I used Mosaic Magic back in my high school journalism class to design a yearbook cover 20+ years ago! Turned out great - it won some kind of award iirc.
One really nice use case for dithering that I've found is for building graphics for 8-bit (Pico-8 and Picotron) games and toys.
I made a ruby script that can take a graphic and scale it to whatever size, then it uses a closest color match to substitute colors for the _very_ limited Pico* palette and applies dithering to make it look attractive. I like Stenberg the most, but have played with Atkinson and am still feeling around a bit.
Of all the IoT contraptions and ecosystems, I hate garage door openers the most. My opener came with some sort of goofy base unit where you can hit the "close door" button and it'll sound an alarm, trigger close, and then the happy little LED shows you that it is indeed, closed.
My solution, after looking into every off-the-shelf option, was to take an esp32 running esp32home + Home Assistant and hot wire it to buttons and status LEDs on a remote + base unit and stick it on the shelf in the garage. It's not pretty, but it works reliably.
The whole system is infuriating. I stay pretty well in one lane for what I want to watch, and if I _accidentally_ click on ONE music video, the whole feed is wrecked for months.
Almost all NFC you find these days is going to be a form of EMV and is encrypted.
There was a form of contactless magstripe (MSD) that was not encrypted and has been phased out of usage as of like, late 2019 via card update bulletins.
There are some reasons it still exists, however, it is no longer required and merchants/POS systems ought to start phasing it out.
In the US, the way we do tip on receipt is a lot more natural if you're asking for a signature. Without a signature, you're just handing someone a tip option, which is awkward with our current way of doing things.
Some merchants opt to keep signature enabled because it gives them a fuzzy feeling and it's a point of closure to a transaction.
Lot's of payment terminals in the UK allow the customer to input the service charge themselves before they enter their PIN. Otherwise the waiter/waitress typically asks you how much you want to pay before typing in the amount. If you're splitting the bill then they need to do that anyway.
Here in Canada, portable POS terminals usually have a screen before "TAP/INSERT CARD" that says "Add tip?" and offers vendor-set default options, usually either 10%/12%/15% or 12%/15%/20%. The fourth option is always "custom", which allows people to enter 0 if they wish. (There are also payment flows that have an initial "Yes/No" on the "Add Tip?" question, in cases where a tip may or may not make sense, e.g. a bakery/deli that offers both high-touch dine-in and extremely-low-touch "we just take it from the fridge and give it to you" take-out service.)
Since Canada and the US have basically the same tipping culture, these POS systems seem to be already tailored for adoption in the US market (or at least, being cloned by US POS mfgrs.) Not sure why they haven't been.
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In the US, the way we do tip on receipt is a lot more natural if you're asking for a signature. Without a signature, you're just handing someone a tip option, which is awkward with our current way of doing things.
Most places I go now have a receipt option step that serves as a justification for the tip screen, rather than the signature. Tapping “No Receipt” for a $5 beer purchase is only a little faster and less ridiculous than signing for it.
For those abroad, even the notion of tipping can be absurd. Using that notion as a point of support for a payment system the levies fraud responsibilities onto the merchant and is very easy to circumvent, and the reason most other places moved to chip+pin, or contactless a long time ago is even more amusing.
I understand what you're saying, and how its locally relevant, but from the outside looking in the US is a long way behind on keeping up with the tech in this space.
When I was over there I constantly got confused around the tipping system and how some bars keep a tab open for you (by take your card and putting it in a little book at the back and then you pay/tip at the end)
I didn't trust that so I ended up just signing the receipt and adding the tip to the bottom and keeping my card in my wallet. Needless to say I think the bar staff got a lot of tips that night!
>Needless to say I think the bar staff got a lot of tips that night!
You generally tip based on percentage or the number of drinks, so it shouldn't matter too much unless you're doing it by percentage and rounding up the nearest dollar.
> In the US, the way we do tip on receipt is a lot more natural
American in Hungary. Here tipping isn't expected like it is in the US. But when you pay, they bring the terminal to your table with the check, then you tell them that you want to add a tip and how much, and they type the total into the terminal before you tap your phone or card. Perfectly natural.
On this topic, if anyone can point me toward a US-based issuer where I can open an account and get a card that supports credit pin (not pin for cash advance on a credit card), I'll happily venmo you a pizza or something. The issuers I have spoken to[1] all tell me it is impossible to get such a card in the US, which seems ridiculous.
