ティージェーグレェ on Nostr: In the SF Bay Area, I had a Clipper card, back when it was still a pilot program ...
In the SF Bay Area, I had a Clipper card, back when it was still a pilot program known as TransLink.
IIRC, it always required being linked to a credit card?
Moreover, now there are billboards plastered everywhere about installing the Clipper App or whatever on your iPhone/Android device (presumably, only ones new enough to support NFC junk).
Like, I get that when Japan, introduced Suica (sort of their NFC often used on mass transit/JR/etc.), it was 2001. Moreover, Japan was and AFAIK still is a very cash based society; so having a proxy for payment to an NFC card was kind of nice and I guess Suica payment can also be used at a lot of places in lieu of other payment methods now? But AFAIK, that has been a more recent development (I haven't visited Japan since circa 1997/1998).
But ultimately, they're all just kind of proxies for payment systems, and money itself, as a construct is just a proxy for "value" (whatever the fuck that means). It's probably turtles all the way down, but at least personally it seems as if the fewer turtles I need to step on, the better?
Which means, at least personally using a "smart" phone loaded with a Clipper dataset is something I never want. If my phone dies (as happens because everything is built like garbage these days) or is stolen or whatever, it's a lot more deleterious/painful/expensive to replace than if I have a Clipper card fail on me.
But, I'm the sort of person who still keeps cash on hand too for if and when these more "sophisticated" layers of technology invariably fail.
IIRC, it always required being linked to a credit card?
Moreover, now there are billboards plastered everywhere about installing the Clipper App or whatever on your iPhone/Android device (presumably, only ones new enough to support NFC junk).
Like, I get that when Japan, introduced Suica (sort of their NFC often used on mass transit/JR/etc.), it was 2001. Moreover, Japan was and AFAIK still is a very cash based society; so having a proxy for payment to an NFC card was kind of nice and I guess Suica payment can also be used at a lot of places in lieu of other payment methods now? But AFAIK, that has been a more recent development (I haven't visited Japan since circa 1997/1998).
But ultimately, they're all just kind of proxies for payment systems, and money itself, as a construct is just a proxy for "value" (whatever the fuck that means). It's probably turtles all the way down, but at least personally it seems as if the fewer turtles I need to step on, the better?
Which means, at least personally using a "smart" phone loaded with a Clipper dataset is something I never want. If my phone dies (as happens because everything is built like garbage these days) or is stolen or whatever, it's a lot more deleterious/painful/expensive to replace than if I have a Clipper card fail on me.
But, I'm the sort of person who still keeps cash on hand too for if and when these more "sophisticated" layers of technology invariably fail.