Dancing?

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yogi
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Re: Dancing?

Post by yogi »

I just went through that exercise of scanning a .pdf file so that I could sign it and then copy it to another .pdf file and send it back. The house purchase involved a service to which the realtor and title company subscribed. They provided a faux signature and I approved it. From then on all the documents had that image of a signature that wasn't even mine, but one to which I agreed would do. I guess that's how it goes. You only need to make your mark on a legal document. It's usually a hand written signature, but and 'X' or a image that represents my agreement is legal too.
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Kellemora
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Re: Dancing?

Post by Kellemora »

Back when we had FAX machines, a company would FAX me a document to sign, I would sign it and FAX it right back again.
So the copy they have is still just a FAXed document.
I got thinking about this, because on some other papers I had to sign, I had to mail the signed page back to them.
Heck, anyone could copy and paste someones signature to a document that is either FAXed or copied.
Color copiers made it possible to make a copy with the signature in blue, so it looked like it was signed with a pen.

Although it has always been legal since the 17th century, since 2000, a cut and pasted signature is legal for all but a select set of documents. To avoid fraud, and to have proof in court if needed, like if they added a page or two not in the original document, either sign each document or make a PDF of all pages as a single PDF. This automatically adds a verification code. Even if I already had an electrically signed document, if I send a paper copy I sign it again at the bottom of the page with the date I signed it. I often initial each page as well.

You could use companies like E-Sign but for most documents it is not necessary. Just make sure you turn it into a non-editable PDF file and retain a copy for yourself.
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yogi
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Re: Dancing?

Post by yogi »

I like the .pdf format because it is traceable. I have a copy of the original so that any alterations could be outed if necessary. As stated elsewhere, even the printer used to make the copy embeds a hidden code into most documents so that the source of the doc is traceable. It all seems bogus to me. I don't trust anything digital. It's too easy to modify.
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Kellemora
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Re: Dancing?

Post by Kellemora »

I'm sure you are familiar with looking up the information about an image.
This is one reason why any image I use, especially if I'm posting it on-line, I first convert it to a bitmap and back again to make sure all information about that picture is lost.
Technically, a pdf is like an image file, and it too contains a lot of data.
If you have a professional Adobe pdf reader, you can view all the metadata contained in the file. You'll be surprised at just how much data is hidden in that part of the file.
You can see some of it from several pdf readers, but not all of it, unless it has an advanced metadata feature.
On Linux the exiftool will let you view all the metadata in a pdf file, I don't know about Windows or MAC computers.
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yogi
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Re: Dancing?

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My understanding is that the metadata is not part of the picture but is information appended to the file. I have indeed used Windows to clean the metadata from photographs; it's fairly simple in fact and part of the Properties function. There are also 3rd party editors to manipulate and/or erase the metadata. To be honest I never tried it with .pdf files. My guess is there is software that can do it.

The tracing of printer sources to which I refer is added to the printout by the printer's software. It's not data in or appended to the file, but instead is hard printed into the white space of an image. The only way to see it is with a UV light given that the ink used is yellow and the data is single pixels judiciously placed. I think they started doing that to thwart amateur counterfeiters. I don't know who would take a Xerox copy of a $50 bill, but apparently it happened often enough to get the printer manufacturers involved.
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Kellemora
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Re: Dancing?

Post by Kellemora »

At one time, I had access to Linen and Rag paper. It wasn't the same as currency paper, but close enough it could pass if one wanted to make counterfeit currency. Probably not today though.

My brother was in the vending business, and we had numerous machines that accepted bills and handed out quarters for the games. In order to adjust and align these bill acceptors, we had cards with black dots printed on them in specific places. We used these to align the reader heads. Once adjusted and reconnected, using one of these cards, the machine would dispense the correct amount of quarters for the denomination. Making a Xerox copy of them would not work, unless you used something like iron powder and fingernail polish to go over each dot, then run an electromagnet over the card. Even then it would only work for a few hours then stop working again.
Fortunately, very few knew about these alignment cards, and I had to be certified to even get them from the mfgr.
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yogi
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Re: Dancing?

Post by yogi »

The paper used for US currency is sold to one customer and one customer only: the US Treasury Department. Even if you should happen to get your hands on the paper, the ink and watermarks are special. They claim it's damned near impossible to counterfeit US currency these days because of all the tricks they use to make it. While that may be true, there are people who would accept the bogus bills because they are careless or stupid, or perhaps both.