* Spokane Teachers Federal Credit Union (Mastercard)
* Andrews FCU (Visa, one of the cards is also contactless) - Must ask for the "international travel" card, the default is chip-and-sign
* State Department FCU (Visa) - Must ask for the "international travel" card, the default is chip-and-sign
* Target REDcard Mastercard (you have to get the normal store card and hope to get swapped out to the Mastercard after a few months/years/epochs; you can't get the Mastercard from the first go)
I have inquired about this also and found no solution. If I use my US based credit cards abroad where chip and pin is the norm, I end up getting asked to sign a printed receipt.
I imagine the card networks just don’t want to spend money to change the infrastructure to support chip and pin because the merchant pays for most the losses in the US?
I was (politely) threatened with arrest on a British commuter train when the ticket inspector's credit card device insisted on a PIN for an American credit card.
He literally didn't believe me when I said American cards still ask for signatures. By luck there was an American also riding in the cabin who piped up to verify my story and I was allowed to pay when I reached my destination.
In Australia the same card works with contactless payment, which never asks for a signature, up to AU$100. But as soon as I go over that limit it's a card dip + signature.
Also interesting how there are such specific requirements at grocery stories. None of my US-based cards could be used in several grocery stores in the Netherlands. When the cashier looked at my cards, they immediately knew it was because I didn't support whatever networks they expect.
The liability shift in the US that affected most retailers occurred in October 2015 -- basically, merchants are and have been liable for fraud that occurs on swiped transactions. I'd be curious to find out how the example presented by the parent article could change this -- a valid-looking card that only has swipe would definitely be taken by a merchant for fraud, and if the card doesn't claim to be EMV-capable, it seems like this would not be the merchant's fault. I would think in 2020, however, a mag stripe only card would raise red flags with humans at the counter, but gift cards are this way, so perhaps they would just breeze right through.
Previous commenter and I were talking about chip and pin, not just chip (aka EMV).
With EMV, someone can still use your card after they steal it. With chip and pin, that is far more difficult. I don’t know if merchant off the hook even with just chip, I presume the card networks kept some weasel language in order to allow them to blame the merchant.
EMV is the standard for the debit/credit cards with chips. It includes modes with PINs, signatures, and neither, depending on the configuration of the card (i.e. the bank) and the reader (i.e. the shop's bank/intermediary).
What is the difference between Chip and PIN versus Chip and Signature?
Chip and PIN is the most secure type of credit card technology. Instead of a signature being used for identity verification, it requires you to enter a four-digit Personal Identification Number (PIN) that must correspond to information contained in a computer chip embedded within the card. The Chip and PIN authentication method has been a global standard across Europe and Asia for many years which means using your card while traveling overseas will be even more convenient. Authorizing your transactions with a PIN is not new to debit card transactions, but is a new way to authorize payments with a credit card.
You may occasionally still be asked to sign for transactions while using your chip card. Please be assured that while these transactions are still secure, many merchants do not yet support chip and PIN so you may encounter this from time to time. First Tech is committed to ensuring chip and PIN technology is available wherever merchants accept it. Learn more at firsttechfed.com/mastercard.
Can confirm; I have First Tech and Spokane Teachers cards and both are chip-and-PIN. If either of them would start offering contactless on these cards, I'd have the perfect travel card.
Last I knew Barclays is the only one who offers a credit PIN that you can use at kiosks that only accept PINs. I also heard Navy Federal was rolling it out but their services are a military+family only
Barclays has chip and PIN capability, but it doesn't default to PIN if signature is available - it will only trigger if that's the only verification method, which is almost never the case in the US.
(Source: I have one, and the only time I've entered the PIN is at a British train ticket machine.)
I believe AmEx charge cards (Green, Gold, Platinum, possibly others but these are the good ones) are all chip-and-pin. The Blue Cash one on that website isn't.
Same here. I only follow woodworkers and immediately unfollow anyone who gets outside the line of what i want in my feed. It has allowed me to find interesting niches in the hobby and connect with people with 10x the skill who like teaching and talking about technique, but it takes a pretty brutal type of curating to keep the influencers & garbage out.
This comment is surely too late, but I feel like it's worth preserving. I think the woodworking community is more prone to that than the metalworking community. I hate to say it, but I think it's a question of barrier to entry. It's hard to be dilettante in metalworking when it requires a huge investment and moving tens of thousands of pounds of equipment.
