It's instructive to see how Michal is handling the situation, though. He's set up a free blog at Blogspot, and posted scans of receipts and bills, transcripts of online chats, a timeline of what's happened so far, and his email to Rick Germano (SVP of Customer Operations) and the subsequent auto-generated response that was sent back. For anyone who has a problem with Comcast that they can't seem to get resolved, this is a great guide to all the ways you can attempt to communicate with the company.

As new information comes in, he posts it. As of Monday, Comcast's Twitter-monitoring team is on the case. We'll be checking Michal's blog in the coming days to see whether they can succeed where everyone else has failed.

Consumer Complaint (Thanks to Erica!)
(Photo: Getty)

Remember TJX's gigantic security breach problems last year, where data on 94 million accounts was stolen? Good for you, because apparently TJX doesn't. A former employee of a TJX store in Lawrence, Kansas was fired recently for posting anonymous complaints online about the current sorry state of his store's security, which included the store manager writing server login and password information on a sticky note, and the store resetting employee passwords to blank fields.

According to The Register,

Benson's May 8 posting was prompted by news that managers had changed the password for employees to access the store server. Inexplicably, it was set to blank. When Benson first began working for TJX, his password was the same as his user name, he said. Then came word in January 2007 that unknown hackers had brazenly intruded on the company's network over a 17-month period. For a time following the disclosure, TJX employees were required to use relatively strong passwords. The change to a blank password clearly represented a step backward, Benson thought.

TJX says the former employee divulged confidential information, but Benson claims that he's acting as a whistleblower to get them to improve their security:

"My information is still on that server," he continued, referring to the machine that sits in an office at the TJ Maxx where he once worked. "So if their network is insecure, then my information is insecure. I'd prefer they get it fixed."

"TJX employee fired for exposing shoddy security practices" [The Register] (Thanks to Will!)
(Photo: crazytales562)

Here's Cole's email. We're going to pull out the actual URLs so we don't encourage more snooping, but we tried Cole's method and were able to pull up customer infor screens on our own:

My friend pre-ordered GTA4 from BestBuy.com and since he doesn't have a printer he forwarded me the confirmation email of his purchase so I could print it out. The confirmation email contained a link to print out the page if you were having trouble viewing the email from within your email client. I was (since the message was forwarded to me the styles and images were all messed up), so I clicked the link which took me to [redacted]. I was curious how random the &e parameter was so I decided to play around with it and discovered it isn't really random at all and by incrementing a certain part of it I was able to find home addresses of other users of BestBuy.com who had packages shipped to them.
 
This seems like a pretty serious privacy issue as I am now able to find full names and addresses of people that have bought something from BestBuy.com and had it shipped to them.
 
Cole

"I've seen your recent posts about the Westin Casuarina in Las Vegas and they are SPOT ON!" anonymous writes. He used to work there and does not have warm feelings for the management. He adds, "the property has several times barely escaped Starwood removing their name and flag (The Westin flag is the holy grail of Starwood properties)."

I hope this list of names and contact info is helpful...
 
Main Property Number - 702-836-5900
Executive Office Fax Number - 702-836-5991
 
*Note - all email accounts are first initial and last name @westinlv.com (John Doe = jdoe@westinlv.com)
 
Sig Ortloff - Hotel GM - o. 702-836-5930
David Smith - Casino GM - o. 702-836-5959
Sharron Salinas - Hotel GM Assistant - o. 702-836-5987
Luann Trimarchi - Casino GM Assistnant - o. 702-836-5992
Christoph Hoeflich - Asst. Hotel GM - o.702-836- 5965 - c. 513-373-9056
Asst. Casino GM - o. 702-836-5933
Stacy Houston - Director of Guest Services (Front Office Manager) - o. 702-836-5945
 
Hope they help!

Anyhow, the CSPI says:

Last night, the King County, Washington Board of Health voted to require food service establishments to phase out their use of artificial trans fat and to list nutrition information on chain restaurant menus. The menu labeling rule only affects chain restaurants with 10 or more outlets and that have standardized menu items. Starting in August 2008, those restaurants will be required to list calories on menu boards, and calories, carbohydrates, saturated fat, and sodium on printed menus. Like a New York City regulation adopted last December, King County's artificial trans fat phase out occurs in two steps. Food service establishments have until April 1, 2008, to switch to trans-fat-free frying oils and shortenings and until February 1, 2009, to remove artificial trans fat from other products.

In Seattle, Menu Labeling Is In, Trans Fat is Out [CSPI]
Example Starbucks Menu [CSPI]

PREVIOUSLY: Subway Is Not Ashamed: First Fast Food Restaurant To Put Calorie Info On Menus

Cookie with edible nutrition facts list [Domino via BoingBoing]

From the AP:

"Losses experienced by Wal-Mart and the banks issuing the credit cards currently total more than $8 million in Florida and are still being calculated," a release from the department said.

Framingham, Mass.-based TJX discovered in mid-December that customer data had been stolen by computer hackers and used to make fraudulent debit card and credit card purchases, but did not inform the public of the breach until mid-January. TJX, parent of T.J. Maxx, Marshalls, HomeGoods and other chains, later said it took a month to make the breach public because it was trying to prevent further damage.

