Life Hacks

[JohnRoberts]

The major injustice about life is that we don't figure out some answers until too late to benefit from them. Life is a cruel teacher. She gives us the test first and only later the answers.

Last week while doing my grocery shopping my "smart" (cough) credit card did not work. Being old school I had some JIC Benjamins in my pocket so was able to complete my purchase.

Does anyone here remember that old (1950s) cowboy TV show "Maverick" where one of the cowboy brothers (a gambler) carried a $1,000 bill pinned inside his jacket.

In hindsight a thousand dollar bill seems pretty unlikely to be found in the old west, but it worked for the show. Seems like a good idea to always have some JIC cash.

Back on topic, and probably the first thing useful I ever learned from a Youtube video if the RFID antenna contact on the CC is dirty it can interfere with the electronic communication. I ASSumed RFID used RF, but apparently they depend on a metallic contact to the card reader. One suggestion is to use a dollar bill as mildly abrasive to clean the metal contact. Another part of the same video suggested using a razor blade (I wouldn't do that). I used a pencil eraser to clean it, and carried a piece of 400 grit sandpaper in my pocket JIC. I used a different check out station this week but my CC behaved.

So either cleaning my CC metal contact worked, or it was an coincidence that supports the dirty contact supposition. My credit card lives in my back pocket wallet, exposed to humidity while doing yard work. It seems like gold plating the metallic contact would help, but gold is too expensive to put on billions of credit cards. My last generation drum tuner boards used carbon ink instead of gold plating on the PCB switch patterns to save cost.

JR

 

[crazydoc]

My CC failed several times over the years, clerks wiped with dollar bill which worked at times. I now keep the card upside down buried in the billfold, protecting the reading strip from abrasion, and the same card has lasted several years after I got a new one the last time my account was hacked.

 

[pucho812]

always say do it for "Justin Case", he tends to come up at all the times you don't want.

 

[JohnRoberts]

I don't think the issue was abrasion, that's reportedly how you fix it.

I repurposed a small plastic bag that the right size to hold my CC. My research suggests that the card contact patch is gold plated, but that layer of gold could be thinner than a politician's guilty conscience. I have encountered gold plate so thin that the underlying metal could rust through**** From a quick inspection of my current card, the former hacked card, and an old debit card, the card contact is more gold colored on the old debit card than the two newer credit cards. My suspicion is some sharp pencil pukes have been experimenting with thinner gold plate.

Since gold is a noble metal, the plated contact should not oxidize. Humidity and oils from handling the card could attract and accumulate an insulating layer of dirt.

JR

*** for today's TMI about gold plating, back last century I got sucked into putting a gold plated face plate on a peavey amp.

At the time I was the product manager for all power amps at Peavey (and much more). The old CS800x was ready to be retired after selling something like a half million units. I decided to go out with a splash and did a NAMM show promotion offering a gold (colored) plastic faceplate escutcheon. The cost for a gold "colored" plastic faceplate was almost nothing and blowing out a few hundred units would be easy money. THEN Melia, Hartley's wife and president of the company, announced at the pre-show dealer meeting that the amps were 24 karat gold plated. Her speech was videotaped and repeated on the trade show TV channel. So I went from selling a gold colored plastic faceplate to real gold. This easy money promotion turned into a much less profitable royal PIA.

I don't recall all the details, we had mechanical engineers to do that, but as I recall we had to design a metal faceplate punched out of appliance grade stainless steel, then nickel plate it, polish it, then gold plate. Apparently the gold plate was so thin that some faceplates sitting around in a humid warehouse rusted through the thin gold plate. I never saw the rusted plates myself but heard second hand from the ME working the project. I wouldn't bet heavy money on that finish holding up over time, but it looked good when they were shipped.

 

[JohnRoberts]

The top contact patch is from a current series master card CC, the bottom contact patch is from an older Visa debit card. They both are supposedly gold plated. The top is likely much thinner gold.

JR

 

[cyrano]

RFID is contact free. I know, cause I carry a number of RFID security (access) cards. These need to be in a precise order in my wallet to function correctly. I don't take them out of my wallet if I don't need to, I just wave the wallet in front of the reader.

The same goes for wireless payment cards. These are a little more finicky. That's because they need to do a two-way handshake and that's a bit more complicated than the access cards.

 

[JohnRoberts]

A well know hack for microprocessor gear that locks up is to unplug the SKU and replug it. The internal microprocessor will generally respond well to the hard power-up reset.
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I have a nice slow cooker (Cuisinart) that sometimes gets so stupid that unplugging and replugging does not bring it back to normal life. I have found that holding down one or more of the front panel buttons while restoring power gets it to recover from it's funk.
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Slow drains that aren't completely clogged can sometimes be cleared up by pouring boiling water down them. It is easier to fix a slow drain than one that is completely clogged.

JR