One Token to Rule Them All

Doyou know who invented Single Sign On(SSO)? Think hard, think Tolkien...

One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,

One Ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them
JRR Tolkien, Lord of the Rings Trilogy

Long before technology was there, JRR Tolkien has forsee that there is a need to have everything combined. In this context, I had interpreted it as :

One Token to rule them all, One Search to find them,

One Password to Unlock them all, and in the system bind them

Look at it! All this has came true. Ok, maybe not the search engine yet, but I seriously do not use another search when one is provided in Vista. But the need for that single token to rule them all is pretty much what we all need. Instead of have to become lord of the tokens to carry around, would it not be a good idea to have one token to rule them all?

That token, if you think hard it you! A definite path to the biometric is what I expect. Until then, lets see how far this will bring us.

Evolution of Banking

I had seen how banking is evolving but is really kinda worried at the latest stage this is getting to... Lets take a look at the cycle :

Paper Banking -> ATM Banking -> Phone Banking -> Internet Banking -> Home Banking

What is home banking? Well, its something you can only do at home and not elsewhere. Why? Because we need a 2FA token now. this 2 factor authentication token is small, but would someone carries like a whole bunch of them, one for each bank? No, not me. I have a few and they all stay at home. no more banking in the office, banking at Macdonald (btw, that is so the wrong thing to do) and banking at Microsoft. I can only bank at home now.

This is certainly not a step forward. Some bank tries to overcome this by giving a mobile phone option which is much better. Otherwise, I really hope they can sit down and unify the token instead. There is just not enough common sense to assume people will carry all the bunch of token all around.