I stand in awe of those money machines that accept paper currency. I can see making a machine that can recognize brand new bills, but they also take old crumpled up money with bends and folds that I'd never expect to pass the scans. I think you convinced me that the entire bill is not scanned; only certain specific spots have to pass the test.

Then again, counterfeiting money must be a dying art. It's so much easier to steal money and other things digitally. :lol:
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Re: Dancing?

Post by Kellemora »

Many stores now use a pen to check to see if a bill is counterfeit or not.
If they only knew how unreliable this was they wouldn't waste their time.
All a counterfeiter has to do is treat his paper with a chemical that fools these pens.
However, he would have to know ahead of time, which brand of security pen they are using to use the right chemical to defeat what the pen checks.

Basically, how these pens work is they use an Iodine solution, which when used to mark the bill will show if the paper is wood based paper, it turns the starch in the paper black. It does nothing or is faint yellowish on fiber based paper.
A counterfeiter could buy starch free linen paper and fool a lot of these pens. But not have the color changing lower right number on the bill for pens that are used in this location.

Heck, if you were a counterfeiter, just to AliBaba and order: Banknote Starch Free Paper, Wholesale Various High Quality Banknote Starch Free Papers... 0026 high quality 85gsm cotton linen banknote starch free fiber paper.
They have an endless list, hi hi.
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yogi
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Re: Dancing?

Post by yogi »

The way things are going hard currency may become obsolete one day. All you will need is a smart phone you can wave over a sensor and voila. That means you and I will be in big trouble without a smart phone. LOL

Which brings my attention to the fact that my flip phone is succumbing to the universal laws of entropy. In other words, it is falling apart of it's own accord. I just lost the protective cover for the USB port which means it will eventually get too dirty and corroded to use for charging. The send button only works sometimes as well. So, I decided that if I move on up it will likely be this October when Google releases it's Pixel 3 XL. Google hasn't committed yet, and neither have I. But, if I have to change, I like what I'm reading about the new phone from Sergey Brin and company.
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Re: Dancing?

Post by Kellemora »

I saw something on one of the random websites I hit looking for something I was searching. Health watches that do not require a Schmartz-Fone. Landed on an wrist watch that can hold your credit card scan data. Flip open the side and plug it into the credit card readers. Looks like something that will break easily. It also can scan those square Scan Here boxes on ads and items. Since it wasn't what I was looking for, I moved on and didn't read any more about it.
But you are right, money will some day fall by the wayside!
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yogi
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Re: Dancing?

Post by yogi »

Wearable computers are here already. They will only get better and more prolific as technology evolves. I never did understand why they tethered the wearable to a smart phone with the actual app in it. Maybe it's just their way to get you to buy smart phones, which is odd because the brand of the phone doesn't have to match the brand of the wearable. In any case, it can be all self contained. I'm glad to hear they finally figured it out. There will be chips that can be implanted to monitor your health in real time and broadcast your information to whoever wants it. In your case it would be useful to predict a pending heart failure, for example. The sooner you get help the better the odds of recovery. I don't think we will benefit much from these advances in medical technology, but our children will.
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Re: Dancing?

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I spent months trying to find a wristband or armband style Pulse/Oximeter to wear while exercising. Every single one needed a Schmartz-Fone. The one I tried first, you couldn't even set the time on the watch without using a Schmartz-Fone. So I went back to using my Finger Clip type.
I have poor circulation so the Finger Clip type sometimes won't read, which is why I wanted an arm band or wrist type.
I do have an old chest strap type, hate it, but at least it didn't need a Schmartz-Fone. I could plug it to a computer via USB to get the data from it. Or a later version of the same brand could use WiFi to connect to your computer. Both still stored the data in the unit, just like my blood pressure cuff, and glucose meters.

Was looking at those no-stick insulin meters, they too now require a Schmartz-Fone.
As far as I'm concerned, Big Brother is BEHIND forcing these on everyone!
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yogi
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Re: Dancing?

