Check-washing


General News
Check-washing: erasing the ink on checks and changing themCory Doctorow: Bruce Schneier reports on the reputed practice of "check-washing" wherein fraudsters use solvents to take the ink off checks and then re-address them and change the sums on them:
If you are a ballpoint pen lover, switch to black ink when security is important. Among water-based inks, remember that gels are the most impervious. But when you're writing checks to pay the monthly bills, only one type of ink, the kind in gel pens, has been found to be counterfeit proof to acetone or any other chemical used in "check washing." Most ballpoint and marker inks are dye based, meaning that the pigments are dissolved in the ink.

Bridget Curran


Family Tree
Looking for info on Bridget Curran born about 1853,Donegal. Parents Patrick Curran, Bridget Curran ms Warren. Bridget married Peter Boyle [also from Donegal] in Glasgow 1872. Bridget and Peters\' daughter Mary Boyle was born December 1874. in BALLYMORE TEELIN ,DONEGAL. I have been searching for info on bridget for four years now.This family, seemed to have travelled, between, Glasgow, Greenock, and Donegal often. Bridget died in Greenock aged 28 years in 1881.Leaving four children.One died in the industrial school Glasgow aged 6 years. In 1882

Curran Family Lismore, Ireland


Family Tree
Looking for descendants of Johanna (Annie, Joan, Hannah, Siobhan) Curran born 1867 or David Curran born 1870 in Lismore, Co. Waterford Ireland, my Grandfathers sister and brother respectively. Regards Pat Curran

The Currans of Ballyculter


Family Tree
Anyone out there who is interested may like to know that there was a family of Currans in Ballyculter, Co. Down. in the 19th. century.
My Father, Paddy Curran (Born 19/03/1900), had brothers called:- John,Tommy, Bernard, Joe, Frank and a sister Maggie. Their father John and his wife Mary Ann (Nee. Mc.Glennon) lived there but moved in the early 1900\'s to the town of Strangford where they lived in a house which was situated where the little park is now down near the ferry slipway.
Frank Curran (Dublin)

Please Help


Family Tree
My name is Jason Curran the son of Howard Eric Curran (deceased) My sister is Tracy Jean Curran. I have been looking for my other brother Chris Curran from Oshawa? If you have any information you could send me this would be great! Thank you for your time. Jason Curran E-Mail- bud8_jay@yahoo.ca

How Many Cards?


Music - MP3s
In case you were wondering: how many punchcards it would take to store an MP3:
"Assuming a non-Hollerith encoding with eight bits per column, and an MP3 file encoded at 128kbps CBR, there would be 36,864 cards in that deck, and the card reader would need a throughput of 205 cards per second. It might be wise to include an 8-column sequence number, however, so that a misordered deck can be repaired by a card sorter; with 72 data columns per card, the total is precisely 40,960 cards (40K cards), requiring a 228 card/second throughput." The 21 boxes of cards needed would by 5 feet 9 inches tall. That such a huge leap in technology is well within living memory astonishes Y.