The Great Scotch Tape Conspiracy

[Andara Bledin]

More often than not we found that applying simple scotch tape on the strip and then swiping worked for us.

Fun fact: The reason this works is because you need a certain minimum distance from the card strip and the reader head. As cards get older, the plastic gets worn away and eventually it no longer is far enough away, thus why things like tape and the bag trick work.

It would have been slander, actually.

In print, it's libel.

The only way I can remember which is which is because of Simon & Garfunkel.

From the song, Keep the Customer Satisfied, amusingly enough.

"Everywhere I go
I get slandered, libeled
I hear words I never heard in the Bible "

Libel rhymes with Bible and is found written down.

^-.-^

[BrenDAnn]

The stupid... It hurts.

Here is another trick. Put the card in a baggie. Same principle, just no adhesive.

I was about to say this myself. We just use our regular plastic shopping bags at C-Store. I've even heard some say receipt paper works, but I've never had much success with that particular method myself. Either way, I'd find another way to do it, simply because, unfortunately, SC is NOT the only nutjob out there.

[ADeMartino]

I assume you're aware that flu variants can be deadly; and indeed horrifying and epidemic or pandemic?

I *am* aware. However, you could just as easily call it 'Bob' and it would be the very same thing. I just find it amusing that the pharmacies and so forth used signs that advertised 'FLU shots' for the past few years, and now suddenly it's 'influenza'.
I've had a coworker actually DENY that 'flu' and 'influenza' are the same thing.

[thehuckster]

I *am* aware. However, you could just as easily call it 'Bob' and it would be the very same thing. I just find it amusing that the pharmacies and so forth used signs that advertised 'FLU shots' for the past few years, and now suddenly it's 'influenza'.
I've had a coworker actually DENY that 'flu' and 'influenza' are the same thing.

Again, though, people seem to think flu is also other things that they aren't. Someone recently had a few days of throwing up (with no other symptoms) and called it the flu, and even stated that she had been procrastinating about getting the flu shot. She didn't believe me when I said she actually had norovirus or some kind of food poisoning and the shot wouldn't have helped her. It doesn't help that everyone erroneously calls that "stomach flu"

[telecom_goddess]

The only way I can remember which is which is because of Simon & Garfunkel.

From the song, Keep the Customer Satisfied, amusingly enough.

"Everywhere I go
I get slandered, libeled
I hear words I never heard in the Bible "

Libel rhymes with Bible and is found written down.

^-.-^

I dare you to say Parsley Sage Rosemary and Thyme in any other order than that

Actually I read a book about the 1918-19 epidemic. It was one of the most fascinating, and yet horrifying, things I've ever read. That one affected healthy adults, many of whom were soldiers preparing to go to Europe in the first world war. Bodies literally stacked up like cordwood...*shudder*

weird fact related to that: Charlie Chaplin lost his first and only true love to that particular flu.
I'm full of weird facts what can I say

[Aethian]

I had a little bird,
Its name was Enza.
I opened the window,
And in-flu-enza.


I can't believe I still know that.

[PepperElf]

well poop. my computer shut my browser down. now i have to retype my reply here

anyway i wasn't sure how the tape/plastic bag trick worked myself but found an answer here. that makes sense.

Libel rhymes with Bible and is found written down.

Mine is ... slander is spoken and libel is letters.

[Jay 2K Winger]

Thank you. I always get those confused.

Always glad to help.

...Was that almost a quote from the (modern) Spider-Man movie?

Why, yes.