The Future at my Fingertips.....

I got a new laptop at work. My former was about 12 years old and weighed 56 pounds. So I'm quite happy about the sleek new 22 ounce machine I now get to transport around. However, there is one slight problem....

Security of course is a huge issue at all organizations these days. Our company is no different. For quite some time if you used a laptop, you were assigned a "key fob" that had numbers on it that change every minute. In order to get into your machine, you had to first key in a "secret" number code that only you knew, then you had to key in the numbers on the fob. There was also a status bar on the fob that told you when it was about time for the numbers to change again. So the big game around the office amongst us laptop users was to try to key in the numbers as fast as possible, hoping to beat the clock. I usually didn't make it. For one thing, I typically would have my fob upside down to start. By the time I figured out the "L" was really supposed to be a "7", it had changed again anyway. Ah, the excitement that fills my days.

But with this fancy new machine comes fancy new technology. Gone are the days of "key fob speed racing".......welcome to the world of biometrics. In other words, swipe your finger please.

There's this little sensor on the laptop that you swipe your finger across. The machine recognizes the grooves and swirls of your fingerprint and realizes you are its one and only true master, and allows you into its electronic world. I thought this would be a great thing because, for one...I typically remember to bring all my fingers with me wherever I go. Not so true with a key fob. Nothing was more annoying than firing up the machine to work at home and realizing the key fob was still hanging out at the office. So, this is a big plus. Secondly, it's a bit more difficult to get my finger upside down like I did the fob. The more simple we can make life, the better.

Plus....it's really cool. You know....you feel all....James Bond-y like.

Because when you see this in the movies, it always is a smooth transaction. The hero just swipes their finger in a daring flair and then they're off to fight the manic terrorists who have infiltrated the Empire State Building or have robbed the National Archives of the Declaration of Independence or.....well, you get the idea.

Turns out this is not so much the case in the real world. I don't know if someone comes into my house at night and secretly sandpapers my fingertips while I sleep or what, but for the last 2 days my laptop has refused to recognize my "biometrics". No matter how hard I beg and plead with it, it refuses to believe that my finger is really my finger. It's actually rather insulting to be told by a machine that your body parts are not valid. Or maybe I'm just overly sensitive...who knows. What I DO know is that it does not put my day off to good start in the least to spend an hour fighting with the thing. No exaggeration...AN HOUR!

So today I drug our IT person down to my desk to try and reconfigure it. Tomorrow we'll see what happens.

Welcome to the future....ugh.