O'Fallon Missouri in is race 
against VISA.  The computer systems are specialized to handle very high 
transaction volumes. IBM has had a proprietary mainframe system for 
years called TPF that specializes in OLTP.  What I find interesting is 
that IBM is migrating their proprietary TPF systems toward open-source 
and Linux.  See:

http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=17000479

The next big thing is to embed RFID technology in the credit card 
itself so you won't have to swipe it.  However, there are security 
concerns that the RFID transmission is not encrypted.  Considering 
there are theives going around buying and installing innocent-looking 
ATM machines that grab people's card numbers, I would not put it past 
someone to develop a reader that could grab the RFID codes right 
through your wallet as you walked by.  See:

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/7544236.htm

Bruce

-----Original Message-----
From: Mikhail Kovalenko <EMAIL:PROTECTED>
To: MLUG Off-Topic Discussion <EMAIL:PROTECTED>
Sent: Thu, 01 Jan 2004 16:23:07 -0600
Subject: Re: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] Free Web Hosting

Jonathan King wrote:
> On Wed, 31 Dec 2003, Mikhail Kovalenko wrote:
> >>It takes seconds nowadays to validate a credit card through the
>>merchant network. I doubt it would work. Instead, make sure to use
>>a good credit card -- you can always dispute the charge (something
>>you can't do with a debit card).
> > "Seconds" to validate? Even less than that I think. The last time > 
I bought something at Wal*Mart, the validation maybe took one > second, 
and when I last bought something at Target, I swear it was > 
practically instantaneous. So either somebody has gotten some > mammoth 
bandwidth behind this, or bad checksums are cached locally > (and 
daily), or they just spout out a contingent approval and then > rely on 
the fact that you've got 30 seconds to get the real answer > while I'm 
fumbling for a pen.
> > Seriously, does anybody know for sure how it got this fast?
>

There isn't a lot of info to transmit. When the card is swiped, only 
what's printed on its face is transmitted. For an online sale, a little 
more information is required, but it's still only a few dozen bytes, 
and there's no dial-up terminal to slow things down. Low-speed telco 
connection - that's where most of the delay usually is.


--
MK


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