A number of credit card companies now issue credit cards with embedded RFIDs (radio frequency ID tags), with promises of enhanced security and speedy transactions.

But on today's episode of Boing Boing tv, hacker and inventor Pablos Holman shows Xeni how you can use about $8 worth of gear bought on eBay to read personal data from those credit cards -- cardholder name, credit card number, and whatever else your bank embeds in this manner.

Watch the video here

Amazon has released the Kindle, the latest in a long line of ebook readers. This one, however, doesn't appear to be falling on its e-ink face.

TigerDirect markets itself using the slogan "The Best Computer and Electronics Deals Anywhere", and I hoped they would live up to their slogan.

Sadly, I was horribly wrong - TigerDirect have one of the worst customer service teams I have ever dealt with - and in my opinion, they are also using illegal tactics to sell their products. Here is my story...

When you think of Windows Firewall, you probably think of the half-baked attempt at a Firewall that was present in XP SP2. You may also still think of it as inferior to many of the free Firewall solutions available because Windows Firewall doesn't support Outbound filtering.

Well, think again - Windows Firewall has been reborn and a lot of work has gone into making it a notable security feature of Vista. Not only does it now have Inbound and Outbound filtering, it also has the concept of Network Profiles, Computer Connection Security rules, Monitoring, and a awesome new UI which will give you FAR more control of the Firewall - "Windows Firewall with Advanced Security".

So ya got a resilient rig that has stood the test of time. You built a beauty and have had some of your best years of productivity with it, only problem is, that was 4 years ago. What is a geek to do?

Upgrade!