Post by yogi »

There must be a lot of Big Brothers because there are a lot of options as far as phones are concerned. I'm thinking you might benefit from having a smartphone just to be able to read all your monitoring equipment. There are phone emulators for desktops, but I'm not sure how well they work with the fancy apps that you are talking about. The emulators are mostly for development purposes. Think of the smart phone as just another Linux box. You don't have to use the phone capability and you can put electrical tape over the camera lens. Not sure how you can mute the mic, but that's a small price to pay for an improved health monitoring system. It's going to cost to do even the minimal with the phone, but how much is your health worth?
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Kellemora
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Re: Dancing?

Post by Kellemora »

My wife said I could use one of her old Schmartz-Fonz offline to read them if I added the apps before it was turned off.
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yogi
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Re: Dancing?

Post by yogi »

The way smart phones are marketed these days , the fact that you can call somebody is tossed in as an afterthought. These mobile devices are truly computers, with an app to make calls. If it's possible to make your life easier, then take your wife up on her offer. I'm certain you can use the old phone as a hot spot for your wifi devices. I'm not sure if you need an Internet connection to set it up.
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Re: Dancing?

Post by Kellemora »

I no longer have a health watch to test the theory.
But if I do get another one, I'll see if it will work that way.
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yogi
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Re: Dancing?

Post by yogi »

My wife got me a Fitbit mostly because she likes gadgets and I was tracking my BP readings at the time. There were half a dozen or so functions available of which the pedometer seemed to be the best and most reliable. A couple of the settings were supposedly intuitively obvious, but I never did figure out what they were for. The blood pressure function was a joke. I was monitoring my BP because it was high, but the Fitbit told me it was excessively low. I had three different types of devices to measure BP and the Fitbit correlated only once out of 150 readings.
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Re: Dancing?

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That's odd since the main purpose of these devices is to monitor your BP while exercising.

So far, the devices I use for that purpose have all been within one or two figures between them all.
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yogi
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Re: Dancing?

Post by yogi »

I have three types of BP measuring devices. One is the Fitbit type which seems to sense things with a pulse of light. I have a wrist cuff from Omron. This is pretty easy to use and was the device I relied on until this year. Then I bought an arm cuff device from Vive. I've seen these types in doctors offices and the company claims it is calibrated for two years of service. The Vive in fact correlates the closest with my doctor using a stethoscope. Noting the difference in readings I did a few month's worth of readings on all three. I can show you the results if you are really interested, but the Vive arm cuff was the truest. The Fitbit was typically 20-30 points lower than reality.

I played with the wrist device to see if I can improve it's accuracy. It gets better when you place it directly over a vein and apply slight pressure during the sample time. The vein isn't where I'd normally wear a watch or this device. It seems to do well with the O2 measurement and the pulse rate, plus the pedometer corresponds roughly with my estimate of how many steps I actually walked. It's just the BP measurement that stinks.
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Re: Dancing?

Post by Kellemora »

Interesting you said it was only calibrated for two years of service.
I have a blood pressure cuff that is now at least 10 years old if not older, used at least three times a week before I start my exercises. So far, it has always read within 6 points on the upper and 2 points on the lower, of what I get at the doctors office. The heart rate reading it gives is always about 4 beats less than either pulse/oximeter.

In rare cases, when I do get an unusual reading, I will check three times, this weeds out the rogue reading.
It happens when I'm not done moving around before it starts the reading part of the cycle.

About the only thing I have that don't read exactly right, is our bathroom scale.
It's a spring type I think, since most non-electronic ones are.
Not able to get it to calibrate so my weight matches what the doctor gets, when I did it at home after a doctors visit.
I began taking it with me, and as soon as they weighed me, I would step on it and adjust it, then check where the needle sat when I got off. It can change by as much as four pounds if you step 1/2" further up or 1" further back. So now I have a painted line drawn on the scale, hi hi. Finally it is close to what I get at the doctors office by a pound.
However, if you weigh something less than human weight on it, it is way off. Although you can calibrate it with a known 10 pound weight, then what you weigh between 8 and 12 pounds is dead on. But something that weights 25 pounds shows 2 pounds too light on the scale. Adjust it for a known 25 pound weight and the it's close to dead on from 20 to 30 pounds.
I guess that's the problems with spring scales.

I do have an electronic scale for no more than 5 pounds, and it is so accurate, you can use it to count dollar bills.
But it doesn't have enough digits to count less than grams. Those kinds cost big dollars hi hi.
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