The Boston Diaries

The ongoing saga of a programmer who doesn't live in Boston, nor does he even like Boston, but yet named his weblog/journal “The Boston Diaries.”

Go figure.

Thursday, September 22, 2016

The computers … they know! They know! Part I

As appreciation of our hard work, The Corporation decided to treat us (and by “us,” I mean “The Ft. Lauderdale Office Of The Corporation”) to lunch at Tap 42. Wanting to know just where Tap 42 was located, I opened up Google Maps on my smartphone and started to type in the address. I got as far as “1411” when I noticed that the top possible option was “1411 S Andrews Ave Ft. Lauderdale”—the address of Tap 42.

“How?” I asked my office mate and fellow cow-orker T. “How did it know?”

“Well, perhaps Google noticed a flurry of similar queries coming from the same location,” said T.

Plausible I suppose. But I'm not sure how I feel about that. It seems … eerily prescient and disturbing. Almost like Cyber Brother is watching over us.

The computers … they know! They know! Part II

I received an automated call from my bank (a credit union). It was the Credit Card Fraud Dectection Unit asking me to verify a transaction for $1.00 at a gas station on September 22nd. I had no idea what date it was (turns out—it was earlier today) and I did hit a gas station earlier this week. But gas isn't 7¢/gallon (I mean, I do live in Boca) so I knew it wasn't me.

I declined that transaction and was then informed I should call and talk to a representative to resolve the issue. It turned out there were two transactions today—the one for $1.00 at a Sunshine gas station in Miami, and a second transaction for $0.00 (the representative called it “an authorization for billing”) at a Citgo gas station in Houston, Texas!

Oh my …

A new card is on the way, but again, I find myself a bit uneasy. It's wonderful that my credit union is looking out for fraudulent use of my card, but … it's another set of computers watching over me.

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