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Herald-Times, Bloomington, Ind., Rod Spaw column
Mar 01, 2013 (Herald-Times - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
CorrectionThe "Hartstraight" street sign was put up as part of the Ind. 46 widening project in Ellettsville.
Can parking meters be trusted not to tell
Q: I am concerned about the safety of using a credit card at pay to park kiosks downtown. It seems to me that these machines must have the ability to obtain financially useful information from the card and that they will be unattended for many hours a day. Would it not be possible for a thief to install a device inside the reader to capture this information and clean out my account before I get back to my car
How about devices that can read "smart cards" from several feet away as seen on "60 Minutes" I am sure the sales rep will guarantee that these machines are secure, but are they
A.Z., Bloomington
A:
Rick Dietz, director of information and technology services for the city of Bloomington, assured Hotline that the city is just as concerned about security as you are.
He said the city will be evaluating encryption and compliance with industry standards for data security in any parking meter system it considers deploying.
"Generally speaking, parking meters that accept credit cards do not store card information physically on the meter," Dietz wrote in an email. "The transactions are conducted in real time through a cellular phone connection."
Spelling's different, but road's the same
Q: At the intersection of Ind. 46 and "Hartstraight" in Ellettsville, Hartstraight is spelled like this. At the intersection of Hartstrait and Ind. 48, it is spelled "Hartstrait." This makes us look like we don't know how to spell. What is the correct spelling
C.J., Bloomington
A:
This being Monroe County, you can never be sure that the road doesn't change names somewhere along its route from Ellettsville south. However, in this case, the name of the whole thing is Hartstrait. That's the way it's spelled on the official Monroe County street list, the Monroe County GIS site and on about every sign or mailbox you can find along the way.
County Highway Engineer Bill Williams said the misspelled sign in Ellettsville was put up by the Indiana Department of Transportation as part of the Ind. 48 widening project a few years ago. However, it should be noted that the alternate spelling, "Hartstraight," is on the printed road map I used to locate it, as well as on a large wall map here in the newsroom.
Incidentally, Williams said some old Monroe County land deeds refer to Harts Trace, which may provide some clues as to the origin of the name -- the correct name.
Write to Hotline, c/o The Herald-Times, P.O. Box 909, Bloomington, IN 47402, or email hotline@heraldt.com, using "Hotline Inquiry" as the subject line. Include your name, city and phone number. We cannot answer all inquiries.
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