Like a lot of businesses, my banking’s online services offer a VERY limited set of transactions that can be completed by simply sending a text message to a prescribed number that is pre-approved via their Web interface.  In other words, your phone MUST be entered in and subscribed to their service by way of their Web site, so only your phone can access your account.

How does this work?

1. I logged into my bank’s online Web site using several secure passwords and tokens.
2. I subscribed to the SMS banking service, providing my phone number, carrier, and other secure details
3. The Web site provided me with their SMS number (usually 5 digits) and a short list of commands like BAL(ance), and TRANS(fer).
4. On my iPhone 4S, I set up a contact for “Bank” which — as the phone number — contained the 5-digit SMS number provided by my bank.

Now, from anywhere I have phone service, I can raise the phone to my ear (activating SIRI) and say “Message Bank BAL“.  SIRI asks me to confirm, and within just a second or two, my bank answers back with my balance via text message (which I immediately delete from my phone).

Is it secure? Sure.  About as secure as the online Web site as long as I don’t keep the messages on my phone.  The commands available also don’t let me do anything destructive like “send money to hackerX” or “make payment to JoeBlow”.  Otherwise, I need to make the clear disclaimer that I’m NOT a security professional, and you should use these tips at your own risk.

Twitter, Facebook, and others

Like the example above, you can subscribe to similar services inside most social networks, add a new contact (like Facebook) to your 4S, and use SIRI to say “Message Facebook blah blah blah” and it’ll post “blah blah blah” to your status message on Facebook, which is all sorts of wicked cool..

While I hate the idea of wasting my limited text messages every month to do this, at least with iMessages, you could theoretically avoid such a charge.

UPDATE: I have to do a little more testing, but with the recent outages in SIRI processing, you might need to disable the option to share your Contacts in the iCloud, making them local to your phone.  Something about the time delay between asking SIRI to send a message and the phone having to look up your contact in the cloud seems to be causing an issue.  You can temporarily disable this option in Settings >> iCloud on your iPhone.

• Apple SIRI Command Summary (PDF File)
• Apple SIRI Command Summary (Word 2007 File)

“Live life to the fullest, because you’ve only got one, and it’s only on a short-term lease”

Wayne Hunt — 1/26/2011

Pros

• For me, it’ll be completely free to buy the Wii console with two games, controllers, nunchuk, etcetera included.
• Cheap games are available to keep me pacified and off the couch if I can stay interested.
• LOTS of accessories like “guns” for shooters, driving wheels for drivers, etc and they’re all cheap off the web.
• staying off the couch == good thing.

Cons

• I tend to like serious games.  Call of Duty, Need for Speed, etcetera which feature great graphics/sound and are usually PC/Mac-based, meaning keyboard and mouse games.  Games like Call of Duty 4 are available for the Wii but don’t feature online play, meaning once you’ve completed the single-player levels, you can pretty much trash the $50 game and move on.
• The Wii doesn’t do HD, and my TV is a 42″ Samsung Plasma, meaning it may look horrible on my screen.
• I already own a PS3 which I use almost exclusively for watching BluRay discs.  The PS3 game controller however does NOT fit my big hands and they tend to cramp after about 5 minutes.
  • I could just pick up a “PS3 Move controller/camera”.  Trouble is, there aren’t really any games for it that use the “Move” controller yet, and PS3 games are far more expensive in general.
• I don’t really need another game console lying about.  (Boy how I miss my DreamCast)…

HELP ME! If you have a Wii and can help me with your opinion, I need it!  I can’t make up my mind!

My dad always points out that there are two mutually exclusive meanings of the phrase “get along”. One’s all hugs and kisses. The other’s all “can you outrun a bullet“…

Glass half-full/empty sort of thing, but I’m an old codger and choose the latter.

– Wayne Hunt
December 12, 2010

Young women are too naive to realize that age is just a number and a state of mind. More mature women are too smart to put up with mens bullshit.

–  Wayne Hunt, December 9, 2010

Like the other list, I’m not trying to say these were the greatest movies ever.  Simply that these 20 movies were the ones which stood out as the most fun, best written, and — to me — the most memorable.  Feel free to disagree below.

My Top 20 movies for 2010.

1. R.E.D.
2. Hot Tub Time Machine
3. Kick-Ass
4. Iron Man 2
5. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
6. The Girl who Played with Fire
7. Twilight: Eclipse
8. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 1
9. The Expendables
10. Sorcerer’s Apprentice
11. Unstoppable
12. Machete
13. Resident Evil: Afterlife
14. Easy A
15. From Paris with Love
16. Grown Ups
17. The Social Network
18. Tooth Fairy
19. Love and Other Drugs
20. The Next Three Days

I need to be clear that I’m not trying to “slam” the movies on the following list in any way.  Some of them were decent movies.  Some just had weak plots, or were blatant ripoffs of other movies, but for whatever reason, I just can’t remember anything but maybe the big plot twist, or the last 5 minutes of the movie.

Anyway, here are the top 20 movies of 2010 which I paid to see in the theater and had all but forgotten.

1. Daybreakers
2. The Book of Eli
3. Dear John
4. Percy Jackson and the Olympians : The Lightning Thief
5. Valentine’s Day
6. Green Zone
7. Clash of the Titans
8. Date Night
9. The Losers
10. The Back-up Plan
11. Letters to Juliet
12. Get Him to the Greek
13. The Other Guys
14. The American
15. The Virginity Hit
16. You Again
17. Due Date
18. Morning Glory
19. and 20.  — 2010 ain’t over yet, and I suspect a couple more turkeys before it’s over.

Disagree with anything on my list?  Let’s discuss it below.

Political correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end. — Unknown