Using hand readers that automatically take a three-dimensional reading of the hand’s size and shape, Birmingham, Ala.’s schools will be using 159 of them at 61 school districts sites to track time and attendance for the schools’ employees. So far, 133 of the readers have been installed with the goal to have at least two readers at each school and administrative site. 

Perhaps the most important feature of any credit or debit card is the 16-digit number unique to that card. It is called an ISO number, and it is the key for linking each transaction conducted with the card to the account and account holder responsible for the transaction. In the early 1990’s, these numbers began appearing on student ID cards, replacing earlier numbering schemes like Social Security Numbers or a series of randomly generated digits. 

If you were among the 1400 individuals in attendance at the recent Blackboard Users Conference, you are already aware of the Blackboard Transaction System - Universal Edition™ – the new edition of the Blackboard Transaction System.

The Universal Edition is considered a new edition rather than a new release. According to Ron Dinwiddie, Sr. Director of Product Development for Blackboard, “it is the third edition of the Blackboard Transaction System (following the Unix and Windows-based systems).“ 

J.P. Morgan Chase has announced the planned roll-out of a contactless consumer credit card this summer. “Chase credit cards with blink” will be rolled-out market-by-market with early acceptance locations including 170 7-Eleven stores, followed by fast food restaurants, drug stores and others. The convenience store chain Sheetz will reportedly be the first Chase partner to issue a co-branded credit card with Chase’ blink functionality. 

Following a successful beta test at Vanderbilt University, Onity and Diebold are ready to roll out a new dual interface that eliminates duplicate entries and double encoding, allowing easier access to residence halls. Some 20 colleges ahve already requested the new integrated system. 

Gallaudet University, a 140–plus year-old Washington, D.C. school for the deaf and hard of hearing, wanted to add cashless payment capabilities to its existing HID proximity cards that controlled dorm access for students. The college didn’t want to replace its point of sale (POS) infrastructure, but the existing cash registers accepted only magnetic stripe cards. Enter ViVOtech with a reader that could enable the college’s existing system to think it was receiving data from a mag stripe card. 

Another campus is admitting that student social security numbers may have been compromised in mass by a lost or stolen laptop computer. As many as 37,000 current and former students at Oklahoma State University could be impacted. The computer was used by employees conducting job placement seminars for students. The campus will reportedly move more quickly to the already planned migration from SSN to a unique 8-digit ID number.

Read more online at channeloklahoma.com