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To: brad greene who wrote (19365)	12/6/2000 6:40:31 AM
From: stockman17	Respond to of 26039

Sorry if this was posted before...good question - does biometric security distinguish twins. Bad method - only two solutions tested... The Twin Test Our writer enlists his brother to see whether the latest biometric technology is as foolproof as advertised LEV GROSSMAN time.com Remember when you were in grade school and there were those two kids the teachers could never tell apart who always had to share the same birthday party? My brother and I were those kids, and if you think being a twin is as fun as it looks on Two of a Kind, think again. Still, now that we're all grown up, why not take advantage of our genetic similarity to test these newfangled biometrics devices? Wonder twin powers, activate! We ran our first test on Cyber-SIGN's signature-verification software, which analyzes not just your handwriting but also the speed and motion of your hand as you write and how hard you press with the pen (see cybersign.com for more info). I was sure we could fool it: I used to be the neat one and Austin the messy one, but lately I have been slipping (or he has been catching up), and for the past few years even I haven't been able to tell our handwriting apart. To use the Cyber-SIGN software, you sign your name on an electronic tablet with a special stylus. First Austin signed three times so the software could get a good sense of how his signature varied, and then I did my best to copy it. The software was smarter than it looked — it caught me every time. We switched roles. My signature is nothing but a big L, a big G and a couple of squiggles. Easy pickings, right? No matter how many times Austin tried, he couldn't fool Cyber-SIGN. We moved on to a Sony Vaio mini-notebook computer. A version of the Vaio sold in Europe and Asia comes with a biometric screen saver that checks three different things before you can log on: your voice, your fingerprint (through a special reader) and your face (using the Vaio's built-in camera). We set it up with Austin's identity. It took his fingerprint, snapped his picture and recorded him speaking a 2-sec. password phrase of his own devising ("important security check" — creative choice there, Bro). Then he stepped aside, and I went to work. I flunked the fingerprint test right off. No surprise there (although later even Austin had trouble getting the fingerprint reader to let him in). I had better luck with the voice-recognition test: after I did my best impression of my brother about a half-dozen times, the software let me in. The face-recognition test was even easier to fool. Time after time, no matter how high we turned up its sensitivity, the software couldn't tell the difference between us. The Vaio's software does all three checks, so in reality I still wouldn't have been able to break into Austin's hard drive, but if he had been relying on the face-recognition feature alone, it would have been a very different story. Of course, most people don't have a twin, so they don't have to worry about this kind of thing, but our test did prove that biometric security devices are far from infallible. So watch your back, Mary-Kate: Ashley's coming for your data. END

To: brad greene who wrote (19365)	12/6/2000 2:43:50 PM
From: Ron Ohio	Respond to of 26039

Tuesdays huge rally is normal in a bear market. In '30 to '31 there were 9 such rallies. What about a recession? The Fed's policies, energy prices, loss of huge paper profits from the markets drop, takes spendable funds out of the market place -- and consumer demand falls. Recessions are caused by the downward mushrooming effect of paper losses, job layoffs coupled with pessimistic thoughts that develop. Normally the wilder the up move, the deeper the down move. After the past few years, we would be extremely lucky if we only had a mild downturn. Even if the Fed went to an easing policy in the next month it would take 6 months to a year to take effect on the economy. However, the one policy the Feds can't control is energy prices. Our energy policies have left us more than ever dependent on the Arabs. Any way that is the way I see it from the nifty fifties to the present. Ron