Yes, stored value cards are a very mature technology.
For various reasons, they're mostly used in closed-loop systems these days (think laundromats, transit systems etc.), but historically there were open-loop deployments in many European countries, and in some countries, stored-value POS payments are still very popular, e.g. in Japan.
It's a real shame that the entire world moved to online-only. Sure, it's much easier and there's less opportunity for various kinds of fraud as a result, but in terms of availability during outages or cyber attacks, it was a big unforced step backwards.
> historically there were open-loop deployments in many European countries
Indeed, there used to be things like "Moneo". The problem is that banks never trusted really these systems, so you were limited to, say, 50E of stored value. Also for some reason in Europe the readers of such cards have never been great, I guess because most devices were built on the cheap, so even if the transaction is offline and supposedly fast, you would have to wiggle your cards all around most readers for 2s until it's picked up.
In Hong Kong there is the Octopus card, which started as a closed loop subway card, but ended up being so loved that now you can pay litterally anything with it. It can store up to $500, and you can set it up to automatically top-up to $500 more per day linked to your bank account. Also accepting payments from octopus cards is very easy, you don't need a physical device and small businesses can just have the customer card tapped on their phone with a merchant app.
These were storage only though, right? Such systems are trivial to compromise.
Stored-value payment cards usually contain at least a secret key and some logic that allows them to establish a secure channel to another trusted entity, such as a merchant smartcard (which can be embedded in a terminal) or a backend server (and a corresponding HSM).
Not in the Netherlands, no. The card can be a bank card, and you can be billed at the end of the month automatically through direct debit.
It also wouldn't work as you describe, as the terminal at the point of entry doesn't know how much to charge you since it doesn't know where your journey ends.
Some transit systems work by putting a hold on your card for a nominal amount. When you finish your journey it then only claims the cost of your journey
Holds don't really show up in the monthly statement. At least not in the cards I've had. It's a functionality for merchants to say "I'd like to charge this customer up to $500, would she be good for it?". If the CC company says yes, then the merchant knows they can do so. E.g. car rental companies do this for potential damages. Up to a week the merchant can charge the actual amount (usually less) or just release the hold.
Holds are a credit card feature, GVB is a Dutch transit authority, so they're more likely to be talking about bank cards, ie. debit cards, which I don't think support holds in that same sense.
It will bill your 4 EUR (on a tram/bus) or the whole 20 (or something on a train) instead of the actual journey price if you forget to checkout. Pretty sure it can decline cards for insufficient balance too. Not sure the entry gate blocks the amount.
Actual chipcards don't bill you at the end of the month either -- they reload a fixed amount through direct debit (which takes a few days) the moment your balance crosses zero. If the direct debit isn't setup for a card (because it's not a personalized card) or the debit was rejected, the card is blocked.
For business chipcards cards it works somewhat the way you described.
It definitely exists in Amsterdam, no? When I visit I just tap my card/phone on NFC enabled card checking machines (which exist in and out of the stations)
Hey, that's easy, it's をこかすや. You could probably make some funny "CAPTCHAs" for otaku/weeb stuff in this vein. Though, I'm not sure there's much you could do that would not be easily solved by Gemini or whatever frontier models, but it would be entertaining anyway.
You can use KeePassXC for passkeys. It will generate completely unidentifiable public keys, and save the the private keys to a portable KDBX file.
It's unfortunate that passkeys have been such a disaster. Attestation should never have been part of the spec, it should never have been presented as a replacement for hardware U2F keys, and a private key file format should have been defined on day 1. But there is useful functionality buried under all the noise and confusion.
If the UN sent in peacekeepers the IDF would use them for target practice. It would be a total bloodbath.
Leaving aside the horror of the thought, the only way to stop Israel's assault on Gaza with a military force is to summon one more powerful than the IDF. There are only a few nations in the world that have a military that could take on the IDF - the US, Russia, China, I'm not sure who else. None of those countries are even remotely likely to invade Israel to stop the IDF from massacring the Palestinians. Why would they? What would be in it for them?
Even in WWII, Germany was not invaded to save the Jews from the Holocaust. That was a fortunate and welcome side-effect. But if the Nazis hadn't also invaded all their neighbours, and the Soviet Union, they could have well gone on and exterminated all the Jews in Europe unimpeded.
It seems unlikely that the IDF will do anything to an international peace force operating in Gaza (not Israel) under a combined lead of France and the UK.
Anyway, it would exactly only take one country - the US - to stop shipping weapons (to credibly threaten to stop) to bring this to an end so fast that you can‘t even finish breakfast.
> It seems unlikely that the IDF will do anything to an international peace force operating in Gaza (not Israel) under a combined lead of France and the UK.
Almost certainly true but it would be political suicide for either country to actually deploy troops to the area. Troops would be attacked either by Hamas or one of the other dozen terrorist organisations present in the area, some of which are allegedly backed by Israel. Any goodwill obtained internationally would evaporate as soon as the troops are forced to defend themselves and any goodwill obtained domestically would evaporate as soon as any troops died or were injured.
The reason why they do that is because they know they have complete impunity. If Israeli attacks on the UN were followed by sanctions by major economies, the Israelis would think twice next time.
IIRC one of the third party partition plans involves a coalition of local governments staffing a neutral zone between Palestine and Israel. The issue for that plan is one of support (Israel doesnt like it, natch) and funding.
High PPI screens have been around for 10 years or so, and they still cost about twice as much as a standard PPI screen the same size.
Put yourself in the shoes of the average computer purchaser: Would you rather buy a high PPI monitor, or two standard PPI monitors? To me this is a no-brainer.