The company at first thought the intrusion began in May 2006 and ran into January, but later said it found the breach started nearly a year earlier, in July 2005.

Florida arrests linked to data theft from TJX systems [Boston Globe]
Stolen Data From T.J. Maxx Parent Company Surfaces In Florida Wal-Mart Fraud [Information Week]

PREVIOUSLY: TJ Maxx Security Breach Happened A Year Earlier Than Previously Reported
T.J. Maxx Credit Card Breach Probed By MA & RI AGs
(Photo: Jels)

Consumers who switch to Verizon's new FiOS TV or Internet services will find a change to their existing Verizon phone service: Their copper-wire phone line will be replaced with a fiber-optic line.

Verizon touts that the fiber-optic lines can carry more information and provide a better signal.

But some consumers see a downside: They will lose phone service during an extended power outage. That doesn't happen on phone service provided via copper wire.

CONSUMER WATCH: Fine print in Verizon switch-over [Newsday]

Photo: Josh Bancroft

Credit cards numbers are instance of ISO 7812 numbers, developed by the International Organization for Standardization in 1989 to regulate all magnetic strip id cards.

Every credit card number consists of the following:

• Single-digit Major Industry Identifier (MII)
• Six-digit issuer Identifier number (IIN)
• Account number
• Single-digit checksum

Of note, the MII is considered part of the IIN. Also, an ISO 7812 number cannot be longer than 19 digits.

So, the next time you try to use your credit or debit card to enter an account number, be sure to leave off the first six digits and the last digit. — BEN POPKEN

ISO 7812 [Wikipedia]

They didn't check your credit card number against every single credit card number on the planet. That takes too long and they've got important money to make.

Rather, credit card processors use a simple formula, called the Luhn algorithm.

Starting with the farthest right digit, they sum the double of every second digit. If the result is a double digit, both digits are added together. The results are summed. If the final result ends in zero, it's a valid credit card number. If the final result doesn't end in zero, it's not valid.

So, the next time a website denies your education material purchase order, shout, "Damn you, Luhn!" — BEN POPKEN

Credit Card Validation - Check Digits [Beachnet]
Luhn Algorithm [Wikipedia]

Previously: What A Credit Card's First Digit Means

1,2: Airlines
3: Travel/Entertainment
4,5: Banking/Financial
6: Merchandising/Financial
7: Petroleum
8: Telecommunications
0,9: Other

Whip yours out and see for yourself. — BEN POPKEN

50 Fun Facts About Credit Cards [Blueprint For Financial Prosperity]

The Economist: "IF YOU have ever longed for a meat substitute that smelt and tasted like the real thing, but did not involve killing an animal, then your order could be ready soon. Researchers believe it will soon be possible to grow cultured meat in quantities large enough to offer the meat industry an alternative source of supply." (This article refers to the use of stem cell technology.) A Meaty Question Sep. 23, 2006

New Scientist: "Cloning livestock promises to bring us better food, but will anyone eat it? Cloning endangered species is an option only if the animal concerned has a closely related farmyard counterpart to supply eggs and act as a surrogate. And cloning pets is just for the sentimental with more money than biological understanding." A sporting chance, August 27, 2005

Lots more inside.

Congressional Quarterly: "Livestock farmers and animal breeders champion cloning as a cheaper alternative to conventional breeding. The technique is no different, they argue, than any other sort of breeding — and could well result in safer food products, since it allows for greater control over disease factors in clone subjects.Consumer and food-safety advocates say the technique is anything but safe: It's been shown to create serious genetic defects, and too little is known about other health effects for the FDA to green-light widespread animal cloning." Critter Copies, Nov 11, 2006

Associated Press: "Cloning is the creation of an animal from the DNA of a single parent to create an offspring genetically identical to the parent.
"This seems to be one of the things where technology seems to drop something in the lap of the food companies," Ruland said in a recent interview. "It's not driven by the market or any benefit to the consumer."Dairy industry treading cautiously on cloned cows July 8, 2005

CNNMoney: "The report concluded "that animal cloning is as safe as other assisted reproductive technologies," said Dr. Stephen F. Sundlof, director of FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine."Almost all food will come from sexually produced offspring of the animals and not from the clones," said Sundlof.Cloned animals are used primarily for breeding which can help create stocks with increased resistance to disease or with superior meat quality, said Sundlof." FDA gives nod to cloned meat, milk safety, Dec. 28, 2006

It seems that the main objections are moral (cloning seems "wrong" to some people.) The plus side for farmers is that they can replicate a cow after they've seen how it tastes. Also to take into consideration is the fact that with cloning approved, there's really nothing to stop them (except technology) from growing meat in a vat like the Economist article says. Should vat meat need a label? It's up to you guys. Is Soylent Green vat meat? —MEGHANN MARCO

CORRECTION: From the FDA FAQ: "FDA is not recommending any additional measures relating to food derived from adult clones and their offspring, including labeling." Since the FDA specifies "adult" clones, we're assuming they're not yet ruling on the issue of cloning stem cells for vat meat. Vat meat may still be Soylent Green, however...